Gaza Genocideupdated 22m ago3 min read
Israel’s Oct. 7 Attack Killed 1,200, Took 251 Hostages, Marking Three Years of War
Around 1,200 people were killed and 251 abducted on Oct. 7, 2023. Three years of Gaza war have caused widespread destruction and humanitarian crisis.
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Anniversary, ongoing war
Israel’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage, marked three years of war that has left Gaza’s population living amid ruins and displacement.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health says more than 74,245 Palestinians have been killed, and Israel’s sustained aerial and ground assault has devastated vast parts of the Gaza Strip and severely damaged its infrastructure and essential services.
A “ceasefire” was announced in October 2025 but has not ended the suffering, and the Ministry of Health says 1,462 Palestinians have been killed since the “ceasefire” took effect while Israeli attacks and other military activity have continued across the Strip.
The war has also reshaped daily life in Gaza, with Gaza remaining without a functioning electricity grid and essential services and households depending on generators and increasingly scarce fuel, engine oil and spare parts.
CBC News says Israelis and Palestinians will mark the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack, and it adds that since the Oct. 11 ceasefire last year, the ministry says 1,462 Palestinians have been killed.
Ceasefire without protection
Under the ceasefire agreement that entered into force in October 2025, Palestinians in Gaza remained under bombardment, gunfire, displacement, and blockade, while Israeli forces continued to expand their areas of deployment and impose restrictions on the movement of people and aid.
Dr. Zahir Al-Wahidi, head of the Health Information Department at Gaza’s Ministry of Health, told Al-Shorouk that the average number of martyrs, which had previously ranged between three and four daily, rose during the latest escalations to eight to ten martyrs per day, with 1,440 martyrs and more than 5,000 injured since the agreement came into effect.
The United Nations documented hundreds of killings in areas near Israeli deployments and warned that expanding control areas within the enclave increases risk to civilians and hinders humanitarian work.
The United Nations calls on Israel and Hamas to fully respect the ceasefire, and Al-Bilad Online quotes UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths urging Israel and Hamas to “fully respect the ceasefire, protect civilians including aid workers, remove any obstacles to aid delivery, comply with international law, and choose lasting peace.”
Al-Bilad Online adds that Israel and Hamas agreed on October 9, 2025, in Egypt, Qatar, the United States, and Turkey’s mediation, to implement the first phase of the peace plan, and it says the ceasefire in Gaza went into effect on October 10.
Human cost and stakes
Years of war have brought the collapse of education, healthcare and the economy, and access to food, water, shelter and other basic necessities has become a daily struggle.
In September, according to the UN, 94 percent of Gaza’s population remained in urgent need of shelter and basic household assistance, and 65 percent of households were living in tents or makeshift shelters offering little protection from the elements.
Nearly 98 percent of schools have been damaged or destroyed, and as of April 2026 around 700,000 children aged 4 to 17 had missed almost three consecutive years of in-person education.
El País quotes Anwar al Shtat describing the aftermath of Oct. 7, 2023 as a life shattered, and it includes his statement that “The whole world sees how we live and, yet, it stays idly by.”
El País also quotes Murad Asaliyya, the Gaza medical activities manager for Doctors Without Borders, saying that even today most people have less than six liters of water per day for domestic use and limited access to basic hygiene items such as soap.