Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.It is hard to know where to begin with two new documentaries chronicling the unprecedented attack on Israeli civilians by Hamas militants on October 7 2023, killing 1,200, and the ensuing war in Gaza in which Israel has killed an estimated 40,000 Palestinians. Not simply because the complexity of this conflict goes beyond the scope of a television review but because even the strongest words can seem inadequate. To see footage of families being murdered in their homes and festival-goers hunted like animals in southern Israel, and of obliterated cities and bombed-out hospital wards in Gaza, is to be confronted with horrors that feel beyond language and comprehension.Both ITV’s Israel and Gaza: Into the Abyss and the BBC’s Surviving October 7th set out to convey the human toll of the inhuman violence on both sides. The only contributors in both documentaries are victims and survivors, who share their traumatic memories and, in some cases, visceral first-hand recordings. Notably, there are no official spokespeople to drive forward agendas, no journalists to discuss how and why the October 7 attacks happened or debate whether Israel’s ferocious military campaign in Gaza constitutes genocide.The decision to keep these conversations and contexts largely brief or else tacit will understandably be deemed limiting or irresponsible by some. But given how the discourse surrounding the war can inspire tribalism and denial of the other side’s pain, it seems important to have such works that ensure the suffering and death of innocent people do not get lost amid the political conflict and talk of strategy, law and government.Regardless of one’s convictions, it seems impossible that anyone could watch Surviving October 7th and feel anything other than sickened and heartbroken throughout. It is a film built around the real-time phone footage of both those perpetrating and those fleeing the attacks on the Nova music festival in which 364 civilians were murdered and 44 taken hostage. (Another film, Life and Death in Gaza, will air on BBC2 on October 15).Into the Abyss also contains horrifying images from the festival and the nearby ransacked kibbutzim as well as aching interviews with released hostages. But the footage from Gaza shot by photographer turned video diarist Ibrahim and others is invaluable given that journalists are prevented from entering the strip by Israeli authorities. The apocalyptic scenes of bloodied, dying children and a starving population forced to fight over bags of flour while Israel is accused of restricting aid “torments the depth of your soul”, says Ibrahim, who has lost 11 family members. That said, the presence of just a handful of Palestinian interviewees means the film doesn’t capture the sheer scale and reach of the devastation.Beyond the loss of life, what emerges towards the end of Into the Abyss is a loss of hope. We hear trauma-stricken individuals condemn entire populations as the enemy and those who still dream of peace acknowledge its impossibility so long as fanaticism continues to prevail on both sides. We as viewers are left lamenting not only the tragedies that have already happened, but those that will continue to transpire until resolving the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict becomes the primary goal of both parties.★★★★☆‘Israel and Gaza: Into the Abyss’ streaming now on ITVX. ‘Surviving October 7th’ on BBC2 and iPlayer on September 26
