„For the last two decades, millions of Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to live in an open-air prison,“ the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups said.
A statement signed by dozens of Harvard student organizations blaming Israel for the violence unfolding after Hamas fighters launched an unprecedented incursion into the country has sparked criticism on social media.
Hamas militants broke through a fortified border fence and gunned down civilians and soldiers in Israeli communities along the Gaza frontier on Saturday.
Israel formally declared war and hit back with airstrikes, including one that flattened a 14-story tower that held Hamas offices. At least 700 people were reported killed in Israel and more than 400 in Gaza, while thousands were wounded. Some 123,000 displaced people in Gaza were in shelters, the U.N. said.
The Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups released a statement signed by at least 35 student groups that put the blame for the unfolding violence on Israel.
„We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,“ the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee and Harvard Graduate Students for Palestine said in a joint statement posted on social media.
Saturday’s events „did not occur in a vacuum,“ it said. „For the last two decades, millions of Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to live in an open-air prison.
