So how much is an Israeli life worth? Judging from the disaster unleashed by the Israeli raid that resulted in the rescue of 4 hostages from the Nusereit refugee camp in central Gaza yesterday, it appears that 1 Israeli life is apparently worth 65-70 Palestinian lives. The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza today put the death toll at 274, “including 64 children, 57 women, and 37 elderly. Among the martyrs, there were bodies that were dismembered and difficult to identify. The number of injuries reached 698, including 153 children, 161 women, and 54 elderly, with some injuries resulting in amputations and critical conditions.”
“This massacre has placed a significant burden on the Palestinian Ministry of Health and on Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the only government hospital in the central governorate,” the ministry statement said. “This hospital provides healthcare services to one million people and displaced persons, but today it is unable to accommodate the large number of victims resulting from the daily massacres committed by the ‘israeli’ occupation.”
“The occupation has annihilated the Nuseirat refugee camp. Innocent and unarmed civilians were bombed in their homes. I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s a catastrophe,” local Nidal Abdo told Middle East Eye yesterday. “I came from the camp to here in the hospital on foot. I can’t describe how we fled. I saw dead children and body parts strewn all over as we fled. No one was able to assist them. I saw an elderly man killed on an animal-drawn cart. Nuseirat was being annihilated. It was hell.”
The matter of U.S. involvement in the Israeli raid now hangs over the massacre. “The United States has been providing support to Israel for several months in its efforts to help identify the locations of hostages in Gaza and to support efforts to try to secure their rescue or recovery,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on CNN’s “State of the Union” broadcast this morning. “I can only just say that we have generally provided support to the IDF so that we can try to get all of the hostages home, including the American hostages who are still being held.”
U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) also laid blame on Hamas for keeping hostages in civilian areas on June 9. “You shouldn’t take hostages in the first place. You should release them once you have, and you certainly shouldn’t hide them in civilian areas,” Cotton told “Fox News Sunday.” The Arkansas Republican said the operation, which has drawn condemnation from regional leaders, was “heroic” and “well-executed.”
Hamas pointed to the landing of an Israeli helicopter near the U.S.-built floating pier, along with other actions in the area of the pier during the raid, as indications of direct U.S. involvement. “The massacre in the Nuseirat camp clearly and unequivocally reveals and confirms the participation of American enemy forces stationed on the floating dock in killing and slaughtering our people, despite the criminal American administration’s assertion that this dock’s purpose is solely to pump humanitarian aid,” Hamas said in a statement on its Telegram channel. “This makes the dock and everyone in it a legitimate target for the strikes of the resistance.”
