Near dawn one year ago, the militant group Hamas began an assault from Gaza into Israel.
It signaled the start of a series of events that have shaken the Middle East. Here are some key moments:
Hamas attacks Israel
On Oct. 7, armed paragliders took off from Gaza. Militants used drones to destroy Israeli surveillance stations and began to fire thousands of rockets. Commandos in trucks and on motorbikes sped into southern Israel.
In an hourslong assault, Hamas and other Gaza-based groups killed up to 1,200 civilians and security personnel across the border in Israel, committed atrocities, and took more than 250 people back to Gaza as hostages.
In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel declared war on Hamas. Israel sealed Gaza’s border and started a campaign of airstrikes, a bombardment that would be one of the most intense in 21st-century warfare and kill tens of thousands of Gazans over the months to come.
Iran allies join the fight
Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group supported by Iran, began firing missiles and drones at Israeli positions on Oct. 8 in support of Hamas. Israel responded with its own airstrikes, with both sides initially calibrating tit-for-tat attacks to avoid escalation. The fighting would force about 150,000 people on both sides of the border to flee their homes.
Others in Iran’s network of armed groups, which it calls the “axis of resistance,” would soon join the fight against Israel and its allies. The Houthis of Yemen disrupted global shipping by attacking commercial vessels in the Red Sea in support of Hamas, and launched a drone strike on Tel Aviv, killing one person.
Some aid enters Gaza
On Oct. 21, Israel allowed aid into Gaza for the first time since the beginning of the war. In the following months, with food deliveries only trickling in, experts warned that northern Gaza would face famine conditions. The enclave also faced diseases caused by a breakdown of sanitation and hygiene.
In December, South Africa brought a case against Israel to the International Court of Justice, accusing it of committing genocide in Gaza. On May 20, the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court said he was seeking arrest warrants for the leaders of both Israel and Hamas on charges of crimes against humanity. Among other charges, the prosecutor said that Israel had used starvation as a weapon of war. Israel strongly denied the charges.
Israel invades Gaza
Israel, after ordering civilians to flee northern Gaza, began a ground invasion on Oct. 27, sending in thousands of troops amid a ferocious bombardment.
In the months that followed, Israeli forces:
-
Stormed Al-Shifa hospital, the largest medical center in Gaza, in November.
-
Invaded the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza in December.
-
Opened fire while a crowd was gathered near a convoy of trucks carrying aid to Gaza City in February.
-
Killed seven aid workers with World Central Kitchen in April, in what Mr. Netanyahu said was a tragic and unintentional incident.
-
Withdrew in April from Khan Younis without setting in motion a transfer of power to alternative Palestinian leaders, allowing for Hamas’s retrenchment there. Israeli forces would return to Khan Younis and other Gaza cities again and again.
-
Carried out an airstrike that killed the commander of Hamas’s military wing, Muhammad Deif, on the outskirts of Khan Younis. Gaza’s health ministry said that at least 90 people in the vicinity were also killed.
-
Staged dozens of airstrikes against school buildings being used as shelters in Gaza. Israel said it was targeting militant command-and-control centers. Hundreds of people have been killed in the strikes, Gaza’s health ministry said.
By August, the Palestinian death toll exceeded 40,000, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Almost all of Gaza’s population of 2.2 million has been forced to flee their homes, and the enclave’s real estate, schools, hospitals and economy have been devastated, largely by airstrikes. Israel’s military said it had killed 17,000 combatants in the enclave.
Hamas and Israel reach brief truce
Hamas and Israel began a cease-fire on Nov. 24, leading to the release of more than 100 hostages by Hamas in exchange for around 240 Palestinians who were being held in Israeli detention.
The cease-fire fell apart a week later and fighting resumed, as Israel and Hamas disagreed on which Israelis should be freed in further hostage releases.
Since then, international mediators have struggled fruitlessly to bring the two sides to an agreement. In late July, Mr. Netanyahu submitted new demands just as the talks seemed to be gathering momentum. A major sticking point emerged: Mr. Netanyahu’s vow to maintain an Israeli military presence in a narrow strip of Gaza along the border with Egypt known as the Philadelphi corridor.
Israel struggles to rescue hostages
Roughly 100 people — including women, children and older people — are still being held by Hamas after the Oct. 7 attacks. Israeli forces have retrieved the bodies of more than 30 hostages since October, and the Israeli authorities presume that dozens more are dead.
Several incidents have highlighted Israel’s difficulty in rescuing those being held by Hamas.
-
In December, Israeli troops killed three Israeli hostages who were waving a white flag in an episode of friendly fire, provoking anguish in Israel.
-
In June, four hostages were rescued from Nuseirat in central Gaza. Palestinian health officials said that 274 people were killed, including 64 children, during the Israeli rescue operation. Israel put the total number of dead at around 100.
-
On Sept. 1, the Israeli military said that six bodies found in a tunnel under the Gaza Strip were those of hostages who had been killed by Hamas. The discovery set off grief, protests and a labor strike in Israel, amid anger not only at Hamas but also at the Israeli government for failing to secure their release.
Israel strikes an Iranian embassy complex
Israeli warplanes attacked an Iranian embassy complex in the capital of Syria, Damascus, killing at least three senior commanders and four officers overseeing Iran’s covert operations in the Middle East, Iranian and Syrian officials said.
About two weeks later, in retaliation, Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel, the first time it had attacked the country directly. Israel and its allies intercepted almost all of the weapons using air defenses. Israeli forces then struck a defense system near Natanz, a city in central Iran that is critical to the country’s nuclear weapons program.
Those strikes, while an escalation of the conflict between Israel and Iran, nevertheless fit within the longstanding framework for deterrence between the two countries.
A rocket kills Golan children
The unsteady equilibrium between Israel, Hezbollah and Iran began to collapse after at least 12 people were killed at a soccer field in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights on July 27. The Israeli military said the strike had been conducted by Hezbollah.
A few days later, Israel killed Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah official, in a strike in Beirut. The same day, Ismail Haniyeh, one of Hamas’s most senior leaders, was assassinated in the Iranian capital, Tehran, along with other senior members of Iran’s “axis of resistance.” Hamas blamed Israel for the attack.
Hezbollah pagers explode
Thousands of pager devices operated by Hezbollah members in Lebanon exploded almost simultaneously on Sept. 17. At least 12 people were killed and 2,700 injured. The next day, thousands of walkie-talkie devices exploded in Lebanon, killing at least 20 people, wounding more than 450 and crippling Hezbollah’s communications.
In the following days, Israel targeted senior Hezbollah officials as it unleashed one of the most intense air raids in modern warfare.
Hezbollah leader is killed, and Israel enters Lebanon
The leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Sept. 27 on residential buildings south of Beirut that Israel said stood over the central headquarters of Hezbollah.
Three days later, Israel began a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, while continuing its intense aerial bombardment there and in neighborhoods near Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway.
Iran missile barrage
Iran fired around 180 ballistic missiles at Israel on Oct. 1, saying it was retaliating for Israel’s assassinations of Mr. Nasrallah, Mr. Haniyeh and others. The attack was mostly thwarted by Israeli air defenses, with help from the United States.
Israel vowed to retaliate.
The post Key Events During a Year of Middle East War appeared first on New York Times.
