Israel-Palestinian hostility intensified by war and Hamas attack

Despite the ongoing war in Gaza and the large number of people dying, a new survey shows that many Palestinians support the deadly attacks by Hamas on Israel, which started the conflict. At the same time, most Israelis support their country’s military and are not thinking much about the deaths of Palestinian civilians. They want to defeat Hamas and bring back their hostages. This is what the polls show.

For three months, I have been talking to Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem to hear what they think about the ongoing conflict.

The cafes in the western part of the city are very busy, serving foamy coffees in the winter sun. However, Israelis are constantly worried about the ongoing war in Gaza.

“Always thinking about it, we have lots of friends with kids and family who are in Gaza, and we pray for them a lot,” says Edna, a Jewish woman from Bnei Brak.

“Yesterday we went to see our friend’s son who was really hurt. ” They are not sure if he will lose both of his legs. She says he won’t do it because God wants it that way.

“We are still thinking about the people who have been taken hostage. ” “It feels like a part of ourselves is inside it. ”

On October 7th, about 1,200 people were killed in southern Israel in attacks. Over 100 out of 240 hostages who were taken to Gaza are still being held captive.

Meanwhile, Israel has attacked Gaza by air and ground, and it has caused the death of about 23,000 people, according to the health ministry in Gaza. Most of the 2. 3 million people who live in Gaza had to leave their homes because there was a lot of damage.

However, a survey by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) recently discovered that most Israelis do not believe that Israel should comply with the US’s request to decrease the amount of bombing in crowded areas during the war.

“Professor Tamar Hermann, who is a top pollster at IDI, says that anyone who wants to know about the situation in Gaza can look it up online. She is talking about the pain and struggles of the people there. ” “But the news on TV is not showing us the same things that people see in Europe or other countries. ”

She also says that when people in Gaza were seen cheering and celebrating the attack on October 7th, it made people in Israel less sympathetic towards them.

In this military operation, civilians are not seen as innocent bystanders like they were in the past. “Prof Hermann says that people are not showing much sympathy. ”

I met Tzafir Bracha when I was on my way to the Old City. He came for a visit. He is staying with family and is one of many Israelis from southern Israel who hasn’t been able to go back home for three months. He is still feeling very shocked about what happened.

“I believe it will take a while for everyone to realize how significant and disastrous the event on October 7th was. ” “I think most of us are still feeling hurt,” he tells me. “I don’t think anyone can understand unless it happened to them. ”

Tzafir thinks that the world needs to see that Hamas must be stopped so it can’t hurt anyone anymore.

“We need to win. ” You need to find the people responsible for this and remove them from society. Only then can we truly have peace.

In the small streets of the Old City, a lot of Palestinians from the part of Jerusalem that is controlled by another group tell me they feel limited in what they can say in public. Many people say that Israel often watches social media posts.

But everyone I meet is keeping up with the war all the time.

I have an account on Instagram, it’s called X. “I keep up with people from Gaza,” Haneen, a student nurse, explains. “We are all very unhappy. ”

But she says she doesn’t believe what Israel said happened on October 7th.

Palestinians don’t believe what Israel says because they use propaganda. We know that some things are correct, but other things are not.

Most Palestinians feel the same way as her, according to a recent survey in the West Bank and Gaza conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.

“Most Palestinians don’t think Hamas has done anything wrong, and most haven’t seen any videos of bad things happening. ” “Professor Shikaki says that these videos are available for everyone to see. ”

His study showed that more people in the West Bank are starting to support Hamas, even though most Palestinians still don’t support the group. Israel, the UK, and many Western countries see Hamas as a terrorist organization.

In the survey, 72% of Palestinians thought it was right for Hamas to start their attack on October 7th.

A store owner from Palestine, who doesn’t want to say his name, is trying to explain why. He says foreign media doesn’t understand the hard life in Gaza because of the blockade by Israel and Egypt since Hamas took over.

“The people in Gaza feel like they are stuck in a very small place and can’t leave, like being in a prison,” he says.

He feels hopeless about the world’s countries because they are not doing enough to stop the fighting.

“We watch hard things on the TV. ” Very hard Children die Women are being murdered. Elderly people are being killed for no reason. They didn’t do nothing. The shopkeeper says, “I can’t believe it. ”

“To be honest, I can’t understand why people would watch these kinds of things and not do anything to stop it. It’s as if they’re just watching a movie and it doesn’t mean anything to them. ”

In Jerusalem, there are many things that separate the Israelis and Palestinians I have talked to.

But, most people now don’t trust each other and are afraid of what will happen in the coming months. Both sides feel that people from different countries don’t understand their hardships.