The staggering suffering, death and destruction of six months of war since Hamas s October 7 attack has widened the gulf between Israelis and Palestinians, leaving both feeling that the prospect of peace is ever more elusive.
The staggering suffering, death and destruction of six months of war since Hamas's October 7 attack has widened the gulf between Israelis and Palestinians, leaving both feeling that the prospect of peace is ever more elusive. Israeli farmer Yarden Zemach, 38, said he felt safe when picking avocados with Palestinians on October 5 –- just two days before the attack. But ever since the violence that claimed his brother's life in the devastated Beeri kibbutz some four kilometers (2.5 miles) from the Gaza border fence, he views Gazans as a threat.
The staggering suffering, death and destruction of six months of war since Hamas's October 7 attack has widened the gulf between Israelis and Palestinians, leaving both feeling that the prospect of peace is ever more elusive.The bloodiest-ever Gaza war erupted with Hamas's October 7 attack, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,170 Israelis and foreigners, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
On Sunday, Audrey Panitch Levin was at home in Philadelphia. On Wednesday, she was picking sweet potatoes in central Israel, part of an army of volunteers who have rushed to the nation's farms that are struggling with an acute labour shortage following Hamas' Oct. 7 cross-border attack. Israel's farms, most of which are in the centre and south of the country, traditionally rely on thousands of Thai and Palestinian workers to till the land and bring in the crops.