October 7 marked a before and after in the Middle East and led to an escalation of violence that intensified and expanded a year after that fateful date. On October 7, 2023, we woke up in Spain to the news that the Islamist group Hamas had launched a large, surprise, synchronized attack at dawn on towns in southern Israel, near the border with Gaza.
According to official data, more than 1,200 Israelis and citizens of other nationalities died in the assault, during which more than 14,000 people were injured and around 250 kidnapped. Nearly a hundred remain captive in Gaza, while the Israeli army continues its offensive. On Sunday, he launched a new operation in the northern Gaza Strip, where he claimed to have eliminated Hamas months ago.
Precisely, the main objectives of the war were to free the hostages and eliminate the Palestinian group, but a year later they have not been achieved. During this period, the punitive war against Gaza residents caused some 42,000 deaths, including nearly 17,000 boys and girls, and more than 11,000 women, according to data from the Gaza government (linked to Hamas). Furthermore, nearly 100,000 people suffered injuries, some of them serious and which will mark them for life, such as amputations. The lack of adequate medical care worsened the situation of many injured and prevented others from saving their lives.
Since Israel launched its offensive on Gaza, nearly 42,000 people have died in the strip. More than the population of the city of Soria.
Each silhouetteHAS
what you see represents a person who died in Gaza from October 7, 2023
This figure is only the tip of the iceberg: it does not include the missing, the bodies still under the rubble and those who were never transported to hospital. Authorities estimate there are 10,000 missing.
Each red silhouette represents a child who has died in the gang since the start of the conflict. There are 16,900 minors. 800 of them were babies under one year old.
HAS
The Israeli offensive left 1.9 million displaced, 70,000 homes destroyed and more than 97,000 injured.
“Israeli bombing of densely populated areas has repeatedly caused significant injuries,” reports Amber Alayyan, head of the medical program at Doctors Without Borders. NGO teams in the Gaza Strip have had to “perform surgeries without anesthesia, witness the deaths of children in hospitals due to lack of resources, and even treat their own colleagues and family members.”
MSF has treated more than 27,500 patients for violence-related injuries over the past twelve months; Among them, more than 80% were injured by the bombings.
According to the World Health Organization, some 12,000 people need to be evacuated to receive medical care that is not available in Gaza. The shortage of medical supplies and the most essential products affects the health of the Gazan population, among whom infectious diseases are spreading. The more than two million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip suffer from hunger and 80% depend on humanitarian aid, which trickles into the Palestinian enclave.
In addition to the enormous human impact, the war has caused significant destruction of infrastructure and buildings in the Gaza Strip. According to local authorities, more than 150,000 houses were destroyed by the bombings and 200,000 were damaged. In addition, 125 structures belonging to colleges and universities were destroyed, as well as more than 600 mosques and three churches. Almost the entire population has left their homes because of the war and the majority live in tents in the Al Mawasi area – designated by the Israeli army as “safe” – in southern Gaza.
After a year of conflict, the Gaza Strip is no longer what it was: its landscape has also been massacred. Especially in Gaza City (north) and Khan Younis and Rafah (south), there are entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble, under which the Ministry of Health and emergency services estimate that there are at least 10,000 bodies that could not be found. .
From north to south: this is how Israel devastated Gaza
Map of buildings destroyed or damaged since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip during the first, second and third months of the war and so far in 2024
Areas damaged during the 1st month of war
Damaged areas in the 3rd month
Areas damaged in the 2nd month of war
Nuseirat refugee camp
Damaged areas in the 1st month
Damaged areas in the 3rd month
Damaged areas in the 2nd month
Source: Damage analysis from Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite images and data by Corey Scher, CUNY Graduate Center, and Jamon Van Den Hoek, Oregon State University.
Before October 7, Gaza had already been under a strict blockade by Israel since 2007, when Hamas took power after winning the 2006 Palestinian elections. This siege was exacerbated by the occupation by troops Israeli forces from the border area with Egypt and from the only border post that was not under their control, that of Rafah. Additionally, Israel has established a fortified military corridor that divides the Gaza Strip into two, between the north and the south, to control Palestinian movements.
The permanence of Israeli troops in Gaza – more precisely next to the Egyptian border – has been one of the most thorny points of the negotiations between the two parties for a ceasefire, with the mediation of the United States, Qatar and Egypt. An agreement that would end the war and allow an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners seems more distant than ever, especially after the start of the Israeli offensive in Lebanon. The two conflicts are closely linked.
The spark of Gaza ignites the region
The Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah has been attacking northern Israel since October 8, in support of Hamas and the Palestinians, but the escalation of the Israeli army – which for two weeks has been relentlessly bombing Lebanon and also invading the south of country – country – makes it even more difficult to end the war in Gaza. Hezbollah had repeatedly assured that it would stop launching rockets and drones against Israel if it stopped its massacres in the Gaza Strip. From now on, Hezbollah directly confronts Israel and a cessation of hostilities with Lebanon would be necessary, before and at the same time as an agreement in Gaza.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels – who have also repeatedly attacked Israel, which responded with bombings in Yemen – have all the more reason to continue launching missiles and drones and sabotaging Israeli ships in the Red Sea. All of these groups, which call themselves “resistance”, have always been at odds with Tel Aviv, but the war in Gaza has fueled hatred and resentment towards the Jewish state and provided a pretext for the escalation of the violence. even the West was involved.
Iran is the last and most important piece of the complex puzzle that makes up the region, from Palestine to the Persian Gulf, that exploded with the Gaza war. Tehran’s second direct attack on Israel last Tuesday – in response to the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah in an Israeli attack in Beirut – was more powerful than the one launched last April and demonstrates that the conflict that has been in crescendo can still expand. Israel is currently considering how to respond to Iran’s affront, with various options on the table, including an attack on Iran’s oil infrastructure or a nuclear attack.
This Sunday, Iran suspended all flight arrivals and departures from the country until Monday 6 a.m. local time, in the face of a possible Israeli counterattack, which could arrive when one year will be commemorated since Hamas attack. 365 days after the bloodiest attacks Israel has suffered in decades and the longest and deadliest war in Gaza, the vicious cycle of violence continues unchecked in the Middle East and no one seems willing to stop it, neither Israel, nor its ally, the United States, nor its neighbors and rivals.
