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 72,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed. A study in The Lancet concluded that traumatic injury deaths were undercounted and noted a potentially higher death toll when "indirect" deaths are included. A wide consensus of scholarship has concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Following the October 7 attacks, Israel launched a bombing campaign and later invaded Gaza on 27 October after clearing militants from its territory. Israeli forces launched several 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. They have assassinated Hamas leaders inside and outside of Gaza. A 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.

The war has resulted in a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Israel's tightened blockade cut off basic necessities, causing a severe hunger crisis and partial famine. Around 90% of Gaza's civilian infrastructure has been destroyed and essential services, including water, electricity, and sanitation, have been severely disrupted; large parts are uninhabitable, with most hospitals, religious and cultural landmarks, and educational facilities destroyed. 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 since the start of the war. Nearly all of the strip's 2.3 million Palestinians 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.

In September 2025, the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory concluded that four of the five acts of genocide as defined by 1948 Genocide Convention have been committed in Gaza since 7 October 2023. 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

Palestinian militant groups refer to the conflict as the "battle of al-Aqsa Flood" (Arabic: معركة طوفان الأقصى), in reference to Operation al-Aqsa Flood. The government of Israel referred to it as the "Iron Swords war" (Hebrew: מלחמת חרבות ברזל) 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 (IDF) 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. 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 such as Ismail Haniyeh cited disrupting this "normalization train" as a motive for the October 7 attacks.

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 attack was a complete surprise to the Israelis. 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[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." 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.