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How Oct. 7 Changed the Hopes of Some Gaza Border Residents
(Times of Israel) Canaan Lidor - Irit Lahav, a peace activist from Kibbutz Nir Oz, where one in four residents were killed or kidnapped, had entertained no illusions about Hamas even before the Oct. 7 massacre. She had seen how the group deliberately targeted civilians, including by firing rockets into residential areas at specific times to increase loss of life. Yet she had always believed that Hamas' actions were distinct from and unrepresentative of the wishes of the silent majority of Palestinian civil society, whom she imagined were concerned primarily with providing for their children and improving their own lives. That belief was shattered on Oct. 7, by what she says were "hundreds of civilians, including women and children, who followed" behind the terrorists, invading Israeli communities to celebrate and join in the pillaging, vandalization and destruction of Israeli communities. "I used to think Palestinians were good people, like you and me. That Hamas were thugs who got in the way of the population's desire for a good life....After Oct. 7, I realized I was wrong. Just as the Israeli government represents Israelis, Hamas represents the people of Gaza." Lahav used to belong to a group of volunteers who would drive Palestinians in need of medical treatment from Gaza to hospitals in Israel. She now believes that "all of the people of Gaza, all of them, hate us to a degree where they would murder babies and pillage our property with zero compunction." She is not impressed with the images of devastation coming out of Gaza, she said. "I don't believe a word they're saying. Not the death toll, not the images. I know the Israel Defense Forces avoids killing civilians whenever possible and I don't believe the [Hamas-reported] figure of 30,000 dead." "When I thought of Gaza, I thought about barefoot children on dirt roads. That's the sort of images we kept seeing out of there. But now the soldiers are streaming images [from Gaza] of beautiful, paved streets. High-rise apartment buildings. It was all a show! They took foreign media to their filming locations. So now I don't believe any video they show." "As long as their school shows are about 'martyrs' killing Jews, there is no way forward," she said.