Last weekend’s devastating incursion by Hamas militants into Israel from Gaza resulted in thousands of deaths, provoked a declaration of war and upended the fragile diplomacy of the Middle East. The swirling composite of images on the magazine’s cover this week tries to encapsulate the human chaos and grief of civilians, both in Israel and Gaza, caught in the chaos of war. The central image shows a vast explosion filling the sky above Gaza City, an ominous portent of many violent acts still to come. As the region faces its worst conflict for 50 years, Bethan McKernan reports from a kibbutz ransacked by militants and finds shocked residents still struggling to process events. Guardian correspondents Harriet Sherwood, Patrick Wintour and Peter Beaumont provide context and analysis, while international affairs commentator Simon Tisdall argues that the ultimate blame lies with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s controversial prime minister. Ahead of this weekend’s elections in Poland that could give the ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party an unprecedented third term in office, Shaun Walker goes on the campaign trail with Donald Tusk whose centre-right Civic Coalition is hoping to reverse the country’s slide away from democratic norms. And Brussels correspondent Lisa O’Carroll reports on the EU’s Granada summit where Hungary’s Viktor Orbán accused fellow leaders of attempting to impose a “diktat” with a proposal on a bloc-wide agreement on migration. With global temperatures for September described as “gobsmackingly bananas” by leading climatologist Zeke Hausfather, our interview with the president of Cop28 could not be more timely. Sultan Al Jaber explains to environment editor Fiona Harvey how he believes he can square his job as the chief of the United Arab Emirates’ national oil company with leading a global conference focused on net zero carbon emissions. Culture this week gets down with funk pioneer Sly Stone, who the last time Alexis Petridis tried to interview him wanted money to talk and had a madcap plan to teach music to the British royal family. Now drug-free and with an autobiography out, Stone opens up on his highs, personal feuds and an archive of unrecorded tracks. We settle down in a gaming chair with Amelia Tait to consider what it says about players who happily let a Sims character drown but balk at using a fantasy creature as missile and consider the how personal ethical codes influence gameplay. And finally books reach out to the cosmos with a review of Karl Ove Knausgård’s latest, an expansive read as one would expect from the author of the 3,600-page novel series My Struggle but as Tanjil Rashid says, a bravura resurrection of the novel of ideas. I hope you enjoy this issue.