Gaza remains a humanitarian disaster

As the Israeli election is drawing to a close with Tzipi Livni and the Kadima slightly ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu and Likud though the final coalition government remaining uncertain, we are getting a good deal of weeping from the brigade of sentimentalists who have managed to convince themselves that they are thinking about the unfortunate Palestinian people, who, one may add, do not have the rights and privileges that Arabs in Israel enjoy. Hint: they, too, have been taking part in a free election.

To some extent these people are right: Gaza remains a humanitarian disaster area and will be that while Hamas remains in charge. After the story of Hamas stealing at gunpoint the aid brought in by UNWRA, we now hear that even Amnesty has had enough.

Rick Moran on American Thinker links to Ynetnews. Reuters reports it, too, as do many others.

Amnesty International said on Tuesday Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip had carried out killings, torture and abductions of people accused of helping Israel, during and after the recent Israeli offensive. At least two dozen men have been shot dead by Hamas gunmen and scores of others have been shot in the legs, knee-capped or injured in other ways intended to cause permanent disability, the human rights group said.

Others have been severely beaten, tortured or ill-treated, it said in a report.

Most were abducted from their homes and later dumped, dead or injured, in isolated areas, or found in the morgue of one of Gaza's hospitals. Some were shot dead in hospitals where they were receiving treatment for injuries, Amnesty said.

Yes, well, a good deal of this was reported during the last Gaza conflict but, somehow or other, ignored by the weeping NGOs and much of the big media. But better late than never, I suppose.

Rick Moran is less charitable. Why is Amnesty not interested, he wonders, when Hamas attacks Israelis? Could there be a double standard here? Certainly. There could and there is but, at least, we are told about Hamas's murder and torture of other Palestinians. We rarely hear about that. It's a start.