Israeli election results? People in Gaza stress about being able to live

"In the end, it will be the same," Mohammed Abed told the Associated Press about his feelings on the pending outcome of the Israeli elections.

Palestinians in Gaza expressed little hope in any serious change under a new government in the country that has long occupied its territory and launched a genocidal war against their communities.

Therefore, the focus for some was instead on survival.

“Honestly, they are the last thing on my mind,” Umm Mohammed Najm told The Times. “What matters to us is finding a way to get through each day and provide for our children.”

Another mother Riham Hussein also told The Times, "When I send the children to lessons, I spend the whole time worrying about them. How can I think about elections when I’m afraid something might happen to them on the way?"

Welcome to Gaza Notes, a Conflict Journal installment tracking news connected to the occupied Palestinian territory under Israel's war.

In Gaza

Five people were killed in alleged Israeli attacks on Gaza on 28 October, local sources told AFP. The Wafa news agency reported a strike hit an economic ministry building in Rafah while staffers were meeting.

The Israeli military also claimed that it has recently killed six Hamas members it claimed were involved in the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 three years ago.

In Israel and wider Palestine

It appears no party gained a majority in the Israeli legislative elections that were held on 27 October—and it may take a while before there's a new political coalition formed to lead the country.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for alleged actions in Gaza— leads a coalition that garnered the most seats, while Arab parties in Israel reached a record 19 seats. The anti-Netanyahu bloc also didn't gain a majority.

Also on election night, Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said, "Jewish settlements will rise in Gaza." He made his remark in an apparent rebuttal to Arab parties celebrating their projected wins, claiming "they will not succeed" in "reversing our settlement revolution."

There are settler families preparing to move into the occupied Palestinian territory, Le Monde covered in a new feature (paywall).

Around the world

UN’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese said Israel is committing "mediacide," a strategic war on any kind of information touching upon Palestinian suffering or crimes committed in Gaza.

Albanese cited Israeli attacks targeting Palestinian journalists and media operations in Gaza, which has been recorded as the world's deadliest conflict for journalists in history.

At least 247 journalists have been killed, and Palestinians are the "only witnesses to their own war" as Israel blocks international press access into the territory.

"In a genocide, a systematic attack on the media is part and parcel of the crime," she said during a press briefing on her report (PDF), which also pointed to the role in global news organizations and social media platforms.

Also at the UN, the World Food Program's new executive director Luke Lindberg said "there is a very serious need" in response to renewed famine concerns.

"The situation in Gaza right now is unacceptable in terms of the amount of people going hungry," he said during his first remarks to the press.

Lindberg said the agency is uniquely able to access occupied Gaza and deliver food, but it is cutting its operations because of funding issues. He called it "an untenable situation" that needs to be addressed.

Voices from Gaza

• "Going to university should be a step forward, not something that could cost us our lives," a student wrote on the Israeli attack on Islamic University this week.
• "We want to prove that the people of Palestine are still able to create beauty and life, even while they are living in tents under immense pressure and pain," Ezzeddin Shalh, the organizer behind the second Gaza International Festival for Women's Cinema, said to The New Arab.
• The Gaza Cinema Academy has also launched.
• "It is continuous suffering throughout the winter," Mohammed al-Jamal told Al Jazeera about his efforts to prepare for a fourth winter while displaced.
• "We are no longer who we used to be," a poet in Gaza City wrote in the Guardian. "The war has turned us into strangers, unfamiliar even to ourselves."

Additional reading

• Gaza "is particularly gruesome at the moment," an Irish surgeon said to his colleagues about his recent trip into the Palestinian territory.
• The National Catholic Reporter said "children are recovering from hunger," according to new research by MedGlobal, but "doctors fear it won't last."
• Advocates in Canada argue that child refugees from Gaza are being kept out of school for longer than refugees from elsewhere.
• The Hind Rajab Foundaiton filed a UK complaint against an Israeli soldier on alleged war crimes in Gaza on the belief they are currently in the country.