The horror of Gaza escalates and becomes an avalanche of suffering, according to a Norwegian doctor who regularly works there. The injuries, and remember many of the injured are children, are threefold. Firstly there are burns from explosions and there are hundreds with burns to more than forty per cent of the body area; then there are penetrative wounds from bullets or shrapnel; finally there are crush injuries from collapsing buildings.

Burn treatment requires sterile conditions, temperature control, plastic surgery and pain relief.  The penetrative wounds require the immediate stopping of internal haemorrhaging and subsequent repair of internal damage. With shrapnel there are usually multiple entry sites. Once again infection is a constant danger. Crush injuries result in broken bones and possible brain and soft organ damage. As well as repair of the damaged parts, treatment requires flushing of the kidneys to prevent a build-up of toxins. All these treatments require sterile water for hygiene, anaesthetics, pain relief, and electricity to power intensive care units and operating theatres. Under a state of siege none of them are available.

And then there are the more general environmental health issues. Gaza is dependent on water filtering systems which have either been bombed or lack electricity to run, so there is no potable water to drink or wash in. There is massive overcrowding and a bombed sewage system. Infectious diseases like dysentery, measles, typhoid and pneumonia spread. Then there are normal health issues: women giving birth, heart conditions, asthma, the need for dialysis – none of them able to be catered for. There are the mental health issues of a people who have been under siege for years, of families now without homes and children living in constant terror. There is slow starvation, a continuing bombardment and the stench of the rotting corpses under the rubble. Add the fantasies of the perpetrators – of expelling the whole population into the Sinai desert or nuking them and you have the reality of genocide.

It is a truly obscene historical moment (as were the death camps) and the culmination of European colonialism. The hypocrisy of politicians is staggering and it feels like the death of humanity, that species with consciousness, which can and should lead to empathy – the ability to identify with the other. Instead a deliberate obscuring of truth and an obscene accounting takes place. Yes, after years of oppression and humiliation, Hamas started – wrong word, it started a century ago- triggered this ‘final solution’ and there are Israeli families in mourning and desperately anxious for the hostages, but they have water to drink, food to eat, homes to go to and an intact health and communications system. The numbers and the situations are not comparable. Biden reveals himself as a cynical old man, the team serving him morally despicable, the UK and European leaders smiling villains. It is a cesspit of cowardice and Islamophobia. As usual, New Zealand politicians hesitate on the cusp of commitment.

What does one do, living in a rural community where activists are few and often reclusive ‘keyboard warriors’? Put up a poster or two, write letters to the paper, think about a rally which would be sparsely attended, if at all? The tourists pass through, on holiday and avoiding the world’s ills. What act of solidarity is possible? For solitary despair is not good.

In the possibility that there are people out there who feel something of what I’ve described, who are unable to ignore what is happening, I would ask them to meet in the town square for a vigil this Sunday at 6.30pm.Bring a candle and perhaps something for a shrine. We can say a few gentle words and at least collectively pay witness to this horror.