SOMETIMES it is easy to get caught up in your own troubles, or to overemphasise the importance of interesting developments here in Britain and so unwittingly downplay what is happening in other countries.

This should not be one of those times.

As curious as the British political scene has become, it is nowhere near as dramatic or consequential as the events in Gaza. Gaza and the plight of the Palestinians must continue to be at the forefront of all our minds.

The immediate fate of well over two million people is at stake. Some have argued that Israel and its allies, principally the US, are trying to create a new world order out of the rubble of Gaza.

The carnage is so enormous and the massacres so unrelenting that it is sending a message to the rest of the world too. That message appears to be, “There are no limits, no restraints on the scale of the horrors we will inflict if you stand in our way.”

As a result, the vast majority of the world, the overwhelming majority who want peace has an interest in ending this shocking onslaught. We could put this another way; if Israel and the US are successful and get away with this vast ethnic cleansing they would make the whole world less safe and more susceptible to new destructive military attacks, on an even larger scale.

The direct casualties of the offensive are of course the Palestinians, who continue to be murdered daily in large numbers. The murders of dozens more civilians in the al-Shifa hospital add to the list of war crimes.

We also have a situation, even before any attack on Rafah, that massacres have now become routine. When the first flour massacre happened there was a propaganda war as Israel initially denied responsibility, despite the UN reporting many of the dead and injured were the victims of gunshots. Now there have been many more flour massacres and even murders of those who were attempting to organise the food aid distribution.

Rafah is next in the firing line. The planned assault has been discussed for weeks now. The consequences would clearly be horrific. Most people are now refugees many times over in their own land. Rafah’s population has increased tenfold and most are now living in hastily assembled tents if they have any shelter at all. They have limited access to clean water, and precious little food. Starvation has begun.

It is these people Israel is now threatening to massacre. We know this because even its closest ally the US says publicly that there is no credible plan to protect civilians.

We may never know the extent of the US and other pleas to the Israeli leaders to prevent civilian deaths. We know from the public evidence that it has never been enough.

Instead, the Western powers have backed Israel to the hilt militarily. The scale of ordnance that has targeted Gaza and its population is utterly enormous. One estimate is that its weight is equivalent to three times the nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima. The Israeli military has made Gaza the horrific new benchmark for the concentrated destructive power of conventional weapons.

This also highlights the complete complicity of Western powers, many of whom have claimed to be providing restraint on Israel. One of the countries making that false claim is Britain.

Yet such is the scale of the bombardment that Israel could not possibly have manufactured and stockpiled such a vast store of missiles. It is struggling even to import missiles at the same rate it is unloading them on Palestinians. The entire operation has only been possible with massive direct help from Western countries.

Britain and the US have also acted as Israel’s navy, attempting to protect shipping in the Gulf and by bombing the beleaguered people of Yemen. In effect, both countries have unofficially declared war on Yemen while supporting the war on the Palestinian people. There is no accountability for their actions and hardly any official political opposition either.

Now we are told that the US is in favour of a ceasefire. As a result, all the leading politicians in the countries supporting Israel are dutifully calling for a ceasefire now too.

It really is monstrous to pretend that killing over 30,000 people and staving the rest was acceptable, but that further deaths would be unacceptable. What is more, no-one believes these lies. For reasons of its own, the US administration seems to have decided that, at least temporarily, the slaughter must stop. The rest are just falling into line, perhaps excluding Benjamin Netanyahu.

If that is what unfolds, it should be clear that it is the US which ultimately calls the shots. Without US military, logistical, economic and diplomatic support, Israel could never have maintained such an intense offensive for so long.

But even an unconscionably delayed ceasefire is better than ongoing carnage. It will be welcomed by all peace movements around the world and naturally by the Palestinians themselves.

Of course, this will be far from the end of the matter. There must be no attempt to complete ethnic cleansing by peaceful means, by refusing to let people return home and by blocking those homes and communities from being rebuilt. There must be no deportations.

Eventually, too, there must be a settling of accounts for all the war crimes committed. And not simply with the ghoulish foot soldiers who posted videos of atrocities. Their military commanders who gave the go-ahead, and the political architects of the carnage must also face justice.

That applies too to Western politicians. To give just one example; Israel’s false claims that UNWRA was riddled with Hamas fighters have been thoroughly debunked by the UN. Western leaders know this but mostly have continued to block funding to UNWRA (with honourable exceptions). They are therefore knowingly guilty of using starvation as a weapon of war and collective punishment. These are both war crimes, and this is just one example.

We must never forget either, that our political system failed in a time of crisis. The overwhelming majority of people in this country have long wanted a ceasefire, going back to October last year. But our leading politicians supported war, in breach of democracy, morality and human decency. We need to remake our politics to reflect those values.

Diane Abbott is the MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington.