On Oct. 7, Hamas militants surged over the Gaza border into Israel attacking a music concert, military bases and people in their homes. Israel says some 2,000 militants killed around 1,200 men, women and children taking about 240 hostage. Israel responded within hours with airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, vowing to destroy Hamas and rescue hostages. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed, "Every Hamas member is a dead man," after forming an emergency government and wartime cabinet. For weeks, Israel's military pounded Gaza with artillery and airstrikes.
Then it launched a ground offensive, sending troops into Gaza to divide it between north and south. The United Nations says 40,000 homes have been destroyed along with bakeries, schools and hospitals, and Gaza health officials say Israeli attacks have killed at least 15,000 people and wounded 40,000 others. The two sides agreed to a temporary cease-fire and an exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons in late November, but after three extensions of the original four-day agreement, talks fell apart last week and Israel resumed its attacks in Gaza.
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