Israel, 10 October 2023

There are no words to describe the pain, the shock and the loss. How can one possibly deal with the cruelty of the terrorists, the bloodbath which claimed the lives of young people at an outdoor party, of young children who were slaughtered while being embraced by their parents? The murderers did not distinguish between Jews, Arabs, Israeli citizens or foreigners. There is no justification for these atrocious deeds.

All of us in Women Wage Peace, Jews and Arabs are furious, mournful and worried. Many of our members have lost loved ones; many were in their home-shelters for hours while the terrorists wandered around their homes; some were taken hostage to Gaza. We will not abandon anyone. We demand an immediate return of the hostages: mothers, fathers, children, grandmothers, grandfathers and soldiers. Our hearts are with the bereaved families; we wish a speedy recovery to all the wounded.

We must ensure that there is no violence in the West Bank and certainly not in Israel – not against Arabs or Jews.

Our message is that no one behave out of revenge. We must behave as human beings during these trying times. We continue to reach out for peace with the mothers of Gaza, in the spirit of The Mothers’ Call which we wrote with the hope that they will reach out to us as well.

The mothers in Gaza must protect their own children, but they must also demand that the hostages stay safe and be returned to their families. Women and mothers from both sides cannot support these atrocities in any way.

Our country is going through difficult times. When the war ends and after we bury all the victims, we will no longer be able to “manage” the conflict. This is clear. We must act towards a political solution to the conflict because we can no longer pay its price.

We pray for the safety of Israel’s soldiers and all the security forces; we pray for the complete recovery of all the wounded; more than anything else we pray that this nightmare end so that we can raise our children in security and freedom.

Take care of yourselves and your families.

This statement appeared on the Facebook page of Women Wage Peace after the attacks of Hamas

Women Wage Peace have written a blog for the website of Peace SOS which can be found here.