Its Just an Impossible Situation: Tragedy in Israel and Gaza

Published: Oct. 11, 2023, 9 p.m.

On Saturday morning, Ruth Margalit, a contributor to The New Yorker who lives in Tel Aviv, awoke to air-raid sirens. It was a familiar sound, but as the day unfolded, it became apparent that Hamas\u2019s latest attack on Israel was more severe than she had realized. \u201cI mean, I\u2019ve certainly never seen anything like this. My entire generation hasn\u2019t,\u201d Margalit says. Since then, she has been reporting on the incursion from Gaza\u2014including a massacre of civilians at a music festival\u2014and on its aftermath. She joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss the political backdrop, both global and regional, to this catastrophe; the history of hostage negotiations in Israel; and the response that the Israeli public expects from Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s government in the coming days and weeks.

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