After four years under siege, 10,000 Syrians are getting some aid:
Aid from the Red Cross and Syrian Red Crescent entered the besieged Damascus suburb of Harasta for the first time in four years on Wednesday, a spokesman said.
It is one of several areas around Damascus "sealed off" by Assad's forces.
That would be a blockade.
Israel does not blockade Gaza. Israel tries to quarantine militarily useful items to Gaza to deprive Hamas which rules the territory from preparing for a new war.
You'd think that Israel's restrictions take place in a vacuum.
You will recall that Hamas (or other terrorist groups) in Gaza continually seeks to kill Israelis with rockets, mortars, or tunnel-mounted ground attacks.
You can question what Israel allows or disallows in their effort to forestall more effective attacks, but if Israel actually blockaded goods and energy, there would be few Gazans--who rank 110 out of 224 entities for life expectancy at birth (two below Saudi Arabia's rank, and about a year less than those who live in the West Bank, ranked 92)--alive today.
And if Palestinians weren't relentless in trying to kill Israelis, it would be a peaceful border.
And even if Israel did literally blockade Gaza, Egypt shares the border with Gaza. So if civilians in Gaza were desperate for aid--which they are not, apparently--Egypt would share the blame.
Just so we know what "blockade" actually means.
UPDATE: And again, so we know why Israel "blockades" Gaza under Hamas control:
The corruption in the West Bank and Gaza is bad, but also different. Fatah leadership are traditional crooks, stealing money (most of it contributed by foreign aid donors) for themselves and their key supporters. Hamas does less of that and more diversion of aid money to build military capabilities. This means stealing a lot of foreign aid to finance the importation or local manufacture of rockets as well as rebuilding the 32 tunnels destroyed by Israel during the 2014 war.
Hamas is waging war on Israel yet Israel isn't supposed to resist? Even with non-military means?
It's almost as if the anti-Israel movement thinks Jews should just sit and take it in atonement for being Jews, or something.
