Israel’s war on Gaza – what you need to know | Start Here

let's talk about one year of war in Gaza for Palestinians it's been 12 months of unprecedented loss and suffering living here in Gaza feels like being trapped in a never ending cycle of trauma [Music] [Applause] everything you hear or see about Gaza is just the tub of the iceberg no photo or video can convey the smell of death the sound of 24/7 drones the uncertainty of whether you or your family will make it through another day hangs over every moment of each day the number of journalists killed the number of medical workers killed the number

of schools destroyed the percentage of amputated children this is the worst war and Modern History A lot has happened since October 7th 2023 so I'm going to run you through some of the main updates on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza what's going on with the Israeli captives what's going on with Hamas and where things are at with the [Music] [Music] ceasefire let's start with the human cost in Gaza remember we're talking about a tiny strip of land densely packed with more than 2 million people who can't leave where Israel has dropped thousands of bombs more

than 40,000 people have been killed according to gaza's health Ministry it recently published this list naming more than 30,000 of the dead it's 649 pages long the first 13 pages are all babies under one it's not until page 215 that you see the name of an [Music] adult this year has been a Relentless cycle of loss loss of loved ones loss of homes and loss of [Music] livelihoods right now the un's highest court is deciding whether Israel's actions in Gaza amount to genocide an accusation Israel rejects Gaza has been devastated by Israel's bombing by May

2024 more than half of all of gaza's buildings had been damaged or destroyed according to the UN it's not just thousands of residential buildings but also roads Farmland mosques churches hospitals universities and schools the landscape uh is totally decimated and destroyed nearly everyone in Gaza 90% of the population has been forced to leave their home many people have had to pack up and move over and over again and are living in bombed out buildings tents and out in the streets the Israeli military has issued dozens of evacuation orders telling civilians to go to so-called safe

zones while it says it goes after Hamas Fighters but even those zones are coming under Fire humanitarian agencies say nowhere in Gaza is safe daylight gives you a sense of the power that came from the air Israel says it targeted various Hamas field commanders but what that means is that Israel targeted a camp for the internally displaced their tarpo in tents no protection against Israel's military might Israel deemed this a safe Zone that wasn't alasi in September at least 19 people were killed times and times again we have seen Israel justifying massacr in order to

pursue the alleged healing of militant but by this token Israel is is given license to kill everyone in Gaza by simply claiming that it was to kill a Hamas from B this is indecent I mean it's beyond unlawful so what's happening with Aid delivery remember at the start of the war Israel imposed a Complete Siege on Gaza and and and Israel has been accused of using starvation as a weapon of War including by the un's special repor on the right to food in a report to the UN General Assembly he said Israel made its intentions

to starve everyone in Gaza explicit then Israel used starvation to induce forcible transfer harm and death against people in the north pushing people into the South only to starve bombard and kill people in newly created refugee camps in the South around half a million people are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity in other words they're facing famine in August an average of just 69 Aid trucks entered Gaza per day which is a record low Aid groups say Israel is blocking 83% of the required food aid from reaching Gaza on top of all of that disease

is spreading because there's not enough clean water the lack of clean water has led to 1.7 million cases of infection diseases that can trigger massive undeadly epidemics making water scarcity and contamination a silent bomb which has far less visibility than those that destroy buildings but uh no less lethal bomb the risk of disease is coupled with a desperate lack of Medical Care Doctors Without Borders says gaza's Health Care system is being methodically dismantled through Israeli attacks the blocking of Aid and the lack of protection for medical staff before the war Gaza had 36 Hospitals now

just 17 are partially functioning according to the UN it does feel like people are waiting for death death seems to be the only certainty in this situation um in all of uncertainty and and that's a really horrific reality uh for people to have on the ground here now for israeli's one of the biggest concerns since hamas's attack in October last year when more than a thousand people were killed has been the fate of the captives 251 Israelis and foreigners were taken by Hamas and other groups into Gaza 117 have got out alive through a prisoner

swap Israeli Army operations or because Hamas released them the bodies of 37 captives have been recovered and returned to Israel some of them were killed by Israeli forces according to various reports in August Israeli soldiers located the bodies of six captives in a Hamas [Applause] tunnel Israel accused Hamas of Killing Them Hamas said it held Israel responsible because it had refused to sign a ceasefire deal 97 captives remain unaccounted for mon there have been protests in Israel led by some of the captives families calling on prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire that

would save their loved ones the incident in August when six captives were found dead triggered the biggest protest so [Music] far the life of more than 100 Israelis men women young girls um their life are not the first priority of the Israeli government this is something that makes you think where are they taking us where are they taking the Israeli people Jews and Arabs despite the big street protests Netanyahu looks pretty secure politically a poll in May showed that 39% of Israelis thought the government's military response against Hamas and Gaza had been about right and

34% thought it had not gone far enough okay so what about Hamas Israel has always said the aim of its war is to eliminate the group 12 months on that hasn't happened Israel has said that it's killed a senior Hamas Commander Muhammad daf in July although Hamas says he's still alive and then hamas's police iCal leader isma Han was assassinated in Iran most people think Israel was behind it hamas's military leader Yahya Sinar has replaced Han Sinar is thought to be in Gaza now when it comes to hamas's fighting capability we don't have exact numbers

on things like ammunition or the number of Fighters they've lost before the war Israeli officials estimated that Hamas had around 30,000 Fighters recently the Israeli Army said it had killed 17,000 Fighters but gave no details about how it arrived at that number Hamas itself hasn't released any figures but says it's still got the capacity to keep up the fight we don't really know the details of what condition Hamas is in they've been very good at hiding their abilities or the Damage Done to them but clearly Hamas has been damaged I mean you can't sustain a

year of the most intense aerial bombing in modern history and come out totally intact uh but they're still fighting they're still carrying out operations uh in uh in Gaza so where do things stand with the ceasefire deal remember Israel and Hamas aren't speaking directly to each other the US along with mediators from Qatar and Egypt are driving the negotiations in late may US President Joe Biden presented a three stage ceasefire plan it involved Israeli forces withdrawing from Gaza and all the captives eventually being released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and a final

stage ending the war and reconstructing Gaza at the time Hamas said they'd go for it if Israel did but Netanyahu said he wouldn't sign up to a deal that included a permanent end to the war since then there have been more negotiations and another obstacle has emerged this is the Philadelphia quor Netanyahu started insisting that Israeli troops should remain in a strip of land along gaza's Southern border with Egypt known as the Philadelphia Corridor which Hamas is against all this makes the prospect of a ceasefire anytime soon look increasingly Slim in early September the US

Secretary of State said a deal was 90% there but a recent report in the Wall Street Journal quotes us officials saying they no longer believe a deal is likely before the end of Joe Biden's presidency in January and now the backdrop is even more fraught with what's going on in Lebanon in the escalation in the fight between Israel and Hezbollah which is an ally of Hamas Israel's bombing campaign and ground defensive in Lebanon has displaced one million Lebanese people about a fifth of the population more than 2,000 people have been killed including hundreds of women

and children and several Hezbollah commanders okay I need to uh bring you some breaking news the Israeli Army has officially announced that it has killed the uh head of Hezbollah Hassan nasrala this is probably the most significant point that we could say repres presents very likelihood or high likelihood of a of a major escalation and I think that unfortunately that means we're in a likely scenario of an even worse level of warfare and escalation than we've even seen over the last Almost 12 months since October 7th so one year into the Gaza War the Outlook

is really really Bleak and unless something big changes it's hard to see where the answers are going to come from people need to know that Gaza is more than just a war zone it is home to over 2 million people trying to survive amid unbearable conditions we are resilient but we're not superheroes and we need the world's help to end this suffering one of the big features of this war has been the role of international law we've explained how it works and why some people feel the whole system is failing the people of Gaza and

elsewhere you can watch our reason explainer here [Music]