The Israeli-Hamas conflict has claimed lives and caused devastation. However, livelihoods and agricultural heartlands are also being impacted. Due to Israel’s policy of blocking Palestinian laborers from entering the country since the start of the war and the fleeing of foreign laborers from Israel, some farmers now rely on volunteers to harvest and salvage their crops.
A record number of journalists and aid workers have lost their lives in the first two months of the Israel-Hamas war.
Palestinians say that since the war with Hamas started on October 7th, violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank has increased. This happened even as Biden administration’s increased pressure on Israel to put an end to settler violence by imposing a travel ban on extremist settlers who have been involved in attacks.
The relatives of the surviving hostages captured during the attack on Israel on October 7 say they are desperate for information about their loved ones as the Israel-Hamas battle rages. Omer Wenkert, 22, was abducted by Hamas militants during the Supernova Sukkot Gathering, also known as Nova festival. His father, Shai Wenkert, spoke with VOA’s Esther Githui-Ewart about his family’s appeals for Omer’s return and their concerns for Omer, who suffers from colitis, a chronic digestive disease.
Israel says it is trying to minimize civilian losses while it continues its military offensive in Gaza, but Hamas and Israel are not yet willing to return to the negotiation table to discuss a cease-fire.
A Gaza-based journalist told VOA of his “overwhelming experience” covering the Israeli-Hamas war on the besieged territory when the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked on October 7. Living in the southern part of Gaza,Fuad Abu Khamash says he is embedded with an emergency team covering the war within an ambulance.
The division between Muslims and Jews in Israeli society has deepned as a result of the October 7 Hamas attack and the military operation that followed. However, there are families that are determined that education is the first step towards learning Arabs and Jews how to live together.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has reported an increase in Jewish settler attacks against Palestinians since the war started between Israel and Hamas. In the southern part of the West Bank, over a thousand people have been displaced, over a dozen villages have been destroyed, and farmers have been evicted from their land.
The construction sector in Israel says it has asked the government to allow companies to hire up to 100,000 Indian workers to replace 90,000 Palestinians who have lost their work permits since the war started.
West Bank in recent weeks due to Israeli forces’ nearly daily incursions into Palestinian areas to arrest people they believe to be linked with Hamas. More than one hundred and twenty Palestinians have been killed by Jewish settlers and Israeli forces since October 7.