PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Sunday, Jan. 14, will mark 100 days since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and kidnapping 240 others to hold as hostages in Gaza.
In the wake of the attack, as Israel’s government pledged to destroy Hamas, some 23,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in a barrage of attacks, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
As months of war and destruction escalate into a geopolitical conflict on multiple fronts, many people in the Philadelphia area can't shake the human toll of the tragedies.
In a negotiated deal, Hamas released more than 100 hostages, but the local Israeli and Jewish community wants to make sure the hostages who remain in captivity are not forgotten.
“We think about them all the time,” said Michal Mary, co-organizer of a rally gathering Sunday at Belmont Plateau.
Mary and her Israeli American co-organizer, Dafna Ofer, say they want to build pressure on Hamas from around the world to release the remaining hostages from Gaza.
“The message is that they need to be home,” Ofer said. “It’s been 100 days too many. We just want people to see that we’re still thinking of them every single day of the week for 100 days.”
The car rally on Sunday will start at 10 a.m. at Belmont Plateau in Fairmount Park. With flags, yellow ribbons and “kidnapped” posters featuring the more than 130 people still held in Gaza, the procession will travel down I-76 to I-676, circle around City Hall, and head back toward the Philadelphia Museum of Art on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway before returning to Belmont Plateau via I-76.
“We're not looking to disturb anything,” said Mary. “We’re just looking to make sure everybody in the world remembers what we’re talking about.”
Some released hostages have testified of Hamas captors raping some of the hostages still in Gaza. “Now we’re talking about over three months,” Mary said. “Those girls can be pregnant by now, so we need to get them out as soon as possible. If they need to have an abortion, this is the time.”
Mary said the rally also holds a message for Palestinians.
“If somebody from Gaza is hearing me now, or Palestinian hearing me now, I want to tell you: We’re not against you,” she said. “We want you to come against Hamas. If you want a better future, you need to demand that they will give you a better life by getting out of Gaza.”
No end in sight
Aviv Ezra, acting consul general for Israel in New York City, said on the 100th-day milestone, it’s crucial to remember why Israel is at war with Hamas.
“Unfortunately, everything is documented. I’m saying ‘unfortunately’ because it’s just horrifying to see the story. Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 didn’t just commit these atrocities — they documented themselves, and they sent it out on the web,” Ezra said.
“Because we know from them — this is in their words — that they would like to commit, once again, these atrocities again and again and again. They would like to go after innocent civilians. They would like to eradicate the state of Israel. And they are not shy about it.”
Hamas’ attack sparked a tremendous response. On Oct. 27, the Israeli military launched a full-scale campaign of air and ground strikes inside Gaza, promising to crush Hamas and end its governance of the territory.
“I don’t think anybody imagined the devastation in this — in Gaza — that we would see,” said Sam Kuttab, a Palestinian American from Cheltenham who said he has lost cousins in the conflict. His brother, a journalist and journalism teacher, has lost students.
“I am definitely feeling the pain,” he said. “We get to the point where it is really hard to watch.”
Analysis of satellite data cited by the Associated Press suggests that Israel’s offensive has either damaged or destroyed two-thirds of all structures in northern Gaza and a quarter of buildings in the southern area of Khan Younis. That includes tens of thousands of homes, schools, hospitals, mosques and stores.
Israel holds Hamas responsible for civilian deaths by embedding militants in civilian infrastructure. Those sites also shelter multitudes of Palestinians who have fled under Israeli evacuation orders.
Ezra said he is sympathetic to the loss of life — especially Palestinian children. “[Hamas] are using human shields. They’re pressuring Israel, through those sacrifices of their own innocent civilians … to halt our military campaign to protect themself.”
Different perspectives come to light
Ray Mustafa, a Palestinian American who owns a grocery store in West Philadelphia, said the world is finally seeing the perspective of Palestinian civilians because of the war.
“For 75 years, the Israeli government and the media has controlled the narrative. And now, with social media, people around the world can see what’s going on,” he said. “The global awakening of the conscience of the international community brings me some hope that positive change in the everyday lives of Palestinians will have to come about.”
Both Mustafa and Kuttab said that despite the destruction, devastation, death, and the personal pain they feel, they have found something positive in the last 100 days.
“There’s hope — because, for once, I am hearing for the first time, ‘Enough is enough,’” Kuttab said.
“We’ve never seen the grassroots support. Not just from anybody. From young Jews, from young Palestinian Americans. And on a world scale this is happening, they are saying, ‘No, this is wrong. What happened on Oct 7 is wrong. But what you are doing is wrong and you can’t justify it as self-defense.’”
Both men point to a South African lawsuit filed in the U.N.’s International Court of Justice calling for an injunction to stop what it calls a “genocide.”
Israel normally considers U.N. and international tribunals unfair and biased, but it has sent a strong legal team to defend its military operation.