United By Grief

The unexpected onslaught by Hamas has stunned Israelis in a way we still can­not grasp. Words reserved for the darkest moments in history, such as ‘calamity’, are on everyone’s lips at a time when our souls refuse to be comforted. The death toll keeps rising: 50 to 100, 200, 300, 600, 700, 900 and then 1,200. This seems like just the tip of the horror as the atrocities become clearer while the dust settles. As the hard reality looms, the Israeli Home Front is revealed in all its glory.

In Hamas’ strategic offensive, the element of surprise played a pivotal role. A barrage of several thousand rockets served as a diversionary tactic. Concurrently, unmanned aerial vehicles tar­geted the surveillance apparatus employed by Israel along the bor­der fortifications to maintain situational awareness. Subsequent deployments of heavy artillery and vehicular assets resulted in approximately 29 breaches in the perimeter security barriers. The operation also saw the utilisation of motorised hang-gliders and motorcycles, facilitating the mobilisation of an estimated 1,000 combatants from Gaza who engaged in assaults on diverse targets. This multifaceted approach appeared effective in temporarily overwhelming the defensive measures of Israel.

Throughout the annals of military history, the tactical em­ployment of surprise offensives has been a recurring theme. While its success in antiquity can be attributed to the limited preventive resources available to armies, its recurrence in more contemporary conflicts is notable. During World War II, numer­ous preeminent powers found themselves caught off-guard: the British were unprepared for the German incursion into Nor­way, the French for Germany’s swift invasion, the Russians for Germany’s Barbarossa campaign of 1941, the Americans for the unexpected strike on Pearl Harbor. The 9/11 and 26/11 events are further examples of how terrorist groups desperately seek ways to inflict deep psychological wounds on an enemy through sur­prise attacks. Israel has found itself on the double-edged sword of this tactic. Egypt, having been unexpectedly targeted by Israel in 1956, did not sufficiently internalise this experience by 1967. Conversely, despite having twice executed surprise offensives against Egypt, Israel was reciprocally taken aback during the subsequent confrontations in 1973.

But the morning of October 7 will be forever remembered as the worst attack on the Jewish state. I woke up to the sirens’ sounds in a friend’s house where we had gathered the night be­fore to get up early and take a day off travelling in the beautiful southern parts of Israel. We had a few seconds to find shelter, and we found it in the neighbour’s house, a dementic Jewish lady in her 80s with her Keralite caregiver. The missiles kept coming, and we couldn’t leave the area. The caregiver tried to calm her employer’s fears while we sensed hers. Soon after, a power blackout for a few hours prevented us from charging our phones, and the caregiver lost touch with her family. She was talking while we were all set in the bunker room. “Here, take it, call your husband,” said my friend, handing down his 30 per cent charged iPhone. At the time 5,000 rockets were launched at Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv, the massacre started; they took over a military base, towns, farms, and the rave party. Raping Is­raeli girls, kidnapping babies and older women from their beds, and burning down homes with families inside. Since the fence had been breached, another wave of a mob, including young boys, invaded the nearby fenced towns and started robbing the houses while the Hamas fighters continued to carry out the kill­ings. Some decided to contribute to Hamas’ collective effort and abducted people crossing the border when a small child was seen riding his toy towards Gaza.

But this story has a unique aspect that we didn’t have during the Holocaust or the Yom Kippur War—advanced telecommuni­cation technology. Concomitant with information wars waged by governmental entities, military factions and authoritative bodies, and juxtaposed against the narratives disseminated by creden­tialed journalists, today, we can get almost a documentary film from the individuals embroiled in these events. This may help justify Israel’s strikes back to the international community, but it can also leave the whole nation scarred forever. Such was the case with many partyers who recorded themselves hiding for hours in the bushes waiting for rescue while they could see and hear the terrorists passing by, speaking Arabic and screeching their Takbir. A few of them who reached the main roads thought they were safe, but suddenly rockets were launched and the siren was on; they gathered in a temporary shelter while a Hamas Jeep playing music stopped by, the militants smiling and singing. They shot each of the 30 people there. A video of a young Israeli hiding in a concrete sewer pipe, filming himself meditating while the silence of death is heard in the background, is just one of the many pieces of evidence that could provide enough material to produce the biggest horror blockbuster ever.

As days go by and on to the fourth day of the war, the mag­nitude of the massacre is revealed. Death is knocking on every­one’s door. The brigadier general who rushed to the battlefield to bring back his son’s body. Two famous TV hosts lost their sis­ter and nephew, a former Israeli national soccer coach lost his niece, and one family friend is still looking for her 70-year-old dad, John Aslamov. Aslamov went fishing with 10 friends on Zikim beach, and since 7AM the families could find no trace of them. She begged her followers on social media: “Please help me to find my dad!! They are not in any of the hospitals. I looked ev­erywhere. We are still waiting for answers from the authorities. The police have no information!! How could this be????” After the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) took over Kibbutz Kfar Gaza, media representatives were invited to document the extensive damage, and the sights were horrendous: entire families shot to death, Israelis burned alive, and corpses of beheaded babies.

We can get a documentary film from the individuals embroiled in these events. But it can also leave the whole nation scarred forever. Such was the case with many partyers who recorded themselves hiding for hours in the bushes waiting for rescue

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The moral effect of surprise does not always translate to stra­tegic gains for the surpriser. At the strategic level, what matters is how this moral effect manifests itself in the behaviour of a tar­get audience. Expressed in a different way, the coercive value of a terrorist attack depends on the attacker’s ability to alter a target audience’s perceptions so that it causes behavioural preferences to change in a desired manner. But the only thing Hamas will gain from this inhuman attack is helping us to nurse the fragments of last year’s turmoil. This year, Israel marked its 75th birthday under the weight of an internal rift over an overhaul of the ju­diciary; the political conflicts were unbearable, and Israelis dis­connected from their friends and families just for their political stand. However, the minute our people were facing death at the hands of Hamas, we were reminded who we were. As US Presi­dent Joe Biden said on Tuesday, September 10, quoting former Israeli Prime Minster Golda Meir, “We have a secret weapon here in Israel: ‘We have no place else to go.’”

With each passing day, additional tales of bravery and inge­nuity emerge, spanning all ages and genders. One story that gave an entire country a pause from the horror and helped regain hope was the story of Rachel’s cookies. Rachel was held hostage with her husband, David, for 15 hours while the counterterror­ism force, including her son, laid siege to the house for their rescue. In an interview with Channel 12, she said: “I saw they were mad, and I asked them if they were hungry. I made them coffee and gave them cookies, hoping they would be relaxed and not kill us.” David said, “She drove them crazy; she kept asking them if they wanted something.” While negotiating over the hostages, an officer inquired of one of the militants about the number of armed individuals present. In response, Rachel sub­tly raised her hand to her face, spreading her fingers, signalling that there were five. Rachel told her captives: “We are brothers; why are you doing this?” The terrorist replied: “We are not broth­ers; I have kids, and they love what I do.”

Hours later, Israelis travelling abroad cancelled their plans to catch the next flight back to Israel, joining the collective ef­fort, begging to be recruited to fight the terrorists. Israelis were stuck in their homes, fearing for their lives, deciding to cook for the soldiers and the evicted families. CEOs of cyber companies began working together on ways to tackle Hamas’ information war on social media. A family member who served as an officer in IDF and had just had a baby called her mother, saying, “Please prepare my uniform. I am joining.” Citizens raised funds, built transportation and logistics chains, and launched crowd-fund­ing to provide a support system for the fighters, the families of the kidnapped, and the wounded. Jewish protesters disrupted public Yom Kippur prayers in Dizengoff Square a week ago. To­day, it turned out to be a volunteering spot for soldiers. One vol­unteer said, “Thousands of people passed through here during the day and did everything to collect and send as much equip­ment as possible to the south.” Most of these acts and initiatives are coming up when the nation is still traumatised. Working in survival mode is probably the best hereditary material running through Israeli veins.

Since the attack, my phone was bombarded with messages and calls from my Indian friends, business partners, and col­leagues, urging me to catch the next flight to India and bring my family “until things settle”. They found it challenging to compre­hend the rationale behind our current Sophie’s Choice. Indeed, I have found it difficult to explain; it negates all logic, but I guess this is part of my Israeli DNA. We do not abandon ship just be­cause of troubled waters; we don’t go to London when the weather changes and the heat becomes unbearable. It doesn’t matter if you are rich, poor or educated. We remember the thousand years of persecution and the souls who sacrificed their lives so that we will have a shelter of our own—a state. An entity that will protect Jews from the caprices of humanity. The full answer to how this happened will take time to emerge. Hamas may have caught us by surprise, but the aftershock helped us regain our unity.

About The Author

Oshrit Birvadker

Oshrit Birvadker, an Israeli of Indian origin based in Tel Aviv, is a journalist and analyst of Indian foreign policy, a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS), a business development expert and an entrepreneur

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