October 7, 2023.

the israel-hamas war Begins.

At around 6:30 in the morning of Saturday, October 7, 2023, Hamas (The Islamic Resistance Movement) launched 3,500 rockets from the Gaza Strip and led a surprise invasion into Israel by land, air and sea. Hamas led an operation called Al-Aqsa Flood into Israeli territory by penetrating what was once considered an impenetrable border barrier also called by many as The Iron Wall. A $220 million dollar wall extending 37 miles in length around the Gaza-Israeli border made up of a 7-meter-high wall, sensors to detect underground movement, remote-controlled turrets, patrols, high tech posts, watch towers, and an underground border wall which was constructed due to the tunnels being dug by Hamas used to infiltrate Israel. Hamas accomplished its operation successfully by attacking multiple sections of the barrier by breaking through it with bombs, bulldozers, flying over it with paragliders and drone attacks in minutes disabling multiple defense turrets, communication outposts and taking over multiple kibbutz (settlements), destroying tanks, killing military personnel, and civilians.

Pro-Israel counter-protest near the Israeli embassy in Manhattan, New York City. October 9, 2023.

Over 1,200 casualties caused by Hamas were reported, although this number of casualties blamed on Hamas changed within the first three months of the conflict after a full investigations of the aftermath led by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad and the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) found that dozens if not hundreds of civilian casualties were caused by IDF soldiers, Apachee attack helicopters, and tanks during the chaos that enveloped multiple areas of Hamas’s surprise attack after examining video records of the troops and the stories told by the victims and survivors of the attack at a music festival where attacks in saferooms with grenades, executions, raping of women by multiple Hamas militants, and kidnappings took place, thus leading to the relentless bombarding campaign on Gaza by the Israeli military forces. As the world braced itself for a conflict that started at the end of the nineteenth century, and for the call of Israels government and its military operation to start in Gaza, thousands came out in protest around the world in support of both nations now at war. A new war has begun in the middle east, a nation whose neighbors have had multiple conflicts with in the past related to its conquest of Palestinian land, religion, cultural differences, illegal settling operations in the West Bank and political views considered extremist by many has reached a decision to wage total war on Hamas and the entirety of Palestine.

Palestinian protester prays near the Israeli embassy in Manhattan, New York. October 9, 2023.

Pro-Palestinian protest in front of the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan, New York. November 6, 2023.

Israelis signing, chanting, and dancing near the Israeli embassy in Manhattan, New York. October 9, 2023.

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters gather in front of the News Corporation building on the day of the Rockefeller tree lighting event just a few blocks away from the Rockefeller building. A night that ended with multiple clashes between the protesters and the New York Police Department officers. November 29/2024, Manhattan, New York.