With their own hands, the cabinet ministers and the prime minister are prolonging the fighting in the Gaza Strip, distancing Hamas' surrender and diluting the chances of returning the hostages. We will not elaborate on the price of the lives paid by our soldiers deep in enemy territory. It is enough to see the names of those who fell on Shabbat, joining an overly long list of heroes who fell defending Israel and securing its future.
Footage from Rafah crossing: Hundreds loot goods from aid trucks \\ Arab networks
While since the beginning of the war, Israel has held with one hand the ambitious but worthy goal of destroying Hamas' governmental and military capabilities, and then even added to it the return of the hostages, with the other hand it has extended the organization's breathing space in every action it has taken in the past month: providing aid, bringing in fuel and striving for an end.
Breathability
Alongside the soldiers' successful war operations on the ground, there is a lack of an integrated view of the steps required to achieve the war's objectives, including damage to Hamas' civilian infrastructure. Only on Friday we published in this newspaper how the Defense Ministry is turning a blind eye to the UN's cooperation with Hamas charitable organizations, which have been declared terrorist organizations and that work with the population in the Gaza Strip at all times when humanitarian aid is transferred in.
Not only that, Israel even admits that despite knowing that declared terrorist organizations operate in the Gaza Strip under UN auspices, they cannot afford to stop them. As if we had learned nothing from the long series of failures that led to the surprise attack of October 7.
Humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, photo: AP
Looking at the length of the demands presented by the murderous terrorist organization, which raped, burned and beheaded our citizens only two months ago in favor of returning the hostages, one could mistakenly think that the persecuted organization, thousands of whose fighters have already been killed by us, has the upper hand.
This feeling, even if it does not reflect the vulnerability suffered by the organization on the ground, does reflect breathing time. It can also change in a series of simple decisions, led by the political echelon: stop the transfer of fuel that keeps Hamas in its burrows and allows it to continue its deliberate attacks on our forces, minimize the transfer of aid through alternative organizations instead of the UN, and immediately close the Kerem Shalom crossing, which renews Gaza's dependence on Israel.
The pseudo-moral decisions of the Israeli government, even if they are imposed by the United States, reflect a flawed scale of values. As if the lives of the abductees in Gaza do not compare to the lives of Gazans, for whom hundreds of aid trucks are nominated every week. It's as if those kidnapped from their homes after abusing and murdering their families are not universally defensible, the kind they cry out for in hypocritical UN institutions.
Helping monsters
While the United States and the UN can err on the scale of their values, the Israeli government does not have this right. By the way, we have known this crooked scale of values since before the war. For example, the activity at the crossings continued while two of our civilians were abducted there alongside the bodies of two of our soldiers. Gazan workers also continued to earn a living in Israel by the thousands, while from time to time thousands of rockets were launched with the aim of murdering us.
Humanitarian aid from the organization that initiated the Mavi Marmara flotilla, IHH, as documented this month in the Gaza Strip, photo: Facebook
Want data that reflects how curved it is? While our abductees are in an unknown situation in Gaza, suffering from hunger and cold, and Hamas refuses to discuss their return, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, which operates under the Ministry of Defense, announces on Saturday that a field hospital in Rafah, operated by the Red Crescent, is expected to begin treating patients in the coming days.
Four additional field hospitals under construction are expected to be operational in the coming days. The first phase of construction of a water line from mobile desalination plants located on the Egyptian side to the Rafah area has been completed. On Friday, 49 truckloads of humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip, as well as four gas tankers for cooking. Fuel tankers entered throughout last week.
This assistance, unlike what they try to explain, does not distinguish us from Hamas monsters – on the contrary, it helps those monsters continue to abuse our civilians there, and gives them patience to fight our soldiers.
With the tool of "helping innocents," Israel does not care for the residents of Gaza. It is cruel to its citizens first, and as collateral damage helps the murderous organization instead of leading to the toppling of Hamas as it itself declared. It's not folly and it's not stupidity – it's cruelty at worst and turning a blind eye at worst. The time has come for a reversal of the values of the political echelon: our people first.
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