No end in sight as Israel marks 100 days of war

Israelis last weekend marked 100 days of war with a 100-minute pause in the working day and rallies to call for the return of hostages held in Gaza, but little relief from the anxiety that has gripped the country since Hamas launched its 7 October attacks.

- Jason Burke

Many Israelis remain deeply shaken by the incursion, in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 240 taken hostage.

Israel is "in the middle of a terrible dream, and I want to wake up from this terrible dream and create a new Israel", Arnon Bar-David, the leader of the Histadrut confederation of Trade Unions, told a mass meeting in Tel Aviv. "We will rebuild everything they have tried to destroy." Normal life is returning to the streets of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other cities, but many shops and restaurants are still shut and hundreds of thousands of reservists mobilised.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a televised address last Saturday that the war against Hamas would continue "until the end, until total victory".