The southern Israeli city of Netivot, a working-class center of mystical rabbis about 10 miles from the Gaza border, escaped the worst of the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, which many residents blamed on the buried Jewish Miraculous intervention of sages.
Still, many here don’t seem to care about what Palestinian civilians (and indeed neighbors) are now suffering outside the Gaza fence.
Michael Zigdon, who runs a small food shack in Netiwater’s rundown market, employed two men from Gaza before the attack. It suffered a violent military attack by Israel last month.
“Who wants this war and who doesn’t?” Mr. Zigden said, wiping away red food coloring that had spilled from the crushed-ice drink machine in his cabin. “It was not us who attacked them on October 7.”
Like many Israelis, Zigden accuses Hamas of penetrating Gaza civilians by penetrating into residential areas while blurring the distinction between Hamas fighters and ordinary citizens, as if all were complicit.
Israelis are deeply traumatized by the events of October 7, when Hamas-led militants crossed the border, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and moving about 250 people, according to Israeli officials. Bring back Gaza. It was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
The pain still stung, but was increasingly overshadowed by anger. As Israel faces international condemnation for waging war and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, much of Israel’s collective psyche is cloaked in self-protective indignation.
Most Israelis appear to be aware that their military’s subsequent air and ground offensive in Gaza has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians – many of them children, according to Gaza health officials – and caused damage to the coastal enclave Widespread damage. But they also saw footage of dozens of plainclothes officers robbing and attacking residents of rural Israel during Hamas attacks. Although Palestinian polls show widespread support for the October 7 attack in Gaza, some Palestinians have spoken out against the atrocities committed by Hamas and its allies that day.
Netiwater is a bastion of political and religious conservatism: in the November 2022 elections, nearly 92% of the city’s votes went to parties in the hardline government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Armed groups from Gaza have fired scores of rockets into the city over the years. One struck Netivot on October 7, killing 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, is a long-time resident of Urim, a liberal, left-leaning kibbutz, or communal village, in Neti It is about 10 miles south of Netivot and a similar distance from the Gaza border.
“This time, I have no place in my heart to sympathize with them,” she said of Gaza civilians. “I know there’s a lot to regret, I understand. But emotionally I can’t do it.
Many Israelis – both conservative and liberal – accuse Hamas of waging the war and planting its militants among Gaza’s population, according to the military, outside schools, hospitals and mosques, and in Gazan homes activities in the tunnel below.
Many also believe, at least ideologically, that Gaza civilians were complicit in the Oct. 7 atrocities, saying they brought Hamas to power in the 2006 Palestinian elections in the first place without expressing much remorse — Although Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007, it tolerates little dissent, let alone a new vote. As the war drags on, more and more Gazans are willing to risk reprisals to speak out against Hamas.
The death toll in Gaza has soared to at least 37,000 since the start of Israel’s fierce offensive, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Hamas officials deny Israeli claims to use public facilities such as hospitals as cover for its military operations, despite some evidence suggesting otherwise. For most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, there is little escape, trapped in a crowded and narrow stretch of land – tightly blockaded by Israel and Egypt – and backed by the sea, where the A naval blockade.
International groups have also accused Israel of restricting aid entry, causing widespread hunger, but Israeli officials said they had opened more crossings for goods and accused humanitarian groups of failing to distribute aid effectively. Much of Gaza’s population has been displaced, and more than half of the homes in the coastal enclave have been reported damaged or destroyed.
Avi Shilon, an Israeli historian in Tel Aviv, explains Israel’s apparent indifference to the suffering of the Palestinians, saying that for most of the Israeli public, the war has a lot to do with previous Arab-Israeli conflicts. Big difference. He said that unlike the much shorter wars of 1967 or 1973, in which state forces fought state forces, the conflict was more like the 1948 war surrounding the creation of modern Israel, or through the prism of the Nazi genocide in Europe Let’s look at it.
Mr Hillon said he viewed every accidental death as a “tragedy”. But the Oct. 7 attacks – in which attackers killed people in their homes, at music raves, in roadside bomb shelters and on military bases – were widely seen in Israel as “just out to kill Jews,” Mr. Shiron said. It became an inner battle: “It’s us or them.”
Rony Baruch, 67, a potato grower from Urim who also escaped the brunt of the October 7 attack, said the humanitarian crisis in Gaza was “terrible” and ” Pain” and it is time to end the war. But he said he believed his views were unrepresentative. He also emphasized that Israel is not the “bad guy” in this confrontation.
Many Israelis are still in darkness. Hebrew news media are still awash with stories of loss and courage from October 7. They watched horrific video footage of the October 7 atrocity shot by Hamas gunmen, as well as hostage videos released by the armed group that held them hostage.
Some survivors said they recognized Gazans previously employed among the infiltrators. Video shows some members of the crowd mocking and insulting the hostages as they marched through Gaza on October 7. The remains of some hostages were recovered and buried in Israel. Israelis have generally paid little attention to the high death toll caused by the rescue mission on the Gaza side. Health officials in Gaza reported more than 270 deaths, including children.
Mainstream Israeli news media pay little attention to the suffering of civilians in Gaza and often lead news broadcasts with funerals and profiles of fallen soldiers. Still, according to a poll this year, 87 percent of Jewish Israelis said they had seen at least some images or videos of the destruction in Gaza.
Israelis are divided politically, sometimes even among themselves, over issues such as humanitarian aid supplies.
“I have mixed feelings,” said Sarah Brien, 42, a Urim resident. “On the one hand, as a country you have an obligation to abide by international conventions. On the other hand, you get nothing in return. Has any reliable organization seen the hostages? Who will look after them? The ICRC said it was unsuccessful. Access to hostages.
Israelis acknowledge hunger in Gaza but accuse Hamas of stealing or diverting aid. Hamas officials deny stealing aid and say desperate people have looted it. Many Israelis have seen footage of hungry Gazans crowding aid trucks. But many said they were angry that Gazans were flocking to the beaches seeking respite while the hostages were kept in the dark.
Some Israelis say that after October 7, the rest of the world moved too quickly.
“For the world, the story begins 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 believe that not only are Gazans showing no remorse, but that the world is undermining Israel’s suffering.”
At the same time, Israel does not want to see Gaza children starve to death.
“We don’t have the energy to do it,” said Hen Kerman, 32, from the southern city of Beersheba.
Ms Kerman, who works in a private investigative office, and her partner Rani Kerman, 32, a taxi driver, came to Netiwater to see Baba Sali, a revered saint. Sali’s grave. They define themselves as far right.
But like many Israelis, they appear to have no illusions about the progress of the war after Netanyahu and his right-wing government pledged eight months ago to root out Hamas.
“Soldiers are dying and Hamas is still here,” Mr. Kerman said.
Kerman and others said they believed Israeli forces should have done more damage to Gaza. Others say Israel should agree to a deal at all costs to bring the hostages home and focus on an evacuation plan.
Tali Medina, 52, manages a dairy farm in Urim. On October 7, her husband, Haim, was shot by a gunman while out riding his bicycle with friends.
“I did not start this war and I did not hold hostages for more than 200 days,” Ms. Medina said. . While Ms. Medina opposes the hawkish Israeli government, she, like most Israelis, blames Hamas for the war.
“The reality is hard, but it’s not my responsibility,” she said.
