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Israelis Blame Hamas for Gazans' Suffering

(New York Times) Isabel Kershner - Michael Zigdon, who operates a small food shack in Netivot, 10 miles from the Gaza border, and had employed two men from Gaza until the Oct. 7 attack, said, "Who wants this war and who doesn't? It wasn't us who attacked them on Oct. 7." Like many Israelis, he blamed Hamas for embedding itself in residential areas, endangering Gaza's civilians. Armed groups from Gaza have fired barrages of rockets toward the city over the years. One struck Netivot on Oct. 7 and killed a 12-year-old boy, his father and grandfather. Rachel Riemer, 72, a longtime resident of Kibbutz Urim, 10 miles from the Gaza border, recalled that, during a previous round of fighting, she had donated money for blankets for Gazan children. "This time, I don't have a place in my heart to pity them," she said of Gaza's civilians. "Emotionally, I can't." Many Israelis see Gaza's civilians as complicit, at least ideologically, in the atrocities of Oct. 7, saying that they brought Hamas to power in the first place, in Palestinian elections in 2006, and that they had not expressed much remorse. Avi Shilon, an Israeli historian based in Tel Aviv, explained that the Oct. 7 assault - when attackers killed people in their homes, at a music rave, in roadside bomb shelters and at army bases - was broadly seen by the Israeli public as being "just about killing Jews," turning the ensuing war into a visceral battle: "Either us or them." The Hebrew news media is still filled with stories of loss and courage from Oct. 7. Israelis have watched gruesome video clips of the Oct. 7 atrocities filmed by Hamas gunmen as well as hostage videos released by the armed groups holding them. A few survivors said they recognized Gazans they had previously employed among the infiltrators. Many Israelis say they were also galled by images of Gazans flocking to the beach while the Israeli hostages remained in the dark.
2024-06-25 00:00:00
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