Conditions in the Gaza Camps

 

These are refugees from the UNRWA refugee camps talking about conditions in the camps in the south of Gaza.

  • “We stay inside the tents even though it is very hot during the day. And during the nighttime, we feel cold. We only have one mattress and we are forced to sleep on blankets on the floor,”
  • “We struggle when we need to go to the toilet, we must stand in long queues that sometimes take half an hour or an hour.”
  • “[the camp] does not have services such as a proper toilet or water. We are forced to buy bottles of water, having to wait in queues, not to mention that there is no [heating oil] at all.”
  • “We cannot do laundry”

I guess, in their homes in Gaza City, they had:

  • Mattresses
  • Toilets
  • Piped water
  • and (it seems) AC

I don’t begrudge anybody their luxuries. I like all of these things. But if you decide to launch a genocidal assault against the civilian citizens of a first-world military power, you shouldn’t be surprised when you’re no longer living better than:

Then again, life expectancy in Gaza and the West Bank exceeds that of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Oman, Yemen, Pakistan, and all of Africa, with the exception of Algeria.

If I were Yemenite (for example), I might be asking why I should suffer more to help end the suffering of my brothers in Palestine who are, well, already suffering less than I am.

Published in Foreign Policy
This post was promoted to the Main Feed by a Ricochet Editor at the recommendation of Ricochet members. Like this post? Want to comment? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

There are 14 comments.

Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
  1. JoelB Member
    JoelB
    @JoelB

    Sounds as if the comments were directed to the USA and other western “democracies”.

    • #1
  2. JosephCox Coolidge
    JosephCox
    @JosephCox

    JoelB (View Comment):

    Sounds as if the comments were directed to the USA and other western “democracies”.

    I don’t know. A lot of Hamas supporters seem to be living in tents…

    • #2
  3. Barfly Member
    Barfly
    @Barfly

    Suffering is good for the soul. The “Palestinians” might be improved by suffering. What a wrecked, pathetic people.

    • #3
  4. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Barfly (View Comment):

    Suffering is good for the soul. The “Palestinians” might be improved by suffering. What a wrecked, pathetic people.

    Except they’re bound to blame it on the wrong people, again.

    • #4
  5. Globalitarian Misanthropist Coolidge
    Globalitarian Misanthropist
    @Flicker

    JosephCox (View Comment):

    JoelB (View Comment):

    Sounds as if the comments were directed to the USA and other western “democracies”.

    I don’t know. A lot of Hamas supporters seem to be living in tents…

    I read this as Haman and not Hamas.

    • #5
  6. lowtech redneck Coolidge
    lowtech redneck
    @lowtech redneck

    JosephCox (View Comment):

    JoelB (View Comment):

    Sounds as if the comments were directed to the USA and other western “democracies”.

    I don’t know. A lot of Hamas supporters seem to be living in tents…

    A lot of Hamas supporters are living in tents in Blue cities.

    • #6
  7. Paul Stinchfield Member
    Paul Stinchfield
    @PaulStinchfield

    lowtech redneck (View Comment):

    JosephCox (View Comment):

    JoelB (View Comment):

    Sounds as if the comments were directed to the USA and other western “democracies”.

    I don’t know. A lot of Hamas supporters seem to be living in tents…

    A lot of Hamas supporters are living in tents in Blue cities.

    A lot more Hamas supporters are living in nice houses in white liberal neighborhoods, safely isolated from the consequences of their twisted ideology.

    • #7
  8. David Carroll Thatcher
    David Carroll
    @DavidCarroll

    Elections have consequences.  In Gaza, 90% of the voters supported HAMAS.

    • #8
  9. The Scarecrow Thatcher
    The Scarecrow
    @TheScarecrow

    If, as they claim, the greatest outcome for a Muslim is to die in glorious jihad for his beliefs, isn’t there at least some joy to be had in suffering the loss of a few creature comforts for your beliefs? These people should be swelling with religious ecstasy. 

    • #9
  10. No Caesar Thatcher
    No Caesar
    @NoCaesar

    David Carroll (View Comment):

    Elections have consequences. In Gaza, 90% of the voters supported HAMAS.

    Yes.  And never forget how the Gazans behaved when their Hamas sons and brothers brought back their brutalized Israeli trophies.   No sympathy for Gaza.  No mercy until they capitulate unconditionally, and renounce their evil ways.

    • #10
  11. MiMac Thatcher
    MiMac
    @MiMac

    As U.N. officials say hospitals in Gaza are running dangerously low on fuel, Hamas is maintaining a stockpile of more than 200,000 gallons of fuel for the rockets it fires into Israel and the generators that provide clean air and electricity to its network of underground tunnels, according to U.S. officials, current and former Israeli officials and academics.

    Hamas does not prioritize the lives of Gazans 

    • #11
  12. CACrabtree Coolidge
    CACrabtree
    @CACrabtree

    No Caesar (View Comment):

    David Carroll (View Comment):

    Elections have consequences. In Gaza, 90% of the voters supported HAMAS.

    Yes. And never forget how the Gazans behaved when their Hamas sons and brothers brought back their brutalized Israeli trophies. No sympathy for Gaza. No mercy until they capitulate unconditionally, and renounce their evil ways.

    Exactly.  I suppose there’s something in the Koran along the lines of “…as you sow, so shall you reap…”.  

    It appears the Gazans aren’t reading it.

    • #12
  13. JosephCox Coolidge
    JosephCox
    @JosephCox

    David Carroll (View Comment):

    Elections have consequences. In Gaza, 90% of the voters supported HAMAS.

    Except the last election was in 2006, when approximately 80% of the population was younger than voting age. And they didn’t win 80% then, but a plurality of 44.45%.

    • #13
  14. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    Your posts are critically important for Israel. Every time I look at the mainstream media news, I see ridiculously false reporting that needs to be refuted immediately.

    The reporters are taking at face value Hamas’s reports on the number of Gazans being killed by the Israeli forces. Of course, if these numbers are at all accurate, and I doubt it, it is more likely that Hamas is killing civilians and blaming Israel.

    This is not a new tactic–we saw this a lot in the Iraq war, and it is one reason that the anti-war movement was so strong back then and the hatred in the Middle East for George W. Bush and the United States remains so strong. I see references to the insane number of civilians killed during the United States war in Iraq. Those numbers are (a) inflated and (b) lies–Saddam Hussein’s forces and supporters killed many civilians. I’ve even seen these false numbers cited by intelligent people on Ricochet over the years.

    I didn’t understand back then and I still don’t, but the Muslim terrorists like to play the press, and they like the attention. Which is the case, by the way, of many mass murders even in other circumstances. The common denominator appears to me to be some narcissistic desire for attention, and they are bottomless pits. And the leaders of these terrorists are definitely winning hearts and minds. So they know how to play the media. They are successful.

    The only hope for the world lies in honest firsthand reports like yours.

    What you are doing is vitally important. Thank you.

    • #14
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.