A bullet-riddled family photo tacked to a refrigerator in Kibbutz Kissufim in southern Israel following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Horrific scenes of the lifeless bodies of Palestinian children pulled from the rubble in the Gaza Strip following Israeli retaliatory airstrikes.
Week 3 of the Israel-Hamas war was filled with sorrowful images on both sides of the Israel-Gaza border.
Outside the morgue at Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, the bodies of a dead Palestinian father clutching his curly-haired toddler were wrapped in a blanket. In Israel, grief-stricken soldiers attended the funeral of a young Israeli sergeant and her father killed in the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Kfar Azza in southern Israel, just one of many funerals this week.
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes left large swathes of Gaza a mass of rubble, where Palestinian rescue workers searched for any sign of life — and mournful screams went up when dead children and others were pulled out.
Blood is splattered in a house at Kibbutz Kissufim in southern Israel, Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023. The Kibbutz was overrun by Hamas militants from the nearby Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, when they killed and captured many Israelis. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) 
The bodies of a father and his child, killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, lie in front of the morgue at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023. ( AP Photo/Fatima Shbair) 
A wounded Palestinian woman cries as she holds the hand of her dead relative outside her home following Israeli airstrikes that targeted their neighborhood in Gaza City, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled) 
A wounded Palestinian baby receives treatment at the al-Shifa hospital, following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled) 
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) 
A Palestinian boy mourns his relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali) 
Friends and relatives of Roi Popplewell mourn during his funeral at Kibbutz Yagur near Haifa, northern Israel, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) 
Israeli soldiers cry during the funeral of Sgt. Yam Goldstein and her father, Nadav, in Kibbutz Shefayim, Israel, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. Yam and her father were killed by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 at their house in Kibbutz Kfar Azza near the border with the Gaza Strip. The rest of the family are believed to be held hostage in Gaza. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) 
Palestinians carry the body of a dead child who was found under the rubble of a destroyed house after Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled) 
Mourners gather around the graves of British-Israelis Lianne Sharabi and her two daughters, Noiya, 16, and Yahel, 13, during their funeral in Kfar Harif, Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023. The three were killed by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 in Kibbutz Be’eri near the border with the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) 
Bodies of dead Palestinians are seen under the rubble of a destroyed house after Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled) 
Palestinians inspect the rubble of destroyed buildings following Israeli airstrikes on town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman) 
Palestinians evacuate two wounded boys from rubble following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have decided to stay in their homes in northern Gaza despite Israeli warnings that they are facing grave danger if they don’t move to an evacuation zone in the southern part of the territory. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled) 
Israelis take cover as a siren warns of incoming rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, during the funeral of the Israeli man Sagiv Ben Svi, killed by Hamas militants while attending a music festival, at a cemetery in Holon, central Israel, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris) 
Al-Jazeera correspondent Wael Dahdouh mourns his son killed in an Israeli airstrike at Nuisserat refugee camp, outside a hospital in Deir al Balah, south of the Gaza Strip, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. Dahdouh’s wife, son, daughter, and grandson were killed in the strike. (AP Photo/Ali Mahmoud) 
Rockets are fired toward Israel from the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) 
Mourners gather around the graves of Sgt. Yam Goldstein and her father, Nadav, during their funeral in Kibbutz Shefayim, Israel, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. Yam and her father were killed by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 at their house in Kibbutz Kfar Azza near the border with the Gaza Strip. The rest of the family are believed to be held hostage in Gaza. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) 
An Israeli armored personnel carrier moves near the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov) 
Israelis take cover as a siren warns of incoming rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty) 
A Palestinian child wounded in an Israeli bombardment is treated in a hospital in Deir al Balah, south of the Gaza Strip, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa) 
Smoke rises from explosions caused by Israeli airstrikes in the northern Gaza Strip, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled) 
A photo hangs on a refrigerator riddled with bullet holes in a house at Kibbutz Kissufim in southern Israel, Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023. The Kibbutz was overrun by Hamas militants from the nearby Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, when they killed and captured many Israelis. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) 
Palestinians evacuate a building hit in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali) 
Palestinians look for survivors of an Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in the Nusseirat refugee camp, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa) 
A Palestinian girl reacts as a child is carried from the rubble of a building after an airstrike in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
Thank you for giving equal coverage to the Palestinian side of the conflict. Hamas’s horrific incursion on Oct. 7, and continued bombardment of Israel is reprehensible and to be universally condemned. But the US-backed Israeli attacks are over-the- top genocidal attempts at ethnic cleansing. The break all international conventions of war and equally must be condemned as Hamas’s acts.
I abhor the disregard of human dignity and rights accorded the Palestinian population to say nothing of the land itself being destroyed.
Both sides must stop this internecine destruction. The US government must call for ceasefire now and support the United Nations effort to negotiate peace.