Israelis suspended between fear, grief and foreboding
The Guardian|October 12, 2023
Avi Solomon can not serve in Israel’s armed forces because he is blind, but he has a bout 20 close relatives who have been called up to fight.
Emma Graham-Harrison
Israelis suspended between fear, grief and foreboding

They include four brothers and more than a dozen nephews and cousins, and he accepts that they may not all come back.

“We feel like zombies anyway,” said the 39-year-old, an athlete and supermarket worker. “If we can’t feel safe in our own houses, if we can’t promise a future for our children, if any terrorist can come here and do the same thing to us , there is no point to be some kind of living dead.”

Israelis are suspended between fear, grief and grim preparation for more losses, as details of massacres of families in their homes emerge from southern areas, and the country prepares for a major operation against Hamas in Gaza.

Normal life has been put on hold. Schools are closed on a rolling basis, so parents are juggling fulltime parenting with working from home, while trying to protect their children from both actual attacks and the corrosive trauma of fear.

Ksenia Lvovsky’s son and daughter, who are 10 and six , don’t want to shower because the airraid sirens give only 90 seconds’ warning to reach a shelter. They fear they might not make it in time, so she stands by as they wash, ready with a robe to thrown on for a dash for safety.

A Ukrainian who moved to Israel 12 years ago, she still has close friends back home, and is grappling with fi nding both her countries at war, and her husband called up to serve. “A year and a half ago, I was asking them, how are you doing? Now they are asking me,” she said. It’s not been going on a long time like in Ukraine, but it feels the same; we are fi ghting for our lives.”

Denne historien er fra October 12, 2023-utgaven av The Guardian.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

Denne historien er fra October 12, 2023-utgaven av The Guardian.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA THE GUARDIANSe alt
The Guardian

David Lynch urges smokers to quit after emphysema diagnosis

The film-maker and lifelong smoker David Lynch has spoken out about the dangers of the habit, revealing that he started smoking at the age of eight and now needs supplemental oxygen even to walk small distances.

time-read
1 min  |
November 16, 2024
Tiana rides high Disney updates 'racist' Splash Mountain flume to honour its first black princess
The Guardian

Tiana rides high Disney updates 'racist' Splash Mountain flume to honour its first black princess

In 2020, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests over George Floyd's murder, Disney announced that its parks would be \"retheming\" a decades-old attraction, Splash Mountain, a log flume ride with a storyline drawn from a racist 1946 film.

time-read
2 mins  |
November 16, 2024
The Guardian

Valencia leader admits mistakes in handling of deadly flooding

The regional president of Valencia, who is under mounting pressure over his handling ofthe catastrophic floods that killed 216 people in the area, has conceded mistakes were made but refused to step down, claiming the unprecedented and \"apocalyptic\" scale of the disaster simply overwhelmed the system.

time-read
1 min  |
November 16, 2024
Dutch coalition in turmoil in wake of violence in Amsterdam
The Guardian

Dutch coalition in turmoil in wake of violence in Amsterdam

The violence that erupted on Amsterdam's streets last week has triggered a political crisis in the Netherlands, with the ruling coalition in turmoil over alleged racist remarks made by government officials during a closed-door meeting to discuss the events.

time-read
1 min  |
November 16, 2024
The Guardian

Pelicot trial: defendant proposed rape of own mother, court hears

A young vineyard worker accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot on six occasions over four years when she had been drugged by her husband also proposed drugging and raping his own mother, a court has heard.

time-read
2 mins  |
November 16, 2024
Gaza Children in urgent need not allowed overseas for medical care
The Guardian

Gaza Children in urgent need not allowed overseas for medical care

It was the morning of 8 June when Ahmed Damoo got the call that his home, a small concrete building in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, had been hit by an IDF rocket. When he returned to what was left of his house, he learned that his family had been buried beneath the rubble.

time-read
4 mins  |
November 16, 2024
The Guardian

Israel Police question aide of Netanyahu over alleged tampering of phone records

Benjamin Netanyahu's chief of staff has been questioned by police investigating reports that official phone records of calls from aides to the Israeli prime minister on the morning of the 7 October attacks last year were altered.

time-read
2 mins  |
November 16, 2024
Anger in Lebanon as 21 emergency workers killed by Israeli airstrikes
The Guardian

Anger in Lebanon as 21 emergency workers killed by Israeli airstrikes

Twenty-one civil defence rescuers have been killed in two Israeli strikes on Lebanon, marking one of the deadliest days for rescue workers since the fighting began between Israel and Hezbollah 13 months ago.

time-read
3 mins  |
November 16, 2024
TV review Dystopian sci-fi comes back bigger and better
The Guardian

TV review Dystopian sci-fi comes back bigger and better

As the nights draw in, there are few reasons to feel optimistic that 2025 will be filled with glorious testimonies to the innate goodness of humankind.

time-read
1 min  |
November 16, 2024
Herbert Hound zs a dog of leisure. I'd say that's a sign he's smart
The Guardian

Herbert Hound zs a dog of leisure. I'd say that's a sign he's smart

More than four years after it was established, the Post Office Horizon inquiry is finally coming to an end.

time-read
5 mins  |
November 16, 2024