The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and Israel, fought as part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflicts. The war began on 7 October 2023, when Palestinian militant group Hamas led an attack on Israel, in which 1,195 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed and 251 were taken hostage. Since the start of the Israeli offensive that followed, over 74,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed; several studies in The Lancet indicate this figure is likely a significant undercount. Many scholarly sources and international organizations—including UN bodies, NGOs, and the International Association of Genocide Scholars—have concluded that Israel's actions in Gaza constitute genocide under international law. Several countries have also stated that genocide is occurring and have supported legal proceedings before the International Court of Justice. Israel and its supporters have denied that genocide has occurred.
Following the 7 October attacks, Israel launched a bombing campaign and later invaded Gaza on 27 October after clearing militants from its territory. Israeli forces launched several campaigns, including the Rafah offensive, three battles fought around Khan Yunis, and the siege of North Gaza, culminating in a 2025 offensive in Gaza City. They have assassinated Hamas leaders inside and outside of Gaza. A 2023 ceasefire broke down, and a second ceasefire in January 2025 ended with a surprise attack by Israel in March. A third ceasefire came into effect on 10 October after Israel and Hamas agreed to phase one of a US-backed peace plan. As part of the peace plan, the Hamas civil administration in Gaza resigned on 6 July 2026, and an agreement was reached on 31 July for Hamas and other militant organisations in Gaza to disarm, contingent on reconstruction progress and Israel's military withdrawal.
Despite the ceasefire, hostilities have continued, with Israel carrying out airstrikes almost daily and conducting ongoing military operations in the Gaza Strip. By 20 October 2026, at least 1,400 Palestinians and 5 Israeli military personnel had been killed since the ceasefire took effect. Israel has steadily been moving their controversial Yellow Line further westwards into Gaza where its military control and access restrictions have expanded to appropriately 65% of the Gaza Strip by October 2026, up from around 53% when the ceasefire first began, confining 2.1 million residents into an increasingly narrow western zone.
The war has resulted in significant humanitarian costs. A tightened blockade by Israel cut off basic necessities, which led to a partial famine. Around 90% of Gaza's civilian infrastructure has been destroyed and essential services, including water, electricity, and sanitation, have been severely disrupted; large parts are uninhabitable, with most hospitals, religious and cultural landmarks, and educational facilities destroyed. Gazan journalists, health workers, aid workers and other members of civil society have been detained, tortured, and killed. Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank since the start of the war. Nearly all of the strip's 2.3 million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced. Over 100,000 Israelis were internally displaced at the height of the conflict. The first day was the deadliest in Israel's history, and the war is the deadliest for Palestinians in the broader conflict.
In September 2025, the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory concluded that four of the five acts of genocide as defined by the Genocide Convention had been committed in Gaza since 7 October 2023. A case accusing Israel of genocide is being reviewed by the International Court of Justice. Experts and human rights organizations have also stated that Israel and Hamas have committed other war crimes. Some have described the 7 October attacks as a genocide or genocidal massacre of Israelis. Torture and sexual violence have been committed both by Palestinian militant groups and by Israeli forces.
Israel has received extensive military and diplomatic support from the United States. The war has reverberated regionally, with "Axis of Resistance" groups across several Arab countries and Iran clashing with the US and Israel, including in the Twelve-Day War in 2025, and the 2026 Iran war. A year of strikes between Israel and Hezbollah led to wars in Lebanon in 2024 and in 2026, as well as ongoing Israeli operations in Syria, which contributed to the fall of the Assad regime. The war continues to have regional and international repercussions, with large protests worldwide as well as a surge of antisemitism and anti-Palestinian racism.
Names
Palestinian militant groups refer to the conflict as the "battle of al-Aqsa Flood" (Arabic: معركة طوفان الأقصى), in reference to Operation al-Aqsa Flood. The government of Israel referred to it as the "Iron Swords war" (Hebrew: מִלְחֲמֹת חַרְבוֹת בַּרְזֶל) until October 2025, when it began using "War of Redemption". Within Israel, it is popularly referred to as the "October 7 war". It has also been referred to as the "Simchat Torah war" because Hamas's attack began on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah. Media outlets have variably described it as the "Israel–Hamas war", "war on Gaza", "October 7 war", and the "second Nakba".
Background
The Gaza war is part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. In the 1948 Palestine war, over 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled and the State of Israel was established over most of what had been Mandatory Palestine, with the exception of two separated territories that became known as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Following the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel occupied both Palestinian territories. The upcoming period witnessed two popular uprisings by Palestinians against the Israeli occupation: the First and Second Intifadas in 1987 and 2000, with the latter's end seeing Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005.
Since 2007, the Gaza Strip has been governed by Hamas, an Islamist militant group, while the West Bank remained under the control of the Palestinian Authority. After Hamas's takeover, Israel imposed a blockade that significantly damaged Gaza's economy. Israel justified the blockade by citing security concerns, but international rights groups have characterized it as collective punishment. By 2023, UNRWA reported that 81% of people were living below the poverty level, with 63% being food insecure and dependent on international assistance.
Since 2007, Israel and Hamas, along with other Palestinian militant groups based in Gaza, have engaged in conflict, including four wars, in 2008–2009, 2012, 2014, and 2021. Combined, these conflicts killed approximately 6,400 Palestinians and 300 Israelis. In 2018–2019, there was the Great March of Return, a series of large organized protests near the Gaza-Israel border to call for Palestinian refugees' right to return. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) violently suppressed the protests, killing hundreds and injuring thousands of Palestinians by sniper fire. Soon after a short 2021 conflict, Hamas's military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, started planning an operation against Israel, which became the 7 October attacks. According to diplomats, Hamas had repeatedly said in the months leading up to October 2023 that it did not want another military escalation in Gaza as it would worsen the humanitarian crisis.
Hamas officials stated that the attack was a response to Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people, citing specifically the blockade of the Gaza Strip, desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Israeli settler violence against Palestinians, and the imprisonment of thousands of Palestinians, whom Hamas sought to release by taking Israeli hostages. Numerous commentators have identified the broader context of Israeli occupation as a cause of the war. Several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, B'Tselem and Human Rights Watch have likened the Israeli occupation to apartheid, although supporters of Israel dispute this characterization. The Netanyahu government has been criticized within Israel for granting work permits to Gazan residents, facilitating the transfer of funds to Hamas and pursuing relative calm. These actions have been criticized as having backfired in light of the attacks on 7 October 2023.
At the time of the attack, Israel and Saudi Arabia were conducting negotiations to normalize relations. Hamas leaders such as Ismail Haniyeh cited disrupting this "normalization train" as a motive for the October 7 attacks.
War in Israel and Gaza
October 7 attacks
On the morning of 7 October 2023, during the Jewish holidays of Simchat Torah and Shemini Atzeret on Shabbat, Hamas announced the start of "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood", firing between 3,000 and 5,000 rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel within a span of 20 minutes, killing at least five people. In the evening, Hamas launched another barrage of 150 rockets. Simultaneously, around 3,000 Hamas militants infiltrated Israel from Gaza using trucks, motorcycles, bulldozers, speedboats, and paragliders. They took over checkpoints at Kerem Shalom and Erez, and created openings in the border fence in five other places.
Militants massacred civilians in several kibbutzim, where they took hostages and set fire to homes. In a massacre at an outdoor music festival near Re'im, at least 325 people were killed, with more injured or taken hostage. In total, 251 people, mostly civilians, were taken hostage, including children, elderly people, and soldiers. Hamas militants also reportedly engaged in mutilation, torture, and sexual and gender-based violence.
The attack was not entirely unexpected; but "Israeli officials received Hamas' battle plans" but deemed them aspirational and dismissed specific warnings. The 7 October attacks were described as "an intelligence failure for the ages" and a "failure of imagination" on the part of the Israeli government. It later emerged that abnormal Hamas movements had been detected the previous day by Israeli intelligence, but the military's alert level was not raised and political leaders were not informed.
The Economist noted that "the assault dwarf[ed] all other mass murders of Israeli civilians", and that "the last time before October 7th that this many Jews were murdered on a single day was during the Holocaust." According to both Hamas officials and external observers, the attack was a calculated effort to create a "permanent" state of war and revive the Palestinian cause.
Initial Israeli counter-operation (October 2023)
The IDF began Israel's counter-attack several hours after the Hamas-led invasion. The first helicopters sent to support the military reached the Israeli areas surrounding the Gaza Strip an hour after the fighting began. Their crews encountered difficulties in determining which places were occupied by invading militants, and distinguishing between Israeli civilians, IDF soldiers, and Palestinian militants on the ground. A June 2024 UN report and a July 2024 Haaretz investigation revealed that the IDF ordered the Hannibal Directive to be used, killing an unknown number of Israeli civilians and soldiers.
In a televised broadcast, Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, announced that the country was at war. He threatened to "turn all the places where Hamas is organized and hiding into cities of ruins", called Gaza "the city of evil", and urged its residents to leave. Overnight, Israel's Security Cabinet voted to act to bring about the "destruction of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad". The Israel Electric Corporation, which supplies 80% of Gaza's electricity, cut off power to the area. The IDF declared a "state of readiness for war", mobilized tens of thousands of army reservists, and declared a state of emergency for areas within 80 kilometers (50 mi) of Gaza. While Ben Gurion Airport and Ramon Airport remained operational, multiple airlines cancelled flights. On 9 or 10 October, Hamas offered to release all civilian hostages held in Gaza if Israel would call off its planned invasion of the Gaza Strip, but the Israeli government rejected the offer.
Following the surprise attack, the Israeli Air Force conducted airstrikes that they said targeted Hamas targets, employing its artificial intelligence Habsora ("The Gospel") software. These airstrikes killed, on average, 350 persons per day during the first 20 days. Israel rescued two hostages before declaring a state of war for the first time since the 1973 Yom Kippur War. On 9 October, Defense Minister Gallant announced a "complete siege" of the Gaza Strip, cutting off electricity and blocking the entry of food and fuel. Gallant backed down under pressure from US President Joe Biden, and a deal was struck ten days later to allow aid into Gaza. The first such aid convoy entered Gaza on 21 October, while fuel did not arrive until November.
On 13 October, the IDF ordered all civilians in Gaza City to evacuate to areas south of the Wadi Gaza within 24 hours. The Hamas Authority for Refugee Affairs told residents in northern Gaza to defy those orders. The Israeli order was widely condemned as "outrageous" and "impossible", and calls were made for it to be reversed. As a part of the order, the IDF outlined a six-hour window on 13 October for refugees to flee south along specified routes. An explosion along one of the safe routes killed 70 Palestinians. Israel and Hamas blamed each other for the attack. The IDF said Hamas set up roadblocks to keep Gaza residents from evacuating. Israeli officials, foreign governments and intergovernmental organizations condemned Hamas's alleged use of hospitals and civilians as human shields, which Hamas contested.
On 17 October, Israel bombed areas of southern Gaza. Late in the evening, an explosion occurred in the parking lot of the Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist Hospital in the center of Gaza City, killing hundreds. The ongoing conflict prevented independent on-site analysis. Palestinian statements that it was an Israeli airstrike were denied by the IDF, which stated that the explosion resulted from a failed rocket launch by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who denied any involvement.
Initial invasion and first ceasefire (October–November 2023)
On 27 October, after building up an invasion force of over 100,000 soldiers, the IDF launched a large-scale ground incursion into parts of northern Gaza. Israeli airstrikes targeted the area around al-Quds hospital, where around 14,000 civilians were believed to be sheltering. The following day, the IDF struck Jabalia refugee camp, killing 50 and wounding 150 Palestinians. Israel said the attack killed a senior Hamas commander, whose presence Hamas denied, and dozens of militants. The attack resulted in several ambassador recalls.
On 31 October, Israel bombed a six-story apartment building in central Gaza, killing at least 106 civilians including 54 children in what Human Rights Watch called an "apparent war crime". On 1 November, the first group of evacuees left Gaza for Egypt. Five hundred evacuees, comprising critically wounded and foreign nationals, were evacuated over several days. On 22 November, Israel and Hamas reached a temporary ceasefire agreement, providing for a four-day pause in hostilities, the release of 50 hostages held in Gaza, and the release of approximately 150 Palestinian women and children incarcerated by Israel.
Following the introduction of a Qatari-brokered truce on 24 November 2023, active fighting in Gaza ceased. Hamas exchanged some hostages for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Israel arrested almost as many Palestinians as it released during the truce. Prisoner exchanges continued until 28 November, when both Israel and Hamas accused each other of violating the truce. On 30 November, in a "last-minute agreement", Hamas released eight hostages in exchange for the release of 30 imprisoned Palestinians and a one-day truce extension. The truce expired on 1 December, as Israel and Hamas blamed each other for failing to agree on an extension.