Devastating societies through war and drugs

Generics giant Teva is top among drug firms found guilty of fuelling the US opioid crisis, agrees to pay $4.25 billion

- LATHA JISHNU

ISRAEL'S SCORCHED earth policy in Gaza has left the world scouring for terms that capture the horror at the barbarism they are witnessing. Humanitarian organisations such as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) appear to have struggled with their statements of condemnation as the relentless bombing of the small strip of land, which is home to 2.2 million Palestinians, left searing images of the dead and dying in a devastated landscape. Even academics were hard put to describe the holocaust unleashed by the Israeli government; some settled for genocide, as did the Colombian President.

An MSF official described as outrageous Israel's 24-hour notice to over one million people in Northern Gaza to leave their land, homes and hospitals. "Unprecedented" does not even cover the medical humanitarian impact of this order, the official said. ICRC described the situation in Gaza as "abhorrent" as residents scrambled for water and food while health facilities and medical personnel were targeted in the bombing of the world's most densely populated area.

A statement issued by Gaza's authorities after the Tel Aviv regime began a complete siege of Gaza in response to the Hamas attack described the action as "the dirtiest crime of collective punishment against defenceless civilians in modern history". Since half the population of Gaza are children, it did capture the true horror of the bombing. Al Jazeera news agency quoted an Israeli official saying it had dropped 6,000 bombs weighing 4,000 tonnes on Gaza in the first six days of its war, killing vast numbers of children.

The vocabulary of outrage indignation is patently limited for a catastrophe on this scale. Responses also depend on a nation's and an individual's moral compass and political ideology. Sensitivities can be sharpened by a familiarity with a situation.