The southern Israeli town of Netivot, a working-class center of mystical rabbis about 10 miles from the Gaza border, escaped the worst of the Hamas attack on October 7, a coincidence that many residents attribute to the miraculous intervention of buried Jewish sages. here.
Nonetheless, many here seem little concerned about the ongoing suffering of Palestinian civilians – practically neighbors – on the other side of the fence in Gaza.
Michael Zigdon, who operates a small food shack in the rundown Netivot market and employed two men from Gaza until the attack, expressed little sympathy for Gazans, who endured a fierce Israeli military attack over the last eight months.
“Who wants this war and who doesn’t? said Mr. Zigdon, as he wiped up red food coloring that had spilled from a shaved ice drink dispenser in his cabin. “It was not us who attacked them on October 7.”
Like many Israelis, Mr. Zigdon criticized Hamas for entrenching itself in residential areas, endangering Gaza’s civilians, while himself blurring the distinction between Hamas fighters and the general population. , as if everyone were complicit.
Israelis remain gripped by the trauma of what happened on October 7 – when Hamas-led gunmen crossed the border, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and returning around 250 others to Gaza, according to Israeli officials. It is the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
The pain, still raw, is increasingly superimposed on the anger. Much of the collective Israeli mind is locked in layers of self-protective outrage as Israel faces international opprobrium for its continued war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Most Israelis appear to be aware that their army’s subsequent air and ground offensive in Gaza killed tens of thousands of Palestinians – many of them children, according to Gaza health officials – and caused widespread damage. . widespread destruction on the coastal enclave. But they also saw videos showing dozens of people in civilian clothes looting and attacking residents of rural Israeli villages during Hamas raids. While Palestinian polls show broad support among Gazans During the October 7 attack, some Palestinians spoke out against the atrocities committed by Hamas and its allies that day.
Netivot is a bastion of political and religious conservatism: in the November 2022 elections, nearly 92% of the city’s votes went to the parties making up the hard-line government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Armed groups in Gaza have fired from rocket barrages towards the city over the years. One of them hit Netivot on October 7 and killed a 12-year-old boy, his father and grandfather.
But the lack of sympathy for the plight of Gazans extends beyond Israel’s traditional right-wing strongholds. Rachel Riemer, 72, a longtime resident of Urim, a left-liberal kibbutz or community village about 10 miles south of Netivot and a similar distance from the Gaza border, recalled that during a previous round of fighting, she had donated money to buy blankets for children in Gaza.
“This time I have no room in my heart to pity them,” she said of Gaza civilians. “I know there is a lot to regret, rationally, I understand. But emotionally, I can’t.
Many Israelis – conservatives and liberals – accuse Hamas of starting the war and integrating its fighters among Gaza’s population, operating, according to the army, outside schools, hospitals and mosques, and in the tunnels under the houses of Gazans.
Many also view Gaza civilians as complicit, at least ideologically, in the October 7 atrocities, claiming that it was they who brought Hamas to power in the first place. in the 2006 Palestinian elections, and that they had not expressed much remorse – although Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007 with little tolerance for any dissent, let alone another vote. As the war drags on, more and more Gazans to have been willing to denounce Hamas, at the risk of reprisals.
The death toll in Gaza has climbed to at least 37,000 since Israel began its fierce offensive, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.
Hamas officials deny Israel’s claims that it uses public facilities like hospitals as cover for its military operations, despite some evidence to the contrary. And there is little escape for most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, terrified and trapped in a narrow, crowded strip of land – tightly closed by Israel and Egypt – and backed by the sea, where a naval blockade is in force.
International organizations have also accused Israel of restricting the entry of aid, causing widespread famine, although Israeli officials say they have opened additional crossing points for goods and accuse aid groups of failing to do it. distribute aid effectively. The most of The population of Gaza was displaced and more than half of the houses in the coastal enclave were reportedly damaged or destroyed.
For much of the Israeli public, this war is very different from previous Arab-Israeli conflicts, said Avi Shilon, an Israeli historian based in Tel Aviv, explaining the apparent indifference to Palestinian suffering. Unlike the much shorter wars of 1967 or 1973, where state armies fought state armies, this conflict is seen more as the 1948 war surrounding the creation of modern Israel, or through the lens of Nazi genocide in Europe, he said.
Mr Shilon said he considered every unintentional death a “tragedy”. But the assault of October 7 – when the attackers killed people in their homeshas crazy musicIn roadside bomb shelters and on military bases — was widely seen in Israel as “simply an attempt to kill Jews,” Mr. Shilon said, transforming the war that followed into a visceral battle: “Either us or them.”
Rony Baruch, 67, a potato farmer from Urim, who also escaped the shock of the October 7 attack, said the humanitarian crisis in Gaza was “terrible” and “painful” and that he was time to end the war. But he said he didn’t think his opinion was representative. He also stressed that Israel was not the “bad guy” in this confrontation.
Many Israelis remained in a grim situation. The Hebrew news media is still filled with stories of loss and courage from October 7. They watched horrific video clips of the October 7 atrocities filmed by Hamas gunmen as well as hostage-taking videos released by the armed groups holding them.
Some survivors said they recognized Gazans among the infiltrators whom they had previously employed. Videos showed crowds jeering and abusing hostages as they marched through Gaza on October 7. rescue of four hostages June 8 came after months of reports of hostages being killed in captivity and the army recovering the remains of some for burial in Israel. Israelis have generally paid little attention to the high death toll the rescue mission has exacted on the Gaza side. Gaza health authorities have reported more than 270 deaths, including children.
Israeli mainstream media rarely focus on the suffering of civilians in Gaza and regularly report on funerals and profiles of fallen soldiers. However, according to a survey this year87 percent of Israeli Jews said they had seen at least some photos or videos of the destruction in Gaza.
Israelis are divided, largely along political lines, and sometimes among themselves, on issues such as the provision of humanitarian aid.
“I have mixed emotions,” said Urim resident Sarah Brien, 42. “On the one hand, as a country, you are bound by international conventions. On the other hand, you get nothing in return. Has a reliable organization seen any of the hostages? Who takes care of them? The International Committee of the Red Cross has declared that it failed to access to the hostages.
Israelis acknowledge hunger in Gaza but accuse Hamas of stealing or diverting aid. Hamas officials deny stealing the aid, saying a few desperate people looted the deliveries. Many Israelis saw images of starving Gazans crowding aid trucks. But many also say they are angered by images of Gazans flocking to the beach to find some respite, while the hostages remain in the dark.
And some Israelis say the rest of the world moved too quickly after October 7.
“The feeling is that for the world, history began on October 8,” said Tamar Hermann, a political science professor and public opinion expert at the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Jerusalem. . “They feel that not only do Gazans show no remorse, but that the world is undermining Israeli suffering. »
At the same time, there is little desire in Israel to see children from Gaza to starve.
“We don’t have the soul for this,” said Hen Kerman, 32, from the southern city of Beersheba.
Ms. Kerman, who works in a private investigation agency, and her partner, Rani Kerman, 32, a taxi driver, had come to Netivot to pray at the tomb of a revered sage known as Baba Sali. They defined themselves as far-right.
But like many Israelis, they appeared to have few illusions about how the war would progress after Mr. Netanyahu and his right-wing government pledged eight months ago to eradicate Hamas.
“Soldiers are dying and Hamas is still there,” Mr. Kerman said.
Some, like Mr. Kerman, believe that the Israeli army should sow more destruction in Gaza. Others say Israel should accept a deal, whatever the price, to bring the hostages home and focus on an exit plan.
Tali Medina, 52, manages a dairy farm in Urim. Her husband, Haim, was shot and injured by gunmen on October 7 while cycling with a friend.
“I did not start this war or keep hostages for more than 200 days,” said Ms. Medina, wearing a T-shirt with the “Brothers in Arms” logo of an anti-government protest group led by reserve soldiers. Although she opposes the hawkish Israeli government, Ms. Medina – like most Israelis – blames Hamas for the war.
“The reality is very harsh, but it’s not my responsibility,” she said.
