“Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been at war with the Palestinian Sunni Islamist group Hamas… which led attacks on that day from the Gaza Strip into Israel.”
— Congressional Research Service, Report R47828, Israel and Hamas Conflict In Brief: Overview, U.S. Policy, and Options for Congress (multiple versions, 2023–2024)What This Framing Does
Did the Israel-Gaza conflict start on October 7? That is the claim this article tests. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a nonpartisan analytical body that serves the United States Congress. Its report R47828 is not propaganda in the deliberate sense. It is something more instructive: an example of how a dominant political framing becomes institutionally embedded and reproduced as a neutral description.
The report’s opening sentence defines the situation as a war between Israel and Hamas that began on October 7. In a single sentence, 56 years of occupation disappear. The blockade of Gaza — in place since 2007, condemned as collective punishment by the UN, the ICRC, and Amnesty International — is not the starting point. Four prior military operations that killed thousands of Palestinian civilians are not the starting point. The International Court of Justice’s ruling that Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful is not the starting point. October 7 is.
This is not a neutral framing. It is a choice — one that the evidence record does not support. The contrast between this framing and the institutional record of the UN, ICJ, and major human rights organizations is precise and measurable.
The Occupation: What Came Before October 7
Between June 5 and June 10, 1967, Israel defeated Egypt, Jordan, and Syria and occupied the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. [1] The 1967 war brought about a second exodus of Palestinians estimated at half a million people. [2]
From that moment, Israeli authorities began systematically reshaping the occupied territory. Israel conducted a census of approximately one million Palestinians — then immediately declared over 150,000 hectares of West Bank land as closed military zones, placing them off-limits to Palestinians. [3] In June 1967 alone, Israel annexed approximately 7,000 hectares of West Bank land to the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem — an act the UN has consistently held to be in breach of international law. [3]
Since 1967, approximately 250 Israeli settlements have been established across the occupied West Bank, most considered illegal under international law. Since 1967, over 14,500 Palestinians have had their Jerusalem residency revoked by Israeli authorities. By 2016, there were 572 fixed movement obstacles in the West Bank alone, including 44 permanently-staffed checkpoints. [4]
Amnesty International has characterized Israel’s occupation as “one of the longest and deadliest military occupations in the world,” marked by “widespread and systematic human rights violations against Palestinians” since 1967. [5]
On July 19, 2024, the International Court of Justice — the principal judicial organ of the United Nations — issued a landmark advisory opinion. The Court found that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful. [6] The ruling applies to the entirety of the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, with no exception for the Oslo Accords. The Court found that Israel’s policies violate the prohibition on acquiring territory by force, the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, and the international prohibition on racial segregation and apartheid. The Court ordered Israel to end its presence as rapidly as possible, to cease all settlement activity immediately, to dismantle settlements, and to provide full reparations to Palestinian victims. [6]
The ICJ advisory opinion does not frame what is happening in Gaza as a bilateral war between two equivalent actors that began in October 2023. It frames it as the consequence of a 57-year unlawful occupation.
The Blockade: 2007 to October 2023
In June 2007, following Hamas’s takeover of Gaza, Israel imposed a comprehensive land, sea, and air blockade on the Gaza Strip. [7] The blockade — which remained in place until October 7, 2023, a period of over 16 years — has been condemned as collective punishment by every major international human rights and humanitarian organization that examined it.
Prior to the Second Intifada in 2000, up to half a million exits of people from Gaza into Israel were recorded in a single month, primarily workers. For the first seven years of the blockade, this number declined to just over 4,000 on average. [7]
The purpose of the blockade was acknowledged by Israeli officials themselves. In 2006, senior advisor to then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Dov Weisglass, described the strategy as putting the people of Gaza “on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.” [9] A UN fact-finding mission concluded in 2010 that one of the principal motives behind the blockade was “a desire to punish the people of the Gaza Strip for having elected Hamas.” [9]
By 2022 — one year before October 7 — 81.5% of people in Gaza were living below the poverty line, with 63% being food insecure and dependent on international assistance. [10] The WHO has attributed this directly to the combined effect of the blockade, denial of access to natural resources, and the systematic impoverishment of Palestinians. [11]
Military Operations Before October 7
The blockade was not the only form of Israeli military action in Gaza before October 7. Understanding what caused the Israel-Gaza war requires looking at this pre-October 7 military record. Between 2007 and 2023, Israel conducted four major military operations and numerous smaller ones. [12]
The 2014 operation was the most lethal up to that point. The UN stated that at least 2,104 Palestinians died, including 1,462 civilians, of whom 495 were children and 253 were women. This was the highest civilian death toll in Gaza since the beginning of the Israeli occupation in 1967. [4]
Between March 2018 and March 2019 — the Great March of Return — Palestinians in Gaza held large organized protests along the fence separating Gaza from Israel, calling for the right of return and an end to the blockade. According to UN OCHA’s own documentation, 195 Palestinians — including 41 children — were killed by Israeli forces during these demonstrations, and 28,939 were injured, with 25% wounded by live ammunition. [15] The UN Secretary-General expressed deep concern and called for an independent investigation. This happened nearly five years before October 7, 2023. [16]
From 2008 to September 2023 — the full period before October 7 — UN OCHA data records 152,560 Palestinian injuries from Israeli attacks. The highest single year was 2018, with 31,259 injuries — the year of the Great March of Return. [12]
What the Major Organizations Concluded
The framing of the situation as a war between Israel and Hamas that began on October 7 is not consistent with the findings of the major human rights and legal organizations that have examined it most closely.
What This Claim Consistently Omits
- That the Israel-Gaza conflict history before 2023 includes Israeli military occupation since 1967 — 56 years before October 7
- That the ICJ ruled Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory unlawful in July 2024, covering the period since 1967
- That a 16-year blockade of Gaza was condemned as collective punishment by the UN, ICRC, WHO, UNICEF, Oxfam, and Amnesty International
- That the wider legal record of what occurred in Gaza after 2023 is set out in the fuller legal record this site documents
- That four major Israeli military operations in Gaza between 2008 and 2021 killed thousands of Palestinian civilians, including hundreds of children
- That the Great March of Return (2018–19) saw 195 Palestinians killed and nearly 29,000 injured by Israeli forces during largely peaceful protests — all documented by UN OCHA
- That Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, and the UN Special Rapporteur have each, independently, concluded that the system in place constitutes apartheid
- That the CRS report’s framing is a political choice, not neutral description, and is inconsistent with the legal and human rights record
It didn't start on October 7 — here's what did
October 7, 2023 was a Hamas-led attack that killed approximately 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, injured thousands more, and resulted in approximately 251 people being taken hostage. Nothing in this article minimizes that record or the suffering it represents.
What this article documents is that the framing “it started on October 7” is factually false. It started — in the documentary, legal, and human rights record — in 1967, with an occupation that the world’s highest judicial body has ruled unlawful. It deepened in 2007, with a blockade that every major international institution that examined it described as collective punishment. It escalated through four major military operations, a suppressed civilian protest movement, and 56 years of documented dispossession — all before October 7 ever occurred, and the same pattern has continued since the 2025 ceasefire.
The CRS report — like much of mainstream Western political framing — does not begin there. That is not a neutral choice. It is a framing decision with measurable consequences for how the situation is understood, who is held responsible, and what solutions are considered possible.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did the Israel-Gaza conflict start on October 7, 2023?
No. October 7, 2023 marks the start of the current war, but not the conflict itself. Gaza has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967 — 56 years before the Hamas-led attack. The International Court of Justice ruled in July 2024 that this occupation is unlawful, covering the entire period since 1967. October 7 was an eruption within a much longer, documented conflict — not its beginning.
What happened in Gaza before October 7, 2023?
Before October 7, Gaza had been under a 16-year land, sea, and air blockade (since 2007), condemned as collective punishment by the UN, the ICRC, UNICEF, and Amnesty International. Israel also conducted four major military operations in Gaza between 2008 and 2021 — Cast Lead, Pillar of Defense, Protective Edge, and Guardian of the Walls — which killed thousands of Palestinian civilians, alongside the 2018–19 Great March of Return, during which UN OCHA documented 195 Palestinians killed and nearly 29,000 injured by Israeli forces.
Is Israel's occupation of Gaza and the West Bank illegal under international law?
Yes, according to the International Court of Justice. In its July 19, 2024 advisory opinion, the ICJ — the UN's principal judicial body — found that Israel's continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful, violates the prohibition on acquiring territory by force, and breaches the Palestinian right to self-determination. The Court ordered Israel to end its presence and dismantle settlements.
When did the Gaza blockade start, and why was it controversial?
Israel imposed a comprehensive blockade on Gaza in June 2007, following Hamas's takeover of the territory. It remained in place for over 16 years, until October 7, 2023. Every major international body that examined it — the ICRC, the UN Human Rights Commissioner, UN special rapporteurs, and a coalition of 50 international aid agencies including WHO and UNICEF — concluded that the blockade constituted collective punishment in violation of international humanitarian law.
How many Palestinians were killed in Gaza before October 7, 2023?
Across four major Israeli military operations between 2008 and 2021 alone, thousands of Palestinian civilians were killed, including hundreds of children — for example, 2,251 people (including 495 children) in the 2014 Operation Protective Edge. Separately, UN OCHA documented 195 Palestinians killed during the largely civilian Great March of Return protests in 2018–19. UN OCHA's casualty portal records 152,560 Palestinian injuries from Israeli attacks between 2008 and September 2023.
Have human rights organizations called the situation in Israel and Palestine apartheid?
Yes. Amnesty International (2022), Human Rights Watch (2021), the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem (2021), and the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the OPT have each, independently and through separate research methodologies, concluded that Israel enforces a system of apartheid against Palestinians — a framing with roots that go back further still, as explored in how this framing took root historically.
What caused the Israel-Gaza war?
The current war has an immediate trigger — the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack — but its documented causes extend back to 1967: a military occupation the ICJ has ruled unlawful, a 16-year blockade condemned as collective punishment, and four major military operations that killed thousands of Palestinian civilians before 2023. Any account of what caused the Israel-Gaza war that omits this record is incomplete.
T1 — Primary Sources
T2 — Institutional and Analytical Sources
Exhibit — Propaganda Example
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