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For the past year, the words “since October 7” have been repeated in some form in nearly every article and analysis about the hostilities in Israel-Palestine.
“Since October 7.” There was the before times, and there’s now, as if everything started on that day. Atrocities in Israel-Palestine didn’t start that day. And, in fact, it doesn’t matter when it started or “who started it” – atrocities are atrocities and need to end.
Still, that day does mark some kind of key moment, an acceleration point for atrocities.
What happened twelve months ago today was horrific. Hamas-led Palestinian armed groups carried out numerous coordinated attacks in southern Israel, including on civilian residential communities and social events, as well as on Israeli military bases. They attacked at least 19 kibbutzim and five moshavim (cooperative and collective communities), two cities, two music festivals, and a beach party, killing hundreds of civilians.
At many attack sites, Palestinian fighters fired directly at civilians as they tried to flee and at people driving through the area. The attackers hurled grenades, shot into shelters, and fired rocket-propelled grenades at homes. They set houses on fire, burning and choking people, and forcing out others whom they shot or captured. They took dozens hostage and summarily killed others.
These atrocities were war crimes and crimes against humanity. The continued holding of civilian hostages is an ongoing war crime.
In response to these crimes, the Israeli government has spread more horror over the past year, committing its own atrocities and acting as if the laws of war no longer apply at all.
Civilian protection is a cornerstone of these laws, but the Israeli military has been using explosive weapons in densely populated areas in Gaza, raising the risk of unlawfully indiscriminate attacks. They’ve damaged or destroyed homes, schools, hospitals, and shopping malls, without advance warning, caused death, severe injuries, and permanent disabilities, including in attacks HRW has documented as unlawful.
The majority of buildings in Gaza are damaged or destroyed. Entire neighborhoods have been razed to the ground.
Almost all civilians in Gaza are displaced, with most crammed into an area that’s just three percent of Gaza’s territory.
Palestinians in Israeli detention facilities have been tortured, abused, held in incommunicado detention, and subjected to sexual violence. Israel has tortured healthcare workers.
Also flouting international humanitarian law and in direct defiance of orders from the World Court, the government of Israel is starving Gaza as a weapon of war. Its blockade restricts humanitarian aid, not only severely limiting food but also medicine and medical supplies.
Nearly 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, the most reliable source for such numbers. The majority of them have been civilians.
Hostilities and the risk of more atrocities have been spreading to Lebanon and beyond.
Many governments around the world only seem to care about backing “their side,” rather than supporting international law and justice for the victims of the crimes being committed. They continue to provide arms – the US, the UK, and Germany to Israel, and Iran to Hamas and Islamic Jihad – despite continuing atrocities and the risk of their being complicit in these crimes.
One year ago, in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attacks, we wrote:
Their atrocities do not justify your atrocities. The brutality of their war crimes does not lessen the brutality of your war crimes. Their inhumanity drives your inhumanity which drives their inhumanity further, on and on until the world around you burns to the ground and beyond.
Since October 7, 2023, the answer to atrocities has only been more atrocities, and one year on, more of the world is burning.
