What are the origins of this fun-filled festive custom?
Since the atrocities of the Israel-Hamas War commenced on October 7, 2023, the conflict shows no sign of being resolved. It's a moment for reflection, and certainly a time as good as any to look back over the timeline of this dreadful war and the key events that have so far shaped the ongoing conflict.
Click through for a photo review of the Israel-Hamas War.
On October 7, 2023, during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah on Shabbat, Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups launched a surprise attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip. The onslaught began with a barrage of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel.
At the same time, thousands of armed Hamas militants breached a border security fence separating Gaza from Israel. The gunmen targeted Israeli citizens in their homes, as well as soldiers, caught off guard, at observation posts and on military bases.
One of the targets was the Supernova desert music festival, taking place 3 mi (nearly 5 km) from the Gaza border. Pictured in the aftermath of the terrorist assault are abandoned and torched vehicles near Kibbutz Reim in the Negev desert in southern Israel. Hundreds of bodies were later retrieved from this area.
A baby stroller, along with other personal belongings are left on the side of the road next to a car after multiple civilians, allegedly including children and infants, were killed by Hamas militants near Kfar Aza kibbutz. In the wake of the attacks, which targeted many other towns and rural settlements, numerous Israelis had been adducted, taken hostage by the militants.
Hundreds of rockets, meanwhile, found their target in cities such as Ashkelon, in southern Israel. In fact, Ashkelon was a main target of Hamas missile barrages.
Advancing Hamas gunmen attacked the southern Israeli city of Sderot, gunning down residents and members of the local police force. Buildings and vehicles were also targeted.
Here, Israeli security forces check the scene of a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip that targeted the historic port city of Jaffa.
The atrocities of October 7 left at least 1,400 people dead. Around 250 Israelis were abducted. In this image, pictures of over 1,000 persons abducted, missing, or killed in the Hamas attack are displayed on empty seats in the Smolarz Auditorium at Tel Aviv University in late October 2023.
In the immediate aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attack, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began its campaign of retaliation, bombarding Gaza with airstrikes.
Pictured: a Palestinian resident walks near the rubble of residential buildings after Israeli airstrikes hit the al-Zahra neighborhood in the Gaza Strip.
Smoke and flames rise as a result of Israeli illumination flare attacks on Al-Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.
The bombardment of Gaza continued. A number of hospitals were hit, with medical staff overwhelmed by the number of casualties. In this photograph, a Palestinian paramedic sheds tears outside Al-Shifa hospital. By mid-November Al-Shifa was completely encircled by the IDF, amid claims that Hamas maintained a command center inside and under the hospital.
On October 13, 2023, the Israeli military dropped flyers over Gaza City, warning residents to flee "immediately" to the south. A map featured on the flyers showed an arrow pointing south across a line in the central Gaza Strip. The message signed by the Israeli military ordered residents to "evacuate public shelters in Gaza City."
Palestinians check the destruction in the aftermath of an Israeli strike the previous night in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, on November 1, 2023.
By the second week of October, Israel had deployed tanks and armored vehicles along the border with the Gaza Strip with the aim of dismantling the Hamas military system in the northern Gaza Strip.
Throughout October, the IDF continued to gather strength. Here, tanks maneuver near Zikim kibbutz in southern Israel.
An Israeli soldier rests his head on the gun barrel of a self-propelled artillery howitzer as Israeli soldiers take positions near the border with Gaza in southern Israel. Israeli security personnel numbered many among the victims of the October 7 attacks and subsequent firefights with Hamas militants.
The Israel-Hamas War threatened to escalate after Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group Hezbollah intervened in the conflict. Here, smoke is seen rising following Israeli artillery shelling on the outskirts of the village of Kfarshuba, along Lebanon's southern border with northern Israel on November 16, 2023.
As fighting continued in northern Gaza, Palestinian citizens—effectively refugees—displaced from Gaza City gathered in their hundreds on Salah al-Din Street in the Al-Mughraqa area to make their way south.
At the same time in Israel, thousands of people and families of kidnapped people held protests outside the Museum of Modern Art known as the 'The Hostages and Missing Square' in Tel Aviv demanding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secure the release of Israeli hostages. They used torch light from their mobile phones to dramatic effect.
Israeli citizens upped the ante by holding the Israeli government responsible for the kidnapping of their relatives held captive in the Gaza Strip by Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades. They organized a demonstration with banners in front of the Israel ministry of defense building in Tel Aviv variously reading "Ceasefire Hostage Deal Now" and "Bring Them Home."
By the middle of November, the IDF had completed its phased incursion into northern Gaza. Pictured is an Israeli flag flying over a destroyed building next to a mosque.
The IDF operation was not without casualties. Here, relatives and friends of an Israeli army soldier mourn during his funeral at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem.
In Gaza, thousands were dead. Israel had sealed off the Gaza Strip, leaving the entire population without fuel, water, or aid. A humanitarian crisis was unfolding, and the rest of the world was watching.
On October 28, hundreds of thousands rallied across cities in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia to show support for the Palestinians as Israel's military widened its air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip. Pictured is the scene in London.
But there was also widespread support for Israel. Here, demonstrators gather on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on November 14 to denounce anti-Semitism and call for the release of Israeli hostages.
A temporary ceasefire took effect on November 24. Mediated by Qatar, the truce saw 50 Israeli hostages held in Gaza and 150 Palestinian prisoners in Israel released and more humanitarian aid allowed to enter Gaza. Pictured are Egyptian medics on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing standing by with incubators to receive premature Palestinian babies evacuated from Gaza.
Pictured: humanitarian aid trucks operated by the United Nations arrive at a storage facility in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip to deliver vital medical supplies.
The ceasefire was extended, during which Hamas released more Israeli hostages. Here, former captives are seen arriving at an army base in Ofakim in southern Israel.
As per the agreement, Israel released Palestinian prisoners from jail. Pictured is a Red Cross bus carrying former inmates arriving in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
The ceasefire lasted until December 1, when war resumed. Seen here is the Jewish settlement of Halamish pictured behind a Palestinian flag.
Days after the truce expired, Israeli forces launched their first big ground assault in southern Gaza, on the outskirts of the main southern city of Khan Younis.
In response to the ground assault, President Joe Biden said Israel's "indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza was costing it international support. Washington urged Israel to do more to protect civilians, scale down the conflict, and shift to a more targeted campaign against Hamas leaders.
The new year saw US and British warplanes, ships, and submarines launch dozens of airstrikes across Yemen on January 11–12 in retaliation against Houthi forces for their attacks on Red Sea shipping. The military action further threatened a wider escalation of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Thousands of Yemini citizens took to the streets in the Houthi-controlled capital Sana'a on January 19 protesting the US designation of Yemen's Houthi rebels as "terrorists."
On January 25, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) reported three hospitals, including Nasser Hospital (pictured) were besieged, along with the Red Crescent ambulance center.
Thousands took to the streets in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on February 17–18 demanding Benjamin Netanyahu call an early election and that he step down as prime minister.
On February 29, the same day this photograph was taken, Israeli soldiers opened fire on a crowd queuing for food from aid trucks on the coastal Al-Rashid Street in Gaza City. At least 118 Palestinians were killed and 760 injured in the deadliest mass casualty event to have taken place in the Gaza Strip since the start of the conflict. The incident, dubbed the flour massacre, occurred a day after the World Food Programme reported that more than half a million Palestinians were at risk of famine in Gaza.
Throughout March the United States and the United Kingdom carried out a series of humanitarian aid airdrops over Gaza delivering water, rice, cooking oil, flour, tinned goods, and baby formula, among other necessities.
During their ongoing sweep of the Hamas tunnel network, the IDF announced on March 5 that it had completed the destruction of the largest tunnel ever found after its discovery in December 2023.
International food charity World Central Kitchen suspended its operations in Gaza following the death of seven of its workers in an Israeli air strike in Deir al-Balah on April 1.
On April 13, in retaliation for the Israeli strike of the Iranian embassy in Damascus on April 1 that killed two Iranian generals, Iran launched dozens of drones carrying explosives plus numerous missiles towards Israel and its capital, Tel Aviv (pictured).
May 1 saw the reopening of the Erez Crossing into north Gaza to allow in humanitarian aid. Temporary access to the Port of Ashdod was also granted.
On May 6 with ceasefire negotiations having stalled, displaced Palestinians fled Rafah as Israel began its wider air and ground offensive in Gaza.
Israeli airstrikes targeted Rafah as tanks rolled across the border into the besieged city. Meanwhile, the border crossing into Egypt was once again sealed.
US forces completed the construction of a floating pier to facilitate humanitarian aid to Gaza. On May 25, in rough seas, the pier broke away from its moorings. By May 28 all operations on the US$320 million structure had been suspended.
The International Criminal Court announced its decision to file applications for arrest warrants for three Hamas officials, Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh, along with Israeli officials, Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, for charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran on July 21, 2024.
On June 8, the IDF announced that four Israelis abducted by Hamas on October 7, Shlomi Ziv, Almog Meir Jan, Noa Argamani, and Andrey Kozlov (pictured), had been rescued.
In late July, the Israeli military sent out the first 1,000 conscription notices to ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, following a unanimous Supreme Court ruling that the government must stop exempting them.
On July 27, 12 children were killed and more than 20 injured in a rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel blamed Hezbollah for the attack, which raised concerns of a sharp escalation of fighting between Israel and the militant group based in Lebanon.
On August 5, the United Nations completed its investigation over allegations by Israel that some UNRWA employees took part in the October 7 attack on Israel. Nine were later found guilty and had their employment terminated. UNRWA is the UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees.
Israel agreed to pause the fighting in Gaza on August 29 to facilitate a polio campaign aimed at vaccinating around 640,000 children across the Gaza Strip.
The bodies of six hostages abducted alive by Hamas on October 7 were recovered from a tunnel in Rafah, the IDF announced on September 1.
The grim discovery prompted thousands to take to the streets in Tel Aviv, where they called for the immediate release of the hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza. Israel's largest trade union, the Histadrut, later staged a general strike across the country.
On September 17, thousands of handheld pagers used by Hezbollah exploded across Lebanon, killing 12 and wounding an estimated 2,800.
The following day, September 18, a series of walkie-talkies also used by the militant group exploded, killing at least 25 people and injuring 708.
In the aftermath of the back-to-back attacks, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah admitted via video link the superiority of Israel's technological ability, but denounced Tel Aviv for what he called a massacre that "crossed all red lines."
Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, declared a "new phase of the war" as a fresh wave of strikes targeted southern Lebanon. Hezbollah responded by firing 140 rockets into northern Israel.
On September 19-20, Beirut's southern suburbs, the traditional stronghold of Hezbollah, came under fire from Israeli drones in what was described as a "targeted attack."
Among those targeted was Ibrahim Aqeel, a senior Hezbollah commander whom the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group confirmed had been killed in the strike.
Hezbollah later said a second senior commander, Ahmed Wahbi, was also killed in Israel's strike on Beirut.
Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by IDF soldiers in Rafah, southern Gaza, on November 16. Pictured is a billboard in Jerusalem with an image of Sinwar and text calling for the return of the Israeli hostages.
Israel struck a ceasefire deal with Lebanon that began on November 27. By this time, more than 3,000 Lebanese had been killed. Israel reported the deaths of 56 soldiers in the conflict. More than one million residents of southern Lebanon were displaced during the conflict, and many returned to find their homes destroyed.
In Gaza, the death toll surpassed 45,000 in December. Israeli air, land, and sea operations continue to devastate the region. The tight restrictions on aid have led to widespread starvation and the UN warns that a famine is imminent.
Sources: (BBC) (CNN) (Reuters) (The Times of Israel) (Al Jazeera) (NPR) (The New York Times) (The Guardian)
See also: The violent history of Palestine and Israel, explained
Heartbreaking images of the Israel-Hamas War
A pictorial timeline of events from October 7, 2023 onwards
LIFESTYLE Current affairs
Since the atrocities of the Israel-Hamas War commenced on October 7, 2023, the conflict shows no sign of being resolved. It's a moment for reflection, and certainly a time as good as any to look back over the timeline of this dreadful war and the key events that have so far shaped the ongoing conflict.
Click through for a photo review of the Israel-Hamas War.