Offensive fighting is raging in Israel and Gaza after Hamas militants launched thousands of rockets into Israel on 7 October 2023. The fight may be the worst since 2021, but it’s part of a complex, bitter conflict that reaches back to the first world war. In 1947 the U.N. votes to divide Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states and make Jerusalem an international city but Arab’s reject the plan, which is later dropped.
The Israeli Palestinian Conflict dates back to the late 19th century, when Zionists tried to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine under Ottoman rule. Jewish immigrants arrived in the area in a large number as a result of the British Government’s 1917 Balfour Declaration , which supported the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Israel was founded in 1948 as a result of increased international demand for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine following world war 2nd and the Holocaust. A protracted struggle between Israel and the Palestinian people was caused by the creation of Israel and the wars that preceded and followed it, which resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. In at least a portion of historic Palestine, the Palestinians aim to create their own sovereign state. This objective is currently out of reach due to Israeli border defense, Palestinian internal politics, Israeli rule over the west bank, the Egyptian Israeli embargo of the Gaza strip, and Israeli authority over the Israeli occupied territory.
Jewish peoples council meets and established the state of Israel. The U.S. officially recognizes the new nation in 1948. The Palestine Liberation Organization, group with the goal of uniting Arab groups and liberating the Palestinian territories through armed struggle which is formed in Egypt. Egypt orders the U.N force to leave, close the straits of Tiran to Israel again and plans a secret attack against Israel in 1967.
In 1973 the Yom Kippur War starts with Egypt and Syria attacking Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. Palestinians, frustrated over failures to create a Palestinian state, begin the second intifada in September, which lasts until February 2005. Israel withdraws from Gaza but retains control in 2005.
Israel launches a major military campaign against Hamas in Gaza after increased rocket fire from militants in 2008. The fighting ends on 18 January 2009, with 1,440 Palestinians and 13 Israelis killed.
Israeli forces kill Ahmed Jabari, a Hamas military chief, in a missile strike. The strike is part of an Israeli operations to eliminate weapons and militants in Gaza. Hamas says the killing has “opened the gates of hell.”
In 2014, Hamas kidnaps and kills three Israeli teens in the West Bank, igniting the Gaza War, in which rocket attacks and airstrikes kill 2,251 Palestinians and 73 Israelis. A senior Hamas leader praises the kidnapping and says it was intended to spark a new Palestinian uprising. The war lasts 50 days and ends with a truce.
A U.N report says both sides may have committed war crimes, which Israel and Hamas dispute. Protests break out on the Gaza-Israeli border as the U.S. Embassy is relocated.
Fighting erupts again as Israeli police raid the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on April 13, the first night of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and disconnect speakers broadcasting prayers as Reuven Rivlin, the Israeli president, is speaking at the Western Wall, a site sacred to the Jewish people in around 2021.
Police then close a nearby plaza, a popular gathering place. Palestinians and Jews begin attacking one another, and Israeli police raid the mosque on May 7.
Hamas and other militants fire rockets into Israel from Gaza on May 10. Israel counter attacks with airstrikes. A ceasefire went into effect on May 21. It lasted until June 16, when Hamas sent incendiary balloons – helium balloons or kites with flammable devices attached – across the Gaza border into Israel.
In January 2023 too this year, Israel launched the first of two raids against the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, where it said Palestinian militants and activists were hiding out. The second raid, in July 2023, saw Israel send about 1,000 soldiers, backed by drone strikes, to Jenin to demolish what it characterized as a militant “command center.” In the biggest offensive in years on October 2023 dozens of gunmen from the Palestinian militant group Hamas infiltrate southern Israel in a stunning surprise attack that coincided with a major Jewish holiday. Overnight and into the morning, Hamas launched thousands of rockets into Israel. Israel’s national rescue service said at least dozens of people were killed and hundreds wounded.
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