Israel-Hamas war: ‘I’m just hearing horrific reports’, ‘We’re in a war zone’, New Zealanders in Israel say

Israeli soldiers take position near the Israeli-Gaza border, southern Israel, on Monday. Photo / AP

By RNZ

A man who grew up in New Zealand but has been living in central Israel for 30 years says he is expecting a long and unpleasant war and that many people will die and be injured.

The Hamas militant group is warning hostages will die if Israel continues its violent retaliation on Gaza.

Israel has confirmed more than 100 people were taken hostage after raids by Palestinian militants on Saturday.

In response, the Israeli military has launched an air assault on the region and called up an unprecedented 300,000 reservists.

It is the clearest sign yet that Israel is planning a ground assault as well.

Michael Sedley said that the past 72 hours had been surreal.

On Saturday, they heard thousands of loud booms before they were even aware of what was going on, he said.

“And then slowly seeing my neighbours and then their sons being called up for duty.”

“Almost like a World War II movie when you see you know kids in their uniforms and they’re giving a hug to their parents and they’re marching off to war. It felt just like that but these are you know scenes outside my kitchen window.”

There were horrific reports of what had been going on in Israel and it was terrifying, he said.

His house was not close to the Gaza Strip, but Sedley said life had completely changed in the last 72 hours; he could not go into the office and his wife - a teacher - was now teaching via Zoom.

Sedley said his daughter was currently in military basic training and located in the south of the country not far from the Gaza Strip.

“And she is terrified, she is just just terrified. And I’m just hearing horrific reports of people I know who’ve been injured, who’ve gone missing.”

In theory, his daughter’s service should have been in a relative calm, he said.

“They’ve all been issued weapons, but now they’re being trained to use them properly, God forbid they would ever need to use them in a combat situation, they would have to have a much higher level of proficiency with their weapon.”

He said it was a terrifying thought because even though she was a soldier, she was also his daughter.

“And of course, she calls panicking, and I have to be the father and say ‘You know don’t worry, it’s going to be okay, take a deep breath, everything’s fine’. But she knows and I know that nobody knows how it’s going to pan out.”

He said in Israel religious girls had a choice of choosing to do military service or national service.

Israelis inspect the rubble of a building a day after it was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Sunday. Photo / AP

That was what her older sister did spending two years volunteering in a kindergarten for special needs children, he said.

Although his younger daughter chose to do military service she did not expect to see fighting and had not volunteered for a combat unit, he said.

“She was crying on the phone she was saying ‘Daddy I didn’t want to be a soldier like this, I want to go back to National Service’ and I said ‘Sweetheart, it’s too late, it’s a decision you made six months ago and this is what you have to do’.”

Everybody there knew people who had been called up, he said.

“My brother has a son whose unit’s been called up and everybody in the country is feeling this, there’s nobody that’s not.”

Sedley said his greatest fear was for the 100 or so people who had been kidnapped in Gaza and for their families.

“The horrific reality that you don’t know whether these people are alive or dead.”

The reality was it was going to be a very long and unpleasant war and that people would die, he said.

“Many people are going to die and be injured, unfortunately, that includes not just Israelis but the people of Gaza who have been living under a repressive regime.”

Smoke rises after the Israeli air strike in the Gaza Strip on Monday. Photo / AP

‘We’re living in a war zone’, Kiwi living in Israel says

Benjy Treister is a New Zealander whose young family lives in the city of Be’er Sheva, about 20 kilometres from Gaza.

His two brothers have both been called up for combat and he feared he would soon be needed too, even though one of his three children was a newborn.

He said it had been incredibly stressful.

“Saturday morning we were awoken at 6.30am on Saturday morning by the sound of sirens, took all three kids - the four-year-old, the two-year-old and the three-week-old baby - took the three of them down two floors in our building.

“Basically from around 6.30 in the morning until around one or two in the afternoon there were sirens every, I’d say every 10, every 15 minutes.”

The family was sitting in the stairwell and could hear rockets falling all around, he said.

Treister said it still felt like they were under attack and he was still hearing sirens every now and then.

He said he lived next to a major hospital.

Israeli soldiers take position near the Israeli-Gaza border, southern Israel, on Monday. Photo / AP

“Over the past few days we’ve been having helicopters landing over our head bringing in the wounded into the hospital, we’re hearing ambulance sirens constantly on the way to the hospital.

“We’re in a war zone.”

There is no school at the moment and the streets were empty, he said.

Treister said it was likely that he would soon be called up for combat, but said it was his duty.

“Unfortunately that’s how we live here, every once in awhile we face something or rather, but I haven’t known anything as immense as this to happen yet. But you know I guess it’s part of living here.”

He said Israel needed to do everything necessary to ensure that Hamas would cease to exist.

Treister said he was not referring to the people of Gaza but the Hamas organisation and leadership were not interested in living in peace with the people of Israel, nor were they interested in taking care of their own people.

“Proportionate response, it’s something that’s very hard to talk about in the Middle East, see we’re under attack here, they’re attacking civilians.”

The first attack was against the Israel Defence Force (IDF), but also they took over towns, he said.

“The IDF is going to need to do what it takes in order to protect its citizens and Gaza is heavily populated and Hamas has all its positions in schools and in mosques and in hospitals and really I mean this situation is horrible but we’re going to need to do what it takes.”

People on both sides suffer due to the conflict and the situation cannot continue, he said.

The rubble of a mosque, destroyed in an Israeli airstrike, is seen at Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. Photo / AP

Gaza conditions deteriorating, NZer says

Julie Webb Pullman lived in Gaza for eight years documenting alleged war crimes for submission to the International Criminal court and spoke to RNZ Checkpoint tonight.

“I’m hearing a lot of terrible, terrible stories about attacks on civilian targets such as people’s houses.”

One of her colleagues had four young cousins killed in an attack, she said.

“Every person is just telling me that there’s no safe place.”

While the government warned civilians in Gaza to evacuate, Pullman said it was not possible for many to leave with the military hemming areas in.

“It’s completely unrealistic because there’s nowhere to go.”

She compared the situation to the last big invasion of Gaza in 2014.

“It’s similar to 2014 when I was there then and in that time everybody fled to the hospitals and people were just camping on the grounds of the hospitals.”

Schools and health facilities are being attacked, she said.

“You can’t even go to the hospital.”

Israel has cut off food, fuel, electricity and water supplies to Gaza, which is exacerbating problems for the civilians remaining.

One of Pullman’s colleagues had children who were sick due to contaminated water.

“She had to go through the streets through the bombing to try and get to a pharmacy to get something for these children.”

The conditions were difficult even for Gaza residents who were used to hardship, Pullman said.

“People are kind of used to only having four hours of electricity a day but now it’s to a point where there’s none.”