What Happened 10/7/23
Israel battled on Saturday to repel one of the broadest invasions of its territory in 50 years after
Palestinian militants from Gaza launched an early-morning assault on southern Israel, infiltrating
22 Israeli towns and army bases, kidnapping Israeli civilians and soldiers and firing thousands of
rockets toward cities as far away as Jerusalem.
The attack took place 50 years to the date from the beginning of the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
The assault began early Saturday when Hamas launched thousands of rockets toward Israeli
cities and sent militants into Israeli territory overland and by using paragliders and speedboats.
Gunmen seized control of pockets of southern Israel, taking hostages and leaving bodies of
civilians in the streets.
The Israeli air force launched airstrikes throughout the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Health
Ministry said at least 232 people were killed and 1,697 wounded in Gaza.
This occurred during the celebration of Simchat Torah. Simchat Torah is Hebrew for “the joy of
Torah.” It is a celebration, often accompanied by dancing and singing, to mark the completion of
the annual reading of this section of the Bible.
Chaos erupted at an all-night nature party near Kibbutz Re’im close to the Gaza Strip as the first
rockets were fired by Hamas on Saturday morning. Eyewitnesses said the rockets were quickly
followed by gunshots fired into the crowd even as hundreds of partygoers attempted to flee the
site.
Brief History Israel and Gaza
In 1949, the newly created State of Israel signed a series of truces with Arab
countries that had declared war on it. Under the 1949 agreements, the Gaza Strip
was under Egypt’s control.
In October 1956, a few months after the Egyptian president nationalized the Suez
Canal waterway, cutting off Israel from shipping, Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula
and the Gaza Strip. In November that year, the United Nations called for Britain,
France and Israel to withdraw their troops from Egypt.
In January 1957, Israel withdrew from Egyptian land, except from the Gaza Strip and
the area of the Gulf of Aqaba, arguing that the Gaza Strip never belonged to Egypt.
In June 1967, during the Six-Day War, Israel gained control of the Gaza Strip and the
Sinai Peninsula.
On Yom Kippur in October 1973, invading forces from Egypt and Syria tried to
persuade Israel to negotiate better terms for the Arab countries. Nearly 2,700 Israeli
soldiers died in the 19-day war and thousands were injured out of a population of
about 3 million at the time.
On March 26, 1979, Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty at the White House which
led to Israel’s complete withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula. The two countries agreed
on the framework of an agreement to allow for self-rule for Palestinians living in
occupied territories. Three years later, President Reagan expressed his support for
their full autonomy with some Jordanian supervision, but Israel rejected the plan.
In December 1987, Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza started the First
Intifada against Israel. Muslim Brotherhood members founded Hamas.
In 1993, Mr. Arafat signed the Oslo accords with Israel, and committed to negotiating
an end to the conflict based on a two-state solution. Hamas, which opposed the deal,
launched a series of suicide bombings in Israel.
In 1997, two suicide bomb attacks killed 27 people, and Israel’s prime minister,
Shimon Peres, said he would wage an incessant war against Hamas.
In September 2000, a few months after negotiations between Israel and Palestine
reached an impasse at Camp David, a Second Intifada began, with Palestinian youth
throwing stones at Israeli police. Support for Hamas continued to grow within
Palestine because of its readiness to fight Israel.
In September 2005, Israeli troops pulled out of Gaza, but Israel came under criticism
for restricting the movement of Palestinians coming in and out of the strip.
In January 2006, about a year after the death of the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat,
the co-founder of the paramilitary organization Fatah, Hamas won the Palestinian
parliamentary election. One year later, Hamas seized control of Gaza, routing the
Fatah forces.
In response to rocket fire from Gaza, Israel launched an attack on Hamas targets in
December 2008 that killed 200 Palestinians. Shortly after, they opened a ground war
against Hamas. In total, 1,200 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.
In January 2009, Israel and Palestinian groups declared unilateral cease-fires, then
Israel withdrew from Gaza, and redeployed to the Strip’s perimeter.
In November 2012, Israel killed Ahmed al-Jabari, Hamas’s military chief, setting off
more than a week of an exchange of fire in which more than 150 Palestinians and at
least six Israelis are killed.
In 2014, Hamas kidnapped and killed three Israeli teenagers, prompting attacks from
Israel, and rocket launches from Gaza, in a conflict that killed more than 1,881
Palestinians and more than 60 Israelis.
In 2018, at least 170 Palestinians were killed as Israel responded to protests along the
barrier fence that separates Gaza and Israel.
In May 2021, the Israeli police raided Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the third-
holiest site in Islam, which set off an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas that killed
more than 200 Palestinians and more than 10 Israelis.
After a spate of terrorist attacks in Israeli cities in 2022, Israeli forces killed at least 166
Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
On several occasions this year, hundreds of Israeli forces carried out military raids in
the Palestinian city of Jenin. In January, a Palestinian man killed seven people at a
synagogue in East Jerusalem.
