“What is happening to the children in Gaza is heartbreaking,” an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said in a news broadcast on Monday night.
The images and stories, indeed, paint a nightmare for both sides of the war that is raging.
“I saw murdered babies. I saw murdered children. I saw mothers and children murdered together,” Yossi Landau, a commander of ZAKA, an Israeli first responder organization, was quoted in an NBC News report.
Hamas documents obtained by NBC News revealed a massive and highly detailed “degree of planning that went into ensuring maximum civilian casualties.”
And here is another account: “Forty babies murdered. Babies. Not just murdered, but some decapitated, too. Children bound and slaughtered, whole families killed. Others burned to death in their homes, preferring to die by fire than terrorists.”
Nicky Blackburn, in that graphic 11 October report, also expressed what was uppermost in our minds: “This isn’t war. This is a massacre. As were the attacks on the nature party and other communities of the south. It’s pure, unadulterated hatred — it’s ISIS, it’s Hitler. How can people be this evil? How can people be this savage?”
How, indeed? Has humanity sunk further into inhumanity?
No one can imagine the immense horror of all the hapless victims who came under attack — one day, the sun was out, and music filled the air… until it became the sounds of gunfire, screaming, and dying.
Yet what truly escapes comprehension is the kind of minds that could stomach the details of those killings. “Another level of cruelty,” one report called it.
It makes one question whether the Palestine cause, as some media outfits continue to show bias, is reason enough to launch an attack that killed thousands, including the elderly, women, and children.
“They (Hamas) have no regard for human life — Israeli or Palestinian,” the IDF rep commented in that broadcast.
“This organization, the people who funded them, that one person who gave the order to… — all of them are responsible for these atrocities.
“We should not be held hostage by this terrorist organization,” he added.
A Unicef representative on the ground, visibly affected, called for a stop to the violence. He cited the long-term psychological effects of this war — the mental scars these horrific acts would have on the youth and how this could bring the age-old feud to another level of vengeance or cruelty.
Even now, the murderous rage that sparked this war is spreading, with hate crimes now transpiring against either Israel or Palestine in other parts of the world.
It’s like the “Asian hate” encompassing all other Asian cultures, with the discrimination focused on where Covid-19 started.
It’s like the slurs against Muslims when Osama Bin Laden was hitting the headlines.
It’s like Hitler vowing to obliterate the Jews and the Rohingya people persecuted because of ethnic and religious differences.
Perpetual wars — yet in all wars, everyone loses.
Hereabouts, as we strive to use diplomacy to address issues arising from territorial disputes, we can’t help but notice the structures for defense and attack being built in our own waters.
It is a reality that political interests can no longer ignore — the waves of conflict can float fast onto our shores.
Yet, what have we to say for ourselves if such a time comes? Though our prayers are with the Pope in appealing for “humanitarian corridors” and peace, we must turn a cold eye to the real scheme of things.
Where do we stand in all this? What do we do as humans in a world besieged by selfishness, violence, astounding and perpetual hate?