October 7 attack and the Gaza war

On October 7, 2023, fighters from Hamas and other groups break through the Gaza border fence, killing about 1,200 people in southern Israel, most of them civilians, among them hundreds at a music festival, and taking about 250 hostages into Gaza. It is the deadliest day in Israel's history, and is often described as the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. Israel declares war and begins a campaign of air strikes, then a ground invasion in late October.¹

Gaza has been run by Hamas since 2007 and under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade. Hamas rejected the Oslo process and does not recognize Israel. Earlier wars were fought in 2008 to 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2021. Diplomacy had stalled, and Israeli settlement in the West Bank had grown, while Saudi-Israeli normalization talks in 2023 were seen by some analysts as leaving Palestinians out. Hamas leaders planned the attack for years.¹

The Gaza Health Ministry reported more than 70,000 Palestinians killed by late 2025, with UN agencies treating its figures as broadly reliable and Israel disputing how many were combatants. Most of the 2.2 million population was displaced, and the UN warned of famine. The war widened: Hezbollah and Israel fought across the Lebanese border, Yemen's Houthis attacked Red Sea shipping, and Iran and Israel exchanged direct strikes in 2024 and 2025. A ceasefire took effect in October 2025, with hostage releases. The International Court of Justice has a case on genocide brought by South Africa, which Israel denies, and the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against leaders on both sides.²³⁴⁵⁶