Israel Hamas War 2023: A Timeline of Conflict, Its Global Implications

The most important agenda item of the world public opinion these days is undoubtedly what is happening in Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas conflict. In this line, the attack by Hamas on Saturday, October 7, 2023 which shocked the whole world, is still in memory. The fact that Hamas crossed the Israeli border that day and massacred approximately 1400 people, including civilians and defenceless citizens, shocked the whole world.

In addition to civilian casualties, another issue that increased the anger of the State of Israel was that Hamas captured approximately 230 Israeli citizens, including civilians as hostages.(We should underline that Hamas is recognized as a terrorist organization by the USA and Europe.) Then, following this shocking chain of events, Israel caused the death of thousands of innocent Palestinians, first with air strikes and then with ground operations. In our opinion, understanding and monitoring this subject within the scope of Israel Hamas War will contribute to your understanding of the world and personal development.

First of all, we would like to inform you that we condemn the killing of civilians, defenceless and innocent people, regardless of their religion and nation. In this context, we would also like to touch upon this issue specifically for Hamas, the details and history of which we have previously stated in our article on the Arab-Israeli Wars.

Background: The Israel-Palestine Conflict and Hamas

After Hamas’s October 7 attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that they would respond “very harshly” to these attacks. In this context, the IDF, known as the Israel Defence Forces, began bombing the Gaza Strip from the very next day. While these air strikes continued, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant announced that they would gradually destroy Hamas by launching a ground operation in Gaza.

After that, as a result of the bombing of the Al-Ahl Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza on October 17, 2023, the killing of 471 people, including women and children, raised the whole world public opinion. Then, next day of the bombardment, Israel announced that they did not carry out the hospital attack. In addition, they stated that the hospital attack was carried out by Hamas. Accoding to them, Hamas was trying to fire rockets from Gaza to Israel.

When the dates show the period of November 2023, Electricity, water and energy were run out of in the Gaza Strip. Also telephone and internet connection is not available in Gaza. On the other hand, it is also obvious that the gradual land operation, which started at the end of October, has not yet made any progress. However, the world public opinion and the United Nations Secretary General Gutierrez emphasize the necessity of establishing a humanitarian ceasefire as soon as possible. However, in response to these calls, Netanyahu quoted from the Torah and stated that a ceasefire was out of the question yet.

On the other hand, the Israeli prime minister, who met with the families of the hostages held by Hamas, stated that their priority in the operation was to destroy Hamas and that the situation of the hostages was their second priority.

What Led to the 2023 War?

We can say that Netanyahu, who quotes the Torah here, tends to portray this as a war of religions. At this point, the Israeli administration thinks that the entire western world will be behind Israel if the war is religions war. Furthermore, Israeli politicians state that the other side of the war is Hamas, not Palestine.

After Hamas’ October 7th attacks, Israel’s most strategic move in the world public opinion was to create the perception that Israel is at war. So, after October 7, Israel entered the war according to Israeli government. So, who is the other side of the war? Who will be attacked by Israel, which has one of the most modern and powerful armies in the Middle East? If the answer to this question is the “Palestinian people“, which does not even have a state of its own and appears innocent in the world public opinion, Israel’s war will lose its legitimacy or justification.

At this point, the Israeli administration made a strategic move and tried to base all its discourses on the “Israel Hamas War”. In this way, everyone will side with Israel in its war against Hamas, which is recognized as a terrorist organization by the entire western world and the USA. In fact, with this strategic action the Israel-Palestine war would be reduced to the scope of the Israel-Hamas war.

Biden’s Surprise Israel Visit

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has attracted great reaction from his people with the judicial reforms he has been trying to carry out in his country for a while. It is also a known fact that it has been difficult to form a government for a long time. At this stage, it is very obvious that Netanyahu’s quoting from the Torah on the axis of the Israel Hamas War (!) is a move for domestic politics. However, his attempt to convince the public that the war is an Israel Hamas War in order to prove the legitimacy of the war is one of his interesting strategic moves in foreign policy.

In line with these strategic moves, US President Biden and British Prime Minister Sunak’s supportive visits to Israel was very important. These visit are considered to be a sign that Israel’s foreign policy moves have yielded successful results. In his visit, US President Biden said: “If Israel did not exist, we would have to invent one.” His words show how important Israel is to the United States in the Middle East.

Timeline of Key Events in the Israel-Hamas War 2023

It is a fact that Israel has created the perception that the war is not an Israel-Palestine war but an Israel Hamas War and everyone who is pro-democracy should be behind them. When it comes to the Israel Hamas War, the other question that should be asked is “Why Did Hamas Attack Israel ?”. Even though they knew the consequences and that thousands of innocent Palestinians would die? Along with these facts and questions, it is very clear that the perception of October 7^th attacks in the world public opinion and social media is net.

Accordingly, it was a very brutal terrorist act that armed Hamas members descended from the air on civilians and unarmed Israeli citizens and opened fire on young people at the music festival. In addition, the allegations that Hamas’s militants went through houses one by one and murdered women and children, and set fire to some houses along with their contents, are allegations that Israel has made public. On the other hand, images of some of these allegations are circulating on the internet.

In this context, what Hamas aims to achieve with an attack that has attracted the anger of the whole world is a serious question mark.

Casualties and Humanitarian Impact

According to some international experts, there may be several reasons for this. We can list these reasons as follows:

• Israel’s recent rapprochement with the powerful countries of the region, such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and the establishment of a peaceful environment. In this case, Hamas may have wanted to revive or keep alive the historical hostilities between the parties by committing a bloody action and starting the Israel Hamas War.
• The claim that Israel received intelligence about this attack but may not have taken it seriously enough. There is an allegation that perhaps Israel did not take precautions regarding these attacks and put into effect a plan to destroy Hamas after the attack. Netanyahu’s statement that their priority is to destroy Hamas and then rescuing the hostages is their second priority is a fact that these claimants rely on.
• The claim that Israeli agents within Hamas may have carried out the attack. This is a claim put forward by conspiracy theorists. The fact that Hamas did not claim that they did not carry out these attacks after the October 7^th attacks invalidates this claim. On the other hand, the fact that Hamas did not gain anything with this attack, contrarily, the start of the Israel Hamas War, which caused the displacement and murder of thousands of innocent Palestinians, and the massacre of civilians in the related attack, raised question marks.

Israel Hamas War Future Prospects: Is Peace Possible?

In line with all this information, the reason why Hamas brutally attacked Israel and civilians on Saturday, October 7, 2023 is not yet clear.

If we look at the sequence of events that have occurred so far;

• Hamas attacked on Israeli settlements,
• Israel launched an air strike on the Gaza strip,
• Israel demanded Palestinian civilians to evacuate from the northern part of Gaza,
• Israel’s Al-Ahl Arab Hospital air strike,
• Israel launched the Ground Operation and attacks Gaza from the north and engaged in neighbourhood clashes.

At this point, the war continues and mainly children and women are losing their lives. Our only hope is that the greedy politicians will stop the massacre as soon as possible. Before ending the topic, it would be useful to touch on one last point. There are also those who claim that Israel’s ultimate goal is to completely occupy the north of Gaza and, in the long term, expand to the south and annex the all of Gaza strip.

From this perspective, we leave the answer to the question of whether the Israel Hamas War (!), which started after the October 7th Hamas attack, serves this purpose, to our readers.