Panic about the coronavirus has reached the Gaza Strip, Channel 12 news reported Tuesday night. Riots erupted in Khan Yunis, in the southern Strip, in protest of the closure of a hospital which would be used as a quarantine compound for coronavirus patients.
The decision to close the hospital was made by Hamas, which decided to evacuate the Algerian Military Hospital in Khan Yunis and leave it vacant. The hospital was erected in recent months by Algerian forces for patients living in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas decided to close the hospital and not accommodate there any patients at all, to keep it available for future coronavirus patients, should the virus reach the Gaza Strip.
In response, residents of the area launched a violent protest against the closure of the hospital, they broke into the facility, sabotaged and destroyed equipment.
Makes perfect sense if you’ve lived in the Middle east long enough.
Hamas police arrived and confronted the protesters, who threw stones at them. The protesters argued that Gaza residents who need medical care should be allowed into the hospital, and the authorities should not keep the place empty for future patients who may never materialize.
The protesters also demanded that the facility for those hypothetical/inevitable coronavirus patients should be in a secluded location and not smack in the middle of their neighborhood – for fear of being infected themselves by the imaginary disease.