Is it possible not to be horrified by Israel’s attacks?

“The attacks must be stopped,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was quoted as saying about Israel’s attack on Gaza. “We are working on a ceasefire,” he reportedly said, adding his candid confession that he was “utterly dismayed” by the developments. He was indeed reflecting our mood.

While stressing the right of every state to protect itself and its people, indiscriminate and even premeditated “revenge” attacks on civilian targets cannot be considered reasonable and explainable at all under any circumstance.

What’s called state terrorism is exactly the way Israel behaves. Reports from Gaza show that nearly 200 people are dead, many of them children and women. Every human being is sacred. For every life lost, one’s heart is in pain. And if the murdered person is a child, the pain grows and becomes a fire. Hearts have become a place of fire these days with Israel’s brutal, outrageous genocide-inducing massacres on Palestinians.

However, I don’t think anyone expected this much. A five-storey building, housing as well the offices of international media outlets, was levelled to the ground by an Israeli airstrike. Guterres’ statement that he was “appalled” and “deeply disturbed” by the development was conveyed to the international public by a global diplomat of his caliber. Indeed, we all share his remarks.

Accepting Israel’s right to protect itself and its people does not in any way give it the right to commit massacres as it pleases. It is Israel’s right to respond to Hamas’ attacks. However, with indiscriminate attacks on civilians bordering mass massacre, the thesis “I defend my country and my citizens” brings itself to the same level as Hamas, that it claims, and this writer fully subscribes to that assertion, to be a terrorist. With attacks aimed at “destroying” Hamas cells but indiscriminately targeting civilians and even journalists, Israel relegates itself into a level far worse than Hamas. Israel is also a terrorist state, attacking civilian targets. Israel should be ashamed.

Lockdown, open up...

For many of us, the latest lockdown measures were rigid and has achieved their purpose. It was a rather lengthy almost three weeks, it was quite a long time. Pandemic experts say the measures were not rigid enough and the period should have been at least 28 days, stressing, “not enough, unfortunately.”

Even though it was said to be a “complete lockdown” don’t take it too seriously. Unfortunately, we had nearly a three-week lockdown during which approximately 20 percent of the “active” people of Turkey were issued exemption documents and too many people preferred to turn a blind eye to prohibitions. Anyhow, shopping for basic foodstuffs was allowed. Irrespective of whether they intended to go to a market or were just carrying bags to bypass the ban, people were wondering around with plastic bags. Also, the number of pet owners apparently increased as plenty of pets were walked in the parks.

True, during this time, our daily number of cases has dropped to 10,000, from over 60,000 before the lockdown. Whether there was a decrease in PCR tests or really there was a decrease in cases, everything will be reflected in the coming days with the number of people in intensive care and death figures.

Not only our bodies, but also our souls are bored by this limited, controlled and static period. Maybe that’s partly why we can’t tolerate this reckless behavior of those who stubbornly violate all measures with the ignorance of “I’ll be fine,” especially those who attend gambling parties in coffee shop backrooms. We shouldn’t.

We need to see that only 13 percent of the country’s population is vaccinated, there are various difficulties in the supply of vaccines, and only by the end of the summer can we reach the stage of reaching a “herd immunity.”

I’m not sure it’s going to happen anytime soon, but I hope we get to the end of this exhausting pandemic without another “lockdown.”