Oct. 7, 2023, will forever be remembered in Israel as the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. The devastating Hamas attack against Israeli communities along the Gaza border, which claimed the lives of approximately 1,200 people and led to another 251 being taken to Gaza as hostages, was not only sparked what would turn out to be the longest, most violent war between Israel and Hamas in history but also was a huge blow to the regional status quo. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose entire political career was based on maintaining Israel’s security, was exposed as the head of a government caught unprepared by the biggest attack on the Israeli state since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
The ensuing war in Gaza, which entered its third year Tuesday, has been nothing short of catastrophic for all sides. The families of the hostages who remain in Hamas custody have experienced constant anguish as they continue to wait for the return of their loved ones. Israel, the strongest state in the Middle East, has often been at odds with itself, with Netanyahu the object of scorn among many Israelis who consider him to be a self-centered politician catering to his ultra-nationalist ministers rather than the Israeli public. Netanyahu’s right-wing base has used the Oct. 7 tragedy as an opportunity to press for its long-standing dream of annexing Gaza and rebuilding the settlements that a previous Israeli government demolished two decades ago.
In Gaza, the physical destruction mimics Berlin and Tokyo in 1945. More than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed, many in attacks that experts in international law have labeled as indiscriminate. The vast majority of the roughly 2 million Palestinians who call Gaza home have been displaced multiple times. The so-called humanitarian zones Israel has carved out for civilians aren’t humanitarian at all, but rather a constellation of tents cramped into a small space with inadequate food, water and sanitation. The hospital system is, if not annihilated, then dilapidated. According to the United Nations, 90% of Gaza’s housing stock has been destroyed, which means that if the war stops, most Palestinians won’t have homes to return to.
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