Gaza war
| Gaza war | |||||||||
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| Part of the Gaza–Israel conflict, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and the Middle Eastern crisis (2023–present) | |||||||||
 Map of Gaza as of 29 June 2025[update] Gaza Strip under Palestinian control Gaza Strip under Israeli control Furthest Israeli advance in the Gaza Strip Evacuated areas inside Israel Maximum extent of the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel Areas of Gaza subject to Israeli evacuation orders | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Hamas
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 Israel[a]Allies:
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Units involved | |||||||||
| See Order of battle | |||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
20,000–40,000[e] |
529,500[f] | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
Gaza Strip:
West Bank: Militants inside Israel:[j] Total killed: 79,824+[k] |
Total:
Total killed: 2,046 | ||||||||
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The Gaza war[o] is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and Israel fought since 7 October 2023, as part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflicts dating back to the 20th century. On 7 October 2023, Hamas-led militant groups launched a surprise attack on Israel, in which 1,195 Israelis and foreign nationals, including 815 civilians, were killed, and 251 taken hostage with the stated goal of forcing Israel to release Palestinian prisoners. Since the start of the Israeli offensive that followed, over 58,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed,[p] over half of them women and children, and more than 139,000 injured.[79][24] A study in the Lancet estimated 64,260 deaths in Gaza due to traumatic injuries by June 2024, while noting a larger potential death toll when "indirect" deaths are included.[13][80][81][82]
The Gaza war follows the wars of
The war has resulted in a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Israel's tightened blockade of Gaza cut off basic necessities, causing a severe hunger crisis with a high risk of famine persisting as of May 2025[update].[83][84][85] By early 2025, Israel had caused unprecedented destruction in Gaza and made large parts of it uninhabitable,[86] leveling entire cities[87] and destroying hospitals (including children's hospitals), agricultural land,[88] religious and cultural landmarks,[89] educational facilities,[90][91] and cemeteries.[92] Gazan journalists,[93] health workers,[94] aid workers and other members of civil society have been detained, tortured and killed.[95] Nearly all of the strip's 2.3 million Palestinian population have been forcibly displaced.[96][97] Over 100,000 Israelis were internally displaced at the height of the conflict.[98] The first day was the deadliest in Israel's history, and the war is the deadliest for Palestinians in the broader conflict.[99]
Many human rights organizations and scholars of
Flashpoints during the war attracting global attention include the
Names
The Gaza war is referred to by different names. Israel calls it the "Iron Swords war" (
Background
In the
Since 2007, the Gaza Strip has been governed by
Since 2007, Israel and Hamas, along with other Palestinian militant groups based in Gaza, have engaged in conflict,[129][127][134] including in four wars: in 2008–2009, 2012, 2014, and 2021.[135][136][137] Combined, these conflicts killed approximately 6,400 Palestinians and 300 Israelis.[138][49][121] In 2018–2019, there were large weekly 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.[139][140] Soon after the a short 2021 conflict occurred, Hamas's military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, started planning an operation against Israel, which would become the 7 October attacks.[141][142] 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 that occurred after the 2021 conflict.[132]
Hamas officials stated that the attack was a response to the
War in Israel and Gaza
7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel
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- Approximate situation on 7–8 October
- A blood-stained floor in the aftermath of the Nahal Oz attack
- Aftermath of a Hamas airstrike on the maternity ward of the Barzilai Medical Center
- Satellite view of widespread fires in Israeli areas surrounding the Gaza Strip
- Footage of Israeli soldiers securing the area after the Nova music festival massacre
In the morning of 7 October 2023,
Militants massacred civilians in several
The 7 October attacks were described as "an intelligence failure for the ages"[179] and a "failure of imagination" on the part of the Israeli government.[180] A BBC report commented on Hamas's "extraordinary levels of operational security".[181] 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.[182]
A briefing in The Economist noted that "the assault dwarf[ed] 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."[168] 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.[183][184]
Initial Israeli counter-operation (October 2023)
- Palestinian infant receiving treatment following an Israeli airstrike in Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip
- A Palestinian refugee carries his injured grandchildren during the Israeli bombing of the Nuseirat refugee camp
- Building in the Gaza Strip being destroyed by Israeli missiles
- Damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal aera in Gaza City on October 2023
- Injured Palestinians including children receive treatment at Al-Aqsa Hospital following an Israeli airstrike on the Nuseirat refugee camp
The IDF began Israel's counter-attack several hours after the Hamas-led invasion.[185] The first helicopters sent to support the military reached the Israeli areas surrounding the Gaza Strip an hour after the fighting began.[171] 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.[171] A June 2024 UN report[186][187] 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.[188][189][190]
The attack was a complete surprise to the Israelis.[191] In a televised broadcast, Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, announced that the country was at war.[165] 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.[192][143] 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".[193] The Israel Electric Corporation, which supplies 80% of the Gaza Strip's electricity, cut off power to the area.[194] This reduced Gaza's power supply from 120 MW to 20 MW, provided by power plants paid for by the Palestinian Authority.[195]
The IDF declared a "state of readiness for war",[163] mobilized tens of thousands of army reservists,[160][194] and declared a state of emergency for areas within 80 kilometers (50 mi) of Gaza.[196] The Yamam counterterrorism unit was deployed,[197] along with four new divisions, augmenting 31 existing battalions.[149] Reservists were reported deployed in Gaza, in the West Bank, and along borders with Lebanon and Syria.[198] Residents near Gaza were asked to stay inside, while civilians in southern and central Israel were "required to stay next to shelters".[194] The southern region of Israel was closed to civilian movement,[197] and roads were closed around Gaza[149] and Tel Aviv.[194] While Ben Gurion Airport and Ramon Airport remained operational, multiple airlines cancelled flights to and from Israel.[199] 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.[200]
Blockade, bombardment, and evacuation of northern Gaza
- Doctors treat a Palestinian injured by an Israeli airstrike in Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip
- Injured Palestinian children receiving treatment
- A newborn baby killed as a result of an Israeli airstrike
- People fleeing following an Israeli airstrike on a house in Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip
- Video interviews conducted with several survivors of Israeli airstrikes in October 2023
Following the surprise attack, the
On 13 October, the IDF ordered all civilians in Gaza City to evacuate to areas south of the Wadi Gaza[213] within 24 hours. The Hamas Authority for Refugee Affairs responded by telling residents in northern Gaza to defy those orders.[214] The Israeli order was widely condemned as "outrageous" and "impossible", and calls were made for it to be reversed.[215] As a part of the order, the IDF outlined a six-hour window on 13 October for refugees to flee south along specified routes.[216] An explosion along one of the safe routes killed 70 Palestinians. Israel and Hamas blamed each other for the attack.[217] The IDF said Hamas set up roadblocks to keep Gaza residents from evacuating.[218] Israeli officials, foreign governments and intergovernmental organizations condemned Hamas's alleged use of hospitals and civilians as human shields, which has been contested by Amnesty International[219] and by Hamas themselves.[220][221]
On 17 October, Israel bombed areas of southern Gaza.
Initial invasion to first truce (October–November 2023)
On 27 October, after building up an invasion force of over 100,000 soldiers, the IDF launched a large-scale ground incursion into parts of northern Gaza.
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Gazan child speaks of having to carry a decapitated body after Israeli strike on Jabalia (via The Irish Times) |
On 31 October, Israel bombed a six-story apartment building in central Gaza, killing at least 106 civilians including 54 children in what Human Rights Watch called an "apparent war crime".[235] On 1 November, the first group of evacuees left Gaza for Egypt. Five hundred evacuees, comprising critically wounded and foreign nationals, were evacuated over several days.[236] On 18 November, Israel struck a marked Médecins Sans Frontières convoy, killing two aid workers.[237] On 22 November, Israel and Hamas reached a temporary ceasefire agreement, providing for a four-day pause[238] in hostilities to allow for the release of 50 hostages held in Gaza.[238][239] The deal also provided for the release of approximately 150 Palestinian women and children incarcerated by Israel.[239]
First ceasefire (November 2023)
Following the introduction of a Qatari-brokered truce on 24 November 2023, active fighting in the Gaza Strip ceased. Hamas exchanged some hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.[240] Israel arrested almost as many Palestinians as it released during the truce.[241] Prisoner exchanges continued until 28 November, when both Israel and Hamas accused each other of violating the truce.[242][243] On 30 November, in a "last-minute agreement", Hamas released eight hostages in exchange for the release of 30 imprisoned Palestinians and a one-day truce extension.[244] The truce expired on 1 December, as Israel and Hamas blamed each other for failing to agree on an extension.[245]
Resumption of hostilities (December 2023 – January 2024)
Israel adopted a grid system to order precise evacuations within Gaza. It was criticized as inaccessible, due to the lack of electricity and internet connectivity in Gaza, and confusing. Some evacuation instructions were vague or contradictory,[246][247] and Israel sometimes struck areas it had told people to evacuate to.[248][249][250] Law experts called these warnings ineffective.[251] Amnesty International found no evidence of Hamas targets at the sites of some strikes, and requested that they be investigated as possible war crimes.[252] On 6 December, Refaat Alareer, a prominent professor and writer in Gaza, was killed by an Israeli airstrike.[253] His poem "If I Must Die" was widely circulated after his death.[254]
By December, IDF troops had reached the centers of Khan Yunis, Jabalia, and Shuja'iyya.[255] Intensified bombing pushed Palestinian civilians south to Rafah.[256] Between 7 and 10 December, Israel detained more than 150 men; according to Israel, they surrendered en masse,[257][258] but this account was disputed by several publications.[259][260][261] On 15 December, the IDF killed three Israeli hostages in a friendly fire incident, after mistakenly identifying them as enemies.[262][263][264] The same day, Pope Francis condemned the killing of two women sheltering at a convent as "terrorism."[237]
On 1 January 2024, Israel withdrew from neighborhoods in North Gaza.[265] On 15 January, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the most intense fighting in the north of the Gaza Strip had ended, and a new phase of low-intensity fighting was about to begin.[266] By 18 January, the IDF, who had previously stated that Hamas control over North Gaza was "dismantled", reported that Hamas had significantly rebuilt its fighting strength in North Gaza.[267]
On 22 January, 24 IDF soldiers died in the deadliest day for the IDF since the invasion began. Of these, 21 died when Palestinian militants fired an RPG at a tank, causing adjacent buildings to collapse.[268][269][270] On 29 January, Israeli forces killed Hind Rajab, a five-year-old girl, and six of her family members when the car they were driving was struck by Israeli tank and machine gun fire; two rescue workers who attempted to retrieve Rajab were also killed.[271] The Red Crescent released the audio from Rajab's phone call with rescue workers, causing international outrage over her death.[272]
Build-up to the Rafah offensive (February–April 2024)
Between February and May 2024, preparations to invade Rafah became a dominant theme in Israeli officials' public rhetoric. On 12 February, Israel started a bombing campaign on Rafah.[273] Food supplies increasingly became an issue. On 5 February, Israeli gunboats shelled a clearly marked UNRWA convoy, forcing UNRWA to suspend its operations for almost three weeks, affecting 200,000 people.[237] On 29 February, Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians waiting for food aid southwest of Gaza City, killing 100 and wounding 750. Some of the victims were run over by trucks as panic spread.[274] Survivors described it as an intentional ambush by Israeli forces.[275][276] On 1 March, the United States announced it would begin an operation to airdrop food aid into Gaza.[277] Some experts called the initiative performative, saying it would not alleviate the food situation.[278] During his State of the Union Address, Biden announced that a temporary port on Gaza's coast would be constructed to enable aid delivery.[279]
Al-Shifa Hospital, previously besieged in November 2023, was raided again between 18 March and 1 April.[280] Israeli forces killed Faiq al-Mabhouh, who they said was head of the operations directorate of Hamas's internal security service. Hamas said al-Mabhouh was in charge of civil law enforcement and had been coordinating aid deliveries to north Gaza.[281][282] The IDF said it killed 200 people in the hospital fighting, including senior Hamas leaders; this account was disputed.[283][284] Survivors denied that militants had organized on the hospital grounds.[285] Israeli forces were accused of reducing the hospital to a "blown out, fire-blackened" state, and of massacring 400 Palestinians.[286][287][288]
A 25 March UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza for Ramadan[289] was ignored by the IDF.[290] On 1 April, seven international aid workers from World Central Kitchen (WCK) were killed in an Israeli airstrike south of Deir al-Balah.[291][292][293] WCK, who said their vehicles were clearly marked and their location known to Israel, subsequently withdrew from operating in Gaza alongside ANERA and Project HOPE.[292][294] On 4 April, Israel opened the Erez Crossing for the first time since 7 October after US pressure.[295]
By 6 March, Israel had completed a new east–west road in Gaza. It was intended to mobilize troops and supplies, to connect and defend IDF positions on al-Rashid and Salah al-Din streets, and prevent people in the south of Gaza from returning to the north.
Beginning of the Rafah offensive (May–July 2024)
On 6 May, the IDF ordered 100,000 civilians in eastern Rafah to evacuate to
The same day, the IDF entered the outskirts of Rafah, On 24 May, the United Nations said only 906 aid truckloads had reached Gaza since Israel's Rafah operation began.[316] Israel bombed the Tel al-Sultan displacement camp in Rafah on 26 May, killing at least 45 people, allegedly including two senior Hamas officials.[317][318][319] This provoked a skirmish between Egyptian and Israeli soldiers at the Gaza border in which one Egyptian soldier was killed.[320] Less than 48 hours afterwards, another evacuation zone, the Al-Mawasi refugee camp, was bombed, killing at least 21 people.[317][321][322] The IDF denied involvement in the attack.[323]
On 6 June, Israel .png)
Rafah, Khan Yunis, and general bombardment (July–September 2024)
On 22 July, the IDF began a brief
On 13 July, at least 90 people were killed and 300 were injured in
An Israeli airstrike on Nuseirat refugee camp on 11 September killed at least 18 people.[348][349][350]
Continued operations throughout Gaza (October–December 2024)
In October,
On 8 October, the IDF began to
The IDF has been accused of blocking aid delivery to the Gaza Strip by allowing looting gangs to target aid convoys.[364] On 16 November 98 out of 109 food trucks carrying UN aid from Kerem Shalom crossing were looted in Israeli-controlled areas of the Gaza strip.[364][365][366] The Abu Shabab clan, a rival of Hamas, was widely blamed for the attacks.[367] On 1 December, the UN suspended its aid shipments to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, blaming Israel for failing to "ensure safe conditions for delivering relief supplies."[368] On 12 December, two Israeli strikes on an aid convoy in southern Gaza killed 13 people and wounded at least 30 people, several of them seriously.[369][370][371]
On 30 November, a strike on a World Central Kitchen vehicle transporting supplies killed three aid workers.[372][373][374] An Israeli airstrike on a group of Palestinians waiting for food from an aid convoy in Khan Yunis killed at least 12 and injured several others.[375] On 9 December, an Israeli strike hit people who lined up for buying flour in Rafah, killing 10 people.[376]
On 16 October, IDF ground forces killed Yahya Sinwar in a shootout in Tal as-Sultan.[377] The conscript soldiers who participated in the shootout were initially unaware of Sinwar's presence, and he was identified the following day by his dental records.[378] There were no hostages in Sinwar's vicinity at the time of his death,[379] and no civilian casualties were reported.[380] Biden urged Israel to end the war after Sinwar's death.[381]
Siege of northern Gaza
On 13 October, senior IDF officials told Haaretz that the government was not seeking to revive hostage talks and that political leadership was pushing for the annexation of parts of the Gaza Strip.[382] In the later weeks of October, Israel's siege of North Gaza intensified and daily aid shipments dropped significantly. Eyewitnesses reported the shelling of hospitals, razing of shelters, and abductions of men and boys by the Israeli military, leading to speculation that Israel had decided to implement a plan by a group of retired generals to turn the northern Strip into a closed military zone and declare all who refuse to leave as combatants.[383] On 5 November, Israeli Brigadier General Itzik Cohen told reporters that "there is no intention of allowing the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return" and that no food aid had entered northern Gaza because there were "no more civilians left".[384]
The IDF continued its encirclement of Jabalia by sending tanks to Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun and issuing evacuation orders to residents.[385] On 24 October, an IDF attack destroyed at least 10 residential buildings in the Jabalia refugee camp. According to an assessment by Gaza Civil Defense, 150 people were killed or injured.[386] On 25 October, the WHO said it had lost contact with Kamal Adwan hospital, and UN human rights chief Volker Türk called recent developments in North Gaza the "darkest moment" in the war so far.[387] Food aid to Gaza reached a new low in October at an average of 30 trucks per day, or less than 6% of the daily pre-war average.[388] Residents of northern Gaza said in November that no aid had reached their cities since 5 October.[384] The UN warned that the situation had become "apocalyptic" and that "The entire Palestinian population in North Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence".[389] On 2 November, UNICEF said that over 50 children were killed in Israeli strikes in Jabalia in the past two days.[390] On 12 November, aid in Gaza fell to its lowest level in 11 months despite a US ultimatum that it be restored.[391]
On 24 November, Israel issued a new wave of evacuation orders, triggering another round of displacements in Jabalia.[392] UNRWA said that Israel had rejected nine attempts to deliver aid to north Gaza in the month of November and obstructed an additional 82 attempts; they added that the survival conditions were diminishing for the 60,000 to 70,000 civilians remaining in north Gaza.[393] Mahmoud Almadhoun, a chef who founded the Gaza Soup Kitchen, was targeted and killed by an Israeli quadcopter near Kamal Adwan hospital.[394] On 5 December, Israeli Army Radio announced that 18,000 Palestinians were evacuated from Beit Lahia and that soldiers killed approximately 20 militants during fighting on the previous day.[395]
On 13 December, Israeli tank fire killed Dr. Sayeed Joudeh, the last orthopedic surgeon in northern Gaza.[396] On 26 December, an Israeli air strike hit a building in the vicinity of Kamal Adwan Hospital, killing about 50 people, including five staff.[397] Over the next days, the World Health Organization announced that the hospital had been put out of service by Israeli attacks and the hospital's director, Hussam Abu Safiya, had been abducted: the IDF forced patients to evacuate to an already-destroyed hospital by cutting off their oxygen.[398] The IDF claimed to have killed 19 militants during its raid;[399][400] Gaza Health Ministry said that 50 people including hospital staff were killed.[399]
Second ceasefire (January–March 2025)
On 15 January 2025, an agreement was announced between Israel and Hamas, through the mediation of Qatar, in which Hamas agreed to release a number of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for Hamas militants and other Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons. The two parties also agreed to a ceasefire for the second time during the war;[401] it went into effect on the morning of 19 January 2025.[402] On 27 January, tens of thousands of Palestinians began a mass return to northern Gaza after Israel opened a corridor for civilian movement following a 48-hour delay.[403] Hamas claimed that Israel had violated the terms of the ceasefire, and announced the suspension of the release of Israeli hostages on 10 February.[404] After Netanyahu and Trump threatened to restart fighting in Gaza,[405] Hamas relented on 13 February,[406] allowing the release of hostages to begin again two days later.[407] On 22 February, Hamas released six Israeli hostages;[408] however, Israel refused to release the 600 Palestinian prisoners, with Netanyahu objecting to the "use of hostages for propaganda" and saying that Israel would release the prisoners once the next hostage release was guaranteed without the ceremonies.[409] On 25 February, Israel and Hamas reached a deal to exchange the bodies of Israeli hostages who were agreed to be handed over during the first phase for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, without public ceremony.[410]
On 1 March, the day the first phase of the ceasefire was scheduled to end, Hamas rejected an Israeli proposal to extend it to release more hostages, calling for the implementation of the second phase.[411] Negotiations for implementing the second phase of the ceasefire agreement, intended to see the release of all remaining living hostages, the withdrawal of the Israeli military from Gaza and a permanent end to the war, were supposed to have begun in February, 16 days after the initial ceasefire began, but never happened.[412][413] Netanyahu's office said that Israel endorsed a US plan to extend the Gaza truce for the Ramadan and Passover periods. Under this plan, half of the living and dead hostages would be released on the first day of the extended truce and the remaining hostages would be released at the end of the period if a permanent truce was reached. It claimed that the initial deal allowed Israel to resume war at any moment after 1 March if negotiations were deemed ineffective. Following Hamas's refusal to accept the US proposal,[414][415] Netanyahu ceased the entry of aid to Gaza the next day.[416][417]
The humanitarian aid blockade was condemned by mediators, namely Egypt, as a violation of the ceasefire, which stipulated that phase one would automatically be extended as long as phase two negotiations were in progress.[418][419] On 9 March, Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen ordered a halt to supply of Israeli electricity to Gaza.[420] On 14 March, Hamas said that it agreed to a proposal from mediators to release Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander and the bodies of four dual-national hostages.[421][422] The US and Israel rejected the offer, which did not conform to their joint proposal calling for the release of five living hostages on the first day of an extended ceasefire.[423][424]
Israeli attacks resume (March–April 2025)
On 18 March, Israel launched a
Multiple senior members of Gaza's government and the Hamas political bureau were killed during this round of fighting, including Issam al-Da'alis, whose position is akin to the Prime Minister of Gaza, Salah al-Bardawil[432] and Ismail Barhoum (members of the political bureau),[433][434][435] Mahmoud Abu Watfa (undersecretary of the Interior Ministry of the Gaza Strip) and Bahjat Abu Sultan (chief of internal security). Palestinian Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Hamza was also killed in the airstrikes.[436][437] The Popular Resistance Committees announced the death of Muhammad al-Batran, commander of its artillery unit and a member of its Central Military Brigade Council.[438]
On 19 March, the IDF said that it had launched "targeted ground activities" in the Gaza Strip to create a "partial buffer" in the territory, partially recapturing the center of the
On 25 March, amid the Israeli operation,[430] hundreds[445] to thousands[446] of Palestinians in Gaza rose up in protest against Hamas and the continued war, calling for an end to the war and an end to Hamas's rule over the Gaza Strip. The protests were caused by war-weariness and dissatisfaction with Hamas, specifically their alleged misuse of humanitarian aid intended for Gazans,[447] suppression of the freedom of speech and of the press, and abuse of Palestinian civilians.[448]
On 27 March, an Israeli airstrike on a tent in Jabalia killed Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif al-Qanoua.
Renewed Israeli offensive (May 2025–present)
On 3 May, Israel announced its plans to expand the Gaza offensive and mobilized thousands of reservists.[458][459] On 7 May, World Central Kitchen said it was forced to stop food distribution in Gaza because it ran out of supplies.[460] On 8 May, two Israeli airstrikes on the last restaurant in Gaza City and a simultaneous strike on a crowded nearby market killed at least 33 people.[461][462] At least 143 people were killed in Gaza on 15 May, making it the deadliest day of the war since the end of the ceasefire in March.[463]
On 13 May 2025, Israeli airstrikes struck the compound of the Gaza European Hospital in Khan Yunis and the surrounding area, killing Mohammed Sinwar and Muhammad Shabana who were in underground tunnels.[464][465][466] The death of Sinwar was denied by Hamas.[467] In June the IDF said that Sinwar's body was retrieved and identified.[468]
On 16 May, Israel announced the launch of Operation Gideon's Chariots, a military offensive aimed at taking control of the entire Gaza Strip. The move was widely condemned by several of Israel's allies, a number of whom threatened sanctions.[469][470][471] On 25 May, an Israeli airstrike on the Fahmi al-Jawjawi school in Daraj, Gaza City, killed at least 36 people—including 18 children and six women—and injured over 55.[472] In late May a new militia in Gaza, the Popular Forces, began operating under the authority of the Abu Shabab clan in opposition to Hamas. Avigdor Lieberman accused Netanyahu and the Israeli government of funding and arming this militia.[367]
On 27 May, the US-backed
Post-war plans
Israeli leaders' plans
In February 2025, the leader of the Israeli opposition, Yair Lapid, proposed that Gaza be returned to Egypt for up to 15 years in exchange for the cancellation of its external debt. Egypt rejected the proposal stating it undermined the Palestinian cause.[477]
On 2 April, Israel Katz announced the Israeli government's intention to "seize large areas" of Gaza as large air and ground operations resumed following the end of the March ceasefire.[478] On 17 April, Katz said that Israeli forces would remain in areas of Gaza, Lebanon and Syria indefinitely.[479] On 5 May, the Israeli cabinet approved plans to capture the entire Gaza Strip and occupy it for an unspecified amount of time.[480] Far-right Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich said that Gaza would be "entirely destroyed" in Israel's new offensive and that the population would be expelled to other countries.[481]
Trump Gaza proposal
After the announcement of a second ceasefire in January 2025, Donald Trump announced his intention to displace the Palestinian population of Gaza, reiterating his position that they should be resettled in neighboring Arab countries three more times that month.[482] Ahead of a 4 February meeting with Netanyahu, Trump specified his intention to permanently displace Gaza's Palestinian inhabitants, which would be in violation of international law. He proposed a US takeover of Gaza that evening during a press conference with Netanyahu.[483]
Trump insisted that neighboring countries would pay for Gaza's reconstruction and that "world people" would live there. He did not rule out deploying US troops if necessary. On 5 and 6 February, Trump aides and Trump himself walked back some of his comments, including his willingness to deploy US soldiers. On 10 February, Trump said that Palestinians who leave Gaza would have no right of return. In a meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan, Trump said that the US would take rather than buy Gaza because "It's a war torn area. It's Gaza. There is nothing to buy."[484] Trump had proposed Jordan take in the displaced Palestinians from Gaza, which Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi categorically rejected, stating "They don't want to come to Jordan and we don't want them to come to Jordan."[485]
Trump's statements were met with condemnation from world leaders; however, in Israel,
Trump has rejected the Arab League plan claiming that "The current proposal does not address the reality that Gaza is currently uninhabitable and residents cannot humanely live in a territory covered in debris and unexploded ordnance," and that the Trump administration will go ahead with seizing the territory "to bring peace and prosperity to the region".[488]
In May 2025, US special envoy Steve Witkoff proposed a ceasefire in Gaza. This proposal reportedly included a 60-day truce, freeing of 28 hostages, release of over 1000 Palestinian prisoners and supply of humanitarian aid. Israel accepted the proposal. Hamas requested amendments to the plan and reiterated calls for the complete withdrawal of the IDF from Gaza.[489]
Arab League proposal
Arab governments rejected Trump's transfer plan, instead backing an Egyptian proposal. The Arab League, meeting on 4 March in Cairo, devised a $53bn plan detailing the reconstruction of Gaza while keeping its population in place.[490] The proposal also included the requirement that Hamas disarm, step down and fresh elections to a reformed Palestinian Authority be held.[488] Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune boycotted the league meeting claiming that it was "monopolized by a limited and narrow group of Arab countries" namely the Arab states of the Persian Gulf.[488] Hamas also reiterated that the group's arms were non-negotiable and rejected the plan.[488]
Others
In March 2025, the United States and Israel claimed to have contacted officials from Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, Syria, Morocco, Puntland, and Somaliland to discuss the resettlement of Gaza residents in their territories.[491][492][493] Egypt,[494] Jordan,[485] and Sudan,[495] rejected the proposal while Somalia and Somaliland denied that they had been contacted.[496] In May 2025, reports emerged that the Trump administration was working on a plan to permanently relocate 1 million Gazans to Libya, while offering the release of around $30 billion in funds frozen by the US since the toppling of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in exchange for Libyan authorities agreeing to the deal.[497][498]
On 9 April, French president Emmanuel Macron said that France could recognize a Palestinian state by June, adding that he wanted to be part of a collective dynamic where those who defend Palestine also recognize Israel in turn.[499]
Spillover
- Rising smoke after the Israel strike on Hezbollah headquarters
- A damaged building in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel
- Two United States carrier strike groups in the Mediterranean Sea.
The war's spillover has resulted in a
Israel has bombed targets in and around
By the end of 2024, a year-long exchange of strikes between Israel and Hezbollah escalated into an Israeli invasion of Lebanon, before it was paused after a ceasefire.[510] Under the November 2024 agreement, Israeli forces were to withdraw from Lebanon by January 2025, but Israel refused and the deadline was extended to February 2025, where Israel withdrew its forces from Lebanese villages but kept Israeli forces maintaining five military outposts on highlands in Southern Lebanon, against Lebanon's wishes.[511][512] The crisis has also seen the fall of the Assad regime and an ongoing Israeli invasion of Syria.[513][514] Israeli defense minister Israel Katz in April 2025 declared that Israeli forces would indefinitely remain in "security zones" that they "cleared and seized" in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.[515]
West Bank and Israel
Amnesty International released a report[516] on 5 February 2024 stating that Israel is carrying out unlawful killings in the West Bank and displaying "a chilling disregard for Palestinian lives" and that Israeli forces are carrying out numerous illegal acts of violence that constitute clear violations of international law.[517][518]
Before the war, 2023 was the deadliest year for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank in 20 years. Violence in the West Bank has increased since the war began with more than 607 Palestinians and over 25 Israelis killed.[519][520] At the same time, Israeli settler violence further increased to around 1,270 attacks, against 856 for all of 2022.[521] About 1,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced by settlers since 7 October and almost half of the clashes have included "Israeli forces accompanying or actively supporting Israeli settlers while carrying out the attacks" according to a U.N. report.[522] According to the West Bank Protection Consortium, since the 7 October attacks six Palestinian communities have been abandoned due to the violence.[523]
On 19 October, more than 60 Hamas members were arrested and 12 people were killed in overnight
In July, Israeli authorities approved the seizure of 12.7 square kilometers of land in the occupied West Bank. According to Peace Now, this was the largest single appropriation approved since the 1993 Oslo accords."[525] Israeli authorities also approved plans for almost 5,300 new houses in occupied West Bank.[526] By July 2024, Israeli land seizures exceeded the combined total of the previous 20 years.[527] The following month, the Israeli government approved new settlements in the occupied West Bank,[528][529] and it was reported that Israeli settlers had taken advantage of the ongoing war to expand settlement activity supported by a far-right Israeli government,[530][521][531] including land seizure and large scale settlement plans.[532]
On 7 August, Wafa reported that Israeli forces destroyed the regional headquarters of
On 3 October, an Israeli
Attacks in Israel
On 30 November, two Palestinian gunmen killed three and wounded 11 Israeli civilians at a bus stop on the Givat Shaul Interchange in Jerusalem. Hamas claimed responsibility.[551] On 16 February 2024, a Palestinian gunman shot and killed two Israeli civilians and injured four others in Kiryat Malakhi, Israel. The shooter was killed by an off-duty IDF reservist at the scene.[552] On 12 April, a 14-year-old Israeli shepherd went missing near Ramallah and was found dead a day later. On 15 April, two Palestinians were killed by Israeli settlers in Aqraba.[553] On 13 May, at the Tarqumiya checkpoint, a convoy of trucks carrying food supplies to Gaza was attacked by Israeli settlers, who damaged the trucks and threw supplies on the ground.[554]
Israeli prisons and detention camps
Israel has increased its administrative detention of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza, as well as Palestinian citizens of Israel, since the start of the war. Administrative detention was already at a 20-year high before October 2023.[555] More than 11,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli jails, not counting detainees taken from Gaza during the war.[556] At least 60 Palestinians have died in Israeli detention since 7 October.[557] They are held without charge or trial, which violates international law.[558]
In December 2023, a military base at Sde Teiman in the Negev Desert was converted to a detention camp by the IDF. Whistleblowers and detainees reported beatings and torture of Palestinian detainees at the camp, as well as amputations of limbs due to injuries sustained from handcuffing, medical neglect, arbitrary punishment and sexual abuse. Prisoners have been coerced to make confessions that they are members of Hamas.[559][560][561] After conditions in the camp came to light in May 2024, the Supreme Court of Israel held a hearing and the IDF began transferring 1,200 of the prisoners to Ofer Prison.[562] Detainees have reported severe instances of violence during transfers between prisons.[557][94]
Several Palestinian healthcare workers have been abducted from Gaza hospitals during sieges by Israeli forces.[94] On 5 December, Israeli forces abducted the adult men present at Al-Awda hospital and took them to Sde Teiman camp. Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh was detained and later died in Israeli custody.[563] In March, Israeli forces abducted Khaled Alser, lead author of the first Lancet paper on trauma among Gazan ER patients and doctors, from Nasser Hospital. As of 31 August, he remains in detention and his whereabouts are unknown.[564]
In July 2024, military police raided Sde Teiman to arrest ten soldiers "suspected of the serious sexual abuse" of a Palestinian detainee. Israeli national security minister
On 7 October 2024, American journalist Jeremy Loffredo and three other international and Israeli journalists were detained at a checkpoint in the West Bank on suspicion of "assisting an enemy in war" for their reporting on the
As of February 2025, at least 160 healthcare workers from Gaza were believed to be held in detention by Israel, with another 24 missing after being taken from hospitals in Gaza. Al-Shifa hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia, who was detained for 7 months and released without charges, detailed many of the abuses he faced and said that "no day passes without torture" in Israeli prisons.[567]
American involvement
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The extent of American support for Israel has led the war to be labelled as 'the first US-Israeli joint war'.
On 18 March 2025, after Israel's surprise attack on the Gaza Strip, Israeli government spokesman David Mencer stated that the operation had "fully coordinated with Washington" and thanked the Trump administration "for their unyielding support for Israel".[574] On 6 April, a second THAAD system was deployed to Israel by the US.[575]
Casualties
| Event | Total | Civilians | Children | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | % | Total | % | ||
| October 7 attacks | 1,195[576] | 828[576][39] | 68.2% | 36[577] | 3.2% |
| Israeli invasion of Gaza | 57,680[578] | ~80%[r] | 31%[578] | ||
| Israeli attacks in the West Bank | 633[s] | 118[582] | 18.64% | ||
As of 9 July 2025[update], over 60,200 people (58,313 Palestinians
The majority of casualties have been in the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Health Ministry (GHM) total casualty count is the number of deaths directly caused by the war. The demographic breakdown is a subset of those individually identified.[590][591] On 17 September 2024, the GHM published the names, gender and birth date of 34,344 individual Palestinians whose identities were confirmed and continues to attempt to identify all casualties.[590] The GHM count does not include those who have died from "preventable disease, malnutrition and other consequences of the war".[592] An analysis by the Gaza Health Projections Working Group predicted thousands of excess deaths from disease and birth complications.[593]
In January 2025, a peer-reviewed analysis of deaths in the Gaza war between October 2023 and 30 June 2024 was published in The Lancet. The paper estimated 64,260 deaths from traumatic injury during this period, and likely exceeding 70,000 by October 2024, with 59.1% of them being women, children and the elderly. It concluded that the GHM undercounted trauma-related deaths by 41% in its report, and also noted that its findings "underestimate the full impact of the military operation in Gaza, as they do not account for non-trauma-related deaths resulting from health service disruption, food insecurity, and inadequate water and sanitation."[13] As of January 2025, a comparable estimate for traumatic injury deaths would be around 80,000.[594]
A survey by PCPSR reported showed over 60% of Gazans have lost family members since the war began.[595][596] Thousands of more dead bodies are thought to be under the rubble of destroyed buildings.[597][598] The number of injured is greater than 100,000;[599] Gaza has the most amputated children per capita in the world.[600]
The
According to the Israeli Ministry of Defense's Rehabilitation Division, about 1,000 soldiers are wounded every month.[606] On 14 August 2024, the ministry predicted that it would have to account for 100,000 disabled IDF veterans by 2030 due to the war.[607]
Humanitarian crisis
The Gaza Strip is experiencing a humanitarian crisis as a result of the war,[608][609] including a hunger crisis, in which famine-like conditions occurred in some areas of the strip and a high risk of famine persists as of October 2024,[610][84] as well as a healthcare collapse. At the start of the war, Israel tightened its blockade on the strip, resulting in significant shortages of fuel, food, medication, water, and essential medical supplies.[608][611][612] This siege resulted in a 90% drop in electricity availability, impacting hospital power supplies, sewage plants, and shutting down the desalination plants that provide drinking water.[613] In July 2024, available water worked out to 4.74 litres per person per day, just under a third of the recommended minimum in emergencies.[614] Doctors warned of disease outbreaks spreading due to overcrowded hospitals.[609] A polio epidemic was the target of mostly-successful vaccination campaigns.[615]
Heavy bombardment by Israeli airstrikes caused catastrophic damage to Gaza's infrastructure, further deepening the crisis. Direct attacks on telecommunications infrastructure by Israel, electricity blockades, and fuel shortages caused the near-total collapse of Gaza's largest cell network providers.[616][617][618] Lack of internet access has obstructed Gazan citizens from communicating with loved ones, learning of IDF operations, and identifying both the areas most exposed to bombing and possible escape routes.[616] The blackouts impeded emergency services, making it harder to locate and access the time-critical injured,[616] and have impeded humanitarian aid agencies and journalists.[616] By December 2023, 200,000 Gazans (approximately 10% of the population) had received internet access through an eSIM provided by Connecting Humanity.[619]
The Gaza Health Ministry reported over 4,000 children killed in the war's first month.[620] UN Secretary-General António Guterres stated that Gaza had "become a graveyard for children."[v][623][624] Indirect Palestinian deaths are expected to be much higher due to the intensity of the conflict, destruction of healthcare infrastructure, lack of food, water, shelter, and safe places for civilians to flee to, and reduction in UNRWA funding, with a Lancet study stating that the death toll in Gaza, including future deaths indirectly caused by the war, may exceed 186,000.[580][625]
In mid-April 2025, 12 CEOs of humanitarian organizations signed a statement that aid systems were in danger of collapsing.[626]
On 16 May, Donald Trump acknowledged starvation in Gaza and promoted a US-Israeli humanitarian aid plan where food would be distributed through a system of hubs run by private contractors and protected by Israeli soldiers. The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was set up to carry out this plan and announced it would be ready to begin operations by the end of May.[627][628] International aid agencies have rejected US-Israeli aid plans, saying that they weaponize humanitarian aid, violate principles of neutrality, will exacerbate mass displacement and would not be able to meet the scale of aid that is required.[629]
On 25 May, the UN's World Food Programme Executive Director Cindy McCain said only about 100 trucks a day were getting through, whereas prior to the blockade it had been upwards of 600 trucks a day.[630]
Scale of destruction
The scale and pace of
The Guardian reported that the scale of destruction has led international legal experts to raise the concept of domicide, which it describes as "the mass destruction of dwellings to make [a] territory uninhabitable".[632] The term urbicide has also been used to refer to the destruction of Gazan cities and their institutions.[645] In October 2024, after monitoring and analyzing Israel's war conduct in Gaza for more than a year, Forensic Architecture published a cartographic map platform detailing Israel's campaign in Gaza titled "A Cartography of Genocide", accompanied by an 827-page text report that concludes that "Israel's military campaign in Gaza is organised, systematic, and intended to destroy conditions of life and life-sustaining infrastructure".[646]
War crimes
A UN Commission to the Israel–Palestine conflict stated that there is "clear evidence that war crimes may have been committed in the latest explosion of violence in Israel and Gaza, and all those who have violated international law and targeted civilians must be held accountable."[647][648][649] On 27 October, a spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) called for an independent court to review potential war crimes committed by both sides.[650]
The International Criminal Court (ICC) said that its mandate to investigate alleged war crimes committed since June 2014 in the State of Palestine extends to the current conflict.[651][652] On 20 May, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan announced his intention to seek arrest warrants against Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war.[653][654][655] On 21 November, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant, and Deif for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.[656][657][658] The ICC canceled Deif's arrest warrant after confirming his death.[659]
On 7 June 2024, both Israel and Hamas were added to the list of shame, an annex attached to an annual report submitted by the UN Secretary-General documenting rights violations against children in armed conflict. While past reports accused Israel of grave rights violations against children, the country was never included in the annex.[660][661][662]
On 19 June 2024, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory presented a detailed report to the United Nations Human Rights Council covering the war from 7 October to 31 December 2023, affirming that both Hamas and Israel committed war crimes and that Israel's actions also constituted crimes against humanity.[663] In a second report, the Commission found that Israel had carried out a policy of destroying Gaza's healthcare system.[664][665]
The June report found that the military wing of Hamas and six other Palestinian armed groups were responsible for the war crimes of intentionally directing attacks against civilians, murder or willful killing, torture, inhuman or cruel treatment, destroying or seizing property, outrages upon personal dignity, and taking hostages, including children.[666][667] In relation to IDF operations and attacks in Gaza, the commission concluded that Israeli authorities are responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare, murder or willful killing, intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, forcible transfer, sexual violence, torture and inhuman or cruel treatment, arbitrary detention and outrages upon personal dignity. It also found that Israel committed numerous crimes against humanity, including carrying out the extermination of Palestinians and gender persecution targeting Palestinian men and boys.[668][669][670] The commission said that they had submitted 7,000 pieces of evidence to the ICC related to crimes committed by Israel and Hamas, as part of the International Criminal Court investigation in Palestine.[671]
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In another report published in October 2024, the commission accused Israel of "committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities" as well as accusing the IDF of deliberately killing and torturing medical personnel, targeting medical vehicles, and restricting patients from leaving Gaza. The report also addressed the detention of Palestinians in Israeli military camps and facilities, finding that thousands of child and adult detainees, many arbitrarily detained, faced widespread abuse, including physical and psychological violence, rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence, and conditions amounting to torture, highlighting that deaths resulting from such abuse or neglect constituted war crimes and violations of the right to life. Israel refused to cooperate with the investigation, contending that it had an "anti-Israel" bias.[665][672]
On 5 December 2024, Amnesty International published a report concluding that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip;[86][673] and on 19 December 2024, Human Rights Watch published a 179-page report concluding that Israel is responsible for the crime of genocide by intentionally depriving Palestinians in Gaza of access to safe water for drinking and sanitation needed for basic human survival.[674]
On 13 March 2025, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory released a report stating that Israel's attacks on women's healthcare facilities in Gaza amounted to genocidal acts, destroying "in part the reproductive capacity of Palestinians in Gaza as a group".[675] Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the report as "false and absurd", and accused UN Human Rights Council of being anti-Israel and anti-Semitic.[676]
On 13 July 2025, Brazilian minister of foreign relations Mauro Vieira announced that Brazil would officially join South Africa's ICJ case accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.[677]
Diplomatic impact
The war sparked a
Negotiations have focused on the possibility of a
Following talks mediated by China, on 23 July 2024, Palestinian groups including Hamas and Fatah reached an agreement to end their divisions and form a unity government for Gaza, which they announced in the Beijing Declaration.[688]
At the UNGA, Saudi Arabia announced a global alliance to push for a two-state solution. Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said almost 90 countries were at the launch of The Global Alliance for the Implementation of a Palestinian State and a Two-State Solution.[689][690][691] On 29 September, Saudi Arabia said they would send aid to the Palestinian Authority, $60 million in six installments according to a senior PA official. The aid is seen as means of keeping the PA solvent and maintaining the push for a two-state solution, notwithstanding Israeli financial restrictions.[692]
Reactions
Israel
The Israeli government's response to the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel has multiple aspects, including a military response leading to the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. In October, the Knesset approved a war cabinet in Israel, adding National Unity ministers and altering the government; Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz froze non-war legislation, establishing a war cabinet with military authority.
Settler expansions and officials' remarks heightened unrest, leading to protests within Israel. The Knesset's law criminalizing "terrorist materials" consumption drew criticism.[693]
In an interview to the Wall Street Journal on 25 December, Netanyahu said that Israel's objectives were to "destroy Hamas, demilitarize Gaza and deradicalize the whole of Palestinian society".[694]
There was broad support in Israeli society for military operations in Gaza.[695][696] A public opinion poll conducted in December 2023 by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 87% of Jewish Israelis supported the war in Gaza.[697]
In another Israel Democracy Institute survey of 510 Israeli citizens in early February 2024, 68% of respondents supported preventing all international aid from entering Gaza.[698]
A poll commissioned by
Occupied Palestinian territories
Initially, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas asserted the Palestinian people's right to self-defense against the "terror of settlers and occupation troops"[701] and condemned the orders by Israel for residents to evacuate north Gaza, labeling it a "second Nakba".[702] Later, Abbas rejected the killing of civilians on both sides, and said that the Palestinian Liberation Organization was the sole representative of the Palestinian people.[703]
A December 2023 poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that 72% of respondents (52% of Gazans and 85% of West Bank residents) approved of the October 7 attacks.[704] A 2024 follow-up poll found that two-thirds of respondents continued to approve of the attacks.[705] About 90% of respondents did not believe that Hamas committed atrocities (killing women and children, sexual violence) during the October 7 attacks, seeing this as enemy propaganda.[705] Half of respondents in Gaza expected Hamas to win the war, while a quarter expected Israel to win.[705]
International
 | This section needs to be updated. (May 2024) |
Significant geopolitical divisions emerged during the war. Israel's traditional Western allies provided diplomatic backing and weaponry to Israel;[706] including the United States,[707] United Kingdom,[708] and Germany.[709] However several European nations have been less supportive of Israel's actions, most notably Spain, Norway, and Ireland who formally recognized the State of Palestine in a coordinated move in June 2024.[710] Spain and Ireland have also supported South Africa's genocide case against Israel.[711][712] This has led to retaliatory action by Israel, who recalled its ambassadors to all three countries and later announced that it would be closing its embassy in Dublin.[713][714][715] Hugh Lovatt of the European Council on Foreign Relations says that during the Cold War, Israel sided with the West against the Arab countries supported by the Soviets, and Western leaders generally see Israel "as a fellow member of the liberal democratic club" and that this partially "explains the continued strong Western support for Israel – which has now largely become reflexive".[706] At least 44 nations denounced Hamas and explicitly condemned its conduct on 7 October as terrorism, including a joint statement by the US, UK, France, Italy, and Germany.[716]
In contrast, the
The United States and Germany have supplied Israel with substantial military and medical aid.[708][719][720] The United Kingdom issues licenses for British companies to sell weapons to Israel, supplying less than 1% of Israel's military imports.[721] In September 2024, the UK suspended some military exports to Israel because there was a "clear risk" they might be used to violate international law.[722]
The Israeli government's response prompted international protests, arrests, and harassment.[723]
Evacuations of foreign nationals
Brazil announced a rescue operation of nationals using an air force transport aircraft.[724] Poland announced that it would deploy two C-130 transport planes to evacuate 200 Polish nationals.[725] Hungary evacuated 215 of its nationals from Israel using two aircraft on 9 October, while Romania evacuated 245 of its citizens, including two pilgrimage groups, on two TAROM planes and two private aircraft on the same day.[726] Australia also announced repatriation flights.[727] 300 Nigerian pilgrims in Israel fled to Jordan before being airlifted home.[728]
On 12 October, the United Kingdom arranged flights for its citizens in Israel; the first plane departed Ben Gurion Airport that day. The government had said before that it would not be evacuating its nationals due to available commercial flights. However, most commercial flights were suspended.
Impacts
Regional impact
According to Daniel Byman and Alexander Palmer, the attack showcased the decline of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the rise of Hamas as a power center in Palestinian politics. They predicted the PLO's further decline if the status quo held.[733] Laith Alajlouni wrote that the immediate effect of the Hamas offensive was to unite Hamas and PLO.[734]
Amit Segal, chief political commentator for Israel's Channel 12, said that the conflict would test Benjamin Netanyahu's survival as prime minister, noting that past wars had toppled the governments of several of his predecessors such as that of Golda Meir following the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Menachem Begin following the 1982 Lebanon War, and Ehud Olmert following the 2006 Lebanon War.[735] Citing the Israeli intelligence failure, which some observers attributed to the incumbent government focusing more on internal dissent, the judicial reform, and efforts to deepen Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories,[736] some commentators criticized Netanyahu for putting aside the PLO and propping up Hamas,[156] and described him as a liability.[737][738]
In an analysis by The Times of Israel, the newspaper wrote, "Hamas has violently shifted the world's eyes back to the Palestinians and dealt a severe blow to the momentum for securing a landmark US-brokered deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia."[739] Andreas Kluth wrote in his Bloomberg News column that Hamas "torched Biden's deal to remake the Middle East", arguing that the deal that was being discussed between Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the US would have left Palestinians in the cold, so the group decided to "blow the whole thing up". He added that viewed from Gaza, things were only going to get worse, considering that Netanyahu's coalition partners opposed a two-state solution. He suggested they would prefer to annex the entirety of the West Bank, even at the expense of turning Israel into an apartheid state.[740]
Economic impact
The Bank of Israel estimates that by 2025, the war will have cost the country US$67 billion, notwithstanding a $14.5 billion US aid package, part of the $22.76 billion the US has so far allocated for military assistance.[741][z]
As early as 9 November 2023, the Bank of Israel reported that the drop in labor supply caused by the war was costing the Israeli economy $600 million a week, or 6% of weekly GDP. The bank also stated that the estimate did not include damage caused by the absence of Palestinian and foreign workers.[743] In the final quarter of 2023, the Israeli economy shrank by 5.2% quarter-to-quarter due to labor shortages in construction and from the mobilization of 300,000 reservists.[744] While Israel did still see economic growth of 2%, this was down from 6.5% growth in the year before the war. Consumer spending declined by 27%, imports declined by 42% and exports declined by 18%.
Israel's high-tech factories reported in December that recent bureaucratic obstacles with electronic imports from China had led to higher import costs and delayed delivery times.[745] Israeli officials also reported that China had refused to send workers to their country during the war against the backdrop of a worker shortage in Israel's construction and farming sectors.[746] China's actions were described as a de facto sanction.[747][745]
The 3,500-member Water Transport Workers Federation of India said it would refuse to operate shipments carrying weapons to Israel.[748] The declaration came a few months after one Indian company halted production of Israeli police uniforms due to the war in Gaza.[749]
About 9,855 Thai workers in the agricultural sector, 4,331 workers in the construction sector and 2,997 in the nursing sector left Israel following the 7 October attack. In addition, the prevention of 85,000 Palestinian workers from entering Israel created a shortage of about 100,000 foreign and Palestinian workers.[750]
It has been calculated that the carbon cost in terms of climate impact of rebuilding Gaza would exceed the annual greenhouse emissions of 135 countries.[751]
Media coverage
In reporting on the conflict, foreign media have limited access to Gaza and only in the presence of Israeli soldiers. Vox reported that the news organizations "have to submit all materials and footage to the IDF for review before publication".[752] The conflict has also seen large numbers of journalists wounded or killed in action. On 14 December, CBS reported on a statement from the International Federation of Journalists that "the number of journalists killed in the past two months in the war in Gaza has surpassed the amount killed in the Vietnam War, which lasted two decades".[753] Reporters Without Borders filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court under section 8.2.b of the Rome Statute, accusing Israel of committing war crimes against eight journalists.[754][752] It also lodged a complaint against Hamas under section 8.2.a of the Rome Statute for the killing of a reporter covering the 7 October attack.[754] The Committee to Protect Journalists accused Israel of targeting journalists reporting from Gaza and their families, saying that in at least two cases, "journalists reported receiving threats from Israeli officials and Israel Defense Forces officers before their family members were killed".[755]
See also
- Misinformation in the Gaza war
- Outline of the Gaza war
- List of modern conflicts in the Middle East
- List of wars involving Israel
- List of wars involving Palestine
- Timeline of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in 2023
- Timeline of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in 2024
- List of companies involved in the Gaza war
Notes
- American involvement
- ^ Popular Forces have been described as a Salafi Jihadist organisation with alleged ties to the Islamic State. Several senior leaders in the Popular Forces also allied with the Islamic State in the Sinai.[1]
- ^ From May 2024[2][3][4]
- ^ Fired by Netanyahu as defense minister on 5 November 2024
- ^ The combined forces of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad add up to 37,000.[7][8][failed verification][needs update] Estimates for Hamas alone are highly variable, from 20,000 to 40,000.[9][10]
- ^ Including 169,500 active personnel[11] and 360,000 reservists[12]
- ^ Casualty count includes both militants and civilians. For further information see Casualties of the Gaza war § Civilian to military ratio.
- ^ As of April 2025.[14][15] Per the Gaza Health Ministry[16] the number recorded killed is 58,573.[17][g][18][19] The number of killed identified is 58,380.[20][21][22]
Israeli estimates of 36,000+ Palestinians killed, including nearly 20,000 militants,
- ^ In addition to direct deaths, armed conflicts result in indirect deaths "attributable to the conflict". Mortality due to indirect deaths could be due to a variety of causes, such as infectious diseases.[27] Indirect deaths range from three to fifteen times the number of direct deaths in recent conflicts.[28] In Gaza, estimated 51,000 natural deaths, natural death rate has gone up from 3.5/1000 to 22/1000 (late June 2024)[29]
- ^ Based in Israel proper (1967 borders)
- ^ Total is derived from taking the current number of killed in Gaza, the current number of killed in West Bank, the current number of militants killed inside Israel, the current number of killed in Lebanon and the current number of killed in Syria.
- ^ Including:
- 797 on October 7[38][39] (including foreign or dual national citizens and "up to" 14 Israeli civilians killed by the Israeli military as part of the Hannibal Directive[40])
- 83 hostages in Gaza confirmed dead (including 27 not retrieved),[41] of which 11 were soldiers,[42][43][44][45][46] leaving 72 confirmed civilian hostage deaths
- 46 on the Lebanese border[47]
- 3 in Alexandria, Egypt
- 2 embassy staff members in Washington, D.C., United States[48]
- 24 in the West Bank and Israel by 5 March 2025 (per OCHA oPt),[49] not including 2 mistakenly killed by Israeli forces (1 in Jerusalem[50] and 1 in the West Bank),[51] 6 killed by militants (2 near Ofra,[52] 1 in Tel Aviv[53], 1 near Yokneam Illit[54] and 2 near Brukhin[55][56]), 3 killed in non-militant attacks (1 in Haifa,[57] 1 in Hadera,[58] 1 in Herzliya),[59] and 1 killed in an attack in Gush Etzion,[60] bringing the total to 36 conflict-related deaths to date
- 3 in Gaza Strip[61][62][63]
- 3 in Allenby Bridge[64]
- 30 in the
- 2 in Houthi missile and drone attacks (including 1 indirectly)[69][70]
- 797 on
- ^ Including:[71][72][73][74][75][76][77]
- 972 (893 conf. by names) Israel Defence Forcesoldiers
- 70 Israel Police officers
- 10 Shin Bet personnel (not including those who were also IDF soldiers)
- 972 (893 conf. by names)
- ^ As of 22 January 2024.[78] Including 6,108 soldiers (as of 13 July 2025).[73]
- Arabic: معركة طوفان الأقصى), "October 7 war", and others. For more information, see Names.
- ^ 58,380 Palestinians of which have been fully identified as of 17 July 2025.
- ^ Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reported to have backed changing the name of the war to 'Genesis,' evoking the biblical Book of Genesis.[108][109] A group of Israeli politicians supported the name change because of what they see as "its universality and association with a new reality, separating between darkness and light, good and evil, barbarism and civilization."[109] The plan has also been presented to National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz and Israel's Public Diplomacy Directorate.[109]
- ^ Sources:[579][580][581]
- ^ From 2024-01-01 to 2025-05-31.[582]
- ^ Including:
- 1022 civilians killed
- 828 on October 7[576][45][39][38][39] (including foreign or dual national citizens[38] and "up to" 14 Israeli civilians killed by the Israeli military as part of the Hannibal Directive[40])
- 82 hostages in Gaza confirmed dead (including 34 not retrieved),[41][46] of which 11 were soldiers,[42][43][44][45][46] leaving 71 confirmed civilian hostage deaths
- 46 on the Lebanese border[47]
- 3 in Alexandria, Egypt
- 2 embassy staff members in Washington, D.C., United States[48]
- 24 in the West Bank and Israel by 5 March 2025 (per OCHA oPt),[49] not including 2 mistakenly killed by Israeli forces (1 in Jerusalem[50] and 1 in the West Bank),[51] 6 killed by militants (2 near Ofra,[52] 1 in Tel Aviv[53], 1 near Yokneam Illit[54] and 2 near Brukhin[55][56]) and 3 killed in non-militant attacks (1 in Haifa,[57] 1 in Hadera[58] and 1 in Herzliya),[59] bringing the total to 35 conflict-related deaths to date
- 3 in Gaza Strip[61][62][63]
- 3 in Allenby Bridge[64]
- 29 in the
- 2 in Houthi missile and drone attacks (including 1 indirectly)[69][70]
- 828 on
- 881 Israel Defence Forcesoldiers
- 70 Israel Police officers
- 10 Shin Bet personnel (not including those who were also IDF soldiers)
- 881
- ^ Casualty by nationality[584][585]
152–158 Palestinian
2–4 Israeli
6–9 Lebanese
0–1 Syrian - ^ Israeli UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan responded directly to Guterres, stating, "Shame on [Guterres]... More than 30 minors – among them a 9-month-old baby as well as toddlers and children who witnessed their parents being murdered in cold blood – are being held against their will in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is the problem in Gaza, not Israel's actions to eliminate this terrorist organization."[621][622]
- ^ By December 2023, the percentage of buildings damaged or destroyed in Gaza exceeded Dresden and Cologne during World War II and approached the level of destruction seen in Hamburg.[635][637]
- ^ In northern Gaza, including Gaza City, the number of buildings damaged or destroyed is as high as 80 percent.[640]
- ^ In October 2024, The New York Times estimated 168,000 buildings in Gaza had been damaged or destroyed.[641]
- ^ A conservative estimate for US funding for Israel's military operations and related US operations in the area sets the figure for the fiscal year between 7 October and 30 September at $22.76 billion.[742]
References
- ^ Uddin, Rayhan (12 June 2025). "'Popular Forces': Who are the Gaza gangsters being armed by Israel?". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
- ^ "Leader of militia in Gaza fighting Hamas admits cooperating with IDF". The Times of Israel. 6 July 2025.
- ^ Fabian, Emanuel; Yohanan, Nurit; Freiberg, Nava (5 June 2025). "Israel providing guns to Gaza gang to bolster opposition to Hamas". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 5 June 2025.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 7 June 2025.
- ^ Halabi, Einav (3 July 2025). "Israel arms Fatah-linked militias, combatting Hamas in Gaza". Ynetnews. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
- ^ "July 4: IDF says it holds 'operational control' over roughly 65% of Gaza Strip". The Times of Israel. 4 July 2025. Retrieved 8 July 2025.
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as many as 37,000 Palestinians as suspected militants
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The "Lavender" system is designed to identify individuals suspected of being part of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), even targeting those with lower ranks for potential aerial bombardments. In the initial stages of the conflict, the military heavily relied on Lavender, leading to the system labeling up to 37,000 Palestinians as militants, along with their residences, for potential airstrikes.
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Netanyahu said last week that Israel has killed 14,000 Hamas militants; the IDF put its estimate at 13,000 last month. The numbers are not possible to independently verify — and no evidence has been offered to support them — but even the high-end figure would amount to less than half of Hamas's estimated fighting force before the war.
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- .
A study of traumatic injury deaths in Gaza in The Lancet using multiple data sources and capture-recapture analysis suggested that the MoH's methods, far from producing an exaggerated number, actually under-estimated the death toll by around 41 percent. ... When considering the total 'excess mortality,' we need to add the Palestinians who have died because of the blockade in combination with the IDF's destruction of health and sanitation and food infrastructure. As public health experts noted, in many wars, 'most deaths' are 'due to the indirect [sic] impacts of war: malnutrition, communicable disease, exacerbations of noncommunicable disease, [and] maternal and infant disorders.'117 'Indirect' would be the wrong word for this conflict given the nature of Israeli policies, including the systematic obstruction of supplies into Gaza.
The ratio of people killed in war to those dying indirectly because of a conflict is explored in the chapter on indirect deaths (INDIRECT CONFLICT DEATHS). Studies show that between three and 15 times as many people die indirectly for every person who dies violently.
Simultaneously with its onslaught on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army intensified operations in the West Bank, resulting in 592 deaths and approximately 5,400 injuries, according to official Palestinian data.
Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed 4,047 people and wounded 16,638 others, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said in a televised address.
ISF had likely applied the Hannibal Directive, resulting in the killing of up to 14 Israeli civilians.
reuters-deaths was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
A study of traumatic injury deaths in Gaza in The Lancet using multiple data sources and capture-recapture analysis suggested that the MoH's methods, far from producing an exaggerated number, actually under-estimated the death toll by around 41 percent. ... When considering the total 'excess mortality,' we need to add the Palestinians who have died because of the blockade in combination with the IDF's destruction of health and sanitation and food infrastructure. As public health experts noted, in many wars, 'most deaths' are 'due to the indirect [sic] impacts of war: malnutrition, communicable disease, exacerbations of noncommunicable disease, [and] maternal and infant disorders.'117 'Indirect' would be the wrong word for this conflict given the nature of Israeli policies, including the systematic obstruction of supplies into Gaza.
The only normative definition we have, codified at the United Nations Genocide Convention of 1948, accurately describes the current situation in Palestine ... describes exactly what is happening in Gaza today
One year ago, the FIDH International Board, its governing body elected by all its member organisations, recognised, after extensive debate and examination, that Israel was carrying out genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza
This compounded the impact of a 15-year ongoing Israeli blockade that amounts to illegal collective punishment
The blockade is a form of collective punishment in violation of international law.
Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade around Gaza aimed at preventing attacks by militants there, though the measure has been condemned by rights groups as a form of collective punishment.
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It allows the Israeli military to use any force necessary to prevent Israeli soldiers from being captured and taken into enemy territory [...]. Some officers [...] understand the order to mean that soldiers ought to deliberately kill their comrade in order to stop him from being taken prisoner [...]. However, the orders failed to distinguish between soldiers being captured and civilians.
