The war between Israel and Hamas, whose fighters from the Gaza Strip stormed Israeli towns and kibbutzim on October 7, is the latest clash in seven decades of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians that has destabilized the Middle East as a whole, Reuters writes.
In the uncontrolled violence by Hamas, about 1,400 Israelis, mostly civilians, were killed and 229 were taken hostage.
Israel responded with airstrikes, then infantry and tanks swept into Gaza in a ground assault with the stated aim of destroying the Islamist militant group.
Medical authorities in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip said on November 1 that 8,796 people, including 3,648 children, had been killed in the enclave.
What are the causes of the conflict?
The conflict pits Israeli security demands in the hostile Middle East against Palestinian aspirations for a state of their own. Hamas rejects a two-state solution to the conflict and aims to destroy Israel.
In 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted a plan to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states and for international rule over Jerusalem. Jewish leaders accepted a plan that gave them 56% of the land of Palestine. The Arab League rejected the proposal.
Israel’s founder David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the modern state of Israel on May 14, 1948, creating a safe haven for Jews fleeing persecution and seeking a national home in a land with which they have deep ties dating back to antiquity.
But violence between Jews and Arabs escalated, and a day after Israel was established, troops from five Arab countries invaded it.
In the ensuing war, some 700,000 Palestinians, half the Arab population of British-ruled Palestine, fled or were driven from their homes and ended up in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, as well as Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Palestinians call what happened the “Nakba” or “catastrophe”.
Israel disputes the allegation that it forced Palestinians to move out.
Armistice agreements stopped the fighting in 1949, but there was no official peace. Palestinians who stayed put during the war and their descendants today make up about 20% of Israel’s population.
What major wars have been fought since then?
In 1967, Israel launched a pre-emptive strike against Egypt and Syria, starting the Six-Day War. Israel captured and occupied the West Bank and predominantly Arab East Jerusalem from Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the Gaza Strip from Egypt.
According to an Israeli census in the same year, the population of Gaza was 394,000, at least 60% of whom were Palestinian refugees and their descendants.
In 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israeli positions along the Suez Canal and on the Golan Heights, starting the Yom Kippur War. Israel pushed the two armies back within three weeks.
In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon and thousands of Palestinians from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) under the leadership of Yasser Arafat evacuated by sea after a 10-week siege. Israeli troops withdraw from Lebanon in 2000.
In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew its settlers and soldiers from Gaza. In 2006, Hamas won the parliamentary elections and established full control of Gaza in 2007. Gaza has been the site of major clashes between Palestinian militants and Israel in 2006, 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2021.
In 2006, Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah fighters captured two Israeli soldiers in the restive border region, and Israel launched hostilities that escalated into a six-week war.
In addition to the wars, there were two Palestinian intifadas (uprisings) – from 1987 to 1993 and from 2000 to 2005. During the second intifada, Hamas and other Palestinian groups carried out suicide bombings against Israelis, and Israel carried out tank attacks and carried out airstrikes on Palestinian cities.
What attempts at peace have been made?
In 1979, Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty.
In 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Arafat shook hands over the Oslo Accords, which established limited Palestinian autonomy. In 1994, Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan.
US President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Arafat participated in the 2000 Camp David summit but failed to reach a final peace agreement.
In 2002, an Arab League plan offered Israel normal relations with all Arab states in exchange for a full withdrawal from the lands it seized in the 1967 Middle East war, the creation of a Palestinian state and a “just solution” for the Palestinians. refugees. The presentation of the plan was derailed and overshadowed by Hamas, whose militants blew up an Israeli hotel full of Holocaust survivors during a Passover holiday meal.
Peace efforts have stalled since 2014.
The Palestinians stopped working with US President Donald Trump’s 2017-2019 administration after he ended decades of US policy and recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state.
What is the current state of peace efforts?
US President Joe Biden’s administration has focused on trying to reach a “grand deal” in the Middle East that includes normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which is the custodian of Islam’s two holiest shrines.
The latest war puts Riyadh in an awkward diplomatic position, as do other Arab states, including some Gulf Arab states that have signed peace accords with Israel.
What are the main issues between Israelis and Palestinians?
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 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip alongside Israel. Israel has said that the Palestinian state must be demilitarized so as not to threaten its security.
Settler Settlements: Most countries consider Jewish settlements built on land occupied by Israel in 1967 to be illegal. Israel disputes this and cites historical and biblical ties to the land. The continued expansion of settlements is among the most contentious issues between Israel, the Palestinians and the international community.
Jerusalem: The Palestinians want East Jerusalem, which includes walled sites holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians in the Old City, to be the capital of their state. Israel maintains that Jerusalem must remain its “indivisible and eternal” capital.
Israel’s claims to East Jerusalem are not recognized internationally. Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, without specifying the extent of his jurisdiction in the disputed city, and moved the US embassy there in 2018.
Refugees: Today, some 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. Nearly half of registered refugees remain stateless, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said, with many living in overcrowded camps.
Palestinians have long demanded that the refugees be allowed to return, along with millions of their descendants.
Israel maintains that any resettlement of Palestinian refugees must take place outside its borders.
(BTA)
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