Anonymous wrote:Where are all the calls for Hamas to surrender already? There seems to be no interest in actually addressing the underlying cause of the decimation in Gaza, which is the predictable result of Hamas' ongoing hostilities and refusal to release hostages it has held for nearly two years. I suppose it's too facile to suggest that Hamas holds the key to improving the lives of the Palestinians.

“When I entered Gaza the Israeli military had a rule: I was only allowed to bring in seven pounds of food. As I was weighing out protein bars, trying to get under the limit, I said to my husband: ‘How sinister is this?’ I’m a humanitarian aid worker. Why would there even be a limit on food? I’ve worked in many places with extreme hunger, but what’s so jarring in this context is how cruel it is, how deliberate. I was in Gaza for two months; there’s no way to describe the horror of what’s happening. And I say this as a pediatric ICU doctor who sees children die as part of my work. Among our own staff we have doctors and nurses who are trying to treat patients while hungry, exhausted. They’re living in tents. Some of them have lost fifteen, twenty members of their families. In the hospital there are kids maimed by airstrikes: missing arms, missing legs, third degree burns. Often there’s not enough pain medication. But the children are not screaming about the pain, they’re screaming: ‘I’m hungry! I’m hungry!” I hate to only focus on the kids, because nobody should be starving. But the kids, it just haunts you in a different way. When my two months were finished, I didn’t want to leave. It’s a feeling I haven’t experienced in nearly twenty years of humanitarian assignments. But I felt ashamed. Ashamed to leave my Palestinian colleagues, who were some of the most beautiful and compassionate people that I’ve ever met. I was ashamed as an American, as a human being, that we’ve been unable to stop something that is so clearly a genocide. I remember when our bus pulled out of the buffer zone. Out the window on one side I could see Rafah, which was nothing but rubble. On the other side was lush, green Israel. When we exited the gate, the first thing I saw was a group of Israeli soldiers, sitting at a table, eating lunch. I’ve never felt so nauseous seeing a table full of food.”

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Aqsa Durrani is a pediatric doctor and board member of Doctors Without Borders USA, with nearly twenty years of experience in humanitarian projects. During our interview Aqsa repeatedly expressed a desire to center the voices of her Palestinian colleagues. To this end I’ve spent the past week collecting stories from the Palestinian staff of Médecins Sans Frontières / MSF in Gaza. I will be sharing these stories over the next several days. I’m so grateful for the time that these people gave me; they were sleepless, hungry, traumatized, and often working 24-hour shifts. Because of the unreliable internet connection their images are sometimes grainy. Their words, however, will be crystal clear.

Anonymous wrote:Israel is accused of massacring Palestinian paramedics, first responders, and a UN staff member, and burying them in a mass grave last week in Gaza.

https://apnews.com/article/gaza-medics-killed-israel-ambulances-f34b6ecc985d9127265a400bd52c72b7

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Give it a rest hamas

One day you too will die, maybe in Israel….your body buried in the crushed bones of the Palestinians. Yours and their bones all mixed up.

Anonymous wrote:Give it a rest hamas

Anonymous wrote:Where are all the calls for Hamas to surrender already? There seems to be no interest in actually addressing the underlying cause of the decimation in Gaza, which is the predictable result of Hamas' ongoing hostilities and refusal to release hostages it has held for nearly two years. I suppose it's too facile to suggest that Hamas holds the key to improving the lives of the Palestinians.

Anonymous wrote:Both sides should be held accountable.

Anonymous wrote:Where are all the calls for Hamas to surrender already? There seems to be no interest in actually addressing the underlying cause of the decimation in Gaza, which is the predictable result of Hamas' ongoing hostilities and refusal to release hostages it has held for nearly two years. I suppose it's too facile to suggest that Hamas holds the key to improving the lives of the Palestinians.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not pro-Israel or pro-Hamas, so I don’t really don’t have a dog in this fight. I see the tit-for-tat of attacks have gone on for so long, it’s really impossible to figure out who committed the original sin here, and I don’t think it matters at this point.

I do think Israel has stepped over the line in terms of civilian casualties, but had the absolute right to invade after 10/7.

But, I am wondering what is the end game for Hamas at this point ? Israel is getting more ruthless by the day, and two different US administrations seem to either ignore or are incapable to stop it. Yet, Hamas still holds on to the hostages. If they turned them over, then there really is no credible reason for Israel to operate the way they do.

Hamas is extending this, and causing their population to take beating day in and day out. WTF do they want to turn over the hostages? Do they even have an effective leadership to make decisions? There is no “white knight” coming to their rescue that I can see.

Hamas, which the Gazans supported wholeheartedly, is the root cause of all Palestinian current-day problems. Instead of working to achieve a modus vivendi with Israel like a civilized government, and as have Jordan and Egypt and other Arab states in the region, it embarked on a patently futile spree of rape, murder, and kidnapping directed at civilians, and then doubled down by refusing to release the kidnapping victims without regard to the nature and extent of the inevitable and predictable Israeli response. As if the atrocities of Oct 7 were insufficient to sate their blood lust, Hamas has deliberately increased the body count among Palestinians by doggedly refusing to do anything to address the reason for Israeli retaliation. It continues to hold hostages and refuses to surrender, to achieve what, exactly? More casualties? Their intransigence is certainly not going to result in something better for the Gazans than the status quo ante. It is instead making the ultimate outcome much, much worse for Gaza, with a greatly reduced territory, much more tightly controlled, and a deep and enduring suspicion that no lasting peace will ever be possible with the Palestinians who spawned and supported the Hamas terror regime.

Majority of the population is under 18. They weren’t even alive when HAMAS came to power. I don’t think children chose HAMAS. If those children survive the genocide, I’m sure they won’t choose Israel.

The adults chose Hamas, and plenty of them are still present. The median age in Gaza is 18. Some Hamas members are reportedly as young as 12 years of age.

https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/cscoal/2001/en/64736

By that logic, you have condemned all Jews to brutal, unrelenting persecution because “enough” of them support genocide, institutionalized rape, sodomy and sexual assault of detainees, and all of the heinous, unspeakable crimes against humanity (you know, like the actual beheaded babies and the babies savagely torn from wombs and the babies burned alive in ovens - all of which are central to the despicable deeds carried out by Israel’s founders) that lie at the epicenter of Israel’s foundation.

YOU have invited this condemnation onto the Jewish people. Sad.

Hallucinatory fabrications don't add much to the discussion.