War stories, war novels, war histories, war journalism, focus on the actions and the actors. But it's the downstream that matters most: what happens because of the actions. If anyone wants an idea of what the downstream from the mass bombing of Gaza will be like, they might read a very short but not simple story from another war. It's quite famous: "Nachts schlafen die Ratten doch" (Rats do sleep at night) by Wolfgang Borchert, who was a war casualty all right though he died after the shelling and bombing stopped. Our German-language class in high school was given this story to read and I've never forgotten it. Here it is, in German and English: https://exchanges.uiowa.edu/issues/topographies/rats-sleep-at-night/
