So Kiwis in your IRL lives what's the room temp for this conflict? Are they pro Israel pro palestine/Hamas? What's the gauge?
My partners mother lives in Israel. She's a spry 65 year old lady. When Hamas invaded she was actually visiting a friend that lives near Tell Aviv for the holidays (she lives more up north). It was weird being on a call with her and then hearing sirens. My partner and I were telling her to go to the bomb shelter in her friends house and first she was like "oh I'll be fine I live in Israel!" and then we heard explosions so she hung up and went down.
Her friend has two sons who served of course so she was not worried since they can protect her, but they didn't have guns in the home because they have mental issues from doing their time. PTSD, I think. I don't know if they got called back to serve.
Partners mom made it back to her home a few days ago because her friends house was getting too cramped. Her friends family closer to Gaza evacuated and need a place to stay so there was 20+ people in the house. Her home far enough from Hezbollah that we're not worried about that.
When I told my partner the news he didn't think it was that big of a deal. To his credit, it was 4am so I was unable express the gravity of the situation in my sleepy state and Hamas taking some potshots is typical. The next day I was able to stress how bad it was and it clicked for him. My partner and I's first reaction after hearing the music festival massacre was "yea Israel needs to and is going to fuck them up". As we chatted with his mother she said "I want to fuck them up
personally" and we think she unironically wants the IDF to glass them. This is her holy land so I get it. My partner feels some guilt for encouraging her to live in Israel years ago because she wanted to get closer to her religion and I think she sensed that because she said that no matter what happens she's glad to be in Israel.
None of the social events that we go to is full lefties has said anything about supporting Palestine. This might be because my partner is not hiding the fact that his mother is in Israel right now and I believe any Pali support isn't going to reveal themselves in that situation and come out incredibly embarrassed.