What happened in the first week of the war between Israel and Hamas
Rights — di Luigi Mastrodonato
One week after Hamas's attack and the start of Israel's bombardment, the most critical situation is now in Gaza.
What happened in the first week of the war between Israel and Hamas
One week after Hamas's attack and the start of Israel's bombardment, the most critical situation is now in Gaza.
- The death toll in Israel, following Hamas's attack, stands at 1,200 dead and around 150 hostages.
- Israel has dropped 6,000 bombs on the Gaza Strip, with over 1,500 Palestinian deaths, including 500 children.
- The UN and non-governmental organisations condemn the total siege and the evacuation order for Gaza.
Seven days have passed since the already precarious situation between Israel and Palestine collapsed. A week that began with the brutal attack by the Palestinian extremist organisation Hamas on Israeli soil, where fighting with local soldiers and assaults on rave parties and villages left around 1,200 dead and 150 hostages. A week that continued with Israel's indiscriminate bombardment of the Gaza Strip, which reduced entire neighbourhoods to rubble, bringing the provisional toll to 1,500 Palestinians dead, including 500 children.
In between, the Israeli total siege that brought Gaza to its knees in energy terms as well, the national unity government formed in Israel, the sudden evacuation order issued by Tel Aviv to the inhabitants of northern Gaza ahead of a probable, imminent ground assault, and much, much more.
The Hamas attack
The offensive by Hamas, the Palestinian extremist organisation, began at 6 o'clock in the morning local time on Saturday 7 October.
Around five thousand rockets were launched against Israeli territory. Some were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defence system, others hit the ground. At the same time, several Hamas militants crossed the border using motorised hang-gliders, while around a thousand fighters tore down the fences marking the boundary of the Gaza Strip, advancing into Israeli territory to a depth never reached before.
The militants attacked a festival where thousands of young Israelis and foreigners had gathered, carrying out a massacre with at least 270 dead. They then assaulted several kibbutzim, including that of Sderot, killing a number of civilians in cold blood, among them women and children. The overall toll stands at 1,200 dead and in the course of its operations Hamas took around 150 people hostage, both Israelis and foreigners.
Israel's bombardment
Following Hamas's attack on Israel, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads the most right-wing government in the country's history, declared: "We are at war," adding that "the enemy will pay a price it has never known."
On the evening of Saturday 7 October, the bombardment of the Gaza Strip began — the most densely populated area in the world, with 2.3 million people, 50 per cent of whom are under 15. One week into the operation, Israel has already dropped around 6,000 bombs, also making use of white phosphorus, as reported by the non-governmental organisation Human Rights Watch. White phosphorus bombs are incendiary weapons banned for use against civilians under international law; once they come into contact with skin they burn through tissue down to the bone, and their inhalation can cause the lungs to burn. Israel had already used white phosphorus against Palestinians in the past, as in the 2008–2009 war.
BREAKING: Israel has used white phosphorus in military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, putting civilians at risk of serious and long-term injuries.
White phosphorus causes excruciating burns and can set homes afire. Its use in populated areas is unlawful.
trib.al/FscpF3H
White phosphorus causes excruciating burns and can set homes afire. Its use in populated areas is unlawful.
trib.al/FscpF3H
Israel justified the barrage of raids on Gaza with the need to "eliminate Hamas." It said it wanted to spare civilians, but reports from the Strip told a different story. As denounced by Médecins Sans Frontières, the bombs also struck ambulances and hospitals. The bombardments also hit and destroyed power stations and telecommunications antennae, as well as the Rafah crossing, rendering it unusable: Rafah is the only way out of the Gaza Strip, a passage into Egypt and the only one still open. The Rimal neighbourhood, Gaza City's shopping and restaurant district, was effectively razed to the ground. And the overall toll of seven days of bombardment is devastating.
In the Gaza Strip, more than 1,500 people have died, including 500 children. Among the victims are also 11 UN staff members, seven journalists and 11 healthcare workers. Around half a million people have already been displaced from their homes. And the toll is worsening in the West Bank too, the other Palestinian territory situated to the south-east of Israel, where there is no bombardment but where at least 33 Palestinians have been killed in assaults by Israeli settlers or in clashes with security forces. And the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, have stated that 13 hostages were killed by Israeli bombs.
The total siege
Among the measures taken by Israel against the Gaza Strip is the so-called "total siege." The Palestinian territory has been under strict Israeli embargo since 2007, the year Hamas won the elections (the last to have been held) in Gaza. The embargo means that the movement of goods and people between the Strip and the outside world is regulated by Israel, which can effectively turn the taps on and off at will. The non-governmental organisation Human Rights Watch has described the situation as an "open-air prison."
Over the course of this week the situation has deteriorated further. With the total siege, Israel has cut off supplies of water, electricity, food and fuel to the Strip's territories. As a result, the only power station in the Strip has run out of energy and the territory is in darkness, lit only by the explosions caused by Israeli missiles. As Médecins Sans Frontières has reported, hospital generators have only a few days of autonomy left, after which there will be no way to treat the thousands of wounded. As many as 50,000 pregnant women would no longer be able to access basic care. Israel, meanwhile, has vetoed the arrival of humanitarian aid from Egypt.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, stressed that the total siege imposed on Gaza violates international law, and even the countries diplomatically closest to Tel Aviv, such as the United States, have called for the response to Hamas's attacks not to be turned into collective punishment.
The impossible evacuation from Gaza
Against this backdrop, on 13 October Israel ordered the Palestinian population living in the northern part of the Gaza Strip to leave their homes and move southwards. An ultimatum of just 24 hours, for 1.1 million people — that is, half the population of Gaza. An exodus of tens of kilometres, impossible in a context where roads and infrastructure have been reduced to rubble. Despite this, thousands of families, children in tow, set off on foot.
The UN stressed that "a displacement of such magnitude is impossible without devastating humanitarian consequences" and called for it to be called off.
Drone footage in Gaza.
The reasons behind the evacuation