Tuesday’s carnage in Gaza, after Israel bombed three United Nations-flagged schools sheltering refugees from its offensive against Hamas, may well be the “Qana moment” in the present crisis – replicating the bombardment of refugees at a UN base in south Lebanon that brought the Israeli incursion of 1996 to a halt amid an international outcry.

Israel’s efforts to impose a media blackout on its operations in Gaza failed to prevent these images emerging in most of their horror. Of the estimated 700 Palestinians killed in the past 12 days, the UN reckons nearly 220 have been children.