Ten Key Moments In Israel’s War With Hamas

Published

1 year ago

January 5, 2024

The war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7 when Palestinian militants rampaged through southern Israel.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel responded with a devastating military campaign in Hamas-ruled Gaza that has killed at least 22,600 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the besieged territory.

AFP looks back at key moments in the three-month war which has devastated the Gaza Strip and sent shockwaves across the region.

Oct. 7: Hamas attacks

At dawn on October 7, at the end of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, hundreds of Hamas fighters infiltrate Israel from Gaza by land, sea and air.

They kill civilians indiscriminately in the streets, in their homes and at a desert music festival, and attack troops in army bases, in the worst ever attack in Israel’s history.

They also take about 250 people hostage.

Israel vows to destroy Hamas and begins bombarding Gaza.

Oct. 13: exodus from north Gaza

On October 13, Israel calls on civilians in northern Gaza to move south within 24 hours, declaring the north, which includes Gaza City, a war zone.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flee to the south as entire districts in the north are razed to the ground.

Oct. 17: hospital blast

On October 17, an explosion in the car park of Gaza’s Al-Ahli hospital leaves scores of people dead.

Hamas accuses Israel, which denies responsibility and blames a misfired rocket launched by Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian militant group — a claim backed by the United States.

Oct. 27: tanks enter Gaza

On October 27, Israeli tanks roll into Gaza at the start of a much-feared ground offensive.

The troops fight their way towards Gaza City.

Nov. 15: outcry over hospital raid

On November 15, Israeli troops launch a night-time raid on Al-Shifa hospital, Gaza’s biggest medical facility where bodies had been piling up after food, fuel and anaesthetics ran out.

The raid causes an international outcry, and Israel claims Hamas is running a command centre below the hospital, which the armed group denies.

Nov. 24: truce and hostage swap

On November 24, a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas takes effect.

Hamas releases 80 hostages over seven days in return for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, and aid shipments are allowed into Gaza.

Twenty-five other hostages, mainly Thai farm workers, are released outside of the scope of the deal.

Dec. 4: tanks in south Gaza

As the war resumes Israel expands its actions against Hamas into southern Gaza, which had previously been considered relatively safe.

On December 4, dozens of tanks entered the south of the territory, which is packed with internally displaced Palestinians.

Dec. 8: US veto

The United States vetoes a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, despite a growing international clamour for an end to Israel’s campaign.

Two weeks later Washington approves a resolution demanding more aid be allowed into Gaza but not a halt in the fighting.

Dec. 18: Red Sea coalition

The US announces the formation of an international naval coalition to protect container ships in the Red Sea from a surge in attacks by Iran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen.

The Huthis say the drone and missile strikes are in solidarity with Gazans.

Jan. 2: Hamas deputy leader killed

Hamas’s deputy leader Saleh al-Aruri is killed along with six other Hamas members in a missile strike on south Beirut.

He is the most high-profile Hamas member to be killed since the war began.

Israel does not deny responsibility.

AFP

Militia Attack On DRC IDP Camp, Kills 10, Mostly Women, Children

Published

8 hours ago

June 27, 2025

Editor

An armed group at the centre of a long-running ethnic conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s northeast attacked a camp for displaced people on Friday, killing 10, local sources told AFP.

Bordering Uganda, Ituri province has for years been the scene of pitched battles between the Lendu, a group mainly made up of settled farmers, and the Hema people, typically nomadic herders.

The fighting has led to the deaths of thousands of civilians and the mass displacement of many more.

Friday’s assault on the Djangi displaced persons camp was carried out by the self-proclaimed Cooperative for the Development of Congo (Codeco), a Lendu-aligned militia responsible for previous civilian massacres, the camp’s head told AFP.

“They were many and armed with firearms and machetes. They surprised us, they killed 10 displaced people, most of them women and children,” said Richard Likana.

An employee of the Red Cross, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed the attack, which took place around 60 kilometres (37 miles) from Bunia.

“They were cut up with machetes while others were shot,” the humanitarian worker added.

Congolese army Colonel Ruffin Mapela, the local administrator for Djugu territory where the camp is located, gave the same toll of 10 dead and put the number of injured at 15.

According to local and humanitarian sources, Codeco was responsible for an attack on February 10 which killed 51 people in Ituri province. Most of the victims were also displaced persons.

That raid was said to be a response to a strike by the rival Hema-led Zaire militia in the same area.

Violence between the Hema and Lendu killed thousands in gold-rich Ituri from 1999-2003, which only ended after European forces intervened.

The conflict erupted again in 2017, killing thousands more.

The violence has led to more than 1.5 million people leaving their homes, according to the UN.

AFP

Headline

Israel Wants Global Action Against Iran’s Nuclear Plans

Published

8 hours ago

June 27, 2025

Editor

Israel’s foreign minister said on Friday that the world was obliged to stop Iran from developing an atomic bomb, days after Israel claimed it had “thwarted Iran’s nuclear project” in a 12-day war.

“Israel acted at the last possible moment against an imminent threat to itself, the region, and the international community,” Gideon Saar wrote on X.

“The international community must now prevent, by any effective means, the world’s most extreme regime from obtaining the most dangerous weapon.”

Israel and Iran each claimed victory in the war that ended with a ceasefire on June 24.

The conflict erupted on June 13 when Israel launched a bombing campaign, stating it aimed to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon—an ambition Iran has consistently denied.

Following waves of Israeli attacks on nuclear and military sites, the United States bombed three key facilities, with President Donald Trump insisting it had set Iran’s nuclear programme back by “decades”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an address to the nation after the ceasefire, announced that “we have thwarted Iran’s nuclear project”.

However, there is no consensus as to how effective the strikes were.
On Friday, Iran rejected a request by UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi to visit the bombed facilities, saying it suggested “malign intent”.

The comments from Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi came after parliament approved a bill suspending cooperation with the UN watchdog.

In a post on X following the move, Saar said Iran “continues to mislead the international community and actively works to prevent effective oversight of its nuclear programme”.

Headline

We Would Have Killed Iran’s Supreme Leader If Given Opportunity – Israel

Published

12 hours ago

June 27, 2025

Editor

Defence Minister Israel Katz told media that Israel would have killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the war between the two countries if the opportunity had presented itself.

“If he had been in our sights, we would have taken him out,” Katz told Israel’s public radio station Kan Thursday evening, adding that the military had “searched a lot”.

“Khamenei understood this, went very deep underground, broke off contact with the commanders… so in the end it wasn’t realistic,” Katz told Kan.

He told Israeli television Channel 13 Thursday that Israel would cease its assassination attempts because “there is a difference between before the ceasefire and after the ceasefire”.

Katz had said during the war that Khamenei “can no longer be allowed to exist”, just days after reports that Washington vetoed Israeli plans to assassinate him.

But on Kan, Katz advised Khamenei to remain inside a bunker.

“He should learn from the late Nasrallah, who sat for a long time deep in the bunker”, he said, referring to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah, who Israel killed in a Beirut air strike in September 2024.

The movements of the supreme leader, who has not left Iran since he took power, are subject to the tightest security and secrecy.

Katz said Thursday that Israel maintained its aerial superiority over Iran and that it was ready to strike again.

“We won’t let Iran develop nuclear weapons and threaten (Israel) with long-range missiles”, he said.

In his Channel 12 interview, Katz admitted that Israel does not know the location of all of Iran’s enriched uranium, but that its air strikes had destroyed the Islamic republic’s uranium enrichment capabilities.

“The material itself was not something that was supposed to be neutralised,” he said of the enriched uranium.

The impact of Israeli and US strikes on Iran’s nuclear programme has been a subject to debate.

A leaked US intelligence assessment estimated the programme to have set Iran back a few months, while Katz and other Israeli and US public figures said the damage would take years to rebuild.

Israel and Iran each claimed victory in a 12-day war that ended with a ceasefire on June 24.

The war erupted on June 13 when Israel launched a bombing campaign that it said aimed to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon — an ambition Iran has consistently denied.