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Israel must help Gazans, regardless of Hamas

Israel must consider unilaterally lifting the Gaza blockade because desperate Palestinians there have nothing to lose, a situation far more dangerous for Israel than Hamas rearming.
Palestinian pedestrians and a motorcyclist commute along a road between ruins of houses, which witnesses said were damaged or destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza Strip September 7, 2014. An open-ended ceasefire between Israel and Hamas-led Gaza militants, mediated by Egypt, took effect on August 26 after a seven-week conflict. It called for an indefinite halt to hostilities, the immediate opening of Gaza's blockaded crossings with Israel and Egypt, and a widening

I have a good friend in Gaza, journalist Mouein al-Hilo. During the many years we worked together, he exhibited interest in what took place in Israel, and I was attentive to the goings-on in the Gaza Strip. In recent years, we have been able to talk only by phone, and each time our conversations have become sadder, more frustrating. He would worriedly tell me about his deteriorating financial status, but then always try to muster a glimmer of hope and end the conversation with the same words, “It’ll be OK.” Sometimes he would add, “It won't happen unless we believe in it and have hope.”

We talked again Sept. 17. Hilo spoke about his life and his family situation after Operation Protective Edge, telling me that his savings had completely run out. This time he didn't sign off with his usual mantra, “It’ll be OK.”

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