10 Key Moments in the Israel-Hamas War

A drone view shows displaced Palestinians walking past the rubble as they attempt to return to their homes, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip, January 19, 2025. (Reuters)
A drone view shows displaced Palestinians walking past the rubble as they attempt to return to their homes, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip, January 19, 2025. (Reuters)
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10 Key Moments in the Israel-Hamas War

A drone view shows displaced Palestinians walking past the rubble as they attempt to return to their homes, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip, January 19, 2025. (Reuters)
A drone view shows displaced Palestinians walking past the rubble as they attempt to return to their homes, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in the northern Gaza Strip, January 19, 2025. (Reuters)

After the Palestinian group Hamas carried out the worst attack in Israeli history on October 7, 2023, Israel launched a devastating military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

Before a ceasefire began on Sunday, only the second truce in 15 months of war, Israel's air and ground campaign killed at least 46,899 people, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

Following are key moments in the conflict:

At dawn on October 7, hundreds of Hamas fighters infiltrate Israel, killing civilians in the streets, in their homes and at a desert music festival, and attacking troops in bases.

They seize 251 hostages and take them back to Gaza. Currently 94 are still held there, with three women due for release Sunday. Israel's military says 34 of the 94 hostages are dead.

The Hamas attacks result in the deaths of more than 1,200 people.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to destroy Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union and Israel.

Israel begins bombing and besieging Gaza. On October 13, it calls on civilians in the territory's north to move south.

The vast majority of Gazans have been displaced during the war, according to the UN.

On October 27, Israel begins a ground offensive.

On November 24, a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas begins.

Hamas releases 105 hostages, mostly Israeli but also Thai workers, in return for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

When the war resumes, Israel expands its actions into southern Gaza.

On February 29, 2024, Israeli forces fire on northern Gaza residents who rush a convoy of food aid trucks, killing 120 and wounding hundreds.

From early March military aircraft from several countries including the United States drop aid over Gaza which the UN says is threatened by famine.

On April 1, seven aid workers from US charity World Central Kitchen are killed in a strike which Israel's military calls a "tragic mistake".

On April 13, Iran pounds Israel with drones and missiles -- its first-ever direct assault on Israel's soil. The strikes are retaliation for a deadly April 1 attack on its Damascus consulate, blamed on Israel.

On July 20, Israel bombards Yemen's port of Hodeidah, after a drone attack on Tel Aviv by Iran-backed Houthi militias who have been targeting shipping since November 2023 in solidarity with Gaza.

At the Israeli-Lebanon border, almost daily exchanges since October 2023 between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah intensify in July.

Israel retaliates with several strikes, including one that kills a top Hezbollah commander, Fuad Shukr.

On July 31, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh is killed on a visit to Iran. Israel accepts responsibility months later.

On September 17 and 18, hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah explode in an Israeli operation that Lebanese authorities say kills 39 and wounds thousands.

Israel escalates its air campaign in Lebanon and on September 27 kills Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in southern Beirut.

Days later, Israel launches a ground offensive in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah strongholds.

Iran on October 1 fires a barrage of 200 missiles at Israel in response to the killing of Nasrallah and Haniyeh.

On October 16, new Hamas leader Yahya al-Sinwar, accused by Israel of masterminding the October 7, 2023 attack, is killed in southern Gaza.

On the 26th, Israeli air strikes hit military targets in Iran in response to the October 1 missile attack.

On November 14, a United Nations Special Committee says Israel's warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of "genocide". Israel accuses the UN of bias.

The International Criminal Court on November 21 issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu, former defense minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, whom the Israeli military says it killed in Gaza.

A truce begins on November 27 after two months of open war between Israel and Hezbollah which has left more than 4,000 dead on the Lebanese side since October 2023, according to official Lebanese figures.

The fragile ceasefire is breached several times, with both sides trading blame.

After the ousting of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad by opposition factions in December, Israel also conducts hundreds of strikes on Syria's military sites, saying it aims to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of "extremists".

Israel also sends troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights.

Yemen's Houthis step up missile and drone attacks on Israel which responds with new attacks on Yemen.

On January 19, a long-awaited truce between Israel and Hamas begins, with 33 hostages due to be freed during the first phase in exchange for the release of about 1,900 Palestinians in Israeli custody.

Under the truce mediated by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, thousands of war-weary displaced Palestinians begin returning to their homes through the rubble of the devastated Gaza Strip.



What Makes Greenland a Strategic Prize at a Time of Rising Tensions? And Why Now? 

A person walks on a snow covered road, ahead of the March 11 general election, in Nuuk, Greenland, March 9, 2025. (Ritzau Scanpix/Mads Claus Rasmussen via Reuters) 
A person walks on a snow covered road, ahead of the March 11 general election, in Nuuk, Greenland, March 9, 2025. (Ritzau Scanpix/Mads Claus Rasmussen via Reuters) 
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What Makes Greenland a Strategic Prize at a Time of Rising Tensions? And Why Now? 

A person walks on a snow covered road, ahead of the March 11 general election, in Nuuk, Greenland, March 9, 2025. (Ritzau Scanpix/Mads Claus Rasmussen via Reuters) 
A person walks on a snow covered road, ahead of the March 11 general election, in Nuuk, Greenland, March 9, 2025. (Ritzau Scanpix/Mads Claus Rasmussen via Reuters) 

When US President Donald Trump first suggested buying Greenland in 2019, people thought it was just a joke. No one is laughing now.

Trump’s interest in Greenland, restated vigorously soon after he returned to the White House in January, comes as part of an aggressively “America First” foreign policy platform that includes demands for Ukraine to hand over mineral rights in exchange for continued military aid, threats to take control of the Panama Canal, and suggestions that Canada should become the 51st US state.

Why Greenland? Increasing international tensions, global warming and the changing world economy have put Greenland at the heart of the debate over global trade and security, and Trump wants to make sure that the US controls this mineral-rich country that guards the Arctic and North Atlantic approaches to North America.

Who does Greenland belong to? Greenland is a self-governing territory of Denmark, a long-time US ally that has rejected Trump’s overtures. Denmark has also recognized Greenland’s right to independence at a time of its choosing.

Amid concerns about foreign interference and demands that Greenlanders must control their own destiny, the island’s prime minister called an early parliamentary election for Tuesday.

The world’s largest island, 80% of which lies above the Arctic Circle, is home to about 56,000 mostly Inuit people who until now have been largely ignored by the rest of the world.

Why are other countries interested in Greenland? Climate change is thinning the Arctic ice, promising to create a northwest passage for international trade and reigniting the competition with Russia, China and other countries over access to the region’s mineral resources.

“Let us be clear: we are soon entering the Arctic Century, and its most defining feature will be Greenland’s meteoric rise, sustained prominence and ubiquitous influence,” said Dwayne Menezes, managing director of the Polar Research and Policy Initiative.

“Greenland — located on the crossroads between North America, Europe and Asia, and with enormous resource potential — will only become more strategically important, with all powers great and small seeking to pay court to it. One is quite keen to go a step further and buy it.”

The following are some of the factors that are driving US interest in Greenland.

Arctic competition

Following the Cold War, the Arctic was largely an area of international cooperation. But climate change, the hunt for scarce resources and increasing international tensions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are once again driving competition in the region.

Strategic importance

Greenland sits off the northeastern coast of Canada, with more than two-thirds of its territory lying within the Arctic Circle. That has made it crucial to the defense of North America since World War II, when the US occupied Greenland to ensure that it didn’t fall into the hands of Nazi Germany and to protect crucial North Atlantic shipping lanes.

The US has retained bases in Greenland since the war, and the Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule Air Force Base, supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations for the US and NATO. Greenland also guards part of what is known as the GIUK (Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom) Gap, where NATO monitors Russian naval movements in the North Atlantic.

Natural resources

Greenland has large deposits of so-called rare earth minerals that are needed to make everything from computers and smartphones to the batteries, solar and wind technologies that will power the transition away from fossil fuels. The US Geological Survey has also identified potential offshore deposits of oil and natural gas.

Greenlanders are keen to develop the resources, but they have enacted strict rules to protect the environment. There are also questions about the feasibility of extracting Greenland’s mineral wealth because of the region’s harsh climate.

Climate change

Greenland’s retreating ice cap is exposing the country’s mineral wealth and melting sea ice is opening up the once-mythical Northwest Passage through the Arctic.

Greenland sits strategically along two potential routes through the Arctic, which would reduce shipping times between the North Atlantic and Pacific and bypass the bottlenecks of the Suez and Panama canals. While the routes aren’t likely to be commercially viable for many years, they are attracting attention.

Chinese interest

In 2018, China declared itself a “near-Arctic state” in an effort to gain more influence in the region. China has also announced plans to build a “Polar Silk Road” as part of its global Belt and Road Initiative, which has created economic links with countries around the world.

Then-US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected China’s move, saying: “Do we want the Arctic Ocean to transform into a new South China Sea, fraught with militarization and competing territorial claims?” A Chinese-backed rare earth mining project in Greenland stalled after the local government banned uranium mining in 2021.

Independence

The legislation that extended self-government to Greenland in 2009 also recognized the country’s right to independence under international law. Opinion polls show a majority of Greenlanders favor independence, though they differ on exactly when that should occur. The potential for independence raises questions about outside interference in Greenland that could threaten US interests in the country.