We look back on Hamas’s brutal attack, Israel’s deadly retaliation and the international community’s hopeless response. One year on, do we have any idea how this ends? Andrew Mueller speaks with Mairav Zonszein in Tel Aviv and Mina Al-Oraibi of ‘The National’ in Abu Dhabi. Plus: a roundtable with two former Israeli ambassadors and advocates of a two-state solution. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
On October 7, Israel will observe the first anniversary of the worst day of its 76 year history.
On that day last year, Hamas broke out of the confines of Gaza and embarked on a killing spree that left nearly 1200 people dead and thousands injured.
251 people were kidnapped and taken hostage, of whom several dozen remain captive.
A nation was traumatized.
Few Israelis were more than a few circles of acquaintance from someone directly, directly affected.
Israel's response, still ongoing, has been brutal.
In Gaza.
According to Hamas authorities, at least 41,500 people have been killed, tens of thousands more injured.
Perhaps 1.7 million people of a pre war population of 2 million have been displaced, forced to seek sanctuary in a tiny cloistered area in which there is nowhere to run.
More than half of Gaza's buildings have been damaged or destroyed in recent weeks.
Israel has switched its focus northwards, seeking to remove the threat posed by the Iran backed Lebanon based faction Hezbollah, which began rocketing Israel last October 8th in sympathy with Hamas and had not let up since.
Hezbollah itself has incurred a hefty toll.
Its long serving leader is dead, as is much of its high command.
But Lebanese civilians are also suffering more than dead.
Thousands more injured, hundreds of thousands displaced.
Over the last 12 months, global sentiment has lurched from sympathy for Israel to horror over Gaza, to a sense of powerlessness to stop things from getting even worse.
One year on, do we have any idea how this ends?
Did Israel really not have other options?
And what might the Middle east look like now if they'd been pursued?
This is the Foreign desk.