Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Friday that civilians in Gaza bear responsibility for the Hamas attack on southern Israel as Israeli bombs are killing scores of people in the besieged enclave.
“It is an entire nation out there that is responsible,” Herzog said, referring to Gaza, which is not recognized as an independent nation. “It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true.”
Herzog claimed that civilians in Gaza “could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat.”
Proponents of the collective punishment of Gaza often claim the civilians living in the enclave elected Hamas. But the last time Gazans participated in elections was in 2006, and many of the enclave’s current citizens were not at voting age or even alive at the time, as about half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are children.
Hamas’ party won the 2006 elections, but a government was not formed based on the results. After the elections, fighting broke out between Hamas and the rival Fatah party, which was encouraged and backed by the George W. Bush administration. The fighting led to Hamas taking power as the de facto governing body in Gaza in 2007.
The Hamas takeover was used to justify the Israeli blockade on Gaza that started in 2007 and is still in effect today, giving Israel the power to impose a “complete siege” on the enclave in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel.
Since the Hamas attack was launched, Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 2,450 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The number includes 724 children and 458 women.
Source: AntiWar.
