When the conflict between Israel and Hamas began, Hamas took 222 hostages into the Gaza Strip, claiming to hide them all around the area. Gaza has now freed some of the hostages, one of them being an 85 year- old woman.
That woman is Yocheved Lifshitz, who now describes her experience as a hostage. One of the things she said at Tel Aviv’s Icholov Hospital shows the brute force of the Hamas attack. She says “Masses swarmed our houses, beat people, and some were taken hostage. They didn’t care if they were young or old.”
Yocheved said that the Hamas members forced her onto a motorcycle and removed any valuables like jewelry or watches, then they beat her with sticks, which hit her ribs and made it hard to breath.
Although she was freed, her husband Oded still remains a hostage in Gaza. The conflict is still growing strong, but maybe there will be more hostages freed in the coming weeks.
In the UN, people are getting mad about the sides not accepting a ceasefire. In Gaza, power shortages are making it difficult to have good health care in hospitals. The importance of a ceasefire is large, and if it doesn’t happen soon, the same things will happen.
Buildings being hit by missiles, civilians dying because of missile strikes on public places, people begging for a ceasefire that I think is not likely to happen, and hostages being kept captive with Hamas.
Israel has the advantage in this war, though. While Hamas is busy avoiding the continuous missile strikes from their enemy, Israel ground troops are moving into Gaza, and even more missiles are being launched. Hamas has nowhere left to run except to the south of the Gaza Strip or across a border with another country.
Obviously, all wars will have death tolls. In this war, there have been over 8,000 Palestinian deaths according to AP News.
This war is going to continue. Things like the stuff I’ve described are likely to keep happening, and with fighting on the ground in Gaza now, it’s almost certain that there will be many more military deaths. But for now, all we can do is watch and wait.
Source: APnews, CNN 10.