How the Israel-Gaza conflict is unfolding in maps, graphics and videos

Satellite images captured by Planet Labs on Oct. 16 showed how military vehicles have gathered in recent days in the Ashkelon subdistrict of Israel, north of Gaza. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops on Thursday that they would soon see Gaza “from inside,” suggesting an expected ground invasion could be nearing.

The conflict has brought fear, destruction and uncertainty for millions in the region. Here’s how the events have been unfolding.

IDF claims hundreds of strikes in Gaza as U.S. braces for regional escalation

The Israel Defense Forces said it attacked more than 320 targets in the Gaza Strip in the past day. As tensions rise in the Middle East, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned of a “likelihood” of “escalation by Iranian proxies” against U.S. forces and said that the United States is “taking steps to make sure we can effectively defend our people.”

Israel intensifies bombing on multiple fronts

Israeli warplanes hit targets across the Gaza Strip as well as two airports in Syria and a mosque in the occupied West Bank allegedly used by militants, while a second convoy of humanitarian aid reportedly began crossing into Gaza from Egypt on Sunday afternoon.

First aid convoy enters Gaza from Egypt

Aid trucks arrived in Gaza on Saturday for the first time since the start of the war, entering through Egypt’s Rafah border crossing as world leaders gathered in Cairo and Israel said it was increasing its attacks on Hamas.

Israel levels Gaza district as invasion looms

An Israeli strike damaged Gaza’s historic Church of St. Porphyrius on Friday. The church was sheltering hundreds of Palestinians displaced by the war. In the northern border, Israel’s Defense Ministry announced the evacuation of a town that has an estimated population of about 20,000.

President Biden announces Gaza aid deal

Israel pounded Gaza with more airstrikes on Thursday, as President Biden said Egypt would allow up to 20 trucks with aid through the Rafah border crossing.

Day 12 Wednesday, Oct. 18

U.S. says Israel ‘not responsible’ for hospital blast

In a statement Wednesday, White House spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said the current U.S. assessment, based on “overhead imagery, intercepts and open source information,” found that Israel was “not responsible” for the blast at the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza.

Clashes across West Bank left several Palestinians dead. Protests erupted also outside the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and in Amman, Jordan.

Palestinian, Israeli leaders trade blame for hospital attack

An attack on the al-Ahli Hospital in central Gaza City has killed hundreds of people, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Palestinian officials say an Israeli airstrike hit the hospital courtyard where displaced Gazans were taking shelter; the Israel Defense Forces blamed the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, saying “a barrage of rockets” was passing near the hospital when it was hit.

100,000 still remain in Gaza City and the north

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees estimates that 1 million people have been displaced across the Gaza Strip. Approximately 100,000 still remain in Gaza City and the north despite Israel’s evacuation directive.

Evacuations in southern Lebanon

The Israeli Defense Ministry on Monday released a list of 28 communities along the northern border of Lebanon to begin evacuating to state-funded accommodations. The communities are mostly within 1.2 miles of the Lebanese border.

Israel has long been enemies with Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah and the two sides have intermittently shelled each other. Skirmishes between the two have been routine for decades, but tensions have been high since the Israel-Gaza war that began Oct. 7. The Israel Defense Forces said earlier Monday that it had struck Hezbollah military infrastructure in Lebanon overnight in retaliation for an attack on Israeli territory Sunday.

Troops spotted near the border

As a ground invasion looms, Israeli troops and armored vehicles were seen in multiple locations near the northern and eastern borders with Gaza on Saturday and Sunday.

Several vehicles amassed in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon. Tanks were also spotted in Nahal Oz, an Israeli town near Gaza City.

Gaza residents flee south

The main roads running north to south were crowded for a second day Saturday after the Israeli military called for civilians to move south of the Wadi Gaza wetlands through designated streets. Many fled on foot.

But some civilians refused to leave northern Gaza, fearing that escape routes are too dangerous. Hamas’s media office said airstrikes hit cars as they headed south from Gaza City, killing 70 people.

Israel calls for evacuations

Israel told the 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza to move south within 24 hours, a warning the United Nations called impossible “without devastating humanitarian consequences.” Included in the directive was Gaza City, the strip’s most densely populated area.

The call came as Israel continued to pummel the strip with bombs and the death toll surged past 1,500. The United Nations said an estimated 600,000 people are displaced to the southern half of Gaza, though this number is likely an undercount.

With exits to Israel and Egypt closed, Gazans have nowhere to go. A mass evacuation “could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation,” the United Nations said.

Preparing for a ground assault

Israeli tanks deployed to the border with Gaza, and reservists arrived for duty at the Julis military base near Ashkelon.

Meanwhile, the Israeli bombardment of Gaza continued.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the IDF, said in a televised briefing that Israel would no longer allow Hamas to exist next door.

“Unlike other operations, we are collapsing the governance and sovereignty of the Hamas organization,” he said.

Deep underground, in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, medics lined up hospital beds and braced for the possibility of a wider regional escalation. After rocket fire from Syria earlier in the week, Israel launched missile strikes on two of the nation’s main airports, authorities in Damascus said.

Israeli strikes on Gaza intensified, many concentrated in heavily populated areas in the north. The death toll surpassed 1,100 people, and more than 263,000 people were displaced across the strip. The United Nations announced 11 workers were killed.

Some of the most devastating strikes Israel has carried out in Gaza

Palestinian authorities said Gaza’s only power plant had run out of fuel and was no longer operating.

Israel provides Gaza with power in two ways. Gaza’s power plant runs on imported diesel fuel. There are also 10 direct power lines from Israel to Gaza. Now, both sources were cut off.

Scenes of more destruction

Bodies in Israel were still being found. After 2½ days of intense fighting in Kfar Azza — one of the first towns attacked — soldiers escorted journalists through scenes of utter ruin. Homes were burned, cars were smashed, and the air smelled of death.

Israeli commanders said they had gained control of the border around Gaza, but Hamas continued to fire rockets into Israel, even as IDF airstrikes targeted militant infrastructure and command posts. The military said it had carried out more than 2,000 strikes across Gaza since Saturday, killing hundreds of Palestinians.

Israel pledged to focus its fire on Hamas fighters and abide by international law. Two members of Hamas’s political office were killed.

But mosques, hospitals, residential buildings and international aid groups were also hit.

A ‘complete siege’ of Gaza

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza, saying Israel would cut off supplies of power, food and gas.

Gazans have lived for 16 years under an Israeli blockade supported by Egypt and are heavily dependent on Israel for electricity and other basic services. Cutting off gas and power could leave many residents not only without electricity, but also without clean drinking water, proper sanitation and health care.

Israel ordered a ‘complete siege’ of Gaza. Here’s what that looks like.

U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk would a day later condemn the siege, saying that depriving civilians of “goods essential for their survival is prohibited under international humanitarian law.”

As airstrikes on Gaza continued, fleeing Palestinians saw their last hope erased. Strikes near the Rafah crossing with Egypt, the last route out of the territory, closed the checkpoint indefinitely, leaving civilians with nowhere to go.

Fighting continues, death toll rises

Fighting continued with militant holdouts inside Israel as the country formally declared war on Hamas. Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group that is allied with Hamas, fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces launched a punishing campaign of airstrikes on Gaza, displacing thousands of people in the first 24 hours.

In Israel, the death toll continued to rise. More than 250 bodies were recovered at the site of a trance music festival held just three miles away from the Gaza border. Survivors described tired festivalgoers running for their lives in a wide-open field as militants gunned them down.

Early Saturday morning, under the cover of thousands of rockets, Hamas militants breached Israel’s high-tech “smart wall” and went on a killing rampage in small towns across southern Israel.

How Hamas breached Israel’s ‘Iron Wall’

The ambush took Israeli forces by surprise. Officials said the attackers overran more than 20 communities. It took the military 10 hours to arrive in some towns. By that point, hundreds of civilians were already dead. Militants are believed to have taken more than 100 hostages into Gaza.

Maps and videos show how the deadly surprise attack on Israel unfolded