Who is to blame?

We have seen this story before. A bank robbery has gone wrong, the police have the bank surrounded with the 4 would-be-robbers holding twenty hostages. The police negotiator using his best patient and compliant manner has offered food, and has calmed the trigger-happy gunmen. The barter is simple, they want their freedom in exchange for the freedom of the hostages. As always it is a long and complex negotiation. Lots of pizza is delivered. The delivery man is an undercover cop, who sizes up the locations of the gangsters, the hostages and the layout. The SWAT team is already on site, ready and eager to get their hands on the bastards, but the negotiator holds them off feeling he can avoid bloodshed. 

It has taken 10 hours and everyone is tired and edgy. A gunshot rings out. Something has happened. The SWAT team is given the go-ahead to bring the stand-off to an end.

Flash-bangs, gun fire, sniper action, and all is over in just a minute. The result?

All gunmen were shot, 18 hostages were safe, but one hostage had been shot by one of the robbers, and another was shot and killed when a SWAT team member aiming at a gunman accidentally shot a hostage.

So who is to blame for the death of the hostage? Not who caused the death but who is to blame? The law is clear on this. If someone is killed during a felony the perpetrator of the felony is responsible and will be charged with murder.

So why am I raising this?

Apply this to the recent accidental deaths of aid workers in Gaza. Who is to blame? Israel has accepted that it was responsible for the deaths, and has taken action to punish the perpetrators. But who is to blame for the deaths?

In a court of law, it would be Hamas. So it should be in all our minds. Had Hamas not broken the peace on Oct 7, none of the deaths would have occurred.

World opinion is being manipulated for various reasons that I won't get into here. So all the more we need to maintain moral clarity. In Gaza there would be no civilian deaths, no widespread damage to infrastructure, no upheaval in the daily lives of citizens and no food shortages had Hamas not started a war by massacring innocent civilian Israelis and taking many hostage. Hamas started the war, and every death including the death of the aid workers, is on their head.

Exposing media lies about Israel's humanitarian support of Gaza's civilians

If you listen to mainstream media you will hear many claims about how Israel is conducting its war against Hamas and its neglect of Gaza's civilian population. Claims that Israel is preventing access to drinking water, preventing access to hospitals and preventing aid from reaching civilians. That is ignoring the wild claims by Hamas apologists that Israel is perpetrating "genocide" against Gaza's civilian population, that Israel is intentionally targeting civilians.

Yet Israel has gone out of its way to provide access to media with the facts on the ground. While during the "fog of war" listening to just one side is always fraught, after many wars and reviews by international organisations, including the UN, Israel has proven itself a credible and responsible country. 

In a recent YouTube video, Eylon Levy describes the support Israel is providing to Gaza's civilians. Titled Israel-Hamas war: 67 killed in Rafah raid, Eylon Levy gives Israeli govt. update | LiveNOW from FOX

It can be seen here

I have printed below the relevant parts from the transcript; - 

Humanitarian update

Yesterday February 12th,160 humanitarian Aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip via Israel's Kam Shalom Crossing.160 trucks. Additionally. 23 trucks were inspected at Nitsana and entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing which means 7 times more humanitarian aid is entering Gaza through Israel than Egypt.

Reports suggesting that Rafah is the main crossing for humanitarian aid or even the only crossing, as I saw in the BBC, are simply in opposition to the dry facts. Any allegations that Israel is restricting the entry of aid to Gaza are similarly detached from reality. Whether through ignorance or, dare I say, in some cases, malice. In total, since Hamas used the Gaza Strip as the base for the October 7 Massacre, 235,000 tons of humanitarian aid have entered the territory aboard 12,775. trucks. All this data is available on Kogatz mini-site (?). And we remind you, according to our intelligence estimates, Hamas is hijacking up to 60% of that Aid and video footage of Hamas gunman on top of those trucks has been circulating widely. Those 235,000 tons include 155 tons of food. including the flour that allows Gaza's 15 Industrial bakeries to produce 2 million loaves of bread, rolls and Pita breads every single day. Those deliveries include 21,460  tons of water. Again since the start of the war over 24,000 tons of shelter equipment. and nearly 17,000 tons of medical supplies. That's quite apart from the field hospitals whose construction in the Gaza Strip we have facilitated.  

Just in recent days the IDF helped deliver over 20 oxygen tanks and other medical equipment to the Alamal hospital in Khan Yunis. despite. its abuse by terrorists as a military hideout. by all possible accounts, Israel is exceeding its obligations to facilitate the delivery of Aid to the Gaza Strip. International donors that want to see more Aid enter Gaza should simply send more. We're ready to facilitate it. They should also work urgently to replace UNRWA so that UN agencies that are not in cahoots with Hamas and covering up for Hamas can do a better job delivering the aid that is already entering the Gaza Strip.