Don's Home Places Middle East Israel 2023 Israel Hamas War Contact
Palestine History | Israel | Arab Israeli Wars | Antisemitism| Bias in Arab-Israeli Conflict

last updated 15 December 2023
I started this page after October 7, 2023 when Hamas, the Iran-backed terror group controlling Gaza launched an unprovoked and vicious surprise attack on over 20 communities in Israel and Israel responded with a war to destroy Hamas.
On October 7, 2023 Hamas, the Iran-backed terror group controlling Gaza, a Palestinian state in the south of former Palestine most of which is Israel now, launched an unprovoked and vicious surprise attack on over 20 communities in Israel. Using rockets, paragliders, boats, motorcycles, other vehicles, and whatever other means they could, terrorists infiltrated the Jewish state and murdered around 1,245 innocent people.
In Kibbutz Be'eri, they killed more than 120 Jews, from the elderly to babies.
More than 240 people were also taken hostage.

Israel responded with a war to destroy Hamas.
As of December 5 over 16,200 Palestinians including more than 7,000 children had died.
Nearly 100,000 Gaza buildings may be damaged, satellite images show. On December 6 Israel told CNN that it believes that it has killed two Palestinian civilians for every Hamas militant in its intense campaign to eliminate the armed group from the Gaza Strip, a ratio an IDF spokesperson described to CNN Monday as "tremendously positive."

On October 9 Israel ordered a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip, cutting off water, electricity, food, and fuel from entering the territory.
Hamas had a network of subterranean tunnels—forming an intricate web of passageways extending hundreds of miles—added to the difficulty of locating the hostages as well as targeting militants and their weapons caches:

As the bombing starts Israel has warned Palestinians to move south due to its military offensive on Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip.

At the end of October Israeli ground forces advanced into the Gaza Strip. Communications in the territory were initially cut, restricting the ability of militants to coordinate but also limiting the ability of paramedics and humanitarian organizations to attend to emergencies.

Tens of thousands of Gazans have been fleeing to areas west and south of the embattled southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. They say making the journey south remains highly risky amid airstrikes.
Many have gone to the nearby Egyptian border town of Rafah, where an airstrike on Wednesday brought new bloodshed and chaos to an area overflowing with people displaced by the war. THe border remained closed to Palestinians wanting to go to Egypt and closed to humanitarian aid shipments from Egypt.

Oct. 21 Twenty trucks of the first humanitarian aid (excluding fuel) to Gaza entered through the Rafah crossing.

Nov. 1 Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp, the most populous refugee camp in the region, is hit by a second airstrike, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.

the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says. "The IDF has been urging Gazans in this neighborhood to evacuate as part of its efforts to mitigate harm to civilians. The IDF continues to call on all residents of northern Gaza and Gaza City to evacuate southwards to a safer area."

On November 1 the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt was opened, under conditions agreed to by Egypt, Hamas, and Israel, to allow a limited number of foreign nationals to evacuate the territory for the first time since October 7.

United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has updated the death toll of its staff in Gaza to 92 – the most UN aid workers killed in any conflict. Nov 14 - Fuel shipments have been blocked since the beginning of the war.
Lack of fuel for generaters is resulting in a grave outlook for premature babies because of lack of power for incubators.

Nov 16 The first fuel truck has been allowed in.
On November 22 Israel’s war cabinet agreed to a deal with Hamas, which was mediated by Qatar, in which Hamas would release 53 of the hostages in exchange for about 150 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and the implementation of a ceasefire of four days. The deal included contingencies for the release of additional hostages and prisoners after that four-day period as well as an extension of the initial ceasefire.

Attacks on Palestinians by vigilante Israeli settlers in the West Bank increased.

Nov 24 - Nov 30 - 7 Day ceasefire (mediated by Qatar Egypt, and the U.S.)

Hamas hostage Release in exchange for Israeli prisoner release:
       Hamas   Israeli
      Hostages Prisoners
Nov 24	24        39 
Nov 25	17        39
Nov 26	17        39
Nov 27	11        33
Nov 28	12        30
Nov 29	16        30`
Nov 30	 8        30
Total  105       240
Hamas hostages released were women and children.
There are still around 135 hostages.

Dec 7 United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has issued a resolution to the Security C calling for a ceasefire between Israel, Hamas and their allies.
The U.S. vetowed it. Britain abstained and the 13 other members of the U.N. Security Council voted in favor of an immediate halt in the fighting.

By December 21 over 20,000 Palestinians (2/3 women and children) according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

? Timeline of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war | Wikipedia
Israel-Hamas War | NY Times December 7, 2023


In the US Anti-Muslim Anti-Arab hate crime requests for help and complints in October 2023 were 3 times higher than in 2022.
US Antisemitic incidents in October 2023 were 4 times higher than in 2022.

Sources:
The Anti-Defamation League, is an American Jewish advocacy group
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), is a Muslim civil rights organization,
Why the Gaza War Has Sparked a Wave of Antisemitism and Islamophobia in the US | Voice of America (VOA)

Source: Americans’ Views of the Israel-Hamas War | Pew

Opinion: How the U.S. has fueled Israel’s decades-long war on Palestinians | :A Times