Photos: Israel and Gaza, 6 months into the war

By Mhari Shaw,

Published April 6, 2024 at 9:03 AM CDT

What is left of Pasha's Palace amid Israel's bombardment of Gaza. Historians of Gaza say Napoleon slept there for three nights in 1799.

It has been six months since Hamas-led militants attacked Israel, prompting Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip. The Oct. 7 Hamas attack killed 1,200 people, Israel says, and more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since then, according to Gaza health authorities.

The past months of war have seen mass displacement of Palestinians in Gaza. Malnutrition, especially among Palestinian children, has risen to catastrophic levels, and the United Nations warns that famine may be imminent in northern Gaza. Much of the Gaza Strip now lies in ruins.

The Hamas-led militants took some 240 people hostage from Israel into Gaza on Oct. 7. Now 134 hostages remain in captivity, though some are known to be dead. Most of the others were released during a temporary cease-fire in November, and two were rescued by Israeli forces during a raid in February. Protests have grown in Israel against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and urging the government to agree on a deal with Hamas for the remaining hostages' release.

Along the border with Lebanon, Israel's neighbor to the north, Israel and the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah are trading regular rocket fire, leading to fears of a wider war.

Talks to reach a new cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the U.S., have thus far not resulted in a deal.

Since Oct. 7, NPR photographers have covered the war's effects on Israelis, Palestinians and the people in the wider region. Here is a selection of their images from the past six months in Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.

Israeli border police watch over protesters attempting to block the road as aid trucks cross into the Gaza Strip at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, southern Israel, Jan. 29, 2024.

Relatives of five-year-old Amal Hassan Al Durr lay her body to rest at a cemetery on Feb. 22. She was killed during an Israeli attack in Majdal Zoun, Lebanon.

Carmit Palty Katzir holds a photo of her father, Rami, as she sits in her home in Haifa, Israel, on Feb. 18. Her father was killed at Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel. Her mother Hana and brother Elad were taken hostage. Israel's military said April 6 that it had recovered Elad's body after he was killed in captivity. Hana was released during the cease-fire in November.

A baby is looked after at the neonatal unit at Kamal Adhwan hospital in Beit Lahia in the Gaza Strip, where children are born with complications due to malnourished mothers.

Jordanian air force personnel stand inside a C-130 aircraft after airdropping pallets of aid over Gaza in March.

Humanitarian aid falls from planes over northern Gaza as seen from Israel's southern border with the Gaza Strip on March 7, 2024.

Israeli soldiers practice evacuating wounded people with a helicopter during a military drill in northern Israel on Feb. 20, in an effort to prepare for a potential escalation in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Azzam Nuwaja, a Palestinian farmer, stands in his home in Susya in the occupied West Bank on Feb. 19.

Sisilya el-Ousi sits in her apartment building's bomb shelter, where she spends most of her time, in Kiryat Shmona, Israel, on Jan. 7.

Israeli soldiers take part in a military drill in northern Israel on Feb. 20, in an effort to prepare for a potential escalation in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

A volunteer wears a dog-tag style necklace with the Hebrew phrase "Am Yisrael Chai," which translates to "The People of Israel Live," while picking avocados on a farm near the border with Gaza in southern Israel on Dec. 20, 2023.

Sakher Abu Dahouk in front of the razor wire of the separation barrier that surrounds his land in Beit Hanina Al-Balad in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. His extended family has moved several times since 1948, as Israel seized territory in subsequent wars, redrew boundaries and built more Jewish settlements. "We still have deeds to our land," in what's now southern Israel, he says.

A view of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church's Nativity scene in Bethlehem. This year, it portrays a baby Jesus born under rubble and wrapped up in a Palestinian keffiyeh.

A tour group from a religious seminary visits the site of the former police station in Sderot, Israel, on March 20, where Hamas militants attacked and killed around 30 police officers civilians on Oct. 7.

Palestinians gather at a soup kitchen in northern Gaza in order to receive food, in Beit Lahia, Feb. 26.

A young man sits by the fresh graves of two teenagers and a 20-year-old killed in an Israeli drone strike in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.

A child rides his bicycle past a torched car in the Palestinian village of Qusra in the occupied West Bank.

Sisters, wives, mothers and cousins of residents in the village of Qusra in the West Bank gather to mourn their Palestinian loved ones killed by armed Israeli settlers just days after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack.

Amit Michelson, an Israeli military reservist, stands at a military base near the border with Lebanon in northern Israel on Nov. 28, 2023.

A Palestinian boy holds his bowl in a group of people awaiting food at a soup kitchen in Beit Lahia, Gaza Strip, Feb. 26.

Damage is seen in a home in Kibbutz Be'eri, a community attacked by Hamas militants near the Israeli-Gaza border on Oct. 7, 2023. Graffiti left by the attackers can be seen on the walls of the home.

A structure destroyed by Israeli settlers in the abandoned Palestinian village of Zanuta in the occupied West Bank on Feb. 19.

Israeli right wing activists block the entrance to the port in Ashdod, Israel on Feb. 1, 2024, during a protest meant to prevent trucks with humanitarian aid destined for the Gaza Strip.

Israeli soldiers walk through the Machane Yehuda market in Jerusalem on March 21.

Protesters at an anti-war rally in Tel Aviv on Jan. 18. The crowd was made up of people of all ages, many belonging to groups that have long called for an end to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.

The damaged area around the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after it was besieged by Israeli forces, April 1.

Smoke rising from Gaza is seen from a citrus and avocado farm near the border with Gaza in southern Israel on Dec. 20, 2023.

Sigal Manzuri, whose daughters Norelle and Roya were killed in the Hamas-led attack on the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, embraces one of their friends. Surrounding them are photos of people killed and taken hostage by Hamas militants, displayed at the site as DJs spin music to commemorate victims, near Kibbutz Re'im, Nov. 28, 2023.