This week’s covers

We had been planning for some time to produce a cover story marking the first anniversary of Hamas’s slaughter of Israelis on October 7th 2023. Our correspondents in the Middle East and our defence experts in London were preparing a package of articles analysing the terrible events that followed, asking how a year of blood-letting had affected Gaza, Israel and the wider region. What we did not expect was such a tornado of news just before our deadline. 

Israel assassinated Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizbullah, the militia-cum-political-movement that dominates Lebanon and had been firing rockets into northern Israel for the past year. Israel’s army advanced into Lebanon to destroy Hizbullah’s outposts near the border. Iran, which sponsors Hizbullah, fired 180 missiles directly at Israel in response. Everyone expects Israel to retaliate against Iran; many fear that the Middle East is sliding towards an all-out war.