With the Israel-Hamas conflict now entering its sixth day Katie Hannon spoke to Colum McCann, a Dublin born writer, who made many trips to the region during research for his Booker Prize longlisted novel Apeirogon.
Palestinian group Hamas launched its biggest assault on Israel in years on Saturday, firing a barrage of rockets from Gaza and sending fighters across the border with the Israeli death toll now reported to be at least 1,300.
The response from Israel was swift with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring war on Hamas on Sunday before announcing a "complete siege" of Gaza on Tuesday, cutting off water, food and power supplies.
The Palestinian death toll from the Israeli campaign is reported to be over 1,500 with the United Nations estimating that over 300,000 Palestinian's have been displaced.
Dublin born author Colum McCann was a regular visitor to Palestine and Israel during research for his 2020 Booker Prize longlisted novel Apeirogon which was set in the region.
The book is a fictionalised account of the lives of two men, Rami Elhanan, an Israeli and Palestinian Bassam Aramin. Both had daughters killed near Jerusalem during previous periods of conflict in the unstable region and they were the first people the author contacted last Saturday when news of the Hamas attacks and Israeli response broke.
"They are heartbroken. They're angry. They have a sense of inevitability," Mr McCann told Katie Hannon on Upfront: The Podcast.
LISTEN: Colum McCann chats to Katie Hannon on Upfront: The Podcast
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"They could feel something was coming. But mostly they're just devastated by what's happening."
Before meeting McCann, Bassam had served seven years in jail for throwing a hand-grenade at a group of Israelis. Rami was a soldier in the Israeli army. The men now give lectures around the world calling for reconciliation.
"It's stunning beyond belief for them and for everyone else," Mr McCann said.
"They're very strong. They have sons and daughters, and they have grandchildren. They haven't yet personally been immediately affected."
While stability in the region is difficult to imagine given the ongoing, often brutal conflict, Mr McCann says the subjects of his book remain hopeful that peace can one day be reached.
"They said they felt that this war would end. And I thought, well, that can't be true. But who could have dreamed that there would be an Israeli embassy in Berlin and a German embassy in Tel Aviv 20 years after the Holocaust?" Mr McCann said.
McCann, who’s mother was from Derry, also draws comparisons between the Israel-Hamas conflict and the Troubles in the North.
"I thought about Northern Ireland. When I was 16, I never thought that we'd have 25 years of peace."
On what the immediate outlook for peace is, Mr McCann says his friends can only see one factor changing the current status quo.
"One of the things that Rami and Bassam talk about is that this will eventually stop, but the occupation has to stop in order for any movement to come about. They won't talk to you about one state or two states or a confederation or a federation. Until the occupation ends, that's the only way that they feel that they can get out of it," Mr McCann said.
"Rami talks about being in the prison of hatred himself until he realised that Palestinians were human. And it wasn't until he was in his 40s and he'd lost his daughter that he realised that."
Listen to Colum McCann’s full conversation with Katie Hannon on Upfront: The Podcast here, on Spotify or on Apple Podcasts.
