Displaced Palestinians in Rafah, southern Gaza. The conflict has devastated vast areas of the Palestinian enclave. AFP
Displaced Palestinians in Rafah, southern Gaza. The conflict has devastated vast areas of the Palestinian enclave. AFP
Displaced Palestinians in Rafah, southern Gaza. The conflict has devastated vast areas of the Palestinian enclave. AFP
Displaced Palestinians in Rafah, southern Gaza. The conflict has devastated vast areas of the Palestinian enclave. AFP

Israel’s war on Gaza: A timeline of major events


Aveen Karim
  • English
  • Arabic

Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza

Israel launched its war on the Gaza Strip after a Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023. The US has proposed a deal for a 60-day ceasefire to halt the conflict, which Washington says Israel has agreed to. Hamas is studying the terms of the deal.

Israel's assaults have killed more than 54,000 Palestinians since the start of the war. But the impact of the devastating conflict has not been limited to the enclave and Israel - it has sent shockwaves across the region, with Israeli forces having fought on several fronts against other Iran-backed groups allied to Hamas.

Here are important moments in the conflict:

October 7, 2023: Hamas fighters infiltrate Israel and carry out an attack that shocks Israeli society. More than 1,200 people, including soldiers, are killed and 240 are kidnapped and taken into Gaza as hostages.

Retaliatory Israeli strikes against the Gaza Strip begin, marking the start of a devastating military campaign.

October 8, 2023: Lebanon's Hezbollah launches rockets towards Israel, saying it has entered the war in support of Palestinians in Gaza, sparking concerns of a new front.

Iran-backed militia groups in Iraq begin launching drones towards Israel on October 17 in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

October 19, 2023: US warships intercept missiles and drones launched towards Israel by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Houthis begin increasing attacks against Israel and on targets claimed to be affiliated to the country in the Red Sea, threatening shipping lanes and global trade.

October 27, 2023: After besieging the Gaza Strip and displacing the vast majority of the population from the north to the south, Israel begins its ground offensive.

November 15, 2023: Israeli forces enter Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest medical centre, laying siege to the building and killing a number of people. Officials and the hospital's director at the time tell The National they prepared a mass grave for 179 people, including babies.

Within weeks, all hospitals in the Gaza Strip will have been attacked.

November 24, 2023: A week-long truce comes into effect and involves the release of 105 hostages, including Thai workers, in exchange for 240 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons. But the war resumes on December 1, with attacks expanding into southern Gaza.

January 26, 2024: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) orders Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza.

February 29, 2024: At least 120 people are killed and hundreds injured when Israeli forces fire on civilians queuing for aid, in one of the deadliest incidents of the war.

March 7, 2024: Following increasing political pressure over famine in Gaza and the lack of aid, US president at the time, Joe Biden, announces a pier will be set up in the Mediterranean Sea to deliver supplies. Lasting until July, the pier will be dogged by controversy.

April 1, 2024: The Iranian embassy in Damascus is hit by a suspected Israeli strike that kills military officers, including a senior general.

Seven aid workers from the US charity, World Central Kitchen, are killed in a strike Israel calls a "tragic mistake".

April 13, 2024: In its first direct attack on Israel, Iran launches a barrage of drones and missiles in retaliation for the strike on its diplomatic mission in Syria.

May 6, 2024: Hamas says it has accepted a ceasefire proposal but Israel says it has not agreed to the text.

July 20, 2024: Israel begins attacks on Yemen, bombing the port of Hodeidah in response to a Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv.

July 31, 2024: Hamas's political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, is killed while on a visit to Iran to attend the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian. In December, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz acknowledges for the first time that it was behind the killing.

August 1, 2024: The Israeli military says it killed Hamas's military chief, Mohammed Deif, in an air strike on July 13 in Al Mawasi. Hamas does not confirm or deny his death.

August 23, 2024: The World Health Organisation confirms the first case of poliovirus in Gaza in 25 years after a baby is paralysed.

September 27, 2024: Israel escalates its strikes on Lebanon and kills Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in southern Beirut, days after hundreds of sabotaged pagers and walkie-talkies used by the group explode, killing 39 and injuring thousands.

Days later, Israel begins its invasion of Lebanon.

October 1, 2024: Iran fires a barrage of missiles at Israel in response to the killings of Nasrallah and Haniyeh.

October 5, 2024: Israel begins its siege on northern Gaza, focusing on Jabalia refugee camp, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia. The relentless attacks in the area continue until a temporary ceasefire begins, emptying the north of people while infrastructure is razed.

October 16, 2024: Israel kills Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the attack on October 7, 2023.

October 26, 2024: Israeli air strikes hit military targets in Iran in response to the missile attack on October 1.

November 21, 2024: In a landmark ruling, the International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Deif of Hamas, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The ruling comes days after a UN Special Committee says Israel's war on Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide.

November 27, 2024: Israel and Hezbollah agree to a ceasefire in Lebanon, where the war has killed more than 4,000 people since October 2023. The fragile truce is breached several times, with both sides blaming each other.

An offensive by rebels in Syria leads to the toppling of Iran-allied president Bashar Al Assad in December, with Israel then conducting numerous strikes on military sites. Israeli troops also enter the UN-patrolled buffer zone in the occupied Golan Heights.

January 15, 2025: Negotiators reach a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar. The truce comes into effect on January 19, on the eve of the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, who warns there will be "hell to pay" in the Middle East if a deal is not reached.

March 2, 2025: Israel imposes a total humanitarian aid blockade to put pressure on Hamas to release its remaining hostages.

March 18, 2025: Israel resumes military operations in Gaza as a six-week temporary ceasefire collapses.

March 21, 2025: Mr Katz says the Israeli military has been instructed to seize more territory as it expands its ground assault in Gaza. It comes as at least five UN staff are injured in an Israeli attack on central Gaza.

April 2, 2025: Israel's aid blockade enters its second month, with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians having little or no access to food and water.

April 16, 2025: Israel says it controls nearly 30 per cent of land in Gaza, which is under operational buffer zones. The government says it does not plan to allow aid to enter besieged enclave.

May 16, 2025: Israel's aid blockade continues and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, says the escalation of attacks in Gaza and blockade of aid "tantamount to ethnic cleansing".

May 18, 2025: No hospital in northern Gaza is operational, health authorities say. Beit Hanoun and Kamal Adwan Hospital have been destroyed and the Indonesian Hospital is under siege by Israeli forces.

The army says a ground offensive, known as Gideon's Chariots, has began in Gaza.

May 19, 2025: Mr Netanyahu says Israel will allow a "basic amount" of aid to enter Gaza. It is reported that only five lorries have entered the enclave.

May 30, 2025: A 60-day ceasefire is proposed by the US. Israel has accepted the terms, but Hamas is reviewing the deal.

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Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
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