Why Do Such Incidents Occur?

 

Day 13: October 19th 

Why Do Such Incidents Occur? 

I am referring, of course, to the bombing of Al-Ma’madani  Hospital in Gaza. Five hundred people were immediately burned to death.

For any Palestinian, there is no doubt that Israel is the one that bombed the hospital. Palestinian rockets can’t inflict such damage or cause the death of so many people at once. Plus, it has become known to people in Gaza to receive a phone call from the Israeli army informing them that their homes would be bombed and that people must evacuate. They are not told when they will be attacked and are only given short notice – 10 to 30 minutes. In this war, however, apartment blocks were entirely destroyed on people’s heads without warning. As a result, there are about 50 families that no longer exist. Let's pose for a short while to imagine this! Fifty families and all their members are wiped from the civil records, wiped off the face of the earth.

According to doctors in the hospital, the manager received two phone calls from the Israeli army asking them to evacuate. This wasn’t the only hospital that received similar warnings. But, given the high number of causalities and the dire need for medical attention, they didn’t evacuate.  They couldn’t. In addition to the high demand for war-related surgeries and injuries, people always assumed that hospital grounds were safe. People and families of patients stayed there, believing it was relatively safe.

I will shift my attention to the West Bank to make my point. Since this war began, the number of people arrested by the Israeli army has increased dramatically. The number of settler attacks on Palestinian villagers has also risen recently.  This escalation reflects a policy applied by armed settlers to make Palestinian villagers feel unsafe and is intended to drive people away from their land.

Wherever there is resistance -or young men who believe in taking some action as a choice, not necessarily violent, to push back against the unjust acquisition of land, harsh retaliatory measures are taken. In areas where there is resistance, usually in the refugee camps, the Israeli army, when raiding these camps, completely destroys the roads and infrastructure of water pipes and electricity wires.  Of course, the Israeli army claims locally made explosive devices are planted in the roads. But as a result, collective punishment is forcefully and shockingly imposed.

So, the message of Israel’s responses in the West Bank is clear: “Land from Palestinians will be taken away. If anyone resists, even using nonviolent action, they will be arrested and imprisoned without a trial sometimes. Any resistance using arms, their home will be demolished as collective punishment for the family, and destruction of the neighborhood.” Palestinians have one option: surrender the power to say no.

The policy of Israel has always been the same. Resist, and large-scale destruction will follow. Surrender to Israeli power, which the Palestinian Authority ruling the West Bank represents, land will still be taken away by force. 

What is happening in Gaza and the bombing of the hospital aligns with this long-term policy. This latest war in Gaza has drastically increased in scale and inhumanity. The extra pressure is a message sent mainly to the people in Gaza and equally to the West Bank: “Nowhere is safe. We can decide to wipe you off the face of the earth. We can do this.”  

The bombing of the hospital and what is happening in the West Bank seem to suggest that submission is not only demanded in Gaza but is also required in the West Bank.