A Humanitarian Catastrophe Unfolds in Gaza

The median age in the Gaza Strip is 15, notes the US Central Intelligence Agency, so more than half of Gaza’s 1.8 million people are children. More than 100,000 people have lost homes, and most struggle to escape food shortages and the constant exchange of fire between Hamas and Israel. Israelis are weary of Hamas, its rockets and refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist. Yet a stream of images of injured children stirs global outcry. The suffering is not equal, observes Julia Amalia Heyer for Spiegel Online: “In contrast to Israel, where people still go to work and the beach despite rocket warnings, normal life no longer exists in Gaza. The people of Gaza, unprotected and at the mercy of the violence, are suffering most of all. Streets are empty and life is concentrated into small spaces, all of them illusions of safety, such as hospitals, schools and international facilities.” Israel could be its own worst enemy in terms of long-term security interests. – YaleGlobal