Israel and Hamas at war: A timeline of major developments in the year since Oct. 7, 2023
The Iranian-backed group Hamas, long designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Israel, launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The massacre of some 1,200 people ignited a devastating war in the Gaza Strip, a densely-packed Palestinian territory that had been ruled by Hamas for almost two decades. The Hamas-run Ministry of Health says Israeli military operations in Gaza since Oct. 7 have killed almost 42,000 people.
Below is a timeline showing some of the key events in the year that has passed since many Israelis' sense of security was shattered on that Saturday morning.
October 7, 2023
- The ruling Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip carries out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak, infiltrating the heavily fortified border in several locations by air, land and sea, catching the country off-guard on the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah. The stunning attack sees Hamas terrorists and other militants kill more than 1,200 people, including 43 U.S. nationals. Israel says 251 others were taken hostage during the attack, with many of the abductions captured on cameras worn by the terrorists themselves and then circulated on social media. "We are at war," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces in a televised address later that morning, declaring a mass mobilization of the country's army reserves. Israel launches retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza, saying it is targeting Hamas fighters and weapons, almost immediately.
- Source: CBS/AP
October 9, 2023
- On the third day of fighting after Hamas' surprise rocket and ground incursion into Israel, and as Israel continues to bombard Hamas targets in Gaza from the air, Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant orders a complete siege of the Gaza Strip, saying authorities will cut electricity and block the entry of all food and fuel.
- Source: CBS News/AP
October 12, 2023
- Israel's military orders the total evacuation of northern Gaza — a region home to roughly 1.1 million people, or almost half of the Palestinian enclave's total population — within 24 hours, as it plans to ramp up operations in the area.
- Source: IDF/AP
October 16, 2023
- The first of what would become many disturbing hostage videos over the course of the war is shared by Hamas on its Telegram messaging app channel. The video shows 21-year-old French-Israeli national Mia Shem lying on a bed with her injured right arm appearing to be treated by somebody out of the camera's view. Shem appears distressed as she speaks directly to the camera, saying she's been taken to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and pleading to be returned to her family. Shem's mother tells CBS News she can see her daughter's pain, and hopes the video is an indication of Hamas' willingness to negotiate a hostage release deal.
- Source: CBS News
October 17, 2023
- Health officials in Gaza say hundreds of people are killed in a huge blast at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, and Israeli and Palestinian officials trade accusations over who is responsible for the devastating explosion. U.S. intelligence officials say between 100 and 300 people were likely killed in the blast, which Palestinian officials blame on an Israeli airstrike. Israeli officials say they did not target a hospital and that an intelligence review indicates the explosion was caused by a rocket launched by the Hamas-allied militant group Islamic Jihad that fell short. President Biden says soon after the explosion that, from what he's seen, it appears as though it was not caused by an Israeli strike.
- Source: CBS News
October 28, 2023
- Prime Minister Netanyahu, during a televised news conference, announces a "new phase" in the war, sending ground forces into Gaza and expanding attacks from the ground, air and sea.
- Source: CBS News
October 31, 2023
- Israeli airstrikes hit the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, killing dozens of Palestinian civilians and a Hamas commander. An Israel Defense Forces statement says the strike killed Ibrahim Biari, a key Hamas militant leader of the "murderous terror attack" on Oct. 7. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says at least 50 Palestinians are killed in the refugee camp blast and over 100 more are wounded.
- Source: Reuters
November 15, 2023
- Israeli troops enter al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the largest hospital in Palestinian territory. The raid sparks international outrage, with The World Health Organization calling al-Shifa a "death zone." The IDF later shows CBS News and other outlets a tunnel entrance and weapons, which it says is proof that Hamas fighters had used the hospital as a command center.
- Source: CBS News/IDF
November 19, 2023
- Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen hijack the Galaxy Leader, an Israeli-linked cargo ship, and take crew members hostage. It marks the first of many attacks on shipping in the Red Sea launched by the militant group as a protest against the war in Gaza.
- Source: AP
November 24, 2023
- For the first time, a group of hostages taken captive by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel is released from Gaza. They are freed hours after a four-day cease-fire in the war takes effect. Thirteen hostages are freed in total, and more than three dozen Palestinians are released from Israeli jails as part of the deal.
- Source: CBS News
December 5, 2023
- The IDF say troops have entered Gaza's second-largest city, Khan Younis, marking another bloody new phase of the war. The IDF says its forces are "in the heart" of Khan Younis — the first target in its expanded ground offensive into southern Gaza, which Israel says is aimed at destroying Hamas.
- Source: AP
December 15, 2023
- Three hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are mistakenly killed by friendly fire, the Israeli military says. During combat operations in Shejaiya, a densely packed neighborhood near Gaza City, the Israeli military says troops "mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat." Troops fired at the three and they were killed, the IDF says. The military told CBS News the events occurred during a period of "intense combat," with Hamas militants operating in what an official described as civilian attire. There were "a lot of ambushes" and "a lot of deceptions," the IDF official said.
- Source: CBS News/IDF
December 24, 2023
- The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says an Israeli airstrike kill at least 70 people at the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, with at least 30 others killed in strikes elsewhere across the Palestinian territory. The ongoing strikes come as Christmas observances in Bethlehem, revered as the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, are largely scrapped amid the conflict.
- Source: CBS/AP
January 11, 2024
- South Africa formally accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, filing a case with the United Nation's International Court of Justice in the Hague. It could take the world court years to issue a ruling on whether genocide has been committed. Israel quickly seeks the dismissal of the case, calling it a "false and baseless" defense of Hamas.
- Source: CBS News
January 29, 2024
- An Israeli intelligence document shared with CBS News and other Western news outlets lays out allegations against a dozen U.N. employees whom Israel accuses of participating in Hamas' Oct. 7 terrorist attack. The document claims seven staff members of UNRWA, the U.N. humanitarian agency for Palestinian refugees, stormed into Israeli territory during the attack, including two who allegedly participated in kidnappings. The allegations against UNRWA staffers prompted the U.S. and some other Western countries to freeze funds vital to the work of the agency, which is a lifeline for desperate Palestinians in war-torn Gaza. The U.N. later fires nine of the 12 accused workers and condemns "the abhorrent alleged acts" of some of its staff.
- Source: CBS News
February 8, 2024
- President Biden refers to Israel's actions in Gaza as "over the top." Mr. Biden also says he's been pushing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow aid to enter from Israel. "There are a lot of innocent people who are starving. A lot of innocent people are in trouble and dying, and it's gotta stop," Mr. Biden says, adding that he's also, "pushing very hard now to deal with this hostage cease-fire."
- Source: CBS News
February 9, 2024
- Prime Minister Netanyahu instructs Israeli forces to present a plan to evacuate civilians from Rafah, a day after facing criticism from President Biden over the impact of Israel's military campaign in Gaza. Israel says Rafah is the last remaining Hamas stronghold and it needs to send in troops to complete its war plan against the Islamic militant group. But an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians have crammed into the city and the surrounding area after fleeing fighting elsewhere in Gaza. The Biden administration has said repeatedly that it does not support a ground invasion of Rafah.
- Source: CBS/AP
February 29, 2024
- Witnesses and medics say Israeli forces opened fire on thousands of Palestinians who had gathered in an open area of Gaza City hoping to receive food and other desperately needed humanitarian aid. The IDF says forces "fired at those who posed a threat" to Israeli forces nearby, but U.N. experts condemn the violence, which left at least 112 people dead as they tried to collect flour in Gaza.
- Source: CBS News/OHCR
April 1, 2024
- Prime Minister Netanyahu says Israel's armed forces unintentionally struck a convoy from the humanitarian group World Central Kitchen in Gaza, killing seven aid workers including an American man. The Israeli military later said it dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others for their roles in the drone strikes, saying they had mishandled critical information and violated the army's rules of engagement.
- Source: CBS News
April 1, 2024
- Suspected Israeli warplanes bomb Iran's embassy in Syria in a strike that Iran says killed seven of its military advisers, including three senior commanders, marking a major escalation in Israel's war with its regional adversaries.
- Source: Reuters
April 2, 2024
- Iran vows to respond to the suspected Israeli strike that demolished Iran's consulate in Damascus. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says on his official website that "Israel will be punished" for the attack.
- Source: CBS/AFP
April 13, 2024
- Air raid sirens and loud booms reverberate across Israel as Iran launches a barrage of missiles and drones at the country in a retaliatory attack. Israeli officials say the assault is almost entirely thwarted by air defense systems and with the help of the U.S. and Israel's other allies. More than 300 missiles and drones were fired from Iran toward Israel, the IDF says. A 10-year-old girl is "severely injured by shrapnel," but the IDF reports no additional casualties.
- Source: CBS News
May 6/7, 2024
- Israel's military orders Palestinians in the eastern part of the Gaza Strip city of Rafah to evacuate ahead of a ground offensive. People quickly start fleeing from the area on foot or by any other means available to them. An Israeli tank brigade takes control of the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt the following day, as Israel moves forward with its offensive.
- Source: CBS/AP
May 14, 2024
- Video circulated widely on social media shows right-wing Israeli protesters blocking trucks carrying food aid for Gaza. The trucks are attacked by an Israeli group called "Tsav 9" at a checkpoint near a border crossing from the Israeli-occupied West Bank into Israel.
- Source: CBS News
May 20, 2024
- ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan announces that he's applied for arrest warrants for senior Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-MasriI and Ismail Haniyeh for possible war crimes. In a statement that sparks outrage from Israel's leadership, Khan also says he will seek arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, also for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity.
- Source: CBS News
May 26, 2024
- An Israeli strike kills at least 45 people, including women and children, in the al-Mawasi camp for displaced Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza. Prime Minister Netanyahu later admits the strikes were a "tragic mistake." Analysis of images of shrapnel gathered at the scene shows at least one of the bombs used was a U.S.-made GBU-39.
- Source: CBS News
June 8, 2024
- Israeli forces rescue four hostages held by Hamas in a raid on the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza. The hostages – 26-year-old Noa Argamani, 22-year-old Almog Meir Jan, 27-year-old Andrey Kozlov and 41-year-old Shlomi Ziv – were all kidnapped at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel during the Oct. 7 attacks. More than 270 Palestinians are killed in the firefight and by airstrikes during the rescue operation, according to Gaza's Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
- Source: CBS News
June 9, 2024
- A member of Israel's three-man War Cabinet announces his resignation from the government over Prime Minister Netanyahu's handling of the war in Gaza. Benny Gantz says Netanyahu is making "total victory impossible" and that the government must put the return of the hostages seized by Hamas "above political survival."
- Source: CBS/AP
July 24, 2024
- Netanyahu visits the U.S. and addresses a joint meeting of Congress, telling the American lawmakers: "In the Middle East, Iran's axis of terror confronts America, Israel and our Arab friends. This is not a clash of civilizations. It's a clash between barbarism and civilization. It's a clash between those who glorify death and those who sanctify life. For the forces of civilization to triumph, America and Israel must stand together."
- Source: CBS News
July 31, 2024
- Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh is assassinated in Iran's capital after attending the inauguration of the country's new president — the second assassination of a senior Iran-allied militant commander in just 12 hours. Israel refuses to confirm that it had killed the Hamas chief, but a U.S. official tells CBS News that the U.S. assesses that both Haniyeh and top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr were killed in Israeli strikes. Israel does confirm it killed Shukr.
- Source: CBS News
August 1, 2024
- The head of Hamas' military wing, Mohammed Deif, is killed in an Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of Khan Younis.
- Source: CBS News
August 2, 2024
- Al Jazeera reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and photographer Rami al-Refee are killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza, becoming at least the 112th and 113th journalist or media worker — the vast majority of whom are Palestinians — killed since the war between Israel and Hamas began, according to data compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists. The period since the start of the war has been the deadliest for journalists since the CPJ began gathering data in 1992.
- Source: CBS News
August 15, 2024
- The number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since the war began climbs over 40,000, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but Volker Türk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, says in a statement that most of those killed were women and children, and he calls for an immediate cease-fire.
- Source: CBS/AP/OHCHR
September 2, 2024
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will "not give in to pressure" to agree to a cease-fire with Hamas. Netanyahu insists "the achievement of the war's objectives" requires Israel to maintain control of the Philadelphi Corridor, the strip of land along the border between southern Gaza and Egypt. Egypt's government has voiced its objection to an Israeli military presence on that border, and Hamas has demanded a complete Israeli withdrawal from the area as part of any cease-fire agreement.
- Source: CBS News
August 27, 2024
- The Israeli military says it has rescued Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a 52-year-old man taken hostage by Hamas. Israeli Army Radio said Alkadi was the first hostage whom soldiers were able to find and rescue alive from the vast network of tunnels Hamas has built underneath Gaza.
- Source: CBS News
August 31, 2024
- Israeli forces recover the bodies of six Hamas-held hostages: Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Master Sgt. Ori Danino. Their bodies are found in a tunnel underneath Rafah. The IDF says all six were killed by Hamas militants shortly before the arrival of Israeli forces. Prime Minister Netanyahu says Israel will hold Hamas accountable for killing the hostages and blames the militant group for stalled cease-fire negotiations, saying "whoever murders hostages doesn't want a deal."
- Source: CBS News
September 1, 2024
- Thousands of angry and grieving Israelis take to the streets in huge protests after the six hostages are found dead in Gaza. Over the course of the week, widespread disruptions occur across Israel as members of the country's largest labor union go on strike in an attempt to pressure Netanyahu to agree to a deal to bring home the remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
- Source: CBS News
September 7, 2024
- An American woman is shot and killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Witnesses, activists and Palestinian media say 26-year-old dual U.S.-Turkish national Aysenur Eygi was shot by Israeli troops after attending a pro-Palestinian demonstration against settlement expansion. The IDF later says "it is highly likely that she was hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire which was not aimed at her."
- Source: CBS/AP/ IDF
September 10, 2024
- Israeli strikes kill dozens of Palestinians sheltering in the densely packed al-Mawasi camp, inside the Israeli-designated "humanitarian zone." Civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal tells CBS News and other news organizations that people in the camp had no warning before the bombs fell. He said they destroyed "20 to 40 tents" and left three deep craters."There are entire families who have disappeared under the sand," Basal says.
- Source: CBS News
September 17, 2024
- Thousands of pagers carried by Hezbollah members explode simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria, killing at least a dozen people including two children, according to Lebanese officials. Israel does not acknowledge conducting the attack, but CBS News learns American officials were given a heads-up by Israel about 20 minutes before the operations began in Lebanon, though no specific details were shared about the methods to be used.
- Source: CBS/AP
September 18, 2024
- A source close to Lebanon's Hezbollah group says walkie-talkies used by members explode in its Beirut stronghold, with state media reporting similar blasts of pagers and other "devices" in east and south Lebanon. Lebanon's Health Ministry says 20 people are killed and 450 more wounded in the explosions.
- Source: CBS/AFP
September 20, 2024
- The Israeli military carries out a "targeted strike" in Beirut, killing Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil and other operatives. Hezbollah confirms Aqil's death in the strike.
- Source: CBS News
September 23, 2024
- Missiles slam into southern Lebanon, reportedly killing hundreds of people as Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah weapons hidden in residential buildings. Lebanon's health ministry says the strikes killed over 500 people, making it the deadliest day of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah since they fought a roughly one-month war in 2006.
- Source: CBS News
September 28, 2024
- Israel's military kills Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime political leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah, in an airstrike in Beirut. The afternoon strike, carried out by fighter jets, targets the group's "central headquarters," which was "embedded under a residential building" in Beirut's southern suburbs, according to the Israeli military.
- Source: CBS/AP
October 1, 2024
- Sirens blare across Israel as Iran launches about 180 ballistic missiles at the country. The Israeli military says most of the missiles are intercepted by its missile defense systems, and a U.S. defense official says the United States helped intercept the weapons. The IDF reports no human casualties. Prime Minister Netanyahu vows to retaliate for Iran's missile attack, which Iran calls a "legal, rational, and legitimate response" to Israeli assassinations of Iranian and allied military commanders.
- Source: CBS News
October 7, 2024
- Israelis mark a full year since Hamas' brutal terrorist attacks, gathering for solemn memorial services in major cities and at the sites of some of the atrocities to honor those killed and demand the release of those still held captive in Gaza. "We are in a just and difficult war, but unlike 80 years ago, the Jews have the ability to defend themselves by themselves, and while fighting against seven different enemies, we will prevail," Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant told CBS News' Elizabeth Palmer at the Nova site on Monday.
- Source: CBS News