‘Why Do We Deserve This?'

Gaza has been hit hard by the worst fighting in seven years. Experts explain the conflict and warn it’s only a matter of time before it flares up again

- Jane Vorster

It just never seems to end. Explosions, air-raid sirens blaring and people diving for cover, houses reduced to rubble – all of this happens so often in the endless cycle of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians that the world has come to accept it as “normal”.

But a 10-year-old girl shook people around the world out of their apathy with a video that’s gone viral. Standing in front of the ruins of her neighbour’s home in Gaza with tears streaming down her face, Nadine Abdel-Taif showed there’s nothing normal about living in a war zone.

“I can’t do anything,” the Palestinian child said. “You see all of this. What do you expect me to do? Fix it? I’m only 10. I can’t deal with this anymore. All of this when I see it, I literally cry every day. I said to myself, ‘Why do we deserve this?’ ”

At the time of going to print the death toll caused by Israeli air strikes in the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip, a 40km stretch of land sandwiched between Israel and Egypt – which is by far the worst-hit area in the latest conflict – stood at well over 200. This includes at least 47 children.

This is the fourth war young teens have lived through – they know what it’s like to spend nights lying under tables blocking their ears in a futile bid to drown out the sound of bombs.

In southern parts of Israel children also know what’s it’s like to wake up to the sound of wailing sirens warning them to take cover.

In the past few weeks Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that rules Gaza, has fired more than 3 300 rockets into Israeli territory, according to the Israeli Air Force.