A new hospital in Gaza that Israel supports - and the Palestinian Authority opposes

A new hospital is being completed in Gaza, near the Erez crossing. It will be called the American Hospital after the American NGO Friendship, staffed by volunteers who provide humanitarian assistance to people in dire need.

Most of the equipment comes from a field hospital in Syria that is no longer necessary. The medical equipment started arriving today, and the hospital is expected to begin operation within a couple of months.

Israel has approved the hospital, which is funded by Qatar. But the Palestinian Authority bitterly opposed it being built. Back in July, the Palestinian cabinet issued a statement saying “The hospital that Israel and the US are seeking to establish on the northern border of the Gaza Strip is part of ongoing attempts to separate the Gaza Strip and the West Bank under humanitarian pretexts."

I do not recall any condemnations of Mahmoud Abbas or his new prime minister in July for opposing a modern new hospital to help Palestinians.

One gets the impression that Palestinian leaders don't give a damn about their own people. This is hardly the first example - Abbas has limited medicines and medical equipment to Gaza, he has tried to stop Israel providing electricity to the enclave, he opposes Palestinians becoming citizens in Lebanon, he opposed allowing Palestinians in Syria to come to areas he controls unless they can maintain their mythical "right to return" - and thousands are dead as a result.

For decades, Palestinian (and other Arab) leaders have treated their own people as political pawns, usually against Israel or sometimes against other political enemies. If they cannot fulfill this objective, they are expendable.

The bitter irony is that Hamas, recognized worldwide as the terror group it is, cares far more about its actual people than the supposedly moderate Palestinian Authority does. Any news reports that put Mahmoud Abbas and his gang in a poor light get effectively censored by a media that has a narrative of him as a moderate peacemaker rather than the ruthless dictator he is.

This hospital proves once again that the PLO cannot be trusted to act responsibly towards its own people. It is impossible to negotiate with an entity that looks at its own people as nothing more than cannon fodder against their enemies.

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