How October 7 occurred and sparked a lethal battle in Gaza

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For a lot of, it was the sirens that woke them on 7 October.

The quiet of dawn was damaged by the pressing whirring of air raid alarms round 6.30am.

Others heard the warning whereas dancing at an outside rave celebrating “pals, love and infinite freedom” after a protracted night time of festivities.

The lives of many who heard these sirens had been to be modified endlessly.

The alarms marked the start of one of many deadliest days in Israel’s historical past, when a coordinated offensive unleashed by the Islamic militant group Hamas killed round 1,200 folks, together with 36 youngsters, based on Israeli authorities.

Sunflowers are arranged in the shape of an Israeli flag. In the background are many poles with photos of people attached.

The positioning of the Supernova music competition was one of many areas worst hit by militants, who killed a whole bunch of younger partygoers. Supply: Getty / Gil Cohen-Magen

The assault was led primarily by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades — also referred to as the Qassam Bridages — the navy arm of Hamas. No less than 5 different Palestinian armed teams are additionally believed to have been concerned.

The onslaught started when 1000’s of rockets and mortar shells had been launched in direction of southern and central Israel from the Gaza Strip, a coastal Palestinian territory separated from Israel by a six-metre tall wire fence.

A map showing Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The Gaza Strip is a slender Palestinian territory separated from Israel by a six-metre tall wire fence. Supply: SBS Information

The missiles quickly overwhelmed heading into its territory.

On the similar time, footage of the offensive exhibits fighters breaching Israel’s 65km “iron wall”, a wise fence topped with razor wire that makes use of radars and cameras to detect motion.

Troopers used explosives to blast by way of the fencing and a bulldozer to clear the way in which for motorbikes. In the meantime, explosives had been additionally dropped on close by commentary towers.

A bulldozer breaks through a wire fence as people dash through the gap.

Troopers used explosives to interrupt by way of Israel’s border fence and deployed a bulldozer to clear the trail on 7 October. Supply: Getty / Anadolu Company

A man on a motorbike rides through a broken fence.

Most fighters crossed by way of breaches in land safety limitations separating Gaza and Israel. Supply: Getty / Hani Alshaer/Anadolu Company

Militants had been capable of breach the border in at the very least 13 completely different areas, based on Human Rights Watch (HRW), with some arriving in motorised paragliders and pickup vans.

The border seems to have been minimally staffed that day: a Saturday and the Jewish vacation of Simchat Torah.

It is a day that Israelis now name “Black Shabbat”.

A family looks at a large sign with cut-out photos of hundreds of people.

Practically 50 places in Israel had been attacked on 7 October, together with military bases, a music competition and at the very least 19 communal settlements. Supply: Getty / Jack Guez

All through the course of the day, almost 50 places in Israel had been attacked, together with military bases, a music competition and at the very least 19 kibbutzim — communal settlements usually primarily based round farms.

Most are positioned inside a couple of kilometres of the border, though militants reached Ofakim — 25km inside Israeli territory.

A map showing civilian sites targeted during the October 7 attacks.

A map exhibiting civilian websites focused through the October 7 assaults. Supply: SBS Information

Two boats carrying militants additionally killed at the very least 18 civilians at Zikim seashore, throwing grenades right into a public shelter and capturing indiscriminately.

Most of these killed had been Israeli civilians — 695 folks — however the dying toll additionally consists of 373 safety personnel and 71 foreigners, together with staff from international locations corresponding to China, the Phillippines, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand, AFP stories.

Militants additionally seized at the very least 250 hostages. A 12 months after the operation, 64 folks — together with two youngsters — are nonetheless being held in captivity.

That is how the October 7 assault unfolded and triggered a year-long battle that has devastated tens of millions.

Lethal rampage at Supernova competition

Round half of the civilians killed had been partygoers attending Supernova, an outside trance music competition.

A 3,000-strong crowd had gathered in fields and woods close to Re’im — a kibbutz in southern Israel — to look at performances throughout three levels.

Some campers had been having fun with a dawn dance occasion once they began to note smoke within the sky.

“A couple of minutes later, the music stopped. Then we noticed the Iron Dome intercepting rockets,” one participant, Almog Senior, 30, instructed HRW.

An organiser of the occasion instructed HRW they began evacuating folks from the location round 6.45am however gunmen appeared and opened hearth round 8am.

A dome structure covered in ripped colourful fabric.

Destroyed vehicles and private results had been left scattered across the Supernova competition web site after the October 7 assault. Supply: Getty / Alexi J. Rosenfeld

“We had been a whole bunch of individuals working,” Dan Liebersohn, 22, instructed HRW.

The militants went on an hour-long rampage, abandoning a whole bunch of useless — a lot of whom had been burned. The highway to the competition was left plagued by torched vehicles.

An aerial photo shows abandoned and burned cars at the site of the October 7 attack.

The highway to the Supernova music competition was left plagued by deserted and torched vehicles. Supply: Getty / Jack Guez/AFP

Different festivalgoers had been taken hostage, together with Shani Louk, a 22-year-old twin Israeli and German citizen. She was filmed stripped right down to her underwear at the back of a pickup truck and surrounded by males.

She was later confirmed useless.

Kibbutz protected homes didn’t cease militants

Militants additionally went door-to-door in kibbutzim and different communities, capturing residents useless and setting their houses on hearth.

Whereas many residents took shelter of their protected rooms, that are usually designed to maintain folks protected from rockets, they weren’t shielded from gunfire.

Nadav Tzabari, 34, remembers the chilling second he realised militants had been infiltrating the kibbutz at Nahal Oz.

“The primary feeling was horror … since you really perceive that the hazard is just not coming from missiles. These are literally folks whose intention is to kill you.”

Two cars are stopped on the road with their doors open, in the foreground, what appears to be bodies can be seen.

Militants additionally went door-to-door in kibbutzim and different communities, capturing residents useless and setting their houses on hearth. Supply: Getty / OREN ZIV/AFP

As a result of public vacation, it took hours for Israeli forces to succeed in sure areas, which meant a lot of the early preventing was left to part-time group volunteers who had been a part of native speedy response groups known as Kitat Konenut.

Within the kibbutz of Be’eri, residents had been compelled to defend themselves for seven hours earlier than assist arrived.

Round 100 civilians had been killed — one-tenth of its inhabitants — together with 10-month-old Mila Cohen, who was shot whereas hiding together with her mom in a protected room.

Sagi Shifroni, 41, described the fear of the assault in Be’eri to HRW, saying he took refuge in his protected room along with his five-year-old daughter after being woken by the sound of sirens.

Round 11am he says militants fired on the door and later set his home on hearth, forcing him to smash a window within the protected room to flee.

Shifroni had no shirt or sneakers on and says he cannot bear in mind leaping out of the window along with his daughter wrapped in a blanket. He later realised the pores and skin on his ft was peeling off and his physique was coated in second and third-degree burns.

Most of the buildings in kibbutz Be’eri had been set alight. Supply: Getty / Jack Guez/AFP

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) troopers didn’t attain Shifroni and his household till round 7.30pm they usually did not obtain medical therapy till round midnight.

An discovered the IDF didn’t fulfil its mission to defend residents at Be’eri and didn’t all the time prioritise civilian lives — even ready exterior the kibbutz for hours whereas residents had been killed inside.

Proof of sexual violence

A Fee of Inquiry established by the United Nations Human Rights Council examined the October 7 assaults and concluded battle crimes had been dedicated by members of Hamas and others collaborating within the assault.

In its June 2024 report, the fee discovered the militants had “intentionally killed, injured, mistreated, [taken] hostages and dedicated sexual and gender-based violence”.

A woman wearing sunglasses holds her hand to her mouth as she stands over a coffin draped in the Israeli flag.

A UN Fee of Inquiry examined the October 7 assaults and concluded that battle crimes had been dedicated by Hamas and others concerned. Supply: Getty / Dan Kitwood

The fee additionally discovered “important proof on the desecration of corpses, together with sexualised desecration, decapitations, lacerations, burning, severing of physique elements and undressing”.

“Girls had been subjected to gender-based violence through the course of their execution or abduction. Girls and girls’s our bodies had been used as victory trophies by male perpetrators.”

The fee mentioned it discovered the kidnapping of youngsters “notably egregious”.

‘We’re at battle’: Israel’s devastating retaliation

Israel’s response to the assault on its residents has diminished a lot of the Gaza Strip to rubble.

By the afternoon of seven October, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had convened a safety cupboard assembly in Tel Aviv and declared, “we’re at battle”.

That night time, Israeli forces started placing targets in Gaza. Since then, huge swathes of the territory have been devastated by relentless airstrikes.

No less than 41,615 folks have been killed within the Gaza Strip over the previous 12 months, based on the well being ministry in Gaza, and one other 96,251 wounded.

The World Well being Organisation (WHO) says greater than 1 / 4 of these wounded have sustained life-changing accidents, together with extreme limb accidents, amputations and main burns.

Final 12 months, UN Secretary-Normal António Guterres described the “nightmare in Gaza” as a “disaster of humanity”, saying the territory had develop into a “graveyard for kids”.

Docs at al-Shifa hospital, the place Israeli forces battled Hamas fighters final 12 months, described dire situations for sufferers, together with untimely infants struggling to outlive with out entry to incubators.

“I by no means anticipated in my life that I’d put 39 infants facet by facet on a mattress, every with a distinct illness, and on this acute scarcity of medical workers and of milk,” Dr Mohamed Tabasha instructed Reuters.

WHO says simply 17 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals stay partially purposeful.

Aerial shot showing destroyed buildings.

A 14-day siege across the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza Metropolis in March decimated a lot of the hospital and its surrounds. Supply: Getty / Omar El Qattaa/Anadolu

The battle has displaced an estimated 90 per cent of Gaza’s inhabitants of two.1 million folks, based on the UN’s Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

A UNICEF official instructed AFP an estimated 19,000 youngsters are unaccompanied or have been separated from their dad and mom.

Evaluation of satellite tv for pc knowledge by Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Middle and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State College, discovered 58.7 per cent of buildings within the Gaza Strip had seemingly been broken for the reason that begin of the battle.

A compressed satellite image shows damage in the Gaza Strip.

Evaluation of injury in Gaza Strip utilizing Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite tv for pc knowledge by Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Middle and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State College.

A UN Satellite tv for pc Centre evaluation issued on 30 September discovered “two-thirds of the full buildings within the Gaza Strip have sustained injury” after almost a 12 months of battle.

Authorities condemn Israel’s Gaza operations

The UN’s Fee of Inquiry report in July concluded Israel’s retaliation in opposition to Gaza had additionally resulted in battle crimes, crimes in opposition to humanity and different worldwide regulation violations.

The fee says it “discovered that the crimes in opposition to humanity of extermination; homicide; gender persecution focusing on Palestinian males and boys; forcible switch; and torture and inhuman and merciless therapy had been dedicated”.

Amongst its different findings, the fee says Israeli authorities have used “hunger as a way of warfare”, dedicated acts of homicide or wilful killing, deliberately directed assaults in opposition to civilians, dedicated acts of sexual violence, torture and inhuman or merciless therapy, arbitrary detention and outrages upon private dignity.

Children walk through rubble, past makeshift tents. There are destroyed buildings in the background.

A UN Satellite tv for pc Centre evaluation discovered that “two-thirds of the full buildings within the Gaza Strip have sustained injury” after almost a 12 months of battle. Supply: Getty / Hani Alshaer/Anadolu

Israel’s operations have additionally seen it accused of genocide. South Africa filed a case within the Worldwide Court docket of Justice in December alleging breaches of the 1948 UN Genocide Conference. Its case has been joined by a number of international locations, together with Colombia, Libya, Mexico, Spain and Türkiye.

Israel has strongly denied the accusation.

In Might, the prosecutor of the Worldwide Felony Court docket (ICC) , on suspicion of battle crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity.

Netanyahu rejected the landmark request, saying in a press release: “No matter this prosecutor would possibly suggest, there is no such thing as a equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected battle crimes claims. Supply: Getty / Ohad Zwigenberg/AFP

Hamas responded, saying it “strongly condemns” the ICC prosecutor’s utility in opposition to its leaders.

In latest months, the battle has continued to unfold, with Israel launching assaults in Lebanon focusing on militant group Hezbollah, which it claims poses “a right away menace to Israeli communities in northern Israel”.

World leaders have urged de-escalation, together with Australia’s Overseas Minister Penny Wong, who has and a transparent timeline on recognising Palestinian statehood.

Up to now the calls have remained unheeded.

Extra reporting by AFP

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