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Latest situation
Israel kept up its military campaign in southern Gaza, as its forces continued to target Khan Younis and other parts of the enclave where senior Hamas militants are thought to be sheltering.
The offensive came as Joe Biden delivered his most blunt criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition government, warning him that the country was “starting to lose . . . uphold” around the world over the mounting death toll from its war aimed at dismantling the Hamas militant group behind the October 7 attack.
The Israeli military has said it is using mobile phone and other data to recognize densely populated areas and reckon civilian evacuation routes. The IDF’s Arabic spokesperson has posted maps on social media platform X indicating areas people should flee from. But some of the destinations to which he has directed civilians have subsequently been bombed.
The IDF map divides Gaza into 620 separate blocks, with the Israeli military telling Gaza residents to “keep following the map carefully” and proceed when told “to protect their safety”. But it is unclear how the territory’s 2.3mn civilians will be able to follow the map updates due to limited access to electricity and internet connections.
Israel’s incursion in Gaza: October 2023 to present
Israel’s defence forces launched air and land offensives in Gaza after Hamas’s brutal October 7 attack in southern Israel.
Hamas killed more than 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials. The militant group, which has controlled Gaza since 2007, also seized about 240 hostages. The IDF’s response has killed more than 17,108 people in Gaza, according to Palestinian officials.
A temporary truce between the two sides in late November allowed for the release of about 100 Israeli women and children as well as foreigners held hostage by Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups. This was in exchange for about 240 Palestinian women and children freed from Israeli jails.
Israel’s military has been tight-lipped about how many troops it has committed to the incursion — its biggest operation in years.
But satellite imagery published by Planet Labs from December 3 showed IDF military vehicles north of Khan Younis.
Data tracking the movement of Israeli forces between October 30 and December 11 showed them tightening their hold on Gaza City and surrounding al-Shifa hospital prior to the temporary truce. Since the truce broke on November 30, Israeli forces have advanced on the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
Satellite imagery published by Planet Labs from October 31 showed a significant invasion.
After breaching the barrier wall in at least six places, vehicle tracks showed how Israel’s columns cut through the sparsely populated farmland to the south of the border, before moving deeper into Gaza towards more populated areas.
Aid agencies have warned about the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza since the war began, including a lack of water, medicine and food as well as insufficient fuel to keep hospitals and communications networks running.
The temporary ceasefire had allowed some humanitarian convoys into Gaza, with trucks carrying aid and fuel entering through the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, according to the UN.
Gaza’s sole power plant went offline on October 11 after it ran out of fuel, with the outage captured by night-time satellite imagery.
Satellite data shows the toll the war has taken on Gaza’s infrastructure and homes, with much of the Palestinian enclave’s north in ruins and entire neighbourhoods destroyed.
Hamas’s attack on Israel: October 7 2023
As much of Israel slept, Hamas militants launched an unprecedented, multi-pronged dawn assault on the country from the Gaza Strip. The Middle East’s most powerful security force was caught off guard.
Launched on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, the assault began in the early hours with thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities. The barrage set off warning sirens across the south and centre of the country, sending citizens fleeing to air-raid shelters.
Israel’s military said Gaza-based militants launched more than 4,500 rockets over that weekend. Many were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defence system, but satellite imagery showed fires and plumes of black smoke rising from some locations that had been hit.
Hundreds of Hamas fighters simultaneously attacked by land, air and sea, repeatedly breaching the fortified barrier between Gaza and Israel.
Images and videos showed motorbikes carrying armed militants riding through a hole in a wire fence along the border and a bulldozer destroying part of the barrier. Bombs, rockets and drones could also be seen blowing up the fence as well as defensive positions.
Militants used motorised paragliders to attack the Supernova music festival, not far from the Gaza border, flying in and turning the two-day rave into the site of a massacre.
Gunmen chased young Israelis across the desert, shooting and snatching people to take back to Gaza as hostages. The Israeli military failed to answer for hours, apparently caught by surprise by the attack. Hundreds of bodies have been recovered from the site.
After breaching the Gaza fence, armed Hamas fighters began targeting Israeli communities at several locations, going door-to-door and taking hostages.
Images and video show people lying dead in the streets after execution-style killings and residents including women, children and the elderly being taken away.
The Hamas militants also attacked Israeli military sites.
More than 1,200 Israeli civilians and troops were killed, the IDF said — making it the deadliest attack on the country since its foundation.
The complexity of the assault by Hamas was unlike anything Israel has witnessed in decades. It raised serious questions about the security service’s intelligence gathering and the military’s preparedness for an attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu imposed a “complete siege” on Gaza on October 9, calling up a record 300,000 reservists and ordering the strip to be pounded from the air.
Israel’s military also ordered the evacuation of 42 communities along its northern border, where Israelis have died in cross-border fire that Israel blamed on Hizbollah or Lebanon-based Palestinian factions — part of the Iran-backed “Axis of Resistance”.
Visual and Data team: Janina Conboye, Peter Andringa, Steven Bernard, Chris Campbell, Sam Joiner, Lucy Rodgers and Alan Smith
