Hundreds more are dead in Gaza this week following an explosion at a hospital in Gaza City. At least 200 Palestinian men, women, and children were killed in the blast, one of the largest single loss of life events the State of Palestine had suffered in its history.
What can be said about such a senseless and terrible loss of innocent life. We have already seen record-breaking disasters in both Israel and Palestine in the past few days, in a region that has known war and death for decades. What is happening here is not normal. It shows just how maddeningly destructive wars in the modern era can be, with cities more overcrowded than ever, weapons deadlier than ever, and governments and militaries as disinterested as ever to show restraint and mercy, or sometimes even competence, when conducting their wars.
The Al-Ahli Arab Baptist hospital was the oldest Christian hospital in Gaza, and was bearing the massive weight of the injured and dying from intense Israeli bombings. That crutch was suddenly ripped away, and now the health system in Gaza is one large step closer to total collapse.
According to Israel, and therefore the west, the rocket was misfired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, as its trajectory showed it was fired from Gaza towards Israel. According to Hamas, whose versions of events were told in the press first, the rocket, or missile, was fired deliberately by an Israeli warplane.
The blast at the hospital is not consistent with the confirmed Israeli airstrikes in other parts of Gaza, unless a specific type of munition was used, which Hamas claim it was. Hamas also claim that 471 people died, whereas the US estimates the figure between 100-300, and local organisations also estimate between 200-250.
Israel’s interpretation of events are currently the most plausible, but there are millions of people around the world who have already made up their minds. Protests internationally have turned violent, protests which blame Israel and the west for the blast. The Israeli embassy in Jordan was almost overrun by protestors, and the US and French embassies in Lebanon faced intense protest against those nations’ support for Israel.
The political fallout from this disaster was also considerable; US President Biden was on his way to Israel to meet with Netanyahu when the blast happened, and scheduled meetings between the two leaders and leaders of Jordan and Egypt were cancelled after the latter two pulled out in protest. It has deepened already vast divides between those who back Israel and those who back Palestine, with those on the fence facing growing criticism from both sides to pick one or the other.
It’s difficult to think about this many people dying due to negligence, especially in this part of the world, where so many thousands have already died for little to no substantive reason. There is also no way of knowing exactly how many people died, which makes the sense of hopelessness one feels to deepen.
The question everyone wants to ask, that has been asked in this reason for how ever many decades now, is simply, ‘why?’. It’s a difficult one to answer for someone as removed from the happenings in Gaza and Israel as I am, but those on the ground there, those living this horror every day, on both sides of the border fence, still don’t have a unified answer.
I’m not just talking about the hospital here, I mean the whole godforsaken conflict. What is the point of this violence now? So many have already died, and things are arguably worse than ever. How in any estimations will killing more people make it better? What did Hamas possibly hope to prove by burning families alive in Israel? What kind of harmony between Jews and Arabs does Israel hope to achieve by flattening Gaza and burying its children in rubble?
No one has any answers, and people who tell you they do are lying to you. There is no easy way to stop the violence, I fear there may be no way at all. But that doesn’t mean we stop trying. It is right to call for justice and freedom for Palestine, just as it is right to support Israel’s right to self-determination, security, and existence.
stay safe
/e