Precis

The horrific events of October 7 and the succeeding war have changed everything in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

For the residents of Gaza, five months of war has resulted in large scale devastation and staggering loss of life. In the West Bank too, the determination by the Israeli government to destroy Hamas and all militant threats has resulted in more violence and destruction. 

For Israeli citizens life as they once knew it has changed forever. Still shocked and grieving over the attacks by Hamas militants, suspicion and revenge are boiling over. And fear is everywhere. 

ABC Middle East correspondent Allyson Horn has witnessed the change from her home in Jerusalem. In this week’s episode of Foreign Correspondent, she shows us life divided inside a region at war.

She meets ordinary Israeli citizens who now carry guns to the shops and who go on night patrols searching children's playgrounds looking for bombs. She talks to Palestinian citizens of Israel who say they are now viewed only with suspicion.  

In the West Bank Allyson meets the Palestinian children who play with toy guns and dream of growing up to be fighters. She interviews a jihadist militant who admires Hamas and cannot see a world where Palestinians and Jews can live side by side in peace.

And she waits to hear from her contact inside Gaza who hasn’t responded to her messages, fearing that he too has been killed in a war that has claimed so many lives. 

Episode teaser

00:10

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  The Israeli city of Sderot sits about a kilometre from the border with Gaza. Not many people are here anymore. There are lots of empty bomb shelters, but not a lot of people. Hamas stormed Sderot in its ferocious attack on October 7.  It was one of the first places militants reached after breaching the Gaza border. At least 50 people were killed in this city alone,  among the 1200 estimated to have died in the attack.

00:20

In the days after, more than 60,000 Israelis were evacuated from places like this along the Gaza border.  Many are yet to return home.

00:59

From a lookout on the outskirts of Sderot you can see right into the occupied Palestinian territory of Gaza. 253 hostages were taken in there on October 7.

01:16

You can see on the horizon there in northern Gaza there are some giant plumes of smoke. That's a pretty clear sign there's been another air strike. I can hear the booms, actually. There was one just now. And another.

01:32

Super over video:
IDF Video
Strike on Hamas terrorist infrastructure

Music

01:53

In the five months of this war, the Israeli military has been in there, hunting for the hostages, and on a mission to eradicate Hamas, while more than two million Palestinian civilians have been trapped in the war zone.

01:57

The toll of the dead and wounded is staggering. And the shockwaves from October 7 and this war are still being felt. I’ve been reporting here for nearly two years. But in the last five months, the fear and tension is like nothing I’ve ever felt before.

02:14

"Please do not touch my cameraman."

02:40

Something has changed. Wherever you look, grief, anger, and revenge are boiling over. Attitudes are hardening, and people are being driven further and further apart.

02:43

Title: AFTER OCTOBER 7

Music

03:03

Driving to Erez Crossing

03:08

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  For now, this is as close as I can get to Gaza; the Erez Crossing checkpoint.

03:17

If you want to go in, you have to go in with the military, and we've tried since October 7 to make that happen, with no success.

03:26

Allyson to camera at Erez Crossing. Super:
Allyson Horn

In fact, in phone calls I've had with the military, they've said to me, well, if we take you in, what's in it for Israel? So while we can't go past this point, we know that just a few hundred metres that way, there are Palestinian journalists that every day are risking their lives to tell us what's happening.

03:34

Montage of reporters, rockets exploding nearby

03:53

NOOR HARAZEEN: The situation is indescribable. We saw…

03:59

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  Nearly 100 have already been killed. Some of them I knew.

04:08

Allyson on phone at roadside

Another journalist I’ve worked with in northern Gaza has agreed to do some filming for us, but he's gone missing. I'm worried he might also be dead.

04:15

Music

04:36

Night. Driving to Herzliya. Allyson with Ran and Galit in patrol car

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  It’s Monday night. We’re an hour’s drive north of Gaza, in the city of Herzliya, near Tel Aviv, where I’m riding along with a neighbourhood watch patrol. 

04:40

Teams like these, made up of regular civilians, deploy across suburban Israeli streets every night. Since October 7, this patrol has had hundreds of new volunteers. And there’s been another big change.  Now, they go out armed.

04:53

RAN: We need to keep our eyes always open -- our eyes, our ears. We can't allow ourselves to fall asleep again.

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  Is that what you think happened on October 7?

RAN: Absolutely.

05:15

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  Ran Pascal heads the program. Galit is one of the new recruits.

05:27

GALIT: After the 7th October, you don't know who is against who. It's changed me.

05:35

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  These suburbs are some of the more secular, socially progressive parts of Israel.

RAN:  The park is on the right side…

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  But the sense of security has been shattered.

05:46

Ran, Galit, Allyson walk through park

RAN:  So we're looking to see that there are no bags or a bomb is hidden in the bushes. Okay.  Clear.

06:00

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  The October 7 attack has created a fear of Palestinians they’ve rarely felt before. Galit, if you see a Palestinian walking down the street now, what goes through your mind?

06:18

Galit driving

GALIT:  I’m afraid. I don’t know if they want to live next to me, or if he wants to kill me. There is no trust any more of them.  I cannot see how it’s going to work.  After…  when we finish the war.  I don’t know. We don’t know what’s going to be.

06:29

Ran and Allyson in back seat

RAN:  We had a fantasy that maybe one day we could live in peace. But after October 7th, we're not so sure that we have a real partner potentially for peace one day. And if there will be peace one day, it will probably take at least two or three generations.

06:52

Ikea store

Music

07:11

Armed shoppers in store

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  In the months since the Hamas attack nearly 300,000 Israelis have applied for a gun licence. That’s up more than 700 per cent from before the war. People feel like they can’t even go out to the shops without their weapons around.

09:19

Allyson to camera

But this is now part of everyday life here.

07:36

Armed civilians at food stalls, on streets

Guns are now everywhere.

07:40

Music

07:45

Ambulance

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  We were out filming near Tel Aviv, when I got a report of an attack happening nearby.

07:56

Allyson to camera near attack

This is why Israelis say they need guns, because of incidents like this.

08:02

Paramedics and military at attack scene

A Palestinian from the West Bank stabbed a motorist, then used the stolen car to ram other civilians.  One Israeli died, and 17 others were injured. You can see there's a massive military presence here, there's police, there's reservists, but there's also people in plain clothes walking around with their guns as well; people who live in these surrounding areas that have taken up arms since October 7 for this very purpose. 

08:08

Music

08:34

Allyson greets Adi Mansour

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  Adi.

ADI MANSOUR:  Hi.

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  Nice to meet you.

ADI MANSOUR: Nice to see you.

08:45

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  Adi Mansour is one of the two million Palestinian citizens of Israel…Okay. I just saw the time. We better get going.

ADI MANSOUR: Yeah, we have to go.

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:   He’s a busy human rights lawyer

08:50

Allyson and Adi into subway and on to train

who’s agreed to meet me between cases. Palestinian citizens of Israel make up a fifth of the country’s population. Under the law, they have the same rights as other citizens, but Adi says it often doesn’t feel that way, especially since October 7.

09:00

How has life changed for you since October 7?

09:27

ADI MANSOUR: It’s basically a lot of work. (laughs.) Things have changed. Things have changed. At a time when we are witnessing one of the worst wars in Gaza you cannot talk about this. You cannot protest.  Anything that is outside the mainstream idea of the war, which is an idea of revenge, is seen as an idea or as an opinion which is against the state, and you are perceived as a traitor to the state and traitor to society.

09:30

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  Israelis have said to us that they are more suspicious of Palestinians in Israel now. Is that something that you feel?

10:03

ADI MANSOUR: One of the interesting things in the perception of Palestinians in Israel, is a perception of the enemy within.  And this leads to a lot of ideas which have no basis, of course, that these Palestinians would attack us, that they want to destroy us. They want to do this. They want to do that. And ideas such as that lead to a dystopian system where you get arrested, for example, or you get accused, based on the perception of what you could have thought, what you could have done.

10:10

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  How does that make you feel?

10:43

ADI MANSOUR: You just feel how alienated you are in this country, how unaccepted you are in this country, and how hatred there is towards you in this country, and that there is no hope.

10:45

BBC News report

NEWS REPORTER: Israel has intensified its military operations in the south of the Gaza Strip. The IDF says it's hit more than 400 targets.

11:02

Allyson looking at Mohammed's footage on laptop

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  It's been days since I've heard from my journalist friend in Gaza, but at last there's a message. The fighting has finally stopped long enough to do some filming. He's riding along with a paramedic inside Northern Gaza.

11:12

And… look at this place.  It’s so shocking.  I’ve been in these streets in Gaza before. And the place is just unrecognisable now.

11:33

Mohammed's Gaza footage

MOHAMMED: That bombardment took place three days ago. The streets are full of nails, rubble, debris, shrapnel, stones.

11:46

Allyson looking at Mohammed's footage on laptop

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  His name is Mohammed.  He’s a paramedic in Northern Gaza that stayed there with his family.

11:58

Mohammed's Gaza footage. Driving through streets

MOHAMMED:  When we were dealing with the first cases, we were in shock. We were badly affected for days afterwards. But now, because of the amount of injuries from the massacres and genocide involving children, women, the elderly, civilians, it has become routine.

12:05

The first day was bombing, explosion, missiles, raids. We expected a huge retaliation from the occupiers against Gaza.  What we did not expect is that they would attack civilians. 

12:29

The scenes that we are seeing make you cry. I don’t recognise Gaza anymore.  It’s hard to find your house in the rubble.  Up to 70 per cent of houses can’t be identified by their owners because of debris and destruction.

12:52

Displaced families, children

There is no food, nothing to drink. There are no vegetables, no fruit.  What's getting through to Gaza is getting bombed or intercepted before it arrives. That's one of the reasons famines are breaking out in Gaza.

13:11

The hardest thing is to see children scavenging food from the garbage. I miss safety. I miss this sense of safety for my children and family. Not to be afraid that airstrikes will hit us. That’s the most important thing.

13:33

Driving through Gaza

I believe that what happened was wrong, because it destroyed both sides.  Israeli and Palestinian civilians have nothing to do with this. We ask for peace, we want a two-state solution. Even in 30 years it would be very difficult to return Gaza back to what it was.

13:56

News report. Netanyahu with troops

NEWS REPORTER:  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will not be satisfied with anything other than total victory over Hamas.

14:32

Ben-Gvir attending function

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition includes members of the extreme right who have used their platforms as cabinet ministers to openly call for Israel to take control of Gaza.

14:41

Ben-Gvir on Israeli TV

ITAMAR BEN-GVIR:  What can and should be advanced is an immigration plan, encourage it to be voluntary, of course. That will allow them to go –

HOST: You’re saying that the army will stay inside Gaza, and voluntarily, we expel them?  And is that feasible?

ITAMAR BEN-GVIR:  Udi, of course. If we defeat them of course it's feasible.

14:53

Right wing rally

WOMAN AT RALLY:  We won’t give in!

15:11

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:   And since the war, the extreme right has been getting bolder and louder in its attacks on Palestinians.

15:16

WOMAN AT RALLY:  No aid for the enemy! Just think about it. Aid to the enemy? This is crazy to hear this!

15:24

CROWD: No aid to the enemy!

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:   This rally in Jerusalem is calling on supporters to stop aid getting into Gaza.

15:38

WOMAN AT RALLY: Go out from your houses. Stop the humanitarian aid that is reviving our enemy.

15:47

Flag carrying right wing woman, Kach logo on jacket

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:   In the crowd, we spot a woman wearing the logo of a political party banned in Israel for inciting racial hatred against Arabs.

15:57

What should happen to the people inside Gaza that aren't associated with Hamas?

16:06

SHARONA AVRIHAMI: In Gaza, all Gaza, there is no one who's a good person. I don't care what will happen to them. I really don't care after what happened after 7 October . If you're going to tell me, give me a gun, I will go inside and kill all of them. All of them. Even pregnant woman.

16:11

Man address rally crowd

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  And they’re angry at the international criticism of Israel over this war.

16:33

Judy Eisner at rally

JUDY EISNER: You would think that it would become clear who the good guys and who the bad guys are, and you would think that people would want to stand on the side of the good guys.

16:39

Man address rally crowd

MAN AT RALLY: Take your anti-Semitic hands off of Israel. Stop, stop being concerned about our enemies. If you want, if you are so concerned about them, take them to your countries. Transfer them to you!

16:46

Judy Eisner at rally

JUDY EISNER: Why  doesn't the U.N. say every country take in 50,000 people? That's it. No more Gaza problem.

17:02

News Report

NEWS REPORT:  69 Palestinians have been killed, and 1300 have been injured by Israeli forces or settlers in the occupied West Bank since the 7th of October.

17:12

West Bank separation wall. Drone shots over West Bank settlements

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  Gaza is not Israel’s only front line. This is the West Bank, by far the biggest part of the occupied Palestinian territory. Home to three million Palestinians under Israeli military control.

17:26

Soldier's stop reporter's car and attempt to stop filming

The place is on edge. The fear is that the conflict in Gaza could explode here, too.

17:49

SOLDIER: Stop, stop, stop!

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  Sorry - you’re allowed to keep filming, Haidarr. We’re allowed to film here. Keep filming please.

18:00

We are allowed to film here, we are allowed to film you. They are the rules that we sign when we come in to be foreign media in this country.  We are allowed to film.  So we are, for our safety, we are going to keep filming for our safety.

Moments like this happen regularly now.

18:08

Please do not touch my cameraman.  Please do not touch my cameraman. Please do not touch our equipment.  You are now touching our equipment.

18:23

Driving to Tulkarem

We’re on our way into Tulkarem, one of the most densely populated refugee camps in the West Bank. Israeli troops have just pulled out after a two-day raid. Israel has been ramping up military operations against armed militant groups here.  Nearly every day there are raids on a level I’ve never seen before.

18:43

Allyson walks with Noureddin

NOUREDDIN SHEHADA: Inside the camp, they destroyed everything. Electricity, houses, streets. You think we are in the war.

19:10

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  Noureddin Shehada is a social worker in Tulkarem camp.  He was born here, and says Israel’s military operations are more violent and destructive than he’s ever seen.

19:19

NOUREDDIN SHEHADA: This is a phone shop. Why? Why they destroyed this? Why?

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  How did they destroy it?

NOUREDDIN SHEHADA:  By bulldozers.

19:32

Bulldozers destroying buildings

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  Israel says the bulldozers uncovered dozens of explosive devices planted under these streets.

19:40

Army images of weapons

The army released these images of weapons it says it confiscated here.

19:48

Wall riddled with bullets. Noureddin and Allyson examine car

Eight people were killed in this two-day raid. Israel says all were militants.  Palestinians say six were civilians.

19:55

So this was a drone strike?

NOUREDDIN SHEHADA:  Yes, a drone.

20:06

Allyson to camera among rubble/Civilians cleaning up destruction

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  It feels like nearly every single house or shop or home or property here has been damaged in some way. There's such a sense of shock. But anger here as well. And anger that I feel has been growing since October 7. These people here say they feel like now they're just being hit with collective punishment for the actions of Hamas.

20:13

Noureddin and Allyson on street

NOUREDDIN SHEHADA: After 7 October, I don’t know what happened inside Israel. They lose their mind. The government of Israel, they lose their mind. They want to kill any Palestinian. They're building a new generation with a big hatred for any Israelian.

20:44

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  There’s just rubble everywhere.

NOUREDDIN SHEHADA: Yeah, everywhere.

21:00

Children on street with toy guns

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  How does it feel when you see these kids holding toy guns?

21:06

NOUREDDIN SHEHADA:  I am crying. I am crying. I am very sad. These children, you be to look for a future for them. Now they are looking for how we can carry a gun and fight the Israelian. It’s a problem for me. That all the children, they are playing here in the camp. Some of them as Israelian, some of them as a fighter.

21:16

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  So they are playing a game. Palestinians versus Israelis.

NOUREDDIN SHEHADA: Yes. Versus Israeli. I am very sad for that.  Look – this is how many years? Three years? This is the reason.

21:38

Allyson at funeral

21:58

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:   I’ve noticed that armed militants are now much bolder about showing themselves in public here.

22:05

This is the funeral for the people killed in the raid. You’ve got the Palestinian flag, Islamic jihad; the green flags are Hamas. The West Bank is home to a multitude of militant groups, large and small. The resistance – as they’re known – has long had broad support here. And it’s grown since the war.

22:17

Polling shows support for Hamas has more than tripled in the West Bank.  Three quarters of those polled say Hamas was right to launch the attack on October 7, and don’t believe Hamas committed atrocities on that day.

22:46

Driving to Jenin

23:02

I’m on my way the Palestinian city of Jenin in the northern West Bank. It’s a city that’s pretty well known as a militant stronghold. I’m going to meet with a Palestinian man who calls himself a fighter for the Palestinian cause. It’s quite rare for someone like him to speak with the media, particularly foreign media. And it’s very dangerous at the moment, because since October 7, men like him have been a big target of Israel. Both on the ground and in drone strikes in the West Bank.

23:06

There’s intense suspicion that outsiders like us could be Israeli infiltrators. With good reason. Days after we were here,

23:45

Photo footage of Israeli special forces hospital raid

Israeli special forces dressed as doctors and nurses entered Jenin’s hospital, and shot dead three militants in their beds.

23:58

Allyson to location to meet militant

We’re taken to a secret location, and wait for hours, until finally, he appears,  but keeps his face hidden.

24:09

Interview with militant

Who do you fight with?

MILITANT:  I belong to the Jerusalem Brigades of Islamic Jihad, in the Jenin Battalion.

24:23

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  What do you think of what Hamas did on October 7?

24:30

MILITANT:  The first feeling was of happiness. When the attack happened early morning, I was awake. I was surprised.  I couldn't believe it. It was like a dream. We were entering our own land.  I was wishing to be there with them.

24:35

Personally, my view is that resistance is the only way. To resist this occupier so that he leaves my land with this weapon. In Jenin, we are united.  We are all brothers. Here, it doesn’t matter if you belong to Hamas, Jihad, or Fatah. We are all united. Our job is to fight.

24:51

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  There have been a lot of people killed here in Jenin since October 7. Is it worth what you're doing to have that many people killed?

25:11

MILITANT:  At first, there were three or four armed people in the street here in Jenin.  People thought it wouldn’t last long, they’d be there for a while and then leave. As time went on, three armed people turned into a hundred.

25:24

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  Would you support peace with Israel?

25:42

MILITANT: There is no solution in the end. There is no two-state solution. We are one country, from the river to the sea.

25:46

Drone Shot. Tel Aviv, night

Music

25:53

Anti-government protest

NEWSREADER:  Thousands of people have gathered in Tel Aviv to protest against the government. They are demanding the resignation of the entire Israeli government and the return of all remaining hostages taken by Hamas militants on October the 7th.

25:57

Posters of hostages

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  Five months after they were kidnapped, more than 130 hostages are still being held captive. Israel believes some of them are already dead.

26:13

Anti-government graffiti

It unites the nation in grief. But there’s also deep anger at the massive security collapse of October 7, and the ongoing failure to get the hostages out.

26:24

Anti- Netanyahu protest

CROWD CHANT:  The blood is on the hands, of Bibi Netanyahu!

26:39

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  Nearly every day, there are protests against Benjamin Netanyahu outside Israel’s Parliament building.

26:43

PROTESTOR:  We have a cowardly prime minister who only wants to preserve his place.

26:49

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  Polling shows more than two thirds of Israelis want their country’s longest serving Prime Minister gone.

26:54

Yaakov at protest

YAAKOV:  Netanyahu is guilty for my son’s murder.

27:01

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  Yaakov Godo’s son was shot dead by Hamas in the October attack. After a month of mourning, Yaakov set up this protest camp outside the Parliament, and has been here almost every day since.

27:05

Yaakov interview

YAAKOV:  I swore on his grave twice that I am going up to Jerusalem, sitting opposite the Knesset and will demand that the government and the person who leads it leaves.

27:22

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  Yaakov is not just anti-Netanyahu. 

27:35

Yaakov addresses protest

YAAKOV: This war, we don’t know where it’s going. This war is for nothing.

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:   He’s also anti-war.  And in Israel, that puts him in a tiny minority.

27:38

Polling shows 94 per cent of Jewish Israelis support the aims of the war – to rescue the hostages, and crush Hamas once and for all.

27:50

Yaakov interview

YAAKOV:  I think that at this moment, after the events of October 7, many people have radicalised their views and have shifted to the right. I think that as time passes, and uncertainty increases and they get stuck in the Gaza quagmire, and don’t make any progress anywhere, people will start to understand that Israel’s problems cannot be solved by war.

28:02

Pro-war supporters

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  It’s a provocative view here. A supporter of the war in Gaza walks over to confront them.

28:39

GUY WITH FLAG:  Why aren’t you demonstrating against the humanitarian aid that’s going to Hamas?

MAN IN BLUE T-SHIRT: You go demonstrate!

GUY WITH FLAG: That’s what we came to demonstrate about today.

MAN IN BLUE T-SHIRT: So go demonstrate. But not here, not here.

GUY WITH FLAG:  No, we’ll go up there. You have your - so that’s your place.

MAN IN BLUE T-SHIRT:  Go wherever you want.

GUY WITH FLAG: It’s not a matter of debate. We are all together in this. We all want the -

28:46

MAN WITH BACKPACK: No, no, no, no. We are not together. I don't want to be with you together.

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  Is it harder to be someone who holds the kind of views that you do after October 7?

29:02

YAAKOV: It is very hard to be here in the protest tent, to have to absorb curses almost every day, horrible curses. It reached the point where someone stood before me and said to me “Stinky, leftist traitor, you murdered your own son”.

29:14

Protestors chant. Security remove protestors

PROTESTORS: Elections now!

29:41

ALLYSON HORN, Reporter:  It can be hard to recognise a historic moment when you’re living through it, but this one is plain to see. 

29:56

Driving to Sderot

Back in Sderot, the roads are busier, but security is as tight as ever. Just over there in Gaza, more than 30,000 people have been killed. When I first moved here

30:12

Allyson to camera

two years ago, people I spoke with still had some vague hope that peace might one day be possible.  Now, I don’t know how Israelis and Palestinians will ever forgive each other.

30:30

Credits [see below]

30:45

Outpoint

31:21