Yaacov Lozowick's Gaza War Journal

  Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th 2023. On October 9th I wrote a report on the events, for family and friends outside Israel. A few days later I wrote a 2nd report, and eventually, 19 of them. Mostly I was trying to record for myself what we Israelis were going through, and trying to make sense of the events. On May 2nd 2025 I published a long update, a year after the series ended. Over a number of weeks in May and June of 2026 I wrote another essay, describing my growing estrangement from Israel, and the way we still might get back on track. This website contains the full series. Readers can start at the earliest blogpost and read forward, or pick and choose from this table of contents: Day Three of the War with Hamas October 15th 2024: Second Report October 24th, 2023: Third Report November 15th, 2023: Fourth Report Reports 5-6 were mostly pictures, and for technical reasons I haven't uploaded them here November 27th, 2023 - 7th Report: Civilian Hostages Returning December 3...

Israel has reached its nadir – unless it’s only halfway down a slippery slope. That’s the question. It’s been a year since I last wrote, and my relationship to my country is worse than ever, but I’ve yet to give up in spite of the estrangement. So here’s an attempt to explain to myself what’s going on. I’ll write three sections: War under Iranian missiles; Israel’s decay; and the political context which will determine if our decline is, or isn’t, reversible.   We recently spent six weeks under Iranian missiles, while the air forces of Israel and the United States pummeled Iran, we launched yet another ill-thought-out attack on Lebanon and garnered missile attacks also from Hezbollah. At home in Jerusalem, life was weird but actually fun. Millions of Gazans have lost everything except their lives. A million Lebanese fled their homes in face of the IDF. Thousands of Palestinians on the West Bank have fled before settler hoodlums. Many thousands of Iranians feared for their live...