Hamas’s actions last weekend were abhorrent, vile, and unjustifiable.

It does not matter if your sympathies lie with Palestine or Israel. It does not matter if you consider violent retribution as inevitable or even defensible.

You either believe that there is no world in which the massacre of babies in their homes is acceptable, or you don’t.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been simmering, and sometimes raging, since the creation of the Israeli state in 1948.

There is very little room for discussion. Both sides believe they are the rightful heirs to that stretch of the Middle East, and that they are battling invaders trying to strip them of their God-given right to sacred land.

There is a long list of grievances deeply felt by both Israeli and Palestinian people. I will not do this sensitive topic a disservice by attempting to analyse them here.

Some truths, however, transcend political and historical context.

Music festival goers are not a security threat. Children are not a security threat. Babies in their cots are not a security threat.

It is important, in times like these, to be wary of “whataboutisms”.

The limelight has been turned, across much of social media, on the Israeli response and on past actions by the Israeli state.

In normal circumstances, this discourse would be warranted. However, to bring it up now is simply to try and justify what happened last weekend.

There is no justification for the butchering of families in their homes. If you agree with this, you should not use Israel’s actions to justify Hamas’s.

This was not an attack on Israel. This was an attack on ordinary civilians just trying to live their lives.

It is not just Hamas who are guilty of needless and tragic escalation. There are now multiple reports claiming that Iran helped plot the attacks on Israel.  If true, that only further increases the risk of further regional instability.

And for what? Hamas didn’t gain a military advantage or strike strategic targets.

They simply murdered innocent people and guaranteed retaliation, which will rob both Palestinian and Israeli mothers of their sons and daughters.

Perhaps this is the greatest tragedy of all.

It does not matter if you think one side is right and the other is wrong.

No one wins when children burn.