The Israel-Hamas War of two thousand and twenty-three began on October seven, the morning of the

Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, when Islamist terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip, led by
the Palestinian Hamas, launched an attack on Israel. It’s important to mention that, this conflict has been
going on since the beginning of the twentieth century with variable intensity.

That’s why, I would like to clarify the reasons for this conflict, why they have been at war with each other
for decades, so I would like to start at the very beginning to we can understand it.

In the seventeenth centuries Before Christ, following the call of God, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob settled in
Canaan, later known as the Land of Israel. In thousand Before Christ, King Saul established the Israelite
monarchy, which was later split into the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah.

The conquest of Roman Empire in sixtythree Before Christ gave the name “Palestine” to Judah. During this
time, Christianity became a dominant religion towards the end of the Roman Empire.

In six hundred and thirty-six came an Arab conquest, beginning the spread of Islam. In the 11th century,
Christians in Europe launched several crusades to bring the Holy City back to the hand of the Christians
while from the 16th century, more and more Jews were joining a movement called Zionism aiming to
create a Jewish national state in its ancient homeland.

WWI exploded in 1918 and ended with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Its land in the Middle East
was token by the British and French Empires. The region under the control of Britain was what it called the
British mandate for Palestine. Tensions between the Jews and the Arabs grew, which even led to acts of
violence.

In 1947, the UN partitioned Palestine into two independent states: a Jewish state and an Arab state with
the City of Jerusalem becoming an international zone with a special status. Less than one year after that,
Israel declared itself an independent state. Right after the declaration, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War broke out
and ended when a cease-fire agreement was reached in 1949, giving more than two-thirds of historic
Palestine, including West Jerusalem, to Israel.

There came more wars and fighting in the following decades, namely the Six-Day War ending with the
victory of Israel,

the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon kicking the Palestinian Liberation Organization out of Beirut,

the First Intifada ending with the Oslo Accords, the Second Intifada ending with Israel’s withdrawal from
Gaza.

Then came the establishment of Hamas, a Sunni Islamist militant group founded in 1987, aiming to
destroy the state of Israel and create an Islamic state.

After the Battle of Gaza (a conflict between Hamas and Fatah), Hamas split from the Palestinian authority
and gained power in the Gaza while the West Bank was separately controlled by the Palestine Liberation
Organization. Israel put Gaza under a blockade, leading to several bloody wars between Israel and Hamas,
the military group in control of the Gaza Strip till today.