196-565: The Gaza–Israel conflict is a localized part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict beginning in 1948, when 200,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes, settling in the Gaza Strip as refugees. Since then, Israel has been involved in about 15 wars involving organizations in the Gaza Strip. The number of Palestinians killed in the ongoing 2023–2024 war (41,000) is higher than
392-574: A large-scale ground invasion with the stated goal of destroying Hamas and controlling security in Gaza afterwards. Israel killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, including civilians and combatants and displaced almost two million people. South Africa accused Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice and called for an immediate ceasefire. The Court issued an order requiring Israel to take all measures to prevent any acts contrary to
588-493: A "technical malfunction"—and hit a row of houses in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun , killing 19 Palestinians and wounding more than 40. Israeli Defense Forces launched an investigation into the Beit Hanoun November 2006 incident (and later apologized for the incident), and the then Israeli President Ehud Olmert offered humanitarian assistance to those affected. The 2006 Franco–Italian–Spanish Middle East Peace Plan
784-517: A Palestinian state comprising the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, within the borders set by the 1949 armistice lines prior to 5 June 1967. Following the declaration, Arafat explicitly denounced all forms of terrorism and affirmed the PLO's acceptance of UN Resolutions 242 and 338, as well as the recognition of Israel's right to exist. All the conditions defined by Henry Kissinger for US negotiations with
980-401: A Palestinian state. Yaniv described Arafat's willingness to compromise as a "peace offensive" which Israel responded to by planning to remove the PLO as a potential negotiating partner in order to evade international diplomatic pressure. Israel would invade Lebanon the following year in an attempt to undermine the PLO as a political organization, weakening Palestinian nationalism and facilitating
1176-580: A United Nations study, the economic effects of Israel's blockade on Gaza reached a critical threshold. Finally, on 17 January 2008, Israel sealed the border completely following a rise in rocket attacks. The breach of the Gaza-Egypt border began on 23 January 2008, after gunmen in the Gaza Strip set off an explosion near the Rafah Border Crossing , destroying part of the former Israeli Gaza Strip barrier. The United Nations estimates that as many as half
1372-526: A broader sense of Palestinian national expression which included the rejection of the Zionist goal of turning the mostly Arab populated land into a Jewish homeland. From early on, the leadership of the Zionist movement had the idea of "transferring" (a euphemism for ethnic cleansing ) the Arab Palestinian population out of the land for the purpose of establishing a Jewish demographic majority. According to
1568-450: A campaign of attacks targeting Israelis. Following hundreds of casualties and a wave of anti-government propaganda, Israeli Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli far-right extremist who objected to the peace initiative. This struck a serious blow to the peace process, which in 1996 led to the newly elected government of Israel backing off from the process, to some degree. Following several years of unsuccessful negotiations,
1764-450: A ceasefire was signed with international mediation between the parties, though the occupation and small and sporadic eruptions of violence continued. In 2011, a Palestinian Authority attempt to gain UN membership as a fully sovereign state failed. In Hamas-controlled Gaza, sporadic rocket attacks on Israel and Israeli air raids continued to occur. In November 2012, Palestinian representation in
1960-611: A de facto military occupation. In 1964, however, a new organization, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), was established by Yasser Arafat. It immediately won the support of most Arab League governments and was granted a seat in the Arab League . In the 1967 Arab-Israel War , Israel occupied the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza Strip, Egyptian Sinai, Syrian Golan Heights, and two islands in
2156-553: A declaration of war, while Israel stated its purpose was to pressure Hamas into ending Qassam rocket attacks (which Israel said were intensifying). Israel's decision to cut fuel supplies to Gaza were widely condemned (including by the European Union ) as "collective punishment." Israel has also arrested Hamas officials in the West Bank, including two cabinet members. Such arrests have been strongly condemned by international organizations and politicians. By January 2008, according to
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#17328516836672352-469: A few days, new fighting broke out. On 1 February, Hamas killed 6 people in an ambush on a Gaza convoy which delivered equipment for Abbas' Palestinian Presidential Guard . Fatah fighters stormed a Hamas-affiliated university in the Gaza Strip. Officers from Abbas' presidential guard battled Hamas gunmen guarding the Hamas-led Interior Ministry. In May 2007, new fighting broke out between
2548-672: A grenade killed 8 Gaza civilians and a shooting killed another 10. During the First intifada , in the Gaza Strip alone, 142 Palestinians were killed, while no Israelis died: 77 were shot dead, and 37 died from tear-gas inhalation. 17 died from beatings at the hand of Israeli police or soldiers. Israel completed the initial Israel–Gaza barrier in 1996. It has helped reduce infiltration from Gaza Strip into Israel . Special permits to enter Israel for medical purposes were also greatly reduced, which has made travel for Palestinians difficult. Daniel Schueftan , in his 1999 book, Disengagement: Israel and
2744-587: A hardline far-right government , which led to greater political strife in Israel and clashes in the Palestinian territories. This culminated in the 2023 Israel–Hamas war , when Hamas -led militant groups launched a surprise attack on southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing more than 1,200 Israeli civilians and military personnel and taking hostages . The Israeli military retaliated by conducting an extensive aerial bombardment campaign on Gaza, followed by
2940-516: A large military campaign in the Gaza Strip on 27 December 2008, codenamed Operation "Cast Lead" ( Hebrew : מבצע עופרת יצוקה ), with the stated aim of stopping Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel and arms smuggling into Gaza. The conflict has also been called the Gaza massacre in the Arab world ( Arabic : مجزرة غزة ). A fragile six-month truce between Hamas and Israel expired on 19 December 2008. The Israeli operation began with an intense bombardment of
3136-548: A limited governing authority, initially led by the secular party Fatah until that party's electoral defeat in 2006 to the Sunni Islamic Hamas . Hamas would then take over the governance of Gaza in a battle the next year, subsequently warring with Israel. The restrictions on movement and goods in Gaza imposed by Israel date back to the early 1990s. In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew its military forces from Gaza, dismantled its settlements , and implemented
3332-622: A major conflict between Israelis and Palestinians erupted in the First Intifada . The 1993 Oslo Accords brought a period of calm. But, in 2000 the Second Intifada erupted. Towards the end of the Second Intifada, Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005 , Hamas won the 2006 election and seized control of Gaza in 2007 . In 2007, Israel imposed a land, air and sea blockade of the Gaza Strip , turning it into an "open-air prison". The blockade
3528-617: A major utility for the latter by supplying the country with a large unskilled and semi-skilled workforce. Gaza's agricultural sector was adversely affected as one-third of the Strip was appropriated by Israel, competition for scarce water resources stiffened, and the lucrative cultivation of citrus declined with the advent of Israeli policies, such as prohibitions on planting new trees and taxation that gave breaks to Israeli producers, factors which militated against growth. Gaza's direct exports of these products to Western markets, as opposed to Arab markets,
3724-728: A major war that resulted in the deaths of 73 Israelis (mostly soldiers) and 2,251 Palestinians (mostly civilians). The invasion resulted in "unprecedented" destruction, damaging 25% of homes in Gaza city and 70% of homes in Beit Hanoun . After 2014, notable events in the conflict included the " Great March of Return " (2018–2019) and clashes in November 2018 , May 2019 and November 2019 . The 2021 crisis saw 256 Palestinians and 15 Israelis killed. On 7 October 2023, Palestinian militants attacked Israel , killing 1,143 people (mostly civilians) and beginning
3920-570: A massacre were reported to the United Nations General Assembly on 15 December 1956 by UNRWA director Henry Labouisse , who reported from "trustworthy sources" that 275 people were killed in the massacre, of which 140 were refugees and 135 local residents. On 12 November, days after the hostilities had ended, Israel killed 111 people in the Rafah refugee camp during Israeli operations, provoking international criticism. Israel ended
4116-424: A new experimental weapon, particularly Dense inert metal explosives (DIMEs). Attempting to curb Qassam rocket attacks fired at Southern Israel by Palestinian militants from the northern Gaza Strip, Israel launched Operation "Autumn Clouds" on 1 November 2006. On 8 November 2006, a day after Israel's withdrawal following Operation "Autumn Clouds" , Israel Defense Forces shells missed their target—possibly due to
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#17328516836674312-488: A peace treaty between the two countries. The accords also proposed the creation of a "Self-Governing Authority" for the Arab population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, excluding Jerusalem. While it promised "full autonomy for the inhabitants," the land was to remain under Israeli control. A peace treaty based on these accords was signed in 1979, leading to Israel's withdrawal from the occupied Egyptian Sinai Peninsula by 1982. However,
4508-501: A potential negotiating partner. Most Palestinian militants were defeated within several weeks, Beirut was captured, and the PLO headquarters were evacuated to Tunisia in June by Yasser Arafat's decision. The first Palestinian uprising began in 1987 as a response to escalating attacks and the endless occupation. By the early 1990s, the conflict, termed the First Intifada , was the focus of international settlement efforts, in part motivated by
4704-430: A prominent feature of the fighting and mainly targeted Israeli civilians, contrasting with the relatively less violent nature of the First Intifada . With a combined casualty figure for combatants and civilians, the violence is estimated to have resulted in the deaths of approximately 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis, as well as 64 foreigners. Between December 2000 and June 2001, the barrier between Gaza and Israel
4900-543: A reduction of 98%. Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister acknowledged that "there were no Hamas rockets during the ceasefire before November the 4th". Israel's obligation was to cease attacks on Gaza and once the ceasefire held, to gradually begin to ease its punishing blockade of Gaza. The agreement called on Israel to increase the level of goods entering Gaza by 30 percent over the pre-lull period within 72 hours and to open all border crossings and "allow
5096-529: A separation, though not according to the borders prior to 1967. We want to reach a separation between us and them. We do not want the majority of the Jewish residents of the state of Israel, 98% of whom live within the borders of sovereign Israel, including a united Jerusalem , to be subject to terrorism." The Second Intifada , also known as the al-Aqsa Intifada , began in September 2000. Many Palestinians considered
5292-425: A series of air strikes against targets in Gaza following the breakdown of a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas. Israel began a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip on 3 January 2009. Various sites that Israel claimed were being used as weapons depots were struck from the air : police stations, schools, hospitals, UN warehouses, mosques, various Hamas government buildings and other buildings. Israel said that
5488-426: A shift away from violence towards non-violent forms of protest. Some demonstrators were setting tires on fire and launching Molotov cocktails and rocks toward the troops on the opposite side of the border. Israeli officials said the demonstrations were used by Hamas as cover for launching attacks against Israel. In late February 2019, a United Nations Human Rights Council 's independent commission found that of
5684-604: A short-term Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and exile of the All-Palestine Government , which was later restored with Israeli withdrawal. The All-Palestine Government was completely abandoned by Egypt in 1959 and was officially merged into the United Arab Republic , to the detriment of the Palestinian national movement. Gaza Strip then was put under the authority of the Egyptian military administrator, making it
5880-424: A squad of militants. The militants first opened fire at civilian bus. Several minutes later, a bomb was detonated next to an Israeli army patrol along Israel's border with Egypt. In a third attack, an anti-tank missile hit a private vehicle, killing four civilians. During the second week of March 2012, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) initiated Operation "Returning Echo". It was the worst outbreak of violence covered by
6076-642: A strict blockade on Gaza in order to isolate Hamas from Islamist insurgents in the Sinai." In 2005, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip and dismantled its settlements. Israel also withdrew from the Philadelphi Route , a narrow strip of land adjacent to the border with Egypt, after Egypt agreed to secure its side of the border after the Agreement on Movement and Access , known as the Rafah Agreement . The Gaza Strip
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6272-603: A surprise attack against Israel on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. Egyptian and Syria had crossed over the ceasefire lines that were agreed upon prior to 1973. Egypt had in particular tried to reoccupy much of the area surrounding the Suez Canal, whilst the frontline with Syria was mainly situated around the north in the Golan Heights. The war concluded with an Israeli victory, with both sides suffering tremendous casualties. Following
6468-544: A temporary blockade of Gaza . The blockade became indefinite after the 2007 Hamas takeover. Egypt also began its blockade of Gaza in 2007. Despite the Israeli disengagement, Gaza is still considered occupied by Israel under international law . The current blockade prevents people and goods from freely entering or leaving the territory, leading to Gaza often being called an "open-air prison". The UN, as well as at least 19 human-rights organizations, have urged Israel to lift
6664-661: A two-state settlement, were endorsed by the International Court of Justice, the United Nations, and international human rights organizations. The June 1967 war exerted a significant effect upon Palestinian nationalism, as Israel gained military control of the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt. Consequently, the PLO was unable to establish any control on the ground and established its headquarters in Jordan, home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and supported
6860-644: A week. Palestinians fired 150 rockets at Israel which killed three Israelis. The United States called for an end to clashes between Israel and the Palestinians. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas , has accused Israel of "international terrorism", saying its assault on Gaza constitutes "more than a holocaust." On 3 March Abbas suspended all contact with Israel over its assault on Gaza as the Israeli government sent warplanes to hit more targets early on Monday and vowed to continue its offensive. The European Union condemned what it called "disproportionate use of force" by
7056-526: Is 11 kilometres (7 miles) long. The First Intifada was a sustained series of protests and violent riots carried out by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and Israel. It was motivated by collective Palestinian frustration over Israel's military occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as it approached a twenty-year mark, having begun after Israel's victory in
7252-740: Is 88%. Gaza has throughout the years been seen as a source of Palestinian nationalism and resistance. Historically part of the Palestine region , the area was controlled since the 16th century by the Ottoman Empire ; in 1906, the Ottomans and the British Empire set the region's international border with Egypt . With the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I and the subsequent partition of
7448-614: Is now Israel. They protested against Israel's land, air and sea blockade of the Gaza Strip and the United States recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel . Most of the demonstrators demonstrated peacefully far from the border fence. Peter Cammack, a fellow with the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace , argued that the march indicated a new trend in Palestinian society and Hamas, with
7644-486: The 1948 Arab–Israeli War . 654 Israeli and 19,085 Palestinian and Lebanese deaths in the 1982 Lebanon War in addition to 800–3,500 in the Sabra-Shatila massacre . 1,962 Palestinians and 179–200 Israeli deaths in the First Intifada . 1,010 Israelis and up to 3,354 Palestinian deaths in the Second Intifada . 402 Palestinians were killed in the 2006 Gaza–Israel conflict . 1,116 –1,417 Palestinian deaths in
7840-678: The 1948 Genocide Convention , but did not order Israel to suspend its military campaign. The war spilled over , with Israel engaging in clashes with local militias in the West Bank , Hezbollah in Lebanon and northern Israel, and other Iranian-backed militias in Syria. Iranian-backed militias also engaged in clashes with the United States, while the Houthis blockaded the Red Sea in protest, to which
8036-561: The 1967 Arab–Israeli War . The uprising lasted from December 1987 until the Madrid Conference of 1991 , though some date its conclusion to 1993, with the signing of the Oslo Accords . The intifada began on 9 December 1987, in the Jabalia refugee camp of the Gaza Strip after an Israeli army truck collided with a civilian car, killing four Palestinian workers. Palestinians charged that
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8232-927: The Al-Aqsa compound on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem ; the visit itself was peaceful, but, as anticipated, sparked protests and riots that Israeli police put down with rubber bullets and tear gas. The Second Intifada also marked the beginning of rocket attacks and bombings of Israeli border localities by Palestinian guerrillas from the Gaza Strip, especially by the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad movements. High numbers of casualties were caused among civilians as well as combatants. Israeli forces engaged in gunfire, targeted killings , and tank and aerial attacks, while Palestinians engaged in suicide bombings , gunfire, stone-throwing , and rocket attacks . Palestinian suicide bombings were
8428-612: The Arab League proclaimed the All-Palestine Government, partly to limit Transjordan 's influence over Palestine. The All-Palestine Protectorate was quickly recognized by six of the Arab League's then-seven members (excluding Transjordan): Egypt, Syria , Lebanon , Iraq , Saudi Arabia , and Yemen . After the cessation of hostilities, the Israel–Egypt Armistice Agreement of 24 February 1949 established
8624-473: The Battle of Gaza (2007) , Hamas took full control of the area. In 2007, Israel imposed a naval blockade on the Gaza Strip , and cooperation with Egypt allowed a ground blockade of the Egyptian border. The tensions between Israel and Hamas escalated until late 2008, when Israel launched operation Cast Lead upon Gaza, resulting in thousands of civilian casualties and billions of dollars in damage. By February 2009,
8820-739: The Coastal Road massacre led to the Israeli full-scale invasion known as Operation Litani . This operation sought to dislodge the PLO from Lebanon while expanding the area under the control of the Israeli allied Christian militias in southern Lebanon. The operation succeeded in leaving a large portion of the south in control of the Israeli proxy which would eventually form the South Lebanon Army . Under United States pressure, Israeli forces would eventually withdraw from Lebanon. In 1982, Israel, having secured its southern border with Egypt, sought to resolve
9016-659: The Declaration of Principles (or Oslo I) was signed and set forward a framework for future Israeli–Palestinian negotiations, in which key issues would be left to "final status" talks. The stipulations of the Oslo agreements ran contrary to the international consensus for resolving the conflict; the agreements did not uphold Palestinian self-determination or statehood and repealed the internationally accepted interpretation of UN Resolution 242 that land cannot be acquired by war. With respect to access to land and resources, Noam Chomsky described
9212-505: The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948, the Arab League decided to intervene on behalf of Palestinian Arabs, marching their forces into former British Palestine, beginning the main phase of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War . The overall fighting, leading to around 15,000 casualties, resulted in cease-fire and armistice agreements of 1949, with Israel holding much of
9408-626: The Egypt–Israel peace treaty . Among other things, the treaty provided for the withdrawal by Israel of its armed forces and civilians from the Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had captured during the Six-Day War. The Egyptians agreed to keep the Sinai Peninsula demilitarized. The final status of the Gaza Strip, and other relations between Israel and Palestinians, was not dealt with in the treaty. Egypt renounced all territorial claims to territory north of
9604-510: The Gaza War (2008–2009) . 2,125–2,310 Palestinian deaths in the 2014 Gaza War . 285 Palestinian and 17 Israeli deaths in the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis . The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing military and political conflict about land and self-determination within the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine . Key aspects of the conflict include the Israeli occupation of
9800-539: The Gulf of Aqaba . By the mid-1970s, the international community had converged on a framework to resolve the conflict. This included Israel's full withdrawal from the occupied territories in exchange for recognition by the Palestinians and other Arab nations, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza and a "just resolution" of the Palestinian refugee question. These principles, known as "land for peace" and Palestinian self-determination through
9996-498: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that began in mid-May 2007, with the inter-Palestinian violence flaring in the meantime. Palestinians fired more than 220 Qassam rocket attacks on Israel ( Sderot and the western Negev ) in more than a week. The Israeli Air Force fired missiles and bombs at the launching sites. The fighting came amid serious Palestinian factional violence and reports of growing level of humanitarian crisis in
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#173285168366710192-466: The Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and Israel. The general triggers for the unrest are speculated to have been centred on the failure of the 2000 Camp David Summit , which was expected to reach a final agreement on the Israeli–Palestinian peace process in July 2000. Outbreaks of violence began in September 2000, after Ariel Sharon , then the Israeli opposition leader , made a provocative visit to
10388-581: The Israel–Hamas war . Israel responded by bombing the Gaza Strip and launching an invasion that has killed more than 43,000 Gazans as of November 2024. Israel fought 6 wars with Gaza from 1947 to 1987. Israel occupied the Gaza Strip during the Suez Crisis in 1956. During this occupation, 930–1,200 Palestinians were killed, most notably in the Khan Younis massacre and Rafah massacre . In total, about 1% of
10584-687: The Jewish Agency's " 11 points in the Negev " plan, in which 11 Jewish villages were built across the Negev in a single night as a response to the Morrison-Grady Plan , which threatened to exclude the Negev from a future Jewish State. In total, between 1967 and 2005, Israel established 21 settlements in Gaza, comprising 20% of the total territory. The economic growth rate from 1967 to 1982 averaged roughly 9.7 percent per annum, due in good part to expanded income from work opportunities inside Israel, which had
10780-402: The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) signed a second agreement , extending the Palestinian Authority to most West Bank towns. Between 1994 and 1996, Israel built the Gaza–Israel barrier to improve security in Israel. The barrier was largely torn down by Palestinians at the beginning of the Second Intifada in September 2000. The Second Intifada was a major Palestinian uprising in
10976-401: The Palestine Liberation Organization led by Yasser Arafat strove to find a peaceful solution through what became known as the Oslo peace process. A crucial milestone in this process was Arafat's letter of recognition of Israel's right to exist. Emblematic of the asymmetry in the Oslo process, Israel was not required to, and did not, recognize the right of a Palestinian state to exist. In 1993,
11172-617: The Palestinian National Authority , citing the targeting of civilian infrastructure such as a power station and the captures of government and parliament members. Some 300 Palestinians had been targeted by the IDF in the Gaza Strip since the kidnapping of Corporal Gilad Shalit. In July 2006, first reports emerged about mystery injuries after Israeli attacks. Previously unseen injuries included severely damaged internal organs, severe internal burning and deep internal wounds often resulting in amputations or death. Bodies arrived severely fragmented, melted and disfigured. There were speculations about
11368-435: The Palestinian territories constitute one political unit and that Israel continues to illegally occupy the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The ICJ also determined that Israeli policies violate the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination . Since 2006, Hamas and Israel have fought five wars , the most recent of which began in 2023 and is ongoing. The Israeli–Palestinian conflict began in
11564-399: The Suez Crisis (1956), Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula were occupied by Israeli troops, who withdrew under international pressure. The All-Palestine government was accused of being little more than a façade for Egyptian control, with negligible independent funding or influence. It subsequently moved to Cairo and dissolved in 1959 by decree of Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser . During
11760-680: The United Nations , Human Rights Watch and many other international bodies and NGOs continue to consider Israel to be the occupying power of the Gaza Strip as Israel controls Gaza Strip's airspace, territorial waters and controls the movement of people or goods in or out of Gaza by air or sea. In 2006, Hamas won a plurality of 44% in the Palestinian parliamentary election . Israel responded it would begin economic sanctions unless Hamas agreed to accept prior Israeli–Palestinian agreements, forswear violence, and recognize Israel's right to exist, all of which Hamas rejected. After internal Palestinian political struggle between Fatah and Hamas erupted into
11956-400: The West Bank were controlled by Egypt and Jordan respectively. Since the 1967 Six Day War , Israel has been occupying the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, known collectively as the Palestinian territories . Two Palestinian uprisings against Israel and its occupation erupted in 1987 and 2000, the first and second intifadas respectively. Israel's occupation, which is now considered to be
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#173285168366712152-433: The longest military occupation in modern history, has seen it constructing illegal settlements there, creating a system of institutionalized discrimination against Palestinians under its occupation called Israeli apartheid . Israel has drawn international condemnation for violating the human rights of the Palestinians . The international community, with the exception of the US and Israel, has been in consensus since
12348-452: The occupation rather than seeking a permanent resolution to the conflict. In 2007, Israel tightened its blockade of the Gaza Strip and made official its policy of isolating it from the West Bank. Since then, Israel has framed its relationship with Gaza in terms of the laws of war rather than in terms of its status as an occupying power . In a July 2024 ruling , the International Court of Justice rebuffed Israel's stance, determining that
12544-857: The 1.5 million population of the Gaza Strip crossed the border into Egypt seeking food and supplies. On 27 February 2008, Palestinian militants fired more than 40 Qassam rockets into southern Israel and the Israeli army fired three missiles at the Palestinian Interior Ministry in Gaza destroying the building. On 28 February 2008, Israeli aircraft bombed a police station near the Gaza City home of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh , killing several children. The Israeli military says its air and ground operations against militants firing rockets from northern Gaza have hit at least 23 armed Palestinians, while Palestinian sources have reported higher death tolls and say many civilians have also been killed. Israel began its air and ground operations on 29 February. The IDF's offensive in Gaza has killed more than 100 Palestinians in less than
12740-439: The 1956 Suez Crisis (the Second Arab–Israeli war), Israel invaded Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula. On 3 November, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attacked Egyptian and Palestinian forces at Khan Yunis . The city of Khan Yunis resisted being captured, and Israel responded with a heavy bombing campaign that inflicted heavy civilian casualties. After a fierce battle, the Israeli 37th Armored Brigade's Sherman tanks broke through
12936-530: The 1967 Arab-Israeli War, "various international agencies struggled to respond" and American Near East Refugee Aid was founded to help victims of the conflict by providing immediate emergency relief. Subsequent to this military victory, Israel created the first Israeli settlement bloc in the Strip, Gush Katif , in the southwest corner near Rafah and the Egyptian border on a spot where a small kibbutz had previously existed for 18 months between 1946 and 1948. The kibbutz community had been established as part of
13132-454: The 1967 war. Ultimately, the Strip lost 25% (a conservative estimate) of its prewar population between 1967 and 1968. In 1970-1971 Ariel Sharon implemented what became known as a 'five finger' strategy, which consisted in creating military areas and settlements by breaking the Strip into five zones to better enable Israeli occupation, settlement and, by discontinuous fragmentation of the Palestinian zones created, allow an efficient management of
13328-428: The 1980s regarding a settlement of the conflict on the basis of a two-state solution along the 1967 borders and a just resolution for Palestinian refugees . The US and Israel have instead preferred bilateral negotiations rather than resolving the conflict on the basis of international law . In recent years, public support for a two-state solution has decreased, with Israeli policy reflecting an interest in maintaining
13524-408: The 2005 agreement with the Palestinian authority. Qassam rockets were fired regularly prior to the Israeli disengagement and the frequency of Qassam attacks increased after the Disengagement from Gaza. Palestinian militants have targeted a number of military bases and civilian towns in Southern Israel. Since 2001, Palestinian militants have launched thousands of rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from
13720-415: The 22-day war. The conflict damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of homes, 15 of Gaza's 27 hospitals and 43 of its 110 primary health care facilities, 800 water wells, 186 greenhouses, and nearly all of its 10,000 family farms; leaving 50,000 homeless, 400,000–500,000 without running water, one million without electricity, and resulting in acute food shortages. The people of Gaza still suffer from
13916-402: The 489 cases of Palestinian deaths or injuries analyzed, only two were possibly justified as responses to danger by Israeli security forces. The commission deemed the rest of the cases illegal, and concluded with a recommendation calling on Israel to examine whether war crimes or crimes against humanity had been committed, and if so, to bring those responsible to trial. On 28 February 2019,
14112-538: The Arab leadership ensued. With much of the leadership in exile and the economy severely weakened, the Palestinians would struggle to confront the Zionist movement which was growing in strength, with the support of the British. The cost and risks associated with the revolt and the ongoing inter-communal conflict led to a shift in British policies in the region and the appointment of the Peel Commission which recommended
14308-559: The British assisted by the British armed forces of the Jewish Settlement Police , the Jewish Supernumerary Police , and Special Night Squads . The suppression of the revolt would leave at least 10% of the adult male population killed, wounded, imprisoned or exiled. In the first wave of organized violence, lasting until early 1937, most of the Arab groups were defeated by the British, and forced expulsion of much of
14504-519: The Camp David summit, a narrative emerged, supported by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and his foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, as well as US officials including Dennis Ross and Madeleine Albright, that Yasser Arafat had rejected a generous peace offer from Israel and instead incited a violent uprising. This narrative suggested that Arafat was not interested in a two-state solution, but rather aimed to destroy Israel and take over all of Palestine. This view
14700-497: The Carter Institute), and an IDF official confirmed that fact to him. Hamas replied to the Israeli attack with a barrage of rocket fire. With this incursion into Gaza territory and its non-compliance with the easing of the embargo, Israel had failed to comply with two aspects of the June 2008 ceasefire. When the six-month truce officially expired on 19 December, Hamas launched 50 to more than 70 rockets and mortars into Israel over
14896-486: The Commission said it had " 'reasonable grounds' to believe Israeli soldiers may have committed war crimes and shot at journalists, health workers and children during protests in Gaza in 2018." Israel refused to take part in the inquiry and rejected the report. Before the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis , Gaza had 48% unemployment and half of the population lived in poverty. During the crisis, 66 children died (551 children in
15092-568: The Gaza Strip's southern border. Two other soldiers were wounded during the fighting which broke out east of the town of Khan Younis. They are the first Israeli soldiers to have been killed in hostile fire in or around Gaza since Israel's major offensive there in January 2009, according to the BBC. On 18 August 2011, a series of cross-border attacks was carried out in southern Israel near the Egyptian border, by
15288-538: The Gaza Strip, killing, injuring and traumatizing Israeli civilians. In July 2006, Israel briefly re-occupied parts of northern Gaza Strip and used the occupied areas as bases for raids into Jabalya and Beit Lahya . Hamas responded by launching rockets. When the Islamic party Hamas won the January 2006 Palestinian legislative election, gaining a majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council ,
15484-498: The Gaza Strip, targeting Hamas bases, police training camps, police headquarters and offices. Civilian infrastructure , including mosques , houses, medical facilities and schools, were also attacked, as Israel stated that many of them were used by combatants, and as storage spaces for weapons and rockets. Hamas intensified its rocket and mortar attacks against targets in Israel throughout the conflict, hitting previously untargeted cities such as Beersheba and Ashdod . On 3 January 2009,
15680-665: The Gaza Strip. By the end of the war, 25% of Mandatory Palestine's Arab population was in Gaza, though the Strip constituted only 1% of the land. The same year, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East ( UNRWA ) was established to administer various refugee programmes. On 22 September 1948 (near the end of the Arab–Israeli War), in the Egyptian-occupied Gaza City ,
15876-519: The Gaza Strip. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas responded by declaring a state of emergency , dissolving the unity government and forming a new government without Hamas participation. PNA security forces in the West Bank arrested a number of Hamas members. In late June 2008, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan declared the West Bank-based cabinet formed by Abbas as "the sole legitimate Palestinian government". Egypt moved its embassy from Gaza to
16072-492: The Gaza Strip. On 2 March, it was reported that international donors had pledged $ 4.5 billion in aid for the Palestinians, mainly for rebuilding Gaza after Israel's offensive. This war was considered to be the largest, most devastating and deadliest military operation in Gaza since the Six-day war in 1967 and until the 2023 Israel–Hamas war . On 26 March 2010, two Israeli soldiers and two Hamas militants were killed during clashes on
16268-504: The Gaza–Egypt border for fear of being kidnapped or harmed. Arab foreign ministers and Palestinian officials presented a united front against control of the border by Hamas. Meanwhile, Israeli and Egyptian security reports said that Hamas continued smuggling in large quantities of explosives and arms from Egypt through tunnels. Egyptian security forces uncovered 60 tunnels in 2007. On 23 January 2008, after months of preparation during which
16464-560: The IDF initiated Operation Brother's Keeper , in which some 350 Palestinians, including nearly all of the active Hamas militants in the West Bank, were arrested. Hamas subsequently fired a greater number of rockets into Israel from Gaza, triggering a seven-week-long conflict between the two sides. It was one of the deadliest outbreaks of open conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in decades. The combination of Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli airstrikes resulted in thousands of deaths,
16660-616: The Intifada to be a struggle of national liberation against Israeli occupation imposed on them following the 1967 War , whereas many Israelis considered it to be a terrorist campaign. Palestinian tactics ranged from carrying out mass protests and general strikes , as in the First Intifada , to mounting suicide bombing attacks and firing Qassam rockets into southeastern Israeli residential areas. Israeli tactics ranged from conducting mass arrests and locking up Palestinians in administrative detention to setting up checkpoints and building
16856-544: The Israeli Gaza Strip barrier and West Bank barrier to carrying out assassinations targeting militants and leaders of Palestinian organizations. After the 2006 Palestinian legislative election , Israel negotiated with Mahmoud Abbas and the PLO , but simultaneously targeted and bombed Hamas activists and militants and arrested Hamas's elected legislative council politicians. The death toll, both military and civilian, over
17052-423: The Israeli army which included air strikes against Hamas targets. In June 2007, internal fighting broke out between Hamas and Fatah, and Hamas fully consolidated its power by staging an armed coup d'état and taking control of the Gaza Strip. Following the internecine fighting that occurred between 7 and 15 June 2007, also known as the Battle of Gaza in which 118 Palestinians were killed and over 550 were wounded,
17248-472: The Israeli ground invasion began. During the war Hamas would execute many Palestinians and Fatah members during a period of political violence . Human rights groups and aid organisations have accused Hamas and Israel of war crimes . An estimated 1,166–1,417 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died in the conflict. The conflict came to an end on 18 January after first Israel and then Hamas announced unilateral ceasefires. On 21 January, Israel completed its withdrawal from
17444-558: The Israeli historian Benny Morris the idea of transfer was "inevitable and inbuilt into Zionism". The Arab population felt this threat as early as the 1880s with the arrival of the first aliyah. Chaim Weizmann 's efforts to build British support for the Zionist movement would eventually secure the Balfour Declaration , a public statement issued by the British government in 1917 during the First World War announcing support for
17640-407: The Israeli military in Gaza after 54 Palestinians were killed in the highest casualty toll for a single day since fighting erupted in 2000. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also issued a condemnation of what he termed Israel's "excessive and disproportionate" response, and called on Israel "to cease such attacks", while denouncing the ongoing rocket attacks on Sderot and Ashkelon . In
17836-418: The Israeli military was ending offensive operations there after five days. On 29 February 2008, the Israeli military launched Operation "Hot Winter" (also called Operation "Warm Winter") in response to Qassam rockets fired from the Strip by Hamas. The Israeli army killed 112 Palestinians, and Palestinian militants killed three Israelis. More than 150 Palestinians and seven Israelis have been injured. There
18032-624: The Italians and the Germans bomb Tel Aviv . By the end of World War II, a crisis over the fate of Holocaust survivors from Europe led to renewed tensions between the Yishuv and Mandate authorities. Increased illegal immigration from Jewish refugees, along with a paramilitary campaign of resistance against British authorities by Zionist militias , would effectively overturn the White Paper and eventually lead to
18228-461: The Jewish side, the civil war was managed by the major underground militias – the Haganah , Irgun and Lehi – strengthened by numerous Jewish veterans of World War II and foreign volunteers. By spring 1948, it was already clear that the Arab forces were nearing a total collapse, while Yishuv forces gained more and more territory, creating a large scale refugee problem of Palestinian Arabs. Following
18424-677: The Jordanian army during the War of Attrition , which included the Battle of Karameh . However, the Palestinian base in Jordan collapsed with the Jordanian–Palestinian civil war in 1970. The PLO defeat by the Jordanians caused most of the Palestinian militants to relocate to South Lebanon, where they soon took over large areas, creating the so-called "Fatahland". On 6 October 1973, a coalition of Arab forces consisting of mainly Egypt and Syria launched
18620-583: The Middle East, such as Sheikh Izaddin al-Qassam from Syria, who established the Black Hand militant group and had prepared the grounds for the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine . Following the death of al-Qassam at the hands of the British in late 1935, tensions erupted in 1936 into the Arab general strike and general boycott. The strike soon deteriorated into violence, and the Arab revolt was bloodily repressed by
18816-599: The Muslim world, demonstrators took to the streets to protest the IDF attacks. Iran 's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Muslims to rise up and their leaders to hit Israel "in the face with their nations' anger." In Lebanon , hundreds of Hezbollah supporters gathered at the Fatima Gate at the border between Lebanon and Israel, shouting " Death to Israel " and waving Lebanese and Palestinian flags. In Egypt , thousands of students held protests at universities across
19012-760: The Nashashibi clan and even the establishment of the Jewish–Arab Palestine Regiment under British command, fighting Germans in North Africa. The more radical exiled faction of al-Husseini, however, tended to cooperate with Nazi Germany, and participated in the establishment of a pro-Nazi propaganda machine throughout the Arab world. The defeat of Arab nationalists in Iraq and subsequent relocation of al-Husseini to Nazi-occupied Europe tied his hands regarding field operations in Palestine, though he regularly demanded that
19208-584: The Oslo Accords as legitimizing "the transformation of the West Bank into what has been called a 'cartographic cheeseboard'." Core to the Oslo Accords was the creation of the Palestinian Authority and the security cooperation it would enter into with the Israeli military authorities in what has been described as the "outsourcing" of the occupation to the PA. Just before signing the Oslo accord, Rabin described
19404-463: The Oslo Accords, a phased transfer of governmental authority to the Palestinians took place. Much of the Strip came under Palestinian control, except for the settlement blocs and military areas. The Israeli forces left Gaza City and other urban areas, leaving the new Palestinian Authority to administer and police those areas. The Palestinian Authority, led by Yasser Arafat , chose Gaza City as its first provincial headquarters. In September 1995, Israel and
19600-471: The Oslo agreements as allowing "Israel to do virtually what it likes." The Oslo process was delicate and progressed in fits and starts. The process took a turning point at the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in November 1995 and the election of Netanyahu in 1996, finally unraveling when Arafat and Ehud Barak failed to reach an agreement at Camp David in July 2000 and later at Taba in 2001. The interim period specified by Oslo had not built confidence between
19796-501: The Ottoman Empire , the British deferred the governance of the Gaza Strip area to Egypt, which declined the responsibility. Britain itself kept and ruled the territory it occupied in 1917–18, from 1920 until 1948 under the internationally accepted frame of " Mandatory Palestine ". During the 1948 Palestine war and more specifically the 1948 Arab–Israeli War , tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees fled or were expelled to
19992-470: The PLO as a mistake that threatened the existing territorial status quo. He argued that negotiating with the PLO meant accepting the existence of a Palestinian state and hence was unacceptable. The term "peace process" refers to the step-by-step approach to resolving the conflict. Having originally entered into usage to describe the US mediated negotiations between Israel and surrounding Arab countries, notably Egypt,
20188-411: The PLO had now been met. Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir stood behind the stance that the PLO was a terrorist organization. He maintained a strict stance against any concessions, including withdrawal from occupied Palestinian territories, recognition of or negotiations with the PLO, and especially the establishment of a Palestinian state. Shamir viewed the U.S. decision to engage in dialogue with
20384-445: The Palestinian Authority , although some aid money was redirected to humanitarian organizations not affiliated with the government. The resulting political disorder and economic stagnation led to many Palestinians emigrating from the Gaza Strip. In January 2007, fighting erupted between Hamas and Fatah . The deadliest clashes occurred in the northern Gaza Strip. On 30 January 2007, a truce was negotiated between Fatah and Hamas. After
20580-515: The Palestinian Entity ("The Need for Separation: Israel and the Palestinian Authority"), reviews new and existing arguments underlying different separation stances, in order to make the case for separation from the Palestinians , beginning with those in the West Bank and Gaza. Schueftan favors the "hard separation" stances of politicians like Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak . Yitzhak Rabin
20776-466: The Palestinian deliberate attacks against civilians violated international humanitarian law. Because Hamas exercised power inside Gaza, it was responsible for stopping unlawful attacks even when carried out by other groups. Large-scale conventional warfare beyond the peripheries of the Gaza Strip began when Palestinian militants abducted Corporal Gilad Shalit, and Israel responded by launching Operation "Summer Rains" on 28 June 2006. The operation became
20972-457: The Palestinian issue by attempting to dismantle the military and political power of the PLO in Lebanon. The goal was to establish a friendly regime in Lebanon and continue its policy of settlement and annexation in occupied Palestine. The PLO had observed the latest ceasefire with Israel and shown a preference for negotiations over military operations. As a result, Israel sought to remove the PLO as
21168-533: The Palestinian side, over 1,300 Qassam rockets have been fired into Israel from September 2000 to 21 December 2006. Israeli forces also continued to search for tunnels, used by militants to smuggle weapons, as well as monitor operations at checkpoints (with some assistance from the European Union at Rafah ) for security reasons, specifically possible weapons transfers and uninhibited return of exiled extremist leaders and terrorists. As of 18 October 2006, Israel has discovered 20 tunnels used for illegal arms smuggling under
21364-446: The Palestinian territories, despite the PA upholding its obligation to curbing violent attacks from extremist groups, in part by cooperating with Israeli forces. Meron Benvenisti , former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, observed that life became harsher for Palestinians during this period as state violence increased and Palestinian land continued to be expropriated as settlements expanded. Israeli foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami described
21560-416: The Six-Day War, IDF captured Gaza. Under the then head of Israel's Southern Command Ariel Sharon , dozens of Palestinians, suspected of being members of the resistance, were executed without trial. Between 1967 and 1968, Israel evicted approximately 75,000 residents of the Gaza Strip who Golda Meir described as a "fifth column". In addition, at least 25,000 Gazan residents were prevented from returning after
21756-538: The Strip, but instead treated it as a controlled territory and administered it through a military governor. The influx of over 200,000 refugees from former Mandatory Palestine, roughly a quarter of those who fled or were expelled from their homes during, and in the aftermath of, the 1948 Arab–Israeli War into Gaza resulted in a dramatic decrease in the standard of living. Because the Egyptian government restricted movement to and from Gaza, its inhabitants could not look elsewhere for gainful employment. In June 1967, during
21952-555: The Temple Mount or any core East Jerusalem neighbourhoods, and continued Israel control over the Jordan Valley. Arafat rejected this offer, which Palestinian negotiators, Israeli analysts and Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami described as "unacceptable". According to the Palestinian negotiators the offer did not remove many of the elements of the Israeli occupation regarding land, security, settlements, and Jerusalem. After
22148-644: The Temple Mount/Noble sanctuary, while the Israelis would have sovereignty over the Western Wall. On refugees the plan suggested a number of proposals including financial compensation, the right of return to the Palestinian state, and Israeli acknowledgment of suffering caused to the Palestinians in 1948. Security proposals referred to a "non-militarized" Palestinian state, and an international force for border security. Both sides accepted Clinton's plan and it became
22344-414: The UN was upgraded to a non-member observer state, and its mission title was changed from "Palestine (represented by PLO)" to " State of Palestine ". In 2014, another war broke out between Israel and Gaza, resulting in over 70 Israeli and over 2,000 Palestinian casualties. After the 2014 war and 2021 crisis , Hamas began planning an attack on Israel. In 2022, Netanyahu returned to power while headlining
22540-465: The United States responded with airstrikes in Yemen , Iraq, and Syria . The PLO's participation in diplomatic negotiations was dependent on its complete disavowal of terrorism and recognition of Israel's "right to exist." This stipulation required the PLO to abandon its objective of reclaiming all of historic Palestine and instead focus on the 22 percent which came under Israeli military control in 1967. By
22736-633: The West Bank and Gaza Strip , the status of Jerusalem , Israeli settlements , borders, security, water rights, the permit regime , Palestinian freedom of movement , and the Palestinian right of return . The conflict has its origins in the rise of Zionism in Europe and the consequent first arrival of Jewish settlers to Ottoman Palestine in 1882. The local Arab population increasingly began to oppose Zionism, primarily out of fear of territorial displacement and dispossession. The Zionist movement garnered
22932-478: The West Bank after having already given up 78% of historic Palestine. Thus, an Israeli offer of 91 percent of the West Bank (5,538 km of the West Bank translates into only 86 percent from the Palestinian perspective), including Arab parts of East Jerusalem and the entire Gaza Strip, as well as a stipulation that 69 Jewish settlements (which comprise 85% of the West Bank's Jewish settlers) would be ceded to Israel, no right of return to Israel, no sovereignty over
23128-502: The West Bank and Gaza Strip. These contrasted with civil efforts including general strikes , boycotts of Israeli Civil Administration institutions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, an economic boycott consisting of refusal to work in Israeli settlements on Israeli products, refusal to pay taxes, and refusal to drive Palestinian cars with Israeli licenses. In May 1994, following the Palestinian-Israeli agreements known as
23324-421: The West Bank. Saudi Arabia and Egypt supported reconciliation and a new unity government and pressed Abbas to start talks with Hamas. Abbas had always conditioned this on Hamas returning control of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority. After the takeover, Israel and Egypt closed their border crossings with Gaza . Palestinian sources reported that European Union monitors fled the Rafah Border Crossing , on
23520-543: The Wye as having successfully reduced both violent and non-violent protests, both of which he considers to be "inconsistent with the spirit of Wye." Watson claims that the PA frequently violated its obligations to curb incitement and its record on curbing terrorism and other security obligations under the Wye River Memorandum was, at best, mixed. In 1993, Israeli officials led by Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leaders from
23716-470: The Zionist movement. The renewed violence, which continued sporadically until the beginning of World War II, ended with around 5,000 causualties on the Arab side and 700 combined on the British and Jewish side total. With the eruption of World War II , the situation in Mandatory Palestine calmed down. It allowed a shift towards a more moderate stance among Palestinian Arabs under the leadership of
23912-449: The age of 18. Sunni Muslims make up most of Gaza's population, with a Palestinian Christian minority. Gaza has an annual population growth rate of 1.99% (2023 est.), the 39th-highest in the world. Gaza's unemployment rate is among the highest in the world, with an overall unemployment rate of 46% and a youth unemployment rate of 70%. Despite this, the area's 97% literacy rate is higher than that of nearby Egypt , while youth literacy
24108-471: The annexation of the West Bank into Greater Israel. While the PLO had adopted a program of pursuing a Palestinian state alongside Israel since the mid-1970s, the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence formally consecrated this objective. This declaration, which was based on resolutions from the Palestine National Council sessions in the late 1970s and 1980s, advocated for the creation of
24304-466: The area. Thousands of homes were bulldozed and large numbers of Bedouin families were exiled to the Sinai. Between 1973 (after the Yom Kippur War ) and 1987, official policy on economic development in the Gaza Strip remained the same as in 1969 with limited local investment and economic opportunity coming primarily from employment in Israel. According to Tom Segev , moving the Palestinians out of
24500-439: The arrival of more ideologically Zionist immigrants in the decade preceding the First World War that the landscape of Ottoman Palestine would start to significantly change. Land purchases, the eviction of tenant Arab peasants and armed confrontation with Jewish para-military units would all contribute to the Palestinian population's growing fear of territorial displacement and dispossession. This fear would gradually be replaced by
24696-530: The attack was a response to Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel, which totaled over 3,000 in 2008 , and which intensified during the few weeks preceding the operation. Israel advised people near military targets to leave before the attacks. Israeli defense sources said that Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the IDF to prepare for the operation six months before it began, using long-term planning and intelligence-gathering. A total of 1,100–1,400 Palestinians (295–926 civilians) and 13 Israelis were killed in
24892-515: The basis for the negotiations at the Taba Peace summit the following January. Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip ( / ˈ ɡ ɑː z ə / ; Arabic : قِطَاعُ غَزَّةَ Qiṭāʿ Ġazzah [qɪˈtˤɑːʕ ˈɣaz.za] ), also known simply as Gaza , is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea ; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories ,
25088-423: The blockade. Israel has justified its blockade on the strip with wanting to stop flow of arms, but Palestinians and rights groups say it amounts to collective punishment and exacerbates dire living conditions. Prior to the Israel–Hamas war , Hamas had said that it did not want a military escalation in Gaza partially to prevent exacerbating the humanitarian crisis after the 2021 conflict. A tightened blockade since
25284-437: The border of the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Israel had said it would withdraw from the Strip and end the operation as soon as Shalit was released. The Palestinians had said that they were willing to return Shalit in exchange for the release of some of the Palestinians held in Israeli jails. The Palestinians and others have also said the assault was aimed at toppling the democratically elected Hamas -led government and at destabilizing
25480-868: The border. Egypt arrested and later released several armed Hamas militants in the Sinai who presumably wanted to infiltrate into Israel. At the same time, Israel increased its state of alert along the length of the Israel–Egypt Sinai border, and warned its citizens to leave Sinai "without delay." In February 2008, the Israel–Gaza conflict intensified, with rockets launched at Israeli cities. Aggression by Hamas led to Israeli military action on 1 March 2008, resulting in over 110 Palestinians being killed according to BBC News, as well as 2 Israeli soldiers. Israeli human rights group B'Tselem estimated that 45 of those killed were not involved in hostilities, and 15 were minors. On 27 December 2008, Israeli F-16 fighters launched
25676-433: The brink of collapse". On 4 November 2008 Israel broke the ceasefire with an attack on Gaza. The Israeli military claimed the target of the raid was a tunnel that they said Hamas was planning to use to capture Israeli soldiers positioned on the border fence 250m away. Hamas officials differed, however, claiming that the tunnel was being dug for defensive purposes, not to capture IDF personnel, according to Dr Robert Pastor (of
25872-402: The collapse of the summit. In the months following the summit, Clinton appointed former US Senator George J. Mitchell to lead a fact-finding committee aiming to identify strategies for restoring the peace process. The committee's findings were published in 2001 with the dismantlement of existing Israeli settlements and Palestinian crackdown on militant activity being one strategy. Following
26068-432: The collision was a deliberate response for the killing of an Israeli in Gaza days earlier. Israel denied that the crash, which came at time of heightened tensions, was intentional or coordinated. The Palestinian response was characterized by protests, civil disobedience , and violence. There was graffiti , barricading , and widespread throwing of stones and Molotov cocktails at the IDF and its infrastructure within
26264-456: The conflict between Israel and Gaza intensified. Israel sealed its border with the Gaza Strip, largely preventing the free flow of people and many imports and exports. Palestinians shot Qassam rockets at Israeli settlements located near the Gaza borders, and staged cross-border raids aimed at killing or capturing Israeli soldiers. In one such raid, on 25 June 2006, Palestinians captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit , leading to massive retaliation by
26460-592: The conflict re-erupted as the Second Intifada in September 2000. The violence, escalating into an open conflict between the Palestinian National Security Forces and the Israel Defense Forces , lasted until 2004/2005 and led to approximately 130 fatalities . In 2005, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon ordered the removal of Israeli settlers and soldiers from Gaza . Israel and its Supreme Court formally declared an end to occupation, saying it "had no effective control over what occurred" in Gaza. However,
26656-451: The country calling on Arab leaders to stop Israeli aggression and support the Palestinians. Some protesters burned Israeli and American flags. About 10,000 protesters, mainly from Jordan's mainstream Muslim Brotherhood and smaller opposition groups, took to the streets in one of the country's most vocal and largest anti-Israeli demonstrations in recent years. Saudi Arabia meanwhile compared the IDF offensive to "Nazi war crimes" and called on
26852-608: The country had been a persistent element of Zionist thinking from early times. In December 1967, during a meeting at which the Security Cabinet brainstormed about what to do with the Arab population of the newly occupied territories, one of the suggestions Prime Minister Levi Eshkol proffered regarding Gaza was that the people might leave if Israel restricted their access to water supplies. A number of measures, including financial incentives, were taken shortly afterwards to begin to encourage Gazans to emigrate elsewhere. Following
27048-557: The death toll of all other wars in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict combined. Israel fought three wars in the Egyptian-administered Gaza Strip: 1948 Palestine War , the first occupation of Gaza during the Suez Crisis , and the capture of Gaza in 1967 . During the first occupation, 1% of Gaza Strip's population was either killed, tortured or imprisoned by Israel. Following two periods of low-level insurgencies,
27244-563: The end of the Fatah-Hamas coalition government , and possibly the end of the Palestinian authority. Hamas spokesman Mousa Abu Marzook blamed the conflict between Hamas and Fatah on Israel, stating that the constant pressure of economic sanctions resulted in the "real explosion." From 2006 to 2007 more than 600 Palestinians were killed in fighting between Hamas and Fatah. 349 Palestinians were killed in fighting between factions in 2007. 160 Palestinians killed each other in June alone. Following
27440-512: The end of the first world war would allow for large-scale Jewish immigration. This would be accompanied by the development of a separate Jewish controlled sector of the economy which was supported with large amounts of capital from abroad. The more ardent Zionist ideologues of the Second Aliyah would become the leaders of the Yishuv starting in the 1920s and believed in the separation of Jewish and Arab economies and societies. During this period,
27636-645: The end of the war, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 338, which confirmed the land-for-peace principle established in Resolution 242, initiating the Middle East peace process. The Arab defeat would play an important role in the PLO's willingness to pursue a negotiated settlement to the conflict. Additionally, many Israelis began to believe that the area under Israeli occupation could not be held indefinitely by force. The Camp David Accords, agreed upon by Israel and Egypt in 1978, primarily aimed to establish
27832-818: The entire Gaza Strip came under full control of a Hamas government. As a response to the Hamas takeover, Israel sharply restricted the flow of people and goods into and out of Gaza. About 70% of Gaza's workforce became unemployed or without pay, and about 80% of its residents lived in poverty. Since Hamas' takeover, Palestinian armed groups in Gaza and Israel continued to clash. Palestinian armed groups fired rockets into Israel, killing Israeli civilians, including children, and wounding others, as well as causing damage to infrastructure; and Israel launched attacks and shelled Gaza with artillery, killing Palestinian combatants as well as civilians, including children, and causing devastating damage to infrastructure. According to Human Rights Watch ,
28028-505: The entire period in question (2000–2007) is estimated to be over 4,300 Palestinians and over 1,000 Israelis; 64 foreign citizens were also killed (54 by Palestinians, and 10 by Israeli security forces). Israel implemented its Disengagement Plan in August–September 2005, withdrawing its civilian and military presence from the Gaza Strip, and retaining control over the Gaza airspace, maritime access and borders even with Egypt according to
28224-517: The establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine. Weizmann would take on a maximalist interpretation of the declaration, in which negotiations on the future of the country were to happen directly between Britain and the Jews, excluding Arab representation. At the Paris Peace Conference , he would later famously share his interpretation of the declaration in his announcement of
28420-411: The establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and 94–96 percent of the West Bank plus the equivalent of 1–3 percent of the West Bank in land swaps from pre-1967 Israel. On Jerusalem, the plan stated that "the general principle is that Arab areas are Palestinian and that Jewish areas are Israeli." The holy sites were to be split on the basis that Palestinians would have sovereignty over
28616-635: The exclusionary nationalist ethos would grow to overpower the socialist ideals that the Second Aliyah had arrived with. Amin al-Husseini, the leader of the Palestinian Arab national movement, immediately marked Jewish national movement and Jewish immigration to Palestine as the sole enemy to his cause, initiating large-scale riots against the Jews as early as 1920 in Jerusalem and in 1921 in Jaffa . Among
28812-478: The expectation that the "Palestinians will be better at establishing internal security than we were, because they will allow no appeals to the Sepreme Court and will prevent [human rights groups] from criticizing the conditions there." Along these lines, Ben-Ami, who participated in the Camp David 2000 talks, described this process: "One of the meanings of Oslo was that the PLO was eventually Israel's collaborator in
29008-475: The factions. Interior Minister Hani Qawasmi , who had been considered a moderate civil servant acceptable to both factions, resigned due to what he termed harmful behavior by both sides. Fighting spread in the Gaza Strip, with both factions attacking vehicles and facilities of the other side. Following a breakdown in an Egyptian-brokered truce, Israel launched an air strike which destroyed a building used by Hamas. Ongoing violence prompted fear that it could bring
29204-447: The failed summit Palestinian and Israeli negotiators continued to meet in small groups through August and September 2000 to try to bridge the gaps between their respective positions. The United States prepared its own plan to resolve the outstanding issues. Clinton's presentation of the US proposals was delayed by the advent of the Second Intifada at the end of September. Clinton's plan, eventually presented on 23 December 2000, proposed
29400-405: The first major mobilization within the Gaza Strip since Israel unilaterally disengaged from the region between August and September 2005. The Gaza beach blast was an event on 9 June 2006 in which eight Palestinians were killed – including nearly the entire family of seven-year-old Huda Ghaliya – and at least thirty others were injured in an explosion on a beach near
29596-506: The former Mandate territory, Jordan occupying and later annexing the West Bank and Egypt taking over the Gaza Strip, where the All-Palestine Government was declared by the Arab League on 22 September 1948. Through the 1950s, Jordan and Egypt supported the Palestinian Fedayeen militants' cross-border attacks into Israel, while Israel carried out its own reprisal operations in the host countries. The 1956 Suez Crisis resulted in
29792-489: The goal "[t]o make Palestine as Jewish as England is English." Partially in response to the Zionist movement, a Palestinian national movement would develop more concretely in the interwar period. The years that followed would see Jewish-Palestinian relations deteriorate dramatically. With the commitment to establishing a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, the creation of the British Mandate in Palestine after
29988-459: The heavily fortified lines outside of Khan Yunis held by the 86th Palestinian Brigade. After some street-fighting with Egyptian soldiers and Palestinian fedayeen , Khan Yunis fell to the Israelis. Upon capturing Khan Yunis, the IDF committed an alleged massacre . Israeli troops started executing unarmed Palestinians, mostly civilians; in one instance men were lined up against walls in central square and executed with machine guns . The claims of
30184-462: The international border. The Gaza Strip remained under Israeli military administration. The Israeli military became responsible for the maintenance of civil facilities and services. After the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty, a 100-meter-wide buffer zone between Gaza and Egypt known as the Philadelphi Route was established. The international border along the Philadelphi corridor between Egypt and Gaza
30380-405: The international community to stop what it called the "mass killings" of Palestinians. Turkey 's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the IDF attacks can have "no humanitarian justification" and added that Israel was rejecting a "diplomatic solution" to the dispute. Most Israeli tanks and troops pulled out of northern Gaza 3 March 2008, and an Israel Defense Forces spokesman confirmed that
30576-408: The late 1970s, Palestinian leadership in the occupied territories and most Arab states supported a two-state settlement. In 1981, Saudi Arabia put forward a plan based on a two-state settlement to the conflict with support from the Arab League. Israeli analyst Avner Yaniv describes Arafat as ready to make a historic compromise at this time, while the Israeli cabinet continued to oppose the existence of
30772-409: The late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the development of political Zionism and the arrival of Zionist settlers to Palestine. The modern political Zionist movement, with the goal of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine , grew out of the last two decades of the 19th century, largely in response to antisemitism in Europe. While Jewish colonization began during this period , it was not until
30968-411: The line of separation between Egyptian and Israeli forces, as well as the modern boundary between Gaza and Israel, which both signatories declared not to be an international border. The southern border with Egypt was unchanged. Palestinians living in Gaza or Egypt were issued All-Palestine passports. Egypt did not offer them citizenship. From the end of 1949, they received aid directly from UNRWA. During
31164-528: The lines discussed in Madrid in 1991 have never taken place. The Oslo Accords of 1993 and 1995 built on the incremental framework put in place by the 1978 Camp David negotiations and the 1991 Madrid and Washington talks. The motivation behind the incremental approach towards a settlement was that it would "build confidence", but the eventual outcome was instead a dramatic decline in mutual confidence. At each incremental stage, Israel further entrenched its occupation of
31360-453: The loss of these facilities and homes, especially since they have great challenges to rebuild them. On 5 June 2014, Fatah signed a unity agreement with the Hamas political party. The 2014 Gaza War , also known as Operation Protective Edge, was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip. Following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank by Hamas-affiliated Palestinian militants,
31556-533: The media in the region since the 2008–09 Operation "Cast Lead" (the Gaza War). Israeli%E2%80%93Palestinian conflict [REDACTED] Palestinians : 1948: 1949–1956: 1964–2005: 2006–present: More than 700,000 Palestinians displaced with a further 413,000 Palestinians displaced in the Six-Day War ; 2,000+ Jews displaced in 1948 6,373 Israeli and 13,000–16,000 Palestinian deaths in
31752-532: The municipality of Beit Lahia in the Gaza Strip. The incident received considerable attention from news media worldwide, with blame for the explosion hotly disputed in the following weeks. Israel maintains that it mobilized thousands of troops in order to suppress Qassam rocket fire against its civilian population and to secure the release of Gilad Shalit. It is estimated that between 7,000 and 9,000 Israeli artillery shells were fired into Gaza between September 2005 and June 2006, killing 80 Palestinians in 6 months. On
31948-473: The next three days, though no Israelis were injured. On 21 December, Hamas said it was ready to stop the attacks and renew the truce if Israel stopped its "aggression" in Gaza and opened up its border crossings. On 27 and 28 December, Israel implemented Operation Cast Lead against Hamas. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said "We warned Hamas repeatedly that rejecting the truce would push Israel to aggression against Gaza." The Gaza War started when Israel launched
32144-555: The occupation in March 1957, amid international pressure. During the four-month Israeli occupation, 900–1,231 people were killed. According to French historian Jean-Pierre Filiu , 1% of the population of Gaza was killed, wounded, imprisoned or tortured during the occupation. After the dissolution of the All-Palestine Government in 1959, under the excuse of pan-Arabism, Egypt continued to occupy Gaza until 1967. Egypt never annexed
32340-457: The other being the West Bank , that make up the State of Palestine . Inhabited by mostly Palestinian refugees and their descendants , Gaza is one of the most densely populated territories in the world . Gaza is bordered by Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the east and north. The territory has been under Israeli occupation since 1967 . The territorial boundaries were established while Gaza
32536-478: The partitioning of Palestine. The two main Zionist leaders, Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion , accepted the recommendations on the basis that it would allow for further expansion, but some secondary Zionist leaders disapproved of it. The subsequent publication of the White Paper of 1939 , which sought to limit Jewish immigration to the region, was the breaking point in relations between British authorities and
32732-443: The population of the Gaza Strip was either killed, wounded, tortured or imprisoned by Israel. In 1957, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip after American pressure. In the 1967 war , Israel occupied Gaza Strip, along with Sinai, Golan Heights and the West Bank. During the war, and shortly after, between 40,000 and 45,000 civilians fled or were expelled from the Gaza Strip. Many Palestinian civilians were killed as they fled. On 11 June,
32928-533: The proposal on the table: "The Clinton parameters... are the best proof that Arafat was right to turn down the summit's offers". In July 2000, US President Bill Clinton convened a peace summit between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Barak reportedly put forward the following as "bases for negotiation", via the US to the Palestinian President: a non-militarized Palestinian state split into 3–4 parts containing 87–92% of
33124-407: The region. Hamas said they will continue to retaliate against Israeli strikes. In September 2007, Israel declared Gaza "hostile territory." Historian Jean-Pierre Filiu finds this assertion "absurd", given that up to this point Israel had already fought 9 wars against Gaza. The declaration allowed Israel to prevent the transfer of electricity, fuel, and other supplies into Gaza. Hamas considered this
33320-454: The results of the violence was the establishment of the Jewish paramilitary force Haganah . In 1929, a series of violent riots resulted in the deaths of 133 Jews and 116 Arabs, with significant Jewish casualties in Hebron and Safed , and the evacuation of Jews from Hebron and Gaza. In the early 1930s, the Arab national struggle in Palestine had drawn many Arab nationalist militants from across
33516-684: The specifics of the Palestinian-autonomy accords were disputed among the signatories and other Arab groups, and were never implemented. Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon peaked in the early 1970s, as Lebanon was used as a base to launch attacks on northern Israel and airplane hijacking campaigns worldwide, which drew Israeli retaliation. During the Lebanese Civil War , Palestinian militants continued to launch attacks against Israel while also battling opponents within Lebanon. In 1978,
33712-489: The start of the Israel–Hamas war has contributed to an ongoing famine . The Gaza Strip is 41 kilometres (25 miles) long, from 6 to 12 km (3.7 to 7.5 mi) wide, and has a total area of 365 km (141 sq mi). With around 2 million Palestinians on approximately 365 km (141 sq mi) of land, Gaza has one of the world's highest population densities . More than 70% of Gaza's population are Palestinian refugees , half of whom are under
33908-401: The steel reinforcement of the border barrier was weakened, Hamas destroyed several parts of the wall dividing Gaza and Egypt in the town of Rafah . Hundreds of thousands of Gazans crossed the border into Egypt seeking food and supplies. Due to the crisis, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ordered his troops to allow the Palestinians in but to verify that they did not bring weapons back across
34104-449: The success of the Egyptian–Israeli peace treaty of 1982. Eventually the Israeli–Palestinian peace process led to the Oslo Accords of 1993, allowing the PLO to relocate from Tunisia and take ground in the West Bank and Gaza Strip , establishing the Palestinian National Authority . The peace process also had significant opposition among elements of Palestinian society, such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who immediately initiated
34300-530: The support of an imperial power in the 1917 Balfour Declaration issued by Britain, which promised to support the creation of a " Jewish homeland " in Palestine . Following British occupation of the formerly Ottoman region during World War I , Mandatory Palestine was established as a British mandate . Increasing Jewish immigration led to tensions between Jews and Arabs which grew into intercommunal conflict . In 1936, an Arab revolt erupted demanding independence and an end to British support for Zionism, which
34496-402: The task of stifling the Intifada and cutting short what was clearly an authentically democratic struggle for Palestinian independence." The Wye River Memorandum agreed on by the PA and Israel introduced a "zero tolerance" policy for "terror and violence." This policy was uniformly criticised by human rights organizations for its "encouragement" of human rights abuses. Dennis Ross describes
34692-400: The term "peace-process" has grown to be associated with an emphasis on the negotiation process rather than on presenting a comprehensive solution to the conflict. As part of this process, fundamental issues of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict such as borders, access to resources, and the Palestinian right of return, have been left to "final status" talks. Such "final status" negotiations along
34888-559: The transfer of all goods that were banned and restricted to go into Gaza" within 13 days after the beginning of the ceasefire. The increase in supplies of food, water, medicine and fuel did improve, but the increase was only to an average of about 20 percent of normal levels, compared to the Hamas compliance in reducing rocket fire by 98%. Two months later the volume of goods arriving was too low to significantly improve living conditions, preventing UNRWA from replenishing its stores. Israel told U.S. officials in 2008 it would keep Gaza's economy "on
35084-405: The truce over 60 Qassam rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel, and 1 Palestinian (armed with guns and grenades) was killed by the IDF. On 19 December, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad began taking open responsibility for the Qassam rocket firing, because they said Israel killed two of their members in Jenin . A series of battles between Palestinian militants in Hamas-governed Gaza and
35280-430: The two parties; Barak had failed to implement additional stages of the interim agreements and settlements expanded by 10% during his short term. The disagreement between the two parties at Camp David was primarily on the acceptance (or rejection) of international consensus. For Palestinian negotiators, the international consensus, as represented by the yearly vote in the UN General Assembly which passes almost unanimously,
35476-452: The vast majority of which were Gazan Palestinians. In 2018–2019, a series of protests , also known as the Great March of Return, were held each Friday in the Gaza Strip near the Israel–Gaza barrier from 30 March 2018 until 27 December 2019, during which a total of 223 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces. The demonstrators demanded that the Palestinian refugees must be allowed to return to lands they were displaced from in what
35672-410: The victory of Hamas in the 2006 Palestinian legislative election , Hamas and Fatah formed the Palestinian authority national unity government headed by Ismail Haniyeh . Shortly after, Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in the course of the Battle of Gaza (June 2007), seizing government institutions and replacing Fatah and other government officials with its own. By 14 June, Hamas fully controlled
35868-403: The withdrawal of the British. On 29 November 1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted Resolution 181(II) recommending the adoption and implementation of a plan to partition Palestine into an Arab state, a Jewish state and the City of Jerusalem. Palestinian Arabs were opposed to the partition. Zionists accepted the partition but planned to expand Israel's borders beyond what
36064-447: Was allocated to it by the UN. On the next day, Palestine was swept by violence. For four months, under continuous Arab provocation and attack, the Yishuv was usually on the defensive while occasionally retaliating. The Arab League supported the Arab struggle by forming the volunteer-based Arab Liberation Army , supporting the Palestinian Arab Army of the Holy War , under the leadership of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni and Hasan Salama . On
36260-492: Was an Egyptian -brokered six-month Tahdia (an Arabic term for a lull) "for the Gaza area", which went into effect between Hamas and Israel on 19 June 2008. Hamas' obligation was to stop the rocket attacks on Israel. During the initial 5-months of the ceasefire, and after a shaky start during the initial week, these attacks from Gaza decreased significantly for a total of 19 rocket and 18 mortar shell launchings, compared to 1,199 rockets and 1,072 mortar shells in 2008 up to 19 June,
36456-425: Was controlled by Egypt at the conclusion of the 1948 Arab–Israeli war , and it became a refuge for Palestinians who fled or were expelled during the 1948 Palestine war . Later, during the 1967 Six-Day War , Israel captured and occupied the Gaza Strip, initiating its decades-long military occupation of the Palestinian territories . The mid-1990s Oslo Accords established the Palestinian Authority (PA) as
36652-472: Was left under the control of the Palestinian Authority . In the Palestinian parliamentary elections held on 25 January 2006, Hamas won a plurality of 42.9% of the total vote and 74 out of 132 total seats (56%). When Hamas assumed power the next month, Israel, the United States, the EU, Russia and the UN demanded that Hamas accept all previous agreements, recognize Israel's right to exist, and renounce violence; when Hamas refused, they cut off direct aid to
36848-465: Was prohibited except through Israeli marketing vehicles, in order to assist Israeli citrus exports to the same markets. The overall result was that large numbers of farmers were forced out of the agricultural sector. Israel placed quotas on all goods exported from Gaza, while abolishing restrictions on the flow of Israeli goods into the Strip. Sara Roy characterised the pattern as one of structural de-development. On 26 March 1979, Israel and Egypt signed
37044-466: Was proposed after Israel invaded the Gaza Strip in Operation "Autumn Clouds" by Spanish Premier José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero during talks with French president Jacques Chirac . Italy's prime minister Romano Prodi gave his full support to the plan. On 26 November, a ceasefire was signed by Palestinian organisations and Israel, and Israel withdrew its troops while the Palestinian Authority forces deployed to stop Qassam rocket launchings. Following
37240-585: Was reconstructed. A barrier on the Gaza Strip-Egypt border was constructed starting in 2004. The main crossing points are the northern Erez Crossing into Israel and the southern Rafah Crossing into Egypt. The eastern Karni Crossing used for cargo, closed down in 2011. Israel controls the Gaza Strip's northern borders, as well as its territorial waters and airspace. Egypt controls Gaza Strip's southern border, under an agreement between it and Israel. Neither Israel or Egypt permits free travel from Gaza as both borders are heavily militarily fortified. "Egypt maintains
37436-409: Was suppressed by the British. Eventually tensions led to the UN adopting a partition plan in 1947, triggering a civil war . During the ensuing 1948 Palestine war , more than half of the mandate's predominantly Palestinian Arab population fled or were expelled by Israeli forces. By the end of the war, Israel was established on most of the former mandate's territory, and the Gaza Strip and
37632-410: Was the first to propose the creation of a physical barrier between the Israeli and Palestinian populations in 1992, and by 1994, construction on the first barrier – the Israel–Gaza barrier – had begun; it is actually a wire fence equipped with sensors. Following an attack on Bet Lid, near the city of Netanya , Rabin specified the objectives behind the undertaking, stating that: This path must lead to
37828-467: Was the starting point for negotiations. The Israeli negotiators, supported by the American participants, did not accept the international consensus as the basis for a settlement. Both sides eventually accepted the Clinton parameters "with reservations" but the talks at Taba were "called to a halt" by Barak, and the peace process itself came to a stand-still. Ben-Ami, who participated in the talks at Camp David as Israel's foreign minister, would later describe
38024-502: Was widely accepted in US and Israeli public opinion. Nearly all scholars and most Israeli and US officials involved in the negotiations have rejected this narrative. These individuals include prominent Israeli negotiators, the IDF chief of staff, the head of the IDF's intelligence bureau, the head of the Shin Bet as well as their advisors. No tenable solution was crafted which would satisfy both Israeli and Palestinian demands, even under intense US pressure. Clinton has long blamed Arafat for
38220-406: Was widely condemned as a form of collective punishment , while Israel defended it as necessary to stop Palestinian rocket attacks. Hamas considered it a declaration of war. A 2008–2009 Israeli invasion of Gaza resulted in more than 1,000 deaths and widespread destruction of homes, schools and hospitals. A 2012 Israeli operation also killed more than 100 people. In 2014, Israel invaded Gaza in
38416-526: Was widespread international alarm at the scale of the operation, with the US state department encouraging Israel to exercise caution to avoid the loss of innocent life, and the European Union and the United Nations criticising Israel's "disproportionate use of force". The European Union also demanded an immediate end to Palestinian militant rocket attacks on Israel and urged Israel to halt activities that endanger civilians, saying they were "in violation of international law ." The 2008 Israel–Hamas ceasefire
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