Our Wednesday News Analysis | Would it be okay for Hamas to strike a hospital treating Benjamin Netanyahu?

Israel and its genocide cheerleaders are claiming Israel’s air strike on the Nasser Hospital in Gaza last night – which killed several patients and staff – was justified because a Hamas politician was being treated there for injuries from an earlier Israeli strike.

Israel has also seized on the fact that a Hamas official was in the hospital to retroactively rationalise its destruction of Gaza’s entire health sector, leaving more than 2 million Palestinians with barely functioning medical care in the midst of Israel’s genocidal bombing campaign.

At the weekend, the Israeli army blew up the entire Turkish Hospital in Gaza and did so without any possible military justification. Its soldiers had been occupying the hospital, using it as a military post, for much of the past year.

The hospital had served its purpose for Israel – and Israel sees no purpose for Palestinian hospitals actually serving the Palestinian population. After all, Israel’s goal is to drive Palestinians out of Gaza, and that is made easier if Palestinians have no surviving medical facilities in the enclave.

BREAKING | Israel destroys the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, near the Netzarim Corridor, Gaza. pic.twitter.com/p1oC0gb1CI

— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) March 21, 2025

Once again, Israel’s “justification” for the latest attack on Nasser Hospital doesn’t even bother to suggest it accords with any known principle of international law.

Here are a few reminders about the long-established laws of war that only ever seem to be forgotten when it is Israel violating them.

Even fighters are considered non-combatants – that is, not legitimate targets for military attack – when they are injured and no longer engaged in combat. That rule applies even more obviously to politicians...

Read more: Would it be okay for Hamas to strike a hospital treating Benjamin Netanyahu?

___________________

'THE OCCUPATION WANTS NOTHING BUT SUFFERING FOR US': GAZANS FACE CATASTROPHIC HUMANITARIAN CRISIS AMID ISRAEL'S RAMADAN BLOCKADE

Source: The New Arab
https://www.newarab.com/features/israels-ramadan-blockade-reaches-catastrophic-levels-gaza

By Mohamed Solaimane
Published March 13, 2025

By sealing all crossings into Gaza, Israel is preventing much-needed humanitarian aid from reaching the enclave’s 2.3 million residents this Ramadan

A Hamas terrorist stands guard as a Red Cross vehicles arrives at the site of the handing over the bodies of four Israeli hostages in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza in February.Credit: AFP/EYAD BABA

Fatima Al-Saayda's face flushes red as she stokes the firewood in her clay oven, preparing a modest meal for her family and the families of her two married sons. Smoke fills the air, forcing tears from her eyes, especially as she resorts to burning plastic and cardboard due to the scarcity of firewood.

Exhaustion is etched onto the 53-year-old mother of five and grandmother of five more. She spends hours tending the fire, cooking from mid-afternoon until just before sunset, despite suffering from high blood pressure and respiratory issues. But physical strain is only part of the burden; her mind remains preoccupied with the daily struggle of securing food for both the pre-dawn and evening meals.

Since the first day of Ramadan, Fatima has had no choice but to cook this way. Her cooking gas ran out, and she had been scheduled to receive a refilled gas cylinder on the second day of the holy month. That same day, however, Israel shut down all border crossings with Gaza, a closure that remains in effect.

"I was waiting for my turn, but now there is no gas, not for us or my sons' families," she told The New Arab. Like thousands of other Gazans, her family must adhere to government-designated collection dates for cooking gas. Their turn was early in Ramadan. They never got it.

"This is a catastrophe on every level. There are no words to describe it... Closing the crossings means stopping life itself"

She called to her grandson, asking him to bring more cardboard to keep the fire going. Inside the oven, some flatbreads bake, while a pot of lentil stew simmers atop the clay structure...

Read more: 'The occupation wants nothing but suffering for us': Gazans face catastrophic humanitarian crisis amid Israel's Ramadan blockade
___________________

Opinion | It Doesn't Matter What the UN Report on Gaza Says. Israel Will Ignore It Anyway

Source: Haaretz
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2025-03-19/ty-article-opinion/.premium/it-doesnt-matter-what-the-un-report-on-gaza-says-israel-will-ignore-it-anyway/00000195-ae75-d9db-a3bf-ff7f2c5f0000

By Becca Strober
Published March 19, 2025

Israeli officials labeled the report on gender-based violence 'antisemitic' and 'a blood libel.' Israeli society too dismisses human rights abuses. We have mastered the art of willful blindness

A woman and her baby sit under the destruction of their house caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, Gaza StripCredit: Jehad Alshrafi, AP

Last week, the UN released a report detailing Israel's use of sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israeli detention centers since October 7. The report states that "Israeli authorities have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group," categorizing it as one of the genocidal acts under international law. It also concluded that Israel is systematically using sexual violence as a weapon of war against both Palestinian women and men.

As an Israeli educator on the occupation, part of my role is to consider the content in these reports, try to understand its validity, and incorporate it back into my political education. So I read the report in full. It wasn't easy, and I had to take breaks. Mostly, the information in the UN report wasn't new; what struck me was that these abuses were categorically and knowingly ignored for 18 months.

Despite the evidence presented, Israeli officials immediately rejected it, labeling it "antisemitic" and "a blood libel." Some of this is motivated by Israeli anger at the UN, for allegations acknowledged by the agency itself that nine employees of UNRWA may have participated in the October 7 attacks on Israel. However, by condemning the report outright, the Israeli government frees itself from having to address the concrete, documented evidence of systematic sexual and gender based violence. This is unsurprising. Just last month, Israel withdrew from the Human Rights Council, the very body that released this report.

This response confirms a troubling unwillingness to confront documented human rights concerns visible in plain sight: from Palestinian men stripped down to their underwear during searches to documented sexual violence in detention centers to restricting healthcare for pregnant women.

This denial doesn't stop at the government; Israeli society too continues to dismiss reports of damning human rights abuses, whether from international, Palestinian, or even Israeli sources. Over the last decade working to educate Israelis about the occupation, I've observed a consistent pattern: divorcing our actions from their consequences...

Read more: Opinion | It Doesn't Matter What the UN Report on Gaza Says. Israel Will Ignore It Anyway