I am beating my drum quite fiercely today and the old soapbox is positively creaking under my frenetic hopping up and down, but it is impossible to watch the events unfold and remain silent.

A comment just popped in decrying the tendency of global activists to become enraged at the death “of terrorists” and yet remain unimpressed by Israeli endeavours to protect their folk.

I think the main (for there are in fact many) issue I take with this line of argument is that it is not terrorists who are dying, but innocent civilians, like Jawaher, Dina, Samar, Ikram, and Tahrir Balousha.

The five sisters died when a night-time Israeli air-strike hit the next-door mosque in Gaza.

One of the walls collapsed on to their small asbestos-roofed home and they were all killed in their beds.

The eldest sister, Tahrir, was 17 years old, the youngest, Jawaher, just four.

These children are the real victims of the siege.

You do not have to be a global activist to appreciate the tragedy and injustice of this – you just need to be human.