On 7 October 2023, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas carried out terrorist attacks on various settlements around the Gaza Strip under the slogan Al-Aqsa Flood. The commandos broke through the barrier system in over 20 places, on foot, with motorbikes, pickups and paragliders. They infiltrated several kibbutzim near the border. On this day, 1139 people were murdered or killed in action on the Israeli side - including 695 Israeli civilians, 373 members of the Israeli security forces and 71 foreigners. Hamas takes 239 hostages and obducts them in the Gaza Strip.
Immediately after the Hamas-led attacks, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) begin to bomb the Gaza Strip. A ground offensive followed on 13 October and a full-scale invasion was launched on 27 October. Israel's operation Swords of Iron has two declared objectives: the destruction of Hamas and the liberation of the hostages. one hundred pages begins to compile a collection of appropriated press photographs at this stage of the war.
A key aspect and focus of the collection is drone photography. This reveals the development of image production and is paradigmatically reflected in the context of the military conflict. Drones are used for surveillance and control as well as for bombing with laser-guided munitions. However, the photographs in Swords of Iron also show that this technology has become established in consumer electronics and is used culturally. They show the widespread destruction of numerous places in the Gaza Strip. The images are distributed almost exclusively via Western press agencies.