The background of the war in Gaza is one of the longest conflicts in the world. The conflict has been shielded, on the one hand, by the security of the state of Israel in the Middle East, which is widely hostile to it, and on the other hand by the Palestinians’ unrealized goals for their own independent state.
This guide begins over a hundred years ago.
The origin of the conflict
The territory comprising present-day Israel and the Palestinian territories were established under British control during the First World War. At that time, more than 90 percent of the population of the region were Arabs and less than 10 percent were Jews.
A British administration was established in the area for the years 1923–1948. During that time, Britain facilitated Jewish immigration and supported the idea of establishing a Jewish nation-state in the territory of Palestine.
The birth of the state of Israel
The next big step in the region’s history was when the UN General Assembly agreed after World War II on a plan to divide the region into Arab and Jewish states.
In the plan, Jerusalem remained under international control.
The plan was inspired by the genocide of European Jews, or the Holocaust, in which the Nazis murdered six million Jews in the territories they occupied and in Germany during the war years.
The UN plan allocated 56 percent of the Mediterranean basin to the Jewish state and 44 percent to the Arab state. Jewish leaders accepted the plan, but the Arab League rejected it.
When British rule in the region ended on May 14, 1948, Israel declared itself the established national home for Jews fleeing persecution.
Mutual violence between Arabs and Jews had already reached its peak under British rule. The Jewish population had grown to a third of the region’s population, and the legitimate fear of land ownership and control weighed heavily.
The day after Israel declared independence, five Arab countries – Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq – attacked Israel.
Palestinian escape and deportation
The war lasted until 1949. A formal peace was not concluded at the end of it.
As a result of the war, 700,000 Palestinians had to flee their homes. Palestinians know the events as the nakba, or catastrophe.
Refugees ended up in the neighboring countries of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. They also settled in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and Gaza.
During the war, Jordan had taken over the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while Egypt had taken over Gaza.
The Palestinians who remained in what is now Israel now make up about a fifth of Israel’s population.
There are currently about two million Palestinians in Gaza and three million in the West Bank.
More wars followed
Gaza remained under Egyptian control until 1967. Gazans were allowed to study and work in Egypt during that time.
In 1967, Israel fought the so-called Six Day War against its neighbors.
Israel started the war with a surprise attack on Egypt and Syria.
As a result of the war, Israel conquered the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, the Golan Heights from Syria, and Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt.
The population of Gaza at that time was just under 400,000. 60 percent of them were refugees.
In 1973, it was the turn of the so-called Yom Kippur war, which in turn was started by Egypt and Syria by attacking on the Jewish holy day. Israel repelled the attack within three weeks.
In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon and occupied areas in southern Lebanon until 2000.
The annexation of the Golan and East Jerusalem as part of Israel has not been widely recognized internationally. Gaza and the West Bank have not been annexed by Israel, and they are also considered Israeli-occupied territories. Because of this, Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal.
The United States recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2017.
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005
Israel began occupying Gaza and establishing settlements there in the late 1960s after the Six-Day War. It also kept its soldiers there to protect the colonies.
Along with the wars, there have been two Palestinian uprisings, or intifadas, in the years 1987–1993 and 2000–2005.
During the latter period, Hamas and other extremist organizations carried out, among other things, suicide attacks against Israelis. and Israel in turn hit Palestinian targets with tanks and airstrikes.
In 2005, Israel withdrew its soldiers and settlers from Gaza. Already in 1993, Israel and the Palestinian PLO had agreed in principle on the Palestinian civil administration in Gaza and the West Bank.
Holding and securing twenty settlements had become expensive for Israel, and against the will of his own party, the prime minister Ariel Sharon ran through Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.
In 2006, parliamentary elections were organized in the Palestinian territories, which the extremist organization Hamas won. In 2007, the organization took control of Gaza by force. The West Bank remained in the hands of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority led by the Fatah party.
Israel and extremist groups operating from Gaza have regularly clashed. The biggest clashes are in 2006, 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2021.
The cycle of violence between Hamas and Israel remained permanent.
Hamas refuses to recognize Israel. Hamas considers its armed action to be resistance against the occupation. The United States, the European Union and many other countries have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.
This is how the conflict has been tried to be resolved
In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel.
Sinai returned to Egypt in the implementation of the peace agreement in 1982.
At the beginning of the 1990s, the Middle East was the closest to permanent peace than at any time before or since.
Prime Minister of Israel Yitzhak Rabin and head of the Palestinian Liberation Movement, the PLO Yasser Arafat shook hands in the White House courtyard in 1993 in honor of the so-called Oslo Accords.
The agreement created the framework for temporary Palestinian self-government in Gaza and the West Bank and for negotiations leading to final peace.
However, the Oslo process has not led to peace. The most difficult issues were left out of the agreement, such as the possible recognition of East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinians and the future of Israeli settlements. These questions are still not resolved.
The peace process completely froze in 2014.
The United States ran for president Donald Trump’s during the administration to create relations between Israel and Arab countries. The Palestinians boycotted the project because the negotiations bypassed the two-state model of Israeli and Palestinian states.
The Gaza war, which began in October 2023, is diplomatically difficult for Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries that had established bilateral relations with Israel.
The various alliance relationships are also essential in understanding the situation in the Middle East. You can read more about them in this article.
Such are the Palestinian territories now
The Palestinian Territories are located in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem and are not geographically connected to each other.
Gaza has been ruled by Hamas since 2007. The area has always been under some degree of Israeli blockade. Egypt has participated in the blockade.
The Oslo Accords divided the West Bank into Israeli and Palestinian territories. Well over half of the area is completely under Israeli military rule.
The more moderate Fatah and the Islamist Hamas are each other’s rivals.
The West Bank and East Jerusalem are considered Israeli-occupied territories.
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have increased in recent years due to Israeli migration to the West Bank.
More than half a million Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank and more than 200,000 in East Jerusalem. Israel has established these Jewish civil communities in its occupied territory since 1967. The ever-expanding settlements are considered to make the establishment of a Palestinian state practically impossible.
Settlements are generally considered illegal by the international community.
AP, Reuters
Other sources: Al Jazeera, BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, UN