The "disturbing asymmetry of outrage weakens the case of those calling for a ceasefire") but improves slightly. Ever so slightly.
Expected better from Horton. Establishment figure.
Israel–Gaza—what comes next?
The Lancet
Richard Horton
October 28, 2023
Marches for Palestine are taking place across the world. People are protesting at the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the accumulating deaths of Palestinians from continued Israeli bombing (over 5000 and rising). But what is surprising is how quickly we have forgotten the horror of the attacks by Hamas on Oct 7, 2023. Israeli forensic scientists are still trying to identify the charred bodies of those burned during Hamas’ savage incursion into Israel. Children and their parents executed. Evidence of torture. And 222 hostages, 30 of whom are children or adolescents. Hamas claims that it does not deliberately kill civilians. Plainly, that is a lie. Nobody can justify their actions as “legitimate resistance”. It was terror, pure and simple. As Israel's Association of University Heads has written, what happened on Oct 7 was not “‘one more event’ in the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians”. It was “an act of singular barbaric violence which must be thoroughly renounced”. So why are there not marches to call for the end to Hamas’ violent rule over Gaza? Why are there not protests at the brutal violence inflicted on innocent children, women, and men on Oct 7? This disturbing asymmetry of outrage weakens the case of those calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Those marching in western capitals do not understand the terrorist culture that is projected by Hamas into almost every aspect of life in Gaza. During my visits, I saw medical clinics adorned with pictures of not only Yasser Arafat, but also Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. I walked in streets where pictures of “martyrs” in combat clothes and with machine guns held across their chests looked down over children walking to school. Men in balaclavas carrying assault rifles paraded unhindered. This is the environment Hamas has created and into which every new generation of Gazan children is born. It is an environment that nurtures and propagates terror.
And yet although Israel's plan to launch a ground offensive may physically eliminate Hamas, it will not succeed politically. As the deaths of Palestinian civilians mount, so will the number of radicalised young Gazans willing to sacrifice their lives in retaliation. We know who the principal victims of a ground war will be—women and children. As The Lancet's 2021 Series on Women's and Children's Health in Conflict Settings underlined, the changing nature of warfare—explosive weapons in urban settings, the instrumentalisation of health services in war—leaves women and children especially vulnerable. Khamis Elessi and colleagues reported in 2017 that the 2014 conflict in Gaza led to the deaths of 530 children, a quarter of the total killed. Most of these children died at home, sleeping, eating, or just sitting with their families. Aside from these direct effects of war, the indirect effects are also substantial: displacement, disrupted water and electricity supplies, malnutrition, infectious and chronic diseases, and deteriorating mental health. In Gaza, these damaging health impacts will not be imposed on healthy communities. Gazan population health is already poor—childhood anaemia, suboptimal maternal care, poor mental health services, weak infection control, and vitamin deficiency, all compounded by a fragmented, depleted, and brittle health system.
The explosion at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital is only a tragic harbinger of what is to come. The risk of hideous human devastation looms large. Writing in The Lancet in 2021, Paul Wise and colleagues set out three just war principles that must guide the conduct of future hostilities. First, the principle of discrimination: excluding all non-combatants. Second, the principle of proportionality: harm to civilians or civilian structures must not be excessive compared with any anticipated military advantage. Third, the principle of military necessity: to protect non-combatants, the least harmful means of attack must be chosen. National medical and public health academies, together with many individual clinicians, are pleading for the protection of health workers and civilians in Gaza and Israel. The recent Lancet Commission on Peaceful Societies through Health Equity and Gender Equality reported evidence showing that societies engaged in conflict can find enduring peace by recognising the mutual dignity and potentiality of human lives. Palestinians and Israelis deserve—they surely demand—an alternative to conflict, instability, and inequity. Their political leaders have an opportunity, even in the midst of war, to choose dialogue in place of violence.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)02398-X/fulltext?dgcid=raven_jbs_etoc_email
need to copy and paste that link. Removing the brackets didn't quite hack it.
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