Irrational responses to Gaza hospital tragedy widen war

Even before it is known whether an Israeli bomb or a rocket misfired by the terrorist group Islamic Jihad was responsible for the devastating blast that killed several hundred patients, mainly civilians, and staff at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, the irrational responses to the tragedy can only increase bloodshed by widening the war. Lebanon’s Iran-backed terrorist organisation Hezbollah called for a “day of rage” to condemn the strike as hundreds of aggressive demonstrators protested at the US embassy in Beirut. Hezbollah, an ally of Palestinian terror group Hamas, blamed the attack on Israel, describing it as a “massacre” and a “brutal crime”. Israel blamed a rocket misfired by the Gaza-based militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Israel Defence Forces spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said “an analysis of the IDF operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza, passing in proximity to the Al-Ahli hospital at the time it was hit”. Video footage taken by Arab television network Al Jazeera appears to support that view. It showed a misfired rocket from Gaza’s northern border, where PIJ has a base, landing inside Gaza. The IDF also revealed a phone call between Hamas operatives showing the hospital explosion was almost immediately identified as being caused by a misfired PIJ rocket. One Hamas fighter reportedly said: “They are saying the shrapnel from the missile is local shrapnel and not like Israeli shrapnel … but God bless, it couldn’t have found another place to explode?”

Hamas and PIJ, both servile proxies of Shi’ite Iran despite being Sunni terrorist groups, operate in close tandem in Gaza. Their declared aim is to annihilate Israel and kill all Jews. In previous cross-border conflicts between both Gazan terrorist groups and Israel, about a quarter of Hamas and PIJ rockets intended for targets in Israel have misfired and fallen short, hitting targets within Gaza’s territory. According to the Israeli military, upwards of 450 of the thousands of rockets launched at Israel since Hamas embarked on its first rocket and ground onslaught on October 7 have fallen short or been otherwise “misdirected” as a result of poor firing techniques.

The Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry said about 500 people died when the blast devastated the hospital. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a doctor with the medical charity Doctors Without Borders, said: “We were operating in the hospital. There was a strong explosion and the ceiling fell on the operating room.” Nothing can excuse the targeting of the hospital, or any hospital – if it was targeted.

It remains to be seen what Hezbollah’s planned “day of rage” involves. It undoubtedly will ignore the barbarity suffered by civilians in Israel on October 7 at the hands of Hamas. The murders of Jews, from babies to 90-year-olds and overseas visitors, and the kidnapping of about 200 hostages have enraged the civilised world. That does not include Hezbollah, which Israeli and other intelligence sources believe has an armoury of about 150,000 rockets, and missiles capable of striking any centre in Israel. Most of these have been supplied by Iran. Skirmishes along the Israel-Lebanon border are under way. But the US has warned of dire consequences if Hezbollah mounts a major attack. Hezbollah’s threat has brought the world closer to a wider war.

One of the worst consequences of the strike against the hospital is that Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, 87, called off a meeting he was scheduled to attend with US President Joe Biden, who was heading to the Middle East when news of the destruction broke. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and King Abdullah of Jordan also pulled out of the meeting. Cancellation of the quadrilateral summit, which was to have taken place in Amman, Jordan’s capital, will hurt ordinary Palestinian civilians above all. While the meeting was highly unlikely to have led to a ceasefire, it could have made progress, even in principle, towards establishing a system to ensure essential supplies and humanitarian aid to Gaza via its border with Egypt. Taking a longer-term view, opening the lines of communication between the four nations would have been an opportunity to look to the future in Gaza after the elimination of Hamas, which is vital if Palestinians are to have any chance of peace and to build normal lives. This is not the first time, unfortunately, that Mr Abbas has run away from an opportunity to negotiate sensibly to come to an agreement that would benefit ordinary Palestinians. And in the heat of the moment, putative US allies Egypt and Jordan appear to have aligned themselves foolishly with Palestinian anger over the hospital attack, regardless of who was responsible for it.

From past experience, Hamas and PIJ know they can blame Israel and find a ready, gullible audience to believe the worst about the Jewish state whenever the consequences of their own misfired rockets or the death of human shields end up in headlines across the world. Israel has nothing to gain by targeting Gazan institutions such as hospitals. No side in the current conflict has a bigger strategic stake in seeking to reduce civilian casualties than Israel, given the propaganda fodder attacks on Palestinian civilians and “soft targets” would give Israel’s enemies around the world.

That, regrettably, includes its enemies in Australia, especially the Greens, whose vile anti-Semitism has surfaced since Hamas attacked Israeli civilians on October 7. Right-thinking Australians with any knowledge of the situation will condemn it. On Wednesday, Greens Tasmanian senator Nick McKim made the absurd claim that Israel was not acting in self-defence in response to Hamas. He also attacked the upper house’s bipartisan support of the Jewish homeland. Senator McKim called for the “invasion of Gaza by the State of Israel” to end. “It is unconscionable that the Senate would vote to stand with Israel while innocent Palestinians are being slaughtered by the state of Israel,” he said. Deputy Greens leader Mehreen Faruqi, wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, told the Senate: “Remove your colonial blinkers for one minute and have a look at the truth.” Anthony Albanese, sensibly, expressed his horror at the destruction of the hospital in Gaza but refused to say which side he thought was ­responsible. Arriving in Tel Aviv on Wednesday night Australian time, on one of his most important trips, Mr Biden supported Israel’s claims that it was not responsible for bombing the hospital. He said he had seen evidence that anti-Israeli forces were responsible for the explosion. He also vowed to give the Jewish homeland what it needed to ­defend itself.