On Oct. 7, the State of Israel was shaken to its core as thousands of Hamas terrorists infiltrated southern Israel, murdering over 1,200 people and kidnapping 251 others.
A year after October 7, Israel is still at war, against both Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as several other Iran-backed groups on different fronts. Since Oct. 7, 729 IDF soldiers have fallen in battle, 309 of whom fell in the first two days of the war.
The war has left 923 children orphaned, 232 men and women widowed, 1,086 parents grieving the loss of a child, 121 parents who lost all of their children, and 1,887 Israelis without any siblings.
Of those killed since the Hamas assault began on Oct. 7, 885 of the victims were civilians, including 53 children. Eight hundred and three of the civilian victims were murdered in southern Israel, while 29 were murdered in the north and 33 were murdered in central Israel.
Efforts to release the remaining hostages
Of the 251 hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7, 116 have been rescued or released, while 37 who were killed either on Oct. 7 or while in captivity have been retrieved for burial.
At least 97 hostages are still being held captive in Gaza, about 33 of whom are believed to be dead. Another four Israelis have been in Hamas captivity since 2014.
Read more: 10 ways to commemorate the anniversary of October 7
While many of the returned hostages were released in a ceasefire deal back in November, efforts to reach a new deal have fallen through repeatedly since. Relatives of the hostages have called on the Israeli government to prioritize a deal as much as possible as every day in captivity puts the hostages at further risk. Only eight hostages have been rescued in military operations, while several were killed before Israeli forces could reach them.
Talks came to a halt in recent months, with Qatari mediators reportedly telling the families of the hostages recently that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had gone completely silent.
On Sunday, Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a meeting with the Israeli negotiating team to discuss a new roadmap to try and renew talks for a ceasefire and hostage release deal. The meeting was the first public sign of action concerning the hostages in weeks.
IDF reentering northern Gaza as Hamas rebuilds
The release of the hostages isn’t the only war goal facing obstacles. In Gaza, the IDF launched a new operation in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza on Sunday after noticing efforts by Hamas to rebuild its capabilities in the area.
The IDF has operated repeatedly in that same area since the war began, leaving and returning when Hamas tries to rebuild.
While the IDF said in September that Hamas had been “defeated” militarily and was no longer functioning as an organized group, defense analysts have questioned how accurate that assessment is.
The ACLED (Armed Conflict Location and Event Data) organization reported on Sunday that Hamas still has about half of its fighting force intact and appears to be regrouping in areas where the IDF had announced throughout the past year that it had dismantled Hamas brigades.
The report noted that Hamas has had to shift to guerilla warfare tactics due to the loss of many of its capabilities. These tactics include ambushing Israeli forces with explosives and setting booby traps in tunnels and buildings.
Hamas has also increased the violent terrorism it directs from the West Bank over the past year, doubling the number of attacks it claimed responsibility for since September 2023, compared to the year prior. These attacks include bombing attacks, a type of terrorist attack which had largely been subdued since the Second Intifada.
A September report by the Institute for the Study of War noted that while Hamas forces are no longer operating as effective military units, the terrorist group hadn’t been completely destroyed yet. The report noted that Hamas’ forces in central Gaza were likely relatively intact, as the IDF hasn’t operated as forcefully in that area as in other parts of the Strip.
The Institute stressed that in order to translate the damage done to Hamas into lasting change, Israel and international partners would need to find a political and security alternative to replace Hamas in the long run. That means developing a detailed plan for how Gaza will look after the war ends.
Until such a plan is formulated, the fight against Hamas will likely remain a war of attrition, essentially a game of cat and mouse, with Israeli forces jumping from location to location every time Hamas tries to rebuild. Without an alternative to fill the vacuum when Hamas is defeated in an area, Hamas will likely just rebuild itself again and again.
In a letter to soldiers on Sunday, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi recognized that the fight against Hamas had not been completed yet but stressed that “We are not stopping – we fight, debrief, learn, and improve. We are taking an offensive, tactical, and proactive approach on all fronts, adapting our defensive strategies on all borders, and understanding that the IDF must be a greater army that takes good care of its people. We are destroying our enemies’ capabilities, and we will ensure that these capabilities are not rebuilt, so that October 7th is never repeated.”
After a year of uncertainty, Israel is acting to restore security in the north
A day after Oct. 7, Hezbollah – an Iran-backed terrorist group in Lebanon – began launching barrages of rockets and drones toward northern Israel, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.
For 11 months, the Hezbollah attacks continued unabated, with Israeli retaliatory strikes remaining relatively restricted, although there were occasional outliers.
Everything changed in the past month, though, as Israel significantly upped its operations against Hezbollah, even taking out the long-time leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah.
In the past week, the IDF officially launched a ground offensive in southern Lebanon in order to clear out infrastructure Hezbollah intended to use to launch an Oct. 7-style attack on northern Israel known as the “Conquer the Galilee” plan.
Simultaneously, the IDF has been conducting intensive airstrikes across southern Lebanon, the Beqaa Valley, and in and near the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
However, Lebanon isn’t the only other front outside of Gaza that Israel has had to deal with during the war.
The Houthis – an Iran-backed terrorist group based in Yemen – have been launching missiles and drones at Israel and at ships traveling through the Red Sea for months. While Israel largely let an international coalition led by the U.S. and U.K. take the lead in confronting the Houthi threat, after several of the group’s missiles and drones reached central Israel, the IDF launched strikes itself, targeting sites in Yemen belonging to the Houthis.
Iran-backed terrorist groups in Iraq have also joined in, launching several drones and missiles towards Israel since the war began. While most of the projectiles have been intercepted outside of Israeli airspace or fell way short, a few have managed to reach Israel.
The patron of all these different groups, the Islamic Republic in Iran, has targeted Israel directly as well in the ongoing conflict with two major missile and drone attacks: One in April after an Iranian general was eliminated in airstrikes in Syria and another just last week in response to several assassinations of Iranian and Iran-backed terrorists.
While Israel reportedly responded to the attack in April with a strike on an air defense battery deep inside Iran, the Jewish state is reportedly considering a stronger response to the most recent attack. Everything from oil facilities to nuclear facilities to missile bases is being considered as a potential target as Israeli officials balance the need to restore deterrence against the desire to avoid significantly escalating the already intensive regional conflict.
Originally Published Oct 7, 2024 09:35AM EDT
