The horrific experience of Mohammad Al Qumsan, the Palestinian man who lost his wife, newborn twins and their grandmother this week in an Israeli air strike, is further proof – were it needed – that this brutal war on Gaza’s civilian population continues to cross red lines of attacking civilians, with disproportionate numbers of babies and children. Video purportedly taken at a hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir Al Balah shows Mr Al Qumsan in shock, holding the laminated birth certificates for four-day-old Aysal and Aser. His shock is shared across Gaza, a traumatised society still not inured to a war that has cost over 40,000 lives across Palestine and left more than 92,000 people injured, according to the latest figures from Palestinian authorities.
These are not mere numbers. Instead, they represent shattered families and communities caught in the middle of a vengeful Israeli operation that grinds remorselessly on as unpromising ceasefire talks fail to halt the violence and the most militant voices continue to set the agenda. An example of this could be seen on Tuesday when Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir staged another incendiary intervention by joining more than 1,000 settlers in storming Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa compound. Israeli families of hostages and those who lost loved ones in the Hamas attacks of October 7 are no safer or better off as a result of these actions.
Although extremist Israelis have repeatedly tried to upset the long-standing agreement with Jordan to administer this highly sensitive religious site, Mr Ben-Gvir’s actions were so egregious that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office was forced to issue a statement confirming that the status quo at Al Aqsa “has not and will not change”. The UN and EU condemned Mr Ben-Gvir’s provocative visit, as did the White House, with State Department spokesman Vedant Patel saying it could contribute to “greater insecurity in the region”. The US is right, but the fact that this statement was accompanied by news that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had approved the sale of $20 billion worth of more military aid for Israel amplifies the incoherence of Washington’s position.
This incoherence – expressing concern over civilian deaths in Gaza while backing Israel’s military operation – has been a consistent feature of the Biden administration’s foreign policy approach. There are worrying signs that this would continue under US presidential hopeful Kamala Harris. Despite her condemnation of the civilian deaths in last week’s Israeli air strike on Al Tabaeen school in Gaza city, she also insisted that Israel had a right to “go after Hamas”.
Far from embodying a fresh approach to the war that many in her party and beyond had hoped for, this statement was more of the same.
The loss suffered by Mr Al Qumsan however, is far from more of the same. It is an exceptionally poignant example of the price being paid by non-combatants in a conflict that has been marked by the murder and kidnapping of Palestinian and Israeli civilians, as well as the brutal treatment of Palestinian society as a whole. The US continues to play an outsized role in this tragedy; if it is genuine about its stated support for an immediate ceasefire, its leading lights would do well to bear in mind the loss of Aysal and Aser Al Qumsan as the price of failure.
