The world continues to trace the sufferings of the Palestinian people in Gaza back to October 7th, 2023, blindly blaming Israel’s response to Hamas’s barbaric attack as the root cause of all subsequent suffering. Even setting aside the twisted perspective that views Israel’s challenging response as morally equivalent to Hamas’s ruthless and deliberate attacks on civilians, two timelines must be added to our consideration to fully contextualize Palestinian human suffering beyond the clock that started eight months ago. These milestones remind humanity of a long-term strategy of suffering and sacrifice that has been carefully crafted and finely calibrated by Hamas’s terrorist regime.