The Israel-Hamas War, also called the Third Intifada or the Sukkot War, was a war between the State of Israel and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip that broke out in 2023 as the result of Hamas' "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood" offensive into southern Israel, which coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War and the Jewish holidays of Sukkot and Simchat HaTorah. Hamas claimed that the offensive was in retaliation for Israeli raids on the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, the blockade of the Gaza Strip, and Israeli atrocities against Palestinians over the decades.
After 1,400 Israeli civilians were killed in the deadliest terrorist attack in Israeli history - compared to America's "9/11" moment - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that a state of war existed between Israel and Hamas, resulting in a massive escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While Operation Iron Swords was confined to the Gaza Strip, IDF soldiers carried out raids on Hamas and PIJ strongholds in the West Bank, Hezbollah and Israel traded rocket and artillery fire on the Israel-South Lebanon border, Israel bombed targets in Syria in response to mortar attacks, the Houthi movement in Yemen launched drones and rockets across the Red Sea to attack Israel, and Iraqi paramilitary groups backed by Iran engaged in intensified rocket attacks on American military bases to punish the United States for its support for Israel. Iranian and American behind-the-scenes involvement in the conflict, and the increased activity of Iranian and American proxies in the region, threatened to escalate the Israel-Hamas war into a wider regional conflict not only involving Israel's neighboring states, but also US interests in the Persian Gulf region and bases in Mesopotamia. By early 2024, the international community began to turn decisively against Israel, threatening to cut off support to Israel if it went ahead with its planned Rafah offensive; in May 2024, after Israel launched its offensive against the last unoccupied part of Gaza, Rafah, several Western countries formally recognized Palestinian statehood. By 6 June 2024, however, US and Israeli officials estimated that Hamas' strength of 20,000-25,000 fighters before the conflict had been reduced to 9,000-12,000 fighters as a result of the war, forcing Hamas to resort to insurgent tactics. On 15 January 2025, Israel and Hamas agreed to a hostages-and-prisoners exchange and armistice, with a six-week ceasefire to be followed by the release of all Israeli hostages in Gaza, the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, a permanent ceasefire, Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, and a three- to five-year-long reconstruction process for Gaza. Hamas' rejection of continued hostage releases in March, together with Israeli claims that Hamas was preparing new raids into southern Israel, led to a renewal of all-out war on 18 March 2025.
Background
Following the suppression of the "Second Intifada" in 2005, Israel withdrew its troops and citizens from the Gaza Strip, which was handed back to the Palestinian Authority. However, in 2007, the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas seized control of the enclave from the Fatah-ruled Palestinian government and established a bellicose, dictatorial regime dedicated to the destruction of the "Zionist entity". Israel responded with a blockade of Gaza, while Hamas launched cross-border attacks by air (through "Qassam rockets") and by land (through the moving of militants via a complex tunnel network). Israel retaliated with Operation Summer Rains and Operation Autumn Clouds in 2006, Operation Hot Winter and Operation Cast Lead in 2008-2009, Operation Returning Echo and Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012, Operation Protective Edge in 2014, Operation Black Belt in 2019, Operation Guardian of the Walls in 2021, and Operation Breaking Dawn in 2022, each time launching drone attacks and limited ground incursions into the Gaza Strip to punish Hamas for its attacks. Under the right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli government actively supported the establishment of illegal settlements on Palestinian territory in the West Bank, the confiscation of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, the creation of oppressive checkpoints in mixed Jewish and Arab communities, and even raids on al-Aqsa Mosque. Palestinian militants responded with surges of violence such as the Knife Intifada of 2015-2016 and the "Great March of Return" of 2018-2019. From January to October 2023, 247 Palestinians, 32 Israelis, and 2 foreign nationals were killed in sectarian clashes, including in settler attacks on Palestinian villages and Palestinian terror attacks. By September 2023, The Washington Post reported that Israel and Hamas were on the brink of war after Israel halted all exports from Gaza in response to the interception of a shipment of explosives, causing Hamas to put its forces on high alert, conduct military exercises with other groups to practice storming Israeli settlements, and allowed Palestinians to resume protests at the Israel-Gaza barrier. On 29 September, Qatar, Egypt, and the United Nations negotiated an agreement between Israel and Hamas to reopen closed border crossing points and de-escalate tensions. However, on 4 October 2023, Egypt warned Israel that "an explosion of the situation is coming, and very soon, and it would be big." Israel denied receiving such a warning, and analysts would later cite Israeli complacency as a cause for Israeli intelligence agencies' "failure of imagination" in anticipating a potential Hamas offensive. At the same time, Israel's normalization talks with Saudi Arabia threatened to cause another Arab country to turn its back on the Palestinian cause, and a Hamas attack would have the effect of violently reminding the world of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The international community had generally shifted its attention away from the Middle East, as US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan proclaimed "the Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades."
War
At 6:30 AM on 7 October 2023, during the Jewish holidays of Simchat Torah and Sukkot, on the sabbath day, and a day after the 50th anniversary of Egypt's surprise attack on Israel in the Yom Kippur War, Hamas announced the start of "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood" with the firing of 5,000 rockets from the Gaza Strip to Israel within a span of 20 minutes. At least 5 people were killed by the rocket attacks in Gedera, Herzliyya, Tel Aviv, and Ashkelon. Hamas issued a call to arms, with Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades commander Mohammed Deif calling on "Muslims everywhere to launch an attack." Hamas and allied militants from Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine attacked a sleepy Israel by land (through blown-open border fences, tunnels, and armed convoys), sea (by speedboats), and air (by paragliders and rocket attacks), with 2,500 Hamas militants entering Israel on trucks, pickup trucks, motorcycles, bulldozers, speedboats, and paragliders. Hamas militants attacked the Israeli military base at Zikim from the water, the Re'im military base from the land, and the Sderot police station; while the Israelis repelled the amphibious attack on Zikim, the Hamas terrorists took control of Re'im and Sderot. The Hamas attackers also carried out the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, massacring over 260 concert-goers at the Re'im music festival massacre and 200 other civilians in the Kfar Aza massacre, 108 in the Be'eri massacre, 15 people in the Netiv HaAsara massacre, and many more as militants went house-to-house in civilian settlements and shot residents, lobbed grenades into "safe rooms", and tortured and burned adults and children alike. At the Re'im music festival, Hamas militants on trucks pursued concert-goers fleeing on open ground, massacring them and taking hundreds of civilians, young and old, as hostages at every terror attack scene. Hamas occupied the kibbutzim of Nahal Oz, Kfar Aza, Magen, Be'eri, and Sufa, as well as the Erez Crossing.
In response to the al-Aqsa Flood offensive, Prime Minister Netanyahu declared that Israel was at "war" (and not in a mere "operation"), and threatened to "turn all the places where Hamas is organized and hiding into cities of ruins," while calling for the residents of Gaza, "the city of evil," to leave immediately. 300,000 Israeli troops were deployed to southern Israel as the Israel Electric Corporation cut power to Gaza, which derived 80% of its electricity from the company. Israel activated the Iron Dome and put the IDF in a state of readiness for war. Even reservists who had previously refused to serve, in protest of Netanyahu's authoritarian judicial reforms, agreed to serve due to the existential threat to Israel posed by the terror offensive. On 7 October and over the next few days, Israeli forces killed 1,500 Hamas militants as they cleared southern Israel and its burning villages of terrorists. Israeli jets targeted 17 Hamas military compounds, 4 command centers, and the 11-story Palestine Tower (home to Hamas' electronic warfare intelligence unit) on the first day of the war. On 8 October, Israel struck 426 targets, leveling the town of Beit Hanoun and targeting civilian infrastructure (such as an internet tower and the homes of Hamas officials). The IDF placed the West Bank on lockdown and deployed troops to Israel's northern border in the case of Hezbollah incursions from South Lebanon. On 9 October, Israel struck 500 targets in Gaza, while Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a total blockade of Gaza to cut electricity and block the entry of food and fuel until the "human animals" of Hamas released all of the Israeli hostages they had taken. by 10 October, Israel mobilized up to 360,000 reservists, while National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir issued 10,000 rifles to civilian security teams in Israeli settlements and border communities.
Over the next several days, Israel intensified its bombing of Gaza, destroying much of the Islamic University of Gaza on 11 October and bombing the Port of Gaza with white phosphorus, issued evacuation warnings for residents of the northern Gaza Strip on 13 October (ordering the displacement of 1.1 million Palestinians) to make way for a military operation against Hamas, conducted localized raids in Gaza in a failed attempt to rescue hostages, killed several Palestinian militant leaders in airstrikes, and struck several hospitals, schools, mosques, and other civilian buildings while attempting to harm the Hamas terrorists utilizing civilian spaces for military purposes. The Israeli war on Gaza galvanized the international left-wing and pro-Palestinian causes, resulting in protests across the world (from the Middle East to Europe, the Americas, and Asia) and an uptick in anti-Semitic acts in countries such as France and America. American president Joe Biden reassured Israel of America's full support in retaining a national homeland for the Jewish people, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken cautioned Israel that how they prosecuted their operation mattered. Gaza's humanitarian situation devolved into a catastrophe as hundreds of civilians were killed in the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion and other explosions, which Palestinians blamed on Israeli airstrikes and the Israelis blamed on Hamas or PIJ rocket attacks. Egypt refused to let millions of Palestinians enter the Sinai due to security concerns, while insisting that Israel care for the evacuees in its southern Negev desert. By 17 October, 4,399 Israelis had been injured since the start of the war, while 2,800 Gazans had died and another 11,000 were injured (half of them women and children) since the start of the war. That same day, the militant wing of Fatah, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, claimed two mortar attacks into Israel from the Gaza Strip, directly involving itself in the conflict.
The war escalated on 27 October 2023 when Israel launched a series of in-depth incursions into Gaza, emptying their staging grounds on the borders and sending infantry and armor into Gaza. On 29 October, an all-out invasion began in Beit Hanoun in the north and Bureij in the east, with the Israeli Air Force intensifying its airstrikes and IDF armored units attempting to divide Gaza in two along the Salah al-Din Road. Meanwhile, the Houthis in Yemen began a campaign of drone and missile launches against Israel, although most of their rockets and drones were shot down by the Americans, Saudis, or Israel before they could strike any targets. Some Houthi rockets fell into Egyptian territory, injuring civilians. Israeli attacks on hospitals and civilian targets persisted, including the 31 October Jabalia refugee camp airstrike; most UN member states called for a humanitarian ceasefire as civilian casualties rose and hospitals ran out of fuel and supplies. On 1 November 2023, Egypt opened its Rafah border crossing to wounded Palestinians and to foreign nationals, enabling them to evacuate the "safe zone" in southern Gaza, which was also targeted by Israeli strikes.
Almost as soon as the war broke out, geopolitical analysts warned that an Israeli invasion of Gaza could result in a broader regional conflict potentially expanding into South Lebanon and involving Iran. On 12 October 2023, responding to Iran's financial backing of Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups, the United States blocked Iran from receiving $6 billion in unfrozen assets (which had been promised in exchange for the release of American captives). At the same time, Iran warned that, if Israel did not immediately stop the war in Gaza, many other fronts in the war would open, Israel would suffer "a huge earthquake," and Iran threatened to intervene if Israel launched a ground invasion of Gaza. Israel struck the international airports of Damascus and Aleppo on 12 October in response to Syria's service as a transit hub for Hezbollah and Iranian armaments, while Israel and Hezbollah repeatedly traded artillery fire on the Israel-Lebanon border. At the same time, Iran-backed militias in Iraq intensified their rocket attacks on US bases in the region (resulting in retaliatory US strikes), while the Houthis became involved in the conflict by launching drones and missiles at Israel. On 29 October, Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi warned Israel that it had crossed a "red line" by launching an all-out ground invasion of Gaza, and, on 1 November, Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian warned, "If an immediate ceasefire doesn’t take place in Gaza Strip and the rapid attacks by US and Zionist regime continue, then the consequences would be harsh." On 3 November, as Israeli forces completed their encirclement of Gaza City and began a siege, Algeria's parliament unanimously voted to authorize President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to militarily enter the war in support of Palestine, making Algeria the second country that looked to enter the war against Israel following Houthi-controlled Yemen's declaration of war two days prior.