Recent reports indicate that Israel has launched air strikes and artillery shelling on more than 500 targets belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military has declared war on Hamas after its fighters launched an unprecedented surprise assault into Israeli territory that has so far killed over 700 people in Israel.
The conflict has escalated, with Israel retaliating against Hamas attacks and deaths passing 1100.
The situation is still ongoing, with Israeli troops battling Hamas gunmen through the night in parts of southern Israel.
The Israeli military has called up around 100,000 reservists, and there are fears that the fighting could expand into a wider regional war.
Israel
Israel is a country located in the Middle East, bordered by Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the southwest and the Mediterranean Sea to the west.
The country has a rich and complex history that spans thousands of years.
The earliest known inhabitants of the region were the Canaanites, who lived in the area from around 3000 BCE. Over the centuries, the region was conquered by various empires, including the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans.
In the 7th century CE, the region was conquered by the Arab Muslims, who introduced Islam to the area.
In the late 19th century, a movement known as Zionism emerged, which sought to establish a Jewish homeland in the region.
This movement gained momentum in the early 20th century, and in 1948, the State of Israel was established.
Since its establishment, Israel has been involved in numerous conflicts with its neighbors, including the Arab-Israeli War of 1948, the Six-Day War of 1967, and the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
The country has also been the target of numerous terrorist attacks, including the Munich Olympics massacre in 1972 and the bombing of a bus in Jerusalem in 2016.
Despite these challenges, Israel has become a thriving democracy and a leader in technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.
The country is home to a diverse population, including Jews, Arabs, Christians and other minorities, and has a rich cultural heritage that includes ancient archaeological sites, museums and religious landmarks.
Palestine
Palestine is a region located in the Middle East, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.
It has a long and complex history, with various groups and empires controlling the area over the centuries.
The earliest known inhabitants of Palestine were the Canaanites, who lived in the region around 3000 BCE.
In the centuries that followed, the area was ruled by various empires, including the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans.
In the 7th century CE, the Islamic empire conquered Palestine, and it remained under Muslim rule for several centuries.
During this time, Jerusalem became an important religious site for Muslims, Christians and Jews.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire.
After World War I, the British took control of the region under a League of Nations mandate.
During this time, Jewish immigration to Palestine increased, leading to tensions between Jewish and Arab communities.
In 1947, the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states.
The Jewish community accepted the plan, but the Arab community rejected it, leading to a war between the two sides.
Israel declared independence in 1948, and neighboring Arab countries invaded in an attempt to prevent the establishment of a Jewish state.
The war resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, who became refugees.
Since then, the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has continued, with both sides claiming the right to self-determination in the region.
The Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip are currently under Israeli occupation, and efforts to establish a Palestinian state have been ongoing for decades.
The situation remains complex and unresolved, with ongoing violence and political tensions.
Israel – Palestine conflict
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a long-standing military and political conflict in the Levant that dates back to the end of the nineteenth century.
The conflict began in earnest in 1947 when the United Nations adopted Resolution 181, known as the Partition Plan, which sought to divide the British Mandate of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states.
On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was created, sparking the first Arab-Israeli War.
The war ended in 1949 with Israel’s victory, but 750,000 Palestinians were displaced, and the territory was divided into 3 parts: the State of Israel, the West Bank (of the Jordan River) and the Gaza Strip.
The current Israeli-Palestinian status quo began following Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Six-Day War, known as the Palestinian territories.
The conflict has its roots in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the birth of major nationalist movements among the Jews and among the Arabs, both geared towards attaining sovereignty for their people in the Middle East.
The conflict has resulted in numerous violent clashes, including multistate wars, armed uprisings (intifadas) and terrorist acts.
The conflict has also had a significant impact on human rights in the region, with both Israelis and Palestinians committing apparent war crimes and human rights abuses.
The United States has traditionally tried to advance a diplomatic solution that would reconcile the competing claims of the two parties.
As of October 8, 2023, the conflict has escalated, with Israeli forces bombing Gaza and the West Bank, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians.
U.S. involvement in Israel-Palestine conflict
The United States has been involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for more than half a century.
Although the United States is a strong supporter of Israel, it has traditionally tried to advance a diplomatic solution that would reconcile the competing claims of the two parties.
The U.S. has sought to act as a neutral intermediary between Arab and Israeli interests, allowing it to influence and encourage negotiations between the two sides.
Supporting a negotiated two-state solution has been a core U.S. policy objective.
The United States has also been committed to improving the lives of ordinary Palestinian people, providing more than $7.6 billion in economic development and security funding, in addition to humanitarian assistance, since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993.
The Biden administration has partially resumed assistance to the Palestinians and has been forthcoming on the reconstruction of Gaza, on the condition that it does not benefit Hamas.
However, several factors, including deep divisions between and within the parties and declining U.S. interest in carrying out its traditional honest-broker role, have hurt the chances of a peace deal.
The Trump administration discontinued contributions to the United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency while committing more than half of all U.S. foreign military aid to Israel, further removing any pretense of neutrality and greatly harming the U.S. in its role as an intermediary.
U.S. Palestine relations
Although the U.S. is a strong supporter of Israel, it has traditionally tried to advance a diplomatic solution that would reconcile the competing claims of the two parties.
Supporting a negotiated two-state solution has been a core U.S. policy objective.
The U.S. has sought to act as a neutral intermediary between Arab and Israeli interests, allowing it to influence and encourage negotiations between the two sides.
The United States is committed to improving the lives of ordinary Palestinian people, providing more than $7.6 billion in economic development and security funding, in addition to humanitarian assistance, since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993.
However, the U.S.-Palestinian relationship has been complex and strained since the 1960s.
The U.S. does not recognize the State of Palestine, and the Palestinians have maintained a public policy of non-cooperation with the U.S. in general.
The U.S. designated a ‘Palestinian Affairs Unit’ within its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem for the purpose of handling relations with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
In June 2022, the ‘Palestinian Affairs Unit’ (PAU) was renamed the ‘United States Office of Palestinian Affairs’ and will report directly to Washington ‘on substantive matters’.
Since around 2011, the PLO’s diplomatic effort has focused on the campaign known as Palestine 194, which aims to gain full membership for Palestine in the United Nations (UN).
Officially, the State of Palestine seeks international recognition based on the pre-1967 borders of Israel, with East Jerusalem as its capital city.
The Biden administration has partially resumed assistance to the Palestinians and has been forthcoming on the reconstruction of Gaza, on the condition that it does not benefit Hamas.
President Biden announced an additional $201 million for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to continue delivering critical services to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
The U.S. Government remains committed to a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and believes that Israelis and Palestinians alike deserve equal measures of freedom, security and prosperity.
Hamas
Hamas is a Palestinian group that was founded in Gaza in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yasin and his aide Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi, shortly after the start of the first Intifada, an uprising against Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.
The group stands for the Islamic Resistance Movement and in Arabic means ‘zeal’.
Hamas is an Islamist organization with a military wing that emerged out of the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist group that was founded in the late 1920s in Egypt.
Hamas violently opposes the Oslo peace accords negotiated by Israel and the PLO in the mid-1990s and is formally committed to establishing a Palestinian state within its own borders.
The group has pursued this aim through attacks on Israeli soldiers, settlers, and civilians both in the occupied Palestinian territories and in Israel.
Hamas is part of a regional alliance that also includes Iran, Syria and the group Hezbollah in Lebanon, which opposes U.S. and Israeli policies.
Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, European Union, Canada, Egypt and Japan.
The group has an armed wing called the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, which has conducted many anti-Israel attacks in both Israel and the Palestinian territories since the 1990s.
These attacks have included large-scale bombings against Israeli civilian targets, small-arms attacks, improvised roadside explosives and rocket attacks.
Hamas characterizes its armed activities as resistance against Israeli occupation.
Its 1988 founding charter called for the destruction of Israel, although Hamas leaders have at times offered a long-term truce, or Hudna in Arabic, with Israel in return for a viable Palestinian state on all Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 war.
Hamas runs the Gaza Strip since 2007, after a brief civil war with forces loyal to the Fatah movement led by President Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the West Bank and also heads the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Unlike the Palestine Liberation Organization, led by Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas does not recognize Israel’s right to exist as a state and has spoken about driving all Jews from the region.
Hamas has claimed many attacks on Israel over the years, and its 2021 conflict with Israel increased the group’s political clout.
FAQ
Is the ‘Israeli-Palestinian conflict’ a fair and accurate way of framing the issue?
Not really. ‘Conflict’ implies rough parity between two or more parties to a dispute.
The Palestinians are people lacking a functioning state with no formal military at all.
Israel is waging a settler-colonial war to displace the indigenous Palestinian people with Jewish settlers by force and violence.
What is the situation like for Palestinians in Jerusalem?
Jerusalem is holy to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and is the site of cherished shrines for each of the three religions.
Palestinians in East Jerusalem face a range of discriminatory policies and practices, including home demolitions, residency revocations and restrictions on building and development.
What international humanitarian law applies to the current armed conflict between Israel and Palestinian armed groups?
The laws of war, or jus in bello, apply to the current hostilities between Israel and Hamas, and other Palestinian armed groups. All parties in armed conflict should respect the laws of war.
What are the obligations of Israel and Palestinian armed groups with respect to fighting in populated civilian areas?
Belligerent parties should take all feasible precautions to avoid or minimize harm to civilians and civilian objects.
They should not use civilians or civilian objects to shield military objectives from attack.
Should belligerent parties give warnings to civilians in advance of attacks? What constitutes an ‘effective’ warning?
Yes, belligerent parties should give effective advance warning of attacks that may affect the civilian population, unless circumstances do not permit.
An effective warning is one that is given sufficiently in advance to allow civilians to take shelter from the attack, and that provides information on the nature and timing of the attack.
What is meant by ‘collective punishment’ of the civilian population?
Collective punishment is the imposition of penalties on an entire population or community for the actions of individuals or groups.
It is prohibited under international humanitarian law.
Are rockets fired by Palestinian armed groups at Israel lawful?
No, rockets fired by Palestinian armed groups at Israel are not lawful. They are indiscriminate and can cause civilian harm.
Is it lawful to target leaders of Palestinian armed groups and their offices and homes?
Yes, leaders of Palestinian armed groups and their offices and homes are lawful targets if they are directly participating in hostilities.
However, they must be distinguished from civilians and civilian objects, and attacks must be proportionate to the military advantage sought.
Will there ever be peace in Palestine and Israel?
The question of whether there will ever be peace in Palestine and Israel is difficult to answer.
The conflict has a long and complex history, and there are many factors that contribute to it.
However, many people and organizations continue to work towards a peaceful resolution.
Do Palestinians really want peace?
Yes, many Palestinians want peace.
However, they also want an end to the Israeli occupation of their land and the establishment of a Palestinian state.