There are times when you feel nothing but impotence in the face of disaster.

I’m sure everyone who is witnessing the carnage in Gaza is uniformly appalled. Except that there’s not much for the individual voter to do but wring their hands in mounting despair at the inability of the political classes to get their dilatory act together.

I’m weary of endless stories about the fervent backstage diplomacy – if it hasn’t stopped mass starvation, malnourished infants and endless damage to the infrastructure, plus the return of the hostages, then it’s just not fervent enough.

At the time of writing, it seems Israel has declined to send a team to the talks, on the grounds Hamas hasn’t provided a list of hostages to be saved and repatriated. (Might have been a whole lot easier for them to do if the Israeli Defence Force hadn’t bombed the bejasus out of all the likely hiding places.)

It is nothing less than a humanitarian catastophe on a very grand scale, such as all the world leaders promised they would never countenance again – or at least would not stand idly by as it began to unfold.

The collateral damage from this horror show is apparently a rise in antisemitic and anti-Muslim sentiment in the UK, as people indulge in a senseless blame game without troubling themselves with the facts.

My own take, for what it’s worth, is that there’s little to choose between those who invaded Israel and created mass terror on October 7, and those who thought it appropriate to kill little children with sniper fire in the ensuing war.

Meanwhile, those who attempt to bring aid, food and medical supplies to the region keep getting caught in the crossfire as they try to alleviate at least some of the misery.

The slaughter of the adults scrambling for food for their families last week is just the latest outrage.

Which only motivated the USA to start dropping aid from the air which, by common consent, is the most dangerous and least effective mode of delivery.

The sight of desperate people wading out to find supplies inadvertently dropped in the water is one which should make us all feel ashamed.

The end game, when it comes, will surely have embedded yet more hostility on all sides. Another generation of middle eastern foes who seem incapable of sharing the land from whence the Palestinians came and the Israelis were allocated as a safe haven.