Three years since October 7, Gaza has faded from headlines. All eyes are now on Israel’s elections
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This week marks three years since Hamas’ massacre of October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people, most of them Israeli civilians, were killed and 251 taken hostage.
What followed were two years of devastating war waged by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza, which a United Nations commission of inquiry, leading genocide scholars and major human rights organisations have concluded amounted to genocide. Much of the strip lies in ruins and more than 74,000 Palestinians are dead, with thousands more believed to remain buried under the rubble.
A year ago this week, a US-imposed ceasefire was finally forced on both sides – though mainly on paper. While major IDF assaults have ceased, Israeli attacks in Gaza have continued, in addition to unbridled Jewish settler violence in the West Bank.
Despite this, global attention on Gaza has waned. As the US-Israeli war with Iran began dominating the headlines, earlier pledges by many states to help drive the peace process forward have proved once again wanting, even hollow.
Now, Israel is preparing for a highly polarised parliamentary election on October 27, which could be consequential for the entire region. If a less extreme government takes office, will the world’s attention to Gaza and the West Bank – and the pressure it has generated – hold?