It can be easy for outsiders to see the conflict in Gaza as something happening far away, and the victims as abstractions, rather than as a very real conflict that kills and maims very real people. But this firsthand story how three reporters helped save a Gazan child's life hammers home the conflict's essential, critical humanity.
Peter Beaumont, a journalist for the Guardian who is currently in Gaza, came across two children wounded by shrapnel. What follows is the story of how Beaumont and two colleagues helped the kids the treatment they need — and of the Palestinians who died in the same strike. It's a story notable less for the actions of Beaumont and his colleagues than for the window it provides into the lives of Gazans during these times of violence:
Today was a personal low point - giving first aid with colleagues to two children wounded by shrapnel on Gaza beach on terrace of our hotel
— peter beaumont (@petersbeaumont) July 16, 2014
Four kids with them were killed in same incident all from same extended family
— peter beaumont (@petersbeaumont) July 16, 2014
1st shell hit the harbour wall. It's been hit before so I assume its on a prerecorded grid. Gunner appears to have adjusted to hit survivors
— peter beaumont (@petersbeaumont) July 16, 2014
... who were an adult and three boys
— peter beaumont (@petersbeaumont) July 16, 2014
Update: just been to Shifa hospital 3 survivors of attack killed 4 doing ok. One just out of surgery to remove shrapnel from abdomen...
— peter beaumont (@petersbeaumont) July 16, 2014
Boy we gave first aid to still has shrapnel in chest and fluid on lungs but conscious and waiting for surgery
— peter beaumont (@petersbeaumont) July 16, 2014
Hamad told us they didn't hear 1st round. 1 friend killed by that. He heard second which killed 3 more.
— peter beaumont (@petersbeaumont) July 16, 2014
Said they were playing hide and seek. His mum beside herself asking him why dod he go out of the house.
— peter beaumont (@petersbeaumont) July 16, 2014
On way to hospital passed the crowd gathering for funeral of the four boys who were killed
— peter beaumont (@petersbeaumont) July 16, 2014
It's true that almost all wars kill civilians, and it's equally true that there are cases in which civilian deaths are an unavoidable tragedy in a just war. But the really hard question for the conflict's antagonists is whether the fighting can accomplish anything that's worth the suffering Beaumont and others have documented.
