Israeli Aid to Ungrateful  Palestinian Terrorists

In their “hour of need,” however, the Hamas terrorist group still can make room for continuing intermittently to shoot rockets into Israel. And at the beginning of April, the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, demanded that Israel furnish his group with ventilators and threatened that “If ventilators are not brought into [Gaza], we’ll take them by force from Israel and stop the breathing of 6 million Israelis.”
That’s not the best way to behave toward a possible benefactor.

Meanwhile, Israel has transferred to Gaza 200 testing kits (each capable of testing 100 people) on March 13, and another 500 testing kits to Gaza on March 20, as well as 1,000 PPE (masks, gloves, hospital gowns) from its own stores.

Israel has also sent a PCR machine to Shifa Hospital in Gaza, that will serve to double the rate of tests carried out in the Strip. In early April Israel announced that it was also prepared to send ventilators to Gaza, if Hamas were willing to release the four Israelis – two soldiers and two civilians –whom it continues to hold. In addition to what it sent to Gaza, Israel has sent to the PA in the West Bank 1,000 protective suits for medical teams, and 100 liters of sanitizer gel. On March 25, an additional 3,000 test kits and 50,000 masks from the World Health Organization (WHO) were delivered by Israel to the PA.

Of course, none of these deliveries of equipment supplied by Israel itself, or delivered by Israel on behalf of the WHO, have had any discernible effect on the campaign by both Hamas and the PA to blame Israel both for starting the coronavirus outbreak among the Palestinians and for worsening it as well. It’s a crazy charge: Israel has an obvious stake in limiting the spread of the outbreak in Gaza and the PA territories, because its own citizens will be further at risk for contamination by their Palestinian neighbors. Typical of the outrageous claims made against Israel are those by Ibrahim Milhem, a spokesman for the PA, who on March 29 charged that Israeli soldiers had been spitting on Palestinians and contaminating ATM machines to purposely infect them with the coronavirus.

“The [Israeli] settlers are natural and exclusive agents for the coronavirus epidemic,” Milhem said. “They spread it through their touch and their racist and barbaric behavior that they are exhibiting toward the [Palestinian] citizens.”

Also on March 29, PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh alleged that Israeli soldiers “are trying to spread the virus on car handles. This is racism and hatred of people who long for the death of the other. We will record this in the list of [Israel’s] crimes.” So Israelis deliberately “touch” Palestinians; somehow “their racist and barbaric behavior” helps to spread the virus; they “spit on Palestinians”; they contaminate ATM machines (where? In Gaza, where there are no Israelis?

In Israel, where other Israelis might use those machines?) to “purposely infect [the Palestinians] with the coronavirus”; they even “spread the virus on car handles.” The malevolence of the Jews is once again demonstrated in this coronavirus outbreak. Never mind that they have delivered, in March alone, from Israel’s own stocks, and from the WHO, at least 4,700 thousand test kits, 50,000 face masks, and thousands of protective suits to the Palestinians. What Milhem and Shtayyeh also fail to mention is that Israel has been training Palestinian medical personnel – doctors and nurses – to deal with coronavirus patients. Some have been trained at a facility set up at the Erez Crossing.

Another group was allowed to leave Gaza for training at the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon; medical staff from both sides have held conference calls together. And despite all this, the Palestinian spokesmen, both for Hamas and the P.A., continue to insist that Israelis are deliberately spreading the virus in Gaza and the West Bank. The U.N., ordinarily so critical of Israel, sees things differently. Nickolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, has praised the coordination between the Israeli and Palestine authorities in reacting to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, in April, Israel continues to help the Palestinians, this time with a mass testing lab. Al-Monitor carried the story here: