A Guide to the Israel-Palestine Conflict

The present conflict

• In the morning hours of Saturday, Oct. 7, the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a massive attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip, murdering hundreds and kidnapping an unknown number of hostages. In response, Israel has launched a retaliatory assault on the small Palestinian enclave.
• The conflict between Israel - the world’s only Jewish state - and Palestine - an Arab-Islamic state - spans generations and histories. This guide presents the essential information needed to understand this complex and often violent relationship.

The history

• Facilitated by British authorities, Jewish refugees escaping persecution in Europe in the early 1900s established a national homeland on what was, at the time, Arab and Muslim-majority territory. As Jewish immigration to the region grew, Arab residents resisted the land claims of the Jewish settlers. Following the end of World War II, the U.N. attempted to solve the conflict with the Partition Plan, which divided the territory, declaring 55% of the land a Jewish state and 42% an Arab state. Israel and the surrounding nations fought several wars over the region, the results of which are reflected in today’s borders.
• The State of Israel was officially established in 1948. Zionist paramilitaries, those who strive for an independent Jewish state, embarked on an operation to destroy Palestinian towns. The attempted ethnic cleansing of Palestine killed around 15,000. 
• That year, the war uprooted 700,000 Palestinians, creating an unresolved refugee crisis. Palestinians call this mass eviction the Nabka, Arabic for “catastrophe.” Today, more than 7 million Palestinians are refugees.
• In 1967, the Six-Day War left Israel in control of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, two territories home to a significant Palestinian population. Today, the Palestinian Authority controls the West Bank and Gaza, yet they are under Israeli occupation.
• Israel has launched four protracted military assaults on Gaza: in 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2021. These attacks have killed thousands of Palestinians and involved the use of phosphorus gas — an internationally banned weapon.

What is Hamas, and why did the group attack now?

• Hamas is a Palestinian militant group that formed in the 1980s and rules the Gaza Strip. They have sworn to destroy Israel as a nation and replace it with an Islamic state. Hamas took power in Gaza in 2007 after several wars with Israel. Since then, Israel has blockaded the Gaza Strip, purportedly for security reasons. Israel and Gaza have fought many battles since 2007, throughout which both nations issued deadly attacks on each other. 
• Hamas has been designated a terrorist group by Israel, the U.S., the E.U., and the U.K.
• Hamas’ attack was unprecedented but occurred at a time of soaring tension between Israel and Palestine. This has been the deadliest year on record for Palestinians in the West Bank.
• Some believe Hamas has taken Israelis captive in an effort to pressure Israel into freeing the approximately 4,500 Palestinians held in its prisons.

How are the governments approaching the conflict?

• The two governments lack trust in each other. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas doesn’t trust Israel’s government, in large part due to the settlement expansions under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which he sees as evidence that Israel is trying to erase a Palestinian state. 
• Netanyahu, a right-wing leader, announced in 2015 that there would be no Palestinian state under his command. He has since walked back this statement but claims that Palestinians can’t be trusted to be peaceful neighbors.

Expansion or occupation?

• The Israelis are continuing to expand their settlements onto occupied land, causing the demolition of Palestinian structures and communities and daily violence. 
• Around 600,000 to 750,000 Israelis are living in at least 250 settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Both Palestinians and Israelis want Jerusalem as their capital. 
• U.N. Council members have stressed that Israel expanding their settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory violates international law. Just last month, Tor Wennesland, U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said:

“In a continuing trend, many Palestinians, including children, left from their communities citing violence by settlers and shrinking grazing land.”

One-state versus two-state solution

• The two ways the conflict could end are the one-state and two-state solutions. 
• The one-state solution would merge Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip into one nation. This could occur in two ways. The first would be to create a single democratic country, ending Israel as a Jewish state. The second would have Israel annex the West Bank, forcing out Palestinians or denying them voting rights.
• Many polls suggest a two-state solution is preferred, but Israelis and Palestinians have been unable to come to an agreement. The U.S.’s Oslo “land for peace” framework is the dominant American and international approach to resolving the process, launched in 1993. So far, there’s been little success in negotiations.

What could happen next?

• Hamas commander Mohammad Deif called on Palestinians to join the militant group and “sweep away the [Israeli] occupation.”
• The Israeli military ordered a massive reinforcement of troops and air raids on Gaza and indicated a ground operation is around the corner as the war has the potential to grow.
• The U.N. declared that there is “clear evidence” of war crimes on both sides and called for those who have violated international law to be held accountable for their crimes. The U.N.’s International Commission of Inquiry said it was “gravely concerned” by Israel’s announcement of a complete siege on Gaza, adding:

“[It] will undoubtedly cost civilians lives and constitutes collective punishment.”

• The commission added:

“Reports that armed groups from Gaza have gunned down hundreds of unarmed civilians are abhorrent and cannot be tolerated. Taking civilian hostages and using civilians as human shields are war crimes.”

Learn how to help Israeli and Palestinian civilians.

-Jamie Epstein, Josh Herman, and Emma Kansiz