Conflict in the Middle East – the price civilians have paid

Dear editor,

A year ago, Israel suffered a brutal attack by Hamas gunmen. The consequences are still visible.

The Israeli government’s initial response – a retaliatory bombardment and siege of the Gaza Strip – has turned into a broader conflict that is now being fought in Lebanon and has attracted other regional players, most notably Iran.

Our articles marking the anniversary of the October 7 attack focus on what a year of conflict has meant for the civilians caught up in the violence. Migration scholars Nick Micinski of the University of Maine and Kelsey Norman of Rice University provide a snapshot of the massive displacement in the Middle East. In total, more than three million people have been uprooted in the past twelve months.

Israelis in the north have abandoned their homes threatened by Hezbollah missiles, while Lebanese families have fled the south and major cities to avoid Israeli missiles (many have even crossed into civil war-torn Syria). And then there are the nearly two million Palestinians in Gaza, many of whom have been displaced multiple times as they tried to find safety while trapped in the enclave.

Maha Nassar writes about another fate of the Palestinians: democratic representation. After a year of conflict, the already declining support that the main Palestinian parties – the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority and Hamas – had received has continued to erode, creating major barriers to any post-war governance plans. What is clear is that Palestinians are clamoring for better options and direct control over who represents them through national elections – something a generation of Palestinians has never known.

Meanwhile, Shai Ginsburg, a scholar of Israeli history and politics, looks at how the fate of the hostages taken on October 7 led to the polarization of Israeli society. The initial shock of that attack had some hoping that a prevailing sense of national unity could replace bitter, pre-existing social and political divisions. Instead, the years-long campaign by the prisoners’ families – and even the way the hostages are commemorated today – has become a symbol of the deep rifts that still exist in Israel.

Matt Williams