In October 2023 fighters from the Hamas militant group in the Gaza territory crossed over into neighboring Israel where they attacked civilians, ultimately killing some 1,200 people while kidnapping nearly 230 Israelis, taking them back to Gaza as hostages. The incident touched off the Israel-Hamas War in which Israel used its formidable military to attack Gaza; nearly 30,000 Palestinians lost their lives in the conflict. The Israel-Hamas War is the latest conflict in the long history of hostility between Israelis and Palestinians, sparking intense divisions across the globe as political leaders and citizens debated the justification for the harsh Israeli response.