The children becoming the innocent victims of the Israel and Palestine conflict
Global Security Editor Rohit Kachroo reports from Tel Aviv on the relentless back-and-forth of rocket attacks and air strikes between Gaza and Israel
Six-month-old Omar has barely stopped crying since he was brought into a hospital in Gaza City. But despite his distress, he has no idea how traumatic this day will prove to have been.
Ten members of his family - eight children and two women - were killed by an Israeli airstrike during a holiday gathering. Omar is too young to have built any lasting memories of them. On the sixth day of the conflict, this was one of two Israeli airstrikes which have threatened to alter the pace and the probability of deescalation over the coming days.
The other attack came a few hours later at the 15-storey al-Jalaa tower, home to news network Al Jazeera and Associated Press, the American news agency.
The Israeli military says the building was destroyed because it was being used by a research division of Hamas - though it appears not to have alerted the high profile news organisations which rent space there during their long tenancies.
It prompted a half-step change of tone from President Joe Biden, who “raised concerns about the safety and security of journalists…” during a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a White House readout of the call. He continued to reiterate Israel’s “right to defend itself”. As American and Egyptian mediators began their attempts to broker peace earlier this week, security sources indicated that Israeli officials felt confident that a ceasefire could be reached by early next week.
But with the nature of the conflict rapidly changing, the demands being made of each side by the other are altering too. In these circumstances, this conflict-within-an-historic conflict remains difficult to end.