Near Gaza, families of Israeli hostages between despair and anger – Liberation

With the large-scale hostage-taking this weekend, especially at a loud party on the border with Gaza, Hamas has succeeded in stirring up conflict within Israeli society itself.

The pictures spread around the world. A group of young people dancing wildly to the tunes of electronic music. The angry, but also dreamers – he called the party a “peace festival” – were surprised by an onslaught of small planes, motorbikes and armed men, “our biggest nightmare,” says Diamond. She only wants to give her stage name — “out of humility, not out of fear of saying it,” the tattooed young woman wants to make clear. DJs, are part of this Israeli subculture popular in all social circles, a kind of Israeli version of Burning Man, partying in nature until the wee hours of the night and often making fun of borders and codes. “Something was broken,” she adds. “I close my eyes and think about my friends who were there; “I don’t know how I can celebrate again,” she says, rolling a cigarette. She’s shaking a little. “And imagine this happening to you while you’re taking acid?”

As of today, in post-October 7 Israel, the idea of ​​organizing a peace festival on the border with Gaza seems absurd and ill-advised. But this is not at all strange for an Israeli society that is accustomed to waking up in the morning “without thinking about the conflict,” as the former prime minister so eloquently put it.