The Times of Israel Daily Briefing Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib: NGO admits Hamas controls Gaza's hospitals. Why now?
24 snips
Feb 21, 2026 
Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, director of Realign For Palestine and analyst of Gaza dynamics, speaks from on-the-ground sourcing. He outlines dire living and medical conditions in Gaza. He discusses social media tracking of sentiment and the revelation about armed men in Nasser Hospital. He debates NGO responses, humanitarian priorities during Ramadan, and prospects for reform and reconstruction.
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Social Media Reveals Ground Reality
- Ahmed emphasizes monitoring Palestinian social media for real-time, ground-truth intelligence rather than relying only on external reporting.
- He uses geofenced Arabic social media analytics to track sentiment and trends in Gaza.
Cooking Gas But No Container
- Ahmed recounts a friend in Gaza receiving cooking gas but lacking a propane canister because her home was destroyed and she cannot afford one.
- He describes extreme scarcity where people sometimes buy leaky containers from bombed homes for crucial supplies.
Chronic Care Is Being Neglected
- Ahmed highlights severe hygiene and medical-care gaps: weekly showers, self-supplied heated water for brief hospital showers, and collapsing chronic-care services.
- Donors fund acute trauma but neglect chronic diseases and dental care, worsening long-term health.