Israelis Reflect on Gaza: ‘I Hope at Least That Each Bullet Was Justified’

A view of Gaza on Tuesday from the southern Israeli kibbutz of Nahal Oz. As the protests wound down, kibbutz residents grappled with the killings the day before.CreditJack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Daniel Rahamim, 63, had four Palestinians from nearby Gaza at his wedding in 1983. He remembers sunbathing on Gaza’s beaches, and drinking tea at a friend’s antique shop there.

But that was long ago — before Hamas, and the wars that traumatized his children, and the security barrier that now fences off the Gaza Strip like an open-air prison.

On Monday, as gunfire echoed across the wheat, sunflower and jojoba fields stretching several hundred yards to the fence, Mr. Rahamim felt conflicting emotions. “When we hear of the dead, it pains us,” he said the next afternoon. “I hope at least that each bullet was justified.”

From the agricultural hamlets with their backs up against Gaza to the busy sidewalks of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and all the way to Israel’s northern borderlands, Israelis grappled in different ways with the staggering casualty reports from the Gaza protest on Monday: 60 killed, more than 1,700 hospitalized, according to Palestinian officials. It was the worst one-day total since the 2014 Gaza war. Israel said that only a small number of those shot had been armed.

Via: New York Times