Israel-Palestine conflict explained: How did the fighting begin?
GAZA has been a site of fierce clashes and bloody battles between protesters and Israeli troops for decades.
The 25-mile-long Gaza Strip is Palestinian territory that borders Egypt and Israel. We explain the Israel-Palestine conflict...
What is Palestine?
Palestine is a small region of land in the Mediterranean and is home to the Arabic speaking Palestinian community.
The history of Palestine has been marred by frequent political conflict and violence because of its importance to several major world religions.
This is because it sits as a gateway between Africa and Asia.
In the past 100 years this conflict has been between the Arabic and Jewish communities who have clashed over who owns the region and who has the right to live there.
Ottoman rule over Palestine came to an end after the First World War.
Palestine was among former Ottoman territories placed under UK administration by the League of Nations in 1922.
All of these territories eventually became fully independent states - except Palestine.
In 1947, the UK turned the "Palestine problem" over to the United Nations.
The UN proposed partitioning Palestine into two independent states, one Palestinian Arab and the other Jewish, with Jerusalem internationalised.
One of the two states proclaimed its independence as Israel and in the 1948 war involving neighbouring Arab States expanded to 77 per cent of the territory of mandated Palestine, including the larger part of Jerusalem.
Over half of the Palestinian Arab population fled or were expelled.
Jordan and Egypt controlled the rest of the territory assigned to the Arab State.
In the 1967 war, Israel occupied these territories (Gaza Strip and the West Bank) including East Jerusalem, which was subsequently annexed by Israel.
The war brought about a second exodus of Palestinians, estimated at half a million.
Despite being renamed as Israel in 1948, 135 United Nations members still recognise Palestine as an Independent State.
However, Israel itself, as well as other nations including the United States, don’t make that distinction.
Why was Israel created?
Between 1896 and 1948, hundreds of thousands of Jews resettled from Europe to what was then British-controlled Palestine, including large numbers forced out of Europe during the Holocaust, explains .
The dilemma that faced post-war British politicians was that Britain had made too many promises to too many different interests, explains Marie-Astrid Purton of .
The British had promised the Arabs that Palestine would fall into their jurisdiction, but at the same time, they had also promised the Jews a national home.
Thus the Government had an obligation to both peoples in a situation that demanded a compromise, one that would please no-one, she adds.
Vox writes: "Many Arabs saw the influx of Jews as a European colonial movement, and the two peoples fought bitterly.
"The British couldn’t control the violence, and in 1947 the United Nations voted to split the land into two countries."
The parliamentary republic of Israel was proclaimed by the Jewish National Council in 1948, at the end of the British mandate in Palestine.
At midnight on May 14, 1948, the provisional government of Israel proclaimed a new State of Israel.
On that same date, under US President Truman, America recognised the provisional Jewish government as the de facto authority of the Jewish state.
Many Palestinians objected and multiple wars have followed as a result.
As of 2021, Israel is dominated by right-wing parties opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state.
How did the fighting begin?
The Israel-Palestine conflict began over a dispute between land and borders.
After World War II and the Holocaust, Jews seeking their own country were given a large part of Palestine.
Arabs already living in the area didn't accept this, so the two parties went to war in 1948.
In 1967, after another war, Israel occupied the Palestinian areas.
Israeli troops have stayed there for years.
Israel finally left Gaza in 2005, and Hamas took control there after winning elections.
But Israel still controls most of Gaza's borders and coastal territory, deciding who can get in and out of Gaza, including goods.
Hamas has demanded that Israel stop its restrictions.
Hamas claims Israel is occupying Palestinian land and claims to resist occupation by launching rocket attacks from Gaza, while Israel retaliates to such attacks with further force.
Hamas - the largest of several militant Islamist groups in Palestine - refuses to recognise Israel as a country and wants Palestinians to be able to return to their old home.
What is Zionism?
Zionism is "a religious and nationalist ideology".
The Zionist movement works for the return of the Jewish people to Israel and the maintenance of Jewish sovereignty there.
Zionism is a "movement to create a Jewish state in the Middle East, roughly corresponding to the historical land of Israel, and thus support for the modern state of Israel", says .
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Zionism is Israel’s national ideology, explains .
It adds: "Zionists believe Judaism is a nationality as well as a religion, and that Jews deserve their own state in their ancestral homeland, Israel, in the same way the French people deserve France or the Chinese people should have China.
"It’s what brought Jews back to Israel in the first place, and also at the heart of what concerns Arabs and Palestinians about the Israeli state."