The October 7th War: A Timeline Of Key Events and Issues

In what became the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, in the early morning of October 7, 2023, an estimated 6,000 Hamas and other terrorists invaded Israel from Gaza and brutally attacked 22 Israeli civilian communities near the Gaza border, the Nova music festival and about a dozen IDF bases and posts. Thousands of rockets and missiles were also fired from Gaza across southern and central Israel. The attack, which occurred on a Shabbat morning that fell on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, took Israel by surprise. 

The invading terrorists mercilessly massacred at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, who were shot, mutilated, burned, tortured, raped and decapitated or dismembered, among them babies and children, the elderly, the disabled, men and women. Israel’s population is less than 10 million. By comparison, in America, that would be equivalent to nearly 40,000 killed. Those killed included Jews, Muslims, Arabs, Bedouin, Druze and individuals of at least 33 different nationalities. 

The terrorists further kidnapped 251 people, including babies and the elderly, from their homes, and dragged them back to Gaza where they remain held hostage. The hostages included citizens of Israel, Argentina, China, France, Germany, the Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, the United States and other countries.  

Hezbollah Joins the Conflict I October 8, 2023 

In a show of support to Hamas, Hezbollah, the Iranian-regime backed terrorist organization in Lebanon, fired numerous rockets and missiles at Israel’s north, beginning on October 8, 2023. The conflict escalated into exchanges of bombardment and ultimately a short ground invasion by the IDF marking the largest confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah since the 2006 Lebanon War. 60,000 Israelis were displaced from their homes in the north of Israel due to Hezbollah’s firing of rockets and fighting at the border. 

Pager Attack on Hezbollah I September 17, 2024 

Israel activated its targeted electronic attack on Hezbollah, when thousands of pagers belonging to Hezbollah operatives simultaneously exploded across Lebanon and Syria, taking as many as 1,500 terrorists out of action.  

Israel Assassinates Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah I September 27, 2024 

Israel assassinated Hezbollah's Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah —the group's leader for 32 years and one of the most powerful figures in the region— in a targeted airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon. The strike destroyed an underground bunker, killing Nasrallah along with other senior Hezbollah leaders and an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general. 

Israel Assassinates Hashem Saffieddine I October 3, 2024 

Israel assassinated Hashem Saffieddine, Nasrallah's successor as Secretary General of Hezbollah, in a targeted airstrike on an underground bunker in Beirut’s suburbs. 

Israel-Hezbollah Ceasefire I November 27, 2024 

Hezbollah, which had been significantly depleted after losing most of its senior leadership and thousands of fighters, agreed to a ceasefire with Israel that required Hezbollah fighters to disarm and move north of the Litani River in South Lebanon. Israel began withdrawing its forces, which had crossed into Southern Lebanon on September 30, 2024, and the Lebanese Armed Forces were tasked with upholding peace in the region, including ensuring Hezbollah's compliance with the ceasefire agreement. 

Beginning on October 19, 2023, the Houthis, the Yemen-based and Iranian-regime-backed terror group, began targeting Israel with drones and missiles in solidarity with Hamas following the October 7 attacks. The attacks continued targeting Israel all throughout the war, and their focus also expanded to targeting commercial and naval ships in the Red Sea. Houthi Red Sea attacks targeted US and UK warships as well as others, disrupting global trade. In response, Israel, the US, and the UK coordinated repeated strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen. 

October 1, 2024 

On October 1, 2024, the Iranian Regime launched 200 ballistic missiles at Israel. Israel returned fire with strikes on Iranian military targets. Iran claimed the attack was an act of self-defense in retaliation for Israel's assassinations of Ismail Haniyeh, chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau, in Tehran, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and IRGC general Abbas Nilforoushan.  

Temporary Ceasefire Deal

After months of intense diplomacy by the US, Qatar, Egypt and others, phase one of a ceasefire was negotiated in January 2025 and implemented on January 19, one day before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, intending to ultimately bring about a permanent ceasefire. The ceasefire agreement saw Hamas release 30 hostages and Israel release around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons, as well as large-scale inflow of aid to Gazan civilians. 

Hostage Release “Ceremonies”

Hamas subjected hostages to humiliating, terrifying, and exploitative propaganda release “ceremonies.” Hostages, including the emaciated and pale hostages Eli Sharabi, Ohad Ben Ami and Or Levy, were paraded in front of crowds, made to smile and wave, presented with "release certificates" and interviewed before their release. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who transferred the release hostages from Hamas to Israel, was also made to sign hostage release certificates. 

Four female IDF soldiers who were surveilling the Gaza border on October 7, Liri Albag (19), Naama Levy (20), Karina Ariev (20) and Daniella Gilboa (20) were released on January 25, 2025, after 477 days in Hamas captivity. Their handover included a staged ceremony by Hamas in Gaza City where they were forced to wear quasi-military uniforms and surrounded by armed Hamas terrorists. Agam Berger (20), a fifth soldier from their unit was released on January 30th in another staged ceremony. Arbel Yehoud (29), the final living female hostage was also released on January 30th, when she and fellow hostage Gadi Moses (80) were forced to walk through a violent mob of Hamas supporters and masked gunmen before reaching the Red Cross. 

The Bibas Family

The Bibas family, parents Shiri and Yarden, and their two sons 4-year-old Ariel and 9-month-old Kfir were kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023. The videos that the terrorists themselves recorded of a terrified Shiri clutching her two red-headed sons while being kidnapped became one of the symbols of the hostage crisis and the depravity of Hamas. 

On February 1, 2025, Hamas released Yarden Bibas alive. On February 20, it handed over what they said were the bodies of Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas, but Israeli DNA testing found that the female remains did not match Shiri Bibas or any other Israeli hostage, and most likely belonged to a Gazan civilian. The next day, Hamas handed over the actual body of Shiri Bibas, indicating that Hamas had purposefully handed over the incorrect body as a form of psychological warfare. 

The first phase of the ceasefire expired on March 1, 2025, and while Israel offered to extend the pause in fighting in exchange for the release of additional hostages, Hamas refused and the fighting resumed.  

June 13-25, 2025 

In response to concerns that Iran was on the precipice of developing a nuclear weapon, Israel launched a preemptive strike against Iranian nuclear and military facilities, while also targeting senior Iranian nuclear and military officials. Iran responded by firing over 550 ballistic missiles and over 1,000 drones at high density civilian areas in Israel. Iranian missiles struck apartment buildings, houses, a major hospital, a cancer research lab, and other sites. 28 Israelis were killed and 3,238 were hospitalized during the war. 

June 22, 2025 

In coordination with Israel, the US military dropped bunker buster bombs and fired tomahawk missiles targeting Iran's three main nuclear sites in Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan. While initial American and Israeli reports claimed massive damage to complete destruction of Iran's nuclear capabilities, later estimates raised questions about the full extent of the damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities.  A ceasefire between Israel and Iran was reached on June 25.  

A High-Level International Conference on the Two-State Solution was held at UN Headquarters in New York from July 28-30, 2025, with a resumed session on September 22, 2025. Two UN General Assembly resolutions from September and December 2024, driven by mounting international pressure over the Gaza war, mandated France and Saudi Arabia to co-chair a conference aimed at advancing the two-state solution amid decades of stalled peace efforts. 

Israel and the United States boycotted the proceedings, believing it counter-productive to chair a conference on the two-state solution while a war was ongoing, hostages were held by Hamas, and there was no viable Palestinian leadership to negotiate with. 

The conference produced the "New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine," which committed participants to "tangible, timebound, and irreversible" steps toward establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel based on pre-1967 borders. The declaration, which condemned the October 7 attacks and called for Hamas to disarm, signaled a first condemnation of Hamas by Arab countries. 

As part of the diplomatic pressure campaign against Israel to conclude the war, eleven countries, including France, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, recognized a Palestinian state during the resumed September 2025 session occurring during UNGA High Level Week. This marked a significant shift by Western nations that had previously withheld recognition.  

On October 5, 2025, Hamas announced its approval of the deal, and on October 10, following the approval from the Israeli cabinet, the ceasefire took effect.

Ceasefire Takes Effect I October 13, 2025 
Hamas handed over the remaining 20 living hostages and Israel released around 2,000 Palestinians prisoners, including approximately 250 serving life‑sentence for committing terrorist attacks against Israelis. 

Following an impassioned speech in Israel’s Knesset, President Trump traveled to Egypt and alongside Egyptian President el-Sisi gathered dozens of leaders in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, in an international summit to discuss phase two of the peace accord.

In the days following the ceasefire, Hamas repeatedly breached the ceasefire deal in several ways: 

• Hamas claimed it could not locate the bodies of deceased hostages, releasing only four bodies at the initial release date, rather than all 28 deceased hostages as the deal had agreed upon. 
• October 19, 2025: Two Israeli soldiers were killed in Rafah by Hamas fighters who emerged from a tunnel shaft and fired anti-tank missiles in the Israeli-controlled area of Gaza.  
• Shortly after the ceasefire took hold, Hamas fighters emerged from tunnels and began reasserting control in Gaza. They were seen patrolling the streets with guns and executing Gazan civilians in the streets who they claimed had collaborated with Israel during the war.  
• The last deceased hostage, Ran Gvili (24) remained in Gaza until January 26, 2026, when after investigations, IDF forces found his body and returned it to Israel for proper burial.  

The hostage crisis became central to the Israeli experience during the war. Of the 251 hostages taken from Israel by Hamas and terrorist factions on October 7, 2023, 97 remained in captivity one year later, on October 7, 2024. On January 26, 2026—843 days after October 7—the last hostage, Ran Gvili, was located and his body brought back to Israel for burial. In addition to the 251 hostages taken on October 7, four Israelis who had previously been held captive by Hamas—both living and deceased—were returned home. 

In captivity, hostages faced starvation, torture, sexual assault and psychological torture.  

Throughout the war, hundreds of thousands of Israelis, diaspora Jews and supporters, marched weekly, calling for the Israeli government to reach a hostage deal and accept a ceasefire, with some events in Israel drawing crowds of over 400,000 individuals.  

Hamas and PIJ released many propaganda videos of hostages in increasingly dire conditions, with hostages begging for their release, crying and visually emaciated. In an especially horrifying video, hostage Evyatar David is seen shirtless, so thin that it evokes memories of Holocaust victims, and being made to dig his own grave in the tunnels of Gaza. 

Hostage Daniella Gilboa was forced to fake her own death on video and covered in debris to stage an IDF strike. She pleaded against it, knowing the grief it would cause her family, but was made to do it anyways. 

Throughout the war, Gazan civilians suffered enormously. Millions of Palestinians were displaced and made to continuously evacuate areas where the IDF was operating.   

The reality of Gaza made the military operation particularly complex and led to large scale suffering among Gazan Palestinian civilians throughout the war. Gaza is densely populated, and Hamas established its operations within tunnels underneath civilian centers, including apartment buildings, schools, mosques, amusement parks and hospitals. Israeli officials maintained that they sought to minimize civilian casualties, including calling on civilians to evacuate northern Gaza prior to the operation and other areas through the military campaign, and establishing humanitarian corridors. 

The number of confirmed Gazan civilians killed throughout the war has been much contested, and as of this writing, there are no credible sources who have published accurate statistics. The Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, claims there were over 67,000 civilian casualties, though they fail to distinguish between combatants and civilians in their statistics. 

On the other hand, Israel’s figures were often significantly underestimated, with numerous civilians listed as missing or as “unaccounted civilians,” as it was near impossible to verify them. Ten thousand or more civilians are thought to remain buried under rubble and are not included in Israel’s figures.  

In addition to the large number of Gazan civilians who were killed, wounded, and regularly displaced, Gazan residents suffered from a shortage of humanitarian supplies throughout the war. Many reports indicate that Hamas and others stole truckloads of international aid that entered Gaza throughout the war. UN figures also revealed that almost 9 in 10 UN trucks that entered Gaza were looted by armed groups or hungry Gazans. 

In addition, there were periods when Israel limited or blocked entry of aid into the territory, in attempts to pressure Hamas to release the hostages. While Israel reported regular entry of humanitarian goods for civilians, aid agencies did not consider the scale to be enough to meet the need. In August 2025, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) reported that famine was occurring in Northern Gaza and was expected to expand to Southern Gaza. Israeli authorities disputed the IPC’s methodology and famine claims. 

At the same time, prior to 10/7 Hamas stockpiled months’-worth supplies of food, water and fuel for their own use, including selling it to pay its fighters. 

In response to Israeli allegations that humanitarian aid was being diverted to Hamas, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) was established and run by American contractors from February 2025 to October 2025, with US and Israeli government backing. The GHF was intended to serve as an alternative aid mechanism through distribution sites, though significant problems including lack of communication regarding aid sites and armed clashes between Gazan armed groups, the IDF and Hamas occurred.  

Beginning immediately after Hamas’s October 7 attack, anti-Israel organizations across the United States mobilized to organize protests and other related on-the-ground activities to express their support for the attack and their opposition to Israel.

The rhetoric used at the protests in the early days after October 7 frequently crossed the line from any sort of legitimate political criticism of Israel into antisemitism; this set the tone for the majority of the thousands of anti-Israel protests that continued nationwide over the next two plus years.  
 

Common rhetoric at these protests included classic antisemitic tropes, such as the promotion of blood libel claims, conspiracy theories about “Zionist media” manipulation, and equating Judaism with Nazism; holding Jews around the world collectively responsible for the alleged actions of the Israeli military or government; unapologetic support for terrorism and violence against Israelis and the Jewish community; and extreme calls for the destruction of Israel, the exclusion of Zionists from public life around the world and the eradication of Zionism.
 

Protesters frequently glorified antisemitic violence by framing October 7 and other terror attacks against Israel and the Jewish community as so-called justified “resistance” and by openly displaying the symbols of U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Houthis (Ansar Allah) and more. Protesters openly celebrated the first and second anniversaries of Hamas’s October 7 attack and honored terror group leaders like Hamas’s Yahya Sinwar, Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah and many others.
  

Many anti-Israel activists may claim that their protests are criticizing only the Israeli military or government, but their activities have repeatedly directly targeted Jewish speakers and Jewish organizations, such as Hillel International, Chabad, Jewish Federations and Jewish Community Centers. Dozens of anti-Israel protests have taken place outside of synagogues in the U.S. since October 7, where protesters have chanted blatantly antisemitic and pro-terror phrases, such as “go back to Auschwitz,” “go back to Europe,” “we support Hamas here” and “long live October 7th.”
 

College campuses, in particular, became hotbeds for extreme anti-Israel protest activity that went beyond political criticism and created a hostile environment for Jewish students, faculty and community members after October 7. This campus activity was punctuated most notably by the anti-Israel encampment movement which swept the nation in the spring of 2024. Anti-Israel activists on more than 160 campuses engaged in these escalatory tactics, including tent encampments, building occupations, vandalism and other “direct actions.” This activity resulted in a surge in antisemitic incidents as protesters frequently sought to undermine Jewish life on campus.
 

The primary organizers of anti-Israel protests in the U.S. since October 7 include American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), ANSWER Coalition, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), Samidoun, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Within Our Lifetime-United for Palestine (WOL) and others. 

Throughout the war in Gaza, Israel was subject to the use of international legal systems and courts aimed to delegitimize Israel’s war against Hamas and hinder Israeli military operations. Actions were brought against Israel at the ICJ and ICC, alleging war crimes and genocide with the goal of restricting the IDF’s ability to fight in Gaza. 

South Africa v. Israel ICJ Genocide Case I December 29, 2023 

South Africa filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), falsely accusing Israel of violating its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention in its military campaign in Gaza. Israel said that it was conducting a war of self-defense in response to the attacks of October 7.  

Furthermore, on December 11, 2024, Ireland intervened in South Africa's ICJ genocide case against Israel, asking the court to "broaden" the definition of what genocide constituted so that it could be applied to Israel, thereby admitting that Israel's actions did not constitute genocide. Several other states have asked to intervene in the case including some governments who are currently some of the worst human rights abusers in the world like Venezuela, Algeria, Turkey and Sudan. 

As the war progressed and civilian casualties in Gaza mounted, Biden increasingly stressed humanitarian concerns while maintaining core military support. His administration conditioned the supply of U.S. arms on assurances of compliance with international law and aid access, ordered a U.S.-built pier and airdrops to deliver assistance, and abstained on a UN Security Council resolution demanding a Ramadan ceasefire rather than vetoing it. After Israeli strikes killed aid workers in April 2024, Biden warned future U.S. policy depended on “tangible steps” to protect civilians, publicly paused a shipment of 2,000‑pound bombs over Rafah concerns, and on May 31, 2024 unveiled a three‑phase “Biden Plan” for a ceasefire, hostage releases, and Gaza reconstruction—later endorsed by the UN and ultimately reflected in the ceasefire and hostage‑release deal announced just before he left office.

President Trump:

Upon taking office on January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump immediately signaled a shift from Biden’s approach towards the war in Gaza. Within days, his administration issued a broad freeze on foreign aid but explicitly exempted aid to Israel. In late –January, Trump released the 2,000‑pound bombs Biden had paused.
 

On January 26, 2025, Trump proposed that Palestinians in Gaza relocate to neighboring Arab countries, saying this would “clean out” Gaza for reconstruction, and soon suggested the U.S. should take over Gaza and redevelop it after Palestinians were moved to “beautiful areas” elsewhere. After intense Arab opposition, he gradually walked this back, eventually stating by March 12 that “nobody is expelling any Palestinians” from Gaza.

Trump made securing the release of the hostages a top priority, appointing his longtime ally Steve Witkoff as Special Envoy to the Middle East to lead negotiations. Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner led an aggressive and hands-on diplomatic approach, including unprecedented direct negotiations with Hamas leadership. In May 2025, the Trump administration secured the release of the last living Israeli-American hostage, Edan Alexander, with Witkoff personally notifying the family and being present during his release.

Throughout 2025, Witkoff shuttled between Israel, Egypt, and Qatar, and in August told hostage families that Trump now wanted a comprehensive deal to free all remaining hostages in exchange for Hamas disarmament. On September 29, 2025, Trump and Netanyahu unveiled a 20‑point peace plan tying hostage release and Hamas disarmament to a ceasefire and reconstruction; after an initial phase was agreed on October 9, Hamas released the final 20 live hostages on October 13. On the eve of their release, Witkoff and Kushner addressed over 400,000 people at Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square, with Witkoff telling the crowd, “I dreamed of this night.”

EU/European Countries: 

On October 7, 2023, the EU strongly condemned the attacks by Hamas with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen calling it "an ancient evil" and emphasizing Israel's right to self-defense. Within days, divisions emerged and by late October EU leaders could only agree to call for "humanitarian corridors and pauses,” with Germany and the Czech Republic blocking stronger language critical of Israel pushed for by Spain and Ireland.

On May 22, 2024, Spain, Ireland, and Norway announced they would move to formally recognize Palestinian statehood on May 28, in a coordinated rebuke of Israel. Israel immediately recalled its ambassadors and accused the countries of being “complicit in inciting genocide against Jews." Slovenia then soon followed and recognized a Palestinian state, though major powers Germany, France, and Italy opposed recognition at that point.

EU High Representative Josep Borrell consistently pushed for implementation of international court rulings against Israel.  After the ICC issued warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant in November 2024, Borrell said "all EU member states should respect the court decision and implement it,” while friendlier governments like Germany signaled that they would not move to arrest Netanyahu should he visit.

Opinions within Europe concerning arms sales to Israel diverged sharply. The UK suspended 30 arms licenses to Israel in September 2024. Facing mounting pressure, Germany, Israel’s second-largest arms supplier, announced a partial arms embargo in August 2025 suspending weapons that could be used in Gaza after Israel approved plans to occupy Gaza city. France, the UK, and Canada announced readiness to impose sanctions beyond the EU framework if necessary, and in June 2024, Spain joined South Africa’s ICJ genocide case.