Maya Levin for NPR
SHEFAYIM, Israel — Five months after the surprise Hamas assault on Israel on Oct. 7, and Israel’s punishing military response in Gaza, Israeli and Palestinian lives have been immeasurably changed.
The catastrophic conditions worsening daily in Gaza often overshadow the profound transformation Israelis have undergone.
The state of Israel’s society is crucial to understanding where the conflict might lead. Here are five ways Israel has been transformed in the last five months of war.
1. Israelis’ lives are on hold
Israelis remain in a state of suspended animation.
Following the Oct. 7 attack, 94,000 Israelis are still displaced, evacuated from their homes near the restive Gaza and Lebanon borders. Some 32,000 of them are still being put up in hotels across Israel, according to data from an internal Israeli government database provided to NPR.
It was only two weeks ago that Avidor Schwartzman, a survivor of the Oct. 7 attack, finally moved with his family from a room at the Shefayim Hotel, a resort north of Tel Aviv, to a new trailer park set up behind the hotel.
“It doesn’t feel like home, but it feels a lot more like a home,” he says.
Maya Levin for NPR
Maya Levin for NPR
Schwartzman’s trailer is one of eight prefab homes lined up in two rows, built on sand, housing broken families from the same devastated kibbutz,…
This article was originally published by a www.npr.org . Read the Original article here. .