The biblical prophets criticised Israel for their immorality. We should do the same

Old Testament prophets would have condemned Israel for departing from the ways of peace, says George Pitcher. The death of seven aid workers in Gaza is another example of innocents caught in the crossfire. It has to stop

Perhaps it’s the chilling line, attributed to Josef Stalin, that “one death is a tragedy – a million is a statistic”. But, as the death tolls builds inexorably in Gaza, it’s the individual stories of violent death that cut through the politics to sear the soul.

A couple of months ago it was six-year-old Hind Rajab, who died after making a truly heartbreaking call for help from a car under Israeli fire, among the bodies of those who had come to rescue her. She, too, was later found dead. There is a rage of injustice that burns when one writes or reads those words.

Now, it’s the seven aid workers, three of them British, obliterated in a seemingly targeted air strike on their vehicles. God knows, it’s bad enough witnessing the suffering of innocent Gazan civilians. But there is a peculiar irony when those who perish are trying to bring some relief, in love and peace, to that suffering, in their quaintly named World Central Kitchen (WCK) vans.