The Israeli military said on Monday it had carried out airstrikes on several Hezbollah targets in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, killing five militants according to the Lebanese authorities.
The sites were used by Hezbollah for training, to prepare attacks against Israeli soldiers and store weapons in violation of agreements between Israel and Lebanon, the Israeli military said.
According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, the Israeli raids left at least five people dead and five others wounded, based on a preliminary toll.
Lebanese security sources said all the casualties were members of Hezbollah.
The Israeli army said it would continue to strike Hezbollah positions to prevent the group from re-establishing its military capabilities and to eliminate threats against Israel.
The European Union has proscribed Hezbollah’s military wing as a terrorist organization but not the wider political group.
This week on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog joins after an exchange of airstrikes and missiles between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Plus, Margaret Brennan speaks to former Trump administration official H.R. McMaster as the 2024 campaign enters a new phase.
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s often-fractious press corps was united in anger this week over comments by Tom Barrack, the U.S. special envoy to Syria, who warned journalists against “animalistic” behavior and told them to “act civilized.”
Faced with a media scrum during a news conference held Tuesday in the Lebanese capital Beirut with a congressional delegation, Barrack strode to the podium and peremptorily told reporters they were “going to have a different set of rules.”
“The moment that this starts becoming chaotic — like animalistic — we’re gone,” he said. “You want to know what’s happening? Act civilized, act kind, act tolerant, because this is the problem with what’s happening in the region.”
Barrack is a real estate investor of Lebanese descent who, along with his Syria duties, serves as U.S. ambassador to Turkey.
It exposes a hollow, patronizing mentality that sees the Lebanese not as partners but as ‘rabble’ who must be disciplined
— Diana Moukalled, Lebanese journalist
Barrack was accompanied by deputy envoy Morgan Ortagus, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) and is visiting Beirut to pressure the government into making real its plans to disarm Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group.
The mood in the room wasn’t especially raucous, but apparently it wasn’t quiet enough for a clearly irritated Barrack, who said, “Do you think this is fun for us? Do you think this is economically beneficial for Morgan and I to be here, putting up with this insanity?”
One aim of the news conference was to announce that Israel had no plans to occupy Lebanon and that Saudi Arabia and Qatar were prepared to invest in an economic zone in south Lebanon to provide jobs to former Hezbollah fighters. But for many Lebanese, Barrack’s comments took center stage.
Reporters took to social media to excoriate Barrack for acting like a “19th-century colonial commissioner,” as one enraged journalist, Hala Jaber, put it.
“It exposes a hollow, patronizing mentality that sees the Lebanese not as partners but as ‘rabble’ who must be disciplined,” wrote Diana Moukalled, a Lebanese journalist who is a founding partner in local media outlet Daraj, adding that whoever wants to help Lebanon should first respect the press.
“Insults are not a negotiating tool,” Moukalled wrote. “We are not props for a diplomatic spectacle, and anyone who demands that Lebanon become a strong state must endure the questions of its press, regardless of their opinion of it.”
Later Tuesday, the office of Lebanese President Joseph Aoun issued an oblique statement expressing “regret for the statements inadvertently made from its platform by one of its guests today,” while reaffirming its “full appreciation for all journalists.”
The union of journalists in Lebanon condemned Barrack’s remarks as reflecting “an ingrained colonial arrogance towards the peoples of the region.”
“We demand that Mr. Barrack issue an official and public apology for his actions toward the journalists, and we demand that the U.S. Embassy in Beirut take a position regarding these unacceptable actions with the media,” the statement said. It called for a boycott of news conferences involving Barrack until he apologized.
It wouldn’t be the first time 78-year-old Barrack has exhibited a less-than-rosy view of the region — in a July interview with the New York Times, he said the administration had “little patience for the region’s resistance to helping itself” — but the furor now comes at a delicate time for U.S. diplomacy in the region. Washington is pushing the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah, with the hope that Israel and Lebanon would normalize relations.
Hezbollah, which the U.S. designates a terrorist group, fought Israel after Hamas attacked on Oct. 7, 2023, in a war that escalated into a full-blown Israeli invasion of Lebanon late last year. After a ceasefire in November, Israel withdrew from most of southern Lebanon, save for five points on the Lebanese side of the border. Meanwhile, Israel has continued near-daily attacks, which the Israeli military says are needed to prevent Hezbollah from reconstituting its arsenal.
This month, the Lebanese cabinet tasked the army with making plans to disarm Hezbollah. The group denounced the cabinet’s decision, saying it won’t give up arms while Israel still occupies land and has not fully implemented November’s ceasefire agreement. Critics accuse the Lebanese government of being submissive to Washington — with Barrack’s tirade adding to their arguments.
“We strongly condemn the logic of American arrogance and its condescension towards our media professionals,” said Ibrahim Musawi, a Hezbollah-affiliated lawmaker who heads Parliament’s media and communications committee.
But he also reserved some anger for the Lebanese government, saying that this was another series in its “squandering of national sovereignty.”
The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza said dozens of civilians were killed in an Israeli airstrike. CBS News senior foreign correspondent Holly Williams reports on the U.S. response and de-escalation efforts in the Middle East.
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Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group announced Tuesday that Naim Qassem, a deputy to its slain long-time leader Hassan Nasrallah, will helm the Iran-backed organization. Qassem has been serving as the group’s acting leader since Nasrallah’s death.
“Hezbollah’s (governing) Shura Council agreed to elect … Sheikh Naim Qassem as secretary general of Hezbollah,” the militant group said in a statement on Tuesday.
There was initial speculation that the head of Hezbollah’s executive council, Hashem Safieddine, would succeed Nasrallah, but he was killed in another Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs in October.
Qassem, 71, was among the founding members of Hezbollah in 1982 and has served as the party’s second in command since the group entered the political realm in the early 1990’s, according to The Counter Extremism Project, an international organization. He was born in 1953, and his family is from the village of Kfar Fila, on the border with Israel.
Nasrallah, who only gave speeches via video because of his fear of assassination, led the terrorist group for 30 years with fiery rhetoric. Qassem was the most senior Hezbollah official to continue making public appearances after Nasrallah largely went into hiding following the group’s 2006 war with Israel, and was seen as the group’s leading media personality, the Counter Extremism Project said.
Since Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli air strike on September 27, Qassem has made three televised addresses, speaking in more formal Arabic than the Lebanese dialect favored by Nasrallah.
After military-on-military attacks, will Israel and Iran be able to contain their conflict? Maria Abi-Habib, an investigative correspondent for The New York Times, looks at an unprecedented new chapter in the Middle East.
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Maria Abi-Habib, Christina Shaman, Nikolay Nikolov and Laura Salaberry
A defense official told CBS News that the U.S. was given a heads-up in advance of Israel’s retaliatory attack against Iran. The U.S. is not involved in the strikes, but President Biden has been briefed on the situation. Ed O’Keefe, CBS News senior White House and political correspondent, and Sam Vinograd, CBS News national security contributor, have more.
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In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces said its retaliatory attack on Iran was limited to “precise strikes on military targets.” CBS News national security contributor Sam Vinograd CBS News and chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan join to break down what it means.
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Nabatiyeh, southern Lebanon — Israel’s military said Tuesday that it had killed Hashem Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council who’d been seen as a possible next leader of the group, in an airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiya three weeks ago. That was just days after the Israel Defense Forces killed the Iran-backed, U.S. and Israeli-designated terrorist group’s long-time leader Hassan Nasrallah in a different airstrike in Lebanon.
Many of the group’s leaders have been killed over the last month and a half, including three more commanders just this week, but the fighting still rages in Lebanon. The Lebanese health ministry says almost 2,000 people have been killed since Israel dramatically ramped up its assault on Hezbollah in mid-September.
There were more airstrikes on Beirut overnight, and with each one, teams of first responders jump into ambulances and head straight for the buildings reduced to rubble. CBS News met some of the medical workers who risk their own lives to save people in the war zone.
While rushing into danger is second nature to them, Hussein Fakih, who leads the rescue team in the southern town of Nabatiyeh, less than 10 miles from the Israeli border, claims he and his fellow medics are being deliberately targeted by Israeli forces. He was seriously wounded by an Israeli missile that struck next to their base.
Hussein Fakih, who leads the Lebanese Civil Defense rescue team in the southern town of Nabatiyeh, is seen in a file photo at the scene of an Israeli airstrike.
Courtesy of Nussein Fakih/Lebanese Civil Defense
He said that for months after Oct. 8, 2023, when Israel started bombing Hezbollah targets in response to the group’s incessant rocket and drone launches against Israel — more than 13,000 over the last year, according to the IDF — his team did not feel directly threatened. But Fakih said that changed more recently, and the IDF “started targeting directly the places the teams are working. More than once.”
“Our vehicles are clearly marked with the internationally recognized symbols for rescue workers,” he said it seems to provide no protection.
Fakih’s nephew Hussein Jaber is also a first responder. Seeing so much death up close has been tough for him, and harder still when it was one of his own.
The “worst day,” he said, was just last week, when an Israeli strike hit next to their base, wounding his colleague Naji Fahs.
“He was married and had two children. Was about 50 years old,” said Jaber. “He was a few meters away from me. Unfortunately, he was wounded in an airstrike that was right next to our station and he died. May he rest in peace.”
Fakih told CBS News that eight members of his team had been killed and 35 wounded over the last month alone, “plus 90% of our equipment was hit and was broken.”
“Our job is to help people,” Jaber said. “To keep them safe… Our colleagues died and our friends are wounded, and we were wounded, too, but we will continue to help the people and protect their livelihoods. In fact, this gives us greater incentive to continue our humanitarian mission.”
Lebanese Civil Defense first responder Hussein Jaber and CBS News correspondent Debora Patta react to the sound of an Israeli airstrike nearby as they speak in Nabatiyeh, southern Lebanon, in late October 2024.
CBS News
As CBS News finished interviewing Jaber, there was a strike nearby. Duty called, and just like that, Jaber was off.
Two hours later, he raced to yet another emergency scene.
“Anyone there?” he called out into the pile of rubble. He and his colleagues pulled 12 bodies from the rubble.
Shortly after carrying out that grim work, Jaber was wounded in another Israeli strike.
Lebanese Civil Defense team member Hussein Jaber is treated for injuries sustained in an Israeli airstrike near Nabatiyeh, southern Lebanon, in late October 2024.
CBS News
His injuries were minor, and the team is so short-staffed that he went straight back to work.
According to United Nations humanitarian agencies, at least 87 health care workers had been killed in the country as of Oct. 10, and ambulances and relief centers had been “targeted or hit in Lebanon, causing further casualties.” According to CBS News’ own count, that death toll has risen to at least 120.
87 #healthcare workers were killed so far & 98 health facilities closed across #Lebanon.
CBS News asked the IDF about the civil defense teams’ claims that they’re being directly targeted. In a statement, the military said it “operates in strict accordance with international law. It must be emphasized, however, that Hezbollah unlawfully embeds its military assets into densely populated civilian areas, and cynically exploits civilian infrastructure for terror purposes.”
The IDF said, as it has many times about its operations in both Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, that it makes “all feasible efforts to mitigate harm to civilians during operational activity,” including by giving “advanced warnings to civilians in Lebanon where Hezbollah embedded its military assets and weapons.”
While the IDF does often issue evacuation orders ahead of strikes, Lebanese rescuers and civilians have told CBS News that such warnings are not always issued before missiles slam into residential areas.
Debora Patta is a CBS News foreign correspondent based in Johannesburg. Since joining CBS News in 2013, she has reported on major stories across Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Edward R. Murrow and Scripps Howard awards are among the many accolades Patta has received for her work.
Classified documents apparently detailing Israel’s planned response to Iran’s Oct. 1, 2024, attack were leaked, House Speaker Mike Johnson said. This comes as Israel continues operations in Lebanon against Hezbollah, and as Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepares for another trip to the Middle East. CBS News’ Ramy Inocencio reports.
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Israeli strikes on multiple homes in northern Gaza overnight and into Sunday left at least 87 people dead or missing, the territory’s Hamas-run Health Ministry said.
It said another 40 people were wounded in the strikes on the town of Beit Lahiya, which was among Israel’s first targets nearly a year ago.
Israel has been carrying out a large-scale operation in northern Gaza for the last two weeks, saying Hamas has regrouped there. Palestinian officials say hundreds of people have been killed and that the health sector in the north is on the verge of collapse.
Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli airstrike the previous night in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip on October 20, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group.
ISLAM AHMED/AFP via Getty Images
Meanwhile, the U.S. is urging Israel to press for a cease-fire in Gaza following the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week. Neither Israel nor Hamas has shown any renewed interest in such a deal. Months of negotiations led by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar sputtered to a halt in August.
Iran supports Hamas and the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, where a year of escalating tensions boiled over last month. Israel sent ground troops into Lebanon at the start of October.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had a call with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant on Saturday, the Pentagon said in a statement, during which they discussed “regional security developments” including the recent deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system. During the call, Austin told Gallant that he was “relieved” Netanyahu was safe after the drone attack.
Former President Donald Trump said during a rally on Saturday that he spoke with Netanyahu.
In a statement to CBS News, the prime minister’s office confirmed the conversation took place and said Netanyahu “reiterated what he has also said publicly: Israel takes into account the issues the U.S. administration raises, but in the end, will make its decisions based on its national interests.”
Israel has meanwhile ramped up strikes on southern neighborhoods of Beirut known as the Dahiyeh, a crowded residential area. Hezbollah has a strong presence there, but it is also home to large numbers of civilians and people unaffiliated with the militant group.
Austin has called civilian casualties in Lebanon “far too high” in the Israel-Hezbollah war and urged Israel to scale back some strikes, especially in and around Beirut.
There was no immediate comment on the strikes in Beit Lahiya from the Israeli military, which said it was “continuing to operate across Gaza in both aerial strikes and ground operations.”
Among the dead were two parents and their four children, and a woman, her son and her daughter-in-law and their four children, according to Raheem Kheder, a medic. He said the strike flattened a multi-story building and at least four neighboring houses.
A Palestinian boy receives treatment at the Kamal Adwan Hospital after an Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip on October 19, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group.
ISLAM AHMED/AFP via Getty Images
Doctors Without Borders, the international charity known by its French acronym MSF, called on Israeli forces “to immediately stop their attacks on hospitals in North Gaza” after the Health Ministry said Israeli troops had fired on two hospitals over the weekend.
The military said it was operating near one of the hospitals but had not fired directly at it, and that it was looking into the other incident.
“The ever-worsening escalation of violence and non-stop Israeli military operations that we have been witnessing over the past two weeks in northern Gaza have horrifying consequences,” said Anna Halford, an emergency coordinator for MSF.
“When hospitals are attacked, their infrastructure destroyed, and the electricity cut off, the lives of patients and medical staff are under threat.”
The north has already suffered the heaviest destruction of the war and has been encircled by Israeli forces since late last year, following the deadly Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Most of the population fled last year, but around 400,000 people are believed to have remained in the north.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish combatants from civilians. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said Thursday that Israeli forces had opened fire on several of its installations in the area, as tension between the global body and Israel mounted amid escalating Israeli military operations against the Iran-backed group Hezbollah.
“UNIFIL’s Naqoura headquarters and nearby positions have been repeatedly hit. This morning, two peacekeepers were injured after an IDF [Israel Defense Forces] Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower at UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura, directly hitting it and causing them to fall,” the UNIFIL mission said in a statement posted on social media. “The injuries are fortunately, this time, not serious, but they remain in hospital.”
In a statement, the IDF said Hezbollah “operates from within and near civilian areas in southern Lebanon, including areas near UNIFIL posts” and the IDF “maintains routine communication with UNIFIL.”
“This morning (Thursday), IDF troops operated in the area of Naqoura, next to a UNIFIL base,” the statement said. “Accordingly, the IDF instructed the UN forces in the area to remain in protected spaces, following which the forces opened fire in the area.”
“We remind the IDF and all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property and to respect the inviolability of UN premises at all times,” UNIFIL said Thursday.
United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL) armored personnel carriers depart a base to patrol in southern Lebanon, near the Lebanon-Israel border known as the Blue Line, on Oct. 5, 2024.
Carl Court/Getty
Several hundred of the UNIFIL forces deployed across southern Lebanon are Irish, but the country’s military said Thursday that none had been injured by IDF fire, and none of their positions targeted. Ireland’s leader, Simon Harris, released a statement, nonetheless, saying he was “deeply concerned by reports that the Israeli Defence Forces have fired at UNIFIL positions at its headquarters in Naqoura.”
“Firing on peacekeepers can never be tolerated or acceptable,” said Harris. “The Blue Helmet worn by UN peacekeepers must be sacrosanct. They are serving on behalf of the international community in some of the most challenging places in the world. They are not combatants, and their role must be respected at all times.”
Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said reports about UNIFIL being targeted “are concerning,” but did not comment on it further at a briefing Thursday.
UNFIL said among the incidents in recent days, “IDF soldiers deliberately fired at and disabled” perimeter-monitoring cameras operated by the peacekeeping mission, and “they also deliberately fired on UNP 1-32A,” a military facility in Naqoura, where it said “regular Tripartite meetings were held before the conflict began,” damaging lighting and a relay station.”
Italy also protested to Israel about its troops firing on U.N. forces, the Reuters news agency said, quoting Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto as saying any fire at UNIFIL bases was “totally unacceptable” and a clear violation of international law.
The French foreign ministry also issued a statement Thursday voicing its “deep concern following the Israeli shots that hit” the UNIFIL forces, saying it “condemns any attack on the security of UNIFIL” and was waiting for “explanations from the Israeli authorities.” The ministry said none of the 700 French peacekeepers deployed with the mission were among those wounded.
The UNIFIL mission has been deployed in southern Lebanon for more than 45 years, but tension between Israel and the peacekeeping force has increased as the IDF has stepped up its assault on Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. The U.N. force has been tasked since 1978 with ensuring security on the Lebanese side of the so-called Blue Line, the de-facto border established by U.N. resolutions to end a previous war between Israel and Hezbollah, when the IDF pulled out of Lebanon. Israeli officials have recently accused UNIFIL of failing in its mission, allowing Hezbollah to entrench for decades along the border.
IDF operations — both devastating airstrikes and ground operations, have increased dramatically over the last two weeks, with thousands of Israeli forces deployed to the northern border. At least 10 IDF soldiers have been killed in the operations. The airstrikes have also hit the southern Beirut suburbs, which, along with the south, have long been considered Hezbollah strongholds, and the Bekaa Valley east of the capital.
A standoff between UNIFIL and Israel has been playing out for weeks, since the IDF sent in ground forces. UNIFIL forces have remained in their posts across southern Lebanon during the escalating operations, despite warnings to pull back.
Getty/iStockphoto
The U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon, and the head of UNIFIL, called on Tuesday for an urgent negotiated solution to the crisis along the Israel-Lebanon border. The statement from Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and UNIFIL commander Lt. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro came exactly one year after Hezbollah started launching rockets and drones at northern Israel in support of its Hamas allies in the Gaza Strip.
At the end of September, with its war against Hamas in Gaza still raging, Israel dramatically ramped up its fight against Hezbollah — a powerful, well-armed Iranian proxy group deeply embedded in Lebanon’s politics — in response to the group launching more than 10,000 rockets at Israel in support of Hamas over the last year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the objective of the operations across the Blue Line is to drive Hezbollah fighters and weapons back far enough from Israel’s northern border to stop the hail of rocket fire, to enable tens of thousands of Israelis to return to their deserted homes in the region. The IDF said the cross-border ground operations, launched at the end of September in southern Lebanon, would be “limited, localized, and targeted ground raids based on precise intelligence.”
Lebanese officials say Israel’s military has killed at least 2,141 people in the country since Oct. 8, 2024 – about half of them since the assault escalated less than two weeks ago, and at least 22 in strikes on Wednesday alone. More than 10,000 others have been wounded, according to the country’s health ministry.
“Too many lives have been lost, uprooted, and devastated, while civilians on both sides of the Blue Line are left wanting for security and stability,” the two U.N. officials said in their Tuesday statement. “Today, one year later, the near-daily exchanges of fire have escalated into a relentless military campaign whose humanitarian impact is nothing short of catastrophic…A negotiated solution is the only pathway to restore the security and stability that civilians on both sides so desperately want and deserve.”
What is UNIFIL?
UNIFIL is the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. The peacekeeping mission was established in 1978 as part of the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon. Its mission is to help the Lebanese government return to authority in the area, and restore international peace and security.
UNIFIL peacekeepers are also tasked with making sure their area of operation is free of hostile activities of any kind and to protect humanitarian workers and civilians under imminent threat of physical violence.
On October 1, Israel notified UNIFIL of its intention to begin limited ground incursions in southern Lebanon. The Irish military said previously that its troops deployed with UNIFIL “remain steadfast in their determination and resilence to fulfill the mission.”
UNIFIL has about 10,500 peacekeepers from 50 countries. IDF ground forces have been operating close to UN Post 6-52 recently, where about 30 Irish UNIFIL peacekeepers are stationed. Ireland’s leader said Thursday that all of the Irish forces in Lebanon were “continuing to carry out their mission with distinction, despite the extremely difficult circumstances.”
UNIFIL peacekeepers stand guard, holding the flag of the United Nations, by the border at the Kafr Shuba region, considered a disputed area between Lebanon and Israel, in the town of Kafr Shuba in Nabatieh Governorate, Lebanon, in an Aug. 28, 2023 file photo.
Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu Agency/Getty
Since Israel launched its incursion into southern Lebanon, there have been clashes between IDF troops and Hezbollah in the town of Maroun El-Ras, Yaroun and Naqoura, and UNIFIL has called the situation dangerous and unacceptable.
What is the Blue Line?
UNIFIL peacekeepers operate within the area marked by the 75-mile long Blue Line, in southern Lebanon. It is not an official international border, but has been intended for almost five decades to keep Lebanese and Israeli armed forces at a safe distance from each other.
Either side, Israel or Hezbollah, crossing or firing across the Blue Line without permission from the Lebanese government is a violation of U.N. Resolution 1701, though such crossfire has been a near daily occurrence since Oct. 8, 2023. The frontier is also sometimes crossed by Lebanese farmers and villagers, because it is not always clearly marked.
Tucker Reals is CBSNews.com’s foreign editor, based in the CBS News London bureau. He has worked for CBS News since 2006, prior to which he worked for The Associated Press in Washington D.C. and London.
The Iranian-backed group Hamas, long designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Israel, launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The massacre of some 1,200 people ignited a devastating war in the Gaza Strip, a densely-packed Palestinian territory that had been ruled by Hamas for almost two decades. The Hamas-run Ministry of Health says Israeli military operations in Gaza since Oct. 7 have killed almost 42,000 people.
Below is a timeline showing some of the key events in the year that has passed since many Israelis’ sense of security was shattered on that Saturday morning.
October 7, 2023
The ruling Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip carries out an unprecedented, multi-front attack on Israel at daybreak, infiltrating the heavily fortified border in several locations by air, land and sea, catching the country off-guard on the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah. The stunning attack sees Hamas terrorists and other militants kill more than 1,200 people, including 43 U.S. nationals. Israel says 251 others were taken hostage during the attack, with many of the abductions captured on cameras worn by the terrorists themselves and then circulated on social media. “We are at war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces in a televised address later that morning, declaring a mass mobilization of the country’s army reserves. Israel launches retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza, saying it is targeting Hamas fighters and weapons, almost immediately.
On the third day of fighting after Hamas’ surprise rocket and ground incursion into Israel, and as Israel continues to bombard Hamas targets in Gaza from the air, Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant orders a complete siege of the Gaza Strip, saying authorities will cut electricity and block the entry of all food and fuel.
Israel’s military orders the total evacuation of northern Gaza — a region home to roughly 1.1 million people, or almost half of the Palestinian enclave’s total population — within 24 hours, as it plans to ramp up operations in the area.
The first of what would become many disturbing hostage videos over the course of the war is shared by Hamas on its Telegram messaging app channel. The video shows 21-year-old French-Israeli national Mia Shem lying on a bed with her injured right arm appearing to be treated by somebody out of the camera’s view. Shem appears distressed as she speaks directly to the camera, saying she’s been taken to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and pleading to be returned to her family. Shem’s mother tells CBS News she can see her daughter’s pain, and hopes the video is an indication of Hamas’ willingness to negotiate a hostage release deal.
Health officials in Gaza say hundreds of people are killed in a huge blast at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, and Israeli and Palestinian officials trade accusations over who is responsible for the devastating explosion. U.S. intelligence officials say between 100 and 300 people were likely killed in the blast, which Palestinian officials blame on an Israeli airstrike. Israeli officials say they did not target a hospital and that an intelligence review indicates the explosion was caused by a rocket launched by the Hamas-allied militant group Islamic Jihad that fell short. President Biden says soon after the explosion that, from what he’s seen, it appears as though it was not caused by an Israeli strike.
Prime Minister Netanyahu, during a televised news conference, announces a “new phase” in the war, sending ground forces into Gaza and expanding attacks from the ground, air and sea.
Israeli airstrikes hit the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, killing dozens of Palestinian civilians and a Hamas commander. An Israel Defense Forces statement says the strike killed Ibrahim Biari, a key Hamas militant leader of the “murderous terror attack” on Oct. 7. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says at least 50 Palestinians are killed in the refugee camp blast and over 100 more are wounded.
Israeli troops enter al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the largest hospital in Palestinian territory. The raid sparks international outrage, with The World Health Organization calling al-Shifa a “death zone.” The IDF later shows CBS News and other outlets a tunnel entrance and weapons, which it says is proof that Hamas fighters had used the hospital as a command center.
Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen hijack the Galaxy Leader, an Israeli-linked cargo ship, and take crew members hostage. It marks the first of many attacks on shipping in the Red Sea launched by the militant group as a protest against the war in Gaza.
For the first time, a group of hostages taken captive by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel is released from Gaza. They are freed hours after a four-day cease-fire in the war takes effect. Thirteen hostages are freed in total, and more than three dozen Palestinians are released from Israeli jails as part of the deal.
The IDF say troops have entered Gaza’s second-largest city, Khan Younis, marking another bloody new phase of the war. The IDF says its forces are “in the heart” of Khan Younis — the first target in its expanded ground offensive into southern Gaza, which Israel says is aimed at destroying Hamas.
Three hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are mistakenly killed by friendly fire, the Israeli military says. During combat operations in Shejaiya, a densely packed neighborhood near Gaza City, the Israeli military says troops “mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat.” Troops fired at the three and they were killed, the IDF says. The military told CBS News the events occurred during a period of “intense combat,” with Hamas militants operating in what an official described as civilian attire. There were “a lot of ambushes” and “a lot of deceptions,” the IDF official said.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says an Israeli airstrike kill at least 70 people at the Al-Maghazi refugee camp, with at least 30 others killed in strikes elsewhere across the Palestinian territory. The ongoing strikes come as Christmas observances in Bethlehem, revered as the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, are largely scrapped amid the conflict.
South Africa formally accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, filing a case with the United Nation’s International Court of Justice in the Hague. It could take the world court years to issue a ruling on whether genocide has been committed. Israel quickly seeks the dismissal of the case, calling it a “false and baseless” defense of Hamas.
An Israeli intelligence document shared with CBS News and other Western news outlets lays out allegations against a dozen U.N. employees whom Israel accuses of participating in Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack. The document claims seven staff members of UNRWA, the U.N. humanitarian agency for Palestinian refugees, stormed into Israeli territory during the attack, including two who allegedly participated in kidnappings. The allegations against UNRWA staffers prompted the U.S. and some other Western countries to freeze funds vital to the work of the agency, which is a lifeline for desperate Palestinians in war-torn Gaza. The U.N. later fires nine of the 12 accused workers and condemns “the abhorrent alleged acts” of some of its staff.
President Biden refers to Israel’s actions in Gaza as “over the top.” Mr. Biden also says he’s been pushing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow aid to enter from Israel. “There are a lot of innocent people who are starving. A lot of innocent people are in trouble and dying, and it’s gotta stop,” Mr. Biden says, adding that he’s also, “pushing very hard now to deal with this hostage cease-fire.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu instructs Israeli forces to present a plan to evacuate civilians from Rafah, a day after facing criticism from President Biden over the impact of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Israel says Rafah is the last remaining Hamas stronghold and it needs to send in troops to complete its war plan against the Islamic militant group. But an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians have crammed into the city and the surrounding area after fleeing fighting elsewhere in Gaza. The Biden administration has said repeatedly that it does not support a ground invasion of Rafah.
Witnesses and medics say Israeli forces opened fire on thousands of Palestinians who had gathered in an open area of Gaza City hoping to receive food and other desperately needed humanitarian aid. The IDF says forces “fired at those who posed a threat” to Israeli forces nearby, but U.N. experts condemn the violence, which left at least 112 people dead as they tried to collect flour in Gaza.
Prime Minister Netanyahu says Israel’s armed forces unintentionally struck a convoy from the humanitarian group World Central Kitchen in Gaza, killing seven aid workers including an American man. The Israeli military later said it dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others for their roles in the drone strikes, saying they had mishandled critical information and violated the army’s rules of engagement.
Suspected Israeli warplanes bomb Iran’s embassy in Syria in a strike that Iran says killed seven of its military advisers, including three senior commanders, marking a major escalation in Israel’s war with its regional adversaries.
Iran vows to respond to the suspected Israeli strike that demolished Iran’s consulate in Damascus. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says on his official website that “Israel will be punished” for the attack.
Air raid sirens and loud booms reverberate across Israel as Iran launches a barrage of missiles and drones at the country in a retaliatory attack. Israeli officials say the assault is almost entirely thwarted by air defense systems and with the help of the U.S. and Israel’s other allies. More than 300 missiles and drones were fired from Iran toward Israel, the IDF says. A 10-year-old girl is “severely injured by shrapnel,” but the IDF reports no additional casualties.
Israel’s military orders Palestinians in the eastern part of the Gaza Strip city of Rafah to evacuate ahead of a ground offensive. People quickly start fleeing from the area on foot or by any other means available to them. An Israeli tank brigade takes control of the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt the following day, as Israel moves forward with its offensive.
Video circulated widely on social media shows right-wing Israeli protesters blocking trucks carrying food aid for Gaza. The trucks are attacked by an Israeli group called “Tsav 9” at a checkpoint near a border crossing from the Israeli-occupied West Bank into Israel.
ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan announces that he’s applied for arrest warrants for senior Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-MasriI and Ismail Haniyeh for possible war crimes. In a statement that sparks outrage from Israel’s leadership, Khan also says he will seek arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, also for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity.
An Israeli strike kills at least 45 people, including women and children, in the al-Mawasi camp for displaced Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza. Prime Minister Netanyahu later admits the strikes were a “tragic mistake.” Analysis of images of shrapnel gathered at the scene shows at least one of the bombs used was a U.S.-made GBU-39.
Israeli forces rescue four hostages held by Hamas in a raid on the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza. The hostages – 26-year-old Noa Argamani, 22-year-old Almog Meir Jan, 27-year-old Andrey Kozlov and 41-year-old Shlomi Ziv – were all kidnapped at the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel during the Oct. 7 attacks. More than 270 Palestinians are killed in the firefight and by airstrikes during the rescue operation, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
A member of Israel’s three-man War Cabinet announces his resignation from the government over Prime Minister Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza. Benny Gantz says Netanyahu is making “total victory impossible” and that the government must put the return of the hostages seized by Hamas “above political survival.”
Netanyahu visits the U.S. and addresses a joint meeting of Congress, telling the American lawmakers: “In the Middle East, Iran’s axis of terror confronts America, Israel and our Arab friends. This is not a clash of civilizations. It’s a clash between barbarism and civilization. It’s a clash between those who glorify death and those who sanctify life. For the forces of civilization to triumph, America and Israel must stand together.”
Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh is assassinated in Iran’s capital after attending the inauguration of the country’s new president — the second assassination of a senior Iran-allied militant commander in just 12 hours. Israel refuses to confirm that it had killed the Hamas chief, but a U.S. official tells CBS News that the U.S. assesses that both Haniyeh and top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr were killed in Israeli strikes. Israel does confirm it killed Shukr.
Al Jazeera reporter Ismail al-Ghoul and photographer Rami al-Refee are killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza, becoming at least the 112th and 113th journalist or media worker — the vast majority of whom are Palestinians — killed since the war between Israel and Hamas began, according to data compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists. The period since the start of the war has been the deadliest for journalists since the CPJ began gathering data in 1992.
The number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since the war began climbs over 40,000, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but Volker Türk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, says in a statement that most of those killed were women and children, and he calls for an immediate cease-fire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will “not give in to pressure” to agree to a cease-fire with Hamas. Netanyahu insists “the achievement of the war’s objectives” requires Israel to maintain control of the Philadelphi Corridor, the strip of land along the border between southern Gaza and Egypt. Egypt’s government has voiced its objection to an Israeli military presence on that border, and Hamas has demanded a complete Israeli withdrawal from the area as part of any cease-fire agreement.
The Israeli military says it has rescued Qaid Farhan Alkadi, a 52-year-old man taken hostage by Hamas. Israeli Army Radio said Alkadi was the first hostage whom soldiers were able to find and rescue alive from the vast network of tunnels Hamas has built underneath Gaza.
Israeli forces recover the bodies of six Hamas-held hostages: Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Master Sgt. Ori Danino. Their bodies are found in a tunnel underneath Rafah. The IDF says all six were killed by Hamas militants shortly before the arrival of Israeli forces. Prime Minister Netanyahu says Israel will hold Hamas accountable for killing the hostages and blames the militant group for stalled cease-fire negotiations, saying “whoever murders hostages doesn’t want a deal.”
Thousands of angry and grieving Israelis take to the streets in huge protests after the six hostages are found dead in Gaza. Over the course of the week, widespread disruptions occur across Israel as members of the country’s largest labor union go on strike in an attempt to pressure Netanyahu to agree to a deal to bring home the remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
An American woman is shot and killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Witnesses, activists and Palestinian media say 26-year-old dual U.S.-Turkish national Aysenur Eygi was shot by Israeli troops after attending a pro-Palestinian demonstration against settlement expansion. The IDF later says “it is highly likely that she was hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire which was not aimed at her.”
Israeli strikes kill dozens of Palestinians sheltering in the densely packed al-Mawasi camp, inside the Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone.” Civil defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal tells CBS News and other news organizations that people in the camp had no warning before the bombs fell. He said they destroyed “20 to 40 tents” and left three deep craters.”There are entire families who have disappeared under the sand,” Basal says.
Thousands of pagers carried by Hezbollah members explode simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria, killing at least a dozen people including two children, according to Lebanese officials. Israel does not acknowledge conducting the attack, but CBS News learns American officials were given a heads-up by Israel about 20 minutes before the operations began in Lebanon, though no specific details were shared about the methods to be used.
A source close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah group says walkie-talkies used by members explode in its Beirut stronghold, with state media reporting similar blasts of pagers and other “devices” in east and south Lebanon. Lebanon’s Health Ministry says 20 people are killed and 450 more wounded in the explosions.
The Israeli military carries out a “targeted strike” in Beirut, killing Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil and other operatives. Hezbollah confirms Aqil’s death in the strike.
Missiles slam into southern Lebanon, reportedly killing hundreds of people as Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah weapons hidden in residential buildings. Lebanon’s health ministry says the strikes killed over 500 people, making it the deadliest day of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah since they fought a roughly one-month war in 2006.
Israel’s military kills Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime political leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah, in an airstrike in Beirut. The afternoon strike, carried out by fighter jets, targets the group’s “central headquarters,” which was “embedded under a residential building” in Beirut’s southern suburbs, according to the Israeli military.
Sirens blare across Israel as Iran launches about 180 ballistic missiles at the country. The Israeli military says most of the missiles are intercepted by its missile defense systems, and a U.S. defense official says the United States helped intercept the weapons. The IDF reports no human casualties. Prime Minister Netanyahu vows to retaliate for Iran’s missile attack, which Iran calls a “legal, rational, and legitimate response” to Israeli assassinations of Iranian and allied military commanders.
Israelis mark a full year since Hamas’ brutal terrorist attacks, gathering for solemn memorial services in major cities and at the sites of some of the atrocities to honor those killed and demand the release of those still held captive in Gaza. “We are in a just and difficult war, but unlike 80 years ago, the Jews have the ability to defend themselves by themselves, and while fighting against seven different enemies, we will prevail,” Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant told CBS News’ Elizabeth Palmer at the Nova site on Monday.
Layla Ferris is a verification producer with CBS News Confirmed. She previously worked at ABC News and Storyful. She specializes in breaking news coverage, visual verification and open-source research.
As the Middle East waits to see how Israel will respond to Tuesday’s massive missile attack by Iran, oil prices have risen over the prospect of possible Israeli strikes on Iran’s oil facilities. CBS News foreign correspondent Ramy Inocencio has more.
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BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike on an apartment in central Beirut killed seven Hezbollah-affiliated civilian first responders. Israel has been pounding areas of the country where the militant group has a strong presence since late September, but has rarely struck in the heart of the capital.
There was no warning before the strike late Wednesday, which hit an apartment in central Beirut not far from the United Nations headquarters, the prime minister’s office and parliament. Hezbollah’s civil defense unit said seven of its members were killed.
The strike came after at least eight Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, where Israel announced the start of what it says is a limited ground incursion earlier this week. The region was meanwhile bracing for Israeli retaliation following an Iranian ballistic missile attack.
Residents reported a sulfur-like smell following strike in Beirut, and Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency accused Israel of using phosphorous bombs, without providing evidence. Human rights groups have in the past accused Israel of using white phosphorus incendiary shells on towns and villages in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hezbollah has an armed wing with tens of thousands of fighters but it also has a political movement and a network of charities staffed by civilians.
In a separate development, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said they had launched two drones at Tel Aviv overnight. The military said it identified two drones off the coast of the bustling metropolitan area, shooting one of them down while the other fell in the Mediterranean Sea.
The escalating violence in Lebanon has opened a second front in the war between Israel and Iran-backed militants that began nearly a year ago with Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attack from the Gaza Strip into Israel.
The Israeli military said Thursday that it killed a senior Hamas leader in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip around three months ago. It said that a strike on an underground compound in northern Gaza killed Rawhi Mushtaha and two other Hamas commanders.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas. Mushtaha was a close associate of Yahya Sinwar, the top leader of Hamas who helped mastermind the Oct. 7 attack. Sinwar is believed to be alive and in hiding inside Gaza.
In recent weeks, Israelis strikes in Lebanon have killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and several of his top commanders. Hundreds more airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon since mid-September have killed at least 1,276 people, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
The Israeli military said Thursday that it had struck around 200 Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities and observation posts. It said the strikes killed at least 15 Hezbollah fighters. There was no independent confirmation.
Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes, as Israel has warned people to evacuate from around 50 villages and towns in the south, telling them to relocate to areas that are around 60 kilometers (36 miles) from the border and considerably farther north than a U.N.-declared buffer zone.
Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah after nearly a year of rocket attacks that began on Oct. 8 and have displaced some 60,000 Israelis from communities in the north. Israel has carried out retaliatory strikes over the past year that have displaced tens of thousands on the Lebanese side.
The vast majority of recent strikes have been in areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence, including the southern suburbs of Beirut known as the Dahiyeh. But Israel has also carried out strikes in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, and a strike in central Beirut earlier this week killed three Palestinian militants.
Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis are part of the Iran-led Axis of Resistance, which also includes armed groups in Syria and Iraq. They have launched attacks on Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians, drawing retaliation in a cycle that has repeatedly threatened to set off a wider war.
The region once again appears on the brink of such a conflict after Iran’s missile attack on Tuesday, which it said was a response to the killing of Nasrallah, an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general who was with him, and Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, who was killed in an explosion in Tehran in July that was widely blamed on Israel.
Both Israel and the United States have said there will be severe consequences for the missile attack, which lightly wounded two people and killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank. The United States has rushed military assets to the region in support of Israel.
___
Jeffery reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press staff writers Abby Sewell in Beirut and Zeina Karam in London contributed to this report.
BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike on an apartment in central Beirut killed seven Hezbollah-affiliated civilian first responders. Israel has been pounding areas of the country where the militant group has a strong presence since late September, but has rarely struck in the heart of the capital.
There was no warning before the strike late Wednesday, which hit an apartment in central Beirut not far from the United Nations headquarters, the prime minister’s office and parliament. Hezbollah’s civil defense unit said seven of its members were killed.
The strike came after at least eight Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, where Israel announced the start of what it says is a limited ground incursion earlier this week. The region was meanwhile bracing for Israeli retaliation following an Iranian ballistic missile attack.
Residents reported a sulfur-like smell following strike in Beirut, and Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency accused Israel of using phosphorous bombs, without providing evidence. Human rights groups have in the past accused Israel of using white phosphorus incendiary shells on towns and villages in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hezbollah has an armed wing with tens of thousands of fighters but it also has a political movement and a network of charities staffed by civilians.
In a separate development, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said they had launched two drones at Tel Aviv overnight. The military said it identified two drones off the coast of the bustling metropolitan area, shooting one of them down while the other fell in the Mediterranean Sea.
The escalating violence in Lebanon has opened a second front in the war between Israel and Iran-backed militants that began nearly a year ago with Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attack from the Gaza Strip into Israel.
The Israeli military said Thursday that it killed a senior Hamas leader in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip around three months ago. It said that a strike on an underground compound in northern Gaza killed Rawhi Mushtaha and two other Hamas commanders.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas. Mushtaha was a close associate of Yahya Sinwar, the top leader of Hamas who helped mastermind the Oct. 7 attack. Sinwar is believed to be alive and in hiding inside Gaza.
In recent weeks, Israelis strikes in Lebanon have killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and several of his top commanders. Hundreds more airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon since mid-September have killed at least 1,276 people, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
The Israeli military said Thursday that it had struck around 200 Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities and observation posts. It said the strikes killed at least 15 Hezbollah fighters. There was no independent confirmation.
Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes, as Israel has warned people to evacuate from around 50 villages and towns in the south, telling them to relocate to areas that are around 60 kilometers (36 miles) from the border and considerably farther north than a U.N.-declared buffer zone.
Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah after nearly a year of rocket attacks that began on Oct. 8 and have displaced some 60,000 Israelis from communities in the north. Israel has carried out retaliatory strikes over the past year that have displaced tens of thousands on the Lebanese side.
The vast majority of recent strikes have been in areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence, including the southern suburbs of Beirut known as the Dahiyeh. But Israel has also carried out strikes in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, and a strike in central Beirut earlier this week killed three Palestinian militants.
Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis are part of the Iran-led Axis of Resistance, which also includes armed groups in Syria and Iraq. They have launched attacks on Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians, drawing retaliation in a cycle that has repeatedly threatened to set off a wider war.
The region once again appears on the brink of such a conflict after Iran’s missile attack on Tuesday, which it said was a response to the killing of Nasrallah, an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general who was with him, and Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, who was killed in an explosion in Tehran in July that was widely blamed on Israel.
Both Israel and the United States have said there will be severe consequences for the missile attack, which lightly wounded two people and killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank. The United States has rushed military assets to the region in support of Israel.
___
Jeffery reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press staff writers Abby Sewell in Beirut and Zeina Karam in London contributed to this report.
Southern Israel — Ahead of the Jewish New Year holiday, Rosh Hashanah, Efrat Machikawa helped prepare food for dinner at her home in southern Israel. Her family eats Tunisian food to mark the occasion, and her mother made a number of delicacies, including spinach glazed in honey.
But Machikawa told CBS News that this year’s holiday — one of the most significant in Judaism — wouldn’t be the celebration it usually is, because one of her family members is still being held hostage in war-torn Gaza.
“We know it’s a holiday, but it’s nothing to celebrate. Nothing,” she said. “They should have been here.”
CBS News last visited Machikawa at her home in southern Israel almost a year ago, just days after Hamas launched its Oct. 7 attacks. Six members of her family had just been killed or taken hostage from their homes in Kibbutz Nir Oz — among the 1,200 people massacred and the 251 kidnapped that day.
Chanon Cohen and his daughter Efrat Machikawa are seen days after a number of their relatives were killed or taken hostage by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks.
Duarte Dias/CBS News
“It’s very hard to describe this past year, because it really doesn’t feel as if a year has been… I say, it’s one long day,” Machikawa said.
One of her relatives was killed and four were eventually released by Hamas, including her aunt Margalit, who had serious health issues when she was abducted.
Finally freed from captivity, it was hard for Margalit to accept what had happened on Oct. 7.
Margalit Moses, a released Israeli hostage, walks with an Israeli soldier shortly after her return to Israel, Nov. 24, 2023.
IDF via AP
“It wasn’t easy for her to realize what really happened to her house, to her community, to her friends, to people she loved, to the other kibbutzim, to the whole country,” Machikawa said.
Since we last met her, she’s been working tirelessly to get her uncle Gadi Moses, the last member of the family still held in Gaza, back home.
She’s been among the families and friends of hostages pushing Israel’s government hard to accept a deal with Hamas for a cease-fire in Gaza in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages. Machikawa has traveled the world, appealing to foreign leaders to mount pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Efrat Machikawa, whose uncle Gadi Moses is in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, is seen at the Gaza border, in Kibbutz Nirim, southern Israel, in a Jan. 11, 2024 file photo.
Maya Alleruzzo/AP
“Everyone that is connected to the negotiation table and the army — the security and the army — are amazing, amazing people. But if I talk about my government… I don’t think they did what a government, what my idea of government, would do,” Machikawa said. “The feeling that it’s on us, on the families, to maintain the national and international interest in releasing these 101 hostages is quite hard to take.”
Israeli officials believe 64 of the hostages are still alive.
Machikawa said that, despite the difficulties, she will continue working to bring her uncle, and the other hostages, back home.
“There must be a hope. I am hopeful,” she said. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able not to be hopeful. I don’t have the capacity not to be hopeful.”
