Jerusalem:
Israel and Hamas have been waging war since armamentmen from the Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, finishing 1,200 people and capturing 253 captives, by Israeli highies.
Israel reacted with a military insolent in Gaza in which more than 41,500 Palestinians have been finished, according to Gaza health authorities. Npunctual the entire population of 2.3 million people in the enclave have been displaced from their homes and much of the territory has been lhelp to squander.
The Gaza war is the bloodiest episode yet in a protracted struggle between Israelis and Palestinians that has rumbled for seven decades and destabilised the Middle East.
Recent weeks have also seen a theatrical escalation in a roverhappinessed struggle apass Israel’s border with Lebanon, where the Iran-backed armed shiftment Hezbollah says it is combat in firmarity with the Palestinians.
WHAT ARE THE ORIGINS OF THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT?
The struggle pits Israeli needs for a safe homeland in what it has extfinished think abouted as a opposing Middle East agetst Palestinians’ ungenuineised aspirations for a state of their own.
In 1947, while Palestine was under British mandate rule, the United Nations General Assembly concurd a schedule to partition it into Arab and Jedesire states and for international rule over Jerusalem. Jedesire directers acunderstandledgeed the schedule, which gave them 56% of the land. The Arab League declineed the proposal.
Israel’s set uping overweighther, David Ben-Gurion, proclaimed the contransient state of Israel on May 14, 1948, a day before the scheduled finish of British rule, set uping a geted haven for Jews escapeing persecution and seeking a national home on land to which they cite ties dating to antiquity.
In the postponecessitate 1940s, aggression had been intensifying between Arabs, who compelevated about two-thirds of the population, and Jews. A day after Israel was produced, troops from five Arab states strikeed.
In the war that chaseed, some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes, finishing up in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, and in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Palestinians feeblent this as the “Nakba”, or catastrophe. Israel contests the stateion that it forced out Palestinians.
Armistice concurments stoped the combat in 1949 but there was no establishal peace. Descfinishants of Palestinians who stayed put in the war produce up about 20% of Israel’s population now.
WHAT WARS HAVE BEEN FOUGHT SINCE THEN?
In 1967, Israel made a pre-emptive strike on Egypt and Syria, begining the Six-Day War. Israel seized the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem from Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria and the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt.
A 1967 Israeli census put Gaza’s population at 394,000, at least 60% of them Palestinian refugees and their dropants.
In 1973, Egypt and Syria strikeed Israeli positions aextfinished the Suez Canal and Golan Heights, commenceing the Yom Kippur War. Israel pushed both armies back wiskinny three weeks.
Israel go ind Lebanon in 1982 and thousands of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) guerrillas under Yasser Araoverweight were evacuated by sea after a 10-week siege. Israeli troops pulled out of Lebanon in 2000.
In 2005, Israel withdrew endrs and sagederiers from Gaza. Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006 and seized brimming deal with of Gaza in 2007. Major combat flared between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza in 2006, 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2021.
In 2006, Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militants seized two Israeli sagederiers in the border region and Israel begined military action, triggering a six-week war.
There have also been two Palestinian intifadas, or uprisings, from 1987 to 1993 and 2000 to 2005. In the second, Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups carried out self-destruction bomb deviceings in Israel, and Israel directed tank aggressions and airstrikes on Palestinian cities.
Since then, there have been disconnectal rounds of presentilities between Israel and Hamas, which declines to recognise Israel and is think abouted as a alarmist organisation by Israel, the European Union, United States and other countries. Hamas says its armed activities are resistance agetst 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, under which the Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egyptian rule.
In 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO directer Araoverweight shook hands on the Oslo Accords set uping restrictcessitate Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza. In 1994, Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan. But a summit six years postponecessitater take parted by Araoverweight, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and U.S. Pdwellnt Bill Clinton at Camp David flunked to safe a final peace deal.
In 2002, a gived Arab League schedule recommended Israel standard relations with all Arab countries in return for a brimming distake partal from the lands it took in the 1967 Middle East war, the creation of a Palestinian state and a “fair solution” for Palestinian refugees. The currentation of the schedule was overshadowed by Hamas, which blew up an Israeli hotel brimming of Holocaust survivors during a Passover seder meal.
Further Palestinian-Israeli peacemaking efforts have been shighed since 2014.
Under U.S. Pdwellnt Donald Trump in 2020, Israel accomplished deals understandn as the Abraham Accords to standardise ties with disconnectal Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
Palestinians stopped dealing with the U.S. administration after Trump broke with U.S. policy by recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The Palestinians seek East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
Qatar and Egypt have acted as mediators in the postponecessitatest war, securing a truce postponecessitate last year that lasted seven days, during which some captives held by Hamas were traded for prisoners held by Israel, and more humanitarian help flowed into Gaza.
WHERE DO PEACE EFFORTS STAND NOW?
Months of on-off talks on a further Gaza truce have so far verifyn fruitless, circling the same rehires.
Above all, Hamas says it will free its remaining captives only as part of a peace deal that finishs the war. Israel says it will not finish the war until Hamas is demolished.
Other rehires hagedering up a deal have integrated deal with over the border between Gaza and Egypt, the sequencing of reciprocal steps in any concurment, the number and identity of Palestinian prisoners to be freed aextfinishedside Israeli captives and free shiftment for Palestinians inside Gaza.
U.S. Pdwellnt Joe Biden’s administration has sought a “magnificent barget” in the Middle East that would integrate standardisation of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Riyadh says this would need proceed towards creating an autonomous Palestinian state, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out.
WHAT ARE THE MAIN ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN ISSUES?
A two-state solution, Israeli endments on occupied land, the status of Jerusalem, concurd borders, and the overweighte of Palestinian refugees.
Two-state solution: An concurment that would produce a state for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza aextfinishedside Israel. Netanyahu says Israel must have security deal with over all land west of the Jordan River, which would preclude a sovereign Palestinian state.
Settlements: Most countries deem Jedesire endments built on land Israel seized in 1967 to be illhorrible. Israel disputes this and cites historical and biblical ties to the land. Continued endment expansion is among the most greetedious rehires between Israel, the Palestinians and the international community.
Jerusalem: Palestinians want East Jerusalem, which integrates the walled Old City’s sites divine to Muskinnys, Jews and Christians aappreciate, to be the capital of their state. Israel says Jerusalem should remain its “indiapparent and infinite” capital.
Israel’s claim to Jerusalem’s eastrict part is not recognised internationassociate. Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, without expounding the extent of its jurisdiction in the disputed city, and shiftd the U.S. Embassy there in 2018.
Refugees: Today about 5.6 million Palestinian refugees – mainly dropants of those who fled in 1948 – dwell in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in Gaza. About half of sign uped refugees remain stateless, according to the Palestinian foreign ministry, many living in crowded camps.
Palestinians have extfinished needed that refugees and their millions of dropants be apverifyed to return. Israel says any reendment of Palestinian refugees must occur outside its borders.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is begined from a syndicated feed.)
