100 days of war in Gaza: Close to those who suffer

By Andrea Tornielli

Remembering the time elapsed since a tragedy is exceedingly sad. Remembering it when the tragedy is still ongoing is terrible.

Since 7 October 2023, 136 men, women, and children remain as hostages at the hands of Hamas in tunnels under Gaza. Nothing is known about them or their conditions.

Today, we publish a moving article by Rachel Goldberg Polin, which is full of pain but also love. About her son Hersh, 23 years old, nothing has been known since that tragic morning, except perhaps that he lost an arm.

We are close to Rachel, not only for her dignified suffering but especially for what she says and writes. For her courageous awareness that on the other side of the barricade there are mothers like her who suffer. And many cry for the children they have lost.

Her brave voice, in a context where anger and revenge prevail, risks appearing solitary. But it is not so.

Only in the recognition of the pain of others, as well as one's own, can reconciliation and forgiveness grow.

Rachel's words are also ours. They are those of Pope Francis, who invites us to an equivicinanza, or “equi-closeness”. Closeness to those who suffer, to those who die, to those who are left with nothing.

This closeness to the suffering on both sides is often interpreted as equidistance. We are not neutral in this war.

We stand, with full conviction, on one side: that of the victims and those who suffer.

We stand by the side of the 22,000 dead under the rubble of Gaza, the 10,000 children killed.

We stand by the side of the innocents brutally killed in the kibbutzim on October 7.

Because the sacrifice of every life is an unhealable wound. Rachel understands this. And so do we.