It began with the Hamas attack a year ago, it continues with a rain of Israeli strikes on Lebanon, but for many caught up in the conflict, it has shattered time and space
Rockets are fired from Gaza City towards Israel on 7 October 2023. The attack, during which Hamas militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 250 hostage, started the current conflict in the region.Rockets are fired from Gaza City towards Israel on 7 October 2023. The attack, during which Hamas militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 250 hostage, started the current conflict in the region.
This weekend the regional war that so many have feared for so long is apparently closer than ever. More than 1,200, mostly civilians, died on 7 October. Of the 250 abducted that day by Hamas, half were released in a short-lived ceasefire in November and half of the remainder are thought to be dead. No one knows how many died in Friday’s massive strike in southern Beirut. More than 41,000 have been killed in Gaza, mostly civilians, one in 55 of the pre-war population.
It is entirely understandable that we seek to impose definitions on this conflict. We still have an understanding of war that is anachronistic: of finite contests of strength on restricted battlefields. This was given new life by the war in Ukraine, which has seen tanks, artillery and infantry fighting in scenes we have not witnessed in Europe since 1945.
Many others remain only in the memories of the bereaved. For none of them will there ever be a “day after”. Nor for the 80,000 or so who have been wounded, often seriously. Or for the relatives of those who have simply disappeared. These number in the thousands - adults and children, possibly dead, dumped in a mass grave or under the rubble, perhaps simply lost, amnesiac, detained by Israeli security forces, otherwise unfindable. There will be no “day after” here either.
Such subjectivity is not limited just to calculating the time passing in this conflict. The same is true of space, when interviewees spoke of the extent of the war.
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