Good morning. Last night, Jason Burke reported new warnings that Israel’s campaign in Gaza could last for a year – and even if the intensity of the conflict diminishes, that promises an ever-worsening humanitarian catastrophe for Palestinian civilians.
What, exactly, does “humanitarian catastrophe” mean? Pictures and video tell part of the story, as do personal accounts and on-the-ground reporting. To understand the scale of the crisis, it’s also helpful to understand the numbers. Even then, we might struggle to grasp what they are telling us: a single figure, which could be subject to challenge, can end up confusing or incomprehensible, and stripped of the accumulated human experience that it seeks to represent.
