Hamas Is Creating a Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/israel-zionism/2019/02/hamas-is-creating-a-humanitarian-crisis-in-gaza/

February 19, 2019 | Evelyn Gordon
About the author: Evelyn Gordon is a commentator and former legal-affairs reporter who immigrated to Israel in 1987. In addition to Mosaic, she has published in the Jerusalem Post, Azure, Commentary, and elsewhere. She blogs at Evelyn Gordon.

According to the most recent reports, the Gaza Strip is on the verge of a major public-health crisis: shortages of both doctors and medications have become critical, and hospitals have been sending patients home untreated. The Palestinian Authority (PA) sets aside $41.3 million annually for medical supplies for the Strip, but has been withholding the funds because of its dispute with Hamas, which governs the territory. Yet the terrorist group bears even greater responsibility for these problems, as Evelyn Gordon writes:

Two weeks ago, Hamas discussed the humanitarian problem with foreign officials, who then presented its ideas to Israeli officials. The organization proposed three possible scenarios. . . . But none of them involved Hamas lifting a finger to help the people it governs. . . .

[A]side from about 130 million shekels a year that Hamas raises through taxes in Gaza, Qatar alone has given Gaza $1 billion over the last seven years, including $200 million last year. And unlike the billions Gaza receives from other international donors, part of the Qatari money—16 percent, or $160 million—has gone directly to Hamas for its own use and that of other terrorist groups in Gaza. That’s almost four times what the PA spent annually on medical supplies for Gaza back when it was still financing Gaza’s health system. Thus, the Qatari money alone could have solved the entire medical crisis had Hamas so chosen.

So what did Hamas propose instead? That someone else solve the problem. Responsibility for Gaza could be handed over to the PA, the United Nations, or Egypt, it suggested. And if none of them is willing, Hamas’s backup plan is to launch a war against Israel “that would end with an international force occupying the Strip,” . . . that is, another way of trying to shift responsibility to someone else.

Of course, all of these plans are nonstarters so long as Hamas refuses to disarm, because nobody wants responsibility for Gaza while an armed group inside it is repeatedly attacking Israel. . . . Hamas knows this. But being able to continue attacking Israel is more important to it than enabling a solution to its people’s medical crisis.

Read more on Evelyn Gordon: http://evelyncgordon.com/gazas-self-inflicted-health-crisis-shows-why-peace-remains-a-fantasy/