Daily Times

Apparently, a five-letter platitude of “sorry” is enough for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a heart-wrenching airstrike killed seven people working for a global aid charity in Gaza. While World Central Kitchen claims the convoy had been travelling in two armoured cars emblazoned with the charity’s logo, it’s business as usual for Tel Aviv, probably emboldened by an overarching sense of impunity after its countless attacks on noncombatant Palestinians.

Quite expectedly, operations have been suspended and Western capitals pay a little lip service to demand answers for the deaths of their nationals. This uproar would also mellow down after a news cycle or two because the world has not yet found the determination for a concerted stand against Israel’s repeated attempts to hurt or uproot humanitarian efforts in the besieged strip.

According to UN statistics, at least 180 humanitarian workers have been killed in the war so far. The situation becomes outrightly tragic when considering Palestinian casualties where at least 33,000 civilians have already lost their lives, with women and children making up two-thirds of the dead. Those who have somehow survived constant bombings are on the brink of starvation.

The trickling down of humanitarian efforts offered a small chance of survival, but now that multiple aid organisations have announced an end to their food operations, there’s no telling what the coming days would mean for these resilient men, women and children trapped by an administration that uses food as a weapon. Ships laden with 240 tons of aid have already turned back from Gaza.

Of course, in the long run, such offensives are bound to haunt Israel. When countries like Australia and Poland, despite their inclination towards Israel, demand action to protect aid workers, Netanyahu’s days of terror are becoming increasingly numbered. For the last 75 years, the West has silently stood by, buying and even advancing Israel’s self-victimisation.

The growing list of war crimes would force these governments to call the situation what it actually is: a full-blown genocide. *