More than 3,000 Palestinians have been killed in the first eleven days of the fifth war in Gaza since 2008, according to the Palestinian health authorities. Well over 10,000 have been wounded and a thousand are still missing, mainly under the rubble of bombed buildings. At least 1,400 Israelis have also died, including 279 soldiers, with a further 3,400 wounded.
Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) has said it will launch a major operation in northern Gaza – Hamas’s military centre – to irreversibly destroy the group, whom Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu described as “bloodthirsty monsters”. At least half a million Gazans have already fled south after an evacuation order.
History suggests Gaza will experience vast devastation in the coming days. Hamas must have anticipated this when it launched an attack on Israel on 7 October, which suggests it has planned for what has followed.
