The horrific events of October 7 and the succeeding war have changed everything in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
For the residents of Gaza, five months of war has resulted in large scale devastation and staggering loss of life. In the West Bank too, the determination by the Israeli government to destroy Hamas and all militant threats has resulted in more violence and destruction.Â
For Israeli citizens life as they once knew it has changed forever. Still shocked and grieving over the attacks by Hamas militants, suspicion and revenge are boiling over. And fear is everywhere.
ABC Middle East correspondent Allyson Horne has witnessed the change from her home in Jerusalem. In this week’s episode of Foreign Correspondent, she shows us life divided inside a region at war.
She meets ordinary Israeli citizens who now carry guns to the shops and who go on night patrols searching children’s playgrounds looking for bombs. She talks to Palestinian citizens of Israel who say they are now viewed only with suspicion. Â
In the West Bank Allyson meets the Palestinian children who play with toy guns and dream of growing up to be fighters. She interviews a jihadist militant who admires Hamas and cannot see a world where Palestinians and Jews can live side by side in peace.
And she waits to hear from her contact inside Gaza who hasn’t responded to her messages, fearing that he too has been killed in a war that has claimed so many lives.
