Irish Examiner view: How did we let the situation in Gaza come to this?

we may never know how many bodies are buried under the rubble in Gaza 

Children play around waste in front of the closed UN agency for Palestinian refugees headquarters in Gaza City, on Monday.  Picture: Bashar Taleb/AFP/Getty

How did it come to this? To where the people of Gaza are no longer on the brink, but well beyond it and falling into the precipice? To where thousands of babies could die in days because vital aid has been kept away from them?

And yet even the most casual observer could have predicted this once the scale of the Israeli retaliation became apparent, and certainly after most of Gaza’s 2.3m people became displaced. Deaths are north of 53,000 confirmed but we may never know the full toll, or how many bodies are buried under the rubble.

Why has it taken so long for countries friendly to Gaza’s starving civilians to marshal real political pressure on Israel? Has it just been because of America’s staunch support for Israel overall? Did they think the Israeli government, held together by an alliance with hardliners who want all Gazans gone, would see reason in time?

Gaza has had plenty of aid sent to it by the UN, but almost all of it — 3,000 trucks or so — has been parked at the border. Even the few trucks that have made their way into the besieged region can’t even come close to meeting demand.

Efforts by EU governments to review trade agreements with Israel, and Britain to suspend talks with Israel seem, at this stage, to be behind the curve (and indeed Ireland was one of the countries suggesting the EU deal was reviewed in 2024). Still, better late than never. Ultimately, money talks.

Netanyahu has been bombastic in his response to international criticism, saying his country is involved in “a war of civilisation over barbarism” and will “continue to defend itself by just means until total victory”.

Such othering of opponents can be found in almost every colonial power, with Rome claiming it was civilised against the Gauls, Britian over everybody, America and Canada against their indigenous populations. Netanyahu’s policy should be seen in the same vein.

Similarly, his claim that Israel is fighting with “just means” is laughable. There is nothing just about restricting humanitarian aid, about occupying farmland, about levelling hospitals. Israel reportedly struck a medical supplies warehouse in southern Gaza in the early hours of yesterday morning.

It is telling, though, that Netanyahu has said he’s allowed food aid in because his country’s allies — an ever-thinning number — “cannot handle images of mass starvation”. Nobody should.

But it should never have come to this, and our grandchildren will wonder how we, as an international community, let it come to pass.

Young people pushing back against life online 

Like scrolling down ever further to find your year of birth in an online form, remembering a world before the internet seems like a trip back in time just a little bit further than most of us would like.

And yet, in a 24/7 world, filled with people who are terminally online for professional as well as personal reasons, it might be a surprise to see that the push back against a life online is coming from younger people.

A survey of more than 1,200 people aged 16-21 by the British Standards Institution found that 70% felt worse about themselves after being on social media.

Meanwhile, 50% supported the idea of a “digital curfew” to limit access to some sites and apps after 10pm, while 46% would rather be young in a world without the internet.

The irony that many readers will be reading this on a device or at irishexaminer.com is not lost on us, and yet the idea of resisting the allure of Big Tech is intriguing. Social media companies, after all, design their apps in such a way that they continually fuel dopamine hits, with the novelty of a new video in an endless doomscroll then conflicting with personal feelings that you should be doing something else, or wasting time (even when you’re on a break).

It’s impossible to prevent people of any age from tumbling down a rabbit hole where they may be exposed to ever more bizarre or sometimes ever more damaging or disturbing content. However, there is plenty of merit in setting up guardrails.

Parents, already fighting fires on multiple fronts even before trying to restrict or monitor children’s online lives, would surely support digital curfews for themselves, let alone their offspring.

In a world where digital barrage is constant, perhaps the ultimate act of rebellion would be putting the phone down and walking away.

Solving loneliness

There is something to be said for a low-tech solution to a Big Tech problem, as our columnist Colman Noctor noted this week when he wrote about youth clubs.

Technology has never really bridged the gap between people, even if it’s made communication easier. There’s the old adage that, because of television, a comedian can tell a joke on a stage in New York and the whole world can laugh alone. Indeed, as Noctor said: “Young people have never been more connected, yet paradoxically more isolated.”

There has always been some air of alienation associated with growing up. Different children have different interests, some of which might be widespread among their age group but niche in their social circle. A child interested in science and technology may become isolated from peers in an area or school where sport is the be all and end all, for example. Disabled children — and adults — may feel this more keenly.

Loneliness is a health problem, as Noctor points out, though he cites figures from the No Name Club showing that 81% of members report improved mental wellbeing and 95% had made friends.

Other European countries such as Denmark, Norway, and Germany have well-developed and well funded state youth club systems. Here, Foróige does fine work in many communities across the country and should be heralded — but there’s enormous scope for more.

A little bit of money here and there as an investment in our country’s future could pay high dividends. After all, these are the ones we’ll be bequeathing Irish society to. They deserve to feel part of the wider community fabric.

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