Europe 2024: Europe Today

Despite the disruption in Russia caused by the Wagner Group rebellion and Ukrainian efforts in their 2023 counteroffensive, there were only minor changes to the Russian–Ukrainian front over the course of the year. Elsewhere, near the periphery of Europe, 2023 saw the Azerbaijani elimination of the ethnic Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh enclave and the outbreak of a major war between Israel and Hamas.

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Main Events

19–20 Sep 2023 Azerbaijani suppression of Nagorno-Karabakh

On 19 September 2023 Azerbaijan launched a full-scale military offensive against the ethnically Armenian breakaway Republic of Artsakh in Nagorno-Karabakh, violating a ceasefire made in 2020. The following day the Russian peacekeeping contingent mediated a new ceasefire agreement, in which Artsakh agreed to surrender and to disarm its armed forces, resulting in the republic’s dissolution by 1 January 2024. In the wake of this defeat, over 100,000 ethnic Armenians—almost the entire Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh—fled Azerbaijan in what has been described by the International Criminal Court as a second Armenian genocide. in wikipedia

7–9 Oct 2023 7 October attack

On 7 October 2023 (the Hebrew day of Simchat Torah) Hamas led a series of armed incursions into Israel from the Gaza Strip, catching the Israeli military completely by surprise in what would be the first invasion of Israel since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Attacking Israeli civilian communities, military bases, and the Re'im music festival, the invaders killed 1,139 people—695 Israeli civilians, 373 members of the security forces, and 71 foreign nationals—and took an additional 250 Israelis back to Gaza as hostages. This massacre—the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust—was condemned as terrorism by at least 44 nations and marked the beginning of the Israel–Hamas War. in wikipedia

7 Oct 2023–pres. Israel–Hamas War

In response to Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack, Israel blockaded, bombarded and then, on the 27th, invaded the Gaza Strip, with the expressed intention of destroying Hamas and demilitarizing Gaza. By early 2024 over 22,000 Palestinians had been killed in the invasion, with the accompanying destruction of infrastructure leading to a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Meanwhile, smaller scale but related clashes broke out across the region, with Israel facing off against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, Palestinians in the West Bank, and Houthi militias in Yemen. in wikipedia