Some images have an historic weight that places them in a different class. We remember them as markers. As signposts. As harbingers. They are immediately recognizable to most people.

Think of the little Jewish boy in the Warsaw Ghetto standing with his arms up with armed Nazi guards in the background. Think of the young girl running down a street after her village was napalmed in Vietnam. Think of the emaciated toddler in Sudan who had collapsed to the ground with a plump vulture standing nearby. Think of the small Syrian boy lying face down in the sand on the beach of a Greek island.

This image is no different.

It is still from a video that shows a young Palestinian girl trying to flee an inferno. It was from an Israeli airstrike on the shelter where she was staying. Her name is Ward al-Sheikh Khalil, and she is only 7 years old. Miraculously, she survived. Her mother and siblings did not.

Images like this one are powerful because they are an indictment. A testament. A condemnation of blatant cruelty and injustice.

As Israel escalates its murderous war of annihilation against the people of Gaza, half of which are children, the world stands in shock and outrage. Even media figures who were long silent about the atrocities, like Piers Morgan, are beginning to shift their opinion. Even political leaders, like one former Israeli prime minister, cannot stay silent any longer. He accurately described what Israel is doing as a “war of extermination.”

It took 19 months. 19 months of the destruction of over 90% of Gaza’s structures, including schools, mosques, churches, universities, bakeries, water treatment facilities, farms and historic places. Of the daily bombings and burnings of people in tents. Of amputations without anesthesia Of snipers shooting toddlers. Of the slow starvation of children. Of Israeli politicians and media openly expressing genocidal intent and mania.

19 months for some leaders and influencers in the West to finally discover the humanity of the Palestinians. They all saw what we saw. But they chose to ignore it, normalize it, fund it, cheerlead it and chide those of us who denounced it as being “supporters of terrorism” or attempt to smear us as antisemitic bigots.

Before little Ward, there was little Hind. But unlike Ward, Hind did not survive. And we don’t have an image of her plight. We only have her voice. Trembling, terrified. Sitting wounded in a car with her dead family. Pleading with emergency services on the phone to save her. And they tried. But they too were annihilated by an Israeli tank.

There are countless little girls and boys like Hind and Ward. We will never hear their voices or see their faces. Buried under rubble, incinerated, shredded from bombs, wasting away from starvation. But they all matter. And they all deserved far better than this hell we have allowed.

Kenn Orphan, May 2025