To the Editor:

In her letter, “Condemn All War Crimes” (The Newtown Bee, May 28, 2021), Polly Brody falsely accused Israel of deliberately targeting al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza during the recent warfare against Israel by Gaza and its Hamas-led government.

Hamas itself knows that Israel does not target non-military sites and instead does all it can to avoid damaging civilian facilities. Indeed, Hamas takes advantage of Israeli humanitarianism by deliberately placing its military and terror facilities in civilian areas. In its 2014 war against Israel, Hamas actually located its command headquarters in al-Shifa Hospital. Its leaders cowardly operated there, knowing it was the safest place they could hide.

Ms Brody also falsely accused Israel of deliberately targeting “as much civilian infrastructure as it could.” What Israel did was to concentrate on what Brody acknowledges are legitimate targets, such as tunnels, weapons depots, and rocket installations. Occasionally, its strikes were followed by secondary explosions as Hamas’ munitions were hit, with Hamas’ own terror supplies harming civilians and civilian facilities. Those are the war crimes — in reality, double war crimes — at which Brody should be directing her criticism.

The bottom line is that Israel has no interest in harming anyone in Gaza other than Hamas and other terrorists targeting Israeli civilians. Israel left Gaza in 2005 and wants nothing more than to live in peace. The problem is that there is nothing Hamas and the other terror groups want less than to live in peace with the Jewish state, whose very existence they hatefully and irrationally won’t accept.

Very truly yours,

Alan Stein

34 North Main Street, Unit 2, Natick, Mass. June 11, 2021

The writer is a former president of the Jewish Federation of Western Connecticut (then known as the Jewish Federation of Waterbury) and is president emeritus of PRIMER-Connecticut (Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting).