Israelis and Palestinians are marking three years since October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel. Nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed, and around 250 were taken hostage. It was the deadliest such attack in Israel’s history, after which Israel immediately began bombing the Gaza Strip, killing at least 5,000 people by October 23, 2023. At least 74,000 Palestinians have been killed.
Israeli peace activist Maoz Inon lost both of his parents, who lived on a kibbutz just north of the Gaza border, in the Hamas attack. In the aftermath, Inon called for peace and reconciliation rather than revenge. He has spent much of the past three years working closely with Palestinian peace activist Aziz Abu Sarah.
“The Israeli government exploited the trauma, the pain, the fear of the Israelis after the October 7th massacre to change the status quo from conflict management to ethnic cleansing,” says Inon. “Those who choose ethnic cleansing, those who choose bloodshed, those who choose destruction must be sanctioned,” he adds.
