After the Hamas attack, Israelis live between fear and hope. Many of them want to get involved now. That’s exactly what their country is all about, they say.
Every second is one too many. In the elegant office space on the seventh floor, they have set up a flat screen with a clock that shows how time passes. The clock has been running for over a week, mercilessly counting how many days, hours and minutes ago the hostage-taking took place. “Bring her home NOW,” it says in big letters underneath. The Hamas terrorists have kidnapped almost 200 people to Gaza, and the longer their captivity lasts… that’s the idea that no one here wants to think about.
“We must do everything we can to stop this clock. Our people must come back. Quickly.” David Zalmanovitsh, in his mid-60s, wears a black T-shirt and has a pistol in the back pocket of his jeans. A week ago, contracts were being concluded and business plans were being made here in the offices: the businessman rented out the conference rooms in the “Museum Tower” in the center of Tel Aviv to lawyers and management consultants. Then came October 7th.
His stepdaughter was at the Supernova festival, says Zalmanovitsh. She survived, hiding under dead bodies. “80 years after the Holocaust, a girl lies motionless under corpses for hours to avoid being shot. In the middle of our country. Do you have to be Israeli to understand what that means? I don’t think so.” During his time in the army, Zalmanovitsh says he was wounded three times, he lost comrades, close friends, that’s just how it is. “But now everything is different. This attack has evaporated any certainty.”