Terrified children in Gaza and Israel are united by a horror across the divide

“THE smallest coffins are the heaviest,” says a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Meaning, of course, that the death of any innocent young child in conflict — be it war or otherwise — weighs heaviest for us all.

You’d have to have a heart of stone not to feel pity for this Palestinian girl arriving at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after an Israeli air strikeAP

And everyone should also feel sympathy for this young Israeli girl worried about Hamas rocketsAP

In this case, he was referring to the senseless murder of six-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume, stabbed 26 times at his Chicago home — allegedly by his elderly landlord who, according to his wife, thought his tenants were “going to call Palestinian friends to come and harm them” on Hamas’s so-called “day of jihad”.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in Israel and Palestine, there are other small coffins bearing the bodies of babies, toddlers and children who lost their lives in the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and the subsequent retaliation in Gaza.

Riven with fear

Whatever side you take in the Middle East crisis, it would require a heart of stone not to mourn the loss of all the innocents who lost their lives.

Equally, who can feel anything but pity for those that survived but now have trauma and terror etched on their young faces as they face the harsh reality of violent conflict and the loss and upheaval it brings?

The image above is of a young Palestinian girl arriving at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after an Israeli air strike.

Her pink glasses and Hello Kitty T-shirt are commensurate with her age (probably around ten) and remind us that, until recently, she was no doubt living the same normal, happy life of her peer group here in the UK.

But now her face is riven with fear and uncertainty.

Similarly, the other photograph is of a stricken-faced young Israeli girl (probably also ten) in a floral dress and Hello Kitty bumbag, being comforted by her mother in a shelter in Ashkelon, Israel, as Hamas rockets are fired overhead from the Gaza Strip.

In other circumstances, these two young girls — one Israeli, one Palestinian — might bond over their shared interests and happily play together.

But as it stands, decisions out of their control are being made by those in power and, just like all the innocents of bloodied conflict through the ages, they are suffering the consequences.

Comedian Patrick Kielty was 16 when his dad Jack was shot by loyalist paramilitaries in the Troubles for refusing to pay them protection money.

He wept on the day the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998, saying: “Sometimes you need to stare into the abyss to realise that this can’t go on.”

Now the new host of Ireland’s Late Late Show, Patrick signed off on Friday night with a heartfelt message for “all the families whose lives have been ripped apart in Israel and Palestine”.

He concluded: “Tonight there are many parents and children in Israel and in Gaza who also think this will never end and are praying for a miracle to make it stop.

“In the midst of despair, miracles are hard to believe in, but it’s worth remembering that we are currently living our own miracle on this island, because we are living in peace.

“And for all those in Israel and Palestine tonight, it mightn’t seem like it, but there’s always hope, and we hope that your miracle comes soon.”

Hear hear. If not, yet more young lives will be lost or ruined.

Tying your knitwear around your waist still beats this new ‘seatbelting’ trendGetty

THIS, apparently, is the new trend in how to knot your knitwear.

It’s called “seatbelting” and is perhaps a welcome alternative to draping it around your shoulders for a look that screams: “I’m a preppy elite with a 40-footer in Padstow.”

But I’m sticking to my preferred method of tying it around the waist.

Not least because it covers my bum.

CHILL’N IT OLD SKOOL

AFTER being lulled into a false sense of an Indian summer with a balmy early October, the brutal cold of winter dropped overnight with the sudden thud of a medieval portcullis.

One minute I was in cotton pyjama shorts, the next I woke up with virtual frostbite on my nose.

So the summer clothes have been bagged up and put in the attic until next year, and I’m now swathed in a puffa jacket, scarf, woolly hat and mountain-grade socks.

And that’s just inside the house.

For I’m attempting to go as long as possible without switching on my central heating.

After all, we didn’t have it when I was a child.

Back then, we had a portable Calor gas heater that we pushed from room to room and everywhere else was like an igloo.

And in bed, it was thick winceyette jimmy jams, probably a cardigan, woolly socks and 48 eiderdowns.

So if I could manage it then, why not now? Let’s see how long I last.

It brings a whole new meaning to Netflix and chill.

MOORE SHAME

AMERICAN philosopher Eric Hoffer once wrote: “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”

What a terrible shame that the great cause championed by the well-meaning Captain Tom before his death has degenerated in to something far less noble in the hands of his daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore.

Poppy-ly dressed, Maura?

ONE-woman PR machine Maura Higgins turned up to watch the Tommy Fury fight at Manchester’s AO Arena with what, at first sight, looked like a couple of slices of pepperoni covering her modesty.

But closer inspection suggests they’re two, strategically placed “poppies”.

We’ll certainly remember if Maura Higgins’ nipple coverings are really a sign of support for Remembrance SundayGetty

Some have ventured the nipple coverings might be early, er, support, for Remembrance Sunday on November 12.

Well, we’ll certainly remember them.

10p GROUSE

Strange choice to feature a grouse on the 10p coin given most end up dead after a royal shoot at BalmoralThe Royal Mint

A RANGE of new coins to reflect King Charles’s passion for nature and conservation are engraved with images of bees (£1), salmon (50p) and puffin (20p).

The 10p coin shows a grouse. Strange choice given that many of them end up dead after a royal shoot at Balmoral.

The group known as Brighton Morris Men have changed their name to be more inclusive, but they still won’t accept womenBrighton Pictures

THE group formerly known as Brighton Morris Men have voted to drop the word men from their title to be more inclusive.

But they still won’t accept women.

All together now, ladies: “Thank God for that.”

JAMES’ CHLOE NO FOOL

AFTER rugby player turned DJ James Haskell was spotted hugging a “mystery blonde” outside the Chiltern Firehouse restaurant last week, his wife Chloe Madeley is said to be “furious”.

She has subsequently been pictured without her wedding ring, whatever that means.

But James’s spokesperson says the encounter was wholly innocent, that the woman was a friend of one of his group, and “they were simply having a conversation outside”.

Good to know. But also, as sassy and smart cookie Chloe will know full well, if a man was having an illicit affair, then the chances are he wouldn’t take his “mistress” to what’s arguably London’s most famous celebrity hang-out and give her a hug directly in front of the ever-attendant paparazzi.

SIR Paul McCartney was in the audience for U2’s concert at the Las Vegas Sphere, and the following night he went to see Adele.

Praise indeed.

But friends have let it be known that he would “never” play Vegas himself.

Faint praise then.