Status: 09.10.2023, 10:34 a.m.
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Palestinians inspect the ruins of the Watan Tower, which was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City. © Hashem Zimmo/Imago
The violence between Israel and Gaza is escalating: hundreds dead, countless injured and a population in fear. How did it come to this?
JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday (7 October) that the country was "at war" after Palestinian gunmen invaded Israel from the Gaza Strip and carried out attacks on troops and civilians in the toughest military operation in years.
Israel responded with air and artillery strikes on the Gaza Strip, where the population was preparing for a major offensive. By nightfall, at least 100 people had been killed in Israel, according to Zaki Heller, a spokesman for the Magen David Adom rescue service. In Gaza, more than 230 people have been killed in Israeli attacks, according to health authorities.
The violence erupted suddenly on Saturday morning, albeit after a year of rising tensions between Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which has been under a joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade since 2007. This year alone, there has been a spate of deadly attacks in Israel and the Palestinian territories, an escalation that followed Netanyahu cobbling together the most right-wing government in Israel's history.
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Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and carried out Saturday's attacks, said the operation was a response to the blockade, as well as recent Israeli military strikes in the West Bank and violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a controversial religious site in Jerusalem known to Jews as the Temple Mount.
"Enough is enough," the leader of Hamas' military-terrorist wing, Mohammed Deif, said in a recorded message on Saturday, the Associated Press reported. "Today, the people are regaining their revolution."
As of September 19, before Saturday's outbreak of violence, 227 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli troops or settlers this year, most of them — 189 — in the West Bank, according to UN figures. At least 29 Israelis, most of them in the West Bank, were also killed by the end of August this year, according to the same UN database.
Cars destroyed by rocket attacks in Tel Aviv, Israel. © Gideon Markowic/Imago
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The following are some of the most important incidents that have occurred this year in the run-up to the current conflict.
September: Growing fears of all-out conflict
Just last month, Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, appeared to be on the brink of war. Israeli border guards found explosives hidden in a shipment of jeans and stopped all exports from the Gaza Strip.
Hamas put its forces on high alert and held field exercises with other armed groups, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The exercises included rocket launches, ambushes and the "storming" of settlements, according to local media in Gaza — apparently a preview of Saturday's attacks.
Hamas also allowed Palestinians to protest again along the separation fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip, where young protesters have clashed with Israeli soldiers. On September 13, five Palestinians were killed when they tried to detonate an IED at the separation wall.
"So far it has been quiet, but now it is starting to seethe," Basem Naim, head of Hamas' political and international relations department, said in an interview with the Washington Post in September. "There's a lot of pressure under the water."
A summer of military attacks and retaliatory strikes
Tensions in the Gaza Strip followed a violent summer in the West Bank, which saw reciprocal attacks between Palestinian militants on the one hand and Israeli forces and Jewish settlers on the other.
Israel carried out several military raids in the city of Jenin, where Palestinian militants were allegedly planning attacks on Israeli troops and civilians. On June 19, Israeli forces raided Jenin, killing at least five Palestinians. For the first time since the second intifada, the Palestinian uprising that lasted from 2000 to 2005, they used Apache helicopters in the West Bank.
The next day, Hamas gunmen opened fire on a hummus restaurant outside Eli, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, killing four Israelis. And on June 21, hundreds of Israeli settlers marched through Palestinian villages — including Turmus Ayya, where one person was killed — torching homes and cars and shooting at residents, according to Turmus Ayya Mayor Lafi Adeeb.
Subsequently, Israel carried out its first drone strike in the West Bank since 2006, killing three suspected fighters. On July 3, the Israeli military launched the largest operation in more than two decades with an air and ground attack on a refugee camp in Jenin, involving around 1000,<> soldiers.
Israeli officials said they were targeting a "command center" for the militants. The operation marked the beginning of a "full-scale counterterrorism" that will continue indefinitely, according to the Israel Defense Forces. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, at least eight people were killed and 80 injured.
Outbreaks of violence in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank
Prior to the massive Israeli operation in Jenin in July, Israeli security forces shot and killed a 14-year-old boy on a bicycle while pursuing two Palestinian militants in March. The Washington Post created a 3D reconstruction of the robbery by synchronizing and reviewing dozens of videos from March 16, when the incident occurred, as well as talking to witnesses.
About the authors
Brian Murphy joined The Washington Post after more than 20 years as a foreign correspondent and bureau chief for the Associated Press in Europe and the Middle East. Murphy has reported from more than 50 countries and written four books.
Sammy Westfall is an assistant editor in the foreign desk of The Washington Post.
Steve Hendrix has been head of the Washington Post's Jerusalem bureau since 2019. He joined the post office in 2000 and has written for pretty much every section of the newspaper: Foreign, National, Metro, Style, Travel, the Magazine. He has reported from the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Asia, America, and most corners of the United States.
Adam Taylor writes about foreign affairs for the Washington Post. Originally from London, he studied at the University of Manchester and Columbia University.
Bryan Pietsch is a foreign reporter in the Washington, D.C.-based International Division. Previously, he worked in Seoul, where he was the first female reporter at the Post's news center there.
In early April, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Palestinian worshippers barricaded themselves in the al-Aqsa Mosque. Israeli police then stormed the mosque in Jerusalem's Old City and "used stun grenades and tear gas, fired bullets, and indiscriminately beat Muslim worshippers, including the elderly and women, with batons and rifle butts," the U.N. human rights office said in a statement.
About a month later, Israel began surprise airstrikes in the Gaza Strip targeting leaders of the militant organization Islamic Jihad, which is backed by Iran. According to Palestinian health authorities, three senior militants and 10 others were killed in the attacks, including four women and four children. Israel carried out the attacks a week after the conclusion of a ceasefire with the Palestinian armed groups. The Israel Defense Forces said the three senior Islamic Jihad operatives killed were responsible for the recent rocket fire and attacks on Israelis.
The attacks sparked a five-day wave of violence that killed at least 33 people in the Gaza Strip and two people in Israel. Israel and Islamic Jihad agreed on a ceasefire on May 13.
January: An operation in Jenin and a massacre in a synagogue
The year began with outbreaks of violence, including an Israeli military operation in Jenin, which, according to local authorities, led to a shootout in which nine Palestinians were killed. The raid took place on January 26, and the next day a Palestinian gunman opened fire on a synagogue in East Jerusalem, killing seven people, including children, during prayers.
At the time, Hamas official Mushir al-Mashri congratulated the attacker, who was killed by Israeli security forces, saying the shooting was "a quick response to the Jenin massacre and proof of the vitality and readiness of the resistance."
Hazem Balousha in Gaza contributed to this report.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article has been automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English by the "Washingtonpost.com" on October 08, 2023 - in the course of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to the readers of IPPEN. MEDIA portals.