Opinion | Israelis Feel the War Is Over. For Gazans It's a Different Story

Palestinians mourn after an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza city, on Friday.Credit: Mahmoud Issa/Reuters

"Talks about a deal to release the hostages are less relevant for them. The conversation is about who will die today and who will die tomorrow.

Thinking about Hamas or the Palestinian Authority,
about how much Yahya Sinwar or Mohammed Deif are to blame,
is likewise less relevant.

While the prime minister talks about a "war of revival.”
for the Palestinians, it's a war of survival."

The steady reports of intensive negotiations toward a hostage deal tell of efforts to define a prospective cease-fire as either temporary or permanent.

For Hamas and the residents of the Gaza Strip, this definition is critical, but from Israel's perspective, these are hollow terms with little military significance to them.

For Israel's citizenry and media, the war in Gaza has long been over. In September, attention shifted to Lebanon, and with the announcement of a cease-fire there, Israel is no longer at war in the north.

One doesn't have to be a pundit or military analyst to understand that the manpower needed to fight in the Gaza Strip or in Lebanon is no longer a challenge to Israel's defense establishment.

In terms of the home front, the Ben-Gurion doctrine is being implemented – combat must be moved to enemy territory. This is the situation in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and the Syrian Golan Heights.

For several months now there has been no threat of rocket fire to Israeli communities along the Gazan border, and many people there have returned to their work routine, or started the process of rebuilding. Commerce is lively in the area and work is carrying on.

It will take a long time for the mental wounds of the people affected and the bereaved families to heal, if ever. But one has to admit that people not directly affected couldn't care less about the situation. This is not a nationwide issue.

The situation is similar in the north. People are returning to their routine, and rebuilding has commenced. One cannot ignore the difficulties and the extent of the damage.

But the war, with all its pain, has ended. The only remaining open sore are the hostages. If they return, with a deal or without one, this chapter will come to an end in Israel.

Palestinians in Gaza, on the other hand, are still living through a war. More than two million civilians in the Gaza Strip have been left with nothing. The extent of destruction is inconceivable.

The site of an Israeli strike at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Friday.Credit: Ramadan Abed/Reuters

There is hardly a building left whole, yet despite this, Israel is still carrying out daily airstrikes, with the number of dead counted in Gaza approaching 50,000.

In reality, the number may be much higher, since there are people who are not on the Health Ministry's registry, or people still buried under the rubble.

The war in Gaza went beyond anything Palestinians have undergone in modern history. All the disasters that befell them since 1948 seem to have been channeled into the Gaza Strip over the last 14 months.

This includes killings and massacres, expulsion, new refugees, ethnic cleansing and a legitimization of deportation (or, in polite language, encouragement of emigration).

Most of the remaining two million-plus residents in the Gaza Strip are waiting for their death every day. It could be a quick death, a result of an airstrike, or a slow one due to hunger or disease. It could be in a fight over a bag of flour or from being shot by a robber.

Displaced Palestinians shelter at a tent camp in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, on Sunday.Credit: Ramadan Abed/Reuters

While in Israel efforts are focusing on rebuilding, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are engaged in a life-and-death struggle every hour.

Talks about a deal to release the hostages are less relevant for them. The conversation is about who will die today and who tomorrow. Thinking about Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, about how much Yahya Sinwar or Mohammed Deif are to blame, is likewise less relevant.

While the prime minister talks about a "war of revival," for the Palestinians it's a war of survival. The war is planned by official Israel and the person leading it, and this is what dictates the next move that will allow them to control Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank for generations to come.

Most of the populace in Israel responds with assent or indifferent silence, since the process of dehumanizing Palestinians has succeeded: It doesn't matter what's happening in Gaza – the war is over.