Israel’s war in Gaza has upended the region

Israel During the Oct. 7 Attack: Israel at the Second Holocaust, United Nations, and the Gazan Masses as a Torsional War

Around 1,200 Jews were killed by the Hamas-led attack on Israel, which was the single largest attack of its kind against Jews since the Holocaust. Israelis speak about the Oct. 7 attack as a “second Holocaust” because of the atrocities committed. Israelis hid in their home when they were killed. Some were alive after being burned. Others were shot and killed in fields at a music festival. The United Nations documented atrocities like the decapitated corpses, as well as other acts of violence. More than 250 people were taken to Gaza.

There’s not nearly enough food in Gaza, malnutrition is soaring, particularly among children, and the United Nations projects that a famine could be imminent in northern Gaza.

The 260 people were taken hostage from Israel into Gaza. Some of the 134 hostages are known to be dead. Most of the others were released during a temporary cease-fire in November, and two were rescued by Israeli forces during a raid in February. Protests have grown in Israel against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and urging the government to agree on a deal with Hamas for the remaining hostages’ release.

The tragedy of Gaza: the Palestinians, the Israeli Defense Forces, and the end of the Arab-Israeli War. Estrin: On the day that Israel and Israel will leave Gaza

Israel and Hezbollah are trading rocket fire along the border, leading to fears that a wider war is about to break out.

Arif: I was at the southern Lebanese border one day watching a Lebanese man sitting in a plastic chair in the courtyard of his damaged home, surrounded by shattered glass, looking out across the Israeli border.

Jane Arraf. This conflict has brought the Palestinian issue back to the forefront, for the first time in decades. The issue is that 76 years after the state of Israel was created amid the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Palestinians still lack a homeland. There are 6 million Palestinian refugees in today’s world and many were forced from their homes and not allowed to return.

The war is getting a lot of media coverage. In past wars, journalists could usually go into Gaza. This time, Israel is not allowing journalists in, except for brief visits when they are escorted by the Israeli military. There have been many deaths of local journalists and media workers.

Estrin: One moment I experienced that sums up what it feels like to be here was the morning we learned an Israeli commando raid in Gaza had rescued two Israeli hostages. According to the Gaza health authorities, scores of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes.

The mother wailing over the death of her child was recorded by our producer in Gaza. I was listening to the cries of the Palestinian mother in Tel Aviv as an Israeli drove by on his motorcycle with a bumper sticker that said “Go IDF!” a reference to the Israeli military, the Israel Defense Forces. One people’s tragedy is another people’s triumph. Israelis and Palestinians live in two irreconcilable worlds.

It was very bloody, but today’s fighting is worse. It’s important to think about what comes next as there’s a need to stop the killing.

From the Palestinian perspective, if Israeli troops remain in Gaza, if there’s no plan to rebuild the devastated territory and no political horizon for a Palestinian state, that’s not going to be acceptable to Palestinians. You want to end this war as soon as possible. You want to avoid conditions that could cause another conflict a couple years down the road.

The reason World Central Kitchen was delivering food by sea, and the U.S. and other countries are dropping aid by plane, are Israeli restrictions on aid going by road into Gaza. Security concerns are cited by Israel.

Arraf: It looks like this could be a turning point in President Biden’s ability to exert more pressure on Israel. Israel has now agreed to U.S. demands that it open up a third border crossing and allow more trucks through the existing ones.

Source: How 6 months of Israel’s war in Gaza have upended the Middle East

Israeli War in Gaza: What Have We Learned Since Biden’s Inauguration? How Does Israel During the War Survived?

Gaza residents have been blown to pieces or buried under rubble in Israeli airstrikes that have flattened buildings. Unless you have ties to a foreign government that has allowed a limited number of people to leave, you can’t escape the war.

We should stress that Biden hasn’t changed his policy at this point — he is still backing the Israeli aim of defeating Hamas. But if you look at how the president’s position is evolving, we’re now hearing things we certainly didn’t expect to hear at the beginning of the war.

We’ve seen unprecedented criticism of Israel, a country that has always received bipartisan backing in the US, as it waged its aggressive air and ground campaign. This criticism is coming from many sources — some members of Biden’s Democratic Party to college campuses to the broader public. Most Americans were in favor of Israel’s war effort. A majority of Americans don’t like the way Israel is handling the war.

The US already helps Israel with over a billion dollars in military aid, and Biden proposed an additional 14 billion dollars. That plan is still on the table, though it’s being blocked in Congress.

If there is an unaddressed issue with Israel, then countries like Jordan say that it is certain to lead to instability. The death toll in Gaza has caused tension to rise in Jordan, one of the few countries that has a peace treaty with Israel.

Protests near the Israeli Embassy in Amman occur almost nightly. And as the civilian death toll climbs in Gaza, more anger – in Jordan and many other Arab and Muslim countries – is being directed at the U.S. because it is the main military supplier to Israel.

The US naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean was increased as a show of force. In the Middle East, small U.S. military bases came under fire from several militia groups, but the U.S. hit back. For the past month or so, those militia attacks have stopped.

The U.S. Navy is also in the Red Sea, off the coast of Yemen, trying to stop the Houthis from firing missiles at commercial ships. The attacks of the Houthis are still taking place.

Iran is supporting proxy groups in the Middle East, according to the U.S. But so far, the wider region has not yet boiled over, though it remains very tense.

Part of that tension is the killing of a team of aid workers with World Central Kitchen in Gaza, including an American. The repercussions, what have they been?

The three are Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv; Jane Arraf, who’s based in Amman, Jordan; and Greg Myre, who’s based in Washington and has been working in the region.

Three NPR correspondents drew on their experience of reporting in the region, including the current conflict, to look at how the war is shaping the region.

Hamas unleashed its early morning rampage in southern Israel six months ago this Sunday, igniting the deadliest war ever between Israelis and Palestinians.