More Gazans die as Hamas continues to fight from civilian locations.
A headline on April 10 read: “Israeli strike kills at least 23 in Gaza City.” The headline was big, placed over a big picture. The caption, under the picture, was small. It included a phrase about Israel saying that a “Hamas militant” was launching attacks from the site that Israel bombed.
Twenty-three people did not have to die. Israel did not need to launch a strike on a civilian area. People in Gaza City did not need to bury their dead. The war in Gaza did not need to restart.
Because Hamas did not need to:
• insist on holding and torturing innocent people;
• insist on swearing to Israel’s destruction as a condition for a ceasefire;
• insist on fighting from within houses, mosques, hospitals and other civilian areas.
It is worth repeating: No war needed to come to Gaza.
Before Oct. 7, 2023, there was no war in Gaza. Hamas started this war by killing, beheading, raping and kidnapping.
All that — it is worth repeating — is why there is still horrible suffering in Gaza.
Because Hamas has not changed it goals and methods.
It is worth mourning: All of the irredeemable and unnecessary suffering in Gaza, in Israel and in Lebanon.
Internally, Israel debates whether it should let Hamas remain in power with its hateful intentions clear and its move to rearm uninterrupted, or whether it should make war on Hamas again after Hamas’ refusal to release its hostages and to surrender. This debate in Israel is painful and divisive, but very much of a secondary order. The primary order here is the cause of the debate to begin with: Hamas’ violence.
Were Jews guilty for cooperating with the Nazi imposed Judenrat? That debate was very much of a secondary order, preceded by, overridden by, the Nazi mass murder and the Nazi institution of collaborationist Judenrat to begin with.
There would be no internal debate in Israel over the renewed fighting in Gaza if there were no Hamas still bent on Israel’s destruction.
That is worth repeating, and worth mourning.
There would be no death and destruction in Gaza City if there were no Hamas still expressing its hate through coercing Gazans to be human shields.
That is worth repeating and worth mourning.
© IJN 2025
