Fear and a far-right lurch: How October 7 reshaped Israel

For the vast majority of Israelis, modern history is divided between the period before the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, and after. In the three years since Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza following the attacks, Israeli society has undergone fundamental changes. A sense of collective trauma has been amplified through political rhetoric and media hysteria to hitherto unseen levels in modern Israel, observers say. Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians, and Israel has expanded its attacks to several regional states. The war on Gaza and a series of settler pogroms in the occupied West Bank, fuelled by the Israeli far-right, have contributed to Israel’s growing isolation from much of the world.