Sandra Chapman: ​Hamas terrorists show no mercy even for children

It didn’t close down immediately when war ended in 1945 but during my early childhood I was aware of military vehicles and aircraft still in occasional use. Then one day there was none. The war was well and truly over and the airfield became our playground, not the safest place to use as there were still various bits of equipment lying around.

But the sound of roaring planes and jeeps was no more which must have been a great relief to the parents with inquisitive children living in the area. That happy hunting ground we had to play in will be a far cry from its equal today. My heart aches for the people and families living anywhere near the military bases of Israel and its enemy Gaza.

The news coming from there is horrifying. Israel is faced with taking on its enemy in what may be a full scale war. Who will save the children from the horror of it all? Already many of them are dead, killed in sheer wickedness by the terror group Hamas who clearly think nothing of killing children and beheading not just men but women too. Not even the very old were spared.

One couple hid their nine-month-old twins, later found alive by Israeli soldiers, their parents saving them knowing they themselves would be killed. Many atrocities were recorded during the First and Second World Wars but the deliberate targeting of children was rare. The death of innocents in this war will never be forgiven and Hamas terrorists in their desire for the ‘total elimination of Israel’ can never be forgiven. No country in the world should have any truck with them.

Occasionally I visit my homeland and that military airfield, from which British fighter planes were despatched to deal with German planes trying to bomb London out of existence in World War II, still has a few of the remains of the little red bricked buildings which were used for storage.

Wars in today‘s world are totally different and children can often be caught up in them.

Hamas clearly saw killing women and children as easy targets given their method of rounding them up like cattle being taken to slaughter. What other warring country that we know of projects such evil? If, and when, this war is over how can Hamas be given any place of worth in the world in future?

The English media has this week recorded the ‘calls in Israel for a major ground invasion of Gaza’ but this puts the many hostages being held by Hamas terrorists at risk. At the time of writing my fear is for the children caught up in this evil war. My parents feared that too even in the comparative safety of south Derry all those decades ago.