Two years after Hamas’ attack ignited the war in the Gaza Strip, the militant group is weakened but not defeated, Israel has clobbered its enemies across the…
Two years after Hamas’ attack ignited the war in the Gaza Strip, the militant group is weakened but not defeated, Israel has clobbered its enemies across the region but failed to achieve its main goals, and no one knows how it all will end.
The Oct. 7, 2023, attack, the deadliest on Israeli soil, sparked one of the most devastating military campaigns since World War II, leaving tens of thousands of Palestinians dead, flattening vast areas of the blockaded territory and triggering a famine in parts.
It sent ripples across the region, bringing Israel into combat with Lebanon’s Hezbollah, militant groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, and their patron, Iran, which suffered major losses in a 12-day war launched by Israel earlier this year.
Through it all, Hamas has held onto hostages — it still has 48, around 20 of whom Israel believes are alive — and maintained influence in the dwindling areas of Gaza that haven’t been destroyed and largely depopulated.
A new round of ceasefire talks began this week based on a peace plan advanced by U.S. President Donald Trump. But so far, two U.S. administrations have failed to end the fighting while providing crucial support for an increasingly isolated and internally divided Israel.
Israel has inflicted major damage on Iran and its allies, emerging as the unquestionably dominant military power in the Middle East, with full control over most of Gaza and parts of Lebanon and Syria.
It showed off powerful military and intelligence capabilities with an attack on Hezbollah using exploding pagers and long-range strikes that took out senior militants, Iranian generals and nuclear scientists.
But its tactical victories have come at an enormous cost.
Israel is more isolated internationally than it has been in decades, with experts, scholars and major rights groups accusing it of genocide, charges it vehemently denies. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, accusing them of using starvation as a method of warfare, allegations they deny. Normalization with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries appears increasingly remote.
The failure to return the hostages, on top of long-standing corruption allegations against Netanyahu and his efforts to overhaul Israel’s judiciary, have left the country furiously divided, with weekly mass protests and discontent mounting as Israel wages another major offensive in Gaza.
