Hamas is to blame for the plight of Palestinians in Gaza

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/19/hamas-is-to-blame-for-the-plight-of-palestinians-in-gaza

Version 0 of 1.

The true friends of Gaza are the enemies of Hamas, says Gareth Brahams. And another reader criticises those who seem blind to the atrocities committed by Hamas

While we can all feel desperate for the citizens of Gaza, columns like Nimer Sultany’s do nothing for them (It lifted my grieving heart to join crowds in London on the March for Palestine. We need more of them, 17 October). We should be campaigning for the people of Gaza by supporting the fight against the death cult that is Hamas. Yet they get no mention.

They massacred Israeli men, women and children (which is again not mentioned), and would surely have expected – and indeed, one suspects, wanted – this response from Israel. From their point of view, the more “martyrs” the better. They could stop the blockade by releasing the 200 innocent hostages. They don’t. Why would they?

Rather, what little water and energy they have left in Gaza is being devoted, by Hamas, in part to firing yet more rockets at Israel, no doubt in the hope of promoting yet more conflict. The true friends of Gaza are the enemies of Hamas.Gareth BrahamsLondon

Nimer Sultany failed to mention the Israeli victims of Hamas in their recent atrocity. It is only obliquely referred to as “in the aftermath of 7 October”, a particularly soulless wording. Sultany is an Israeli citizen, and many of the Jewish victims would probably have political sympathy with the current plight of Palestinians in Israel.

The same omission was in the article by Omar Barghouti (Why I believe the BDS movement has never been more important than now, 16 October).

Yes, the Palestinian people are undergoing untold suffering and harm, and have been ignored by the international community, but it doesn’t help convince the neutral reader of their arguments that these writers seem wilfully blind to the atrocities against innocent Jewish people committed by the fundamentalists of Hamas.Name and address supplied

Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.