Both Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli military have lost what little credibility they ever had with the double strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis yesterday. The hospital was struck by not one by two Israeli missiles (UPDATE: or, as it now appears, at least FOUR times), killing 20, including at least four health workers and five journalists. The second strike came ten minutes after the first, apparently deliberately timed to hit journalists and rescue workers.
Netanyahu seems to think it was a "tragic mishap" - he might just as well have said "whoopsy, my bad!" - or presumably two tragic mishaps in quick succession.
But the Israel Defense Forces had their own explanation, which they had obviously not bothered to burden Netanyahu with. According to them, the strikes took out six Hamas operatives, although, as usual, they offered no evidence for this. Separately, they also claimed that the strikes were actually to take out a Hamas camera they claimed (also without evidence) was maintained on the hospital roof.
So, they thought that the best way to destroy a camera was to bomb the whole hospital, twice, in full knowledge that there would be many civilian deaths and injuries? And they thought that the slim possibility of removing six hypothetical Hamas fighters was worth killing twenty civilians in a hospital (including medical personnel, ambulance drivers, etc) and maiming and injuring an unspecified number of others? What kind of calculus is that?
Both the IDF and Netanyahu have lied many times about both events and motives during this war. This is just the latest and most egregious example. In past Israelis conflicts, this is the kind of occurrence that has led to an international outcry and ultimately a ceasefire. However, there seems little likelihood of that happening this time.
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