NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Governor Bill Lee announced Monday that flags would fly at half-staff for the rest of the week to honor the people who died in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The Associated Press reported Tuesday that the death toll has risen to almost 1,600 people. They said at least 14 American citizens were among the dead.
The most recent bout of violence began after a Hamas attack against Israel on Oct. 7, which Governor Lee condemned as an act of terrorism. The date marked 50 years since the Yom Kippur War in 1973, and the attack caught the Israeli military by surprise.
Following the attack, Israel declared war and started bombarding the Gaza Strip, an area of land almost surrounded by Israel. Some Palestinian supporters describe it as an "open-air prison," according to a Maryville College professor. Hamas said they would kill captured Israelis if attacks in the area targeted civilians without warnings.
Israel and Hamas have had repeated conflicts in past years, often sparked by tensions around a Jerusalem holy site. This time, the context has become potentially more explosive, and both sides talk of shattering with violence a years-long Israeli-Palestinian deadlock left by the moribund peace process.
The most recent attack tallies a death toll unseen since the 1973 war with Egypt and Syria. Israel is run by its most hard-right government ever, dominated by ministers who adamantly reject any Palestinian statehood. Hamas, in turn, says it is ready for a long battle to end an Israeli occupation it says is no longer tolerable.
Despite Hamas being placed on the U.S.'s list of terrorist organizations in 1997, Palestinians in Gaza voted for Hamas to speak for them in the mid-2000s.
This month marked 50 years since the Yom Kippur War when a surprise attack against Israel was launched from its northern and southern sides, with the scales of violence rising above this weekend's attacks. In the course of that war, the U.S. pledged to support Israel and supply military weapons and ammunition.
U.S. leaders announced Sunday that the country would send a carrier strike group to the Eastern Mediterranean in support of Israel.
Data from the United Nations shows that from Jan. 2008 to the end of 2020, around 5,640 Palestinians died in the continued conflict between Israel and Palestinians. It also estimated more than 114,000 Palestinians were injured.
Comparatively, more than 300 Israelis died in the same timeframe and around 5,600 were injured, according to the UN data.