One year since Hamas attack: Israel’s ongoing conflict and challenges

On October 7, 2023, the terrorist group Hamas launched the largest attack on the Jewish people since World War II. Today marks one year since the devastating attack.

Dr. Evelyn Farkas, Executive Director of the McCain Institute, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss the latest on the Israel-Hamas war.

“It was shocking,” Dr. Farkas said. “Just the fact that this Israeli government, which has prided itself so much on having military qualitative advantage against all of its opponents in the region, was taken by surprise.”

At 6:30 a.m., Hamas conducted their attack on the Jewish state of Israel. The attack included explosives, missiles and ground attacks all over the country.

One of the most devastating ground attacks was the Re’im music festival massacre. During this attack, 364 people were killed, 40 were taken hostage and many more were wounded.

Over 250 people were taken hostage by Hamas, and only 100 remain, four of whom are Americans. Their names are Edan Alexander, Omer Neutra, Sagui Dekel-Chen and Keith Siegel.

A temporary ceasefire took effect in November 2023 and lasted for four days. Also 150 Palestinian prisoners were released and 50 hostages were released by Hamas. There have been numerous attempts at another ceasefire but have thus far not been successful.

Furthermore, Israel is engaging another terrorist group in Lebanon, Hezbollah, which has been attacking them on their north front. Israel is dealing with this as they continue their war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Since the start of the war, over 700 Israeli soldiers have been killed, with more than 26,000 rockets being fired at Israel. Just this past week, Iran fired over 200 ballistic missiles toward Israel.

This was in retaliation to the Israeli government killing Hamas’ top political leader, Ismail Haniyeh. Haniyeh was killed in Tehran, Iran, back in July, days after the induction of Iran’s new President.