10 key moments in the Israel-Hamas war
A demonstrator releases a yellow smoke flare as others gather during a protest calling for action to release the remaining hostages held captive in Gaza since the 2023 October 7 attacks by Palestinian militants, outside the Israeli Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv on March 1, 2025. Agence France-Presse
PARIS — As the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire ends, here are the 10 key moments in Israel’s devastating military campaign in the territory, launched after the Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out the worst attack in Israeli history on October 7, 2023.
Israel’s air and ground campaign killed at least 48,319 people, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
Hamas attacks
At dawn on October 7, 2023, hundreds of Hamas fighters infiltrate Israel, resulting in the deaths of at least 1,218 people on the Israeli side.
They seize 251 hostages and take them back to Gaza, some already dead. Sixteen months later and after two ceasefires 58 are still held there. Israel’s military says at least 34 of the hostages are dead.
READ: Israel ready to resume Gaza war, PM warns after truce delay
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to destroy Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organisation by Israel, the United States and the European Union.
Ground offensive
Israel begins bombing and besieging Gaza. On October 13, it calls on civilians in the territory’s north to move south.
The vast majority of Gazans have been displaced during the war, according to the UN.
On October 27, Israel begins a ground offensive.
Truce and hostage swap
On November 24, a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas begins.
Hamas releases 105 hostages, mostly Israeli but also Thai workers, in return for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
When the war resumes, Israel expands its actions into southern Gaza.
Deadly food stampede
On February 29, 2024 Israeli forces fire on northern Gaza residents who rush a convoy of food aid trucks, killing 120 and wounding hundreds.
From early March military aircraft from several countries including the United States drop aid over Gaza which the UN says is threatened by famine.
READ: UN chief warns vs return to war as Gaza truce 1st stage due to end
On April 1, seven aid workers from US charity World Central Kitchen are killed in a strike which Israel’s military calls a “tragic mistake”.
Iran attacks Israel
On April 13, Iran pounds Israel with drones and missiles — its first-ever direct assault on Israel’s soil. The strikes are retaliation for a deadly April 1 attack on its Damascus consulate, blamed on Israel.
On July 20, Israel bombards Yemen’s port of Hodeida, after a drone attack on Tel Aviv by Iran-backed Huthi rebels who have been targeting shipping since November 2023 in solidarity with Gaza.
Hamas political leader killed
At the Israeli-Lebanon border, almost daily exchanges since October 2023 between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah intensify in July.
Israel retaliates with several strikes, including one that kills a top Hezbollah commander, Fuad Shukr.
On July 31, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh is killed on a visit to Iran. Israel accepts responsibility months later.
Lebanon spillover
On September 17 and 18, hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah explode in an Israeli operation that Lebanese authorities say kills 39 and wounds thousands.
Israel escalates its air campaign in Lebanon and on September 27 kills Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in southern Beirut.
Days later, Israel launches a ground offensive in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah strongholds.
Iran on October 1 fires a barrage of 200 missiles at Israel in response to the killing of Nasrallah and Haniyeh.
New Hamas chief killed
On October 16, new Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, accused by Israel of masterminding the October 7, 2023 attack, is killed in southern Gaza.
On the 26th, Israeli air strikes hit military targets in Iran in response to the October 1 missile attack.
On November 14, a United Nations Special Committee says Israel’s warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of “genocide”. Israel accuses the UN of bias.
The International Criminal Court on November 21 issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu, former defence minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif (likely already dead, as Hamas will confirm months later). Israel appeals.
Lebanon truce
A truce begins on November 27 after two months of open war in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah which has left more than 4,000 dead on the Lebanese side since October 2023, according to official Lebanese figures.
The fragile ceasefire is breached several times, with both sides trading blame.
After the ousting of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad by Islamist-led rebels in December, Israel also conducts hundreds of strikes on Syria’s military sites. It says it aims to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of “extremists”.
Israel also sends troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights.
Yemen’s Huthi rebels step up missile and drone attacks on Israel which responds with new attacks on Yemen.
New ceasefire begins
On January 19, 2025, a long-awaited truce between Israel and Hamas begins.
Two days later, the Israeli army launches a major operation in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967.
Under the fragile truce mediated by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, hundreds of thousands of war-weary displaced Palestinians begin on the 27 returning to their homes through the rubble of the devastated Gaza Strip.
The truce is put to the test by mutual accusations of violations of the ceasefire and by hostage return ceremonies which are seen as “humiliating”.
US President Donald Trump shocks on February 4 when he proposes that the US take over Gaza and clear Palestinians out to Egypt or Jordan, envisioning rebuilding the devastated territory, before watering down his ideas.
When the first six-week phase of the ceasefire ends on Saturday March 1, 33 Israeli hostages – including eight bodies of which those of the two Bibas children and their mother, who have become a symbol of the hostage tragedy – have been freed in exchange for some 1,800 Palestinians.
The conditions of the second phase, which are supposed to bring a definitive end to the war and the liberation of all the hostages held in Gaza, have yet to be negotiated. Talks have begun in Cairo.
