One year on.....

 ...and still the slaughter in the Levant continues unabated.

Today is the first anniversary of the Hamas atrocity in southern Israel, in a kibbutz a couple of miles from the border with Gaza. Over a thousand Israelis, men women and children enjoying a music festival, lost their lives.  A further 200+ plus taken hostage.  It was by any criteria an appalling act of terrorism by Hamas. Anyone in their right mind, no matter their nationality or religious beliefs, would condemn it - and did.  The Israeli government vowed to respond in kind and get the hostages home, and governments world-wide made supportive comments. A couple of weeks and it will all be over was the general feeling. 

Well, no actually.  A whole year has passed and over a hundred hostages are still being held in Gaza.  Talks between the two sides for their return have ground to a halt.  Others were found dead amid the rubble, and some shot dead by IDF troops in friendly fire accidents.  My sympathy, as with everyone else's, is with the victims and their families, who are all suffering unimaginable pain, with no apparent end in sight.

Two thousand victims.  It's a lot.  BUT they are not the only people to suffer, not by a long chalk. 

 

Gaza itself, for years nothing less than a heavily fortified concentration camp (to all intents and purposes), strictly guarded by IDF troops that restrict access to everybody, not just Palestinians, with its citizens denied full democratic rights, has been reduced to a wasteland.  Over these months a continuous air and artillery bombardment and land incursions have reduced something like 80% of it to piles of rubble.  Housing, schools, universities, even hospitals have been destroyed. Over two million people have been rendered homeless. men women and children, living on the streets under whatever shelter they can find, lacking basic sanitation, food and medical supplies.  They are moved from safe area to safe area, and each time, sooner or later, that area becomes unsafe and they are moved on as another bombardment starts. To date, over 42,000 Palestinians living in Gaza have lost their lives according to statistics compiled by UN agencies and others like the World Food Program and International Red Cross.  Most of them are women and children, civilian non-combatants with no known link to Hamas or its aims.  I make that at least 35 Palestinian deaths for each Israeli victim in the atrocity last year.

The numbers do not take into account the aid workers of several nationalities, nor the medical staff and press who have lost their lives trying to save Palestinian lives and bring comfort and aid to the refugees.  None of these people had any connection whatsoever with the Hamas terrorists. 

International law and UN Charters provide for nation states to be able to respond to terrorist attacks like that on last October 7, provided the response is targeted and proportionate.  Clearly this has not been the case: a ratio in excess of 35:1 can never be considered either "targeted" or "proportionate".  For me it's nothing less than mass murder.

It doesn't end here, of course, because Israel has shown no sign of easing up in its revenge actions. It has now turned its attentions to Lebanon, its northern neighbour that harbours another militant (for which read terrorist) group, Hezbollah. This is a close ally of Hamas though much stronger and both are armed and trained by Iran. Israel has launched attacks on Lebanon, first through an apparent covert operation that led to a couple of thousand pagers used by Hezbollah members for communication to explode.  As well as maiming and blinding the owners, innocent passers-by, including children, were killed.  Not content with that, air strikes on villages and towns in southern Lebanon, allegedly hotbeds of Hezbollah actiivity, have led to many more deaths and an exodus of over a million refugees - warned by Israel to evacuate or "face the consequences".  The capital Beirut (a city I spent a year working in and thoroughly enjoyed some 15 years ago) is now overflowing with people seeking safety - and is predictably now itself under attack.  More deaths by the day...

Iran has responded by launching missiles at Israel, whose air defence, its Iron Dome provided and funded by the USA, destroyed most of the incoming and kept casualties to a minimum. Israel is now considering launching an attack on Iran, perhaps targeting the country's oil infrastructure and nuclear facilities. 

 

There are fears that the entire region is going to be dragged into this slaughter.  The US has already pledged its "unswerving support" for Israel in its "self defence".  Britain and the EU, though perhaps less forcefully, have done likewise and issued their own warnings to Iran. Putin has so far said nothing but for years has been backing and arming Iran and its allies (like Hamas and Hezbollah) and no doubt is quite happy to see the West drawn into the conflict.  Would he order Russia to take action if that happened, given the Ukraine conflict?  God knows. but he is mad enough.  And if he did, how would the West - the US, the EU, Britain, the NATO Alliance - respond?  And what of Iran's and Russia's other allies, China and North Korea?

I have no idea how this is all going to end, but without doubt it's a tragedy and a conflict that could have been avoided or ended, but for the stubborn vindictive leadership from both the main combatants.  For the first time in my life, I am genuinely fearful that we are close to a Third World War.