These photos capture 100 days of agony in an unprecedented war between Israel and Hamas
Palestinians wave their national flag and celebrate by a destroyed Israeli tank at the southern Gaza Strip fence east of Khan Younis, Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Yousef Masoud)
Scenes from Hamas’ surprise attack on a music festival, farming communities and army outposts in southern Israel are seared into the national psyche. The bloodied bodies of young men and women lying on a highway where they were gunned down. An older woman squeezed between two gunmen on a motorcycle while she is being taken to the Gaza Strip as a hostage.
Some 1,200 people were killed that day, Israel’s worst single loss of civilian lives. About 250 others were abducted. Some, mostly women and children, were eventually released or traded for Palestinian prisoners. Some were killed in captivity.
Civilians killed by Palestinian militants lie covered in Sderot, Israel, on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip infiltrated Saturday into southern Israel and fired thousands of rockets into the country while Israel began striking targets in Gaza in response. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
The pain endures for the families of more than 100 people still held hostage by Hamas. Street graffiti and public vigils keep their plight in Israelis’ minds. The shock from what happened on Oct. 7 has fueled a nationwide determination to carry through the military’s offensive in Gaza until Hamas is eliminated.
Every day in Gaza, Israel’s firing of rockets, artillery and missiles produce new images of Palestinian suffering and loss. Rescuers pull the body of a toddler out of the wreckage of a demolished building. Outside of a morgue, relatives weep over loved ones lined up on the pavement in white body bags — another family killed in the Israeli bombardment.
Police officers evacuate a woman and a child from a site hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
In 100 days, the military’s relentless bombardment and ground assault has killed around more than 23,000 Palestinians — roughly 1% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people. The fighting has uprooted almost the entire population, most of it squeezed into the territory’s far south.
In the north, which was Israel’s first target, mountains of rubble fill the landscape. Much of Gaza City and surrounding districts have been leveled. Many residents who fled fear they’ll never be allowed to return, or if they are, their neighborhoods will be uninhabitable.
Palestinians and Hamas militants transport Yarden Bibas to Gaza after kidnapping him from his home in Nir Oz, a kibbutz in Israel near the Gaza border, on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas militants stormed the border with Israel, killed over 1,200 Israelis, and took over 200 hostages. (AP Photo)
In parts of southern Gaza where Israel advised people to evacuate, rescuers dig through smoldering piles of concrete, stone and dust, looking for survivors of airstrikes and shelling. Tent camps have sprawled over any empty piece of land. Crowds mob distribution sites for food, with one in four people in Gaza starving under Israel’s siege of the territory.
And the war goes on. Israeli soldiers detonate entire blocks in Gaza, saying they are destroying Hamas tunnels. Hamas fires volleys of rockets into Israel. Israeli officials say their offensive will continue through 2024.
An Israeli firefighter kneels to compose himself after he and his colleagues extinguished cars set on fire by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, Israel, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
An Israeli soldier walks by a house destroyed in fighting with by Hamas militants in kibbutz Be’eri on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2023. The kibbutz was overrun by Hamas militants from the nearby Gaza Strip Saturday when they killed and captured many Israelis. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
Fire and smoke rise following an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023. The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of Hamas fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations, killing hundreds and taking captives. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
Palestinians inspect the rubble of destroyed buildings following Israeli airstrikes on the town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman)
A Palestinian girl reacts as a child is carried from the rubble of a building after an airstrike in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
Israelis evacuate a site struck by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Palestinians inspect the rubble of the Yassin Mosque destroyed after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike at Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, early Monday, Oct. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
Palestinians walk by the buildings destroyed in the Israeli bombardment on al-Zahra, on the outskirts of Gaza City, Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Ali Mahmoud)
Palestinians inspect the rubble of destroyed buildings following Israeli airstrikes on the town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman)
An injured Palestinian boy cries as rescuers try to pull him out of the rubble of a destroyed building following an Israeli airstrike in Bureij refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman)
Palestinians are treated as they lie on the floor after being wounded in an Israeli army bombardment of the Gaza Strip, in the hospital in Khan Younis, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
Rockets are fired from the Gaza Strip toward Israel over destroyed buildings following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman)
An Israeli soldier hugs his partner near the border with the Gaza Strip, southern Israel, Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. The Israeli military has beefed up ground forces near the Gaza Strip ahead of an expected ground invasion as the latest war between Israel and Hamas militants completes its second week. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Israeli security forces inspect charred vehicles burned in the bloody Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas militants outside the town of Netivot, southern Israel, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires a shell from southern Israel towards the Gaza Strip, near the Israel-Gaza border, Monday, Nov. 06, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Israeli APC head towards the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel on Friday, Oct.13, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Israeli troops walk in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023. AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
An Israeli Apache helicopter fires flares over the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Palestinians wounded in Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip wait for treatment at a hospital in Khan Younis, Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2023. ( AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
Palestinians evacuate a building hit in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in Rafah on Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)
Israeli tanks head towards the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel on Thursday, Oct.12, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Palestinians flee to northern Gaza as Israeli tanks block the Salah al-Din road in the central Gaza Strip on Friday, Nov. 24, 2023, as the four-day cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war begins as part of an agreement that Qatar helped broker. (AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman)
Palestinians displaced by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip seek cover from a winter rainfall at a U.N. tent camp in the southern town of Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled their homes in northern Gaza as Israel moves ahead with a ground offensive against the ruling Hamas militant group. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
Israelis embrace next to photos of people killed and taken captive by Hamas militants during their violent rampage through the Nova music festival in southern Israel, which are displayed at the site of the event near kibbutz Re’im, Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Mourners sit next to graffiti calling for the return of the hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7 Hamas cross-border attack in Israel, outside the cemetery in Kfar Saba, Israel, Sunday, Nov. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
A Red Cross vehicle carrying Israeli hostages drives by at the Gaza Strip crossing into Egypt in Rafah on Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
People wave Israeli flags as a helicopter carrying hostages released from Gaza by Hamas arrives at the helipad of the Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva, Israel, Sunday, Nov. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
An Israeli soldier looks at Palestinians fleeing south at Salah al-Din road in central Gaza Strip on Sunday, Nov. 26, 2023, on the third day of a temporary cease-fire between Hamas and Israel. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)
A Palestinian woman gestures following Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman)
Palestinians evacuate a wounded woman following Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman)
Palestinians wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip arrive at a hospital in Khan Younis on Friday, Dec. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman)
Kenzi al Madhoun, a four-year-old who was wounded in an Israeli bombardment, lies at Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah City, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Israeli soldiers stand by a truck packed with bound and blindfolded Palestinian detainees in Gaza, Friday, Dec. 8, 2023. Israeli forces have been rounding up Palestinians in northern Gaza for interrogation as they search for Hamas fighters. (AP Photo/Moti Milrod, Haaretz)
Israeli soldiers take positions near the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel, Monday, Dec. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Palestinians stand around the bodies of children killed in Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in a morgue in Khan Younis, Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
An Israeli soldier stands in an apartment during a ground operation in the Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Palestinians mourn relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip outside a morgue in Khan Younis on Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman)
Mourners gather around the five coffins of the Kotz family during their funeral in Gan Yavne, Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. The family was killed by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 at their house in Kibbutz Kfar Azza near the border with the Gaza Strip, More than 1,400 people were killed and some 200 captured in an unprecedented, multi-front attack by the militant group that rules Gaza. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Palestinians pray over bodies of people killed in the Israeli bombardment who were brought from the Shifa hospital before burying them in a mass grave in the town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman)
Al Jazeera journalist Wael Dahdouh holds the hand of his son Hamza, who also worked for Al Jazeera and who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024. Dahdouh lost his wife, two other children, and a grandson earlier in the war and was nearly killed himself. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)
Antonio Macías’ mother cries over her son’s body covered with the Israeli flag at Pardes Haim cemetery in Kfar Saba, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023. Macias was killed by Hamas militants while attending a music festival in southern Israel earlier this month. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Palestinians flee to the southern Gaza Strip on Salah al-Din Street in Bureij, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
A Palestinian family flee the Israeli ground offensive in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman)
Palestinians line up for a free meal in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023. International aid agencies say Gaza is suffering from shortages of food, medicine, and other essential supplies as a result of the two-and-a-half-month war between Israel and Hamas. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
Palestinians displaced by the Israeli bombardment wait for their turn to bake bread at the makeshift tent camp in the Muwasi area in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
A view of the makeshift tent camp where Palestinians displaced by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip are staying in the Muwasi area on Monday, Jan. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)