WAR

COMES TO
MIDDLE EAST
AGAIN
ISRAEL-PALESTINE CONFLICT: ITS
GENESIS AND LONG HISTORY
On October 7, Hamas, the militant group based in occupied Gaza launched aerial
attacks and stormed into Israel. Within hours, hundreds of Israelis were killed,
injured or abducted. The scale of the attack left the world stunned. As expected,
Israel launched a counter attack. Within 24 hours buildings in Gaza were turning
into rubble under Israel’s retaliatory strikes. There’s fear that this may turn into a
full-scale war. The conflict, though, has gone on for decades.
A short history of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
A CENTURY-OLD
ISSUE 1920
The Beginning

Britain takes control of the area

1920S to 1940s known as Palestine after the Ottoman
Empire is defeated in WWI.
Tensions grow when the
The land was inhabited by a Jewish
international community gives
minority and Arab majority.
Britain the task of establishing
a “national home” in Palestine
for Jewish people, even as
more and more Jewish people
flee persecution in Europe. AFTER WORLD
WAR II, AS MORE
For Jews, it is their ancestral JEWS FLEE TO THE
home, but Palestinian Arabs REGION, VIOLENCE
also claim the land and oppose GROWS BETWEEN
the move. THE GROUPS AS
WELL AS AGAINST
BRITISH RULE.
1947
Under United Nations
Resolution 181, approved in
November 1947, Palestine is
split into separate Jewish and
Arab states, with Jerusalem
becoming an international city.
The move is accepted by
Jewish leaders but rejected
by Arabs side and never
implemented.

THE CREATION OF
ISRAEL AND THE 1948
‘CATASTROPHE’ Unable to solve the problem, British
rulers leave the region.
The state of Israel is created on May 14,
1948, by Jewish leaders. Palestinians
object and an eight-month war ensues.
Troops from neighbouring Arab
countries invade.¸

Palestinians flee or are

forced out of their homes
in what they call Al Nakba,
or the ‘Catastrophe’.

1949
The fighting ends in a ceasefire,
Israel controls most of the territory.
Jordan occupies the land now
known as the West Bank, and Egypt
occupies Gaza. Jerusalem is divided
between Israeli forces in the West,
and Jordanian forces in the East.
Without a peace agreement,
tensions continue simmering.
1948
MORE THAN 400
PALESTINIAN VILLAGES ARE
RAZED BY ISRAELI FORCES
AND AROUND 760,000
PALESTINIAN REFUGEES FLEE
TO THE WEST BANK, GAZA
AND NEIGHBOURING ARAB
COUNTRIES.

1964 1948-49
PALESTINE
The Palestine
ISRAEL Jerusalem
Liberation
Organisation
(PLO) is created
West Bank
Gaza Strip (Occupied by
(Occupied by Jordan)
Egypt)
 1967
OCCUPATION Israel defeats Egypt, Jordan, Syria
and occupies the predominantly Arab
AND WAR east Jerusalem, the West Bank, the
Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights in the
Golan Six-Day War
Heights
1967 Jewish settlement of occupied
PALESTINE territories starts as hundreds of
ISRAEL thousands of Palestinians flee or are
OCCUPIED displaced
BY ISRAEL

West Bank
Gaza Strip (Occupied None of the Palestinians displaced - or their
by Israel) descendants - have ever been allowed to return
Egypt home, as Israel said it would overwhelm the country
(Sinai and threaten its existence as a Jewish state
Peninsula)
Israel still occupies the West Bank, and although
it pulled out of Gaza the UN still regards that
piece of land as part of occupied territory

Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem

as its capital, while the Palestinians
claim East Jerusalem as the capital
of a future Palestinian state.
The US is one of only a handful of
countries to recognise Israel’s claim
to the whole of the city.
1973
A coalition of Arab nations, led by
Egypt and Syria, attack Israel on
October 6, the Jewish holy day of
Yom Kippur, but are driven back by
an Israeli counter-offensive aided by
supplies from allies, including the
United States
1978
A peace deal between Egyptian
President Anwar Sadat and Israeli
Prime Minister Menachem Begin,
known as the Camp David Accords,
is brokered on September 17 by US
President Jimmy Carter.
Potential Palestinian peace
proposals are discussed, but
never carried out.

1982
Then PM of Israel, Golda Meir (R) with Israel invades civil
Defense Minister Moshe Dayan war-wracked Lebanon
on June 6, to attack
Palestinian militants.
Israeli-backed Lebanese
militias kill hundreds
in Palestinian refugee
camps in Beirut. Israeli
troops remain in
southern Lebanon until
May 2000.
Israeli Troops in
Lebanon, 1982
1987
PEACE ABORTED

THE FIRST INTIFADA, or

1993
Palestinian uprising against
Israel erupts, bringing clashes
and protests in the West Bank,
The first Oslo Accord, known as Oslo I, is
Gaza and Israel
signed between Israel and the Palestine
The unrest Liberation Organization (PLO), on
continues on principles for Palestinian autonomy after
and off until six months of secret negotiations.
1987, with many
lives lost on
both sides

KEY ISSUES LIKE ISRAELI

SETTLEMENTS IN THE
WEST BANK AND THE
STATUS OF JERUSALEM,
ARE LEFT UNRESOLVED. A second accord, known as Oslo II, was
signed in September 1995.
 1994
PLO leader Yasser Arafat creates the
Palestinian Authority. Self-rule is established
for the first time in the Gaza Strip and the
West Bank town of Jericho.

2000
The second intifada
begins after Ariel 2002
Sharon, a right-wing
Responding to a wave of
Israeli political figure
suicide bombings, Israel
and future prime
invades the West Bank in
minister, visits the
its largest operation there
Al-Aqsa mosque
since the 1967 war.
compound in east
Jerusalem, a site holy
to Muslims, Christians
and Jews. Violence
continues until 2005,
leaving hundreds
dead on both sides.
2005
The last Israeli forces
leave Gaza after a
38-year occupation
in September.
2006
The Palestinian militant group Hamas
wins elections in Gaza, leading to political
strains with the more moderate Fatah party
controlling the West Bank.

2008

2012 Israel kills

Hamas military
chief Ahmed Israel attacks
Jabari, triggering Gaza after rocket
more than a barrages into Israel
week of rocket by Palestinian
fire from Gaza militants, supplied
and Israeli by Egypt.
airstrikes. CASUALTIES
CASUALTIES
1,110 13
150 6 Palestinians Israelis
Palestinians Israelis
 2014
More than
A seven-week conflict
2000 killed ensues after Hamas
in Gaza. More than 70 militants kill three Israeli
ns
soldiers and civilians teenagers kidnapped
lost their lives in Israel. near a Jewish settlement
in the West Bank.

2017 Benjamin
Netanyahu,
The Trump PM of Israel,
administration with then US
recognizes Jerusalem president,
as the capital of Israel. Donald
Trump, 2017

2018-19
A series of demonstrations held each Friday
in the Gaza Strip along the fence with Israel.
Demonstrators hurl rocks, tear-gas canisters
and gasoline bombs across the fence.

Israeli troops kill more than 170 protesters

over several months.
2021
Clashes between the Israeli
police and Palestinian
protesters at Al Aqsa Mosque
in Jerusalem. Tensions flare.

2022
Israel launches the “Break
the Wave” military operation
in the West Bank, after it is
rocked by a series of deadly
Palestinian attacks.
 2023
May
Israel launches surprise
attacks across the Gaza
strip, targeting leaders of
the Islamic Jihad, another
militant group. A bout of
violence follows.
Jan
10 Palestinians killed during an Israeli
raid against militants in the Palestinian
city of Jenin. Israel raids Jenin many
times over the next few months.
Seven Israelis killed by a Palestinian
gunman outside an East Jerusalem
synagogue.
June
Five Palestinians killed in a
firefight following Israel’s raid
on Jenin.
Two Hamas gunmen open fire
at an Israeli settlement in the
West Bank.
Israel carries out drone
attacks in the West Bank.
 July
More than 1,000 Israeli troops
storm Jenin, in Israel’s
biggest military operation in
the area in years.

7 Oct
Hamas launches a
surprise assault on Israel
on the 50th anniversary
of the start of the 1973
Yom Kippur war.
Hamas militants infiltrate
Israel declares a
dozens of Israeli towns
“STATE OF WAR”, near the Gaza Strip, killing
launches a large-scale and abducting civilians.
counter-offensive
against Hamas.