This is a preventable humanitarian crisis unfolding as we speak. The blockade had gotten less severe last year during a cease fire, but in November the cease fire ended, and the siege has entered its most brutal stage. The murderous deprivation was described in a recent report by Amnesty International:
As supplies are being further withheld, most mills have shut down because they have little or no grain. People who have long been deprived of many food items now cannot even find bread at times.
Reserves of food have long been depleted and the meagre quantities allowed into Gaza are not even enough to meet the immediate needs. Families never know if they will have food for their children the following day.
When people do have food, they generally have no cooking gas or electricity with which to cook it. Last week, less than 10 per cent of the weekly requirement of cooking gas was allowed into Gaza...
Shortages of fuel, electricity and spare parts are causing water and sanitation infrastructure and other crucial services to deteriorate a bit more every day. Eighty per cent of the wells are now only functioning at reduced capacity and water supply is only available for a few hours every few days.
At times when water is available, there is no electricity or fuel to pump it into apartment buildings. Shortages of chlorine increase the risk of waterborne diseases.
Routine blackouts disrupt every aspect of life for everyone. Hospitals are struggling to power life-saving machinery and it is ever more difficult to maintain laundry and other essential services.
Perhaps the cruelest aspect of the siege is the denial of lifesaving medical treatment. For those you who can't quite summon outrage because of the "complexity" of the conflict, consider this:
Karima Abu Dalal, a 34-year-old mother of five young children, died on 25 November. She suffered from Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph glands that is curable in more than 90 per cent of cases. She was denied access to the treatment she desperately needed as Israel refused her a permit to travel to the hospital in Nablus in the West Bank in November 2007.
In a medical report accompanying her permit request an Israeli cancer specialist had written: "This is a young woman who will die in the absence of treatment and with treatment her chances of recovery are excellent" (underlined in the original).
The Israeli authorities nonetheless refused to let her leave Gaza and the Israeli High Court of Justice refused to intervene
I don't know what can be done. But surely the first step is to anknowledge what's happening.