I spent last weekend in low spirits bordering on a bout of depression seeing children and civilians being torn to pieces in Gaza while, agonisingly, the world still looks on.

I have repeated many times in my long career as a publisher that the killing of any human being, whether a Palestinian or an Israeli, is a crime in a civilised society which pretends to care and worship the sanctity of life.

And yet in reality, this is not the case. We make excuses for dispensing with human life on the grounds that we have to defend ourselves against the aggression of the other side, and the arguments relentlessly carry on while blood is shed on a scale that makes horrible viewing and instigates more hatred and violence.

When will the butchery stop? There will be no winner in this brutal battle. On the contrary, grieving mothers will darken the skies with their tears and homeless families will mourn their losses for years to come. Haven’t both parties to the dispute suffered enough? Every day that passes will become a reminder of atrocities perpetrated by a senseless political dogma that inflicts great pain and unimaginable suffering on people stricken by poverty, forlorn and whose main objective in life is to survive in a world now bereft of any dignity, even in death.

The world at large has a duty to put a stop to this heinous state of affairs where the use of the gun as opposed to diplomacy has become the tool of oppression and the only way to resolve a dispute.

President Obama seems unmoved by the extent of the bloodshed taking place and carries on despite the seriousness of the situation, as if telling the world that the greatest power in the world, which he presides over, is unable to bring the warring parties to their senses.

Yet without US support neither Israel nor for that matter Egypt can operate without the aid of their benefactors. It is time that Obama rediscovers his balls or be confined to history as a weak president whose rhetoric invariably fails to match his actions.’

Our Chairman Naim Attallah blogs about the tragic situation in Gaza. To read his full blog go here.

You can get your copy of Eyes in Gaza and read about the conflict in 2009  from doctors Erik Fosse and Mads Gilbert. This shocking yet sober account sheds much-needed light on one of the most prolonged and complex conflicts of our time.