Essay by researcher Ana Santos Pinto: The temptation to ‘scroll’ the Palestinian issue

Dit was October 7, 2023, 6:30 am. The barrage of rockets and missiles launched from Gaza did not predict the tragedy that would follow. More than a thousand militants from Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups entered Israel by land, sea and air. They launched terror in 24 locations, several kibbutzim and at the Nova music festival. According to the Government of Israel, the terrorist attack killed around 1,200 people (822 civilians, 314 military personnel), injured more than five thousand and resulted in the kidnapping of 252 hostages, a hundred of whom remain in Gaza. The violence of October 7th will leave a permanent mark on Israeli society due to the brutality of the attack, the surprise of the invasion and the scale of the number of victims. The State that was created to provide a safe space for Jewish heirs of generations persecuted for centuries was invaded not by an army equipped with cutting-edge technology, but by militants armed with machine guns, automatic weapons and grenades, who entered Israel’s territory practically unopposed.