Behind the mud and the hospitals of the Gaza Strip

During the night between Wednesday and Thursday, the Israeli army struck a ward at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, in the part of the Strip controlled by Hamas. The target, according to the IDF and the Shabak security agency, was Muhammad Abu Ismail, commander of the Khan Younis brigade, along with other terrorists present in the hospital. According to the authorities in the Gaza Strip, six people were killed, including a surgeon, and twenty were injured. This is not the first time that Nasser Hospital has been at the centre of the fighting.

Israel is accused of constantly violating the ceasefire, and the attack on the Nasser Centre has reignited fierce accusations against the IDF, its methods, and concerns for the Palestinian population living in a confined area of the Strip, in tents whose integrity has been compromised by the heavy rains of recent days. Seeing the population crammed into the mud is heartbreaking; leaving them in these conditions is utterly deplorable. Seeing images of a hospital under attack is harrowing, and knowing that it is still being used as a hideout for terrorists is heart-wrenching. Many refuse to believe it; public opinion, which has portrayed Hamas as a movement with noble ideals of resistance, doubts everything Israel says and insists that one cannot remain indifferent to the conditions in the Strip. It is true that one cannot remain indifferent; yet it is clear that those who want Israel to cease exercising its control should exert pressure, channelling their outrage towards Hamas so that it leaves, disarms, and accepts that a technical government and a police force enter the part of Gaza it controls. No one is allowed in until Hamas lays down its arms, and Hamas clings tightly to its weapons because it has no intention of letting anyone in; a population wallowing in mud and a shattered healthcare system are not only of no interest to the terrorists, but are useful for showing the world just how cruel Israel is, whoever governs it. And the world falls for it.