News item:
Two Israelis were killed when at least four Palestinian terrorists infiltrated the Nahal Oz fuel terminal from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
The two were employed at the terminal, which supplies the Gaza Strip with most of its fuel.
IDF troops and emergency medical teams, who arrived on the scene, came under heavy gun and mortar fire.
Mortar shells were still being fired at Israeli communities in the area several hours after the attack. — Jerusalem Post
Tell me again, why is Israel required to supply fuel and electricity to Hamastan?
And explain exactly how Israel’s border security represents a violation of human rights.
Speaking of human rights, the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) has complained that Israel does not allow Gaza residents access to health care in Israel, even to the point of causing death. Their complaint is based on information from Palestinian sources, and as usual for such information, it is almost entirely false.
However, for once Israeli authorities have investigated a widely-reported slander and have taken pains to show that it is untrue.
Some of the points made in the Israeli reply to WHO are these:
- In 2007, 7,226 exit permits were issued for patients and another 7,922 for their family member escorts, a 50% increase over 2006. This trend is continuing in 2008: in the first quarter, 2,317 exits were arranged for patients and a similar number for the relatives accompanying them. The lives of hundreds of people have been saved by sending them for urgent treatment in Israeli hospitals.
- In recent months, the transport of ten trucks full of medical equipment and supplies for the WHO was coordinated. All their requests were approved. If there is any shortage of equipment or medicine, it is due to Hamas’s redirecting vast sums of money for terror purposes rather than using them to improve conditions in the Gaza hospitals.
The reply points out that on several occasions terrorists attempted to cross into Israel, ostensibly to receive medical treatment:
…in May 2007 two women arrived at the Erez crossing under the pretext of going for medical examinations at the Ramallah hospital, but, as it transpired, their true intention was to commit suicide attacks in Netanya and Tel Aviv.
It also responds to specific cases cited by WHO. In most of them either the person was admitted to Israel, did not show up, or was not listed as having had a request made on their behalf.
Now, nobody is saying that it is as easy for a Gaza resident to get to a hospital in Israel as for someone who lives in Tel Aviv, or for that matter is an Arab from the West Bank. One of the major problems cited is the “incessant barrage of mortar fire directed at the [Erez] crossing”, which often forces its closure.
Of course, it should not surprise anyone when a terrorist group that specializes in suicide bombings uses the suffering of its own people as yet another political tool.
Here again is a favored Hamas tactic: create a “crisis”, real or invented — like the great electrical blackout which didn’t happen — and blame Israel. Then the UN, NGOs, and armies of pro-Hamas media zombies repeat it over and over until it becomes part of the conventional litany of crimes of which ‘everyone knows’ Israel is guilty.
Hamas is capable of fighting a war, developing better and better rockets, building fortifications and digging tunnels, and receives large amounts of financial aid for these purposes from Iran and various worldwide Islamic ‘charities’. Why don’t they use some of their resources to provide medical care to their people?