One by one, Israelis peered through the tourist-style binoculars at the shattered Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, a distance of several football fields away, where buildings tilted in the rubble like broken teeth.
asserted
buildings → peer → teeth
The only noticeable movement was dust kicked up by Israel’s military.
asserted
movement → kick → military
The Israelis squinted for a few moments and gestured others over.
asserted
Israelis → squint → others
The lookout is a rare place where they can confront the Palestinian territory firsthand, and some celebrate its devastation.
asserted
some → confront → devastation
An Israeli documentary released this year included one onlooker exclaiming, “Wow, destroyed beautifully.”
asserted
documentary → release → onlooker
The Associated Press heard similar sentiments there.
asserted
Press → hear → sentiments
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel and abducted 251 others, leading to a devastating war and, eventually, a fragile ceasefire.
asserted
militants → lead → war
Three years on, a visit to the communities attacked that day made clear: It’s too soon for many residents to see the Palestinians next door as anything other than a threat.
asserted
residents → attack → threat
Barbecue reminds one woman of ‘the smell of hell’
asserted
Barbecue → remind → hell
The highway running parallel to Gaza, where militants gunned down people trying to flee, is dotted with memorials.
asserted
militants → run → memorials
Victims’ smashed and bullet-pocked cars are assembled elsewhere, rusting and piled a half-dozen high.
asserted
cars → smash → ?
Portraits of young female military spotters, whose warnings about a potential attack were disregarded, mark their deaths that day.
asserted
warnings → disregard → deaths
One resident, Deganit Bar Hay, said she still can’t barbecue because the smell of burnt flesh — “the smell of hell” — is a trigger.
asserted
smell → say → hell
Globally, there is shock and condemnation over how Israel has conducted the war, and how Gaza remains in ruins and cut off from the world a year since the ceasefire.
asserted
Gaza → be → ceasefire
Over 74,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and the vast majority of its 2 million residents live in rat-infested tent camps or among the debris.
uncertain
majority → kill → debris
Israeli media report little on the Palestinians of Gaza, and Israelis rarely if ever hear their voices unless they seek them out.
asserted
they → report → them
A new Israeli documentary, “NAZA,” in which military insiders describe what they said was the systemic killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, has sparked outrage at the filmmakers, not the government.
asserted
they → describe → filmmakers
Everywhere in Israel — at train stations, beaches, the Gaza viewpoint — are dozens of stickers in memory of the hundreds of soldiers killed on Oct. 7 and in the ensuing war.
“We are post-traumatic, all of us,” said Ziporah Livneh, outside a cafe catering to tour groups and soldiers a short drive from Gaza.
asserted
Livneh → kill → Gaza
Much of her family died in the Holocaust, and she came to Israel at the age of 2.
asserted
she → die → 2
Now, she said, the answer for Gaza is to keep believing in people’s humanity but respond strongly to acts of evil.
asserted
answer → say → evil
A society and a country can’t be built on revenge, but for the world to think “we can be Mother Teresa, it is a hypocrisy.”
asserted
it → build → revenge
‘Many people around the globe don’t understand us’
asserted
people → understand → us
Many Israelis are still turned inward.
asserted
Israelis → turn → ?
They say their story isn’t being heard or understood.
asserted
story → say → ?
They assert that Palestinians in Gaza receive more attention, even as Israel’s government still prevents journalists from entering the territory except under rare, highly managed visits — and very few Palestinians can leave.
asserted
Palestinians → assert → visits
From the day the war began, Israeli news and hearts were focused on the dead and the hostages taken into Gaza, a land that despite being an hour’s drive from Tel Aviv has long felt remote.
asserted
that → begin → Aviv
Cross-border contact had been severely limited since Hamas seized power in 2007.
asserted
Hamas → limit → 2007
Then, on Oct. 7, militants ripped the fence apart.
asserted
militants → rip → fence
This is the first anniversary since the attack that all remaining hostages are out of Gaza, alive or dead.
asserted
hostages → remain → Gaza
There is rebuilding in the Israeli communities where militants went home to home, burning and shooting.
asserted
militants → be → home
There is also the insistence on keeping Oct. 7 memories alive, with hope that the outside world will come to understand how Israel’s sense of security was smashed.
asserted
sense → be → security
“I know many people around the globe don’t understand us,” said Mor Izreal, director of an Oct. 7 virtual reality exhibit in the border city of Sderot.
asserted
Izreal → know → Sderot
She said over 10,000 people have visited since it opened a year and a half ago, most from overseas.
asserted
it → say → ?
Reactions range from sadness to rage to connectedness, she said.
asserted
she → range → connectedness
The first election since the war brings fresh anger
This year, for the first time since the attack, there is also an election, a momentous and angry one.
asserted
election → bring → attack
Many Israelis accuse him of failing to prevent the Oct. 7 attack and not securing the hostages’ release sooner, before many of them were killed.
asserted
many → accuse → them
He is also accused of corruption and threatening democratic institutions.
asserted
He → accuse → institutions
But there has been little criticism of how his government has treated the Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel’s military now controls over 60% of the territory, squeezing them into an ever-smaller space.
asserted
military → treat → space
Next to a bullet-pocked rocket shelter outside Sderot, a man held a banner calling for an official inquiry into the security failures surrounding the Oct. 7 attack.
asserted
man → pock → attack
Netanyahu has long resisted one.
asserted
Netanyahu → resist → one
…and 22 more, not listed.
The Aporia
