Israel at War With Itself

Israel at War With Itself

” class=”css-dc6zx6 ey68jwv2″>Roger Cohen

Visuals by David Guttenfelder and Saher Alghorra

This article was written by Roger Cohen, who has reported from the Middle East over decades. He and David Guttenfelder recently spent several weeks in Israel. Saher Alghorra has covered the war in Gaza since it began.

At Kibbutz Nir Oz, time is frozen. The tricycles, dollhouses and washing detergent piled outside charred homes testify to lives that stopped two years ago when a Hamas assault left 117 people dead, kidnapped or missing from this small Israeli farming community near the Gaza border. Wind chimes tinkle over the collapsed swings of absent children.

Of the 384 residents at the time of the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, a handful have returned, but like Israel as a whole, they find themselves gripped still by a horror that the creation of the Jewish state in 1948 was intended to prevent. “Every conversation ends with the 7th of October,” said Ola Metzger, who recently came back with her family.

Her husband, Nir Metzger, whose father was taken hostage by Hamas and killed last year in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, is the general secretary of the kibbutz. A big issue confronting him is whether to demolish burned and shattered houses or to preserve them as a memorial.

“It’s a heated debate,” he said, sitting in the bright kitchen of his newly constructed house. “I say demolish and rebuild. I don’t want kids passing incinerated homes. It’s time to move forward.”

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