ADVERTISEMENT
Hamas led a series of surprise attacks on Israel in the early hours of 7 October 2023, initially firing rockets into Israel before launching a ground operation which saw almost 1,200 people killed and 251 others taken as hostages back to Gaza.
The militant group called the operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” and targeted military sites, kibbutzim and the Nova music festival.
Israel vowed to annihilate Hamas and launched its own military offensive in Gaza just hours after that incursion.
Evacuation of northern Gaza
Six days after the Hamas-led attack, on 13 October the Israeli army ordered the first evacuation of the north of the Palestinian enclave within 24 hours, in preparation for a ground offensive.
According to the UN, more than 1 million residents had to leave their homes and head south.
By 13 October, Israeli strikes had already killed more than 1,500 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local authorities.
First truce
After seven weeks of war, a first seven-day truce came into force on 24 November.
81 hostages were released by Hamas and exchanged for 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The temporary ceasefire was negotiated by Qatar with the support of Egypt and the United States.
Israel resumed its bombardment of Gaza on 1 December, accusing Hamas of refusing to release more hostages and of opposing an extension of the truce. Hamas, blamed Israel for the collapse of the cessation of hostilities.
International Court of Justice
In a ruling on 26 January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to prevent genocide from taking place among the Palestinians in Gaza.
South Africa had brought the case before the UN’s highest court, accusing Israel of violating the Genocide Convention.
“The World Court’s landmark decision puts Israel and its allies on notice that immediate action is needed to prevent genocide and further atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza,” said Balkees Jarrah, an associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch.
Israel dismissed South Africa’s case “wholly unfounded” and “morally repugnant”, and accused the country of presenting “biased and false claims” to the court.
Explosions of beepers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon
On 17 and 18 September, hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by the miliant group Hezbollah, which is ideologically aligned with Hamas, exploded simultaneously in Lebanon.
The attack, carried out by Israel, left at least 37 people dead and almost 3,000 injured.
The explosions took place in supermarkets, on streets and in public spaces, against a backdrop of escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah began firing at Israel the day after the war in Gaza started, it said in solidarity with the Palestinians.
That started a year of almost daily cross-border strikes until a US-brokered ceasefire in November last year.
“Elimination” of Hassan Nasrallah
Ten days later, Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah, on 27 September, in a strike on the organisation’s headquarters in Beirut.
The fighting between Israel and Hezbollah left almost 4,000 people dead and more than 16,000 wounded in Lebanon.
Israeli strikes caused extensive damage in southern Lebanon and in some districts of the capital Beirut. More than 1 million Lebanese were displaced.
Ceasefire agreed
After more than 15 months of war, a ceasefire agreement negotiated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States was agreen to on 15 January came into force on 19 January 2025.
33 hostages, including eight bodies, were exchanged for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
The agreement was unilaterally broken two months later by Israel, which resumed its bombing campaign on Gaza on 18 March.
Israeli air strikes on Iran
From 12-24 June 2025, a 12-day conflict broke out between Israel and Iran.
Israel struck Iran’s nuclear sites, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iranian air defences and residential areas.
Iran retaliated, firing barrages of missiles into Israel.
After the US joined the aerial campaign using its “bunker buster” bombs on Iranian nuclear sites, Iran targeted a American air base in Qatar, the largest in the Middle East.
Doha, which said it was given advance warning of the strikes by Tehran, said it had intercepted all of the missiles and no casualties were reported. US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire on 24 June.
According to one NGO, this lightning conflict between Israel and Iran left more than 1,000 people dead in Iran and 28 in Israel.
Declaration of a state of famine
On 22 August 2025, the world’s leading authority on food crises said the Gaza Strip’s largest city was gripped by famine and that it was likely to spread across the territory without a ceasefire and an end to restrictions on humanitarian aid.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said famine was occurring in Gaza City, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and that it could spread south to Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis by the end of September.
The IPC said hunger has been driven by fighting and the blockade of aid and magnified by widespread displacement and the collapse of food production in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied there was hunger in Gaza, calling reports of starvation “lies” promoted by Hamas.
Trump’s peace plan
On 29 September, US President Donald Trump presented a 20-point peace agreement aimed at ending the two-year war in Gaza.
It includes the release of all the hostages, the disarmament of Hamas and an end to the Israeli military offensive.
Hamas says it is in favour of an agreement to end the war but disagreed with some of the proposal. Negotiations are currently ongoing in Egypt.
To date, the Israeli offensive in Gaza has caused more than 66,000 deaths and 170,000 injuries in two years, according to local health authorities, which don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in their count.
Hamas is still holding 48 hostages, 20 of whom Israel believes are still alive.
