All of Israeli society has mobilised in the face of terror

As a result of these attacks more than 200,000 Israelis are displaced as communities near those borders have been evacuated. Some 360,000 army reservists – each one someone’s child, cousin, niece, nephew, grandchild, husband, wife, mother, father or colleague – have also now been called up to defend Israel, with many directly in harm’s way.

Thousands of volunteers step up

The whole country is traumatised and in mourning. And yet Israeli society and businesses immediately sprang into action to rescue and support fellow citizens in distress.

The day after the Hamas attacks, a Civilian Operations Hub was created by a group of volunteers. Their list of immediate achievements, supported by more than 15,000 volunteers, includes evacuating 3000 citizens from communities near the Gaza border; finding accommodation for 8000 displaced families; distributing huge quantities of food, medical and other supplies; providing more than 1000 activities for evacuated children; and even rescuing pets.

More than 2000 volunteers from Israel’s high-tech sector focused on identifying the more than 200 missing and kidnapped people using facial recognition and artificial intelligence, and developing new algorithms to support the task.

This is just one of the many grassroots organisations that have sprung up since the start of the war to mobilise volunteers to support those in need.

Israel’s tech businesses, accounting for almost half of the nation’s exports, have proved no less resilient and determined. Although almost all tech companies have had some or many of their staff called up to army reserve duty, for those who remain, “business as usual as much as possible” is the mantra.

Israel has always made an outsized contribution to the world in science, innovation, technology and many other areas.

Larger tech companies with more staff and offices outside Israel have been able to switch different functions to other geographies to support the business and customers. There are also many stories of remaining employees volunteering to take on bigger workloads to cover for reservist colleagues who are now defending Israel.

Of course, for small start-ups the absence of even one key person can be very disruptive and damaging.

In response, Startup Reserves for Israel has been established, with more than 2000 volunteers already working with Israeli start-ups whose key employees are performing military duties.

Since its creation over 75 years ago, Israel has endured ongoing threats to its existence, with many wars and horrendous terrorist attacks, but never anything on the scale we saw this month.

Despite this, Israel has always made an outsized contribution to the world in science, innovation, technology and many other areas. As a country ,it has prospered to become one of the globe’s most resilient and technologically advanced economies.

The Abraham Accords drew on this strength, and in the past three years this has ignited a new wave of innovation, business collaboration and tourism across the Middle East and North Africa.

It is completely unpredictable how the current crisis will play out and be resolved. As Israel faces the most unfathomable of times, with terrorist forces arraigned against it, we all have to hope that its resilience and strength will triumph, and that once again Australian and global business leaders will be able to visit Israel to draw inspiration and lessons for a better future.