When the rockets land, the earth shakes the same on both sides

Of the 2.2 million people living in Gaza, 1 million are children. There are 3 million children living in Israel. These children are the innocents, the ones baring the brunt of the suffering during this unspeakable violence.

“How am I supposed to get up in the morning knowing that 4.5 km from Kibbutz Be’eri in Gaza, there are people for whom this event has not ended? For me, it was over after 12 hours, because there was a place to be evacuated to… To have no one to evacuate you? It cannot be. It cannot be. Those speaking of revenge, should be ashamed.”

These were the words of a 19-year-old Jewish woman, just four days after surviving the terrible massacre by Hamas at the Be’eri Kibbutz. She had spent 12 hours in a bomb shelter, getting text messages from her friends and family desperately pleading for help. When she finally got out, she had to face the horror of what had happened and see the shock and grief in the faces of the survivors whom she grew up with.

Yet, this remarkable young woman insists that revenge would not bring any solution to the current Hamas-Israeli conflict. Shaking with anger and shock, she said in a video recording made on her phone: “Bibi (Netanyahu), Hamas, I don’t care who is launching the rockets. What I do know is Be’eri suffers. Nahal Oz suffers, Kfar Aza, Sderot and Gaza suffer.

Believe me…every rocket that is fired, causes the ground to shake the exact same way in both places.”

There can be no doubt that the actions of Hamas on 7 October were acts of terror and that Israel had to respond.

However, it should be blatantly clear to everyone by now that Israel’s actions cannot be considered self-defence or proportionate retaliation. 

Hamas is not the same as the Palestinian people.

According to most estimates, the organisation has about 30 000-40 000 members. Even if those numbers are vastly underestimated, it is still a fraction of the 2.2 million Palestinians who live in Gaza. Yet, the Israeli government seems hellbent on punishing all the Palestinians in Gaza for the acts of a relatively small terrorist group. They have bombed residential areas without warning – killing civilians and even some of the Israeli hostages. They have cut all water, electricity, food and medical supplies to Gaza, thus creating a humanitarian disaster on an unimaginable scale. They have also indicated that they will launch a ground invasion which would most likely flatten the whole area. 

Let me repeat, there can be no justification for punishing a whole nation, for the acts of terror – as despicable as they might be - by a small group. Imagine if the British had done the same to Ireland or Northern Ireland after the IRA acts of terror against British citizens?

By targeting civilians, destroying homes, hospitals and places of worship and cutting off water and essential supplies, Israel is committing war crimes. Of course, the same is true of Hamas, who have broken all the rules of combat as defined by international law. 

Despite their justifiable anger at the horror attacks, a growing number of Israelis are expressing anger against Netanyahu and the politicians for failing to find a political solution for the Palestinian issue. 

When the Israeli minister of Environment, Idit Silman, visited the Assaf Horofeh Hospital in Zzrifin after the attack, she was chased out by Israeli patients. In a video posted by the Telegraph, a woman is seen shouting at her: “You are responsible for this. Get out of here. You are hindering the nation from finding the way forward.” As the minister made a hasty retreat, a man dressed in scrubs screamed furiously at her: “All of you ruined this country. You ruined it. Now get out of her. It's our time to take control to form one united country without you.”

The young 19-year-old survivor of Be’eri Kibbutz also took aim at Netanyahu and the government. “What happened to us was appalling,” she said. “But what happened to us was nothing new. It was only worse.  We’ve been neglected, abandoned for years. Do not point at the Iron Dome. Do not point at the soldiers – that is just a band aid. Someone is dying and you bring them a band aid. Shameful. Shame on you!” 

She goes on to say that there can be no more band aids. “Don’t offer up soldiers or protection. Talk to me about a political solution,” she said angrily. I am sure that most Palestinians feel the same way about Hamas. 

A political solution is what is urgently needed. As Cape Talk’s John Maytham put it: “we need the off-ramp to peace”. Global leaders have to all stop taking sides (since there are no clean hands here) and insist on finding a solution to the immediate and long-term crisis. 

One million of the 2.2 million people living in Gaza are children. There are also 3 million children living in Israel. They are the innocents who have nothing to do with politics and are bearing the brunt of the suffering. 

Having witnessed the recent atrocities, those who survive would understandably find it easy to foster deep hatred for the other side as they grow up. I can only hope and pray that many will find some of the almost above human forgiveness that the young woman from Be’eri Kibbutz has shown and that women and men like her will be the politicians of the future who will finally create peace in this deeply divided part of the world.