World
NewsOnScale Staff
October 7, 2026
Three years ago today, Hamas launched the deadliest attack on Jewish people since the Holocaust. Approximately 1,200 Israelis were killed. Around 250 were taken hostage. The world watched in horror.
What followed has reshaped the Middle East and much of the world with it.
The Wars
Gaza. Lebanon. Iran. Syria. Yemen. The Red Sea. Each front either opened or significantly escalated in the three years since October 7, 2023.
Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians according to the Gaza Health Ministry, figures the United Nations and WHO have cited as credible. The UN's humanitarian office has documented near-total destruction of civilian infrastructure. The International Court of Justice ruled Israel must take measures to prevent acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention.
Israel struck Hezbollah in Lebanon throughout 2024 and 2025, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah and significantly degrading the organization's military capability. Israel and Iran exchanged direct strikes in 2024 in a significant escalation from decades of proxy conflict. This year, the US launched airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities alongside Israeli operations.
Houthi rebels in Yemen have fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel and at commercial shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade routes and drawing repeated US and UK strikes on Houthi targets. Three US aircraft carriers are now in the region simultaneously.
The conflicts have contributed to rising energy prices, global shipping disruptions, and significant humanitarian crises across multiple countries.
The Trial
Benjamin Netanyahu was indicted on bribery, fraud, and breach of trust charges in 2019. His trial began in 2020. Three years after October 7, it remains unfinished.
The trial has been paused for COVID-19, for the war in Gaza, and again this year citing the war with Iran. Critics — including Israeli legal scholars and opposition politicians — have noted that Netanyahu has every personal incentive to prefer wartime emergency conditions over the return of normal judicial proceedings, since ongoing conflict has repeatedly justified suspending the hearings.
Netanyahu called the ICC arrest warrant issued against him "antisemitic" and said Israel would "never accept" international jurisdiction over its leaders. He addressed the UN General Assembly last month in New York. He was not arrested.
Three Years Later
October 7, 2023 changed the trajectory of the Middle East, US foreign policy, global energy markets, and international law. The hostages taken that day have not all been returned. The prime minister of Israel is still on trial. The wars that followed show no clear path to resolution.
Three years later, the region is more volatile than it was on October 6, 2023.
NewsOnScale is owned by AMILLI AI, Corp., founded by JJ Johnson.