There is a dead calm at the end of the afternoon in the kibbutz of Reïm. On October 7, 2023, 3,500 festival-goers danced, to the accompaniment of electronic music, at the Nova festival. A year later, the laughter has died down. All that remains is a vast, sad expanse, planted with stakes, at the end of which we have hung the portrait of the victims: 364 young, smiling faces, surrounded by flowers and Israeli flags.
The former festival site has been transformed into a gigantic mausoleum. Signs indicate where the attacks took place. Others recall the journey of young people. Further on, a sign indicates the distance to the nearest shelter: “15 seconds walk”. The Gaza Strip is right next door, about five kilometers away.
Irma Ben Moshe, 55, arrived on this Sunday morning, the last of September, with around fifty fellow professors from a college in Jerusalem, who had come to “see with their own eyes”. “You know, we teach our students, our children to live with respect for others and with love. But on the other side, they only live to kill us,” says Irma, pointing at Gaza.
“Before the 7th, I thought it would be possible to live with them. I no longer believe it, they have ruined the chances of peace. I feel sorry for the children who are dying there, but their parents chose terrorists to lead them. So no, I am not for a ceasefire. We must put an end to Hamas. »
“No one other than Bibi”
We hear a lot of comments like those from Irma in Israel, a year after the October 7 massacre.
The numbers speak for themselves, as of the end of October 2023, 65% of Israelis supported a “major ground operation” in the Gaza Strip, according to a poll carried out by the Lazar Research Institute. Then, in June 2024, a Pew Research Center survey found that 39% of Israelis believed Israel’s military response against Hamas in Gaza had been “about right” and 34% said it was not. went far enough, compared to 19% who felt that the response had gone too far. And this, even if Benjamin Netanyahu, strongly criticized and held responsible for the security failure on October 7, 2023, saw his popularity crumble throughout the year.
PHOTO HUGO LAUTISSIER, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
In the city center of Sderot, murals commemorate the memory of October 7.
In Sderot, a town of 30,000 inhabitants located north of Reïm, 1.5 kilometers from Gaza, the population is licking their wounds. It is the largest Israeli city attacked by Hamas on October 7. The fighting left around 70 dead and dozens injured.
Nearly 90% of the original population has resettled in the city, after months spent in hotels in safer areas. In a café in the city, David Sigiv and Shlomi Cohin, two friends in their sixties, are sunbathing this late afternoon.
PHOTO HUGO LAUTISSIER, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
David Sigiv and Shlomi Cohin, two long-time friends, returned to live in Sderot after October 7.
A relative of David was injured on October 7, a few meters away. “There is no one other than Bibi to manage this situation,” insists Shlomi Cohin. “Only rich people in Tel Aviv think otherwise. They are disconnected from reality,” adds the entrepreneur who wants the government to continue its war in Gaza.
There can be no peace as long as Hamas leader Yahya Sinouar is alive.
Shlomi Cohin, resident of Sderot
And the hostages in all this? David Sigiv takes a long breath, before sighing. “You know, it’s war. Of course the hostages are important, but we are talking about a hundred people, most of whom are already dead. On the other hand, there are 9 million Israelis who worry about the survival of their country. »
The fate of the Palestinians in the background
In Tel Aviv, the atmosphere is very different. Every Saturday evening, in Israel’s most liberal city, a sea of people marches with slogans and signs calling for the dismissal of the prime minister and the release of the hostages.
PHOTO HUGO LAUTISSIER, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Residents of Tel Aviv demonstrate for the release of the hostages. The sign reads “Who’s to blame?” To the Prime Minister.”
At the height of the protests, 750,000 people gathered last September. But it is clear that, a year after the war, the voice of Israeli society remains rare, if not non-existent, on the fate of the Palestinians – from the Gaza Strip or the West Bank –, including in the demonstrations in Tel- Aviv.
In Haifa, the large city in the north of the country, the Adalah organization (justice, in Arabic) promotes human rights in Israel and the rights of the Palestinian minority, citizens of Israel. A difficult mission.
“It is certain that the fate of the Palestinians is far from being at the heart of the opposition to the government’s actions,” notes Avi Perez, media relations officer. There are still groups in Israel that spread the message that a better future is conditioned by coexistence between the two peoples. But the dominant position that is expressed against this government focuses on the failure to provide military defense to the Israelis, not on the root causes of instability in the region. »