In the movie Any Given Sunday, Al Pacino plays a highly strung football coach. In a key scene, he gives a speech about how “life is a game of inches” and how when “you add up all those inches that’s gonna make the difference between livin’ and dyin’”.
For Pacino, the rousing words are a figure of speech. For the people of Gaza – particularly its doctors, nurses and medical staff – these words are a matter of fact. A single step, a single decision, can mean the difference between life and death. After 48 days of war, Israel and Hamas have agreed to a truce for four days. But given the immense devastation of their civilian infrastructure, particularly the hospitals, this “respite” will be nothing of the sort for the people of Gaza.
