What’s happening in Gaza and Israel? All your questions answered
It’s not a thundering shock-and-awe attack, but Israel’s incursion into Gaza risks tipping the Middle East into war, as Palestinian and Israeli civilians shelter in fear.
War in the Middle East began not with a bang, but with doubt, confusion and grief. In this explainer from our podcast The Front, we unpack what this war is going to look like – and what it means for ordinary people and leaders on both sides.
“Attention, citizens of Gaza. Listen carefully.”
Those are the words of Brigadier General Daniel Hagari of the Israel Defence Forces in a social media message over the weekend, warning Palestinian civilians of an imminent Israeli onslaught.
He continued: “To the residents of northern Gaza and Gaza City.
“Your window to act is closing. Move south for your own safety. Move south.
“This is not a mere precaution. It is an urgent plea for the safety of the civilians in Gaza.”
What’s happening in Gaza?
Israel sent tanks into Gaza over the weekend and, unlike previous times when Israeli forces have entered the territory, forces bedded down and stayed – they didn’t come straight back out again.
Our correspondent in Israel, Yoni Bashan, said: “Over the past three days, we‘ve had a build-up of forces amassing at the border with Gaza. But even prior to that, we’ve had the Israeli air force using what’s been described as a fraction of its firepower to enter the Gaza airspace and to precision air strike military targets belonging to the Hamas organisation.
“But again, over the past few days, given that build-up of troops, the first Israelis learned that the ground incursion had started proper was perhaps on Saturday afternoon when footage was released of tank columns and infantry amassing at the border,” Bashan said.
As a wave of anti-Semitism sweeps the world, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu effectively declared Israel was facing its second war of independence.
How was Israel created?
The first war of independence – also known as the Arab-Israeli War – followed the creation of Israel by the United Nations in 1947, when Great Britain’s former so-called ‘mandate’ in the area was divided into Jewish and Arab states.
The Palestinians refused to accept the agreed boundaries and were supported by Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Saudi Arabia (fighting under Egyptian command).
The war began in 1948 and continued until 1949, when Israel forged agreements with the Arab states, agreeing to formal borders.
What is happening with Israel’s attack on Gaza?
Instead of the D-Day style invasion many were expecting, Israeli forces entered Gaza with an incremental build-up of forces that are now advancing day-to-day inside Gaza.
Unlike in previous incursions, the Israeli forces are not leaving – instead, bedding in and remaining in Gaza.
Yoni Bashan said: “The Israelis aren‘t calling this their official ground incursion, but it certainly looks like it started. And if it looks like a war, it probably is one.”
Will the war intensify now?
Wars over the past century have often featured a ‘blitzkrieg’ or ‘shock and awe’ style attack, where an invading force attacks by land, air and sometimes sea all at once with an overwhelming force.
This doesn’t seem to be that kind of war.
Yoni Bashan said: “The expectation is that there will be a gradual build-up to reinforce these troops as they enter and day to day.
The harder work is going to begin of gradually clearing the northern sections of Gaza and doing this room by room, house by house, building by building, and of course, addressing the much more sophisticated problem of the tunnels beneath the city.
What are Hamas tunnels?
The militant group Hamas, which was elected to run Gaza in 2007 and has retained control ever since, has a sophisticated tunnel network concentrated beneath Gaza City.
Yoni Bashan: “We know Hamas has spent vast amounts of money that have been channelled into Gaza from international aid organisations and other nations into building a vast network of tunnels beneath the city.
“And when I say tunnels, I‘m not talking about tunnels of the kind that people might recall from the Vietnam War. I’m talking about tunnels that are large enough to pull a thoroughbred horse through.
“They‘re very large tunnels. They’re well-lit, well ventilated. Footage taken from inside the tunnels that’s been released to the Israeli public shows that they’re well-paved with stairs and handrails.
“There are rooms where strategic meetings can take place.
“There was a Hamas leader at one time who boasted that the size of these tunnels exceeded something like several hundred miles, which would make it larger than the London Tube network.”
What’s happening with Gaza civilians?
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said Israeli air strikes had killed at least 7,326 people as of October 27, with at least 3,038 of them being children.
Social media footage of the Al-Quds hospital shows scores of civilians including families with tiny babies and toddlers camping in the corridors.
There are blankets and pillows lined up along the walls. Someone is gently lulling a baby to sleep in a bouncinette.
Kids roam around between the piles of shoes and the occasional electric lamp plugged in.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society – similar to Australia’s Red Cross charity – said thousands of displaced Gazans were sheltering in hospitals.
But the Israel Government has ordered its evacuation as part of an escalating series of warnings.
Fragments of evidence are emerging of life in Gaza right now – and they are bleak.
In the streets near the Al Quds hospital, a giant plume of smoke and dust rises into the air after what the Palestinians claim is an Israeli missile strike.
A video posted by local journalist Shehab Younis shows men in civilian clothing attempting to pull tonnes of rubble – including a fridge – from what appears to be a destroyed apartment building. The dust-covered face of a little girl is visible as the rescuers attempt to free her.
Is Hamas using civilians as human shields?
Israel says Hamas has deliberately placed military installations, including the tunnels, beneath civilian infrastructure including houses, hospitals and apartment buildings.
Yoni Bashan: “This is the exquisite delicacy of trying to fight a war in Gaza, where you have a densely packed population in a territory that‘s run by a nihilistic terrorist organisation called Hamas, which has no compunction about using its citizens as human shields.
“It‘s almost impossible to fight this war without the result being a very high number of civilian casualties.
“But what we do know about the Israeli Defence Force is that it goes absolutely out of its way to prevent any unnecessary loss of life, particularly among civilians.
“That’s the reality that the Israel Defence Forces face. It repeatedly implores citizens in the northern section of Gaza to leave that area, to head south of the river that divides the Gaza Strip.”
Can Gaza civilians leave the north?
There is evidence Hamas has blocked civilians leaving northern Gaza, including by blocking roads and instructing civilians to stay in those high risk areas against their will.
Yoni Bashan: “This is typical of what Hamas as a terrorist organisation does. It uses the civilian population to advance its ambitions, and in this particular case, to raise the civilian body count on the Palestinian side of the war.”
Do Palestinians support Hamas?
Hamas was elected in 2007, but Palestinians haven‘t had an opportunity to vote again in free and fair elections since then.
That makes it difficult to assess how people in Gaza feel about Hamas.
Yoni Bashan: “We have a population in Gaza that one would expect is largely subjugated by the terrorist organisation that runs the territory.
“On the other hand, the events of October seven, which were a mass murder on the scale that Israel has ever seen before, we saw people enjoying themselves on the streets of Gaza and celebrating and lighting fireworks and handing out candy and sweets.”
Bashan continued: “So we certainly know that there‘s a cohort of the Palestinian population that appreciates the work that Hamas is doing. On the other hand, I think most right thinking people would tend to believe that Palestinian citizens who just want to have an ordinary life don’t particularly appreciate being used as human shields by this organisation and having money that’s supposed to be channelled to them for the purposes of aid and education and food and medicine being channelled into tunnel networks beneath the city.”
Is aid getting into Gaza?
The global community – including former Australian prime ministers – have called for increased humanitarian aid to Gaza, particularly food, medicine and fuel.
Israel says more aid can be facilitated, but it has to be done under immense security.
Yoni Bashan: “The big problem for the Israelis is the issue of the fuel, because fuel can obviously be diverted by Hamas for use in its war ambitions against Israel.”
Early this week Israel pointed out Hamas has access to large amounts of fuel already. It has fuel stores. It‘s just not providing them to its citizens.
What’s happening in the West Bank?
The area known as the ‘West Bank’ is the a small territory along the border between Israel and Jordan, on the western side of the Jordan River.
It has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war but since 1995 it has been split into Palestinian ‘enclaves’ controlled by the Palestinian National Authority, and more than 200 Israeli ‘settlements’ controlled by Israel.
There have been reports of demonstrations and clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian civilians in this area this week.
What’s happening on Israel’s borders with Lebanon and Syria?
Israeli Defence Force soldiers and tanks are stationed on those borders in an area known as the Golan Heights and are routinely exchanging fire with militants on both sides of the border.
Anti-tank fire is also reportedly being aimed at IDF positions in Israel.
Are rockets firing into Israel?
Rocket sirens are being turned on frequently in northern Israel, warning civilians to take cover as rockets are fired from Lebanon and Jordan.
Yoni Bashan: “There‘s generally a state of high alert across the country, and the instructions are to stock the safe rooms if one is available with three days of food, water and medical supplies in case one needs to hurry into those shelters.
“The other piece of advice is that if one is to go outside, the advice is to remain in a centre where a shelter is available within 60 seconds. So in other words, if you‘re going to go to a gym or to a shopping centre or to buy groceries, do so in an area where there is a shelter within 60 seconds.
“If you‘re driving down a highway, for example, there is no shelter nearby.
The advice in that particular circumstance is to exit the vehicle and to run away from it as far as possible as one can.”
A complicating factor is that the closer Israeli citizens are to the source of the rocket, the less time there is to get to safety.
Close to the Gaza border, residents have approximately 15 seconds to get into a shelter or away from their cars when rocket sirens sound.
In other parts of Israel, including near the Lebanese border, there are fewer than 5 seconds before a rocket being launched and impact.
Yoni Bashan: “The advice that was provided to me by IDF soldiers was that if I do hear rockets, to simply just get on the floor.”
What’s happening with hostages?
Israel says more than 200 civilians are being held in Gaza, including children and elderly people from communities in southern Israel, and young revellers from the Nova dance festival.
Yoni Bashan: “The families of the hostages are really riven by fear and anger and disbelief with what the government is doing.
“There doesn‘t appear to be a huge amount of support for the Israeli military’s incursion into Gaza.
“Now, of course, the Israeli government believes that the only way it‘s going to secure the release of the hostages is by crippling Hamas militarily to a point where it has to come to the negotiating table with a reasonable offer.
“Up until now, Hamas‘s offer has essentially been one where it’s demanding that Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails be released and a cease fire be ordered.
“But of course, Israel can‘t order a ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza because it directly contradicts the aim of this mission, which is to eradicate the terrorist organisation entirely.
“A ceasefire would essentially mean a stay of execution for Hamas.
“So families have been arguing that such a deal – an everyone-for-everyone deal as it‘s known – should proceed.
“The Israeli government has decided to go with its alternative tactic, which is to enter Gaza militarily, and its belief is that its two pronged mission, one being to eliminate Hamas and the second being to recover the hostages, is the most likely to succeed on this basis.”
Is Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership in danger?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in power with a coalition of right-wing parties.
Even before the October 7 attacks, Israeli society was torn over his controversial moves, including an attempt to radically change the way the Supreme Court operates.
Yoni Bashan said Netanyahu “remains deeply unpopular with large sections of the country, and yet he still won the popular vote at the last election and was able to form that coalition government.
“Prior to the events of October seven, what was very much front of mind for Israeli society were the proposed reforms to the judicial system that the Netanyahu coalition government was seeking to have passed.
“But since the October seven massacres in southern Israel, obviously everyone‘s priorities have been clarified towards the security environment in Israel. And as Netanyahu himself says, the survival of the nation itself.
“That is how Netanyahu is framing this war with Hamas. It‘s not simply a ground incursion into Gaza to clean up the territory of this terrorist organisation.
“It‘s really a fight for the Jewish state survival, knowing that entering Gaza could trigger a regional conflict with Lebanon, with Syria, and take on a frame reminiscent of the war in 1948, when five Arab armies simultaneously attacked Israel.
Host Claire Harvey asked Yoni Bashan: “You‘ve been observing Israeli politics for a long time. Do you think Benjamin Netanyahu is sort of cynical enough to exploit this moment for his own political ends? Or do you think it’s of enough gravity that he is now acting with the best interests of, for example, the hostages in mind?”
Yoni Bashan: “Well, everyone certainly hopes that the latter part of your question is true, that Benjamin Netanyahu is behaving like the old Netanyahu of the 1990s, the true leader who emerged at a time of constant terrorist attacks and suicide bombings that were occurring in Israel.
“Everyone hopes that we‘re going to see that Benjamin Netanyahu and not the Trump-style cynical politician who would exploit a tremendous tragedy afflicting the state of Israel for his own political ambitions.
“What’s undeniable about this situation is that the October 7 massacres and the intelligence failures that occurred have made Benjamin Netanyahu‘s leadership somewhat terminal.
“But I think there is a belief across Israel, perhaps a grudging belief, that if he were somehow to succeed in his ambition to eradicate Hamas from Gaza and to somehow secure the return of all or the vast number of hostages being held, there may be a wave of goodwill extended to this particular prime minister, who up until October 7 was seen as deeply unpopular in this country.
How do Israelis feel about the war?
Claire Harvey: “You‘re in Israel, there’s obviously a lot of deeply traumatised people after witnessing or being related to or knowing some of the people who fell victim to the October seven attacks. What’s the public mood in Israel as fear grows about what’s happening now to soldiers and to civilians in Gaza?
Yoni Bashan: “The public mood generally in Israel is one of enormous sorrow. And I truly say this without exaggeration. There‘s no conversation that’s happening that does not revolve around the events of October 7, the consequences of October 7, the general sense of insecurity that everyone in the country feels as a result of October 7 and the war that’s currently occurring in Gaza, and the fate especially of the hostages.
“The overwhelming majority of Israelis who I speak to don‘t want civilians to die.
“But there is a general sense in Israel that the rest of the world does not understand what this war is about and does not understand the challenges involved in eradicating Hamas. “There seems to be a (global) perception of this terrorist organisation as one akin to a freedom fighting entity.
“It‘s a very hard image to countenance when we’ve seen the footage of what Hamas terrorists did to the civilians in southern Israel.”
Is Hamas a terrorist group?
Hamas has been designated a terror group by nations including Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel.
In Israel, many civilians struggle to understand why some people around the world do not accept this designation.
Yoni Bashan: “If the aims of the October 7 attacks were to terrorise people, then that‘s what’s happened because Israelis are scared.
“They regard Hamas as a terrorist organisation that‘s worse than ISIS, and they’re even bemused and angered as to why the rest of the world isn’t seeing them in quite the same way.”
The Australian’s free daily news podcast The Front is available wherever you get podcasts. Hear it on Apple | Spotify | The Australian’s app.
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