In the early hours of October 7, 2023, Hamas militants launched a brutal air and ground assault in Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages, according to Israeli authorities. Within hours, Israel struck back and mounted an all-out war against Hamas that has claimed more than 40,000 Palestinian lives in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
After more than three decades of Israeli restrictions on the flow of both people and goods into and out of Gaza, Palestinians in the enclave Gaza were already suffering from chronic shortages of food, clean water, electricity, medicine and housing. Many lived in refugee camps after experiencing generations of displacement.
Photographers have risked their lives to show the world what is happening. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 116 journalists and media workers have been killed since the war began, making it the deadliest period for journalists since the CPJ began gathering data in 1992. Of those, 111 were Palestinian, two were Israeli and three were Lebanese.
These are some of the defining images from the Israel-Hamas war.
Credit: CNN
