MANAGER
The bloodiest attack in Gaza so far may have been caused by a Palestinian rocket. Nevertheless, Israel is responsible.
DEATH AT THE HOSPITAL: The rocket hit on 17 October. Israel must bear the responsibility. Photo: AP / NTB Show more
Editor: This is an editorial from Dagbladet, and expresses the newspaper’s view. Dagbladet’s political editor is responsible for the editorial.
Published on Monday 30 October 2023 – 17:03
The bloodiest yet and the most serious attack in the war in Gaza was when a rocket exploded at the Al-Ahli hospital on 17 October. Many refugees heading south into the Gaza Strip had sought refuge near the hospital in the belief that it would offer them protection. But when heads, legs and arms were separated from their bodies, it was instead clear that the open space near the hospital was a terrible trap.
STRONG IMPRESSIONS: This video shows the inside of the Shifa hospital in Gaza. The video was filmed by hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia, who says that this is what the operating room looks like now. Reporter: Anabelle Bruun Show more
Israel was immediately blamed for the explosion, and for deliberately attacking the hospital and the many who had sought refuge there, and this was supported by Arab countries and Iran. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says 471 people were killed, and the images from the attack became the most potent Palestinian weapon to date in the war within the war, the war of opinion. But almost as quickly as Israel was blamed for the attack, Israeli authorities came out and said that they had not fired the rocket. They say the rocket was launched by the Islamic Holy War.
This week has both American and French intelligence said that they believe it is most likely that the rocket was fired by the Palestinians themselves, that it was a launch that went wrong, and hit their own. It may be true, and it may be false. But even if it were not true that Israel targeted the hospital in order to spread as much Palestinian death as possible, it is Israel that must bear the responsibility for the death at the hospital.
How? Why?
Communicates via mosque megaphones
Partly because if we go back almost a year, last November a rocket landed in a Polish town right on the border with Ukraine, killing two Polish citizens. The world stood still for a few hours, because a Russian attack on the NATO country Poland should in principle activate the solidarity clause in NATO that an attack on one is an attack on all.
Now it turned out that after closer examination it was a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile, which was supposed to stop Russian missiles, which had gone wrong and landed on the Polish side of the border. The world could breathe a sigh of relief because we had not yet stumbled into World War 3. Russia was nevertheless responsible for the rocket that landed in Poland, because it was because of Russia’s war, and attacks throughout Ukraine, that the Ukrainians launched their anti-aircraft missile. Russia was rightly held responsible for the deaths in border countries.
Weapons experts and propagandists will together and individually certainly contribute to establishing “their” image of the truth surrounding the terror at the hospital in Gaza. But just as in Poland, it is the attacking party – this time Israel – that must take responsibility for the terror at the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza.
2023-10-30 16:07:10
#Israel #blame
