Tinoket

One month later, the voices of October 7 are louder than ever

It has been a month and we are living in a changed world. From the horrific pogrom that broke the ceasefire to US aircraft carriers to an embattled Bibi Nethanyahu to a full out war in Gaza and a region and consequently a world on edge. I have woken up every morning with it and gone to bed with it.

At the same time the world at large has, it seems, turned against Israel and anti-Semitism has reached levels not seen since the days of Nazi Germany. In Ventura, California, an older Jewish man was killed at a protest this week. When I posted a comment on ‘X’ about the world caring less about Israel each day, a relation from the venture world responded that she ‘cared more with each passing day, if that’s even possible’. I think it is. As more and more details keep emerging about that fateful morning in October and as we witness how it impacts our world, there is all the reason to care more.

That Day

The ongoing video and bodycam releases - the ones made public - reduce you to tears first and then they take you into a zone that is almost impossible to describe, it is a mixture of numbness and disbelief. And then there are the ones that nestle themselves in your head and you just cannot let them go. Israeli journalist Noa Magid is tracking most of the footage on ‘X’ and in more detail on her Telegram channel.

There is one video where a small black car is driving and being shot at. The car stops and is surrounded by Hamas terrorists who take a number of close range shots at the driver to ensure the person in the car is dead. By the way: this was a feature of that day, it is not just random shooting, it is precision work to ensure that no one would be left behind alive. Only in this case Hamas overlooks something. While the car stopped and before its driver is murdered, something must have happened inside the car. We now know what. The driver, a mother, probably instructed her two young girls in the back of the car to take cover and hide under a blanket. The Hamas fighters never saw them. But the Israeli police officers who arrived at the scene in a gunfight with the assailants did when they approached the car. The oldest girl raises her voice to ensure it is Israelis that are approaching the car. And then when she gets that confirmation she screams that she has her baby sister (‘tinoket’) with her. It is a heartbreaking but also a breathtaking moment. Out of the tunnels of death, a girl, maybe five years old, manages to not only protect her little sister, but alert everyone else on the scene to her presence only once she has assured herself that it is safe to do so.

We can only hope that coming out of this ordeal she and her sister will do well, but without a mother and a father (who apparently also was killed that same day) it will be a hard and painful journey. A lifelong trauma. Her alertness, courage and more so her instinct to step up and save her little sister’s life stand not only as a testimony of what happened that day, but as the necessary signs of life that could not be extinguished, not even by the deranged bloodlust of Hamas. Call it ‘hope’. To hope is pretty hard, in particular for those that survived that day.

Gaza

Let it be clear, Hamas knew perfectly well that Israel’s response would be massive and lethal. And it was clearly aware of the human cost on their side if such an attack were to materialize which it did not much later. It was deliberate and the civilian population was put in harm’s way for very specific reasons. Worse, on many occasions over the past few weeks we were able to see the evidence of how hospitals are used as launching places for missiles and how ambulances are deployed to move arms and Hamas fighters around.

With that we need to consider how to interpret the number of 10,000 deaths is Gaza. Is it an accurate number, given that it is supplied by the Hamas-led government? And of that number, how many are actual Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters? Look, this is not an attempt to marginalize the casualties on the Palestinian side, but we have to remain alert in assessing all the information that is coming out of Gaza right now. The territory is still ruled, albeit marginally as of today, by an entity that sees mass deaths on its own side as a mark of success given that it plays into the victim narrative that in turn fuels the Hamas mission.

And let’s not forget how Israel is going out of its way to ensure that Gazans can move out of their direct environment. This account (via the BBC) is from a dentist in Gaza who received a direct call from what apparently was an Israeli intelligence officer advising him to ensure his neighbourhood would be evacuated. It reveals the serious effort and care to minimize casualties:

Mahmoud asked the voice on the phone to fire a warning shot to prove this was real.

A warning shot seemingly from nowhere, but perhaps from a drone, hit one of the apartment blocks under threat, he says." I asked him to 'shoot another warning shot before you bomb'," Mahmoud says. One more rang out.

Now that Mahmoud knew it was real he tried to stall, asking the man to be patient. "I told him: 'Don't betray us and bomb while people are still evacuating.'" The man said he would give Mahmoud time - he said he did not want anyone to die, the dentist recalls.

It has now also been reported that given the IDF’s advance a growing number of Palestinians are now behind Israeli lines. Which means they’re safe. Safe from the war, safe from their own heinous and corrupt leaders.

Next

As Israel progresses in Gaza the calls for a humanitarian break in the fighting are increasing with Biden having asked Nethanyahu this week for a three-day stop to allow refugees to move around. That is only a sliver of information as to what is going on behind the scenes, a frenzied diplomatic effort involving Qatar, Jordan, even Turkey, is ongoing with no visibility on any tangible progress just yet.

Any concession from the Israeli side is contingent on the release of the hostages, of course. They have been in captivity now for more than a month under who knows what sort of hellish circumstances. Some may even no longer be alive. But we do know that some thirty of them are little kids. Tinoks and tinokets. We hear their voices. They have grown louder over the past thirty days. Bring them back now.