An Israeli airstrike in Gaza which killed seven aid workers, including three Britons, has brought home yet again the spiralling human cost of this war, where the Hamas-run health ministry says the death toll is nearing 33,000. Israel has a right to defend itself and to go after Hamas, whose appalling attack on October 7 killed 1,200 people and who continues to hold about 100 Israelis hostage. But it has a responsibility to adhere to international humanitarian law.
Even before this tragedy, there was widespread concern that insufficient aid was getting into Gaza. Something an Israeli attack on an aid convoy is unlikely to dispel. It also comes as the risk of escalation, and a regional war, continues to simmer. An Israeli strike on the Iranian embassy in Damascus, which killed Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi is likely to produce a response from Tehran, who through its proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis have repeatedly attacked Israel.
A ceasefire, with a return of all hostages held by Hamas, is the quickest way not only to bring an end to the bloodshed, but prevent a wider conflict with even more disastrous consequences.
Khan’s housing audit
With little more than four weeks until the mayoral election, the Standard is conducting audits highlighting the performance of Sadiq Khan, running for an unprecedented third term in City Hall. Today it is the turn of housing.
The numbers are startling. House prices in the capital are near to their all-time high at an average of £508,000, about 12 times median earnings. Rents have soared by almost 20 per cent in the past two years while more than 60,000 London families live in temporary accommodation. However you slice it, there is a severe shortage of housing.
Yet housebuilding is slowing. The number of net additional dwellings in London peaked in 2019 at 45,676, falling back in every year since. This is not all the Mayor’s fault. The sector has been hit by economic shocks from higher interest rates to the soaring cost of building materials. Blame must also be laid at the door of central government. But this will be little comfort to Londoners living in expensive yet cramped accommodation.
Focus on real issues
Cycling: a low-cost, sustainable mode of transport or a culture war issue? Not every cycle lane on every street in the capital is perfect. Yet suggestions from Tory mayoral candidate Susan Hall that there is a “war on motorists” (fuel duty has been frozen for a 14th successive year) or that cycle lanes are “virtue signalling” achieves little.
From crime and housing to the cost of living, the capital has enough real issues to keep a mayoral campaign occupied.
