Ceasefire in Gaza

We have just had Remembrance Weekend, for those that fought and died for this country in all conflicts since WW1. But many, many more die as a consequence of war than combatants. In every conflict civilians die in inconceivably huge numbers and it is them that we now need to think of. Hamas' attack on the population of Israel was shockingly brutal and Israel's need to defend itself is indisputable. But how they attempt that is. The whole civilian population of Gaza must not be made accountable for the terror and horrors that Hamas released on Israel in their name. The total destruction of Gaza City and forced mass evacuation of civilians into southern Gaza is not saving anyone's life, it is in fact killing more by indirect means.

The basics of living are absent, hunger and death haunt the streets and piles of rubble at every minute. The people on both sides need a ceasefire, for those in Gaza, to help stop the dying, in Israel to help look for and rescue the living. The hostages of war exist on both sides of this terrible conflict, those Israelis taken by Hamas and those in Gaza fleeing Israel's response. Without a ceasefire many more will die but not just from the armed conflict. Civilians must not become the assumed 'collateral damage' that conflict demands. Civilians trying to save their own lives and those of others, working in hospitals need to be protected at all costs. The political battles need to be waged within a ceasefire not at the expense of lives of labouring mothers and children, lives not yet lived but already sacrificed in armed conflict.