Carnage at Gaza aid distribution sites reminds who pays cost of war

Sydney Morning Herald

5 hours ago

US President Donald Trump's black hole ability to suck attention has diverted eyes from the real consequences of war in the Middle East and its devastating impact on ordinary lives.
Trump's prevarication on Iran amid claims and counterclaims on Tehran's nuclear preparedness has much of the world distracted. Now, horrific footage showing the aftermath of Palestinians killed or wounded by Israeli gunfire, tanks and airstrikes, some while desperately waiting at aid distribution points, has put Gaza's ongoing carnage into sharp focus and reminded us what could await further escalation in the Middle East.
Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering Gaza throughout March and April and threatened the 2.3 million residents with a 'critical risk of famine '. Food has become extremely scarce, and prices for basics have soared. The blockade was partially lifted last month, but United Nations attempts to deliver aid have been hampered by Israeli military restrictions, air strikes and growing anarchy.
With outside media banned and no independent eyewitnesses, the Gaza war has been conducted behind closed doors, but the aid distribution footage has revealed the suffering and death inflicted on individuals and families and the despicable thing that is being visited upon the innocent.
Israel claims it does not target civilians. However, dozens of civilians have died in the recent violence and the UN human rights office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory has called on the Israeli military to stop using lethal force near aid convoys and food distribution sites. The overall death toll, according to the Hamas-run Health ministry, has climbed to 55,637, with 129,880 wounded since the conflict erupted following the despicable Hamas terror attack of October 7, 2023.
At the same time, Russia has taken advantage of the distraction provided by the Middle East drama to launch a brutal missile and drone attack on Kyiv that killed 28 and injured at least 140 people in the Ukraine capital. They also hit other towns and districts and transferred 50 children from an occupied zone to a camp deep inside Russia that reportedly specialises in ideological brainwashing and systemic Russification. Ukraine's national database, Children of War claims since February 2022, 19, 546 children have been abducted from Russian-occupied territories and sent to other Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine or to Russia.
Preoccupied with Iran, a distracted world has hardly batted an eye as the political leaders of Russia and Israel allowed their troops to kill civilians in Gaza and Ukraine. More is being destroyed than infrastructure in both theatres of war. The rules of war have been thrown to the winds.
The conflicts will have to fade before it is possible to judge if these are war crimes. But the footage of crying men, women and children in the rubble of their lives is tragic testimony that opens up the most closed of minds to the cost of such obvious transgressions.