When Israel’s horror began: a chronicle of October 7th in pictures

Note: This article was first published in October 2024. We updated it on the second anniversary of the raid.

It is an unprecedented robbery that provides horror two years later. And the shattering consequences for an entire region has: On October 7, 2023, the radical Islamic Palestinian group Hamas Israel attacks. On land, to water, even out of the air – in the early morning hours the terrorists overcome the strictly secured boundaries of the country. 24 hours later, 1205 Israelis are dead and 251 more dragged into the Gaza strip.

The attackers are particularly cruelly against cheerful celebrating visitors to the Supernova music festival, which takes place in the Negev desert. There alone 364 people die, many are raped and abused. Photos and videos on social media testify to the horror that those affected are exposed.

The exact process of the Hamas attack is difficult to reconstruct. But reports show how much in the secret services and the army must have gone wrong so that the terrorists’ plans could remain unnoticed. In a later internal investigation, it says that the army “failed” when protecting its citizens.

The attack on Israel has been the hardest since the state was founded. And she still puts people in the bones. Months later a German-Israel woman who lives in Tel Aviv tells the star:

Rakets still fly on Israel, mostly shot down from Hamas or the Hisbollah. At the same time, a disastrous war follows in the Gaza Strip. According to the health authority controlled by the Hamas, more than 67,000 Palestinians were killed in Gaza – many of them minors. Many people suffer from hunger, have lost relatives and have been expelled.

The situation also causes unrest in the region. In June, Israel wages war against Iran for twelve days and bombed the country’s central nuclear facilities with the USA. Tehran reacts with violent rocket attacks to Israel. Prominent Hamas leader attacks the Israeli military in Qatar in September, which often causes sharp criticism.

Critics preserve the Israeli head of government Benjamin Netanyahu that he primarily used the war to maintain power. In Israel, hundreds of thousands demonstrate against the Prime Minister, others support his course of violence. At the same time, dozens of hostages are still in the large -scale Gaza strip.

Hope that Israel and Hamas could finally end the war after two years arouses the peace plan presented by US President Donald Trump. Netanyahu agreed to the proposal, at least the Hamas agreed to parts.

Sources: News agencies dpa and AFP,