One Year Since Gaza Attack: The Death Toll Continues to Rise

International Desk

07 Oct 2024, 09:05

Photo: Reuters

Today marks one year since Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel. On this day in 2023, the Palestinian resistance group launched attacks by land, sea, and air on Israel, prompting a retaliatory airstrike campaign on Gaza by Israel.

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On the morning of October 7, 2023, at around 6:30 AM, Hamas fired a barrage of rockets across Israel. Within just 20 minutes, thousands of rockets bypassed the Iron Dome defense system.

Following the rocket assault, Hamas fighters breached Israel’s borders by land, sea, and air, attacking several military installations and taking control of certain settlements. They shot and killed civilians indiscriminately, including many attendees of a music festival near the desert town of Re'im.

The rocket attacks woke Israelis to the sound of sirens as cities, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, came under fire. Although the immediate damage was unclear, the toll became evident as time passed.

In just a few hours, the Hamas operation left nearly 1,200 people dead in Israel. After the attack, Hamas fighters returned to Gaza, taking about 300 hostages with them. Hamas named this military operation "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood."

Though it took time for ordinary Israelis to recover from the shock, Israel's government wasted little time in responding. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war, launching airstrikes against Hamas in Gaza. The Netanyahu administration imposed a complete blockade on the besieged region, cutting off electricity, water, and food supplies, plunging innocent Palestinians into a dire crisis.

On the same day, Western countries, including the United States, condemned Hamas's attack and pledged full support for Israel. Meanwhile, Iran and its allies in the Middle East expressed their solidarity with the Palestinian people.

During the Gaza war, Israel also intensified its crackdown in the occupied West Bank, arresting over 11,000 Palestinians in the past year.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, nearly 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks over the past year, with around 100,000 injured.

The New Humanitarian reports that more than 16,000 of those killed were children. Over 10,000 people remain missing, feared to have died under the rubble of collapsed buildings. Additionally, 306 humanitarian workers and over 900 medical personnel have lost their lives in the conflict.

The number of displaced people in Gaza now exceeds 1.9 million, accounting for 90% of the total population. More than half of Gaza's population faces severe food shortages.

According to an Axios report, 60% of Gaza's infrastructure has been destroyed in the past year. An estimated 227,591 housing units have been demolished, 68% of roads have been damaged, and of Gaza's 36 hospitals, 19 have been shut down, with the remaining 17 barely functioning.

In September, UN Secretary-General António Guterres remarked that he had never seen death and destruction on such a scale.

As the ongoing Gaza war continues, Israel's conflicts with Lebanon and Iran are escalating and could potentially lead to direct military confrontations at any moment.

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