Israels airstrikes have targeted an ambulance carrying injured civilians towards the Rafah border...

[starfleet]

The images coming through on news channels are horrific.

Hear hear. Thank you, we see and appreciate you @Parkingt111

Many are with you in condemning the killing on both sides but refusing to undermine the killing of Palestinian innocents.

@Green777 @Milkandhoneybees thank you ❤️

@Redlarge and @Lonelycrab It looks that way, but I'm sure there must be mechanisms for making countries pay reparations for damage done during war. The destruction of the French Institute, for instance - there will have been French investment in that. The rendering of Gaza to be uninhabitable. The world will offer aid money, but it won't be enough. I do hope the UN will be looking at this, because the possibility of being presented with an enormous bill at the end of all this might be one thing that will slow Netanyahu or his government right down.

Yes, hope you are OK @Parkingt111 You have been such a voice of humanity for weeks now. Look after yourself.

@Auvergne63 I find your response to @Xenia really interesting.
Are you disagreeing with her? I genuinely believe if a terror attack targeted the UK in a similar vein to the Israel attack that our gov would be killing civilians in another country. Do you think they wouldn’t respond? I’m not sure what that has to do with humanity?

The War on Terror killed hundreds of thousands of innocents directly & millions indirectly.

How do you know it wasn’t targeted? Genuine question. So far the Israeli army has targeted hospitals, shelters, civilian areas, kid’s schools so why would an ambulance not be a target for them.

You learn very quickly to caveat as you are gaslit. I was called a bully on another thread for asking what Israel's end game might be and suggesting that inflaming Iran might not be the most thought through plan in the world. I hold Israel to a higher account asking for a long term plan apparently and that is antisemitic.

I have not seen one comment, not one, from posters supporting Israel who say 'Of course I don't support indiscriminate bombing, occupation or the targeting of people because they practice Islam and live in Palestine'. There is little to no curiosity about what an alternative approach could have been - in fact if you suggest that there could have been another, different, less lethal way you are dismissed as naive. Or a terrorist supporter. When you point out that the reactive and revenge based approach is mirroring the approach used by terrorists and recent history has taught us it might not be the best approach you get a ingenuous wide eyed 'What could Israel do?'

There's probably never been a person who has been persuaded to completely move their mindset by another person on the internet. I can see why the OP wants to retreat from the discussion.

Here is a woman who is working in hospital every day in Gaza. She said that the humanitarian crisis there is unprecedented in recent history, and that there’s an acronym ‘WCNSF’ that they are having to commonly use there for arriving children, meaning “wounded child, no surviving family.” It’s utterly heartbreaking.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CzJNEtdMQXn/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

@grottyb

Do you think our gov’t would respond by denying aid, slowly starving and withholding water to civilians? Bombing refugee camps and breaking International law and wantonly committing war crimes?

Why do you think even the US, the strongest superpower ally to Israel is underlining that they are entitled to respond but HOW they respond matters, repeatedly? pleading to let vital aid through to civilians undergoing unimaginable horror?

Interesting your views and the not so subtle excusing of killing of Palestinians going on .

You honestly believe that if 300 Cumbrian terrorists went and butchered 1450 people in Scotland on a Saturday morning, it would be perfectly reasonable and understandable for Scotland to barricade 2.3 million Cumbrians into the Lake District, cut off their water, electricity, fuel and stop any aid going in and everyone would shrug and say well those mountain people support the terrorists there's not much else that Scotland could do really?! I think people might expect a different approach tbh.

Do you think our gov’t would respond by denying aid, slowly starving and withholding water to civilians?

No that would be barbaric, and I’d expect better from a modern democratic country.

@Parkingt111,

I try not to be emotional on here but it's really very difficult to continue to see

You are not alone!

I am really, really, really trying - on here, at work, among friends, at political assemblies I attend, to be reasonable, constructive ...

... but, hey, I find it really hard, too! Not just "hard" - it is UNBEARABLE!

And yet, we soldier on, because WE MUST!

Go sit in a corner and bawl your eyes out, if it helps! (Good lord - pls note: I am saying this as a confirmed atheist!) - that is, literally, what I do every evening! Breathe! Do some yoga! Try to get some sleep, I know it is hard!

Just, please, please: do NOT despair! People see us! People hear us! And, seriously: it is even perfectly okay to "fly off the handle" every once in a while!

I am a corporate executive for a living, I "flew off the handle" at my boss yesterday - he is coming to march with us tomorrow and bringing his whole family! Me "losing it" and him "intervening" was a necessary conversation opener among a general culture of "we pretend politics does not exist at work".

@Weddingpuzzle great post.

I've been called all sorts on here recently. Lots of posters are extremely defensive of Israel and won't hear a thing against it. Totally in denial. I guess its easier personally attacking another anonymous poster than facing the reality of what's going on.

It probably qualifies as a bingo game now 🤦🏻‍♀️

The whole thing is an utter tragedy & I cannot see a solution. There will likely be a “ceasefire” soon & Hamas may be weakened but they won’t be destroyed. I think a wider conflict will be avoided but the US is has to keep Egypt on side.

I disagree with people who only see the suffering of the Israeli civilians and minimise the one of the Palestinians. If you do not feel compassion and empathy for both equally, then in my mind you have lost your humanity.
Killing civilians can never be justified. End of.

Thank you

With all due respect, I think googling what somebody said 5 years ago isn’t going to help anybody right now

To the op: many more atrocities like this will have to happen over the coming weeks before Israel has reached its ‘goal’
This is just the beginning.

And its goal is ultimately futile, as it won’t bring peace, it will only lead to more war, conflict and hatred imo.

It is very very upsetting
Her interview was so heartfelt, dignified and composes despite all she had been through
It was I think a week ago that they were on unknown 500 (WCNSF)
I dread to think how many more children have been orphaned since then

I do find it interesting how some people question how the Palestinians can support Hamas but they then buy everything the IDF says without a critical thought. They believe anything put out and take all statements as absolute truth. But then wonder why others don't think for themselves or go against the majority or speak up. When they can't even do that themselves.

All IDF has to do is deny something or say well it was to get a Hamas terrorist or say actually the civilians didn't do as they were told and the many IDF supporters on here then repeat the exact things they have told like good little propaganda soldiers - all the while questioning why others can't think for themselves.

And I highly doubt if they were told that there was a suspected Hamas terrorist living in their neighborhood that they would agree that the only solution is to blow their entire neighborhood up and kill their children, neighbours, friends, and family to ensure the Hamas terrorist was gone. That they would accept whatever deaths happened - including the deaths of thousands of children and more than ten thousand people who live around them - and the deaths of their own children as simply necessary deaths to reduce a threat.

That's exactly my view to
If Israels goal is really to destroy Hamas to ensure a safer Israel I don't think it will achieve it's goals
It will create more enemies and more individuals who will want to destroy it, and unfortunately at the expense of civilians on both sides

@Green777 Im not sure exactly how our government would respond, the only thing I’m sure of that there would be civilian deaths. Do you disagree with that point, which is the one I made…
Certainly the war on terror had some sketchy ground re international law & detention.

Why do you think even the US, the strongest superpower ally to Israel is underlining that they are entitled to respond but HOW they respond matters, repeatedly? pleading to let vital aid through to civilians undergoing unimaginable horror?

Well for one thing they need to keep Eqypt on side & obviously they want to avoid a wider conflict. Geopolitics isn’t simple! why do you think they aren’t condemning Israel?

Interesting your views and the not so subtle excusing of killing of Palestinians going on .

Personally I think any debate regarding conflicts in the ME is complicated, which gets overlooked & lacks nuance on social media in particular. It’s quite possible to disagree with what Israel’s government are doing but still acknowledge that the UK & the US would respond to similar attacks & regardless of how that response looks civilians would die. I don’t think it’s an interesting view, it’s a factual view looking at recent history.
I’m not sure why acknowledging that is extrapolated to mean one doesn’t care about Palestinians dying?

@Auvergne63 Acknowledging that civilians die during war doesn’t mean one is justifying that. It’s a fact regardless of personal feelings.