Nearly 24,000 Palestinians were killed and 60,000 wounded in the invasion, according to Gaza health authorities, the largest loss of Palestinian lives in decades of war and conflict with Israel since 1948.
Three months later, Israeli forces are still fighting Hamas Islamist militants in the ruins of Gaza and pursuing the architects of the October attack, such as Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza, and Muhammad Deif, the movement's military commander.
Protesters chant slogans while waving flags and banners condemning Israeli military operations inside the Gaza Strip, outside the entrance to RAF Akrotiri, near the southern coastal city of Limassol, Cyprus.credit: AP
Most of the Strip's hospitals have been destroyed, hunger is a growing threat, and the dire humanitarian crisis threatens to end up killing more Gazans than the Israeli army.
In a statement marking the 100th day, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry accused Israel of creating a “circle of death” in Gaza.
Palestinians look at the destruction caused by an Israeli raid on a residential building in Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip.credit: AP
Israeli officials say they are doing everything in their power to avoid civilian casualties, and accuse Hamas of hiding its network of tunnels and military infrastructure among the civilian population in Gaza, deliberately exposing them to danger.
However, this provides little comfort to the tens of thousands who have lost relatives due to the bombing.
“I come here every day, missing them,” said Khaled Abu Aweida, who lost 22 members of his family in an airstrike, and who still searches in vain among the mountains of rubble that once held his family home for any sign of the three children buried there. .
World public opinion was shocked, and the bitterness of the conflict spread to angry demonstrations in the streets of European cities and American universities, casting a shadow over the US presidential elections.
Across the Arab world, there was intense outrage at the killings and destruction and at widely seen images of Palestinian prisoners stripped to their underwear.
Even Washington, Israel's closest ally, has urged restraint, and South Africa has filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide, a charge Israel rejects as a gross and hypocritical distortion of the truth.
Efforts to agree a ceasefire have so far failed, and the future of Gaza, which has been under siege for more than 15 years, remains up in the air, while violence in restive cities in the occupied West Bank has escalated to levels not seen elsewhere. Times that would cause deep alarm.
The United States and other powers called for reviving the process of establishing an independent Palestinian state after the war, but the right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not responded so far.
Iran, Israel's main enemy, which supports Hamas, has mocked Israel but has so far refrained from taking any direct action, and Hezbollah, its proxy in Lebanon, has been keen to avoid an all-out confrontation.
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However, the Houthis in Yemen, another Iranian-backed movement, have caused increasing disruption by attacking ships in the Red Sea, bringing the risk of a broader conflict that could draw in outside powers and further destabilize the global order.
For their part, Israelis see Hamas as an existential threat to their country, and polls show they support the campaign to destroy the group, although most blame Netanyahu for the security failures that allowed the October 7 attack to occur.
Posters showing the hostages were plastered on walls and bus stops across Israel, and Sunday saw large demonstrations demanding the return of more than 130 hostages still being held in Gaza after a truce in November, during which about half of them were exchanged for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
“Israeli society is traumatized and we cannot heal without all of them coming back,” said Moran Stella Yanai, a former swap hostage who was kidnapped during the Nova music festival, where hundreds of concertgoers were killed in the morning. October 7.
As the war continues, it is putting increasing pressure on the economy, and the army has begun releasing some of the tens of thousands of reservists who were called up to fight Hamas and guard the northern border to enable them to return to their jobs.
But Netanyahu, whose political future will depend on the outcome of the war, showed no sign that he was listening to growing calls for an end to the fighting.
“We are continuing the war until the end – until complete victory,” he said on Saturday at a press conference marking the 100th anniversary of the war.
Reuters
