How The Israel-Hamas Conflict Has Become A War Without Walls

Harrowing 100 days.

Contents

That's how long, since January 14, Israel and Hamas have been at war after the worst attack in Israel's history. Its impact is felt far, wide and deep – and it’s not over yet.

It is a conflict that has upended the lives of Israelis and Palestinians; caused death, suffering and destruction on a massive scale; further polarized long-divided views; changed the dynamics of the Middle East; and sparked international political and emotional unrest. It even threatened to influence the 2024 US elections.

Here are some of the storylines, pivotal moments, devastating effects and emerging developments surrounding a war that has shocked, angered, dominated, surprised, confused and moved many of us.

How it developed

Shortly before 6:30 a.m. on October 7, 2023, Hamas fired thousands of rockets as it attacked Israel by air, land and sea. Hamas militants stormed dozens of communities along Israel's southern border with the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave, killing at least 1,200 people and kidnapping 240 others who were returned to Gaza.

The Hamas attack was a massacre. Among those killed on October 7 was Cindy Flash, 67, an American mother originally from St. Paul, Minnesota. Flash had spent his life fighting for the rights of Palestinians.

How Israel responded

Just hours after the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered retaliatory attacks on Gaza, a 140-square-mile, relatively flat coastal plain bordering Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean. About a week later, Israel asked residents in the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate south. Many in Gaza said they simply had nowhere to go.

More than three months since the Israeli bombardment began, at least 24,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas in Gaza.

The context about the context

When Hamas infiltrated Israeli territory on October 7, it was the U.S.-designated terrorist group's largest offensive against Israel in years. It was also part of a complex, bitter conflict between Israelis and Palestinians over culture, identity and land that dates back to the First World War and also has roots in pre-biblical times.

The brutality of Hamas attacks on civilians – and the fact that Hamas has still not released all of its hostages – has made it difficult for many Israelis to focus on anything other than the atrocities. It is difficult for Palestinians to criticize Hamas due to the scale of Israeli killings of civilians, coupled with their long-standing sense of persecution by the Israeli military and the loss of land to Israeli settlers.

The fight to bury the dead

In Israel, authorities and volunteer emergency workers went to great lengths to recover bodies they discovered in places of unspeakable horror, often where fighting was still ongoing. In some cases the remains were charred and mutilated, making identification problematic.

In Gaza, where much of the Strip was in ruins due to Israeli bombing, families resorted to makeshift cemeteries set up in empty lots and health workers stored bodies in ice cream freezers as morgues filled up. In mid-January, the Palestinian Ministry of Health estimated that around 7,000 people were still missing under the rubble.

Hostages and prisoners

Hamas released a first group of hostages on November 24, 2023. The release was part of an agreement with Israel that included a temporary ceasefire in Gaza. Under the agreement, Israel agreed to release 240 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons accused of crimes ranging from stone-throwing to attempted murder.

The ceasefire lasted seven days. More than 100 hostages were released by Hamas during this time, most of them Israeli women and children, but also foreign nationals, some of whom have dual citizenship. Four Americans were released. An estimated 129 hostages, including up to six Americans, are still being held in Gaza.

Parts of Gaza seem like a wasteland

One hundred days after the war began, thousands of people have died and countless families have been torn apart. In Gaza, hundreds of thousands have been displaced and face acute shortages of food and medicine, according to the UN. As temperatures drop, many families sleep outside and infectious diseases spread.

Israeli bombing has destroyed homes. It leveled entire parts of the city. Once bustling urban areas are in ruins, streets and many public areas have been turned into wasteland.

Is Israel guilty of war crimes?

UN officials have said they believe both Israel and Hamas have committed war crimes.

Legal experts have argued for decades about what constitutes a war crime based on the Geneva Conventions and other international laws and guidelines. This involves tricky questions about proportionality, including how and when the killing of civilians can be justified and what constitutes a protected area.

Israel says it is abiding by globally recognized rules of armed conflict in Gaza, although it has bombed hospitals, residential buildings and other civilian targets there. But Palestinians, U.N. officials and a growing number of international experts – including some former U.S. government war crimes officials – say Israel's bombing of civilian areas is a clear violation of internationally recognized rules of armed conflict.

South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice to examine whether Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

How it tore us apart

In the United States and around the world, the Israel-Hamas war has tested friendships, families and colleagues who have different opinions, worldviews and levels of commitment to Israeli and Palestinian issues. For many, it was difficult to talk about the conflict without descending into heated disagreements.

All kinds of community group texts are broken up because no one can agree; Millennials have been walking on eggshells for fear of upsetting their Gen Z partners. In many cities, the number of reported incidents of hate crimes and discrimination has increased, with Jews and Muslims and their supporters often being the victims.

Israel supporters attend the March for Israel rally in DC

The March for Israel rally comes amid global tensions over Israel's attack on Gaza, which followed Hamas attacks that left 1,200 Israelis dead.

Death by journalism

The war has taken an enormous toll on journalists in Gaza. In fact, it was the deadliest period since the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists began tracking such data in 1992. As of January 8, 2024, at least 79 journalists and media workers were among the more than 23,000 people killed since the war began.

Tareq Hajjaj, 30, the Gaza correspondent for Mondoweiss, a news and opinion website, is among those who have tried to report in apocalyptic conditions while caring for his family and staying alive.

War on American campuses

Colleges and universities across the U.S. are grappling with tense debate and protests over the war that has put a spotlight on anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim harassment, free speech and campus safety.

University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill and Harvard President Claudine Gay have resigned after attending a congressional hearing about their response to anti-Semitism on their campuses.

Horror film about sexual violence

Israeli volunteers and first responders who collected the bodies of those killed by Hamas on October 7 and helped identify them said they observed several signs of obvious and undeniable sexual assault in some victims.

But sexual assault does not appear to have been limited to October 7th. Two Israeli doctors who treated released hostages and an Israeli military official familiar with the matter confirmed to USA TODAY that some released hostages revealed that they had suffered violent sexual assaults while in captivity.

Expansion of international trouble spots

Iran, Yemen's Houthi rebels and Lebanon's militant Hezbollah have all vowed to come to Hamas's aid as its fighters and leaders in the Gaza Strip are hunted by Israel and deaths among Palestinian civilians have reached unprecedented levels . As the war continued, the United States increased its naval presence in the Mediterranean to prevent the conflict from escalating into a larger regional war.

But the risks appear to be escalating.

On January 12, US warplanes, ships and submarines, along with British warplanes, attacked sites in Yemen linked to Houthi rebels, who like Hezbollah are backed by Iran. The Houthis have fired dozens of drones and missiles at shipping lanes in the Red Sea. Meanwhile, Israel is suspected of killing a senior Hamas militant in an airstrike in Beirut in early January, although this has not been confirmed, while Hezbollah has fired rockets at Israel.

Possible impact on 2024

In recent months, President Joe Biden has come under increasing pressure within his own party from those who wanted him to stand strongly behind Israel after the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, and from those who warned that the Palestinian people would be left behind threatened with destruction.

Polls have shown a decline in support for Biden among Democrats and Arab Americans since October 7. “There will be a lot of people who simply won't vote for Biden because of his strong pro-Israel stance, and they were previously reliable Biden voters,” said Max Abrahms, a political scientist at Northeastern University in Boston.

What does Gaza's future look like?

Israel has vowed to wage its war in Gaza until Hamas is completely eradicated. It remains to be seen whether this will succeed. But what will happen to Gaza when the guns fall silent? Who should govern it?

Mustafa Barghouti, a former Palestinian presidential candidate and current leader of the Palestinian National Initiative, a political party in the West Bank, told USA Today's “The Excerpt” podcast that he believes there is only one realistic option: a government of national unity. Find out what he means by that here.

How the Israel-Hamas conflict has become a war without walls – USA TODAY