The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas, is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islamist political organisation with a military wing called the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. It has governed the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip since 2007.
Sheryl Kara Sandberg is an American technology executive, philanthropist, and writer. Sandberg served as chief operating officer (COO) of Meta Platforms, a position from which she stepped down in August 2022. She is also the founder of LeanIn.Org. In 2008, she was made COO at Facebook, becoming the company's second-highest-ranking official. In June 2012, she was elected to Facebook's board of directors, becoming the first woman to serve on its board. As head of the company's advertising business, Sandberg was credited for making the company profitable. Prior to joining Facebook as its COO, Sandberg was vice president of global online sales and operations at Google and was involved in its philanthropic arm Google.org. Before that, Sandberg served as research assistant to Lawrence Summers at the World Bank, and subsequently as his chief of staff when he was Bill Clinton's United States Secretary of the Treasury.
Jeffrey A. Gettleman is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. Since 2018, he has been the South Asia bureau chief of The New York Times based in New Delhi. From 2006 to July 2017, he was East Africa bureau chief for The New York Times.
Briahna Joy Gray is an American political commentator, lawyer, and political consultant. After writing for The Intercept in 2018 she started her political career as the National Press Secretary for the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign. She was the co-host of The Hill's web program Rising from September 2022 to June 7, 2024, when she was fired. She is the host of the Bad Faith podcast.
On 7 October 2023, Hamas and several other Palestinian militant groups launched coordinated armed incursions from the Gaza Strip into the Gaza Envelope of southern Israel, the first invasion of Israeli territory since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The attack coincided with the Jewish religious holiday Simchat Torah. Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups codenamed the attacks Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, while in Israel they are referred to as Black Saturday or the Simchat Torah Massacre, and internationally as the 7 October attacks.
On 7 October 2023, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian nationalist political organization Hamas, initiated a sudden attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip. As part of the attack, 364 individuals, mostly civilians, were killed and many more wounded at the Supernova Sukkot Gathering, an open-air music festival during the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret near kibbutz Re'im. Hamas also took 40 people hostage, and men and women were reportedly subject to sexual and gender-based violence.
On 7 October 2023, as part of the Hamas-led attack on Israel at the beginning of the Israel–Hamas war, Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups abducted 251 people from Israel to the Gaza Strip, including children, women, and elderly people. Almost half of the hostages are foreign nationals or have multiple citizenships, and some hostages were Negev Bedouins. The precise ratio of soldiers and civilians among the captives is unknown. The captives are likely being held in different locations in the Gaza Strip.
Since the start of the Israel–Hamas war on 7 October 2023, the UN Human Rights Council has identified "clear evidence" of war crimes by both Hamas and the Israel Defense Forces. A UN Commission to the Israel–Palestine conflict stated that there is "clear evidence that war crimes may have been committed in the latest explosion of violence in Israel and Gaza, and all those who have violated international law and targeted civilians must be held accountable." On 27 October, a spokesperson for the OHCHR called for an independent court to review potential war crimes committed by both sides.
Bearing Witness to the October 7th Massacre is a compilation by the IDF Spokesperson's Unit of raw footage from the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. The film includes footage captured from body cameras worn by Hamas militants on 7 October, and contains scenes of extreme violence recorded during and after the incursion.
Women in the Israel–Hamas war refers to the experience of Israeli and Palestinian women as victims of violence, combatants, leadership partners, and as participants in informational campaigns during the Israel–Hamas war. The conflict has been marked by violence towards women, including reports of rape and sexual violence by Hamas militants. Following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, there were testimonies and videos indicating that Hamas employed methods of severe torture, including violence and sexual violence against Israeli women and children. Close to 100 Israeli women were taken hostage and held in Gaza, leading to efforts by Israeli women and organizations to raise awareness and promote their release. The UN Secretary-General and UN Women condemned the gender-based violence against Israeli women during the attacks.
During the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Israeli women, girls, and men were reportedly subject to sexual violence, including rape and sexual assault by Hamas or other Gazan militants. The extent of sexual violence perpetuated by militants or whether sexual violence occurred at all during the attacks is disputed. Initially said to be "dozens" by Israeli authorities, they later clarified they could not provide a number. The militants involved in the attack are accused of having committed acts of gender-based violence, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Hamas has denied that its fighters committed any sexual assaults, and has called for an impartial international investigation into the accusations.
Allegations have been made that the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel constituted a genocidal massacre against Israelis. In the course of the assault, Palestinian militants attacked communities, a music festival, and military bases in the region of southern Israel known as the Gaza Envelope. The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,163 Israelis and foreigners, two thirds of whom were civilians.
On 7 October 2023, Mia Schem, a 21-year-old French-Israeli woman, was abducted by Hamas during the Re'im music festival massacre, part of the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. Her abduction, a video of her in captivity in Gaza, and subsequent release on 30 November garnered international media attention, and she became a face of the hostage crisis during the Israel–Hamas war.
Anat Schwartz is an Israeli filmmaker, television director, data analyst, and freelance writer. Her films and the films she worked on, comprising mostly short documentary and narrative films, have been screened at major festivals, including the Cannes Film Festival. She gained significant media attention outside of her film work in 2024, in the context of broader controversies around the media coverage of the Israel–Hamas war, as one of the authors of "Screams Without Words" – a New York Times article about sexual and gender-based violence in the 7 October attack on Israel – which was heavily criticized for the quality of its reporting, which further led to a social media controversy and dissent within the paper.
In December 2023, a New York Times investigation titled "'Screams Without Words': How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7" described rape and sexual violence during the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, referring to such violence as having been "weaponized" by Hamas.
Naama Levy is an Israeli soldier serving in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). On the morning of 7 October 2023, during the Hamas attack on Israel, she was abducted from the IDF surveillance base at Nahal Oz near the Gaza–Israel barrier.
The Battle of Shuja'iyya was a military engagement of the ongoing Israel-Hamas War between the Israeli Defense Forces of Israel and Hamas. The latter's allies, namely the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, also took part in the fighting. During the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, Shuja'iyya was the last district in Gaza City that had not been subject to an Israeli ground invasion, and as a result many Palestinians who had not been able to evacuate south had sought refuge in the district. Despite this, the Israel Defense Forces had shelled and bombarded targets in Shuja'iyya for weeks before invading on December 4. On the 26th of December, Israel withdrew from Shuja'iyya, announcing that the local Hamas battalion had been defeated. Despite this, militants continued to attack Israeli forces within the town.
Palestinian war crimes are the violations of international criminal law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, which the Islamist Nationalist organization Hamas and its paramilitary wing, the al-Qassam Brigades have been accused of committing. These have included murder, intentional targeting of civilians, killing prisoners of war and surrendered combatants, indiscriminate attacks, the use of human shields, rape, torture and pillage.
Tal Heinrich is a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister Office of Israel. Before the October 7th Hamas attack, Tal Heinrich was working for Israel's Channel 14 and Trinity Broadcasting Network. Before that Heinrich was one of the main anchors on i24news. Heinrich often anchored Crossroads with David Shuster. Following that she served as lead anchor for the Investigative Journal. Tal Heinrich also was one of the key experts to testify at a key UN session organized by Sheryl Sandberg. Since the beginning of the conflict Tal Heinrich has appeared on many United States network news shows such as that of Erin Burnett. Tal is fluent in Hebrew, English, and Arabic.
Death Shelters is a term used for the fortified shelters located at Re'im Junction and Alumim Junction, where dozens of young Israelis were killed and taken hostage while fleeing the Re'im music festival massacre on October 7, 2023.
