short essay on israel palestine conflict

What’s the Israel-Palestine conflict about? A simple guide

It’s killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions. And its future lies in its past. We break it down.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced many millions of people and has its roots in a colonial act carried out more than a century ago.

With Israel declaring war on the Gaza Strip after an unprecedented attack by the armed Palestinian group Hamas on Saturday, the world’s eyes are again sharply focused on what might come next.

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Hamas fighters have killed more than 800 Israelis in assaults on multiple towns in southern Israel. In response, Israel has launched a bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip, killing more than 500 Palestinians. It has mobilised troops along the Gaza border, apparently in preparation for a ground attack. And on Monday, it announced a “total blockade” of the Gaza Strip, stopping the supply of food, fuel and other essential commodities to the already besieged enclave in an act that under international law amounts to a war crime.

But what unfolds in the coming days and weeks has its seed in history.

For decades, Western media outlets, academics, military experts and world leaders have described the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as intractable, complicated and deadlocked.

Here’s a simple guide to break down one of the world’s longest-running conflicts:

What was the Balfour Declaration?

• More than 100 years ago, on November 2, 1917, Britain’s then-foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, wrote a letter addressed to Lionel Walter Rothschild, a figurehead of the British Jewish community.
• The letter was short – just 67 words – but its contents had a seismic effect on Palestine that is still felt to this day.
• It committed the British government to “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” and to facilitating “the achievement of this object”. The letter is known as the Balfour Declaration .
• In essence, a European power promised the Zionist movement a country where Palestinian Arab natives made up more than 90 percent of the population.
• A British Mandate was created in 1923 and lasted until 1948. During that period, the British facilitated mass Jewish immigration – many of the new residents were fleeing Nazism in Europe – and they also faced protests and strikes. Palestinians were alarmed by their country’s changing demographics and British confiscation of their lands to be handed over to Jewish settlers.

What happened during the 1930s?

• Escalating tensions eventually led to the Arab Revolt, which lasted from 1936 to 1939.
• In April 1936, the newly formed Arab National Committee called on Palestinians to launch a general strike, withhold tax payments and boycott Jewish products to protest British colonialism and growing Jewish immigration.
• The six-month strike was brutally repressed by the British, who launched a mass arrest campaign and carried out punitive home demolitions , a practice that Israel continues to implement against Palestinians today.
• The second phase of the revolt began in late 1937 and was led by the Palestinian peasant   resistance movement, which targeted British forces and colonialism.
• By the second half of 1939, Britain had massed 30,000 troops in Palestine. Villages were bombed by air, curfews imposed, homes demolished, and administrative detentions and summary killings were widespread.
• In tandem, the British collaborated with the Jewish settler community and formed armed groups and a British-led “counterinsurgency force” of Jewish fighters named the Special Night Squads.
• Within the Yishuv, the pre-state settler community, arms were secretly imported and weapons factories established to expand the Haganah, the Jewish paramilitary that later became the core of the Israeli army.
• In those three years of revolt, 5,000 Palestinians were killed, 15,000 to 20,000 were wounded and 5,600 were imprisoned.

What was the UN partition plan?

• By 1947, the Jewish population had ballooned to 33 percent of Palestine, but they owned only 6 percent of the land.
• The United Nations adopted Resolution 181, which called for the partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states.
• The Palestinians rejected the plan because it allotted about 55 percent of Palestine to the Jewish state, including most of the fertile coastal region.
• At the time, the Palestinians owned 94 percent of historic Palestine and comprised 67 percent of its population.

The 1948 Nakba, or the ethnic cleansing of Palestine

• Even before the British Mandate expired on May 14, 1948, Zionist paramilitaries were already embarking on a military operation to destroy Palestinian towns and villages to expand the borders of the Zionist state that was to be born.
• In April 1948, more than 100 Palestinian men, women and children were killed in the village of Deir Yassin on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
• That set the tone for the rest of the operation, and from 1947 to 1949, more than 500 Palestinian villages, towns and cities were destroyed in what Palestinians refer to as the Nakba , or “catastrophe” in Arabic.
• An estimated 15,000 Palestinians were killed, including in dozens of massacres.
• The Zionist movement captured 78 percent of historic Palestine. The remaining 22 percent was divided into what are now the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip.
• An estimated 750,000 Palestinians were forced out of their homes.
• Today their descendants live as six million refugees in 58 squalid camps throughout Palestine and in the neighbouring countries of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt.
• On May 15, 1948, Israel announced its establishment.
• The following day, the first Arab-Israeli war began and fighting ended in January 1949 after an armistice between Israel and Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
• In December 1948, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 194, which calls for the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

The years after the Nakba

• At least 150,000 Palestinians remained in the newly created state of Israel and lived under a tightly controlled military occupation for almost 20 years before they were eventually granted Israeli citizenship.
• Egypt took over the Gaza Strip, and in 1950, Jordan began its administrative rule over the West Bank.
• In 1964, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) was formed, and a year later, the Fatah political party was established.

The Naksa, or the Six-Day War and the settlements

• On June 5, 1967, Israel occupied the rest of historic Palestine, including the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Syrian Golan Heights and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula during the Six-Day War against a coalition of Arab armies.
• For some Palestinians, this led to a second forced displacement, or Naksa, which means “setback” in Arabic.
• In December 1967, the Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was formed. Over the next decade, a series of attacks and plane hijackings by leftist groups drew the world’s attention to the plight of the Palestinians.
• Settlement construction began in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. A two-tier system was created with Jewish settlers afforded all the rights and privileges of being Israeli citizens whereas Palestinians had to live under a military occupation that discriminated against them and barred any form of political or civic expression.

The first Intifada 1987-1993

• The first Palestinian Intifada erupted in the Gaza Strip in December 1987 after four Palestinians were killed when an Israeli truck collided with two vans carrying Palestinian workers.
• Protests spread rapidly to the West Bank with young Palestinians throwing stones at Israeli army tanks and soldiers.
• It also led to the establishment of the Hamas movement, an off-shoot of the Muslim Brotherhood that engaged in armed resistance against the Israeli occupation.
• The Israeli army’s heavy-handed response was encapsulated by the “Break their Bones” policy advocated by then-Defence Minister Yitzhak Rabin. It included summary killings, closures of universities, deportations of activists and destruction of homes.
• The Intifada was primarily carried out by young people and was directed by the Unified National Leadership of the Uprising, a coalition of Palestinian political factions committed to ending the Israeli occupation and establishing Palestinian independence.
• In 1988, the Arab League recognised the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinian people.
• The Intifada was characterised by popular mobilisations, mass protests, civil disobedience, well-organised strikes and communal cooperatives.
• According to the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, 1,070 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces during the Intifada, including 237 children. More than 175,000 Palestinians were arrested.
• The Intifada also prompted the international community to search for a solution to the conflict.

The Oslo years and the Palestinian Authority

• The Intifada ended with the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 and the formation of the Palestinian Authority (PA), an interim government that was granted limited self-rule in pockets of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
• The PLO recognised Israel on the basis of a two-state solution and effectively signed agreements that gave Israel control of 60 percent of the West Bank, and much of the territory’s land and water resources.
• The PA was supposed to make way for the first elected Palestinian government running an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with its capital in East Jerusalem, but that has never happened.
• Critics of the PA view it as a corrupt subcontractor to the Israeli occupation that collaborates closely with the Israeli military in clamping down on dissent and political activism against Israel.
• In 1995, Israel built an electronic fence and concrete wall around the Gaza Strip, snapping interactions between the split Palestinian territories.

The second Intifada

• The second Intifada began on September 28, 2000, when Likud opposition leader Ariel Sharon made a provocative visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound with thousands of security forces deployed in and around the Old City of Jerusalem.
• Clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces killed five Palestinians and injured 200 over two days.
• The incident sparked a widespread armed uprising. During the Intifada, Israel caused unprecedented damage to the Palestinian economy and infrastructure.
• Israel reoccupied areas governed by the Palestinian Authority and began construction of a separation wall that along with rampant settlement construction, destroyed Palestinian livelihoods and communities.
• Settlements are illegal under international law, but over the years, hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers have moved to colonies built on stolen Palestinian land. The space for Palestinians is shrinking as settler-only roads and infrastructure slice up the occupied West Bank, forcing Palestinian cities and towns into bantustans, the isolated enclaves for Black South Africans that the country’s former apartheid regime created.
• At the time the Oslo Accords were signed, just over 110,000 Jewish settlers lived in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Today, the figure is more than 700,000 living on more than 100,000 hectares (390sq miles) of land expropriated from the Palestinians.

The Palestinian division and the Gaza blockade

• PLO leader Yasser Arafat died in 2004, and a year later, the second Intifada ended, Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip were dismantled, and Israeli soldiers and 9,000 settlers left the enclave.
• A year later, Palestinians voted in a general election for the first time.
• Hamas won a majority. However, a Fatah-Hamas civil war broke out, lasting for months, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians.
• Hamas expelled Fatah from the Gaza Strip, and Fatah – the main party of the Palestinian Authority – resumed control of parts of the West Bank.
• In June 2007, Israel imposed a land, air and naval blockade on the Gaza Strip, accusing Hamas of “terrorism”.

The wars on the Gaza Strip

• Israel has launched four protracted military assaults on Gaza: in 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2021. Thousands of Palestinians have been killed, including many children , and tens of thousands of homes, schools and office buildings have been destroyed.
• Rebuilding has been next to impossible because the siege prevents construction materials, such as steel and cement, from reaching Gaza.
• The 2008 assault involved the use of internationally banned weaponry, such as phosphorus gas.
• In 2014, over a span of 50 days, Israel killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, including 1,462 civilians and close to 500 children.
• During the  assault , called Operation Protective Edge by the Israelis, about 11,000 Palestinians were wounded, 20,000 homes were destroyed and half a million people displaced .

Everything you need to know about Israel-Palestine

A comprehensive guide to the basics of the world’s most controversial conflict.

A timeline of Israel and Palestine’s complicated history

To understand the Israel-Hamas war, you have to understand how we got here.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the longest-running and most controversial in the world. Since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s retaliatory war in Gaza, it has been in one of the bloodiest periods of its already-bloody history.

At its heart, the conflict is between two self-determination movements — the Jewish Zionist project and the Palestinian nationalist project — that lay claim to the same territory. But it is so, so much more complicated than that, with seemingly every fact and historical detail small and large litigated by the two sides and their defenders.

This guide is designed to give you an entry point into understanding this immensely complicated conflict. If you’re wondering about the basics — like how the conflict got started or the role the city of Jerusalem plays in it — then you’ve come to the right place.

My hope is that, regardless of your view of who’s right, you can read this and feel like you’ve gotten an honest, clear guide to the key elements of the situation. And if you don’t know anything about it, then you can come away feeling like you can basically make sense of what’s happening today.

— Zack Beauchamp

Editor’s note: A version of this guide was originally published in 2018. Since then, some existing stories in the guide have been updated and new stories have been added to reflect the developing situation.

What are Israel and Palestine? Why are they fighting?

How did Israel become a country in the first place?

What is Zionism?

What is the Nakba?

What is the West Bank?

What is Gaza?

What is Jerusalem?

What were the intifadas?

How the US became Israel’s closest ally

What are settlements, and why are they such a big deal?

The argument that Israel practices apartheid, explained

Occupation, annexation, and other terms you should know related to the Israel-Hamas war

The boycott movement against Israel, explained

What are the “two-state solution” and the “one-state solution”?

How the Arab world sees the Israel-Palestine conflict

Hamas, the militant group that attacked Israel, explained

Hezbollah’s role in the Israel-Hamas war, explained

What is the Palestinian Liberation Organization? How about Fatah and the Palestinian Authority?

The many, many times Israelis and Palestinians tried to make peace — and failed

Take the Quiz: Find the Best State for You »

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Explainer-Gaza War at Six Months: What Is the History of the Israel-Palestinian Conflict?

A tank manoeuvres next to destroyed buildings in central Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, near the Israel-Gaza border, as seen from Israel, January 13, 2024. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

LONDON (Reuters) -Israel and Hamas have been waging war since gunmen from the Palestinian militant group went on the rampage in southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages. Israel responded with a military campaign in which more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed.

The war is the bloodiest ruction in a longer conflict between Israelis and Palestinians that has rumbled on for seven decades and destabilised the Middle East.

WHAT ARE THE ORIGINS OF THE CONFLICT?

The conflict pits Israeli demands for secure homeland in what it has long regarded as a hostile Middle East against Palestinians' unmet aspirations for a state of their own.

War in Israel and Gaza

In 1947, while Palestine was under British mandate rule, the United Nations General Assembly agreed a plan to partition it into Arab and Jewish states and for 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, a day before the scheduled end of British rule, establishing a safe haven for Jews fleeing persecution and seeking a national home on land to which they cite deep ties dating to antiquity.

Violence had been intensifying between Arabs, who made up about two thirds of the population in the late 1940s, and Jews. A day after Israel was created in 1948, troops from five Arab states attacked.

In the war that followed, some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes, ending up in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria as well as in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Palestinians lament this as the "Nakba", or catastrophe. Israel contests the assertion that it forced out Palestinians.

Armistice agreements halted the fighting in 1949 but there was no formal peace. The descendants of Palestinians who stayed put in the war make up about 20% of Israel's population now.

WHAT MAJOR WARS HAVE BEEN FOUGHT SINCE THEN?

In 1967, Israel made a pre-emptive strike against Egypt and Syria, launching 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.

An Israeli census that year put Gaza's population at 394,000, at least 60% of them Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

In 1973, Egypt and Syria made a surprise attack on Israeli positions along the Suez Canal and Golan Heights, touching off the Yom Kippur War. Israel pushed both armies back within three weeks.

Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and thousands of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) fighters under Yasser Arafat were evacuated by sea after a 10-week siege. Israeli troops pulled out of Lebanon in 2000.

In 2005 Israel unilaterally withdrew settlers and soldiers from Gaza. Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006, and seized full control of Gaza in 2007. Gaza saw major flare-ups of fighting between Palestinian militants and Israel in 2006, 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2021.

In 2006, Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers in the volatile border region and Israel launched military action, triggering a six-week war.

Besides wars, there have been two Palestinian intifadas, or uprisings, from 1987 to 1993, and 2000 to 2005. During the second, Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups carried out suicide bombings against Israelis, and Israel carried out tank assaults and airstrikes on Palestinian cities.

Since then there have been several rounds of hostilities between Israel and Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel and is regarded as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the European Union, the United States and other countries. Hamas says its armed activities are resistance against Israeli occupation.

WHAT ATTEMPTS HAVE THERE BEEN TO MAKE PEACE?

In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel, which agreed to return the Sinai Peninsula to Egyptian rule.

In 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Arafat shook hands on the Oslo Accords establishing limited Palestinian autonomy. In 1994, Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan.

U.S. President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Arafat took part in the Camp David summit in 2000, but failed to reach a final peace deal.

In 2002, a proposed Arab League plan offered Israel normal relations with all Arab countries in return for a full withdrawal from the lands it took in the 1967 Middle East war, the creation of a Palestinian state and a "just solution" for Palestinian refugees. The presentation of the plan was overshadowed by Hamas, which blew up an Israeli hotel full of Holocaust survivors during a Passover seder meal.

Further Palestinian-Israeli peace efforts have been stalled since 2014.

Under U.S. President Donald Trump, Israel reached agreements known as the Abraham Accords to normalise relations with several Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.

Palestinians stopped dealing with the U.S. administration after Trump broke with decades of U.S. policy by recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

Qatar and Egypt have acted as mediators in the latest war, securing a truce that lasted seven days, during which hostages held by Hamas were exchanged for prisoners held by Israel, and more humanitarian aid flowed into Gaza.

WHERE DO PEACE EFFORTS STAND NOW?

Talks on a further truce have so far proven fruitless, with Israel insisting it will discuss only a temporary pause in fighting and Hamas saying it will not release hostages without an agreement that envisions an end to the war.

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has focused on trying to secure a "grand bargain" in the Middle East that would include normalisation of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. But Riyadh says this would require progress towards creating an independent Palestinian state, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN ISSUES?

A two-state solution, Israeli settlements on occupied land, the status of Jerusalem, agreed borders, and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

Two-state solution: An agreement that would create a state for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip alongside Israel. Netanyahu says Israel must have security control over all land west of the Jordan River, which precludes a sovereign Palestinian state.

Settlements: Most countries deem Jewish settlements built on land Israel occupied in 1967 to be illegal. Israel disputes this and cites historical and biblical ties to the land. Continued settlement expansion is among the most contentious issues between Israel, the Palestinians and the international community.

Jerusalem: Palestinians want East Jerusalem, which includes the walled Old City's sites sacred to Muslims, Jews and Christians alike, to be the capital of their state. Israel says Jerusalem should remain its "indivisible and eternal" capital.

Israel's claim to Jerusalem's eastern part is not recognised internationally. Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital, without specifying the extent of its jurisdiction in the disputed city, and moved the U.S. Embassy there in 2018.

Refugees: Today about 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. About half of registered refugees remain stateless, according to the Palestinian foreign ministry, many living in crowded camps.

Palestinians have long demanded that refugees and their millions of descendents should be allowed to return. Israel says any resettlement of Palestinian refugees must occur outside its borders.

(Editing by Edmund Blair, Timothy Heritage, Peter Graff)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .

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Religion and the Israel-Palestinian Conflict: Cause, Consequence, and Cure

Mohamed Galal Mostafa is a former Egyptian diplomat, and currently a researcher at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is driven by several factors: ethnic, national, historical, and religious. This brief essay focuses on the religious dimension of the conflict, which both historical and recent events suggest lies at its core. That much is almost a truism. What is less often appreciated, however, is how much religion impacts the identity of actors implicated in this conflict, the practical issues at stake, and the relevant policies and attitudes -- even of non-religious participants on both sides. It follows that religion must also be part of any real solution to this tragic and protracted conflict, in ways a concluding paragraph will very briefly outline.

Why is religion at the core of this conflict?

Several religious factors pertinent to Islam and Judaism dictate the role of religion as the main factor in the conflict, notably including the sanctity of holy sites and the apocalyptic narratives of both religions, which are detrimental to any potential for lasting peace between the two sides. Extreme religious Zionists in Israel increasingly see themselves as guardians and definers of the how the Jewish state should be, and are very stringent when it comes to any concessions to the Arabs. On the other hand, Islamist groups in Palestine and elsewhere in the Islamic world advocate the necessity of liberating the “holy” territories and sites for religious reasons, and preach violence and hatred against Israel and the Jewish people.

Religion-based rumors propagated by extremists in the media and social media about the hidden religious agendas of the other side exacerbate these tensions. Examples include rumors about a “Jewish Plan” to destroy al Aqsa mosque and build the Jewish third temple on its remnants, and, on the other side rumors that Muslims hold the annihilation of Jews at the core of their belief.

In addition, worsening socio-economic conditions in the Arab and Islamic world contribute to the growth of religious radicalism, pushing a larger percentage of youth towards fanaticism, and religion-inspired politics.

The advent of the Arab spring, ironically, also posed a threat to Arab-Israeli peace, as previously stable regimes were often challenged by extreme political views. A prominent example was the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, who after succeeding to the presidency in 2012, threatened to compromise the peace agreement with Israel based on their religious ideology – even if they did not immediately tear up the treaty.

Practical Consequences O n Negotiations

If we take a closer look at the permanent status issues – borders, security, mutual recognition, refugees, the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and the issue of authority over Jerusalem -- we find that the last two are directly linked to the faiths of Jewish people and Muslim people around the world. The original ownership and authority over Jerusalem are highly contested due to the presence of holy sites for Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the city. This conflict is also deeply rooted in history, in which Jerusalem has been attacked fifty-two times, captured and recaptured forty-four times, besieged twenty-three times, and destroyed twice. The city was ruled by the Ancient Egyptians, the Canaanites, the Israelites, the Greeks, the Romans, the Persians, Byzantines, the Islamic Caliphates, the Crusaders, the Ottomans, and finally the British, before its division into Israeli and Jordanian sectors from 1948 to 1967.

In Jewish and Biblical history, Jerusalem was the capital of the Kingdom of Israel during the reign of King David. It is also home to the Temple Mount, and the Western Wall, both highly sanctified sites in Judaism. In Islamic history, the city was the first Muslim Qiblah (the direction which Muslims face during their prayer). It is also the place where Prophet Muhammad’s Isra’ and Mi'raj (bringing forward and ascension to heaven, also called the night journey) ensued according to the Qur’an.

Thus the sanctity of Jerusalem resonates among many Muslims around the world, not just Palestinians. Reactions in the Arab and the Islamic world to the recent violence in Gaza and the West Bank after the U.S. decision to relocate the embassy to Jerusalem suggest that many view this issue mainly in a religious light. The narratives on social media platforms and the media in general in those countries usually included references to religion, even among seemingly secular people.

The issue of West Bank settlements, too, has a religious aspect. It concerns the physical restoration of the biblical land of Israel before the return of the Messiah, something central to the beliefs of some orthodox Jews. They continue to settle the West Bank to fulfill this prophecy, clashing with the local Palestinians.

On the other hand, according to fundamentalist schools of Islam, at the end of days, the whole land of Israel and Palestine should be under Islamic rule. Prophecies surrounding this issue are deeply rooted in some versions of the Hadith (traditional sayings of the Prophet), although only implied in the Qur’an.

Historical and Organizational Consequences

As far back as the 1948 war, some Jewish extremist groups justified their contribution to the conflict as part of a divinely promised return to the holy land of Israel. More recently, however, the most extreme such groups, like the “Gush Emunim Underground” which plotted to bomb the mosques in the Temple Mount area back in the 1980s, have been banned by the Israeli authorities

On the other side, several religious extremist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood justified their contribution to the conflict in 1948 as an eschatological event pertinent to the approach of the Day of Judgment. Nowadays, terrorist Brotherhood offshoots like Hamas call for using violence against Israel in the name of Islam, without distinction between civilian and military targets. They continue to use religion to gain supporters in Gaza and elsewhere by propagating this apocalyptic narrative. This Muslim Brotherhood group ideology, stretching through many Arab (and several non-Arab) countries, seeks to revive Islam and re-establish the historical Islamic Caliphate by seizing power. They consider Israel to be a “foreign object” in the continuum of a potential Islamic Caliphate, and they continue to call for the use of violence against it.

In parallel to this extreme Sunni side, ever since the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, Iran has been the fiercest in opposing Israel. Its radical regime calls openly for the destruction of Israel and asserts the necessity of this quest from a theological standpoint. It finances Hezbollah and Hamas and supplies them with weapons and training, as well as supporting Assad’s forces in Syria, thereby posing a direct security threat to Israel – all allegedly in the name of Islam.

Social Consequences

For two Arab countries, Egypt and Jordan, direct peacemaking was achieved with Israel. Nevertheless, that did not entail the people-to-people or cultural normalization that is assumed to accompany peace, due to many reasons -- including religious ones. Accepting peace with Israel may be viewed as religious treachery, which goes against the beliefs not only of extremists but also of many relative moderates in Arab states. The key point is that these various forms of religion-based conflict drivers are not limited to religious groups, but are linked to much wider bases in society. This results from two major factors, as follows:

Interest and Identity Overlap: Interests of religious extremists who are directly linked to the religious drivers at many instances overlap with other segments in the Arab and Islamic societies. They share some elements of their identities, if not the whole. For example, a secular nationalist Palestinian and an extremely religious, Salafi Palestinian in the Qassam Brigades of Hamas may share very similar views of Israel. Much the same is true of some secularists, traditionalists, and fundamentalists in other Arab or Islamic societies.

Systematic Abuse of Linkages to Wider Bases in Societies: Religious extremists in the Arab and Islamic world and in Israel, whether violent or not, have used deliberately the ideological and functional linkages to connect to wider bases in their respective countries. Ideologically, links with the wider society are established by trying to radicalize elements that have this potential, either due to natural tendencies toward perceived communal self-defense, or to the superficial knowledge of their religions. For example, extremists would use an isolated incident of violence against the Jewish community to justify retaliation by their wider society. A non-religious traditional Arab might well share the fear of secularization, and of “Jewish influence,” with the Islamist.  Functionally, extreme Imams have very strong tools at their disposals across the Arab and Islamic world to promote violence through their mosques and privately funded media, subjecting people repeatedly to the narrative and rhetoric of violence against Israel in particular and Jewish people in general.

Possible Interventions

To contribute to curbing the religious violence in this conflict, several interventions can be considered: interfaith dialogue; the remembrance of past fruitful cooperation between Jews and Muslims, ever since the seventh century; and focusing on religious texts asserting positive and tolerant religious values, and reinforcing these values in educational systems on both sides. These are perhaps not new ideas. What should be new, however, is the urgency and centrality of this religious component as part of any current effort to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian “deal of the century” – or even just to mitigate the conflict and pave the way for peaceful coexistence in the long-term future.

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The Israeli-Palestinian conflict: A chronology

A surprise, coordinated assault on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas — one of the deadliest and most brazen attacks in years — and the Israeli siege and strikes on Gaza that followed, brought renewed attention to an old and continuing problem: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has vexed the Middle East for decades .

The roots of the conflict and mistrust are deep and complex, predating the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Both Palestinians and Israelis see the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea as their own, and Christians, Jews and Muslims all hold parts of the land as sacred. The past seven decades have brought war, uprisings and, at times, glimmers of hope for compromise. Here is a timeline beginning around 1948, including the latest violence in the Gaza Strip :

World War I: The question of Palestine

The Ottoman Empire had controlled that part of the Middle East from the early 16th century until control of most of the region was granted to the British after World War I.

Both Israelis and Palestinians were struggling for self-determination and sovereignty over the territory, developing respective movements for their causes.

As World War I began, several controversial diplomatic efforts — some contradicting each other — by the Great Powers tried to shape the map of the modern Middle East, including the Palestinian territories. Palestinians cite a series of letters in 1915 to 1916 between Mecca’s emir and the British high commissioner in Egypt, known as the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, as outlining a promise of an independent Arab state.

The Gaza Strip and its history, explained

In 1916, the Sykes-Picot Agreement secretly negotiated between Britain and France planned to carve up the Middle East into spheres of influence, and determined that the land in question was to be internationalized.

In 1917, Britain’s foreign secretary, Lord Arthur Balfour, expressed his government’s support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” in a letter to Baron Walter Rothschild, the head of the British wing of the influential European Jewish banking family.

To Israelis, the missive marks a formal utterance of the Israeli state’s right to exist; to Palestinians, it was an early sign of their dispossession. The declaration also noted that it was “clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine,” nodding to the overwhelming majority Arab population in the region at the time. (About 90 percent of the population was Muslim in 1850, and about 80 percent in 1914.)

Large-scale Jewish immigration followed in succeeding decades, including during Nazi persecution and the Holocaust. Both sides continued to assert their right to establish a state.

1948: Israel declares independence

After World War II, nearing the end of the British Mandate for Palestine, the United Nations General Assembly in 1947 passes Resolution 181, urging the partition of the land into two independent states — one Arab and one Jewish. Religiously significant Jerusalem is to be under special international administration. The plan is not implemented after the Arab side rejects it, arguing that it is unfavorable to their majority population. Violence in the regional conflict grows.

What is Hamas, and why did it attack Israel now?

Israel declares independence in May 1948. The next day, a coalition of Arab states, allied with Palestinian factions, attack Israeli forces in what becomes the first of several Arab-Israeli wars. In the end, Israel gains control of an even larger portion of territory — not including the areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. An estimated 700,000 Palestinians flee or are driven from their land in what Palestinians refer to as the “Nakba,” or “catastrophe” in Arabic.

July 1956: The Suez Crisis

Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal, a vital trade route connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. Israel invades Egypt, followed by forces from Britain and France. A peace deal, backed by the United States and Soviet Union, ends the fighting. But the canal is blocked by sunken ships and doesn’t reopen until 1957.

June 1967: 1967 war

In June of 1967, a war known as the “Six-Day War” or the 1967 Arab-Israeli War breaks out amid lingering conflicts, including Egypt’s continued blockade of shipping into the Gulf of Aqaba. Israeli warplanes strike Egyptian airfields, and Israeli ground forces enter the Sinai Peninsula. Jordan joins the fighting alongside Egypt, but Israeli forces have the upper hand after nearly wiping out Egypt’s air power. Israel takes control of the Gaza Strip, Sinai, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and predominantly Palestinian East Jerusalem. The Arab armies suffer massive losses.

September 1972: Munich Olympics attack

At the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, a group of Palestinian extremists from the Black September group raid the Olympic Village dorm where Israeli athletes are housed. They kill two athletes and take nine others as hostages, all of whom are killed soon after.

October 1973: Yom Kippur War

A coalition of Arab nations, led by Egypt and Syria, launches a surprise, coordinated attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, a Jewish holy day. The Arab forces initially gain ground but are driven back by an Israeli counteroffensive aided by supplies from allies, including the United States. Both sides see heavy death tolls.

September 1978: Camp David Accords

A peace agreement between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, known as the Camp David Accords, is brokered in September 1978 by U.S. President Jimmy Carter . It lays the foundation to a peace deal between the two countries the next year, including Israel’s eventual withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula. It also sets out a framework for a process of Palestinian self-government in the West Bank and Gaza. Potential Palestinian peace proposals are discussed but never carried out.

December 1987: First intifada

A Palestinian uprising, or intifada, brings largely spontaneous clashes, protests and civil disobedience against Israeli occupation in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel, leading to harsh Israeli military crackdowns. Unrest continues for years, with many killed or injured on both sides.

1993: Oslo accords

The first of two pacts, known as the Oslo accords, are signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), setting out a peace process based on previous U.N. resolutions and charting the expansion of a limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. (A follow-up accord is signed in 1995.) The agreements create the Palestinian Authority to oversee most administrative affairs in those areas. The PLO is recognized by Israel and the United States as a negotiating partner. Left unresolved, however, are key issues such as Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the status of Jerusalem, which is viewed by the Palestinians as the capital of any future state.

1995: Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin assassinated

On Nov. 4, 1995, Yitzhak Rabin, 73, the fifth prime minister of Israel, is fatally shot in the back by a right-wing Jewish extremist who aimed to derail the peace process with Palestinians. Rabin was departing a peace rally attended by more than 100,000 in Tel Aviv.

The shooter, Yigal Amir, who was in his 20s, opposed the Oslo accords on religious grounds, telling police that he acted on the “orders of God” to stop holy land from being handed to Palestinians. He has never expressed regret for the killing and is serving a life sentence.

2000: Second intifada

The second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, begins after riots broke out following a visit by right-wing Israeli political figure Ariel Sharon (later prime minister) to a compound in Jerusalem that is venerated in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Clashes and other violence continue until 2005, leaving hundreds dead on both sides.

2006: Hamas elected in Gaza

Israel withdraws its troops from Gaza in 2005. The Palestinian militant group Hamas wins legislative elections the next year, leading to political strains with the more moderate Fatah party controlling the West Bank.

After Hamas’s 2007 takeover of the Gaza Strip, Israel imposes a 16-year blockade on the small, overcrowded Palestinian enclave that is home to 2 million Palestinians. Limiting the mobility of goods and people in and out of the territory, Israel has deepened Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, the United Nations says . Most Gazans live in refugee camps and rely on U.N. rations.

The West Bank, home to 3 million Palestinians — and more than a half-million Jews living in settlements deemed illegal under international law — is occupied by Israel and subject to its military administration.

Several rights groups have said Israel’s regime over Palestinians amounts to “apartheid.”

In a 2022 report , Amnesty International said it analyzed “Israel’s intent to create and maintain a system of oppression and domination over Palestinians,” including through “territorial fragmentation; segregation and control; dispossession of land and property; and denial of economic and social rights.” The group concluded : “This is apartheid.”

December 2008: Israel attacks Gaza

Israel begins three weeks of attacks on Gaza after rocket barrages into Israel by Palestinian militants, who are supplied by tunnels from Egypt. More than 1,110 Palestinians and at least 13 Israelis are killed.

November 2012: Israel kills Hamas military chief

Israel kills Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari, touching off more than a week of rocket fire from Gaza and Israeli airstrikes. At least 150 Palestinians and six Israelis are killed.

2019 population:

1949 armistice

Khan Younis

Summer 2014: Hamas kills three Israeli teenagers

Hamas militants kill three Israeli teenagers kidnapped near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, prompting an Israeli military response. Hamas answers with rocket attacks from Gaza. A seven-week conflict leaves more than 2,200 Palestinians dead in Gaza and 73 dead on the Israeli side.

December 2017: U.S. recognizes Jerusalem as capital

The Trump administration recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announces that it plans to shift the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv, stirring outrage from Palestinians.

2018: Protests in Gaza

Protests take place in Gaza along the fence with Israel, including demonstrators hurling rocks and gasoline bombs across the barrier. Israeli troops kill more than 170 protesters over several months. In November, Israel stages a covert raid into Gaza. At least seven suspected Palestinian militants and a senior Israeli army officer are killed. From Gaza, hundreds of rockets are fired into Israel.

May 2021: Israeli police raid al-Aqsa Mosque

After weeks of tension in Jerusalem lead to Israeli police raiding al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam, Hamas fires thousands of rockets toward the city, prompting Israel to retaliate with hundreds of airstrikes. In the fiercest fighting since at least 2014, more than 200 are killed in Gaza and at least 10 killed in Israel.

Spring 2022: String of terrorist attacks in Israel

A spate of violence on Israelis by Palestinians leaves 14 Israelis dead in a handful of attacks between March 22 and April 8. In response, Israel clamps down on militants and activists, and launches the “Break the Wave” military operation in the West Bank, which makes 2022 a particularly deadly year.

Israeli forces kill 146 Palestinians in the West Bank in 2022, a death toll higher than in any other year since the United Nations began keeping records in 2005. Israel’s Foreign Ministry says Palestinians killed 29 Israelis that year.

Highway of hope and heartbreak

December 2022: Netanyahu sworn in for sixth term

Benjamin Netanyahu is sworn in again as Israeli prime minister, after winning an election that gives him his sixth term and elevates a once-fringe bloc of far-right politicians into powerful seats. He cobbles together the most far-right government in Israeli history, which critics say has begun to crush any prospect of a two-state solution.

It’s also the most pro-settler government, with some members encouraging an expansion in settlement activity in occupied Palestinian territories. Settler violence against Palestinian civilians, with settlers emboldened by the government, surges too.

January 2023: Israeli raid on Jenin

Israeli forces raid the Palestinian city of Jenin , killing nine people in a shootout. The next day, a Palestinian gunman kills seven people , including children, during prayers at an East Jerusalem synagogue.

Summer 2023: Retaliatory attacks flare

Tit-for-tat attacks flare.

Israel launches surprise airstrikes across the Gaza Strip in May, killing three top militants and 10 others, including women and children, health officials say. That sets up a five-day bout of violence that kills at least 33 people in Gaza and two in Israel.

On June 19, Israeli forces raid Jenin, deploying helicopter gunships to the West Bank for the first time since the second intifada.

The next day, two Hamas gunmen open fire at a hummus restaurant at an Israeli settlement, killing four Israelis.

Hundreds of Israeli settlers then rampage through Palestinian villages, torching homes and cars, and shooting at residents, according to local officials. Israel also carries out its first drone strike in the West Bank since 2006, killing three suspected militants.

In July, Israel stages an air and ground attack with 1,000 soldiers backed by drone strikes against a refugee camp inside Jenin , killing 12 people. The operation marks the start of an “extensive counterterrorism effort” that the Israel Defense Forces says will continue indefinitely.

How months of raids on Jenin led to a major West Bank military operation

October 2023: Israel says it’s ‘at war’ after Hamas attack

Netanyahu formally declares war on Hamas on Oct. 8 following a surprise assault by Hamas militants that came a day after the 50th anniversary of the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Israel says at least 1,400 Israelis were killed in the surprise attacks on Oct. 7 that saw gunmen hunting down Israeli civilians in their homes around border areas.

Israel responds with major airstrikes in Gaza that Gaza’s Health Ministry says have killed more than 10,000 Palestinians.

Claire Parker, Steve Hendrix, Shira Rubin, and Hazem Balousha contributed to this report.

Israel-Gaza war

The Israel-Gaza war has gone on for six months, and tensions have spilled into the surrounding region .

The war: On Oct. 7, Hamas militants launched an unprecedented cross-border attack on Israel that included the taking of civilian hostages at a music festival . (See photos and videos of how the deadly assault unfolded ). Israel declared war on Hamas in response, launching a ground invasion that fueled the biggest displacement in the region since Israel’s creation in 1948 .

Gaza crisis: In the Gaza Strip, Israel has waged one of this century’s most destructive wars , killing tens of thousands and plunging at least half of the population into “ famine-like conditions. ” For months, Israel has resisted pressure from Western allies to allow more humanitarian aid into the enclave .

U.S. involvement: Despite tensions between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some U.S. politicians , including President Biden, the United States supports Israel with weapons , funds aid packages , and has vetoed or abstained from the United Nations’ cease-fire resolutions.

History: The roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and mistrust are deep and complex, predating the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 . Read more on the history of the Gaza Strip .

Home — Essay Samples — War — Israeli Palestinian Conflict — Israel-Palestine Conflict: Historical Context, Causes, and Resolution

Israel-palestine Conflict: Historical Context, Causes, and Resolution

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Published: Jan 31, 2024

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Historical context, causes of the conflict, major parties involved, international involvement, consequences and impacts, attempts at resolution, current situation and future prospects.

• United Nations. "Israel-Palestine Conflict: An Overview." https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/israel-palestine-conflict/
• BBC News. "Israel and Palestinians: The Conflict Explained." https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-43789452
• Council on Foreign Relations. "The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict." https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/israeli-palestinian-conflict

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• Israel Palestine Conflict

Israel Palestine Conflict History Explained

The Israel Palestine conflict is one of the oldest and persisting conflicts in the world. Now and then, the situation escalates to deadly heights causing deaths and destruction in the region. How did the Israel-Palestine conflict start? What is the history of Palestine and Israel? This important topic for international relations as well as world history segments of the IAS exam is explained in this article.

Israel-Hamas War Update [Latest on Israel – Palestine Conflict]

On 7 October 2023, Hamas launched at least 5000 rockets from Gaza directed against Israel. This killed around 1400 Israelis with many Israeli soldiers and civilians including women and children being taken hostage to the Gaza Strip. Israel launched retaliatory strikes and declared war on Hamas a day later. As of Oct 15, around 2700 Palestinians have been killed and about 1 million have been internally displaced. Israel cut off food, water, electricity, and fuel supplies to Gaza sparking off a severe humanitarian crisis in the region. Israel has asked the residents of Northern Gaza to evacuate the region, while Hamas has asked them to stay put. There has also been an exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah after Hezbollah militants fired rockets into Israel from Lebanon and Israel responded with airstrikes in Lebanon.

Israel Palestine Conflict History

To understand the present-day ongoing bloody conflict between Israel and Palestine, it is necessary to understand the background of the place and the people associated with it. Although the present conflict has its roots in the 20th century, a brief background of the region with respect to ancient history will help one understand the religious and historical significance of the place, especially to the chief stakeholders in the conflict.

Image source: https://www.britannica.com/

• Israel today is a small country in West Asia, about the size of one of India’s northeastern states, Meghalaya or Manipur.
• Israel is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to its west, Egypt to the south, Jordan and Syria to its east and Lebanon to the north.
• Israel has many sites that are of religious significance to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike and has a complex history.
• Today, the population of Israel is mostly Jewish, though there are minorities of Christians and Muslims.

Ancient History

• Most of what is known about the ancient history of Israel is sourced from the Hebrew Bible.
• Israel can be traced back to the biblical figure Abraham, who is deemed the father of Judaism (through his son Isaac) and a patriarch of Islam (through his son Ishmael).
• The descendants of Abraham were thought to have been enslaved by Egyptians for hundreds of years before they settled in Canaan (approximately in modern-day Israel).
• Around 1000 BCE, King David ruled the region. His son, Solomon, built the First Temple (Solomon’s Temple) in ancient Jerusalem around 957 BCE.
• In about 931 BCE, the region was divided into two kingdoms, namely, Israel in the north and Judah in the south.
• Around 722 BCE, the kingdom of Israel was invaded and destroyed by the Assyrians.
• In the sixth century BCE, Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians, who took control of Judah. The First Temple was destroyed and the Jews were expelled to Babylon.
• In 538 BCE, the Babylonians were conquered by the Achaemenid Empire whose emperor Cyrus allowed the Jews to go back to Judah, where they rebuilt Solomon’s Temple (Second Temple).
• In 70 CE, the Romans destroyed the Second Temple marking the end of the first Jewish-Roman War. The gold and materials looted from the Second Temple are thought to have contributed towards the building of the Roman Colosseum.
• Following the Bar Khokba Revolt of 132-136 AD, Roman Emperor Hadrian expelled all Jews from Jerusalem, which had from time to time been at the centre of anti-Roman revolts.
• Hadrian went a step further by eliminating any traces of Jewish presence in the province renaming it from Judea to Syria Palaestina.
• By destroying the association of Jews with Judea and forbidding the practice of the Jewish faith, Hadrian aimed to root out a nation that had inflicted heavy casualties on the Roman Empire.
• For the next many centuries, the region of Israel was conquered and ruled by many groups such as the Persians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Fatimids, Seljuk Turks, Crusaders, Egyptians, Mamluks and finally the Ottomans.

Modern History

• From 1517 to 1917, the Ottoman Empire ruled over much of West Asia including the region of Israel.
• In the 19th century, the population in the region of Israel/Palestine was almost 87% Muslim, 10% Christian and 3% Jewish. From all accounts, the communities lived in peace with each other. In the city of Jerusalem, the population of the three communities was roughly equal.
• In the 19th century, an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist, Theodor Herzl, propagated the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine for the Jews. This idea came to be known as Zionism, which found many followers among the Jews in Europe, where Jews were facing discrimination and even pogroms.
• This was problematic because in 1916, the British had secretly made a deal with the French according to which after the war, the Arab territories would be divided and Palestine would be in control of the British.
• Moreover, the British had also promised the ruler of Mecca, Sharief Hussain, in 1915 that Hussain would rule over the region including Palestine if he led an Arab revolt against the Ottomans, which he did in fact.
• The Arabs in Palestine vehemently opposed the declaration fearing that a Jewish homeland in the region would mean subjugation for the Palestinians.

Mandatory Palestine

• The British, after the First World War , established a colony in Palestine maintaining that they would rule the area until the Palestinians were ready to govern themselves. This was called Mandatory Palestine as it was according to the League of Nations mandate.
• Even before this time, there was a massive influx of Jews from Europe into Palestine in the hope of creating their homeland after being expelled from it for centuries.
• Meanwhile, in the 1920s and 1930s, the Jewish population in Palestine increased by hundreds of thousands, facilitated by the British (who were honouring the Balfour Declaration).
• During this time, tensions between the growing Jewish communities and the Arabs were increasing.
• In 1936, the Palestinian Arabs revolted against the British as a result of the Palestinian Arabs viewing themselves increasingly as a nation.
• This revolt was suppressed by the British with help from Jewish militias.
• After the revolt, however, the British issued a white paper that limited Jewish immigration into Palestine and called for the establishment of a joint Jewish-Arab state in Palestine within ten years.
• During the course of World War II , many Jews escaping Europe from the Holocaust were brought to Palestine illegally (because of the immigration limit) by Jewish organisations.
• Tensions escalated and the British handed over the problem to the newly established United Nations.
• In 1947, the UN voted to establish separate Palestinian and Jewish states in the region dividing Palestine. This plan was rejected by the Arabs.

Formation of the State of Israel

• In May 1948, Israel was declared an independent state with David Ben Gurion as the Prime Minister.
• Following this declaration, in 1948, the Arab-Israeli War broke out with five Arab states, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt invading Israel.
• A ceasefire was announced in 1949 and as part of the agreement, the West Bank was given to Jordan and the Gaza Strip became part of Egypt. Israel, having won the war, though, now controlled more area than they would have under the UN plan. East Jerusalem was under the control of Jordan. Over 700000 Palestinians fled the region and became refugees in neighbouring Arab countries. The Palestinians call this war the  Nakba , or catastrophe, as they became stateless.
• Tensions escalated again in 1956 when Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt nationalised the Suez Canal. This led to the Suez Crisis . Israel attacked the Sinai Peninsula and retook the canal with British and French support.

Further wars

• In 1967, the Six-Day War started in which Israel won control of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula. Israel captured East Jerusalem also.
• The Yom Kippur War broke out in 1973 when Syria and Egypt launched airstrikes against Israel. The fighting stopped after two weeks by a UN resolution.
• The PLO was formed in 1964 to fight for the “liberation of Palestine” through armed struggle.
• Meanwhile, Israel was creating Jewish settlements in areas that were considered Palestinian territory including in East Jerusalem.

First Palestinian Intifada

• In 1987, there was an uprising of Palestinians against the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.
• Hundreds of people were killed and this is called the First Palestinian Intifada (Arabic word meaning ‘shaking off’).
• The Intifada came to an end with the Oslo Peace Accords signed in 1993 and a second accord signed in 1995 between the then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, the leader of the PLO.
• After this, the Palestinian Authority formed and took control over some territories in Israel.

Second Palestinian Intifada

• The Israeli army withdrew from parts of the West Bank in 1997. However, the Accords could not bring permanent peace to the region and the Second Palestinian Intifada was launched in 2000.
• The trigger of the violence was a visit to the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem by Israeli politician Ariel Sharon.
• There was widespread rioting and violence which lasted for years.
• A ceasefire was finally announced and Israel planned to withdraw all troops and Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip by 2005 end.

First Lebanon War

• The First Lebanon War took place from 6 June 1982 – 5 June 1985.
• It was an invasion by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) of Southern Lebanon to root out the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) operating from there.
• From its base in southern Lebanon, the PLO carried out attacks on Israel, thus the invasion was to put a stop to these attacks
• The war ended in a tactical victory for Israel but was a strategic failure overall. The PLO was expelled from Lebanon but Israel’s enemy, Syria increased its influence and occupied Lebanon until 2005.

Second Lebanon War

• This conflict started in July 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Golan Heights and Northern Israel.
• It ended after a couple of months through a UN-brokered ceasefire.
• Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group.
• Hamas, a Sunni Islamist militant group won the elections in Palestine in 2006.
• In 2007, Hamas defeated Fatah (a political group that controlled the PLO) in 2007 in fighting that started in 2006.
• Hamas (which many consider a terrorist group) has been fighting with Israel with particularly significant battles in 2008, 2012 and 2014.

Current Situation

• Hamas rules over Gaza.
• Gaza’s borders are tightly controlled by Israel and Egypt.
• The West Bank is still occupied by Israel.
• Most Palestinian refugees and their descendants live in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
• Tensions run high between Israel and Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
• According to Israel, allowing Palestinians to return to their homes would overwhelmingly threaten its existence as a Jewish state. (Israel is the only Jewish state in the world).
• The whole of Jerusalem is claimed by Israel as its capital. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
• In 1988, India became one of the first countries to recognize the Palestinian State.

Israel Palestine Conflict Latest Developments

The renewed violence in the region started on May 6, 2021, when Palestinians protested against an anticipated decision of the Israeli Supreme Court over the eviction of six Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem. The next day, Israeli Police stormed the Al Aqsa mosque. A few days later, Hamas and other Palestinian groups started firing rockets from Gaza into Israel to which Israel retaliated.

Read more about this in an RSTV discussion in the link: RSTV: Israel-Palestine Conflict .

Significance of Jerusalem

Jerusalem is an ancient city and claimed by both Israel and Palestine as their own. Israel claims the whole undivided city as its rightful capital while Palestinians refute this, stating their right of freedom and self-determination. The city is also considered a holy one having many places of religious importance to the three Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

• Jerusalem was divided into two – western and eastern parts after Israel declared its independence in 1948.
• West Jerusalem became Israel’s capital while East Jerusalem became part of Jordan.
• In the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel captured East Jerusalem, among others.
• Shortly after the Israeli takeover, East Jerusalem was absorbed into West Jerusalem, together with several neighbouring West Bank villages.
• The same year, the UN passed a resolution asking Israel to retract from occupied places.
• In 1980, the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) passed the Jerusalem Law that declared that “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel”.
• Much of the international community considers Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem as illegal.
• While both Israel and Palestine declared Jerusalem their capital, the Palestinians usually refer to East Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine.
• In 2017, then US President Donald Trump recognised the whole of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Jerusalem is significant for both Jews and Muslims, as well as, Christians.

• The Old City of Jerusalem is in East Jerusalem. It has four quarters – Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Armenian.
• Also, the First Temple was believed to have been built by King Solomon there, although there is no archaeological evidence of this.
• The Old City also contains the Western Wall, which was originally built as part of the Second Temple. This place is sacred for Jews.
• The third holiest site for Muslims, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, is in the Old City.
• Muslims believe that Prophet Mohammad was transported to this place from Mecca during the ‘Night Journey’.
• It contains the two holiest sites in Christianity, the place where Jesus Christ was crucified and the place of his empty tomb.
• The present site includes the Western Wall, the Al Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock, and the Dome of the Chain.
• Currently, Israel controls the security in the Temple Mount area with control over who has access to the site, whereas the religious aspects are dealt with by the Jordanian Waqf. Only Muslims are allowed to pray at the Dome and the Al Aqsa Mosque (sites which are revered by Jews as well for various reasons), while Jews can pray at the Western Wall.
• Jerusalem is central to the peace talks between both groups as the holy sites are in the same land.

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Israel-Palestine Conflict: History, Wars, and Solution

Last updated on April 14, 2024 by ClearIAS Team

Know everything you need to know about the Israel-Palestine Conflict – History, Wars, and Solution.

We have been receiving many requests from our readers to create an easy-to-understand article covering all the issues related to Israel-Palestine. Though it’s not easy to cover every dimension within a limited space, in this post, we have tried our best to create a comprehensive article on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The Israel-Palestine conflict – often referred to as the ‘world’s most intractable conflict’ – is rooted in a dispute over land claimed by Jews as their biblical birthright and by the Palestinians, who seek self-determination. Despite repeated attempts to end the conflict between the two countries, there is no peace settlement in sight.

Table of Contents

The History of Israel-Palestine Conflict

• Jews have been persecuted throughout history due to their religious beliefs and foreign culture.
• In 1897, Jews started a movement called a Zionist movement,  to escape persecution and establish their own state in their ancestral homeland, Israel. The World Zionist Organisation was created to advocate for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
• As a result, a large number of Jews started flowing into Palestine and they bought land and started settling down there.
• By 1916, Palestine came under British control after the Sykes-Picot Agreement (a secret agreement between Great Britain and France). This led to the division of the old Ottoman Turkish Empire .
• Later through the Balfour Declaration , the British foreign secretary James Balfour agreed to the establishment of a Jewish homeland.
• After the Nazis gained power in Germany in the 1930s , the Jews influx to Palestine took a major turn with hundreds of thousands of them resettled from Europe to Palestine. Arabs saw this as a threat to their homeland and they fought bitterly with them. As the British Government remained as a mute spectator, violence reached its peak.
• In 1947, the British Government referred the question of the future of Palestine to the United Nations. UN voted to split the land into two countries . Jewish people accepted the agreement and declared the independence of Israel.

Arab’s fight against the Israel (1948-49)

• Arabs saw the creation of Israel as a part of a conspiracy to move them out of their land. Consequently, in 1948, the Arab states of Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Syria declared war on Israel.
• Note: It’s interesting to note here that India opposed the UN resolution and Gandhi called it as a crime against humanity. But India recognized Israel in 1950 .
• At the end of the war between Israel and Arab countries,  Israel emerged victoriously. Moreover, it could increase its territory to a larger extent and it marked the beginning of the expansionist policy of Israel.
• As a consequence of the war, a large number of Palestinians either flee or were forced to move out of Israel and settle in refugee camps near Israel’s border. It was the beginning of Palestine refugee crisis which ultimately led to the creation of a terrorist organization PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) in 1964.

Israel’s fight against the Arab countries (1967)

• Golan Heights from Syria.
• West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan.
• Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt. (Refer to the map above)
• The 1967 war is particularly important for today’s conflict, as it left Israel in control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip , two territories home to a large number of Palestinians.
• Gaza and Westbank are together known as ‘Occupied Territories’, after the 1967 war.

UN Charter and return of the Sinai Peninsula

• Under the UN Charter, there can lawfully be no territorial gains from war, even by a state acting in self-defense.
• Therefore, in response to the Six-Day War, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution for ‘Land for peace’ and it mandated that Israel should return the captured areas back to the defeated nations.
• In light of Israel’s reluctance to return the captured territories, another Arab-Israeli war erupted in 1973  (Yom Kippur War ) in which Israel suffered some setbacks.
• In 1979, Israel-Egypt signed a peace treaty, accordingly, Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt (1982). Egypt became the first Arab nation to officially recognize Israel as a state.

Also read: Arab Nationalism

Hamas and Fatah

• In 1987 , Hamas (Islamic Militant group) for the liberation of Palestine through Jihad came into existence. It refused to recognize Israel as a country. It has received support from Iran and Syria .
• On the other hand, Fatah , a faction of PLO under Yasser Arafat received support from Western nations.

Intifada (uprising) against Israel occupancy

• First Intifada: The tension between Israel and Palestine escalated with Israel’s increased settlement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip fomented the riots begun in 1987, known as the first intifada .
• Oslo Peace Accord: With the mediation of US and Russia in 1993, Israel and PLO signed the Oslo Peace accord which was based on the concept of two-state solution. Palestine and Israel signed the Declaration of Principles – in which both nations seek recognition as autonomous governing bodies. PLO recognized Isreal. Isreal agreed to give independence to the ‘occupied territories. However, territories remained under Israel possession.
• Camp David Summit (2000): It aimed to help the two sides finally agree on a settlement, but the talks eventually failed. The violence led to the Second Intifada.
• Second Intifada (2000-05):  In 2000, a more violent Palestine Uprising started and a large number of civilians died on both sides. This is known as the second intifada. As a defensive measure, Israel constructed a West Bank Barrier along West Bank to separate Israel and Palestine settlements.
• Gaza Expulsion plan: This is a unilateral disarmament plan by Israel by which Israel’s defence forces leave the Gaza strip and four settlements in the northern West Bank (2005)

Tensions between Hamas and Fatah

• After the Oslo accord, a Palestinian Authority (PA) was created with a limited self-rule power in the occupied territories.
• But this led to disputes between Hamas and Fatah for political power.
• Hamas – do not accept the Oslo peace accord or 2 state peace resolution. They want the whole state. They control Gaza. Hamas is supported by Iran.
• Fatah – accept the Oslo peace accord and negotiates for peace. They control West Bank.
• In 2006, Hamas won the Palestine election and it intensified the tensions between Fatah and Hamas for power. After a long-armed struggle, in 2011 Palestinian Rivals Fatah and Hamas signed a Reconciliation Pact .
• Currently, Gaza is controlled by Hamas and Palestine West bank region by Fatah with known presence of Israeli settlements.
• Operation Protective Edge: By Israel to punish Hamas for abducting and killing Israeli settlers.

Israel-Palestine conflict and US

• The US has been playing a significant role as the mediator in the Israel-Palestine. However, its credibility as a mediator had long been questioned by Palestinians. The United States has been criticized by the OIC (Organization of Islamic cooperation) and other Arab organizations, for vetoing most Security Council decisions critical of Israel .
• Note: The USA has more Jews than Israel. Jews have significant control over US media and the economy.
• Also, Israel receives about $3 billion in direct foreign assistance each year, which is roughly one-fifth of America’s entire foreign aid budget.
• On the other side, United States has been vocal about its intention to veto any Palestinian bid for statehood. Due to which Palestine had to be satisfied with a ‘ non-member observer  status in UN.
• However, the second term of the Obama administration saw a degrading US-Israel relationship. Iran Nuclear deal of 2015 irritated Israel and it criticized the US for the deal.
• Obama administration allowed the United Nations to pass a resolution that declared Israel’s growing settlements in the occupied territories illegal. Until that vote, the Obama administration had blocked resolutions criticizing Israel by using its veto power in the UN Security Council.
• With the presidency regime under Trump, who was more inclined to Israel, the illegal settlements by Israel in West Bank and Gaza saw a rise.

What does Palestine want?

• They want Israeli to withdraw from pre-1967 borders and establish an independent Palestine state in West Bank and Gaza.
• Israel should stop all expansion of settlements before coming to peace talks.
• Palestine wants Palestine refugees who lost their homes in 1948 to be able to come back.
• Palestine wants East Jerusalem as the capital of the Independent Palestine state.

What does Israel want?

• Sovereignty over Jerusalem .
• Recognition of Israel as a Jewish State. Note: Israel is the only country in the world created for a religious community.
• The right of return of Palestine refugees only to Palestine and not to Israel.

What is so special about Jerusalem?

Jerusalem is a city that straddles the border between Israel and the West Bank. It’s home to some of the holiest sites in both Judaism and Islam, and so both Israel and Palestine want to make it their cap the solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict

• The best solution is a  “two-state solution” that would establish Palestine as an independent state in Gaza and most of the West Bank, leaving the rest of the land to Israel. Though the two-state plan is clear in theory, the two sides are still deeply divided over how to make it work in practice.
• One state solution (only Palestine or only Israel) is not a viable option.
• Road Map for Peace: The European Union, UN, US, and Russia had released a road map in 2003, which outlined a clear timetable towards a Palestinian state.
• The democratization of the Palestinian society through which new credible leadership can emerge is necessary.
• The need of the hour is to treat this conflict as an Israeli-Arab conflict rather Israel-Palestine. As we have seen, conflict is not only between Israel and Palestine but also with other Arab countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Syria etc. All of them should participate in the negotiations and the final agreement should be recognized formally by each one of them along with UN general assembly and security council.
• It is time for the international community to find a just and lasting peaceful solution to the World’s most intractable conflict soon.

Read: Gaza humanitarian crisis;  Iran-Israel relations

 Article by: Sreeresmi S

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Reader Interactions

February 14, 2017 at 9:03 pm

Nice. Thank you.

February 14, 2017 at 10:33 pm

Thank you for your positive comments.

February 14, 2017 at 9:27 pm

Almost all the aspects are covered. Presented in a lucid manner. U guys are the best….. please come up with more articles…. waiting for it Thank you sreeresmi s…

February 14, 2017 at 10:32 pm

We really value your positive feedback about our articles. We do take pride in catering to our readers needs the best way we can. Thank you!

February 14, 2017 at 10:11 pm

Good article..but one mistake…. Currently Gaza is control by Hamas and not by Fatah……west bank control by Fatah.

And Tomorrow i.e 15th Feb. PM Benjamin and Donald Trump will have a meeting in Washington to discuss the settlement expansion of Israel in the West Bank.

Note : on Dec last year, Israel govt announced new 3000 residential homes in west bank. This was a reaction of the UNSC resolution that condemn Israeli settlement expansion which the US under Obama abstained it from vetoing the resolution, a policy shift from the past. Donald Trump is supporting the Israel and during his campaign, he said that he will shift US Embassy from tel-aviv to east Jerusalem……which is the designated capital of future Palestine state. The Hamas warns of THIRD INTIFADA if Trump shift the embassy.

February 14, 2017 at 10:37 pm

@Haokip: Big thanks! We have updated the same. And thank you for adding updates, which is really a value addition. All the best!

February 14, 2017 at 10:47 pm

Thanks too.. I have just finish writing article on isreal-palestine conundrum, this made me follow every new developments over the issue cautiously. Tomorrow’s meeting in white House is very crucial. lets wait and watch !

May 17, 2021 at 8:53 pm

P. L. O is not a terrorist organization as u mentioned in the article….. It’s a peaceful organization… Hope you will fact check before uploading the articles

February 14, 2017 at 10:17 pm

Thank you so much for this important information

February 14, 2017 at 10:38 pm

Great to know that the content is truly valued. Thank you!

February 14, 2017 at 11:18 pm

Thanks Team

February 15, 2017 at 10:31 am

Thanks a lot for this valuable information.

February 15, 2017 at 12:20 pm

Thank you so much for this article. Got a clear understanding about this topic. Please include India’s stand on this issue.

February 15, 2017 at 1:16 pm

We will be coming up with a separate stand on India’s stand on Israel-Palestine issue.

May 6, 2018 at 12:35 pm

Please upload the link to this. Thanks

February 15, 2017 at 1:11 pm

Sir/Mam, I also want to give IAS exam next year. But I m not able to understand how to start my IAS studies without coaching.but right now I m studying from NCERT books, is this OK or some more books requires?? Plzzzz help me

August 13, 2017 at 4:44 pm

I’m doing the same job please team clear IAS. Provide the things which are required to prepare through online without coaching yar please

February 15, 2017 at 1:35 pm

Excellent Article…Perfect Maps.!! With its simplicity, Presentation & entirety articles are so good & so Informative that it is easily graspable & helps to build concepts from the scratch even for a Tyro..!!

June 21, 2021 at 5:15 am

Actually, the first maps in the first two map diagram pictures provided are inaccurate. The land was never fully Palestine owned since Palestine was never a country. In fact, Britain owned this piece of land before Israel became independent in 1948. Here is the correct map: https://preview.redd.it/koo0jjss2he41.png?width=2100&format=png&auto=webp&s=5eb61ec961990f7217aa6069a3fad1576f7806e1

February 15, 2017 at 4:58 pm

Really excellent work and informative.. Thanks

February 15, 2017 at 6:12 pm

Thnku soooo much….Really appreciable and understandable

February 15, 2017 at 6:54 pm

Really good content with perfectly drawn flow of thought.

February 16, 2017 at 7:27 am

This article is too good… Sir can you pen out Baluchistan and Pakistan revolt

February 16, 2017 at 3:42 pm

Thank you sir. your Articals very useful to us to understand whole concept of particular issues

February 17, 2017 at 5:17 pm

Very helpful and needed article done I am happy now thanks clearias

February 18, 2017 at 8:36 pm

Such posts increase my chances in cse

February 20, 2017 at 1:56 am

thank you for the overview but i beg to differ on the applicability of the solution. The sad reality is Israel is way too powerful in sense of weaponry and financial capability. They control the media, from hollywood to news agencies in the USA and induce corporate arm twisting of US elections. it possesses nuclear capability which makes discussions rather one sided. India’s defense purchase from Israel is another reason why unbiased countries like India will be reluctant to negotiate an understanding. the change of India’s voting pattern in favor of Israel is a proof of how influential this nation is.

June 21, 2021 at 5:04 am

I recommend you do a little research before putting Israel at fault for the terror the people have been through. Firstly, Israel has never started a war, they have only ever defended themselves. Furthermore, the only reason Israel is so powerful is that they had no choice but to grow in order to defend their people. This is a result of the constant internal conflict between the Palestinians and the Jews. I don’t know who told you Israel controls the media and Hollywood but that is false information. If you actually look carefully, you will see that most of the social media bashes Israel when they are only trying to defend their country and save innocent lives. innocent lives include people who live in Gaza. No other country would protect their enemy but Israel does because they do not want innocent blood on their hands. Meanwhile, the Palestinian government gladly lets innocent people die, Jews and even their own people.

February 21, 2017 at 3:36 pm

Super Now I understood this concept sir Thanks For your wonderful work

February 21, 2017 at 4:37 pm

I found clear IAS,the best app for Civil services exam…..its articles are of great help…..please provide some articles on international organizations.

February 27, 2017 at 9:56 am

very good … mostly cleared this topic

April 12, 2017 at 8:27 pm

cleared article. Please upload more international issues.

April 26, 2017 at 8:14 pm

Thanks clearias

July 10, 2017 at 1:44 pm

Well prepared..Thanks a lot

July 24, 2017 at 1:46 pm

why India is inactive in Israel and Palestine conflict. what should be the role the India ??

August 17, 2017 at 4:32 pm

COMPLETE ARTICLE

August 17, 2017 at 4:33 pm

comprehensive article with almost facts

November 7, 2017 at 3:19 am

“Note: Israel is the only country in the world created for a religious community.” This is wrong, The writer of this article is not well versed with indian history. Pakistan was also created for the sole purpose of 1 community. even its name has islamic in it

December 17, 2017 at 10:52 pm

Where is Palestine in the picture? It’s the Arab countries that fought wars in 1948,1967 & 1979. Also when a Jewish state was created by a UN declaration, why didn’t they create a Palestinian state along with the Jewish state? Now, Palestine remains a no-man’s territory.

February 4, 2018 at 7:33 pm

Why when the Palestinians stand up for their rights and land their labeled terrorist

September 24, 2018 at 5:56 pm

clearly stated and illustrated, thanks I am no Jew or Arab but I treasure Jerusalem as this is where Christ did his ministry. Thanks so much for this very informative and helpful article, God bless you.

January 7, 2019 at 11:01 am

Thank you Clear Ias

July 11, 2019 at 10:55 am

Thank you for this great article, I’m studying this for my exam Khush Bakht Barira Karachi, Pakistan

May 18, 2021 at 12:44 am

Very well explained and can be understood by every one irrespective of his academics

May 18, 2021 at 6:49 am

Hats off for your wonderful job. Thank you so much

June 13, 2021 at 2:32 am

Indeed, it is helpful. But I have a question to ask. In that “what does israel want” section, you said that Israel is the only country in the world created for a religious community. Wasn’t Pakistan also created for a religious community?

June 21, 2021 at 5:08 am

The first two maps on this website portray that Palestine existed before Israel and was 100% controlled by Palestinians is false information. Before 1948, the land was colonized by Britain and wasn’t full of Palestinians. Calling the land “Palestine” can be misleading for t makes it sound as if that was the actual name of the piece of the land ages ago when that wasn’t the case. Palestine’s never owned the land.

June 22, 2021 at 11:27 am

Great and very clear explanation

January 31, 2022 at 1:30 pm

The article is exhaustive as I have always longed to understand the history of Israel and Palestine. However, if the original territory was referred as Palestine, where did the name Isreal come from and only at the time of reclaiming the territory?

September 27, 2022 at 2:25 am

The name “Israel” was given to the land by the Jewish tribes who lived in the Jerusalem area and on the east bank of the Jordan River around the 11th century BC. In the area of ​​the 2nd century BC when the area was under the control of the Roman Empire, the Roman Emperor Hadrian changed the name of the area to Syria Palaestina (Apparently to take revenge on the local Jews who provoked a rebellion at that time, Before that, the Romans called the area the Roman province of Judaea) The Byzantines who conquered the land divided the area into three parts Prima, Secunda and Tertia. Later when the Arabs conquered the country during the rise of Islam they changed the name to Jund Filastin (جُنْد فِلَسْصِيْن). And during the British Mandate regime, the British called the land simply Palestine, the name was adopted by the local Arabs. All this time the Jews continued to call the land “Israel”. And so two names were created for one area.

October 10, 2023 at 12:20 am

This article is poorly written with phrases and words that do not completely make sense. What does this sentence mean? “It’s home to some of the holiest sites in both Judaism and Islam, and so both Israel and Palestine want to make it their cap the solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.”

It is also horribly one-sided suggesting to allow Arab nations to support Palestine and “bully team” against Israel. Who do you suggest will equally support Israel?

Is it unfair to also say that Israelis also lost their homes?

I suggest a more objective overview of this situation. Otherwise, ClearIAS is seen as only pro-Islam and only pro-Palestine.

November 23, 2023 at 10:34 am

thanks for info

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News analysis

Can European Recognition Bring Palestinian Statehood Any Closer?

Not on its own, in all likelihood. But it reflects a growing, global exasperation with Israel that might eventually lend momentum to a two-state solution.

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By Roger Cohen

Reporting from Paris

The decision by Spain, Norway and Ireland to recognize an independent Palestinian state reflects growing exasperation with the Israel of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, even from traditional friends, and suggests that international pressure on him will grow.

It does not, however, make it inevitable that other larger European states will follow suit. This year President Emmanuel Macron of France has said such recognition is “not a taboo,” a position reiterated by the French Foreign Ministry on Wednesday. In February, David Cameron, Britain’s foreign secretary, said that such recognition “can’t come at the start of the process, but it doesn’t have to be the very end of the process.”

Those were small steps, although beyond anything they have said previously, but far short of recognition of a Palestinian state itself. If Europe were unified, with the major states joining in recognition, leaving the United States isolated in rejecting such a step, then it could have a greater impact, but that stage is far from being reached.

“This decision must be useful, that is to say allow a decisive step forward on the political level,” Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné said in a statement about potential recognition. “France does not consider that the conditions have been met to date for this decision to have a real impact on this process.”

France, in other words, will wait. So, too, will Germany, whose support for Israel, rooted in atonement for the Holocaust, is second only to that of the United States. The decision of Spain, Norway and Ireland has made one thing clear: There will be no European unity, or at least aligned timing, on the question of recognition of a Palestinian state before such a state exists on the ground.

Nor will there be agreement between trans-Atlantic allies. Like Israel, the United States remains adamant that recognition of a Palestinian state must come through negotiation between the two parties. Otherwise the mere act of recognition changes nothing on the ground, where day by day conditions deteriorate.

Mr. Netanyahu’s life’s work has been largely built around the avoidance of a two-state agreement, even to the point of past support for Hamas intended to obstruct such an outcome. That seems unlikely to change, unless the United States can somehow triangulate Saudi normalization of relations with Israel, a vague Israeli verbal commitment to a process ending in two states and the end of the war in Gaza.

“To any prime minister but Netanyahu, the U.S. offer is very attractive,” said Itamar Rabinovich, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, who noted that an end to the Gaza war would inevitably bring an official inquiry into responsibility for the Oct. 7 disaster and confront Mr. Netanyahu with the fraud and corruption charges against him. “But for his own personal reasons, he balks at any postwar significant Palestinian role in governing Gaza.”

Leaders of the three European states recognizing Palestine said they were determined to keep the two-state idea alive. “We’re not going to allow the possibility of the two-state solution to be destroyed by force,” said Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister.

Those were stirring words. It seems possible that at a time of terrible suffering — in the ruins of Gaza and under what is widely seen as the ineffective and corrupt rule of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank — the recognition will provide a moral lift to Palestinians pursuing their right to self-determination.

But the reality is that a divided Europe has had little or no real leverage over, or impact on, the conflict for some time.

It has been a marginal player since Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in the early 1990s resulted in the Oslo accords. The only voice today that Israel will listen to is America’s — and even there Mr. Netanyahu has proved defiant of late.

“The Europeans really have no influence,” Mr. Rabinovich said. “The recognition of a Palestinian state is purely symbolic and changes nothing. If they sent 30,000 European troops to Gaza to end the war, it would be different, but we know that if 10 of them were killed, they would all leave immediately.”

The recognition comes in a week when the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court requested arrest warrants for Mr. Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, at the same time as he sought warrants for Hamas leaders. The requests are still subject to approval by court judges.

The United States called the I.C.C. prosecutor’s decision “shameful,” whereas France said it “supports the International Criminal Court, its independence and the fight against impunity in all situations” — another possible sign of allied disunity as the war festers. But Mr. Séjourné, the foreign minister, later said the warrants “must not create an equivalence” between Hamas, which he called a terrorist group, and Israel.

In response to a case brought by South Africa, the International Court of Justice, which judges cases between states, not individuals, has already ordered Israel to prevent its forces from committing or inciting genocidal acts.

Pressure on Israel, in other words, is growing. So, too, is its isolation. Mr. Netanyahu’s decision, with his own political and judicial fate at stake, to draw out the war and decline to lay out a day-after plan for Gaza comes at a heavy price.

A fundamental question remains: Will all the condemnation bring a change in Israel’s firm position that the war over Hamas must be won, including in Rafah? Or will it entrench that position as resentment grows at what is widely seen in Israel as unforgivable European moral equivalency between the terrorists of Hamas and Israel’s democratic state?

Some fierce opponents of Mr. Netanyahu, whose far-right coalition has a shrinking constituency in Israel, have been so outraged by the I.C.C. prosecutor’s seemingly equating the Israeli leader with Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader within Gaza and mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack, that they have felt obliged to rally to the Israeli leader’s side.

“Today’s decision sends a message to Palestinians and the world: Terrorism pays,” Israel Katz, the Israeli foreign minister, said in a scathing response to the three states’ recognition of Palestinian statehood, adding that there would be consequences.

There is little question that the Palestinian cause, dormant until the terrorist violence of Oct. 7, is now front and center once again in Western capitals and beyond.

The attack on Israel, and Israel’s devastating bombardment of Gaza in response, have shaken the world out of its torpor over an intractable conflict. The Biden administration, along with European powers, had scarcely mentioned a two-state outcome in the preceding years, believing the Palestinian issue could be finessed in some wider Middle Eastern normalization of relations with Israel.

That proved to be wishful thinking.

Two peoples, Israelis and Palestinians, battling for the same narrow sliver of land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, remain the inalienable core of the conflict. Neither is going away; each believes its claim is irrefutable. Now, as a wider regional confrontation appears possible, a scramble to revive the two-state idea has occurred even as the conditions for it appear less favorable than ever.

The recognition of a Palestinian state by Spain, Norway and Ireland is part of that scramble, which may have come too late. It reflects a widespread feeling that “enough is enough.” It is part of a global exasperation that might contribute to forward momentum if a multitude of things change — not least the replacement of the current Israeli and Palestinian leadership, the end of the war and the establishment of some governing authority in Gaza that has nothing to do with Hamas.

Roger Cohen is the Paris Bureau chief for The Times, covering France and beyond. He has reported on wars in Lebanon, Bosnia and Ukraine, and between Israel and Gaza, in more than four decades as a journalist. At The Times, he has been a correspondent, foreign editor and columnist. More about Roger Cohen

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(page 106) p. 106 Conclusion

• Published: August 2013
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Since 2001, the parameters for a resolution of the hundred-year-old Palestinian–Israeli conflict have been elaborated upon by a number of initiatives. The Conclusion looks at these initiatives and towards the future. Each initiative has strengthened the regional and international consensus supporting a two-state nation. Finally, in November 2012, the United Nations General Assembly recognized a Palestinian state. In the absence of a two-state solution, what issues does Israel now face? One scenario could be a shared homeland. The other could be the conclusion that Jewish history has been traumatic for Israelis to accept being a minority but recognizes that the Palestinian Arab population is growing more rapidly than the Jewish Israeli one.

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Explainer: What is the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict?

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WHAT ARE TWO-STATE SOLUTION'S ORIGINS?

Has a deal ever been close.

WHAT MIGHT PALESTINE LOOK LIKE?

How big are the obstacles, is there a way forward.

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Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Ali Sawafta, Maayan Lubell, Dan Williams, Ari Rabinovitch, Tom Perry; writing by Tom Perry and Mark Heinrich; editing by William Maclean

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At least eight people were killed on Sunday by Israeli strikes in villages across southern Lebanon, Lebanese security sources said.

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Spain to ask EU partners to back ICJ over Israel

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Monday that he will ask the other 26 European Union member states to issue official backing to the International Court of Justice and take steps to ensure Israel respects its decisions.

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EU foreign chief says Israel must respect UN court, control settler violence in the West Bank

Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority Mohammed Mustafa, left, speaks after receiving a document handed over by Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, right, prior to a meeting for talks on the Middle East in Brussels, Sunday, May 26, 2024. Norway on Sunday handed over papers to the Palestinian prime minister to officially give it diplomatic recognition as a state in a largely symbolic move that has infuriated Israel. The formal recognition by Norway, Spain and Ireland, which all have a record of friendly ties with both the Israelis and the Palestinians, while long advocating for a Palestinian state, is planned for Tuesday. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, right, prepares to hand a document to Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority Mohammed Mustafa prior to a meeting for talks on the Middle East in Brussels, Sunday, May 26, 2024. Norway on Sunday handed over papers to the Palestinian prime minister to officially give it diplomatic recognition as a state in a largely symbolic move that has infuriated Israel. The formal recognition by Norway, Spain and Ireland, which all have a record of friendly ties with both the Israelis and the Palestinians, while long advocating for a Palestinian state, is planned for Tuesday. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide shows a document which will be handed to Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority Mohammed Mustafa prior to a meeting for talks on the Middle East in Brussels, Sunday, May 26, 2024. Norway on Sunday handed over papers to the Palestinian prime minister to officially give it diplomatic recognition as a state in a largely symbolic move that has infuriated Israel. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority Mohammed Mustafa, second left, and Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, second right, meet after the handover of a document prior to a meeting for talks on the Middle East in Brussels, Sunday, May 26, 2024. Norway on Sunday handed over papers to the Palestinian prime minister to officially give it diplomatic recognition as a state in a largely symbolic move that has infuriated Israel. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority Mohammed Mustafa, left, speaks with the media after the handover of a document by Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide prior to a meeting for talks on the Middle East in Brussels, Sunday, May 26, 2024. Norway on Sunday handed over papers to the Palestinian prime minister to officially give it diplomatic recognition as a state in a largely symbolic move that has infuriated Israel. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority Mohammed Mustafa, left, reaches out to shake hands with Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide prior to a meeting for talks on the Middle East in Brussels, Sunday, May 26, 2024. Norway on Sunday handed over papers to the Palestinian prime minister to officially give it diplomatic recognition as a state in a largely symbolic move that has infuriated Israel. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority Mohammed Mustafa, left, shakes hands with Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide prior to a meeting for talks on the Middle East in Brussels, Sunday, May 26, 2024. Norway on Sunday handed over papers to the Palestinian prime minister to officially give it diplomatic recognition as a state in a largely symbolic move that has infuriated Israel. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, right, speaks with Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority Mohammed Mustafa after handing over a document prior to a meeting for talks on the Middle East in Brussels, Sunday, May 26, 2024. Norway on Sunday handed over papers to the Palestinian prime minister to officially give it diplomatic recognition as a state in a largely symbolic move that has infuriated Israel. The formal recognition by Norway, Spain and Ireland, which all have a record of friendly ties with both the Israelis and the Palestinians, while long advocating for a Palestinian state, is planned for Tuesday. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

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BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s foreign policy chief insisted Sunday that Israel must abide by the U.N. top court’s rulings and end its offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah and, at the same time, questioned the possible involvement of authorities in the settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

On a day that visiting Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa basked in the attention after two EU nations and Norway pledged to recognize a Palestinian state, Josep Borrell further pressured Israel to take immediate actions to make sure that tax income meant for the Palestinian authorities is no longer stopped.

The demands came at the end of the week that saw the international community put increasing pressure on Israel to fundamentally change the course of the war it wages on Hamas in the Gaza Strip through international court action and diplomatic maneuvering.

Borrell insisted Israel had driven the Palestinians to the edge of a catastrophe because “the situation in Gaza is beyond words. The occupied West Bank is on the brink, risking an explosion any time.”

While most of the global attention is centered on Gaza, Borrell said that “we should not forget what’s happening in the West Bank,” where the seat of the Palestinian Authority is based.

“There we see an intensified spiral of violence. Indiscriminate and punishing attacks by extremist settlers, more and more targeting humanitarian aid heading to Gaza. And they are heavily armed. And the question is, who is arming them? And who is not preventing this attack from happening,” Borrell said.

Rights groups and Palestinian residents have said that Israeli forces often provide an umbrella of security to armed settlers attacking Palestinian towns and nomadic communities.

Such settler violence, Borrell said, “is coupled with unprecedented Israeli settlement expansions and land grabbing.”

Borrell also countered Israeli threats to hit the Palestinians financially. On Wednesday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he would stop transferring tax revenue earmarked for the Palestinian Authority, a move that threatens to handicap its already waning ability to pay salaries to thousands of employees.

Under interim peace accords in the 1990s, Israel collects tax revenue on behalf of the Palestinians, and it has used the money as a tool to pressure the PA. After the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that triggered the war in Gaza, Smotrich froze the transfers, but Israel agreed to send the money to Norway, which transferred it to the PA. Smotrich said Wednesday that he was ending that arrangement.

“Unduly withheld revenues have to be released,” said Borrell, with Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide standing next to him.

Eide was in Brussels Sunday to hand over diplomatic papers to Mustafa ahead of Norway’s formal recognition of a Palestinian state, a largely symbolic move that has infuriated Israel.

The formal recognition by Norway as well as Spain and Ireland — which all have a record of friendly ties with both the Israelis and the Palestinians, while long advocating for a Palestinian state — is planned for Tuesday.

The diplomatic move by the three nations was a welcome boost of support for Palestinian officials who have sought for decades to establish a statehood in east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip — territories Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war and still controls.

“Recognition means a lot for us. It is the most important thing that anybody can do for the Palestinian people,” said Mustafa. “It is a great deal for us.”

Some 140 countries — more than two-thirds of the United Nations — recognize a Palestinian state but a majority of the 27 EU nations still do not. Several have said they would recognize it when the conditions are right.

The EU, the United States and Britain, among others, back the idea of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel but say it should come as part of a negotiated settlement.

Belgium, which holds the EU presidency, has said that first the Israeli hostages held by Hamas need to be freed and the fighting in Gaza must end. Some other governments favor a new initiative toward a two-state solution, 15 years after negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed.

Sunday’s handover of papers came only two days after the United Nations’ top court ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah in the latest move that piled more pressure on the increasingly isolated country .

Days earlier, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court requested arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with Hamas officials.

The war in Gaza started after Hamas-led militants stormed across the border, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostage. Israel’s ensuing offensive has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and has caused a humanitarian crisis and a near-famine.

Israeli airstrike kills at least 22 people in Rafah, Palestinian medics say

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Palestinian medics said an Israeli airstrike killed at least 22 people Sunday when it hit tents for displaced people in the southern Gaza city of Rafah . “Numerous” others were trapped in the debris.

The strike came two days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to end its military offensive in Rafah , where more than half of the Gaza Strip’s population had sought shelter before Israel’s recent incursion. Tens of thousands of people remain in the area; many have fled.

Footage from the scene showed heavy destruction and flames. There were no immediate details on the target.

The Israeli army said it was unaware of activity in the area. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was in Rafah on Sunday and was briefed on the “deepening of operations” there, his office said.

A spokesperson with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the death toll was likely to rise as search and rescue efforts continued in Rafah’s Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, about 1.2 miles northwest of the city center.

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The society asserted that the location had been designated by Israel as a “humanitarian area.” The neighborhood is among areas that Israel’s military this month ordered to be evacuated.

The airstrike was reported hours after Hamas fired a barrage of rockets from Gaza that set off air raid sirens as far away as Tel Aviv for the first time in months, in a show of resilience more than seven months into Israel’s massive air, sea and ground offensive.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in what appeared to be the first long-range rocket attack from Gaza since January. Hamas’ military wing claimed responsibility for the attack. Palestinian militants have sporadically fired rockets and mortar rounds at communities along the Gaza border, and the military arm of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group later Sunday said it fired rockets at nearby communities.

The Israeli military said eight projectiles crossed into Israel after being launched from Rafah . It said “a number” of the projectiles were intercepted, and military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said the launcher in Rafah was destroyed.

Earlier Sunday, aid trucks entered Gaza from southern Israel under a new agreement to bypass the Rafah crossing with Egypt after Israeli forces seized the Palestinian side of it this month. But it was not immediately clear whether humanitarian groups could access the aid because of fighting.

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Egypt refuses to reopen its side of the Rafah crossing until control of the Gaza side is handed back to Palestinians. It agreed to temporarily divert traffic through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, Gaza’s main cargo terminal, after a call between President Biden and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sissi.

But the Kerem Shalom crossing has been largely inaccessible because of Israel’s offensive in Rafah. Israel says it has allowed hundreds of trucks to enter, but United Nations agencies say it is usually too dangerous to retrieve the aid.

“With the humanitarian operation near collapse, the secretary-general emphasizes that the Israeli authorities must facilitate the safe pickup and delivery of humanitarian supplies from Egypt entering Kerem Shalom,” the spokesperson for U.N. chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

The war between Israel and Hamas has killed nearly 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its count. The Health Ministry said Sunday that the bodies of 81 people killed by Israeli strikes had been brought to hospitals over the previous 24 hours.

Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militants operate in dense, residential areas.

Around 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes, severe hunger is widespread, and parts of the territory are experiencing famine, U.N. officials say .

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Hamas triggered the war with its Oct. 7 attack in Israel , in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seized some 250 hostages. Hamas still holds some 100 hostages and the remains of around 30 others, after most of the rest were released during a cease-fire last year.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country must take over Rafah to eliminate Hamas’ remaining battalions and achieve “total victory” over the militants, who recently regrouped in other parts of Gaza where the military has operated.

The war has heightened tensions in the Israeli-occupied West Bank . Palestinian authorities on Sunday said Israeli forces fatally shot a 14-year-old boy near the southern West Bank town of Saeer. The Israeli army said the Palestinian male was shot after trying to stab Israeli forces at Beit Einun Junction.

Southern Gaza has been largely cut off from aid since Israel launched what it called a limited incursion into Rafah on May 6. Since then, more than 1 million Palestinians, many of whom were already displaced, have fled the city.

Egypt’s state-run Al Qahera TV aired footage of what it said were trucks entering Gaza through Kerem Shalom. Khaled Zayed, head of the Egyptian Red Crescent in the Sinai Peninsula, which handles aid delivery from the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, said 200 aid trucks and four fuel trucks were scheduled to be sent to Kerem Shalom on Sunday.

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Northern Gaza receives aid through two land routes that Israel opened during global outrage after its strikes killed seven aid workers in April.

A few dozen trucks enter Gaza daily through a U.S.-built floating pier, but its capacity remains far below the 150 trucks a day that officials hoped for. Aid groups say 600 trucks a day are needed.

Meanwhile, Israel’s military said it had detained a suspect over a widely circulated video in which a man dressed as a soldier threatens mutiny. In the video, the man says tens of thousands of soldiers were ready to disobey the defense minister over his suggestion that Palestinians should govern Gaza after the war and pledged loyalty to Netanyahu.

The military spokesman, Hagari, said the man has been removed from reserve duty. The man has not been publicly identified. It was not clear when or where the video was made. The prime minister’s office released a brief statement condemning all forms of military insubordination.

Shurafa, Goldenberg and Magdy write for the Associated Press. Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv and Magdy from Cairo.

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