Streaming on Netflix now is a harrowing documentary, Born in Gaza, which shows, in agonising first-person accounts, the stories of children who were victims of the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas. In the 7-week conflict, Palestinian children were killed, blinded, maimed, or orphaned and left desperate and alone. Yet, even these excruciating images pale compared to the colossal suffering of Palestinians in Gaza Strip today. The horrific attack on Israelis by Hamas on 7 October has spurred wave upon wave of Israeli retribution on Gaza. It is as if the world is suddenly divided into stark black and white in which every Palestinian is regarded as guilty and in which every Palestinian, young and old, must bear collective responsibility for the crimes of Hamas. Half the population of Gaza’s over two million are children. Every day, the world is seeing the immeasurable suffering of the young, grief stricken and broken, parents wailing inconsolably holding little shrouded bodies. As the adage runs, nobody wins a war, and everyone becomes a victim.
