Page 17 - October 7 - Teresa Pirola

From time to time there were casualties, and the stress and psychological trauma, especially among children, had to be constantly managed and carefully treated. Still, life went on.
Remarkably, despite these extraordinary daily pressures, our guide spoke without malice towards the Palestinian population of Gaza. She expressed resilience and the determination not to be driven from her home, but not a hint of hatred.
In fact, she took us to the ‘Path to Peace’ wall, where residents had created a huge mosaic on a portion of the security barrier facing Gaza, decorating it with messages of peace. It was their way of communicating that, while they opposed the destructive agenda of Hamas, who governed Gaza, they had no desire for enmity with the Palestinian people of Gaza, and maintained their hope for peace.
It is worth mentioning that Sderot and its surrounding communities are not situated in the ‘disputed territory’ of the West Bank but are on land that has always been considered by the United Nations to be part of the modern state of Israel proper since its establishment in 1948.
Our guide’s moshav was one of the small Israeli communities overrun by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023, where residents were brutally tortured, murdered, mutilated and abducted. We still await news as to whether or not she and her family survived the massacre.
Postscript: Our guide survived October 7 and was later televised, ashen faced, yet determined, guiding a journalist through the ruins of her moshav, including the house in which her neighbour was murdered.
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