While Gaza and the West Bank remain under siege, settlement and violence, Australia’s repeated support for a two-state solution sounds increasingly hollow without action.

It’s not being original to say that we are living in a dystopian universe. First, we have the appalling, continuing relentless devastation of and in Gaza and the West Bank. There has not been the much-touted peace in Gaza that was reported, in particular by Donald Trump, last October. The news cycle may have passed on from reporting on Gaza or the West Bank but these two pieces following give the lie to peace having broken out in Gaza – and that ignores the plight of the people of Gaza, such as reported on 27 July.

IDF lockdown of Nablus is blocking access to emergency healthcare, medical groups say. Checkpoints are preventing patients from reaching hospitals in Nablus, while Physicians for Human Rights says the ambulance network has been nearly paralysed.Then there is this from Haaretz: A child a day: The Israeli Air Force continues to routinely kill Gaza’s kids.There’s nothing new under the sun in the Gaza Strip. Homes remain in ruins. Some 1.7 million people are still living in tents. There is no electricity, no running water and no functioning sewage system. Rats and mosquitoes are everywhere. Infectious diseases are spreading and tens of thousands of people are covered in painful, itchy skin lesions. The scorching sun is relentless; the heat inside the tents is unbearable.Above all, the Israel Air Force continues to kill children in the Gaza Strip. Since the ceasefire went into effect there last October, 282 children and teens under the age of 18 have been killed – an average of one child every day. Since October 7, 2023, more than 21,000 children have been killed in the fighting, 38 of them Israeli.

IDF lockdown of Nablus is blocking access to emergency healthcare, medical groups say. Checkpoints are preventing patients from reaching hospitals in Nablus, while Physicians for Human Rights says the ambulance network has been nearly paralysed.

Then there is this from Haaretz: A child a day: The Israeli Air Force continues to routinely kill Gaza’s kids.

There’s nothing new under the sun in the Gaza Strip. Homes remain in ruins. Some 1.7 million people are still living in tents. There is no electricity, no running water and no functioning sewage system. Rats and mosquitoes are everywhere. Infectious diseases are spreading and tens of thousands of people are covered in painful, itchy skin lesions. The scorching sun is relentless;........

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