: [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: This piece incorrectly says that the death toll in Gaza as reported by the territory’s Health Ministry is “over 40,000 civilians”. The ministry has reported that “over 40,000 people” have been killed in the ongoing conflict. The ministry figures do not specify how many of the dead were civilians.]
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
A year ago, Guy Becker and his family were living on a kibbutz in northern Israel just outside Lebanon. That all changed on October 7 when Hamas attacked in the south. Fearing attacks from Hezbollah in the north, Becker's community was evacuated.
GUY BECKER: People organized themselves with small bags for what we believed would be three or four days away from home, and that was 12 months ago.
RASCOE: Guy Becker is just one of 60,000 Israel says has been displaced from their homes in the north. We talked with him to find out how life has changed in Israel since October 7. Becker can't quite believe that it has been a year.
BECKER: It's unimaginable that it's been so long. One thing that's quite common for everyone living close to the border is that you understand there is a measure of denial. We used to see flags of Hezbollah just over the fence. But to live a normal life, you kind of deny yourself of those thoughts. Now that denial has ended.
RASCOE: And how are your kids dealing with this?
BECKER: This is really tough. It's change that is forced on you. The Ministry of Education was pretty quick to set up temporary schools, so they started going to those schools with their peers, their friends. There's a lot of attempts to keep doing the things you do as a family to keep life going, although you're displaced and nothing really is normal.
RASCOE: Yeah. Do you feel safer than you did a year ago? You're still in northern Israel. The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon has only grown since then.
BECKER: The sense of security is a bit misleading. The Israeli army is now attacking Hezbollah quite heavily. There are alarms, and we are forced to go into shelters every two or three days, I would say. So in a situation like that, you don't really feel safe. But at the same time, you feel like now there's something being done about your future safety and your ability to go back home.
RASCOE: Do you think about the suffering that's happened over the last year - in general, the Israelis that were killed, taken hostage, the over 40,000 civilians killed in Gaza, all of the suffering that has happened? How do you make sense of it, the pain that you feel and all of these other things that have also happened?
BECKER: Up until now in the conversation, we spoke about my family and my community and what we've been through. Our suffering, if you can even call that, is minuscule to what others have suffered, the Israelis that were attacked in the south on October 7 and also the civilians and innocent people on the Gazan side of the border. And we're talking about incredible figures of casualties. On the Gaza side, most Israelis are not really exposed to those numbers and not to the images because the Israeli media doesn't report it. I think it's a tragedy that so many innocent people are getting hurt. But the blame for it is on Hamas. And again, I blame Israeli government for not taking care of Hamas earlier. But in the situation that we found ourselves in, we have to destroy that organization.
RASCOE: What do you want Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do now?
BECKER: So as a very strong opposition to everything Netanyahu stands for, I would like for him to resign and let a formal election take place and for the Israeli public to regain trust in their elected officials. But in the closer future, what I would like to see is strategic planning because you cannot go into an army maneuver in Gaza or in southern Lebanon without a plan of what you want it to look like after you finish.
RASCOE: When you think of the future, like, what do you hope for your family?
BECKER: If it would be safe to go back home, I really hope that we can go and live a peaceful life up there. It's a beautiful part of the country. I really hope for my family and my community that we can go back there and live there peacefully.
RASCOE: That's Guy Becker, an Israeli displaced from his home after October 7. Thank you so much for joining us.
BECKER: Thank you, Ayesha. Thank you very much.
RASCOE: And for more coverage and different perspectives, go to npr.org/middleast. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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