Palestinian Women Tried to Smuggle Explosives as Cancer Medicine, Media Shrugs
Two Palestinian sisters tried to smuggle explosives into Israel from Gaza by labeling them as cancer medication. The Israeli security service Shin Bet caught the two women on April 19, 2017. Many major U.S. news outlets failed to report the event.
Judah Ari Gross, a military correspondent for The Times of Israel, reported that the two sisters, both residents of Gaza, “received permits to enter Israel as one of them suffers from cancer and was traveling to an Israeli hospital for treatment.” The women were carrying tubes labeled “medical materials” which, in fact, contained explosives.
Shin Bet stated that they believe the sisters, whom they would not identify, were smuggling the explosives on behalf of Hamas, the U.S.-designated terror group that rules the Gaza Strip. The explosives were found during a security check. Gross said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently mentioned Hamas plots to use sick Gazans who posses Israel travel permits to smuggle weapons.
The Times of Israel pointed out:
“While Israel tightly controls its crossings in and out of Gaza as part of a security blockade, it allows tens of thousands of Palestinians to leave the Strip to receive medical treatment in Israel, the West Bank and Jordan each year.”
A few U.S. news media outlets, such as Fox News, covered the incident. However, many in the U.S. press, such as USA Today, The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Baltimore Sun, among others, failed to inform their readers about the smuggling attempt.
The Post’s omission is particularly egregious, as the paper has, in the past, run several Op-Eds that have criticized Israeli border security measures. For example, The Post gave column space to U.S. Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) whose July 29, 2014 commentary was entitled “End the Gaza blockade to achieve peace.” Other prominent Op-Ed writers, such as former President Jimmy Carter, have also, in years past, taken to the paper’s editorial section to decry Israel’s border security policies towards Gaza.
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