Ships in the Beirut harbour blast horns in mourning for the thousands of Palestinians killed by Israel in the besieged Gaza Strip. The war on Gaza was triggered when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas carried out the deadliest-ever attack on Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures, and taking about 240 hostages back to Gaza. Israel has responded with a military offensive that has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and killed at least 17,997 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The UN estimates 1.9 million of Gaza's 2.4 million people have been displaced -- roughly half of them children -- by the war and Israel's intense bombing campaign that has reduced vast areas to rubble. IMAGES