'Image of premature babies will haunt Israel long after this war is over'

16 November 2023 , 20:44

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Premature babies at Al-Shifa hospital (Image: Dr. Ahmed El Mokhallalati)

A single image can capture the true horror of war, etched into memory.

Who can forget the nine-year-old girl, burned in a napalm raid in Vietnam, running naked towards the camera? For me, the iconic picture of the Israel-Hamas war will be the tiny bundles of premature babies in besieged Al-Shifa hospital.

Taken from their power-starved incubators, wrapped in green medical sheets, and propped together for warmth, they were close to death. The sight is so heart-rending that when it came on TV, my wife turned away and involuntarily covered her eyes. Motherhood is universal.

The image loses little impact in newspapers. Those little faces, tufts of dark hair, and teeny limbs in swaddling clothes: a modern version of the biblical slaughter of the innocents. First, we heard that two had died. And then, seven. After that, silence. Some were –probably buried in a mass grave in the hospital grounds.

We know that children, babies even, were murdered by Hamas terrorists in the October 7 attack on Israeli civilians. That slaughter is inexcusable. But does it give the right to exact the collective revenge happening right now in Al-Shifa, in other refuges and in the homes of Palestinians across Gaza, with 4,000-plus children reportedly killed?

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To my mind, no. Israel is squandering an international reputation for humanity and democracy unique in the Middle East. Once lost, it may never be recovered.

And when this war is over – as all wars are, eventually – the Jewish state will need friends. Turning hospitals and homes into killing fields won’t help.

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Kimba, the escaped circus lion, scared residents silly in a seaside town in Italy.

They hid behind windows as he wandered streets for five hours before recapture. Understandable. Lions are fierce, carnivorous wild beasts who don’t belong in the big top, and they’re banned in those in more than 30 countries including Britain – but not Northern Ireland.

And not Italy, or the US, or China, or India or more than 100 others. Even here, they can still travel for public display. Elephants once led animal parades through the streets. The only circus I know these days is the Circus Tavern in Manchester, where the pachyderms are sometimes pink.

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The return of Lord David Cameron as Foreign Secretary isn’t novel. Gordon Brown brought back milord Mandelson to help him lose the 2010 election.

I hear the policy may be extended, with Liz Truss at Kamikaze Defence, Bojo (Women and Happy Families), Norman Tebbit (Cheering Us Up), Nick Clegg (Emigration) and Matt Hancock (Public Morality). I was going to joke that Esther McVey, the Mouth of the Mersey, would fly back on her broomstick as Wokefinder-General, but she actually has, proving that this government is beyond satire.

Spiritualists are contacting Harold Macmillan, Sir Alec Douglas-Home and Ted Heath for comebacks from beyond the grave. This parlour game could go on for ever. Sunak’s won’t.