Early on in my career I made what was, at the time, a really big mistake. The next day I was called in by my then boss and fully expected to be sacked. Instead, he said: “Look, the speed we’re working at, the amount we’re doing, you’ll make 100 mistakes a day. One of them, you’ll get caught for. Put your hands up, move on.” Fine advice. But that was early-stage journalism and I was not, nor ever have been, the operator of a $2m Hermes 450 drone, capable of raining down hellfire three miles above warzones on enemy combatants and – as was demonstrated this week – non-combatants. The killing of the seven aid workers in
Gaza is utterly shameful and the more detail that emerges, the more shameful it becomes. At first, condemnation of the deaths was met with what’s becoming a typical response from various
Israeli spokespeople: “Meh, stuff like that happens in war. Collateral damage.” The killing of the seven aid workers in Gaza is utterly shameful, says Keir Mudie Not good enough, of course, and for once not satisfactory to the international community. Even the Americans, who have been pretty laissez-faire, are toughening their stance and the UN is urging a ban on arms sales to Israel. The
UK is still not massively clear on its position but, according to YouGov, most people back a ban. We have, of course, done this before. When Israel went into
Lebanon in 1982, Margaret Thatcher suspended weapons sales. Blair did the same in 2002 – although in a more limited
fashion. It’s shameful, though, that a ban is only being discussed now. Shameful because, in the same week, a
Human Rights Watch investigation found that an attack on Gaza by the Israelis in October had no
MILITARY target. It did, however, kill 106 civilians, 54 of them children, without warning. HRW call it an “apparent war crime”. I would take out “apparent” but I suppose you have to be careful with these things. Brit couple of family murdered by Hamas issue heartbreaking message six months on Crowds chant 'down with the US!' at Iranian general's funeral as Israel told attack was 'suicide' There’s no foundation for this to continue. Tens of thousands dead, millions displaced, famine looming. Save the Children says 26,000 kids have been killed or injured in Gaza since October. None of these deaths are being scrutinised like those of the seven aid workers. That’s no surprise. Still, now the world’s attention is in the right place it is time to act. Mr Sunak should be doing everything he can – as should
Labour – to bring about a ceasefire. Meantime, we could stop selling weapons to a regime that is indiscriminately killing people. Last week, 600 legal experts wrote to the Government warning about arms sales and urging them to listen to the International Court of Justice’s advice that there is a “plausible risk of genocide in Gaza”. I would take out “plausible risk of” but I suppose you have to be careful with these things. Beauty fans rave over ‘game-changing’ £1.70-a-day formula for skin breakouts