Note: Because of the changing nature in the Israel-Gaza situation and the LaVozColorado press run, some parts of this story may no longer be accurate.
It was fifty-three days ago that a Hamas cell staged a multi-pronged, bloody and murderous raid on an Israeli kibbutz igniting the deadliest strike against Jews since the Holocaust. But as November wound down, a four-day truce was finally agreed to, and a limited prisoner-hostage exchange took place. Also, on Monday, the Qatari-brokered four-day truce was later extended two additional days.
The human toll since October 7th, when Hamas struck the first blows, has challenged chroniclers of this war to simply find the words to illustrate its depth and depravity.
While the numbers are fluid, Al Jazeera, the Qatari-based news agency that covers news throughout the Middle East and beyond, says that the pre-truce death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is estimated at 14,854, with more than 10,000 being children and 4,000 women. The news agency also reported at least 36,000 wounded, with 75 percent of them children and women. Another 6,800 are listed as missing. Many may never be found or accounted for.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the casualty toll in the Occupied West Bank includes 239 dead, including 55 children. More than 2,750 have been injured. The Israeli government reports 1,200 deaths and an estimated 5,600 injured. The reported Israeli fatalities are those who were killed in the first few hours of October 7th start of the war. Also killed were nearly 50 media members covering the battles.
Since first announced on November 24th, the truce has resulted in each side releasing captives in dribs and drabs. On Monday, 11 Israeli hostages—all women and children taken 53 days ago—were released. Over the weekend, Hamas released 13 Israelis on Friday, another on Saturday and another 14 on Sunday.
For its part, Israel released 39 Palestinian prisoners in two separate groups on Friday. In the first group all but two were men. Another 22 prisoners—all women—were later released. Israel has signed off on the release of 150 Palestinian women and children in exchange for 50 women and children taken hostage on October 7th.
Still in the works and perhaps a result of the additional two days of truce, Israel is considering the release of approximately 300 additional Palestinians prisoners. Many of the Palestinian prisoners, some as young as twelve and thirteen, have been detained for more than a year without actually being charged. Crimes that allow these opened-ended detentions are often nothing more than throwing rocks at Israeli Defense Forces who routinely patrol the streets of Gaza.
Release of more prisoners may be linked to a still being negotiated second phase of prisoner-hostage swaps. According to Al Jazeera, the agreement may allow for an additional day of truce for every 10 captives Hamas releases.
While death has ended the war for thousands, the living still face a future that carries with it immense challenges. Gaza, once the home to more than two million, has been reduced to a dystopian landscape. Hundreds of air-strikes by the Israeli Air Force, along with rockets launched from distances away by the Israeli Navy have left it uninhabitable. Also, prior to the airstrikes, Israel ordered more than a million Gazans to leave their homes for the southern half of the 26-mile strip of land. When the war ends and they are allowed to return to their homes, they will find nothing more than a memory replaced by rubble.
Worse, say observers, is that there is also a chance that the conflict may spread. There have been reports of small skirmishes along the Israel-Lebanon border. The U.S. has also warned both Iran and Syria about any outside involvement. The temperature is rising all across the region.
“The carnage is beyond fathomable,” said Denver Rabbi Birder Becker. “Every life is of value and it’s an unfortunate situation to have been put in. You feel the hurt and not just the lives that have been taken.”
Becker, now a Rabbi Amerita of Pueblo’s Temple Emanuel, says that watching as a ‘distant observer’ does not lessen the heartbreak. “If I could find a way out of this dilemma, I wouldn’t be sitting here…I don’t think that you can just fight your way out of this. The conflict has stood for too long.”
The Denver Islamic Society commented, “As a faith-based nonprofit organization being physically far-removed from the conflict, we do not have a perspective on these issues, and we wish peace and justice on humanity everywhere.”
While the truce, now in its final day, has dwindled to hours, Israel has opened up roads to Gaza where hospitals—those that remain—try and treat what seems to be an endless flow of the war’s victims. The truce is also allow- ing food, medicine and fuel—essentials that had been exhausted or nearly so—to cross into southern Gaza.
The truce, now in its final day, may or may not be extended and prisoners and hostages still being held may continue to be each side’s bargaining chips for additional lulls in fighting. But no short-term truce will alter each side’s historic animus for one another.
With diplomats crisscrossing borders and burning back channel corridors to negotiate an end to what is now a nearly two-month battle in a region of the world held holy by Christians, Jews and Muslims, it seems an almost impossible to imagine a lasting peace.
“The people making decisions have to decide that they want to live in peace,” said Rabbi Becker, “as much as they want to pursue killing each other…That cannot be the goal if you’re dealing for a reliable peace.”
