The five day long fierce bombardment of the Hamas-ruled Gaza strip has killed over 400 Palestinians and wounded nearly two thousand. This is cold-blooded and systematic massacre of the Palestinian civilian population which has been under blockade by Israel since June 2007 and has already undergone untold sufferings for a year and a half. With 55 percent of the population of Gaza under 18, children have been the worst sufferers. Five sisters aged four to seventeen died in a night time air raid on the Jabaliya refugee camp. "They grew up day after day and night after night. Within a second, I have lost them," said the girls' father Anwar Balousha. Besides Gaza city, the southern town of Rafah bordering Egypt, and Beit Lahia in the north were struck with similar brutality. Troops, tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery have been stationed around Gaza for a possible ground action and more carnage. While the main brunt of the attack was borne by police buildings and homes of Hamas leaders, pictures carried by the newspapers show installations of a purely civilian nature having been targeted. A medicine storehouse is on fire, two buildings housing Gaza University's science and engineering laboratories are flattened and the Al-Shefaa mosque destroyed. Tunnels used by the blockade-stricken population for bringing in the much needed fuel, food and medicine supplies have been bombarded. Dignity, a small boat carrying medical supplies and three doctors was damaged and forced to return by an Israeli warship as it tried to bring relief to the Gaza Strip. Mohammad Ali, an advocacy and media researcher for Oxfam living in Gaza, said on the first night of the attacks there was an average of two air strikes every ten minutes in the city alone. Next night he reported having heard explosions after every hour. There were non-stop sounds of ambulances carrying the injured and the dead. Israel's lust for blood remains unsatiated. Defence Minister Ehud Barak who is adamant on continuing the massacre declared it "a war to the bitter end" and Israeli army's deputy chief Brig Gen Dan Harel warned that "the worst is not behind, it is still ahead of us." The lethal weapons used to bombard and massacre a defenceless population include the widely familiar F-16s, attack helicopters and Drones which have been supplied to Israel by the US. The people of Gaza have been thrown to hungry dogs by the West which continues to unabashedly support Israel. While putting all blame on Hamas for launching rockets Secretary Condoleezza Rice did not even mention Israel's bloody military assault as if it had never taken place. What she said on the situation was this: "The US strongly condemns the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel." As far as she was concerned the barbaric Israeli bombardment was a non-event. White House Spokesman Gordon Johdroe went a step ahead: "Israel is going after terrorists who are firing rockets and mortars into Israel, and they are taking the steps that they feel are necessary to deal with terrorist threats." President Obama who spoke out after militant attacks on Mumbai, has remained mum on Gaza attacks. For him too the attacks have not happened. Gordon Brown was "appalled" by the continuing violence in Gaza" but he failed to condemn the Israeli attacks. For him too they did not exist. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon did criticise Israel's "excessive use of force" but the UN Security Council was too divided to go beyond a bland expression of concern. As is invariably the case whenever Palestinians are subjected to state terrorism by Israel, Arab governments did not go beyond expressions of impotent rage. Leaders of the six member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries met in Muscat on Wednesday, not to express solidarity for the people of Gaza, but to sign a monetary union deal. The atrocities in Gaza are bound to radicalise thousands across the Muslim world. As a blogger pointed out in a liberal British daily: "The response will not come today. It will come in months or even in years when an angry orphan detonates a belt filled with shrapnel, killing himself and 25 Israelis." That is how the weak and the downtrodden respond to attacks by an enemy equipped with the state of art weaponry and the world looks on impassively. E-mail: azizuddin@nation.com.pk