Olivia Allery, news editor

A Palestinian militant group, known as Hamas, launched a full scale attack on Israel by surrounding the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Oct. 7. According to CNN, the attack has left over 1,200 dead, mostly civilians, and even more injured. It is considered to be a major turning point in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Following the attack, in a televised address, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated “There is time for war and time for peace. This, now, is the time for war.” 

According to CNN, there were no official laws or rulings of war following Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address, however an immediate offensive attack which was issued after Hamas militants led the aggressive surprise attack. Hamas, standing for “Harakat Al-Muqawama Al-Islamiyya,” is an Islamist organization from Gaza, which is fighting for Palestinian liberation and insisting that Israel is an illegitimate state.

For decades, Palestine and Israel have been locked in a brutal conflict over the land that is the modern state of Israel. According to the Independent, Palestine was divided by a two-state resolution made by the United Nations (UN) in 1947, following WWII, ceded 56% of Palestine to Jewish Nationalists known as Zionists without Palestine’s input. Quickly following, the Arab-Israeli War in 1948 forced 700,000 Palestinians out of Palestine and into the neighboring countries of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, marking the start of continuous occupation and land control conflicts between the states of Israel and Palestine for the next 56 years, mostly at the expense of Palestinian civilians.

According to AP News, the attack led by Hamas was a direct result of increased occupation and forced settlements of Israeli people in the West Bank and the 16-year blockade of Gaza. According to CNN, Hamas militants launched repeated airstrikes, killed people in their homes and rounded up over 100 Israeli hostages and dragged them into Gaza. Repeated counter attacks have been directed mainly towards Gaza City by Israeli forces. Images from AP News show Gaza City mostly in ruin as buildings crumble from repeated Israeli airstrikes.

According to CNN, along with airstrikes Israel has also shut down all electricity, gas, food and water to Gaza, leaving the area completely in the dark. Hospitals were able to use back up generators but the Palestinian Health Ministry has said that fuel will run out by Thursday, Oct. 12 and will bring catastrophic conditions onto the 2.2 million people left in Gaza. According to AP News, the shutdown also prevented any outside support to come in, Egyptian convoys of food and fuel were stopped from getting to Gaza through the Rafah crossing.

At the time this article was written, the attacks have reached their sixth day, and according to AP News, Hamas does not seem to have an end-game strategy in mind. “It’s difficult to imagine they haven’t tried to strategize every possible scenario,” said Tahani Mustafa, a Palestinian analyst at the Crisis Group, in AP News, expressing his thoughts on the surprise attack made by Hamas. As it seems, Hamas is also prepared to stay for war as support from allies such as Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah join the battle to stand with Palestine.