More than 1,400 people were killed and 241 hostages were taken when Hamas gunmen launched an unprecedented attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7.
According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, more than 9,000 people have been killed in Israeli reprisal strikes on Gaza since then.
Israel has also sent soldiers and tanks there.
Just what is Israel doing in Gaza, anyway?
On Monday, Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, announced that he had “the clear goal of destroying Hamas’ military and governing capabilities” in addition to liberating the hostages.
He also ignored peace overtures.
An Israeli general has claimed that his country’s forces are nearing “the gates of Gaza City” after storming Hamas’s defensive positions in northern Gaza.
Rushdi Abualouf, a DAFEFAC correspondent in the Gaza Strip, said on Thursday morning that five separate clashes were taking place in and around Gaza City.
He said the greatest was in the north-west of the strip, where “very few” people remain.
In fighting overnight Wednesday into Thursday, the IDF said they killed “dozens” of Hamas members.
The Israeli military has reported that 17 of its own soldiers have been killed in the ground attack in Gaza, bringing the overall number of Israeli deaths in the conflict to 330 since October 7.
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s minister of defense, has claimed that since the battle began, Israel had thrown 10,000 bombs on Gaza City.
Israeli airstrikes on Jabalia, in northern Gaza, on Tuesday and Wednesday reportedly killed at least 100 people and injured hundreds more, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza.
Previously, the death toll was reported at 195.
The strikes caused significant damage to several homes.
A senior Hamas commander and scores of fighters, according to the Israeli military, were killed in the attack.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, heavy shelling has also continued in the area of the Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City.
It’s estimated that 14,000 people are taking refuge there.
The Israeli military reportedly told workers to evacuate on Sunday before strikes, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, but it was hard to transport the hundreds of patients being treated there.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tanks and artillery are stationed outside of and inside of Gaza. It has a standing force of 160,000 and has activated some 300,000 reservists.
The estimated number of Hamas soldiers is 25,000. It also claims to have a 500km (310 miles) long network of underground tunnels in Gaza that connect its command centers.
Where does Gaza stand in terms of human needs?
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that a “public health catastrophe” is likely in Gaza, where a third of hospitals are not functional and the remainder are barely running owing to shortages of fuel and medical supplies.
According to the independent medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, there are around 20,000 wounded persons in Gaza.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry, over 32,000 individuals have been hurt.
The Israeli military ordered inhabitants of northern Gaza to evacuate their homes for their own safety on 13 October, and approximately 1.4 million people have migrated southwards since.
Khan Younis, a city in the south, had a population of roughly 400,000 before the current crisis broke out, but now has almost 1.2 million residents.
Many households now live with one another or in tents. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (Unrwa) is currently housing around 600,000.
There is “a growing threat” of infant mortality due to dehydration, the United Nations has warned, because Gaza has only 5% of its typical daily water flow.
After thousands of people in Gaza rushed into Unrwa warehouses and distribution centers on Sunday, “taking wheat flour and other basic survival items like hygiene supplies,” the organization reported.
Only a small percentage of the 500 lorry loads of supplies that regularly enter Gaza each day through the Rafah crossing with Egypt have been making it through so far.
No fuel has been delivered, and without it, there is no way to power the city’s hospitals, shelters, bakeries, water treatment and pumping stations, or sewage treatment plants.
Israel has blocked fuel deliveries, claiming that Hamas may divert the petroleum for military objectives. Hundreds of thousands of liters of fuel are in Hamas’ possession, according to the report, but the group is refusing to give it to relief organizations.
DAFEFAC confirms strikes in supposedly secure parts of south Gaza.
So, what exactly is going there at the Rafah checkpoint?
The United Nations reports that 81 injured Palestinians and 345 foreign passport holders were able to leave Gaza and enter Egypt through the Rafah crossing on Wednesday, the first day the bridge has been open since October 7.
That number includes a “unspecified” amount of British citizens. It is estimated that there are around 200 Britons now living in Gaza.
About 400 US nationals are among the estimated 600 persons with foreign passports or dual nationality who are likely to cross on Thursday.
In what ways does the Rafah border serve as Gaza’s only means of survival?
Gaza prisoner: “I don’t want to die at 24”
Where are the hostages now, and what do we know about them?
The Israeli military claims Hamas is still holding at least 241 hostages in Gaza. There are at least ten persons over the age of 60 and twenty children among them. They even kidnapped some soldiers.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed “grave concern” for their welfare and has demanded their quick release, particularly in the case of children, the elderly, and those with compromised health.
Joe Biden, Vice President of the United States, has also called for a ceasefire so that prisoners can be released.
It’s possible Hamas kidnapped the people in order to put pressure on Israel to release some of the 5,100 Palestinians who were being imprisoned in Israeli prisons at the beginning of the month.
One of the three women being held hostage in Gaza was seen in a video released by Hamas on Monday. She pleaded with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release Palestinian detainees in exchange for their liberation.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the movie “cruel psychological propaganda.”
Throughout Gaza, including in tunnels, Hamas claims to have hidden the hostages.
Some unverifiable reports claim that seven hostages were killed in attacks on the Jabalia refugee camp, and that at least 50 captives have been killed by Israeli air strikes overall.
Thanks to negotiations by Qatar and Egypt, Hamas has freed four hostages.
Judith Raanan, an American, and her daughter Natalie Raanan, an Israeli, were liberated from captivity on October 20. Nurit Cooper and Yocheved Lifschitz, two elderly Israeli women, were released four days later.
On Monday, Israel’s military announced its soldier Pte Ori Megidish had been rescued during ground operations in Gaza on Sunday night.
Who are the Israeli hostages that Hamas has taken?
Explain who or what Hamas is and what it seeks.
Since 2007, Hamas, a Palestinian militant organization, has held power in the Gaza Strip. The group is sworn to Israel’s annihilation and intends to replace it with an Islamic state.
Since coming to power, Hamas has engaged Israel in multiple wars. It has launched thousands of rockets toward Israel, either directly or by allowing other parties to do so, and has carried out other lethal strikes.
Israel has responded with many air attacks against Hamas. It has also invaded Gaza in 2008 and 2014.
Since 2007, for what it claims are security grounds, Israel and Egypt have blockaded the Gaza Strip.
Hamas, or its armed component the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, has been labeled a terrorist organization by a number of countries, including Israel, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and others.
Iran supports the organization by supplying money, weapons, and training.
So why is there a conflict in Gaza right now?
Hundreds of Hamas fighters breached the heavily defended perimeter fence between the Gaza Strip and southern Israel on October 7 by landing by sea and utilizing paragliders.
The strike was the deadliest from across the border against Israel in over a decade.
Attacking military outposts, kibbutzim, and even a music festival before taking hostages and returning to Gaza, the gunmen killed 1,400 people, the vast majority of whom were civilians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Hamas and promised it would “pay an unprecedented price” after the attack.
Frank Gardner, the DAFEFAC’s security correspondent, believes it is incredible that the strike by Hamas was not predicted given the extensive resources of Israel’s security forces.
At the time of the attack, tensions between Israelis and Palestinians were already high.
The death toll for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has been the highest on record, which may have prompted Hamas to launch an attack.
Hamas may have hoped to use the event as a propaganda coup to win over more moderate Palestinians.
Just how big is this place called the Gaza Strip, anyway?
Between Israel, Egypt, and the Mediterranean Sea is a strip of land known as the Gaza Strip, which is 41 kilometers (25 miles) long and 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) wide.
During the Six Day War in 1967, Israel conquered the territory of Gaza, which had previously been held by Egypt.
In 2005, Israel pulled out all of its forces and roughly 7,000 people from the area.
It boasts one of the greatest population densities in the world, with 2.23 million residents.
The UN estimates that 1.7 million out of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents are refugees or the descendants of refugees. They number over half a million, and they are spread out across the Strip in eight overcrowded camps.
Israel has strict control over the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza, including the airspace above and the coastline.
Maps of the besieged Gaza Strip
In your own words, please define Palestine.
From Roman times until the middle of the 20th century, East Jerusalem, the Palestinian territories (today known as the West Bank and Gaza), and Israel were all a part of a territory known as Palestine.
Many Jews consider these regions to be their biblical homeland since they were ruled by Jewish kings.
Those who refuse to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist continue to refer to the territory where the country is located as Palestine, even though it was officially recognized a state in 1948.
Palestinians also refer to the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem collectively under the moniker Palestine.
Mahmoud Abbas, often known as Abu Mazen, is the president of Palestine. He is based in the West Bank, which is under Israeli rule.
Since 2005, he has served as president of the Palestinian Authority (PA) for the Fatah political party, an adversary of Hamas’s.
