GOUGING GAZA

Despite the overwhelmin sentiment in favour of liquidating Hamas, the human cost of the war creates a moral dilemma for Israel

- DNYANESH JATHAR

O had Munder Zichri may never want to remember his ninth birthday. It fell on October 23, more than two weeks after Hamas unleashed a wave of terrible attacks across southern Israel, killing more than a thousand people and taking more than 200 hostages.

The fourth-grade student from Kfar Sava in central Israel was among those kidnapped, along with his mother and his grandparents. They are said to be held in Gaza.

Just like Ohad, 43-year-old Ramadan, too, is a victim of the ongoing war. He is a Palestinian living in Israel and is worried about his future. After witnessing the arrest of a fellow Palestinian by the Israeli police he told me and Deputy Photo Editor Bhanu Prakash Chandra that it was better to stay away from the security forces. "They are very angry, please don't go anywhere near them," he said.

We were on our way to the Gaza border and at the Sa'ad intersection, four kilometres southeast of Gaza, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) stopped us. "You cannot go beyond this point. Only locals and IDF convoys are allowed," they said. We retreated to a pomegranate orchard nearby, where we were joined by a team of television journalists from Greece.

Soon, a convoy of three IDF trucks loaded with ammunition arrived. Excited, the Greek team started doing a live telecast. But the soldiers got angry, asked them to stop and made them go back to the orchard.

With no chance to proceed further to the border, we talked to Renana Gome, who used to live in a kibbutz near the Gaza border. A divorcee, she lived in kibbutz Nir Oz with her two sons, aged 12 and 16. Both were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7. Renana had gone to another kibbutz for the weekend. The boys were at her husband's place at Nir Am. Renana recalled the phone call she got from her sons just before they were kidnapped. "They were scared, waking up to the sounds of explosions, gunshots and sirens.