IN 10 months, 17,000 children were killed in Gaza, massacred on an industrial scale by Israel, funded by America, supported and assisted by the UK.

Every hospital in Gaza bombed and destroyed leaving an entire population with very little medical aid meaning both children and adults with horrific blast or gun shot injuries were unable to receive adequate medical assistance - amputations, cesareans, operations done with no anaesthetic or pain relief, Dr's reporting on children being deliberately “shot” in the head or neck by IOF snipers or quadcopters - Did we speak up enough?

Over 95 per cent of Palestinian families displaced, time and again, only to be bombed wherever they fled - even in tents, with social media awash with posts from the IOF laughing as they blew up yet another Palestinian home or boasting about how many children they had managed to shoot and kill - war crime after war crime - but met with silence from the west.

This is the most shameful act in our history.

The brutality of the IOF soldiers has been shocking and the complicity of our government a disgrace, but where was our humanity during this Genocide?

Did we speak up? Email our MP? Boycott Israeli goods? Join a march or protest or vigil? Or did we turn a blind eye?

People often say of the Holocaust "how did it happen" and "why didn't people speak out or stop it" and "never again" - well it has happened again and people didn't speak out.

The ceasefire is holding, but the occupation, apartheid and brutality continues, it's just moved to the West Bank.

Israel needs to be held to account for the war crimes it has and continues to commit and not given constant impunity.

As our government won't, it falls to the rest of us to keep humanity alive - Boycott, speak out and stand on the right side of history so when your children or grandchildren ask "what did you do to stop this?” you can honestly say you did something rather than the shame of saying you did nothing.

Elaine Gregory

Crediton