Minutes after its artillery had shelled a Gaza school killing at least 16 people, Israel had the audacity to say, “we have a policy — we don’t target civilians”. There had been no less than 17 warnings, prior to the attack, from a UN agency that the school was housing displaced persons.

The spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency has called the massacre a matter of “universal shame”, while this time UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who usually pedals a ‘balanced’ line, did not confine himself to a ritual condemnation of the atrocity.

The UN chief declared categorically that “all available evidence points to Israeli artillery as the cause”. As always, Tel Aviv had boilerplate remarks ready. There was, said an Israeli spokesman, “hostile fire on our people from the vicinity of the school”.

Earlier, when Israel began its blitz on Gaza on July 8, it accused Hamas of using civilians as a shield — the state’s armed forces have frequently come out with such remarks in Arab-Israeli conflicts. As for UNRWA’s warnings, human rights organisations the world over have recorded what amounts to war crimes by the Israeli state in innumerable attacks on refugee camps and UN monitoring posts — twice in Kana — despite warnings.

The shelling of the school, which was housing 3,000 civilians in the Jabaliya refugee camp, wasn’t the only Israeli attack on non-military targets on Wednesday; the same day, Israel poured fire on a market near Gaza City, killing 17 people, bringing the Palestinian death toll in a single day to over 100.

For this massacre, the Israeli war machine came under scathing criticism from Doctors Without Borders because it targeted health facilities in Gaza — Al Shifa, European General, Al Quds and Beit Hanoun hospitals. The attacks on the hospitals and their surroundings, it said, constituted “a serious violation of international humanitarian law”.

Not surprisingly, America has been very careful not to blame Israel for the school massacre; instead, the State Department spokesperson condemned the slaughter “which reportedly killed and injured” children and UN relief workers, without naming the guilty party, and hastened to add: “We would also condemn those responsible for hiding weapons in UN facilities in Gaza.”

Recently, knowing well what the cost of an anti-Israel resolution would be, the US Senate passed a unanimous resolution in favour of Israel’s air, naval and ground assault on Gaza. The response from the European Union has been equally disappointing.

In fact, Western leaders appear more preoccupied with developments in Ukraine than what has been unleashed on the Palestinians. But the greater cause of mortification is the powerlessness of the Arab-Muslim world, which is watching the massacre of the Palestinian people as a spectator. Unfortunately, little else can be expected of a people busy killing each other from Pakistan to Nigeria.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2014