Photo: AP Photo/Fatima ShbairThe number of Israelis killed has started to stagnate, the number of Palestinians killed is increasing hour by hour. One death began to overshadow another in the media. And so thousands of times
Slowly, the image of the slaughter of Jewish civilians committed by the terrorists of Hamas fades, and the scenes of human suffering and suffering from the Gaza Strip come to the fore in full bloody glory. In the world of fast information exchange, nothing holds the audience's attention for too long.
Western televisions twisted the shocking conversations with the survivors of the bloodbath on October 7, with the parents and relatives of the murdered and kidnapped children. It is unimaginable pain and anxiety that everyone can identify with. Young people at a music festival, in their homes like ours, on the streets like ours were liquidated by bursts from automatic weapons. Israeli girls and boys were killed in shelters by Palestinian terrorists' hand grenades. The crime of the Hamas killers was special in its ferocity, it was an eruption of uncontrolled hatred.
The State of Israel responded with a modern version of the flaming sword. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas once and for all. That fight is taking place over the heads of the Palestinians who have nowhere to escape from Gaza, all the borders of their refuge, which has been turned into a combat zone, are closed to them.
In the first days of the airstrikes, the Western world was largely sympathetic to the decisive reaction of the Jewish state. But with each guided missile fired, with each artillery projectile, understanding for Israel began to slowly wane.
The complete siege of the Gaza Strip, the suspension of the supply of electricity, gas, water, food, medicine, and the destruction of infrastructure began to resemble the collective punishment of 2,3 million Palestinians. The number of dead is approaching the figure of 3.000, it is said that there are over 700 children among them. There are thousands of wounded, their number cannot be counted in the general chaos.
The auction of the dead, the wounded, the pain, the suffering, the justifications for the actions of one side or the other has begun. Allies of the Israelis emphasize that the Israeli army does not deliberately kill Palestinian civilians, that they are collateral damage because Hamas uses them as human shields, unlike the Palestinian killers who deliberately targeted the Jewish civilian population. As if the cry of parents of murdered children is not always the same.
A wide variety of humanitarian organizations accuse Israel of causing a humanitarian disaster, of not complying with the laws of war, and individuals even of crimes against humanity. And America, in its unwavering support, has warned its allies to pay more attention to Palestinian civilian casualties, if for no other reason than because it's bad political marketing.
The longer this situation lasts, the greater the chances that the war that Israel is waging against Hamas will spill over into neighboring countries and the region. Perhaps that was the plan of the leaders of the attack on Israeli civilians. Islamic religious leaders will not be able to stand idly by for too long watching the Jewish slaughter of their Palestinian brothers. Even two American aircraft carriers with accompanying war cruisers in the Eastern Mediterranean should deter Israel's enemies from opening new fronts - Iran, Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Their presence, however, does not affect the simmering discontent of the Palestinians in the West Bank and the eastern part of Jerusalem. A mass uprising, an intifada, could break out at any moment. The media reports that in less than 10 days, Israeli security forces have killed dozens of Palestinians there.
And then there is the hostage crisis. The close to 200 hostages that Hamas has dragged into Gaza and is holding in secret locations may be the only reason Israel's airstrikes are not more intense. The issue of Israeli tanks and infantry invading Gaza is a matter of hours, or days, but it is inevitable. And what after that? Nobody knows that.
Whatever Israel is up to in close cooperation with US intelligence and military, it had better do now on the principle that a terrible end is worse than an endless horror. Because every new day of destruction of Gaza accompanied by collateral human damage makes the ground bloody for future conflicts of new generations filled with hatred.
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In frozen conflicts that last for a long time, as a rule, violence periodically flares up and erupts. Thus, the hatred of the militant Palestinians for "Jewish apartheid" spilled deadly onto Israeli territory this weekend. There is no doubt that the response of a shaken Israel will be brutal. Hezbollah, Iran and Syria are looking for an opportunity to actively intervene in the raging conflict
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Hamas is part of a regional alliance made up of Iran, Syria, the Shiite Islamist group Hezbollah in Lebanon, all of which oppose US policies in the Middle East and Israel.
