A disaster. A horror. A tragedy. All phrases we have read several occasions about to describe the scenario in Gaza. All woefully inadequate.

As a Palestinian, I can guarantee you if there’s one matter Palestinians are not quick of, it is terms. You could even remember that in the 1st months of this war, kids in Gaza held their possess press conference imploring the entire world “to guard them” so they could “live as other youngsters live”.

But the scale of the violence in Gaza due to the fact the assaults on Israel on October 7, which killed about 1,139 people today, is contrary to something we have professional before.  Israeli forces have killed an common of 250 Palestinians a day, exceeding the daily loss of life toll of all other conflicts in latest decades.

More than just one million individuals have been displaced to Rafah, the only remaining place in Gaza in which there is any semblance of a meaningful humanitarian reaction, waiting around for the subsequent armed service operation that could guide to a massacre.

And so, phrases have begun to fall short us. Quite a few now say there basically are no words that justly capture the torment we’re struggling with. I disagree.

There are nevertheless some phrases we can and must drop again on, words and phrases that anchor us to our collective humanity. The language of human rights, global legislation and accountability. Text like obligations, violations, atrocity crimes. The laws of profession. And the guidelines of war.

I emphasise these text mainly because they are the ideal terms to use, but also because they counter other phrases that have appear to the fore, these types of as the language of dehumanisation, which paves the way for atrocity crimes to be fully commited.

Back again in June 2023, I attended my brother’s wedding ceremony in the occupied West Bank village where we grew up. If only for a short second, we were able to fail to remember about the occupation we stay beneath and the every day abuse that provides.

That instant of pleasure was quickly crushed when a handful of times later hundreds of armed settlers marched into our village, firebombing households and vehicles and attacking my loved ones, buddies and neighbours, in the 10th assault on the village in just six months.

A 27-calendar year-outdated father of two young young children was murdered. Numerous other people were shot and hurt. As considerably as we’re aware, not a one settler has been held to account.

The attacks on my village equipped a pattern of raising insecurity for Palestinians with extra recurrent and far more violent assaults by settlers and Israeli forces transpiring throughout the occupied West Lender. In September, a Help save the Kids report observed that 2023 experienced develop into the deadliest calendar year for Palestinian little ones in the occupied West Bank on report. The variety of children killed in the very first nine months of the calendar year was triple the range killed in 2022- itself earlier the deadliest yr on record since 2005. And then arrived October 7, leading to unparalleled degrees of dehumanisation and violence.

Horrifyingly, at the very least four of the six grave violations versus little ones have been perpetrated given that the war commenced, including youngsters killed in Gaza and Israel, the abduction of young children from Israel to Gaza, assaults on hospitals and colleges throughout Gaza, and the denial of humanitarian access for kids in Gaza.

At minimum 29,000 men and women have been claimed killed and 69,000 wounded in Gaza although an approximated 8,000 folks are missing, presumed buried under the rubble of bombed-out buildings, in accordance to the Palestinian Ministry of Well being.

Some of the most inhumane steps carried out by Israeli forces include directing Palestinian civilians to so-called “safe zones” and then bombing these places, and stopping food items, water and medicine from reaching civilians, even as support companies warn that practically each individual one little one in Gaza is at imminent danger of famine.

These intense concentrations of violence are no question in section a consequence of the increasing dehumanisation of Palestinians. Senior Israeli government officials have labelled Palestinians “human animals”, there have been calls by some journalists for Gaza to be turned “into a slaughterhouse”, and some Israeli soldiers had been shown carrying T-shirts depicting pregnant Palestinian gals and babies as armed forces targets.

Indiscriminate assaults on civilians, compelled displacement, the use of collective punishment and hunger as a weapon of war are all violations of global humanitarian legislation and may well represent war crimes.

Videos have been broadcast to the earth displaying Israeli bulldozers digging up Palestinian cemeteries, the lifeless bodies of Palestinians run more than by military cars, and young Palestinian boys blindfolded and stripped bare in the road.

It terrifies me that many planet leaders who assert to be champions of human legal rights and the rules-based mostly buy would have noticed these exact same movies and failed to condemn them. In distinction, there was international condemnation when films surfaced of some of the in excess of 130 hostages still held captive in Gaza immediately after being seized in Israel on Oct 7.

Just as in so several other spots just before our failure to protect against the atrocities in Gaza is producing a mockery of “never again”.

With every little thing that we now know, I ponder irrespective of whether globe leaders will at last use their positions of electrical power and impact to convey this bloodshed to an conclude or regardless of whether they will simply just go on issuing “statements of concern” and turning a blind eye.

This war must in no way have started but it has certainly gone on for significantly far too extended. Each day it continues, extra and much more children will be killed, maimed, orphaned, and remaining deeply traumatised.

But even if politics carries on to undermine humanity, the rule of legislation can even now be upheld. In the weeks, months and several years forward, judgements handed down have the probable to redefine society’s program, main to a fairer and safer entire world.

We owe it to all kids, which include these throughout the occupied Palestinian territory in Gaza, the West Financial institution, East Jerusalem, and across Israel, to demand an conclusion to the violence, adherence to global law and to maintain to account people who violate it.

They have a proper to no less.

The views expressed in this post are the author’s very own and do not always mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.