THOUSANDS of children — around half of all casualties according to some estimates — have been slaughtered by Israel in its month-old savage assault on Gaza.

If this monstrous crime had taken place in any other geographical location, by any other actor, there would be worldwide calls for stringent accountability of the guilty party. Not so for Israel, shielded as it is by the US and several European states.

Apparently to these staunch supporters of Tel Aviv, a few thousand dead Palestinian children are not too high a price to pay for the defence of Israel.

As the overall Arab death toll has crossed 9,000, Washington has rejected multiple calls for a ceasefire, even though many governments, as well as ordinary people across East and West, are increasingly calling for a cessation of hostilities, and an end to Israel’s genocidal campaign.

Tel Aviv’s stated aim is to obliterate Hamas, even if it means massacring every man, woman and child in Gaza. As a Unicef official put it, the beleaguered Strip has become “a graveyard for thousands of children”. Yet these grim figures are not enough to move the callous individuals in world capitals who give their full support to Israel.

It is difficult to expect any humanity from the Israeli leadership, as top decision-makers in the Jewish state have basically authorised the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Schools, hospitals, ambulances and refugee camps have all been hit in the name of targeting Hamas.

When militant groups massacre civilians, it is called terrorism; when Israel does the same, it is called self-defence.

If the extermination of Palestinians continues, it will either result in the depopulation of the Gaza Strip, or the expansion of the current hostilities into a regional conflagration.

Hasan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement — a key ally of Hamas and part of the Iran-backed ‘Axis of Resistance’ — broke his long silence on Friday and said a regional war is a “realistic possibility”, while issuing ominous warnings to Israel and the US.

Right now, the ball is in Washington’s court. If the US wants things to cool down, it needs to press Israel to stop the slaughter. If America keeps bowing to Israeli hubris, it will be responsible for the coming storm in the Middle East, and the accompanying turbulence the global system will encounter.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2023