The world this year 2023 | Dec 23rd 2023 Edition

Less than six months after celebrating the 75th anniversary of its founding, Israel suffered its worst-ever terrorist attack. On October 7th Hamas militants crossed from Gaza and went on a rampage in the surrounding area, killing 1,200 people, 364 of them at a music festival. Some 240 people were taken hostage. The scale of the attack, the mutilation of bodies and brutal assault of women shocked the world, yet antisemitism surged. Israel launched a war on Hamas in Gaza, flattening swathes of the Palestinian territory and killing 20,000 people, including militants. By the end of the year America was signalling to Israel that it should seek to wind down the conflict.