The conflict between Israel and Hamas, a militant political group, escalated this week after Hamas issued an organized attack against Israel on Saturday during the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War and the Jewish festival of Sukkot.
Israel launched retaliatory attacks on the Gaza Strip and closed off the borders, limiting civilian access to food and water, which U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk says is against international law.
Itay Raviv is a citizen of Israel. For him, this conflict meant an attack directly on his family.
Itay Raviv: Five family members of my family. They live in Kibbutz Nir Oz, which is also right on the border. And the connection with them was lost on Sunday morning around the time of 8-9 a.m. after everything, it started at 6:30 a.m. with the missiles... We thought up until today that all of them were [captured] and were abducted by Hamas into Gaza.
It turns out, their speculation might have been true, as they received word from members of the village that one of his relatives was recently killed in the conflict.
Raviv: So today we found out that Roee was actually murdered by Hamas, and he was found shot to death on the ground, in the kibbutz.
But beyond the borders of Israel and Palestine, people in the affected communities feel pain, confusion, and grief.
Members of Jewish, Israeli and Palestinian communities in the US share their stories about the conflict and their reaction to it. Benjamin Shiff, USC alumni and former president of Chabad at USC says there is comfort in seeing the Jewish community come together in response.
Benjamin Shiff: It’s tough that it’s happening for something so tragic. The silver lining is that it has been powerful to see this community, and specifically different factions of our L.A. Jewish community and USC Jewish community coming together during such tough times.
Meanwhile, for Palestinian Americans, the recent news has hit close to home. Sarah Ali, who requested to use a pseudonym, comes from a Palestinian background. Her family once experienced the authoritarian takeover of Palestine by Israel.
Sarah Ali: My grandparents were born in Palestine, both born before 1948. So, they were both expelled, and my grandfather lived in a refugee camp. My grandmother was kicked out of her home, and just hearing their stories, that just radicalized me, and I didn’t need for someone to tell me anything else.
To Ali, the branding of Hamas as “terrorists” is incredibly subjective and doesn’t agree with its classification.
Ali: If you’re going to call Hamas terrorists, you should call the U.S. military terrorists, because if you really look at what the U.S. military has done in the past, even 20 years. That’s terrorism, in my opinion.
And this complexity of wording and labeling has major effects when it comes to the conversations here in the U.S., says Shiff.
Shiff: We’re dealing with people here and people’s lives and in death and destruction. The same way that. Now, Palestinians aren’t necessarily represented by Hamas. Israelis aren’t represented by the Israeli government. And there’s innocent lives, so many innocent lives.
At the moment, it seems that this is just start, as Raviv looks into an uncertain future.
Raviv: I consider myself pro-Palestinian. I support two states... I always talked about not hurting innocent people and not hurting innocent Palestinians... Personally, I believe it has to end with some sort of agreement with Palestinians, with someone. But as of now, as of right now, we’re at war. Full on war.
For Annenberg Media, I’m Ethan Huang