The other side is constantly touting the numbers published by the Gaza Ministry of Health (run by Hamas). It took Israel weeks to find out how many people were killed in the October 7 pogrom, but somehow, Hamas knows within an hour after every explosion how many people were killed there (see: the hospital parking lot incident, when a rocket fired by a Hamas-aligned group broke up in mid air over Gaza and fell onto the strip). If there is one side using the number of dead human beings for their political gain all the time, it's Hamas and those who are knowingly or unknowingly carrying water for them. It is revolting how they have weaponized outrage. Every dead Palestinian is their doing and on top of that they found a way to benefit from it. That is one awful incentive loop.

The sad reality is that civilians always suffer the worst during wars. I watched a video showing Gaza shortly before the war. It showed vibrant streets filled with stores, it showed brand new cars next to old rust buckets, stylishly dressed women that look right out of Ryad or Istanbul next to street urchins and kids having to work. I think about those homeless kids often. Where are they know? What happened to them? They don't have the support networks that are so important in times like these, they can't wrangle their way through crowds when the few supplies that Hamas doesn't steal make it through. They are out in the open when bombs are falling and incredibly vulnerable to all sorts of violence even during peacetime already.

You are right in the sense that it is all to easy to lose sight of what's actually at stake in this conflict here. In the end, it's less about convoluted political ideas about borders, statehood, identity. It all comes down to what happens to the children, what their future will look like. Us adults are doing a good job of ruining everything for them, that's for sure and this wretched conflict is no different from countless others around the globe and from our many other failings as a species, especially how we are even ruining the entire planet just so that we can drive around in cars, buy cheap clothes and eat food at an unsustainable rate. This conflict is just one of countless symptoms of a species-wide issue that we are unable to address: Our lack of empathy for both our future selves and our descendants.