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One Year Later, Reflections on the Terror of October 7 – and the Wars That Followed

Cipher Brief experts see seismic change in the Middle East – and both danger and hope on the horizon.

KFAR AZA, ISRAEL - OCTOBER 10: Israeli soldiers remove the body of a civilian, who was killed in the October 7 attack by Palestinian militants on this kibbutz near the border with Gaza, on October 10, 2023 in Kfar Aza, Israel. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)

EXPERT ANALYSIS — Almost no one saw it coming. 

Early on the morning of October 7, 2023, thousands of Hamas fighters broke through Israel’s southern border in a violent raid that became a long day of carnage and terror. When it was over, 1200 people were dead, and the killers had taken 251 others back to Gaza as hostages. 

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