Our Photographers in Israel and Gaza on the Images They Can’t Forget

The moment the first alarms sounded in Israel on Oct. 7, New York Times photographers began to document the unfolding crisis.

Over the year that followed, in Israel and in Gaza, they have tracked the Hamas-led attacks and their aftermath, the Israeli military campaign and the human toll of the conflict.

Here, seven photographers who have covered the war for The Times talk about the images that have stayed with them most.

This gallery contains graphic images.

Ashkelon, Israel, October 2023

Running for shelter

A rocket siren was screaming when I took this photograph. It was the afternoon of Oct. 7, and the woman running for shelter is Evgenia Simanovich, who had been surveying the situation around her home in Ashkelon, a coastal city near the Gaza border, and checking on brush fires that were burning nearby.

I had come there by driving toward the plume of black smoke that was still billowing after the morning’s salvo — scores of rockets were fired in the opening hours of the Hamas attack. Ms. Simanovich and I had just started to talk. But in Ashkelon, you have only seconds to reach safety once a siren sounds.