Paris:

After the Palestinian group Hamas carried out the worst attack in Israeli history on October 7, 2023, Israel launched a devastating military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

Before a ceasefire began on Sunday, only the second truce in 15 months of war, Israel’s air and ground campaign killed at least 46,899 people, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

Following are key moments in the conflict:

Hamas attacks

At dawn on October 7, hundreds of Hamas fighters infiltrate Israel, killing civilians in the streets, in their homes and at a desert music festival, and attacking troops in bases.

They seize 251 hostages and take them back to Gaza. Currently 94 are still held there, with three women due for release Sunday. Israel’s military says 34 of the 94 hostages are dead.

The Hamas attacks result in the deaths of more than 1,200 people.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to destroy Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organisation by the United States, European Union and Israel.

Ground offensive

Israel begins bombing and besieging Gaza. On October 13, it calls on civilians in the territory’s north to move south.

The vast majority of Gazans have been displaced during the war, according to the UN.

On October 27, Israel begins a ground offensive.

Truce and hostage swap

On November 24, a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas begins.

Hamas releases 105 hostages, mostly Israeli but also Thai workers, in return for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

When the war resumes, Israel expands its actions into southern Gaza.

Deadly food stampede

On February 29, 2024 Israeli forces fire on northern Gaza residents who rush a convoy of food aid trucks, killing 120 and wounding hundreds.

From early March military aircraft from several countries including the United States drop aid over Gaza which the UN says is threatened by famine.

On April 1, seven aid workers from US charity World Central Kitchen are killed in a strike which Israel’s military calls a “tragic mistake”.

Iran attacks Israel

On April 13, Iran pounds Israel with drones and missiles — its first-ever direct assault on Israel’s soil. The strikes are retaliation for a deadly April 1 attack on its Damascus consulate, blamed on Israel.

On July 20, Israel bombards Yemen’s port of Hodeida, after a drone attack on Tel Aviv by Iran-backed Huthi rebels who have been targeting shipping since November 2023 in solidarity with Gaza.

Hamas political leader killed

At the Israeli-Lebanon border, almost daily exchanges since October 2023 between Israel and Lebanese group Hezbollah intensify in July.

Israel retaliates with several strikes, including one that kills a top Hezbollah commander, Fuad Shukr.

On July 31, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh is killed on a visit to Iran. Israel accepts responsibility months later.

Lebanon spillover

On September 17 and 18, hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah explode in an Israeli operation that Lebanese authorities say kills 39 and wounds thousands.

Israel escalates its air campaign in Lebanon and on September 27 kills Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in southern Beirut.

Days later, Israel launches a ground offensive in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah strongholds.

Iran on October 1 fires a barrage of 200 missiles at Israel in response to the killing of Nasrallah and Haniyeh.

New Hamas chief killed

On October 16, new Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, accused by Israel of masterminding the October 7, 2023 attack, is killed in southern Gaza.

On the 26th, Israeli air strikes hit military targets in Iran in response to the October 1 missile attack.

On November 14, a United Nations Special Committee says Israel’s warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of “genocide”. Israel accuses the UN of bias.

The International Criminal Court on November 21 issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu, former defence minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, whom the Israeli military says it killed in Gaza.

Lebanon truce

A truce begins on November 27 after two months of open war between Israel and Hezbollah which has left more than 4,000 dead on the Lebanese side since October 2023, according to official Lebanese figures.

The fragile ceasefire is breached several times, with both sides trading blame.

After the ousting of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad by Islamist-led rebels in December, Israel also conducts hundreds of strikes on Syria’s military sites, saying it aims to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of “extremists”.

Israel also sends troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights.

Yemen’s Huthi rebels step up missile and drone attacks on Israel which responds with new attacks on Yemen.

New ceasefire begins

On January 19, a long-awaited truce between Israel and Hamas begins, with 33 hostages due to be freed during the first phase in exchange for the release of about 1,900 Palestinians in Israeli custody.

Under the truce mediated by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, thousands of war-weary displaced Palestinians begin returning to their homes through the rubble of the devastated Gaza Strip.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Paris:

French President Emmanuel Macron called Saturday for a halt on arms deliveries to Israel for use in Gaza, provoking a sharp response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Macron also criticised Netanyahu’s decision to send troops into ground operations in Lebanon.

“I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza,” Macron told French broadcaster France Inter.

“France is not delivering any,” he added during the interview, which was recorded Tuesday.

Macron reiterated his concern over the conflict in Gaza that is continuing despite repeated calls for a ceasefire.

“I think we are not being heard,” he said. “I think it is a mistake, including for the security of Israel,” he said, adding that the war was leading to “hatred”.

His comments brought a swift response from Netanyahu.

“As Israel fights the forces of barbarism led by Iran, all civilised countries should be standing firmly by Israel’s side,” Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office.

“Yet, President Macron and other Western leaders are now calling for arms embargoes against Israel. Shame on them.”

Israel was fighting a war on several fronts against groups backed by arch-foe Iran, the statement added.

Macron’ office responded with a statement of its own later Saturday.

France is a “steadfast friend of Israel”, it said, describing Netanyahu’s reaction as “excessive and detached from the friendship between France and Israel”.

Qatar, a key mediator in Gaza ceasefire talks, said Macron’s statement was “an important and appreciated step towards stopping the war”.

Jordan welcomed the French leader’s remarks and stressed “the importance of imposing a complete ban on the export of weapons to Israel” and “real consequences” for the country’s actions.

Ceasefire call

In his interview, Macron also said avoiding an escalation in Lebanon was a “priority.”

“Lebanon cannot become a new Gaza,” he added.

And he returned to the subject Saturday in a speech to a conference of French-speaking nations in Paris.

While both Paris and Washington had called for a ceasefire, said Macron, “I regret that Prime Minister Netanyahu has made another choice, has taken this responsibility, in particular, for ground operations on Lebanese soil.”

The 88 members of the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF), including France and Canada, have called for an “immediate and lasting” ceasefire in Lebanon, he added.

But Macron reaffirmed Israel’s right to self-defence and said that on Monday he would be meeting relatives of Franco-Israelis held hostage in Gaza.

On Monday, Israel marks the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war and has now engulfed neighbouring Lebanon, creating a perilous regional crisis.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity. Israel’s retaliatory offensive on Gaza has so far killed at least 41,825 people, a majority of them civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory. The UN has said those figures are reliable.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Singapore:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the United States was “not aware of or involved in” the killing of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran.

“I can’t tell you what this means. I can tell you that the imperative of getting a ceasefire, the importance that that has for everyone, remains,” Blinken said, according to a transcript shared by his staff from an interview with Channel News Asia in Singapore.

Haniyeh was attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president when he was killed by an Israeli air strike, Hamas said Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas in retaliation for its October 7 attack on Israel, which sparked the war in Gaza.

Washington is Israel’s key military backer and has been pushing for a Gaza ceasefire, which Blinken said remains “manifestly in the interests” of the Israeli hostages and Gazans who have been “caught in this crossfire of Hamas’s making”.

As the political chief of the Palestinian movement Hamas, Haniyeh was overseeing the negotiations for a deal to end the war in Gaza and release hostages held in the territory in exchange for Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel.

Blinken, who is visiting Singapore, said a Gaza ceasefire is also key to preventing the conflict from spreading to the rest of the region.

“We’ve been working from day one not only to try to get to a better place in Gaza but also to prevent the conflict from spreading, whether it’s the north with Lebanon and Hezbollah, whether it’s the Red Sea with the Huthis, whether it’s Iran, Syria, Iraq, you name it,” Blinken told a forum in the city state.

“A big key to trying to make sure that that doesn’t happen, and that we can move to a better place, is getting the ceasefire.”

Qatar — a vital mediator in truce talks which also hosts Hamas’s political leadership that included Haniyeh — has questioned the future of negotiations in the wake of the assassination.

Hamas vowed the “cowardly” killing of their veteran leader “will not go unanswered”.

The October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Operatives also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign against Hamas has killed at least 39,400 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not provide details on civilian and operative deaths.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met Kuwait’s Deputy Foreign Minister Jarrah Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah at Kuwait international airport in Kuwait City.
| Photo Credit: AFP

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on My 12 appealed for an immediate halt to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, the return of hostages and a “surge” in humanitarian aid to the besieged Palestinian territory.

“I repeat my call, the world’s call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, the unconditional release of all hostages and an immediate surge in humanitarian aid,” Mr. Guterres said in a video address to an international donors’ conference in Kuwait. “But a ceasefire will only be the start. It will be a long road back from the devastation and trauma of this war,” he added.

Israeli strikes on Gaza continued on May 12 after it expanded an evacuation order for Rafah despite international outcry over its military incursion into eastern areas of the city, effectively shutting a key aid crossing.

“The war in Gaza is causing horrific human suffering, devastating lives, tearing families apart and rendering huge numbers of people homeless, hungry and traumatised,” Mr. Guterres said.

His remarks were played at the opening of the conference in Kuwait organised by the International Islamic Charitable Organization (IICO) and the UN’s humanitarian coordination organisation OCHA.

On May 10, in Nairobi, the UN head warned Gaza faced an “epic humanitarian disaster” if Israel launched a full-scale ground operation in Rafah.

Gaza’s bloodiest-ever war began following Hamas’ unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched a retaliatory offensive that has killed more than 34,971 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.