Gaza

The justification apparently remains, however disproportionate the response; Hamas will revert to their old ways unless they are removed from power root and branch or, as is looking increasingly likely, have been virtually wiped out. And there’s no denying the provocation; 300 Hamas rockets were fired into Israel between December 19th and the 27th last year and the point is not just the casualties these and other attacks inflicted – about a dozen killed since Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 - but the effect of terror on so many more whose houses lie within range.

But you don’t have to dig too much deeper to see the wider picture; 1,700 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military attacks in the same three year period, 22 of them during the latest six month ceasefire. And throughout this ceasefire, the Israeli blockade of Gaza only got steadily worse. Way before November, Gaza’s tap water had largely become unfit to drink, the sanitation system was close to breaking point, chronic malnutrition was on the up, fuel for cooking was hard to come by and there was a serious shortage of essential medical supplies.

While none of this in any way justifies violence is it really that surprising if, under these circumstances, many in Gaza feel driven towards it? Viewed like this, the question of who is provoking who takes a very different turn. The dogma and actions of Hamas have done little for the Palestinian people but does that justify in any way what has been delivered on an entire population’s head? The blockade on Gaza had started in earnest even before Hamas were elected in, and their rise to power speaks of the desperation of a people as much as any other motivations, a kind of haemorrhaging of sense under grevious conditions, or a scarcity of any other options, given Fatah’s apparent corruption.

And, with the events in Gaza now, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Israelis themselves have no desire for any kind of two state solution. There are moderate voices of course but it’s all too easy to conclude that those holding power at the moment do not want anything other than a very finite solution to the Palestinian problem. Perhaps that’s extreme but as the slow starvation of an entire population with the blockade only goes to show and as the shelling of the UN shelter yesterday merely hammers home, there is a display, at the very least, of a monumental disregard for Palestinian life.

And reading one of the blogs from someone within Gaza now, to put it very mildly, does nothing to disprove this. Two nights ago, a - relatively - quiet shift for a Red Cross ambulance crew turned out to be thanks to the Israeli forces allowing no more than 20% of civilian casualties to receive treatment. By anyone’s standards, this is a pretty twisted accolade in a mounting list of war crimes. And now they are shooting at medics.

As I write, the Isaeli army have surrounded the cities and may move in at any moment, with even greater loss of life predicted if they do so. But perhaps the Israelis can still prove the world wrong, or at least show some shred of restraint. What is clear is that if a peace deal stands any chance of endurance it must not only guard against violence from either side but also allow those in Gaza their basic human rights; to live their lives with honour, with adequate food, fuel and medical care, with the freedom to move and the freedom from fear that should be a given for any population on this earth. Without that, there will be no end to the rockets, a state of affairs that might after all suit some of Israel's current leaders more than they'd ever admit.