Gaza war
The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and Israel, fought as part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflicts. The war began on 7 October 2023, when the Palestinian militant group Hamas led a surprise attack on Israel, in which 1,195 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed and 251 were taken hostage. Since the start of the Israeli offensive that followed, over 71,660 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed and more than 171,400 injured. A study in The Lancet estimated that traumatic injury deaths were undercounted and noting a potentially larger death toll when "indirect" deaths are included.
After clearing militants from its territory, Israel launched a bombing campaign and invaded Gaza on 27 October. Israeli forces launched campaigns, including the Rafah offensive, three battles fought around Khan Yunis, and the siege of North Gaza, culminating in a 2025 offensive in Gaza City; and have assassinated Hamas leaders. The 2023 ceasefire broke down, and a second ceasefire in January 2025 ended with a surprise attack by Israel in March. A third ceasefire came into effect on 10 October after Israel and Hamas agreed to phase one of a US-backed peace plan. On 19 October, after alleged Hamas violations, Israel resumed strikes in Gaza before reaffirming the ceasefire the same day, doing the same on 28 October.
The war has resulted in a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Israel's tightened blockade cut off basic necessities, causing a severe hunger crisis and imminent to confirmed famine as of 2025. The war has also caused extensive damage to Gaza's civilian infrastructure, with the United Nations estimating that around 90% of civilian infrastructure has been destroyed and reporting severe disruptions to essential services, including water, electricity, and sanitation. By early 2025, Israel had caused unprecedented destruction in Gaza and made large parts uninhabitable, leveling entire cities and destroying hospitals, religious and cultural landmarks, and educational facilities. Gazan journalists, health workers, aid workers and other members of civil society have been detained, tortured, and killed. Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank without charge since the start of the war. Nearly all of the strip's 2.3million Palestinian population have been forcibly displaced. Over 100,000 Israelis were internally displaced at the height of the conflict. The first day, October 7, was the deadliest in Israel's history, and the war is the deadliest for Palestinians in the broader conflict.
A wide consensus of scholarship has concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory concluded that four of the five acts of genocide have been committed. A case accusing Israel of genocide is being reviewed by the International Court of Justice. Experts and human rights organizations have also stated that Israel and Hamas have committed other war crimes. Torture and sexual violence have been committed both by Palestinian militant groups and by Israeli forces.
Israel has received extensive military and diplomatic support from the United States. The war has reverberated regionally, with Axis of Resistance groups across several Arab countries and Iran clashing with the US and Israel, including the 12-day Iran–Israel war. A year of strikes between Israel and Hezbollah led to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and ongoing Israeli operations in Syria, and contributed to the fall of the Assad regime. The war continues to have regional and international repercussions, with large protests worldwide as well as a surge of antisemitism and anti-Palestinian racism.
Names
It is referred to in Palestinian and Arabic sources as the "battle of al-Aqsa Flood", in reference to Operation al-Aqsa Flood. The government of Israel referred to the conflict as the "Iron Swords war" until October 2025, when it began using "War of Redemption". Within Israel, it is popularly referred to as the "October 7 war". It has also been referred to as the "Simchat Torah war" because Hamas's attack began on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. Media outlets have variably described it as the "Israel–Hamas war", "war on Gaza", "October 7 war", and the "second Nakba".Background
The Gaza war is part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. In the 1948 Palestine war, over 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled and the State of Israel was established over most of what had been Mandatory Palestine, with the exception of two separated territories that became known as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Following the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel occupied both Palestinian territories. The upcoming period witnessed two popular uprisings by Palestinians against the Israeli occupation: the First and Second Intifadas in 1987 and 2000, with the latter's end seeing Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005.Since 2007, the Gaza Strip has been governed by Hamas, an Islamist militant group, while the West Bank remained under the control of the Palestinian Authority. After Hamas's takeover, Israel imposed a blockade that significantly damaged Gaza's economy. Israel justified the blockade by citing security concerns, but international rights groups have characterized it as collective punishment. By 2023, UNRWA reported that 81% of people were living below the poverty level, with 63% being food insecure and dependent on international assistance.
Since 2007, Israel and Hamas, along with other Palestinian militant groups based in Gaza, have engaged in conflict, including four wars, in 2008–2009, 2012, 2014, and 2021. Combined, these conflicts killed approximately 6,400 Palestinians and 300 Israelis. In 2018–2019, there were large organized protests near the Gaza-Israel border to call for the right to return. The Israel Defense Forces violently suppressed the protests, killing hundreds and injuring thousands of Palestinians by sniper fire. Soon after a short 2021 conflict, Hamas's military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, started planning an operation against Israel, which became the 7 October attacks. According to diplomats, Hamas had repeatedly said in the months leading up to October 2023 that it did not want another military escalation in Gaza as it would worsen the humanitarian crisis.
Hamas officials stated that the attack was a response to the Israeli occupation, blockade of the Gaza Strip, desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Israeli settler violence against Palestinians, restrictions on the movement of Palestinians, and imprisonment of thousands of Palestinians, whom Hamas sought to release by taking Israeli hostages. Numerous commentators have identified the broader context of Israeli occupation as a cause of the war. The Associated Press wrote that Palestinians are "in despair over a never-ending occupation in the West Bank and suffocating blockade of Gaza". Several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, B'Tselem and Human Rights Watch have likened the Israeli occupation to apartheid, although supporters of Israel dispute this characterization. The Netanyahu government has been criticized within Israel for granting work permits to Gazan residents, facilitating the transfer of funds to Hamas and pursuing relative calm. These actions have been criticized as having backfired in light of the attacks on 7 October 2023.
At the time of the attack, Israel and Saudi Arabia were conducting negotiations to normalize relations. Hamas leaders cited disrupting this "normalization train" as a motive for the October 7 attacks, with Ismail Haniyeh stating that the normalization efforts would marginalize the Palestinian cause and integrate Israel as "a legitimate entity" in the region.
War in Israel and Gaza
7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel
On the morning of 7 October 2023, during the Jewish holidays of Simchat Torah and Shemini Atzeret on Shabbat, Hamas announced the start of "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood", firing between 3,000 and 5,000 rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel within a span of 20 minutes, killing at least five people. In the evening, Hamas launched another barrage of 150 rockets. Simultaneously, around 3,000 Hamas militants infiltrated Israel from Gaza using trucks, motorcycles, bulldozers, speedboats, and paragliders. They took over checkpoints at Kerem Shalom and Erez, and created openings in the border fence in five other places.Militants massacred civilians in several kibbutzim, where they took hostages and set fire to homes. In a massacre at an outdoor music festival near Re'im, at least 325 people were killed, with more injured or taken hostage. In total, 251 people, mostly civilians, were taken hostage, including children, elderly people, and soldiers. Hamas militants also reportedly engaged in mutilation, torture, and sexual and gender-based violence.
The 7 October attacks were described as "an intelligence failure for the ages" and a "failure of imagination" on the part of the Israeli government. It later emerged that abnormal Hamas movements had been detected the previous day by Israeli intelligence, but the military's alert level was not raised and political leaders were not informed.
The Economist noted that "the assault dwarf all other mass murders of Israeli civilians", and that "the last time before October 7th that this many Jews were murdered on a single day was during the Holocaust." According to both Hamas officials and external observers, the attack was a calculated effort to create a "permanent" state of war and revive the Palestinian cause.
Initial Israeli counter-operation (October 2023)
The IDF began Israel's counter-attack several hours after the Hamas-led invasion. The first helicopters sent to support the military reached the Israeli areas surrounding the Gaza Strip an hour after the fighting began. Their crews encountered difficulties in determining which places were occupied by invading militants, and distinguishing between Israeli civilians, IDF soldiers, and Palestinian militants on the ground. A June 2024 UN report and a July 2024 Haaretz investigation revealed that the IDF ordered the Hannibal Directive to be used, killing an unknown number of Israeli civilians and soldiers.The attack was a complete surprise to the Israelis. In a televised broadcast, Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, announced that the country was at war. He threatened to "turn all the places where Hamas is organized and hiding into cities of ruins", called Gaza "the city of evil", and urged its residents to leave. Overnight, Israel's Security Cabinet voted to act to bring about the "destruction of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad". The Israel Electric Corporation, which supplies 80% of Gaza's electricity, cut off power to the area.
The IDF declared a "state of readiness for war", mobilized tens of thousands of army reservists, and declared a state of emergency for areas within of Gaza. The Yamam counterterrorism unit was deployed, along with four new divisions, augmenting 31 existing battalions. Reservists were reported deployed in Gaza, in the West Bank, and along borders with Lebanon and Syria. Residents near Gaza were asked to stay inside, while civilians in southern and central Israel were "required to stay next to shelters". The southern region of Israel was closed to civilian movement, and roads were closed around Gaza and Tel Aviv. While Ben Gurion Airport and Ramon Airport remained operational, multiple airlines cancelled flights. On 9 or 10 October, Hamas offered to release all civilian hostages held in Gaza if Israel would call off its planned invasion of the Gaza Strip, but the Israeli government rejected the offer.