Efrat Duvdevani woke up in his home in central Israel on Saturday morning, shortly after a deadly attack in the Gaza Strip killed hundreds and sparked protests across Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories the latest violent clashes.
Speaking from his home, Duf Devani, general manager of the Shimon Peres Center for Peace and Innovation in Tel Aviv, described a situation in which “virtually nothing is safe.”
“We have two alerts today,” she told wealth CEO Ellen Murray attended the Most Powerful Women Summit on Tuesday. “We had to run to the shelter and all the kids and dogs were shaking and everyone was inside,” she said.
Duf Devani described how early Saturday morning, on a major Jewish holiday, Hamas launched its worst surprise attack in 50 years, killing hundreds and taking dozens of hostages.
“I woke up at 6:30, 6:45 and started hearing my phone beeping. It was like waking up from a nightmare, a nightmare that we couldn’t even imagine how bad it would be,” she said . “We had almost 3,000 people injured and more than 1,000 killed. Some of them were beheaded… We saw horrific pictures… horrific things that you can’t even imagine,” she said.
Duf Devani expressed concern for her elderly parents who live in Ashkelon, a southern Israeli city close to Gaza that is often targeted by rocket attacks.
“I’m considered actually lucky because we live in the center of Israel,” she said. “In southern Israel, just an hour away from my home, my parents live in Ashkelon, and their house was literally torn apart by thousands of missiles and rockets,” she said. “They’re 85 years old and they won’t leave their home. So imagine how bad we feel,” she added.
“Solidarity is 100%”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Saturday’s attack and vowed immediate revenge. Since then, more than 830 people have reportedly been killed in Gaza and more than 1,000 in Israel, while Israeli airstrikes have devastated parts of Gaza and displaced tens of thousands of civilians. Associated Press.
The looming war has a unifying effect on Israeli society, which has been racked by protests triggered by what critics say is an increasingly right-wing and anti-democratic government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Israeli society is sometimes torn apart by politics and everything else. But this is a time of… 100 percent unity,” Duf Devani said. “You could see kids and adults working side by side, packing packages, helping victims, helping soldiers.”
She also shared a rare perspective from the Peres Center, the nonprofit organization founded by the late Israeli politician and Nobel laureate Shimon Peres.
Perez “always told us to dream big, and we’re working hard to achieve those dreams,” she said. “So we are looking at plans to restore a society that has been torn apart, shattered, disappeared, some villages have effectively ceased to exist, and we are trying to figure out how to create a better world for us.”
She ended by sharing Perez’s thoughts on the importance of optimism, saying, “Optimists and pessimists die the same way. They just live different lives,” she said. “We absolutely want to live the lives of optimists. So we must strive to remain optimistic even in our worst nightmares and times of crisis.”
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