Two years of Gaza genocide: An interactive timeline

It has been almost two years since Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza following the Hamas-led attack on the Gaza envelope, the Israeli-settled regions surrounding the Palestinian territory, on 7 October 2023, killing over a thousand Israelis, many of whom were civilians, and capturing hundreds of captives, both civilians and combatants.

Hamas's stated aim of what it termed Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was to free thousands of Palestinian prisoners and end the siege of Gaza.

But the attack that shocked Israel and the world was met with an ongoing indiscriminate and disproportionate Israeli retribution campaign against the entire 2 million residents of Gaza, deliberately targeting civilians, health workers, journalists, and critical infrastructure.

Today, about 20 Israeli captives, almost all soldiers, remain alive in Hamas captivity, while Israel continues to detain thousands of Palestinians, many of whom are women and children.

Following two years of Israeli atrocities, a controversial plan put forward by US President Donald Trump to stop the war in Gaza is currently being negotiated in Cairo.

The plan would see a final prisoner exchange conducted in return for a phased Israeli withdrawal and an end to the war, followed by Hamas disarmament, international troops in Gaza, and a temporary international administration of the Strip. Not many are optimistic about its viability given Israel's stated aim of retaking Gaza and even resettling Israelis there, with many in the far-right government openly advocating ethnically cleansing the devastated region of all Palestinians. 

The New Arab tracks the key moments of what many have called a second Nakba for Palestinians, and hundreds of scholars have determined as genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza, as Israel has killed more than 60 thousand people in the besieged enclave and brought the entire population into a state of famine.