What kind of people spend their days and nights designing, manufacturing and storing weapons that mass-kill innocent school kids and which can ‘take out a city’ in minutes? Are those ones even human? And what kind of men think nothing of shedding human blood to prove, just to prove they have superior powers and report to no one? Those ones too, are they humans?

I am scared. The world is going up in flames. Nukes and warheads are making high rises dissolve like alum in water. If you are not scared, it is because you think the war this time is happening somewhere far far away, a war that may never get here. I feel you. I see you. In your cocoon. You think Iran is a million miles away and the stench of trapped bodies under hot rubbles will never get here. Well, let me break your bubble, that stench will get everywhere, including your kitchen. That is why it is called war. It is an intractable phenomenon.

Our fathers had a saying long before flying missiles, ibeere ogun l’aa mo, enikan o mo ibi ti yo pari si. Everyone knows how a war starts but not where or how it will end. Even the United States of America that has ‘budgeted’ four to five weeks for this hot smoking war has hinted that it could take longer. Meaning, many things unplanned can show up as this fire burns, as more leaders of Iran are taken out and refineries are attacked. I know the economists are already tallying up the numbers and projecting how much global financials will record in losses. Oil, crude and cooked, will flow in the wrong directions, forced to flow in drops instead of barrels and all of us, including the woman selling okro and crayfish will pay a price. But my real fear is in reprisal attacks and how that could play out badly, really badly.

Have you thought of that angle? If this war is drawn out for too long (it is already too long, according to me), both the antagonists and protagonists would end up with their own sympathisers and supporters. Already, there are talks about who has the right to invade a sovereign nation and who doesn’t have the right to build and assemble weapons that can wipe the world out in minutes. I can see a future of plenty of arguments about existential threats and mismanaged information and unclear images.

Call my fear funny, foolish or even wise, timid or sharp. Right now, all I can smell is smoke and artillery, gasoline like we are at the petrol station. The kind of fear that hits a pregnant woman when she’s told her baby is in a breach position at 39 weeks. Yes, that kind of fear you cannot do much or anything about. Knives, sorry, scalpels, blood and her open tummy would be most likely the images that would fill her mind. But the Iranian fear is widely different because it is not likely to give birth to a good child. War is not like pounded yam and vegetable soup with seven lives, it is about gore, blood and sudden termination of lives, dreams and ambition. One minute, a man is at his desk and the next, he’s just another figure on the casualty tally. Widows, orphans, childless aged parents everywhere.

Why would nations be interested in weapons of mass destruction, anyway? That part I still do not understand.

My fear is Iran fighting back, Iran finding friends to supply her support that will prolong this war. Imagine if one day the lifeblood of modern life as we know it—oil and gas—simply became unreachable.

The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway hugging Iran’s shores, is a funnel through which a huge chunk of the world’s oil and gas passes. About 20% of global petroleum traverses it every day. If this chokepoint is blocked—even if for one week—prices will spike, factories across the globe will start gasping for breath and ordinary people will pay more for fuel, food, transport, and electricity. As if we are not tried and tired already as it is. This isn’t theory. It has happened before — and economic analysts warn it could happen again.

Modern wars are rarely clean. They are monstrous. They feed on human flesh and future, and everything in sight. A strike in one city can spark retaliation in another, proxy forces might enter the fray. Some Nigerians are already doing notice-me-dance so Mr Trump can add more to our sins.

Further strikes — whether by Iran, Israel, the United States, or others — will most likely drag other nations into the cauldron of chaos. Blocked straits, displaced people, missiles flying across borders, and shifting loyalties are all part of the terror and horror ahead.

But wait, why do leaders of nations think first with their brawn before deploying brains? From where I am sitting on my balcony, I don’t see how America, Iran, or Israel will just wake up one day and just stop firing missiles. The Gulf states caught in the middle are not going to sit on their hands. They are already dropping bad things. These leaders of the developed world will waste truckloads of money that could and should have gone into more profitable things. Every nation involved in this war will lose money and men. They will leave thousands or corpses behind. Then one day, they will walk through the blood and rubbles to ‘discuss ceasefire and the way forward’. Right now, they are drunk on muscle-flex cognac, prime cut ego and my-armory-is-bigger than-yours powdery stuff. This war will kill, maim and destroy dreams. Yet, it will all stop one day, maybe later than sooner. The drones will stop dropping. The missiles will stop flying. Trillions would have caught fire. Then, boom, the demon of war intoxication will return to the pit of hell and there will be ceasefire, first a small one, then a full stop after the comma, and many in coma. These leaders will stop. But the dead will remain dead. The felled high-rise buildings will remain charred dust and bent iron. The orphans and widows will remain bewildered. The world, our world will not remain the same. But these angry leaders will eventually go to that place they call the round table. Not now. They have not shed enough blood!

Even if a war is “short” the consequences are not measured in weeks or months — but years and decades. Previous skirmishes between Iran and her neighbours damaged infrastructure, plunged economies, and left communities scarred. The echoes of those conflicts are still there in their markets, politics, and families. Once trust is lost and wounds are inflicted, healing is slow — not just for nations, but for the whole global community that depends on stability. Let us not forget that all of the tough talk and press conferences will produce refugees who will seek safety beyond borders. There will be social tensions in neighbouring states and humanitarian crises that will spread wider and beyond the battlefields.

Who is going to tell our world leaders that fear, in the right measure, is not weakness?

Who is going to tell them to talk instead of shooting?

Who is going to push for peace rather than escalation?

Who is going to remind world leaders that bullets may talk loudly — but their echoes are deafening?

Peace isn’t the absence of trouble. It’s the presence of resonance and leaders who reason—the kind that let us share stories, not sorrows.

Why would nations be interested in weapons of mass destruction, anyway? That part I still do not understand.

*Egbemode (egbemode3@gmail.com)

READ ALSO: 

New tax laws: FG bans cash tax collection, roadblocks

Super Falcons beat Indomitable Lioness 3-1 in friendly

Of Holy Land chronicles and Fireboy DML’s ‘Ise Oluwa…’

Why is the journey to becoming a unicorn fraught with giants?

Yilwatda visits Kano to commiserate with Chief of Staff on mother’s loss

Yahaya Bello: Court fixes March 9 for ruling on admissibility of EFCC’s document

Tinubu nominates Oyedele as Minister of State for Finance

How Nigeria can achieve gas-led industrialisation -Shell

NIN enrolment drive at ward level ongoing -NIMC

Famex School holds inter house sports Saturday

The post Tears in Tehran won’t dry soon, By Funke Egbemode appeared first on Frontpageng.

According to Palestinian sources, the hospital said the victims were hit by an airstrike while on the fourth floor of the hospital in Khan Younis.

The Palestinian local media reported that emergency workers were also among the dead.

According to the Associated Press, AP, a freelance contributor for AP, Mariam Dagga, is among those killed.

Reuters also reported that one of its freelance contributors was killed, and another photographer working for the agency, also a freelancer, was injured.

The Arabic broadcaster, Al Jazeera, said one of its cameramen was among the journalists killed.

It was initially unclear which outlet the fourth journalist killed worked for.

READ ALSO: Police detain notorious kidnap kingpin, five others in Nasarawa

According to sources from Gaza, the fifth journalist is a freelance contributor for several Arab media outlets.

Eyewitnesses said a second attack followed after paramedics and civil defence workers had already rushed to the scene and video footage of the bloody incident circulated on social media.

The broadcaster, al-Ghad, published a video showing a group of people being hit, reportedly during the second attack.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military in a statement confirmed that troops had carried out a strike in the area of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and that an inquiry into the incident had been ordered.

”The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and does not target journalists as such.

”The IDF acts to mitigate harm to uninvolved individuals as much as possible while maintaining the safety of troops,” it said.

Source: dpa/NAN

The post 19 persons including five journalists killed in Gaza hospital strike appeared first on Frontpageng.

Al-Sharif and another correspondent, Mohammed Qreiqeh, along with cameramen Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa were in a tent for journalists at the hospital’s main gate when it was struck, Al Jazeera reported.

The “targeted assassination” on Sunday was “yet another blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom”, it said in a statement.

The Israel Defense Forces, IDF, confirmed it had targeted Anas al-Sharif, alleging that he had “served as the head of a terrorist cell in Hamas”.

It also said he had “advanced rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and IDF troops”.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, said it was appalled by the attack and that Israel had failed to provide evidence to back up its allegations against al-Sharif.

“This is a pattern we’ve seen from Israel – not just in the current war, but in the decades preceding – in which typically a journalist will be killed by Israeli forces and then Israel will say after the fact that they are a terrorist, but provides very little evidence to back up those claims,” CPJ’s CEO Jodie Ginsberg told the BBC.

Al Jazeera’s managing editor Mohamed Moawad told the BBC that al-Sharif was an accredited journalist who was “the only voice” for the world to know what was happening in the Gaza Strip.

Throughout the war, Israel has not allowed international journalists into Gaza to report freely.

Therefore, many outlets rely on local reporters within the territory for coverage.

“They were targeted in their tent, they weren’t covering from the front line,” Moawad said of the Israeli strike.

“The fact is that the Israeli government is wanting to silence the coverage of any channel of reporting from inside Gaza,” he told The Newsroom programme.

“This is something that I haven’t seen before in modern history.”

Al-Sharif, 28, appeared to be posting on X in the moments before his death, warning of intense Israeli bombardment within Gaza City.

A post that was published after he was reported to have died appears to have been pre-written and published by a friend.

In two graphic videos of the aftermath of the strike, which have been confirmed by BBC Verify, men can be seen carrying the bodies of those who were killed.

Some shout out Qreiqeh’s name, and a man wearing a media vest says that one of the bodies is that of al-Sharif.

In total, seven people died in the strike, Al Jazeera said.

The broadcaster initially said that four of its staff had been killed, but revised it to five a few hours later.

Last month, the Al Jazeera Media Network – along with the United Nations and the CPJ – issued separate statements warning that al-Sharif’s life was in danger and calling for his protection.

IDF spokesperson Avichai Adraee posted a video in July of al-Sharif on X and accused him of being a member of Hamas’ military wing.

Irene Khan, a UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, called it “an unsubstantiated claim” and a “blatant assault on journalists”.

At the time, she said there was “growing evidence that journalists in Gaza have been targeted and killed by the Israeli army on the basis of unsubstantiated claims that they were Hamas terrorists”.

In its latest statement, the IDF accused al-Sharif of posing as a journalist, and said it had previously “disclosed intelligence” confirming his military affiliation, which included “lists of terrorist training courses”.

This is not the first time the IDF has targeted and killed Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza, who they claimed were Hamas-affiliated.

In August last year, Ismael Al-Ghoul was hit by an air strike as he sat in his car – harrowing video shared on social media showed his decapitated body.

Cameraman Rami al-Rifi and a boy passing on a bicycle were also killed.

READ ALSO: Wanted General Overseer arrested for cross-border drug trafficking

In al-Ghoul’s case, the IDF said he took part in Hamas’ 7 October 2023 attacks against Israel, a claim Al Jazeera strongly rejected.

According to the CPJ, 186 journalists have been confirmed killed since the start of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza in October 2023.

For the journalists still in Gaza, the situation is dire.

As well as air strikes, there is the threat of starvation.

Last month, the BBC and three news agencies – Reuters, AP and AFP – issued a joint statement expressing “desperate concern” for journalists in the Strip, who they say are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families.

Three freelancers whom the BBC relies on for its coverage said they often go days without eating, and one collapsed during filming.

More than 100 international aid organisations and human rights groups have warned of mass starvation in Gaza.

Israel, however, which controls the entry of aid supplies into Gaza, has accused the charities of “serving the propaganda of Hamas”.

Israel launched its offensive in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 61,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the Israeli military operation began, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Source: BBC

The post Five Al Jazeera journalists killed in Israeli strike in Gaza appeared first on Frontpageng.