War in Gaza: Israel celebrates 76th Independence Day worried and deeply devastated

It wasn’t just the fireworks and the Air Force flyover that were canceled. The point is that the government is afraid to broadcast the event live for fear of disruption from Hamas or citizens angry at the failure to bring home hostages held in Gaza since October 7. The event will be recorded and broadcast to TV channels later.

So while most of the world focuses on the Palestinian misery and civilian deaths caused by Israel’s war in Gaza, Israelis themselves will mourn what they lost in the Hamas attack – hundreds of civilians and soldiers along with their sense of national security.

“It is difficult to find strength this year,” wrote Rabbi Avraham Stav in the right-wing newspaper Makor Rishon. “Despite these displays of courage and determination, our sense of security and stability here has been dramatically reversed.”

Because of October 7, there has never been a year in which so many civilians died – approximately 820. And the last year in which so many security forces died – 716, of which over 270 took part in fighting since that day – was 1973, during Yom Kippur war. With around 130 Israelis still held hostage in Gaza, the mood is somber this year.

“It’s the feeling that we’ve lost our country, that we don’t know what to do with ourselves or who we are,” said Daniel Ben Simon, who was a Labor MP and wrote a book about Israel’s drift into a more isolated, religious society. “I am afraid that internal hostility will not be alleviated by Independence Day.”

While there is a deep sense of loss across the country, several rare joint Israeli-Palestinian ceremonies cited a much higher death toll – 35,000 people died in Gaza, according to Hamas health officials. But for many Israelis, the trauma of October 7 pushed aside any sense of empathy for Palestinians.

And as Israelis enter the 48-hour period of Remembrance Day combined with Independence Day, their forces return to work in Gaza. There is heavy artillery in the north, center and south aimed at destroying Hamas rocket launchers and combat forces. The number of deaths is rising again.

Meanwhile, some 300,000 Gazans are on the move again, many of them for the third or fourth time in seven months. They fill carts and trucks with bedding and children, desperately seeking shelter from Israeli military operations in the southern city of Rafah.

Rockets and mortars are again flying from Gaza into southern Israel, including cities such as Ashkelon and Beersheba.

The United States is trying to prevent Israel from fully invading Rafah. Gen. Michael Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, arrived over the weekend to confer with Israel’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi.

Ceasefire negotiations in Cairo have not failed, but they have stalled. The goal, with the U.S., Egypt and Qatar mediating, was to find a formula that Hamas could interpret as promising to end the war and Israel could consider temporary. The formula has proven elusive.

For a moment last week, it looked like a deal might be reached when Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union, said it had accepted a compromise. But when Israeli officials looked at the changes, they found them unacceptable. Now a counteroffer has been submitted and Hamas is analyzing it.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with citizens chosen to light the torch this year, using a defiant tone in a bid to raise spirits. The United States is withholding weapons and ammunition to prevent Israel from invading Rafah, but Israel will not let that affect it, he said.

Israel, now with a population of just under 10 million, had 600,000 citizens during its 1948 war of independence, he said. It had few weapons when it was attacked by five Arab armies.

“How did we win?” he asked. “With heroes of spirit and deed. With the spirit of our people. It was our secret weapon, we have no other weapon.”