How October 7 occurred and sparked a lethal warfare 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 “associates, love and infinite freedom” after a protracted night time of festivities.

The lives of many who heard these sirens have been to be modified perpetually.

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, in response to 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 tons of 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 army arm of Hamas. Not 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 have been launched in the 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 identical time, footage of the offensive exhibits fighters breaching Israel’s 65km “iron wall”, a sensible 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 best way for motorbikes. In the meantime, explosives have been additionally dropped on close by statement 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 boundaries separating Gaza and Israel. Supply: Getty / Hani Alshaer/Anadolu Company

Militants have been in a position to breach the border in at the very least 13 totally different areas, in response to 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.

Almost 50 areas in Israel have 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, practically 50 areas in Israel have been attacked, together with military bases, a music competition and at the very least 19 kibbutzim — communal settlements typically primarily based round farms.

Most are situated 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 displaying civilian websites focused in the course of the October 7 assaults. Supply: SBS Information

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

Most of these killed have been Israeli civilians — 695 folks — however the dying toll additionally contains 373 safety personnel and 71 foreigners, together with employees from nations equivalent to China, the Phillippines, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand, AFP reviews.

Militants additionally seized at the very least 250 hostages. A yr 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 warfare that has devastated thousands and thousands.

Lethal rampage at Supernova competition

Round half of the civilians killed have 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 have been having fun with a dawn dance occasion after 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, informed HRW.

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

A dome structure covered in ripped colourful fabric.

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

“We have been tons of of individuals working,” Dan Liebersohn, 22, informed HRW.

The militants went on an hour-long rampage, abandoning tons of of lifeless — a lot of whom had been burned. The street to the competition was left suffering from torched vehicles.

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

The street to the Supernova music competition was left suffering from deserted and torched vehicles. Supply: Getty / Jack Guez/AFP

Different festivalgoers have 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 lifeless.

Kibbutz secure homes didn’t cease militants

Militants additionally went door-to-door in kibbutzim and different communities, taking pictures residents lifeless and setting their properties on fireplace.

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

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

“The primary feeling was horror … since you truly perceive that the hazard will not be 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, taking pictures residents lifeless and setting their properties on fireplace. 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 combating was left to part-time neighborhood volunteers who have been a part of native speedy response groups referred to as Kitat Konenut.

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

Round 100 civilians have 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 secure room.

Sagi Shifroni, 41, described the phobia of the assault in Be’eri to HRW, saying he took refuge in his secure room together 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 fireplace, forcing him to smash a window within the secure room to flee.

Shifroni had no shirt or sneakers on and says he cannot bear in mind leaping out of the window together 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.

Lots of the buildings in kibbutz Be’eri have 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 remedy till round midnight.

An discovered the IDF didn’t fulfil its mission to defend residents at Be’eri and didn’t at all times prioritise civilian lives — even ready outdoors the kibbutz for hours whereas residents have 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 warfare crimes had been dedicated by members of Hamas and others taking part 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 warfare crimes have been dedicated by Hamas and others concerned. Supply: Getty / Dan Kitwood

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

“Ladies have been subjected to gender-based violence in the course of the course of their execution or abduction. Ladies and ladies’s our bodies have been used as victory trophies by male perpetrators.”

The fee stated it discovered the kidnapping of kids “notably egregious”.

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

Israel’s response to the assault on its residents has decreased 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 warfare”.

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

Not less than 41,615 folks have been killed within the Gaza Strip over the previous 12 months, in response to 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 yr, UN Secretary-Common António Guterres described the “nightmare in Gaza” as a “disaster of humanity”, saying the territory had develop into a “graveyard for kids”.

Medical doctors at al-Shifa hospital, the place Israeli forces battled Hamas fighters final yr, described dire circumstances 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 aspect by aspect on a mattress, every with a special illness, and on this acute scarcity of medical employees and of milk,” Dr Mohamed Tabasha informed 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 warfare has displaced an estimated 90 per cent of Gaza’s inhabitants of two.1 million folks, in response to the UN’s Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

A UNICEF official informed AFP an estimated 19,000 youngsters are unaccompanied or have been separated from their mother and father.

Evaluation of satellite tv for pc information 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 doubtless been broken because the begin of the warfare.

A compressed satellite image shows damage in the Gaza Strip.

Evaluation of harm in Gaza Strip utilizing Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite tv for pc information 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 whole buildings within the Gaza Strip have sustained harm” after practically a yr of warfare.

Authorities condemn Israel’s Gaza operations

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

The fee says it “discovered that the crimes towards humanity of extermination; homicide; gender persecution focusing on Palestinian males and boys; forcible switch; and torture and inhuman and merciless remedy have been dedicated”.

Amongst its different findings, the fee says Israeli authorities have used “hunger as a technique of warfare”, dedicated acts of homicide or wilful killing, deliberately directed assaults towards civilians, dedicated acts of sexual violence, torture and inhuman or merciless remedy, 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 whole buildings within the Gaza Strip have sustained harm” after practically a yr 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 nations, together with Colombia, Libya, Mexico, Spain and Türkiye.

Israel has strongly denied the accusation.

In Could, the prosecutor of the Worldwide Legal Court docket (ICC) , on suspicion of warfare crimes and crimes towards humanity.

Netanyahu rejected the landmark request, saying in a press release: “No matter this prosecutor may indicate, there isn’t any equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.”

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

Hamas responded, saying it “strongly condemns” the ICC prosecutor’s software towards its leaders.

In current months, the battle has continued to unfold, with Israel launching assaults in Lebanon focusing on militant group Hezbollah, which it claims poses “a direct 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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