An explosion at the al Ahli hospital in Gaza on Tuesday killed many – officials linked to Hamas said up to 471 were killed.
This latest round of fighting has inflamed anger and violence well beyond the confines of the Israel/Hamas conflict.
The Israelis insist they have evidence which suggests that the damage was not inflicted by them, but instead by a misfired rocket by Hamas ally Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
That is not believed in the Arab world, most of whom say they want to see an independent investigation into what happened.
Regardless, “the first casualty of war is the truth” – so what prospect is there of stopping this current spiral of violence to avoid a significantly wider regional conflict?
Whether attributed to US politician Senator Hiram Warren Johnson in 1918; Dr Samuel Johnson in 1758, or even the ancient Greek dramatist Aeschylus around 550 BC, the quote about the truth being the first casualty of war would appear as true today as in Aeschylus’ time.
Despite the horrific and despicable events committed by Hamas on Israel on 7 October, it suits Hamas to frame the current conflict as one between Arab and Western ideals, and nothing appears off-limits.
And it has worked.
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