From the Hamas massacre of October 7 and murdered hostages to the devastation of Gaza and starving civilians, from exploding Hezbollah pagers to missiles fired between Israel and Iran, from mass protests to international recognition of a Palestinian state: Here is Haaretz's chronology of two years of a terrible war
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict did not begin on October 7, 2023 (nor in 1967, nor 1948), but no one can deny that the Hamas-led surprise attack on southern Israel that day set in motion a chain of events of historic proportions. It began with the attack itself: A massacre of approximately 1,200 Israelis at the hands of Hamas and other Palestinian factions, and the kidnapping of over 250 Israelis and foreign nationals.
The Israeli reprisal was swift: first an air campaign, then a ground operation in Gaza. The Israeli death toll has reached nearly 2,000, with 48 people still held by Hamas. The Palestinian death toll stands at 67,000, as reported by the Hamas-run Health Ministry. Large swaths of the enclave have been leveled by Israeli strikes, rendering it unrecognizable, and hunger and malnutrition are claiming more and more lives in the Strip.
Beyond Israel and Gaza, other dominos have continued to fall. Skirmishes and all-out wars with Iranian-backed factions in Lebanon and Yemen gave way this summer to Israel's first direct conflict with Iran – an intense 12-day campaign that dealt a major blow to the Islamic Republic and reverberated across the region. A spent and weakened Iran helped pave the way for regime change in Syria. The international community, watching the plight of Gazans, is now moving toward recognition of a Palestinian state, leaving Israel and its far-right government more isolated than ever.
