Hours after Hamas gunmen crossed the border into Israel, slaughtering and kidnapping soldiers and random civilians alike, Palestinians in Gaza knew what was coming next.
Over the years of conflict between Israel and Hamas, the group that controls Gaza, Palestinians have learned to expect airstrikes raining down on their densely populated territory. Even ineffectual attacks by Hamas on its neighbor can draw a heavy response from the Israeli military.
And what Hamas did on Oct. 7 was anything but ineffectual. The surprise attack was the largest incursion onto Israeli territory in half a century and left at least 1,300 people dead, many of them children. “We are at war,” declared Israel’s prime minister.
In Gaza, it was immediately clear that Palestinians should prepare for retaliation on a scale perhaps beyond anything they had seen before. By week’s end, more than 2,000 people had been killed as Israel hit what it says are Hamas targets seeded among homes and businesses.
