The Gaza government media office on Friday condemned the discovery of oxycodone pills reportedly discovered in flour bags distributed by “American-Israeli” aid centres.
“We have so far documented four testimonies from citizens who found these pills inside the flour bags,” it said in a statement, warning of the “possibility that some of these narcotic substances were deliberately ground or dissolved in the flour itself”.
Oxycodone is an opioid meant to treat severe and long-term pain, often prescribed to cancer patients.
The drug is highly addictive and can have life-threatening effects, including breathing complications and hallucinations.
The media office’s statement comes after several social media posts shared images of pills purportedly discovered in flour bags in Gaza.
The idea is to create widespread addiction and societal breakdown.
Israel and their US backers are pure undiluted evil.
If that’s true that’s fucking low
I didn’t see it reported elsewhere, but Middle East Eye has a good reputation for factual reporting.
I imagine that other news outlets don’t agree with the allegations of this being to poison people in Gaza. If someone was trying to poison the food, uncrushed oxy pills in flour is a pretty dumb and expensive way to do it.
People are sick and dying and are desperate for painkillers.
Also, smugglers have been trying to find ways around the blockades.
Medical supply / drug smuggling happens in every war. Addicts, and people who are dying and suffering from mangled limbs, want drugs.
You’re assuming that the uncrushed ones were the intention and not that there is far more crushed up in the flour and the ones we see didn’t get processed.
Opioids are also one of the more common tools of spreading addiction in order to manipulate the people for a reason, it’s effective.
They didn’t say that there were actually narcotics ground up. That claim was an unsubstantiated “possibility”
possibility that some of these narcotic substances were deliberately ground or dissolved in the flour itself
People are jumping to conclusions without evidence, and are ignoring the fact that this is one of the few paths in for smugglers, and there is a massive demand for painkillers.
You are also jumping to conclusions. The only fact is that there was opioids in the flour.
Neither of us know why.
I can’t help but believe that the absolutely oppressive and evil genocide regime has resorted to poisoning the populace through the tiny amount of aid they let through.
You choose to optimistically believe that this is the result of smugglers accessing those same few aid sites and using them to smuggle needed medicines.
Idk why you’re so dismissive as if this would be beyond the scope of Israeli evil.
Agree. Unless you find the people who did it, you’ll never know what the motivations are.
That said, we have a lot of reporting that has shown smugglers have been looking for creative ways into gaza, and we have a lot of reporting that shows Israel’s blockade has turned hospitals into a hellscape without proper painkillers.
I imagine that other news outlets don’t agree with the allegations of this being to poison people in Gaza.
Other news outlets aren’t there, they rely on feeds from the AP/AFP/Reuters cabal and their subsidiaries. So if those three don’t pick the story up it doesn’t get reported.
If your mom’s dying from cancer or if Netanyahu blew off your brother’s leg, and the hospital can’t get you medical grade opioid painkillers, are you just going to do nothing? Or are you going to try to work with a smuggler to help them out?
Israel has created a meat grinder and isn’t letting medicine in to hospitals. Desperate people are trying to do whatever they can.
You’re implying that the drugs are snuggled in for altruistic reasons, rather than to unwittingly get lots of people hooked on an opioid
Occam’s razor.
There is a tremendously strong need to get painkillers into Gaza. And smuggler’s drones have been getting shot down. Aid is one of the few channels in. I would expect that someone is going to try to leverage that.
There are also addicts that are trying to have stuff smuggled in. Prime example of this is something as simple as cigarettes. There are quite a few articles about Israel stopping and intercepting people smuggling in cigarettes.
But poisoning or getting random people hooked on opioids? It was loose pills, and a more expensive opiate. If this was a scheme to poison or hook people, it’s a complex and dumb one. If you know anything about opiates, you know there are far better and cheaper to hook or kill people if that’s your goal.
That makes sense, I think I misinterpreted the second paragraph.
Because of the packs of pills being found, they were worried about the flour being contaminated?
Yeah, they were worried about flour being contaminated, and they implied that US or Israeli actors may have also crushed up oxy into the flour. But they didn’t actually test the flour to see if someone actually did that. They just threw out a hypothetical on social media, and people piled on without evidence to back that up.
And they kind of ignored the fact that Israel has created desperate conditions that smugglers are capitalizing on, and there is a lot of reporting about the smuggling and medical shortages.
If the people don’t know that they’re eating painkillers, how would they even know to seek out more to relieve their withdrawal?
So like the 21st century version of smallpox blankets
It was in pill form. My money is on people smuggling meds for the sick and dying because they can’t get rationed meds from hospitals.
This wouldn’t be the first time desperate people resorted to smuggling meds during a brutal war.
If someone wanted to poison people, there are much cheaper and more effective ways to do that.
It’s a brutal war and medical supplies are being rationed, if they exist at all. When hospitals don’t have meds, or can’t give rationed meds to lower priority people who are suffering, those desperate people resort to smuggling.
I’m sure there are also addicts who can trade influence or high value items for oxy, but my money on this being for the sick and dying.
This always happens in war.
Stop calling it a war. It’s a genocide, a planned massacre, pretty similar to what the Nazis were doing. For it to be a war, there would have to be two sides fighting which isn’t the case.
My point is that Gaza is a conflict zone with people who are suffering and hospitals that can’t get the right drugs through Israel’s blockade.
I’m not trying to imply that Israel’s isn’t being a genocidal actor.
