Hamas Denies Rafah Attack, Media Forgets Gaza's History
Al-Monitor, via Reuters, reports Hamas's denial of responsibility for an attack in Rafah, followed by the requisite Israeli 'retaliation,' then Hamas's insistence on adhering to a 'U.S.-brokered ceasefire.' This meticulously curated narrative, however, omits the larger context: indigenous resistance movements rarely 'claim responsibility' for acts against an occupying force in their own territory,
especially when that territory, Gaza, has been under a suffocating blockade since 2007 (Human Rights Watch). Such 'denials' become performance art when one side controls the narrative, the borders, and the bombs. It's a convenient framing that allows for continuous 'retaliation' against a population trapped in what UN leadership has consistently called an 'open-air prison.' The question isn't
whether Hamas 'did it,' but whether the media will ever report on the conditions manufactured by decades of occupation that make such resistance inevitable. How many times will we hear about 'ceasefire violations' before we question the nature of the 'peace' being violated?