Sunday marks six months since the start of the 2023 Israel-Hamas war, which began Oct. 7 after Hamas militants launched a barrage of rockets, breached security fencing and fanned out into the countryside surrounding the Gaza Strip, killing about 1,200 people in Israel's deadliest day since its 1948 founding. Militants kidnapped more than 200 people within hours, taking them to Gaza as hostages.
The response from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli military was swift; airstrikes rained on Gaza within hours. A declaration of war came the next day, and with it a siege of the Gaza Strip.
The enclave of more than 2 million people has largely been sealed off since the war began; so too has critical access to water, electricity, food and medicine, leaving most of the population displaced and more than half facing catastrophic hunger, according to a U.N.-backed report. More than 30,000 Palestinians have been reported killed in Gaza according to the Ministry of Health.