Thank you for sharing such a personal perspective and experience. It is deeply shocking to read, despite knowing how much terror has been inflicted upon the Palestinian people. I absolutely respect your definition not as a war, and your reasoning. There is nothing balanced about any of it, and that is what makes it horrifying for the world at large.

That includes me, whose mother and sister were born in the country that is attacking Gaza right now. I have relatives who have been directly affected by the actions of Hamas last week, who were at the scenes and lost best friends. I stand with every single person's right, both sides of the border, to be recognised as a human deserving of life and peace.

A part of me feels inclined to apologise for the actions of Israel, but as I have said in another piece, they are not actions that represent the people, or the desires of the people. And the more I read, the more futile all this is, yet still people are being displaced, traumatised, and killed. In any case, 'sorry' doesn't cut it. Yet still, what more can I do than say sorry, and hope that voices like yours can be heard louder, because they are the ones that count.