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Source: https://nationalinterest.org/feature/simchat-torah-war-206897
The Simchat Torah War
(National Interest) Carlos Roa - In August, I visited Kfar Aza - a kibbutz in Israel only 2 km. from Gaza. One of the residents, Chen Kotler Abrahams, invited my colleagues and me to her home, served lemonade, and pulled out body-height remnants of rockets fired by Hamas for us to see. Despite the grim conversation, life in Kfar Aza appeared fairly normal: children played in groups, adults gardened. As of now, there is a chance that many of the people I met are dead. According to the latest reports, a baby was found alive but alone amid the community's charred remains. This isn't just another episode in the Israel-Hamas conflict; it is a watershed moment. That this attack came on a Jewish religious holiday makes it more than a military maneuver; it's a symbolic gesture. Hamas aims to rally the wider Arab world around its cause, invoking memories of past glories. For years, Israel has hesitated from launching a full-scale operation to take Gaza, primarily due to the sheer military cost, the international repercussions, and the humanitarian concerns such an assault might trigger. But the scale of the recent attack may have shifted the calculus in Jerusalem.