Wars are not just contained to the countries in arms, they spread to the offices and cities of countries world-wide. War has a captivating yet polarizing effect on people, along with a unifying one, and the Israeli-Hamas war is no different.

The Israeli-Hamas war started on October 7th, 2023, when Hamas militants entered southern Israel and indiscriminately  targeted both Civilians and guards. After a period of non-response, Israel launched numerous missiles into Gaza, and sent troops to push back the incursions.

 After almost a month of war, and Israel advancement into Gaza itself, both Southern Israel and Gaza have been bombarded and assaulted beyond belief in the most brutal war Israel has seen since the Yom Kippur war of the 70s.

As of November 1st, casualties are numbering in the 25,000s from both sides with 20,000 coming from Paslestinians alone. The majority of the casualties have been civilians, and these numbers are only growing.

Both sides have been accused of committing war crimes. Many Anti-Zionist have accused Jerusalem of targeting Palestinian civilians, families, and specifically children in an attempt to purge the Palestinians from the region. 

Hamas has been accused of targeting civilians too, including their own, in an attempt to spread fear among Israel and Garner support from the international Community.

The UN themselves has commented saying “there is already clear evidence that war crimes may have been committed [by both sides]”, but they have refrained from commenting further whilst they build their case for future prosecution.

This war, clearly, is brutal, and it is divisive. Protests have sparked up around the globe with people split on either ends of the political spectrum, about their perspectives on the war. To believe the war is just confined to the Middle East would be folly, as both its implications and effects have been far-reaching, and can even be felt in students here at Don Lugo, despite their religious identification.

I spoke to three fellow Conquistadors, two of which have chosen to remain Anonymous and thus will be referred to as Jim and Stacy. The last one is student John Conner.

I asked all three their perspectives on the war, and despite dissimilar backgrounds they have troubling feelings about the war.

Jim stated, “What the Israeli government is doing is ethically incorrect… they are bombing the Palestinian people… you should not punish a group of people [Palestinians] for what another group did [Hamas], that is the definition of collective punishment and is banned by the UN… When this first started My dad cried for the first time in 15 years… I’m scared because I want to visit Lebanon, I want to visit Palestine, I want to enjoy and soak in my culture, but if I do, am I going to be harmed?”.

Stacy stated similarly, “I believe Israel is in the wrong, of course in war there is wrongdoing on both sides but I do believe what the Israelis are doing is worse to the Palestinians than the other way around… What I’m concerned with is how Israelis are treating civilians, how are they not considered terrorists when they hurt civilians that have nothing to do with Hamas?.”

And John Connor took a similar stance, “I think there are a lot of republicans, a lot of right wing peoples [sic], that just see ‘Hamas are beheading babies’ and they don’t realize it’s not much substantiated… Israel is an apartheid state, and my concern is that people are just going to take these right wing talking points at face value and are blindly agreeing to oppression and that pains me”.

There is no answer to the political question of who is right and who is wrong. War is hell, and many people believe in different hells. Though these students surprisingly generally agree it isn’t the same everywhere, but what is the same is that many people still do believe in this, they too are affected by the war. 

I think the important fact to take from this is that people are hurting, people are affected, and it affects more than just those in Israel. Whether you think about the war or not, you should know that the person sitting next to you just might.