A year of war in Gaza: A timeline of key moments
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A year after Israel vowed to wipe Hamas ‘off the face of the earth’ in the wake of the 7 October attack into Israel the conflict has spread across the Middle East. One year ago, Israel vowed to wipe Hamas “off the face of the earth” following the group’s terror attack inside the country that killed around 1,200 people, with another 250 taken hostage.
![[Aftermath of Hamas’s attack on the Supernova music festival in southern Israel on 7 October 2023]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/10/10/11/AFP_33XV3KX.jpg)
Since then, the Israeli military has carried out thousands of airstrikes and ground assaults. Around 42,000 Palestinians have been killed according to health officials in the Hamas-run Strip. More than 1.9 million people have been displaced across Gaza.
![[Hamas gunmen stormed a music festival in southern Israel, kidnapping around 250 people]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/10/13/13/GettyImages-1715820709.jpg)
Israel has also exchanged near-daily cross-border rocket fire with Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas in Lebanon, while the Israeli military has also launched raids into the occupied West Bank and the conflict has spread to Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
![[Palestinians search through rubble for casualties last year after Israel began launching airstrikes on Gaza following Hamas’s deadly 7 October attack]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/10/14/07/2023-10-14T062614Z_2107195722_RC25S3AMSB08_RTRMADP_3_ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS.JPG)
Follow updates here. Most recently, Israel launched a ground invasion southern Lebanon after assassinating several key Hezbollah figures, with the conflict threatening to spiral out of control. Israel and Iran – how back Hezbollah, Hamas and other proxies across the region – have also traded missile and drone fire.
![[An Israeli flag stands above destroyed buildings in Gaza around a month into Israel’s siege of the region]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/11/15/10/027557e988be4cadab31b1b9aa7a82f7.jpg)
Here, The Independent takes a look at some of the most significant moments of the war since it began on 7 October last year. Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, invaded southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing around 1,200 people. The group broke through the border fence and used paragliders and speedboats to attack Israel by land, air and sea, as gunmen took over Israeli military posts, civilian kibbutzes and a music festival.
![[Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi is released as part of a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/12/01/05/APTOPIX_Israel_Palestinians_98535.jpg)
