By Yves Modeste Ngue and Sean Ferguson
Today marks one year since Hamas stormed the Nova music festival in Israel, capturing 251 hostages and killing another 364 revellers. Around 900 other Israelis were then murdered by Hamas gunmen across the country, including 300 Israeli soldiers.
12 months later, over 8,700 Israelis have been injured and out of the hostages kidnapped, 97 are still yet to return.
The attack resulted in the Israeli government launching a war against Hamas which involved missiles being fired into the Gaza strip followed by a ground offensive.
In Palestine’s Gaza strip and the West Bank, around 40,000 have lost their lives because of the conflict.
According to the UN, the war has damaged or destroyed over 92 per cent of Gaza’s main roads and more than 84 percent of its facilities.
The crisis then extended into Lebanon, where the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) took its campaign into the country north of Israel. Its strategy was similar to that seen with Palestine and involved missile and drone attacks followed by a ground invasion which witnessed tunnels destroyed by troops.
Lebanon Health Minister has said ‘over 2,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Lebanon which include 127 children and 261 woman’.
The conflict hit home when Scotland has also lost one of its citizen in the war. Bernard Cowan, originally from Newton Mearns in East Renfrewshire, was was shot by Hamas whilst sitting in his dining room in the October 7th attacks. He had been hiding in his house when the terrorists stormed his house in Kibbutz Sufa, south of Israel.
Former Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf’s family were in Gaza when the war started, but luckily for them, managed to escape and return home.
Many countries are now involved in the conflict
The escalation has grown with attacks in Lebanon by Israel and in Iran’s capital. Earlier this month, Iran launched an unprecedented attack against Israel, firing a barrage of missiles at the country in response to deadly Israeli attacks against people in Gaza and Lebanon. There has been the assassination of top IRGC Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and Yemen’s Houthi militants have also fired missiles and drones at Israel repeatedly in what they say is solidarity with the Palestinians.
UN involvement
The United Nations has been working in the Middle East region around the clock to de-escalate the Israeli-Palestinian crisis by providing emergency assistance to civilians on the ground. Leaders of the international community pleased for an immediate ceasefire at the 79th session of the UN general Assembly after calling all parties to find ways to stop the conflict. They also demanded for an immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and the beginning of an irreversible process towards a two-state solution. The UK prime minister has said that “the solution is diplomatic”.
And let us not forgot about those who have sacrificed their lives in order to report on what’s been happening. At least 130 journalists and media workers have been killed making it the deadliest period for journalists since the Committee to Protect Journalists began gathering data in 1992.
