Israel and Hamas have been waging a war since gunmen from the Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip launched an attack on southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages by Israeli troops.
Israel responded with a military offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 41,500 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials. The enclave’s entire population of approximately 2.3 million has been displaced from their homes and much of the area has been devastated.
The Gaza war is the bloodiest episode so far in the long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, which has raged for seven decades and destabilized the Middle East.
Recent weeks have seen a dramatic increase in related clashes along Israel’s border with Lebanon, where the Iran-backed armed movement Hezbollah says it is fighting in solidarity with Palestinians.
What are the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
The conflict challenges Israel’s demand for a secure homeland in what it has long viewed as a hostile Middle East against Palestinians’ unrealistic aspirations for their own state.
In 1947, when Palestine was under British Mandate rule, the United Nations General Assembly agreed to a plan to partition it into Arab and Jewish states and international rule over Jerusalem. Jewish leaders accepted the plan, giving them 56% of the land. The Arab League rejected the proposal.
Israel’s founding father, David Ben-Gurion, proclaimed the modern State of Israel on May 14, 1948, one day before the scheduled end of British rule, establishing a safe haven for Jews fleeing persecution and the land. But looked for a national home to which they refer. Connects with antiquity.
In the late 1940s, violence between Arabs, who made up about two-thirds of the population, and Jews was intensifying. The day after Israel’s creation, troops from five Arab states attacked.
In the war that followed, approximately 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes into Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, and into Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Palestinians mourn it by calling it the “Nakba”, or catastrophe. Israel disputes the claim that it expelled Palestinians.
Armistice agreements stopped the fighting in 1949 but there was no formal peace. The descendants of Palestinians who stayed through the war now make up about 20% of Israel’s population.
What wars have been fought since then?
In 1967, Israel pre-emptively attacked Egypt and Syria, starting the Six-Day War. Israel captured the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem from Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt.
According to the 1967 Israeli census the population of Gaza was 394,000, of whom at least 60% were Palestinian refugees and their descendants.
In 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israeli positions along the Suez Canal and the Golan Heights, starting the Yom Kippur War. Israel pushed back both the armies within three weeks.
Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and thousands of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) guerrillas led by Yasser Arafat were evacuated by sea after a 10-week siege. Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon in 2000.
In 2005, Israel withdrew residents and troops from Gaza. Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006 and gained full control of Gaza in 2007. Major fighting took place between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza in 2006, 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2021.
In 2006, Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers in the border area and Israel initiated military action, triggering a six-week war.
There have also been two Palestinian intifadas or rebellions, from 1987 to 1993 and from 2000 to 2005. In the second, Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups carried out suicide bombings in Israel, and Israel launched tank attacks and airstrikes on Palestinian cities.
Since then, there have been several rounds of hostilities between Israel and Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel and is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the European Union, the United States and other countries. Hamas says its armed activities are resistance against Israeli occupation.
What efforts have been made to establish peace?
In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel, returning the Sinai Peninsula to Egyptian rule.
In 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Arafat signed the Oslo Accords establishing limited Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza. In 1994, Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan. But six years later a summit at Camp David attended by Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and US President Bill Clinton failed to secure a final peace agreement.
In 2002, a proposed Arab League plan offered Israel normal relations with all Arab countries in exchange for full withdrawal from lands taken in the 1967 Middle East War, the creation of a Palestinian state, and an “equitable solution” for Palestinian refugees. . The presentation of the plan was influenced by Hamas, which blew up an Israeli hotel filled with massacre survivors during the Passover meal.
Palestinian–Israeli peace efforts have been stalled since 2014.
In 2020, under US President Donald Trump, Israel reached an agreement known as the Abraham Accords to normalize relations with several Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
Palestinians stopped dealing with the US administration after Trump broke US policy by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
Qatar and Egypt have acted as mediators in the latest war, securing a seven-day truce late last year, during which some hostages held by Hamas were exchanged for prisoners held by Israel. was granted, and more humanitarian aid flowed into Gaza.
Where do peace efforts stand now?
Talks on a further ceasefire in Gaza that have been going on for several months have so far proved futile on the same issues.
On top of that, Hamas says it will only free its remaining hostages as part of a peace deal ending the war. Israel says that it will not end the war until Hamas is eliminated.
Other issues blocking an agreement include control of the border between Gaza and Egypt, the order of reciprocal steps in any agreement, the number and identity of Palestinian prisoners to be released along with Israeli hostages, and free movement for Palestinians inside Gaza. .
The administration of US President Joe Biden has sought a “grand bargain” in the Middle East that would include normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Riyadh says this would require progress toward creating an independent Palestinian state, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected.
What are the main Israeli-Palestinian issues?
The two-state solution, Israeli settlements on occupied lands, the status of Jerusalem, agreed borders and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
Two-state solution: An agreement that would create a state for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza alongside Israel. Netanyahu says Israel should maintain security control over all land west of the Jordan River, which would exclude a sovereign Palestinian state.
Settlements: Most countries consider Jewish settlements built on land annexed by Israel in 1967 as illegal. Israel disputes this and cites historical and biblical ties to the land. Continued settlement expansion is one of the most controversial issues between Israel, Palestinians and the international community.
Jerusalem: Palestinians want to make East Jerusalem, which includes the sites of the Old City holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians alike, as the capital of their state. Israel says Jerusalem should remain its “indivisible and eternal” capital.
Israel’s claim on the eastern part of Jerusalem is not recognized internationally. Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the US embassy there in 2018, without specifying the extent of his jurisdiction in the disputed city.
Refugees: Today approximately 5.6 million Palestinian refugees – mainly descendants of those who fled in 1948 – live in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and Gaza. According to the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, about half of registered refugees are stateless, with many living in overcrowded camps.
Palestinians have long demanded that refugees and their millions of descendants be allowed to return. Israel says any resettlement of Palestinian refugees must take place outside its borders.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
