Belarusian from Israel speaks about the attack, mutual aid and victory

Citizens are criticizing the authorities for allowing the Hamas terrorists to attack, but they are strictly implementing all the recommendations and hope for revenge. Euroradio spoke with a Belarusian activist in Israel.

Barys Sukhadreu has lived in Israel for 33 years. He works as a freelancer, videographer - cooperates with the TV channel "Belsat" and devotes his free time to the Belarusian diaspora, developing the People's Embassy in Israel together with Aliaksandr Fruman.

Barys has already developed immunity to military actions in the country. And yet, what happened on October 7, when the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas invaded Israel, fired rockets into cities and carried out a real massacre in some settlements, shocked him.

"I receive words of support from Belarus and Ukraine, asking me how I am doing. Although it's a bit absurd when you get support from Ukraine," says Barys.

He lives in the town of Hader, in the north of the country, halfway between Haifa and Tel Aviv. Palestinian rockets don't reach here, but that doesn't mean the region is quiet. Everyone follows the news and the casualties in the cities in the south, close to the Gaza Strip, where the shelling continues unabated.

"Ashkelon, Ashdod, Rishon LeTsiyon, Holon are under constant attack from the Gaza Strip. It is impossible to live there normally. The most difficult city is Sderot, which was attacked on the first day. Terrorists infiltrated there and took over the police station. Many policemen were killed. In the settlements near Gaza, there is a large number of wounded and dead. Hostages were taken and everyone was killed. In Kibbutz Baeri alone, 100 people were shot. Another 50 people were taken hostage, but they were released. And at the Trans festival in Reima - there was simply a massacre," says the Belarusian.

There is a sense of war in Hadera, too. There are fewer cars and people on the streets - the authorities recommended limiting movements and not to gather even in small groups.

Schools are closed, there are more security forces in the cities, there are checkpoints - they just watch who is in the car, while there are no restrictions on movement in the countryside. There is no curfew either.

"There are some shortages in the supermarkets, but that is more to do with yesterday's decision by the Home Front Service that you need to stock up for 72 hours. We need to have dry food, batteries, flashlights in our mamad. A mamad is a protected room, like a bomb shelter, every Israeli home has one. I'm also talking to you from the mamad. I have an ordinary living room here, but what makes it different is the iron window and the presence of an air purifier in case of a chemical attack," continues Barys.

Volunteer activity in Israel has intensified in recent days. There are both private and municipal initiatives to collect food and basic necessities - both for residents of the south and for IDF (Israeli Army) soldiers. 

"Drafting as many as 300,000 people at once and solving all the logistical problems in one day is very difficult, there may be something missing. And the people of Israel are supporting the army. There are lines at the blood collection centers. Just yesterday, a poor religious family from Ashkelon was accommodated in my block of flats.

They settled in the so-called tenants' club - we have a room on the first floor where we meet to discuss the problems of our neighborhood. There is a TV, a shower and a toilet, so it was possible to accommodate a family. The residents of the house have collected food and brought mattresses. We help as much as we can," says Barys.

"In a democratic system, the army is separated from the government"

Experts increasingly say that such a large-scale and bloody escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was possible because the authorities underestimated the potential of Hamas. Either that or the intelligence did not work properly. 

"But do the people of Israel trust the government even after such a blunder?"

"The people want revenge, and it should be understood that everyone wants the demilitarization of the Hamas organization, the occupation of Gaza and the overthrow of this terrorist regime. The government will have to take some kind of revenge.

But it is important that we have a government and that acting bodies are not exactly the same thing. In a democratic system, the army is the army and the president is the president, in our case the prime minister. People rely on the professionalism of the army, on the help that comes from the home front.

Especially since this is not the first war in Israel and far from the first operation in Gaza. What is happening now is being compared to a doomsday war, because there has never been a failure like this before.

Now there are more and more voices of dissatisfaction with what is happening in the media, trying to understand how it all happened, but not really trying to find someone to blame for the situation.

Because there is a war going on and it will have to be dealt with afterwards. But everybody believes in victory no matter what.