Editing Israeli–Palestinian conflict (section)

== History ==
{{Main|History of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict}}

{{for timeline|Timeline of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict}}
{{Further|Military operations of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict}}
[[File:A 1936 caricature published in the Falastin newspaper on Zionism and Palestine.png|thumb|upright=1.4|Palestinian [[Arab Christian|Arab-Christian]]-owned newspaper [[Falastin (newspaper)|''Falastin'']], 18 June 1936, caricatured [[Zionism]] as a crocodile, protected by a British officer, telling Palestinian Arabs: "Don't be afraid! I will swallow you peacefully..."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sufian |first1=Sandy |date=1 January 2008 |title=Anatomy of the 1936–39 Revolt: Images of the Body in Political Cartoons of Mandatory Palestine |url=https://www.academia.edu/13805989 |journal=Journal of Palestine Studies |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |volume=37 |issue=2 |pages=23–42 |doi=10.1525/jps.2008.37.2.23 |issn=0377-919X |eissn=1533-8614 |access-date=14 January 2008 |jstor=10.1525/jps.2008.37.2.23 |s2cid=154107901 |archive-date=20 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220620080011/https://www.academia.edu/13805989|url-status=live}}</ref>]]

The Israeli–Palestinian conflict began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the development of political Zionism and the arrival of Zionist settlers to Palestine.{{sfn|Morris|2008|p=1}}<ref name="Nur Masalha">{{cite book |first=Nur |last=Masalha |author-link=Nur Masalha |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LgI1EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA |title=The Palestine Nakba |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-84813-972-5 |chapter=1}}</ref> During the early 20th century, Arab nationalism also grew within the [[Ottoman Empire]]. To gain support from the Arab nationalists in the war against the [[Ottoman Empire]], Great Britain promised support for the formation of an independent Arab state in Palestine in the [[McMahon–Hussein correspondence]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=The McMahon Agreement|url=https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/modern-world-history-1918-to-1980/the-middle-east-1917-to-1973/the-mcmahon-agreement/|url-status=live|date=2015-05-26|work=The History Learning Site|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20250320222911/https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/modern-world-history-1918-to-1980/the-middle-east-1917-to-1973/the-mcmahon-agreement/|archivedate=2025-03-20}}</ref> The [[British Empire]] supplied a large amount of weapons to the [[Arab revolt]] 1916-1918.<ref>T.E Lawrence:Revolt in the Dessert, 1919, 1926</ref> With support from the [[Arab revolt]] the British Empire defeated the Ottoman's forces  and took control of Palestine, Jordan and Syria. It later transpired that the British and French governments had secretly made the [[Sykes-Picot Agreement]] in 1916 not to allow the formation of an independent Arab state.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Sykes-Picot_Agreement|title=Sykes-Picot Agreement|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20250409190228/http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Sykes-Picot_Agreement|archivedate=2025-04-09|via=The World War I Document Archive|date=1916-05-16}}</ref> In July 1920, the short-lived [[Arab Kingdom of Syria]], with Emir [[Faisal I of Iraq|Faisal]] (one of the leaders of the Arab Revolt) as king and tolerated by Britain, was crushed by French armed forces, equipped with modern artillery. 

While [[First Aliyah|Jewish colonization began during this period]], it was not until the arrival of more [[Second Aliyah|ideologically Zionist immigrants in the decade preceding the First World War]] that the landscape of Ottoman Palestine would start to significantly change.<ref name="Ilan Pappe2">{{harvnb|Pappé|2022|loc=The Arrival of Zionism}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Benny Morris3" /> 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.<ref>{{cite book |first=Shlomo |last=Ben-Ami |title=Scars of War, Wounds of Peace |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O-uMJuYdDxwC&pg=PA |year=2006 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-518158-6 |quote=Probably the most appealing article in there commendation of the Commission was that about the 'forced transfer' of Arabs from the future Jewish state. To Ben-Gurion this was an 'unparalleled achievement'. It was 'the best of all solutions', according to Berl Katznelson. 'A distant neighbour', he said, 'is better than a close enemy.' Transfer was such an ideal solution that 'it must happen someday', he concluded. A strategy of phases, admittedly always vague and anything but an articulate plan of action, could only prevail if a solution could be found to the demographic problem. 'Transfer' was the magic formula. The idea of transfer for the Arabs had a long pedigree in Zionist thought.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Nur |last=Masalha |author-link=Nur Masalha |title=The Palestine Nakba |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=px1jDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA |year=2012 |publisher=[[Zed Books]] |isbn=978-1-84813-973-2 |page=66 |quote=Thus the wishful and rather naive belief in Zionism's early years that the Palestinians could be 'spirited across the border', in Herzl's words, or that they would simply 'fold their tents and slip away', to use Zangwill's formulation, soon gave way to more realistic assessments. Between 1937 and 1948 extensive secret discussions of transfer were held in the Zionist movement's highest bodies, including the Zionist Agency Executive, the Twentieth Zionist Congress, the World Convention of Ihud Po'alei Tzion (the top forum of the dominant Zionist world labour movement), and various official and semi-official transfer committees.}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Slater|2020|p=348}}: "After reviewing Zionism and its consequences, I examined the onset of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the 1917–47 period, and argued that because the Zionists wanted to ensure a large Jewish majority in the coming state of Israel, their leaders repeatedly discussed the means by which most of the Palestinians could be expelled or induced to flee; the euphemism they employed was "transfer." The scholarship on "transfer"—especially by Israeli historians—leaves no doubt about its importance in the thinking of every major Zionist leader before and after the creation of Israel."</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Simha |last=Flapan |title=Zionism and the Palestinians |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cJRtAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA |year=1979 |publisher=Croom Helm |isbn=978-0-06-492104-6 |page=259 |quote=The concept of population transfer, as a facile solution to the twin problems of the Arab landless peasants and the creation of land reserves for Jewish settlement was for some time in the back of the minds of the 2ionist leadership. In fact, in private discussions with the British, the Zionist leadership put forward population transfer as a tentative suggestion but stopped short of formulating it into a proposal for action.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Norman G. |last=Finkelstein |author-link=Norman Finkelstein |title=Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=55NKCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA |year=2016 |publisher=[[Verso Books]] |isbn=978-1-78478-458-4 |chapter='Born of War, Not By Design' |quote='The idea of transfer had accompanied the Zionist movement from its very beginnings', Tom Segev reports.}}</ref> According to the Israeli historian [[Benny Morris]] the idea of transfer was "inevitable and inbuilt into Zionism".<ref>{{harvnb|Morris|2004|p=60}}</ref> The Arab population felt this threat as early as the 1880s with the arrival of the first aliyah.<ref name="Benny Morris3" /> [[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 the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine.<ref>{{Cite book |first=James |last=Gelvin |author-link=James L. Gelvin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wfIFVze1MqQC&pg=PA81 |title=The Israel–Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |orig-year=2002 |edition=3rd |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-521-85289-0 |access-date=9 November 2020 |archive-date=9 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231009012922/https://books.google.com/books?id=wfIFVze1MqQC&pg=PA81#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== 1920s ===
With the creation of the [[British Mandate in Palestine]] after the end of the first world war, large-scale Jewish immigration began accompanied by the development of a separate Jewish-controlled sector of the economy supported by foreign capital.<ref>{{harvnb|Khalidi|2020|loc=Introduction}}: "Additionally, a separate Jewish-controlled sector of the economy was created through the exclusion of Arab labor from Jewish-owned firms under the slogan of "Avoda ivrit," Hebrew labor, and the injection of truly massive amounts of capital from abroad."</ref> 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 societies.{{sfn|Morris|2008|p=1}}

[[Amin al-Husseini]], appointed as [[Grand Mufti of Jerusalem]] by the British [[High Commissioner]] [[Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel|Herbert Samuel]], immediately marked [[Zionism|Jewish national movement]] and [[Aliyah|Jewish immigration to Palestine]] as the sole enemy to his cause,<ref name="al-Husseini">{{harvnb|Sela|2002|p=361|loc="al-Husseini, Hajj (Muhammad) Amin"}}<blockquote>He [Husseini] incited and headed anti-Jewish riots in April 1920. ... He promoted the Muslim character of Jerusalem and ... injected a religious character into the struggle against [[Zionism]]. This was the backdrop to his agitation concerning Jewish rights at the Western (Wailing) Wall that led to the bloody riots of August 1929...[H]e was the chief organizer of the riots of 1936 and the rebellion from 1937, as well as of the mounting internal terror against Arab opponents.</blockquote></ref> initiating large-scale riots against the Jews as early as 1920 [[1920 Nebi Musa riots|in Jerusalem]] and in 1921 [[Jaffa riots|in Jaffa]]. Among the results of the violence was the establishment of the Jewish paramilitary force [[Haganah]]. In 1929, a series of violent [[1929 Palestine riots|riots]] resulted in the deaths of 133 Jews and 116 Arabs, with significant Jewish casualties in [[1929 Hebron massacre|Hebron]] and [[1929 Palestine riots#Safed massacre, 29 August|Safed]], and the evacuation of Jews from Hebron and Gaza.<ref name="SelaConflict">{{harvnb|Sela|2002|loc="Arab-Israel Conflict"|pp=58–121}}</ref>

=== 1936–1939 Arab revolt ===
{{Main|1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine}}
[[File:Resistance of Palestinian men and women.png|right|thumb|The [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine|Arab revolt of 1936–1939]] in Palestine, motivated by opposition to mass [[Aliyah|Jewish immigration]] allowed by the British Mandatory authorities.]]

In the early 1930s, the Arab national struggle in Palestine had drawn many Arab nationalist militants from across the Middle East, such as [[Izz ad-Din al-Qassam|Sheikh Izz ad-Din 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 the British assisted by the British armed forces of the [[Jewish Settlement Police]], the [[Jewish Supernumerary Police]], and [[Special Night Squads]].<ref name="HistoryPBS">{{cite web |date=December 2001 |title=History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict |url=https://www.pbs.org/pov/pdf/promiese/promises-timeline.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121202230446/http://www.pbs.org/pov/pdf/promiese/promises-timeline.pdf |archive-date=2 December 2012 |access-date=14 March 2013 |publisher=PBS}}</ref> The suppression of the revolt would leave at least 10% of the adult male population killed, wounded, imprisoned or exiled.<ref>{{harvnb|Khalidi|2020|loc=Chapter 1}}: "Of all the services Britain provided to the Zionist movement before 1939, perhaps the most valuable was the armed suppression of Palestinian resistance in the form of the revolt. The bloody war waged against the country's majority, which left 10 percent of the adult male Arab population killed, wounded, imprisoned, or exiled,55 was the best illustration of the unvarnished truths uttered by Jabotinsky about the necessity of the use of force for the Zionist project to succeed. To quash the uprising, the British Empire brought in two additional divisions of troops, squadrons of bombers, and all the paraphernalia of repression that it had perfected over many decades of colonial wars."</ref> Between the expulsion of much of the Arab leadership and the weakening of the economy, the Palestinians would struggle to confront the growing Zionist movement.<ref>{{harvnb|Khalidi|2020|loc=Chapter 1}}: "IN SPITE OF the sacrifices made—which can be gauged from the very large numbers of Palestinians who were killed, wounded, jailed, or exiled—and the revolt's momentary success, the consequences for the Palestinians were almost entirely negative. The savage British repression, the death and exile of so many leaders, and the conflict within their ranks left the Palestinians divided, without direction, and with their economy debilitated by the time the revolt was crushed in the summer of 1939. This put the Palestinians in a very weak position to confront the now invigorated Zionist movement, which had gone from strength to strength during the revolt, obtaining lavish amounts of arms and extensive training from the British to help them suppress the uprising."</ref>

The cost and risks associated with the revolt and the ongoing [[Intercommunal conflict in Mandatory Palestine|inter-communal conflict]] led to a shift in British policies in the region and the appointment of the [[Peel Commission]] which recommended creation of a small Jewish country, which the two main Zionist leaders, [[Chaim Weizmann]] and [[David Ben-Gurion]], accepted on the basis that it would allow for later expansion.<ref>{{cite book |last=Louis |first=William Roger |title=Ends of British Imperialism: The Scramble for Empire, Suez, and Decolonization |year=2006 |publisher=[[I. B. Tauris]] |isbn=978-1-84511-347-6 |page=391}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Morris |first=Benny |author-link=Benny Morris |title=One State, Two States: Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict |year=2009 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |isbn=978-0-300-15604-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6RelhRR-9RUC |page=66 |access-date=27 September 2020 |archive-date=9 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231009012923/https://books.google.com/books?id=6RelhRR-9RUC |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Morris|2004|p=48}}</ref> The subsequent [[White Paper of 1939]], which rejected a Jewish state and sought to limit Jewish immigration to the region, was the breaking point in relations between British authorities and the Zionist movement.<ref>{{harvnb|Shlaim|2015|loc=Prologue: The Zionist Foundation}}: "A white paper of 17 May 1939 abruptly reversed British support for Zionism and for a Jewish state."</ref>

=== 1940–1947 ===
[[File:Hagana Ship - Jewish State at Haifa Port (1947).jpg|thumb|[[Haganah]] ship ''Jewish State'' carrying illegal Jewish immigrants from Europe at the [[Port of Haifa|Haifa Port]], [[Mandatory Palestine]], 1947]]
The renewed violence, which continued sporadically until the beginning of World War II, ended with around 5,000 casualties on the Arab side and 700 combined on the British and Jewish side total.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Banality of Brutality: British Armed Forces and the Repression of the Arab Revolt in Palestine, 1936–39 |last=Hughes |first=Matthew |journal=[[English Historical Review]] |year=2009a |volume=CXXIV |issue=507 |pages=314–354 |doi=10.1093/ehr/cep002 |url=http://v-scheiner.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/7251/4/The%20banality%20of%20brutality.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160221163210/http://v-scheiner.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/7251/4/The%20banality%20of%20brutality.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 February 2016|issn=0013-8266}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=A Survey of Palestine |date=1946 |publisher=Government of Palestine |location=Jerusalem |pages=38–49 |url=https://www.bjpa.org/content/upload/bjpa/a_su/A%20SURVEY%20OF%20PALESTINE%20DEC%201945-JAN%201946%20VOL%20I.pdf |archive-date=13 May 2021 |access-date=28 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513011219/https://www.bjpa.org/content/upload/bjpa/a_su/A%20SURVEY%20OF%20PALESTINE%20DEC%201945-JAN%201946%20VOL%20I.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Levenberg |first=Haim |year=1993 |title=Military Preparations of the Arab Community in Palestine: 1945–1948 |location=London |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-7146-3439-5}}</ref> 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 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 [[Anglo-Iraqi War|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 the Italians and the Germans [[Italian bombing of Mandatory Palestine in World War II|bomb Tel Aviv]].<ref name="SelaConflict" /> The [[Jewish Agency for Israel|Jewish Agency for Palestine]] and [[National Defense Party (Mandatory Palestine)|Palestinian National Defense Party]] called on Palestine's Jewish and Arab youth to volunteer for the British Army. 30,000 Palestinian Jews and 12,000 Palestinian Arabs enlisted in the British armed forces during the war, while a [[Jewish Brigade]] was created in 1944.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jackson |first=Ashley |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/ocm62089366 |title=The British Empire and the Second World War |date=2006 |publisher=Hambledon Continuum |isbn=978-1-85285-417-1 |location=London; New York |oclc=ocm62089366}}</ref>

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. By 1944, Jewish groups began to conduct military-style operations against the British, with the aim of persuading Great Britain to accept the formation of a Jewish state. This culminated in the [[Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine]]. This sustained Zionist paramilitary campaign of resistance against British authorities, along with the increased illegal immigration of Jewish refugees and 1947 United Nations partition, led to eventual withdrawal of the British from Palestine.<ref>Charters, David A. ''The British Army and Jewish Insurgency in Palestine, 1945–47''. Springer, 1989, p. X</ref>

=== 1947 United Nations partition plan ===
{{Main|United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine}}
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On 29 November 1947, the [[General Assembly of the United Nations]] adopted [[United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine|Resolution 181(II)]]<ref>{{cite web |title=A/RES/181(II) of 29 November 1947 |publisher=United Nations |url=http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/7f0af2bd897689b785256c330061d253 |access-date=28 May 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120524094913/http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/7f0af2bd897689b785256c330061d253 |archive-date=24 May 2012}}</ref> recommending the adoption and implementation of a plan to partition Palestine into an Arab state, a Jewish state and the City of Jerusalem.<ref name="Baum">Baum, Noa. [http://www.umass.edu/jewish/programs/land_05/timeline/ "Historical Time Line for Israel/Palestine."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131219033249/http://www.umass.edu/jewish/programs/land_05/timeline/ |date=19 December 2013 }} UMass Amherst. 5 April 2005. 14 March 2013.</ref> Palestinian Arabs were opposed to the partition.<ref>
{{harvnb|Morris|2008|pp=63–64|ps=, "The Zionists and their supporters rejoiced; the Arab delegations walked out of the plenum after declaring the resolution invalid. The Arabs failed to understand why the international community was awarding the Jews any part of Palestine. Further, as one Palestinian historian later put it, they could not fathom why 37 percent of the population had been given 55 percent of the land (of which they owned only 7 percent). Moreover, the Jews had been given the best agricultural lands (the Coastal Plain and Jezreel and Jordan Valleys) while the Arabs had received the 'bare and hilly' parts, as one Palestinian politician, 'Awni 'Abd al-Hadi, told a Zionist agent. 162 More generally, 'the Palestinians failed to see why they should be made to pay for the Holocaust. ... [And] they failed to see why it was ''not'' fair for the Jews to be a minority in a unitary Palestinian state, while it ''was'' fair for almost half of the Palestinian population—the indigenous majority on its own ancestral soil—to be converted overnight into a minority under alien rule.'"}}</ref> Zionists accepted the partition but planned to expand Israel's borders beyond what was allocated to it by the UN.<ref>
{{harvnb|Morris|2008|p=101|ps=, "... mainstream Zionist leaders, from the first, began to think of expanding the Jewish state beyond the 29 November partition resolution borders."}}</ref> On the next day, [[1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine|Palestine was swept by violence]], igniting the first phase of the [[1948 Palestine war|Palestine War]]. For four months, under continuous Arab provocation and attack, the Yishuv was usually on the defensive while occasionally retaliating.<ref>{{harvnb|Morris|2008|p=79}}</ref> 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 the Jewish side, the civil war was managed by the major underground militias – the [[Haganah]], [[Irgun]] and [[Lehi (group)|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 [[1948 Palestinian exodus|refugee problem]] of Palestinian Arabs.<ref name="SelaConflict" />

=== 1948 Arab–Israeli War ===
{{Main|1948 Arab–Israeli War}}

[[File:Cia-is-map2.png|thumb|right|upright=0.75|Land in the lighter shade represents territory within the [[Green Line (Israel)|borders of Israel at the conclusion of the 1948 war]]. This land is internationally recognized as belonging to Israel.]]

Following 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]].<ref name="Baum" /> The overall fighting, leading to around 15,000 casualties, resulted in cease-fire and armistice agreements of 1949, with Israel holding much of the former Mandate territory, Jordan occupying and later annexing the [[Jordanian annexation of the West Bank|West Bank]] and Egypt taking over the Gaza Strip, where the [[All-Palestine Government]] was declared by the Arab League on 22 September 1948.<ref name="HistoryPBS" /> The [[1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine]] and 1948 Arab-Israeli War resulted in the [[Nakba|ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinian Arabs]].<ref name="Ilan Pappe3" /> In 1950, Israel passed the [[Law of Return]], which allowed Jews and their spouses to become citizens with voting rights, even if they had never lived there before.

=== 1956 Suez Crisis ===
{{Main|Suez Crisis}}

Through the 1950s, Jordan and Egypt supported the [[Palestinian Fedayeen]] militants' cross-border attacks into Israel, while Israel carried out [[reprisal operations|its own reprisal operations]] in the host countries. The 1956 [[Suez Crisis]] resulted in 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. [[Egyptian occupation of the Gaza Strip|Gaza Strip]] then was put under the authority of the Egyptian military administrator, making it a de facto military occupation. In 1964, however, a new organization, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), was established by Yasser Arafat.<ref name="Baum" /> It immediately won the support of most Arab League governments and was granted a seat in the [[Arab League]].

=== 1967 Six-Day War ===
{{Main|Six-Day War}}
[[File:6DayWarEnglish.png|thumb|upright|During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel captured the [[West Bank]], the [[Gaza Strip]], the [[Golan Heights]] and the [[Sinai Peninsula]]. Each of these territories except the Sinai remain under [[Israeli-occupied territories|Israeli occupation]].]]

In the [[Six day war|1967 Arab-Israel War]], Israel occupied the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza Strip, Egyptian Sinai, Syrian Golan Heights, and two islands in the [[Gulf of Aqaba]].

The war exerted a significant effect upon Palestinian nationalism, as the PLO was unable to establish any control on the ground and ultimately established its headquarters in Jordan, from where it supported the Jordanian army during the [[War of Attrition]]. However, the Palestinian base in Jordan collapsed with the [[Black September in Jordan|Jordanian–Palestinian civil war]] in 1970, after which the PLO was forced to relocate to South Lebanon.

In the mid-1970s, the international community converged on a framework to resolve the conflict through the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. This "[[land for peace]]" proposal was endorsed by the [[ICJ]] and [[UN]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Colter |last=Louwerse |editor-last=Stern-Weiner |editor-first=Jamie |title=Deluge |publisher=OR Books |year=2024 |isbn=978-1-68219-619-9 |quote=During the June 1967 Arab-Israel War, Israel came into military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip. (Israel also occupied the Egyptian Sinai, Syrian Golan Heights, and two islands in the Gulf of Aqaba.) Already by the mid-1970s, the international community converged on a framework for resolving the festering conflict. This framework comprised two elements rooted in fundamental principles of international law. The first called for Israel's full withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian and other Arab territories in exchange for Palestinian-Arab recognition of Israel. The second called for establishing an independent State of Palestine on the Palestinian territories from which Israel would withdraw, i.e., the West Bank and Gaza, as well as a "just resolution" of the Palestinian refugee question.10 Land for peace and Palestinian self-determination secured through a two-state settlement: these principles for a reasonable if imperfect resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict were eventually endorsed by an overwhelming consensus at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in the political organs of the United Nations (UN), and of respected human rights organizations.}}</ref>

=== 1973 Yom Kippur War ===
{{Main|Yom Kippur War}}

On 6 October 1973, a coalition of Arab forces consisting of mainly Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack against Israel on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. Despite this, the war concluded with an Israeli victory, with both sides suffering tremendous casualties.

Following the end of the war, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 338 confirming 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,<ref>{{cite book |first=Noura |last=Erakat |title=Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Justice_for_Some&pg=PA |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |date=2019 |isbn=978-1-5036-0883-2 |quote=The 1973 War demonstrated that Arabs could work together when needed and that Israel was not as invincible as it had believed. The war left its scars on Israel, which suffered over 2,500 dead, US$4 billion in direct monetary losses, and deflated confidence. Although the Arabs technically lost the war, they won psychologically and diplomatically as the world once again focused on the ongoing conflict.156 In 1973, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 338, affirming the land-for-peace framework enshrined in Resolution 242 and setting into motion what was to become known as the Middle East peace process. Palestinian control of the PLO and the rise of guerilla warfare, together with the shift ushered in by the 1973 War, would lay the groundwork for the PLO's political agenda and aggressive legal strategy throughout the decade that followed.}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Slater|2020|p=216}}: "The disastrous defeat of the Arab states in the 1973 war also played a major role in convincing Arafat of the need for a compromise peace settlement. Arafat's decision to start peace negotiations with Israel led to the June 1974 PLO agreement to adopt a new strategy that called for a struggle for "every part of Palestine that is liberated" (emphasis added). Anziska writes that this constituted "an acceptance of a political solution on a limited piece of territory," the first step, however vague, that opened the door for a Palestinian acceptance of a two-state solution... In a recent major work, historian Seth Anziska writes that the 1973 war "launched a new phase in the PLO's struggle, oriented toward partition and the acknowledgment of Israel's presence. In the aftermath of the October War, the PLO sought a place within the comprehensive diplomatic negotiations, which required political compromise and the eventual embrace of a state on far less territory than historic Palestine" (Anziska, Preventing Palestine, Kindle 25). Similarly, Bird writes: "By mid-1974 the PLO was rapidly moving away from a strategy of armed struggle and morphing into a political movement seeking international legitimacy" based on a two-state solution (Bird, The Good Spy, Kindle location 2560–75). For similar assessments of the importance of the 1974 PLO program, see Hart, Arafat, 10–11; Weinberger, "The Palestinian National Security Debate"; Nofal, "Yasir Arafat: A Mixed Legacy"; Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Kindle 483–84; and Elgindy, Blind Spot, Kindle 88."</ref> while many Israelis began to believe that the area under Israeli occupation could not be held indefinitely by force.<ref>{{harvnb|Morris|1999|loc=The Politics of War and Afterffects}}: "On the other hand, the war had given Israel a stinging slap in the face. The 1948, 1956, and 1967 wars had conditioned them to stunning victories over the Arabs and to Arab military (and political) incompetence; 1973 proved to be something else altogether. Many Israelis were now persuaded that the territories could not be held indefinitely by force and that continued occupation would necessarily lead to further bouts of painful warfare. At last, and for the first time since June 1967, most people were willing to contemplate giving up large chunks of land for peace."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Pappé|2022|pp=287}}: "The 1973 war was a traumatic event that promoted the disintegration of Israeli politics and culture. The myth of Israeli invincibility was shattered, and while some saw this as a good reason to become more insistent in the search for peace, others turned to God, toughening their positions on peace and territorial compromise. What added to the confusion and the erosion of self-confidence was the high number of deaths, about 3,000, compared with the few hundred in the 1967 war. A general sense of grief fell on the country and affected the government's prestige."</ref>

The Camp David Accords, agreed upon by Israel and Egypt in 1978, primarily aimed to establish 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, 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.<ref>{{harvnb|Khalidi|2013|loc=The First Moment: Begin and Palestinian Autonomy in 1982}}: "In addition to their central provision, for a peace treaty between the two countries, the Camp David Accords, agreed upon by Israel and Egypt under the aegis of the United States in 1978, called for negotiations for the establishment of a "Self-Governing Authority" (SGA) for the Arab population of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Jerusalem was to be excluded from its provisions. The accords stipulated "full autonomy for the inhabitants," but crucially, this did not apply to the land, which was to remain under full Israeli control. A bilateral peace treaty based on these accords was signed between Israel and Egypt in 1979, and Israel thereafter began a withdrawal of its forces from the occupied Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, which was completed in the spring of 1982. However, the modalities of the Palestinian-autonomy accords were a continuing source of dispute between the three signatories to the Camp David Accords, as well as with the Palestinians and other Arabs, and in the end they were never implemented."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Shlaim|2015|loc=The Camp David Accords}}: "The Camp David Accords were signed in an impressive ceremony in the White House on 17 September 1978. The two accords were entitled "A Framework for Peace in the Middle East" and "A Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty between Israel and Egypt." The former stated in its preamble, "The agreed basis for a peaceful settlement of the conflict between Israel and its neighbours is UN Security Council Resolution 242 in all its parts." The framework dealt with the West Bank and Gaza and envisaged nothing less than "the resolution of the Palestinian problem in all its aspects." Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and the representatives of the Palestinian people were to participate in the negotiations, which were to proceed in three stages. In the first, the ground rules would be laid for electing a "self-governing authority" for the territories, and the powers of this authority would be defined. In the second stage, once the self-governing authority had been established, a transitional period would begin. Israel's military government and its civilian administration would be withdrawn; Israel's armed forces would also be withdrawn and the remaining forces redeployed into specified security locations. In the third stage, not later than the third year after the beginning of the transitional period, negotiations would take place to determine the final status of the West Bank and Gaza. These negotiations had to recognize "the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and their just requirements."</ref>

=== 1982 Lebanon War ===
{{Main|1982 Lebanon War}}

During the [[Lebanese Civil War]], Palestinian militants continued to launch attacks against Israel while also battling opponents within Lebanon. In 1978, the [[Coastal Road massacre]] led to the Israeli full-scale invasion known as [[Operation Litani]]. This operation sought to dislodge the {{abbr|PLO|Palestine Liberation Organization}} 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.<ref>{{harvnb|Morris|1999|loc=The Lebanon War}}: "The aim of "Operation Litani" was to kill as many guerrillas as possible and to destroy the military infrastructure—camps, munitions dumps, artillery pieces. A secondary aim was to expand, and create continuity between, the existing Christian-held enclaves on the Lebanese side of the border. By March 21, the IDF had taken all of the area south of the Litani (except for Tyre and its environs).</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Baruch |last=Kimmerling |title=Politicide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TE8oCW2J2F4C&pg=PA |year=2003 |publisher=[[Verso Books]] |isbn= 978-1-85984-517-2|quote=The collaboration was solidified and made public during Begin's first term. Begin was impressed by the pleas and the aristocratic manner of the Maronite leaders and several times declared "Israel will not allow genocide [of the Maronites] in Lebanon." In March 1978, Israeli forces temporarily occupied southern Lebanon, in an attempt to neutralize Palestinian guerilla groups and enlarge the territory controlled by Major Haddad, in an undertaking called Operation Litani (the river that more or less marked the boundary of the Israeli influence).}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Khalidi|2020|loc=The Third Declaration of War}}: "Nevertheless, after all this and despite an Israeli incursion in 1978—the Litani Operation—which left a swath of south Lebanon under the control of its proxy, the South Lebanese Army, the PLO was still standing. Indeed, it remained the strongest force in large parts of Lebanon, those that were not in the hands of foreign armies or their proxies, including West Beirut, Tripoli, Sidon, the Shouf Mountains, and much of the south. It would take one more military campaign to dislodge the PLO, and in 1982, American Secretary of State General Alexander Haig agreed to Ariel Sharon's plans for Israel to finish off the organization and with it Palestinian nationalism."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Cleveland|Bunton|2010}}: "This was that belt the Israeli government wished to destroy. Its first concerted effort to do so occurred in 1978, when 25,000 Israeli troops invaded Lebanon as far north as the Litani River. The operation failed to dislodge the PLO from its strongholds, although it did cause large-scale demographic disruptions in southern Lebanon as thousands of villagers, mainly Shi'as, fled their homelands for the area of Beirut. Pressure from the United States and the UN eventually compelled Israel to withdraw its troops."</ref>

In 1982, Israel, having secured its southern border with Egypt, sought to resolve the Palestinian issue by attempting to dismantle the military and political power of the PLO in Lebanon.<ref>{{cite book |first=Albert Habib |last=Hourani |title=A history of the Arab peoples |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=egbOb0mewz4C&pg=PA |year=2002 |publisher=Belknap Press of [[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=978-0-674-05819-4 |quote=In 1982 the situation acquired a more dangerous dimension. The nationalist government in Israel, having secured its southern frontier by the peace treaty with Egypt, now tried to impose its own solution of the problem of the Palestinians. This involved an attempt to destroy both the military and the political power of the PLO in Lebanon, to install a friendly regime there, and then, freed from effective Palestinian resistance, to pursue its policy of settlement and annexation of occupied Palestine. With some degree of acquiescence from the USA, Israel invaded Lebanon in June 1982. The invasion culminated in a long siege of the western part of Beirut, mainly inhabited by Muslims and dominated by the PLO. The siege ended with an agreement, negotiated through the US government, by which the PLO would evacuate west Beirut, with guarantees for the safety of Palestinian civilians given by the Lebanese and US governments. At the same time, a presidential election resulted in the military head of the Kata'ib, Bashir Jumayyil, becoming president; he was assassinated soon afterwards and his brother Amin was then elected. The assassination was taken by Israel as an opportunity to occupy west Beirut, and this allowed the Kata'ib to carry out a massacre of Palestinians on a large scale in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila.}}</ref> The goal was to establish a friendly regime in Lebanon and continue its policy of settlement and annexation in occupied Palestine.<ref>{{cite book |first=Shlomo |last=Ben-Ami |title=Scars of War, Wounds of Peace |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O-uMJuYdDxwC&pg=PA |year=2006 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-518158-6 |quote=Destroying the PLO's infrastructure in Lebanon as well as dismantling the last remaining Palestinian springboard in an Arab country for the military struggle against Israel, was the immediate operational objective of the war. But the architects of the invasion had far wider ambitions. They believed that the defeat of the Palestinians in Lebanon would trigger a mass exodus of Palestinians to the East Bank of the River Jordan, which in turn would bring about the collapse of the Hashemite dynasty and the Palestinisation of the kingdom in a way that would allow Israel a free hand to assert her rule in Judaea and Samaria. Israel also believed that her victory in Lebanon would create a new political order in that country with an undisputed Christian hegemony.}}</ref><ref name="Shalim 2015 Lebanese Quagmire">{{harvnb|Shlaim|2015|loc=The Lebanese Quagmire 1981 –1984}}: "The real driving force behind Israel's invasion of Lebanon, however, was Ariel Sharon, whose aims were much more ambitious and far-reaching. From his first day at the Defense Ministry, Sharon started planning the invasion of Lebanon. He developed what came to be known as the "big plan" for using Israel's military power to establish political hegemony in the Middle East. The first aim of Sharon's plan was to destroy the PLO's military infrastructure in Lebanon and to undermine it as a political organization. The second aim was to establish a new political order in Lebanon by helping Israel's Maronite friends, headed by Bashir Gemayel, to form a government that would proceed to sign a peace treaty with Israel. For this to be possible, it was necessary, third, to expel the Syrian forces from Lebanon or at least to weaken seriously the Syrian presence there. In Sharon's big plan, the war in Lebanon was intended to transform the situation not only in Lebanon but in the whole Middle East. The destruction of the PLO would break the backbone of Palestinian nationalism and facilitate the absorption of the West Bank into Greater Israel. The resulting influx of Palestinians from Lebanon and the West Bank into Jordan would eventually sweep away the Hashemite monarchy and transform the East Bank into a Palestinian state. Sharon reasoned that Jordan's conversion into a Palestinian state would end international pressures on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank. Begin was not privy to all aspects of Sharon's ambitious geopolitical scenario, but the two men were united by their desire to act against the PLO in Lebanon."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Morris|1999}}: "On September 1 an IDF helicopter flew Gemayel to Nahariya, in northern Israel, where he met Begin, who had just been informed of the "Reagan Plan," the new American initiative for Israeli withdrawal from most of the occupied territories in exchange for Arab recognition and peace. By invading Lebanon, Begin had hoped to neutralize Palestinian nationalism and facilitate Israeli annexation, at least de facto, of the West Bank. But the invasion had brought home to the Americans the plight of the Palestinians and the imperative of resolving their problem, with Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank among the necessary preconditions. The Reagan initiative ruled out a final settlement that would involve either Israeli annexation of the territories or full-fledged Palestinian statehood."</ref> 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 a potential negotiating partner.<ref>{{cite book |first=Noam |last=Chomsky |author-link=Noam Chomsky |title=Fateful Triangle |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aHphMCIkhK0C&pg=PA |year=1999 |publisher=[[Pluto Press]] |isbn=978-0-89608-601-2 |quote=was that "Operation Peace for Galilee"—the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982—was undertaken to protect the civilian population from Palestinian gunners, and that "the rocket and shelling attacks on Israel's northern border" were ended by the operation, though "If rockets again rain down on Israel's northern border after all that has been expended on Lebanon, the Israeli public will be outraged.19 This cannot be correct, given the history which is not challenged (even if unreported, for the most part). When it came to be recognized that the rockets still "rain down," the story was modified: "Israel's two military forays into Lebanon [1978, 1982] were military disasters that failed to provide long-term security for Israel's northern border."20 Security had indeed been at risk, as a result of Israel's unprovoked attacks from 1981, and to a large extent before. The phrase "military disaster" does not refer to the killing of some 20,000 Lebanese and Palestinians in 1982, overwhelmingly civilians, the destruction of much of southern Lebanon and the capital city of Beirut, or the terrible atrocities carried out by Israeli troops through the mid-1980s; rather, to Israel's failure to impose the "new order" it had proclaimed for Lebanon and its inability to maintain its occupation in full because of the casualties caused by unanticipated resistance ("terror"), forcing it back to its "security zone." The actual reasons for the 1982 invasion have never been concealed in Israel, though they are rated "X" here.21 A few weeks after the invasion began, Israel's leading academic specialist on the Palestinians, Yehoshua Porath, pointed out that the decision to invade "flowed from the very fact that the cease-fire had been observed" by the PLO, a "veritable catastrophe" for the Israeli government because it endangered the policy of evading a political settlement. The PLO was gaining respectability thanks to its preference for negotiations over terror. The Israeli government's hope, therefore, was to compel "the stricken PLO" to "return to its earlier terrorism," thus "undercutting the danger" of negotiations. As Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir later stated, Israel went to war because there was "a terrible danger... Not so much a military one as a political one." The invasion was intended to "undermine the position of the moderates within [the PLO] ranks" and thus to block "the PLO 'peace offensive"' and "to halt [the PLO's] rise to political respectability" (strategic analyst Avner Yaniv); it should be called "the war to safeguard the occupation of the West Bank," having been motivated by Begin's "fear of the momentum of the peace process," according to Israeli Arabist and former head of military intelligence General Yehoshaphat Harkabi. U.S. backing for Israel's aggression, including the vetoing of Security Council efforts to stop the slaughter, was presumably based on the same reasoning. After its failure to impose the intended "New Order" in Lebanon in 1982, Israel attempted to hold on to as much of Lebanon as possible, though it was forced to withdraw to its "security zone" as resistance caused too many Israeli casualties. Meanwhile Israel conducted violent terror operations, notably the "iron fist" operations of 1985 under the direction of Prime Minister Shimon Peres. These went on through the 1980s.2}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=John B. |last=Quigley |title=The Case for Palestine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VaUvqHNd6m0C&pg=PA |year=2005 |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8223-3539-9 |quote=As a result, the PLO did not attack Israel from mid-I98r to mid-I982.16 But in June 1982 Israel again invaded Lebanon, and it used aerial bombardment to destroy entire camps of Palestine Arab refugees.17 By these means Israel killed 20,000 persons, mostly civilians,18 and while it occupied southern Lebanon it incarcerated 15,000 persons, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. The IDF continued north to Beirut, where it forced the PLO out of Lebanon. Israel claimed self-defense for its invasion, but the lack of PLO attacks into Israel during the previous year made that claim dubious. By invading Lebanon, Israel evidently sought to destroy the extensive Palestinian military and administrative infrastructure in Lebanon19 and, by removing the PLO, to convince the Arabs of the Gaza Strip and West Bank that they would get no help from the PLO.20 In the United States Harold Saunders, a former assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs, said that Israel aimed,}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Slater|2020|p=354}}: "For just that reason, though, Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Defense Minister Ariel Sharon worried that the growing PLO moderation would increase the pressure on Israel to accept the creation of a Palestinian state. To prevent that, in 1982 they seized upon a pretext to again invade Lebanon and attack the PLO, this time on a far larger scale than in previous conflicts. The attacks resulted in tens of thousands of Lebanese civilian casualties; however, the PLO forces in southern Lebanon, still led by Arafat, who escaped Israeli efforts to kill him, were soon reconstituted."</ref> 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.<ref name="HistoryPBS" />

=== First Intifada (1987–1993) ===
{{Main|First Intifada}}
[[File:Intifada in Gaza Strip (FL45884553).jpg|thumb|Protests in the Gaza Strip in the early days of the First Intifada in 1987.|268x268px]]
The first Palestinian uprising began in 1987 as a response to Israel's military occupation, escalating attacks on Palestinians, and policies of settlement building and collective punishment. The uprising largely consisted of nonviolent acts of civil disobedience and protest, and was largely led by grassroots popular, youth, and women's committees.<ref name="King">{{Cite book |last=King |first=Mary E. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/150378515 |title=A quiet revolution: the first Palestinian Intifada and nonviolent resistance |date=2007 |publisher=Nation Books |isbn=978-1-56025-802-5 |location=New York |oclc=150378515 |quote=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Khalidi |first=Rashid |title=The hundred years' war on Palestine: a history of settler colonialism and resistance, 1917-2017 |date=2022 |publisher=Henry Hold and Company |isbn=978-1-250-78765-1 |edition= |series= |location=New York}}</ref> By the early 1990s, the conflict, termed the [[First Intifada]], was the focus of international settlement efforts, in part motivated by 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 a campaign of attacks targeting Israelis. Following hundreds of casualties and a wave of anti-government propaganda, Israeli Prime Minister [[Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin|Rabin was assassinated]] by an [[Far-right politics in Israel|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.<ref name="SelaConflict" />

=== Second Intifada (2000–2005) ===
{{Main|Second Intifada}}
[[File:Bil'in (22).jpg|thumb|Demonstrations against the construction of the [[West Bank barrier|West Bank separation barrier]] in the city of [[Bil'in]], occupied West Bank, in 2005 during the Second Intifada.]]

Following several years of unsuccessful negotiations, the conflict re-erupted as the [[Second Intifada]] in September 2000.<ref name="HistoryPBS" /> 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 thousands of fatalities. In 2005, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon ordered the [[Israeli disengagement from Gaza|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.<ref name="cnn2009-01-06">{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/06/israel.gaza.occupation.question/index.html |title=Is Gaza 'occupied' territory? |last=Levs |first=Josh |date=6 January 2009 |publisher=[[CNN]] |access-date=30 May 2009 |archive-date=21 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090121084340/http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/01/06/israel.gaza.occupation.question/index.html |url-status=live}}</ref> However, the [[United Nations]], [[Human Rights Watch]] and many other international bodies and [[Non-governmental organization|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.<ref name="cnn2009-01-06"/><ref name="AI_briefing">{{cite web |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/007/2009/en/ |title=Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories: The conflict in Gaza: A briefing on applicable law, investigations and accountability |date=19 January 2009 |publisher=[[Amnesty International]] |access-date=5 June 2009 |archive-date=15 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150415160014/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/007/2009/en/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="isrlpa13698">{{Cite web |date=5 July 2006 |title=Human Rights Council Special Session on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, July 6, 2006 |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2006/07/05/human-rights-council-special-session-occupied-palestinian-territories-july-6-2006 |access-date=5 March 2022 |website=[[Human Rights Watch]] |language=en |archive-date=4 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120104173325/https://www.hrw.org/news/2006/07/05/human-rights-council-special-session-occupied-palestinian-territories-july-6-2006 |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Fatah–Hamas split (2006–2007) ===
{{main|Fatah–Hamas conflict}}
In 2006, Hamas won a plurality of 44% in the [[2006 Palestinian legislative election|Palestinian parliamentary election]]. Israel responded it would begin [[2006–07 economic sanctions against the Palestinian National Authority|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.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Erlanger |first=Steven |date=18 February 2006 |title=Hamas Leader Faults Israeli Sanction Plan |language=en-US |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/18/world/middleeast/hamas-leader-faults-israeli-sanction-plan.html |access-date=5 March 2022 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=5 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220305205553/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/18/world/middleeast/hamas-leader-faults-israeli-sanction-plan.html |url-status=live}}</ref> After internal Palestinian political struggle between Fatah and Hamas erupted into the [[Battle of Gaza (2007)|2007 Battle of Gaza]], Hamas took full control of the area.<ref>{{cite book |last=Oren |first=Michael B. |author-link=Michael Oren |title=Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present |year=2007 |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |isbn=978-0-393-05826-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/powerfaithfantas00oren_1/page/607 607] |url=https://archive.org/details/powerfaithfantas00oren_1/page/607}}</ref> In 2007, Israel imposed a naval [[Blockade of the Gaza Strip|blockade on the Gaza Strip]], and cooperation with Egypt allowed a ground blockade of the Egyptian border.
[[File:Allenby Street bus bombing III.jpg|thumb|Aftermath of a Hamas suicide bombing on a bus in Tel Aviv.]]
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, a ceasefire was signed with international mediation between the parties, though the occupation and small and sporadic eruptions of violence continued.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

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.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bohn |first=Lauren E. |title=Hamas: Rockets will stop when Gaza borders are opened |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2012/11/18/gaza-hamas-israel-demands/1712561/ |access-date=5 March 2022 |work=[[USA Today]] |agency=[[Associated Press]] |archive-date=7 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407053837/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2012/11/18/gaza-hamas-israel-demands/1712561/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=290276 |title=Abbas: No justification for Gaza rocket attacks |work=[[The Jerusalem Post]] |date=2 November 2012 |access-date=14 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130316031412/http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=290276 |archive-date=16 March 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=24 December 2012 |title=Gaza: Palestinian Rockets Unlawfully Targeted Israeli Civilians |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/12/24/gaza-palestinian-rockets-unlawfully-targeted-israeli-civilians |access-date=5 March 2022 |publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]] |language=en |archive-date=28 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181128091753/https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/12/24/gaza-palestinian-rockets-unlawfully-targeted-israeli-civilians |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Seven Truths About Israel, Hamas and Violence |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2012-11-20/seven-truths-about-israel-hamas-and-violence |newspaper=Bloomberg.com |date=20 November 2012 |access-date=24 October 2022 |archive-date=7 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507095921/https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2012-11-20/seven-truths-about-israel-hamas-and-violence |url-status=live}}</ref> In November 2012, Palestinian representation in 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, [[2014 Gaza War|another war]] broke out between Israel and Gaza, resulting in over 70 Israeli and over 2,000 Palestinian casualties.<ref>{{Cite news |date=16 October 2023 |title=Urban battle from past Gaza war offers glimpse of what an Israeli ground offensive might look like |url=https://apnews.com/article/israel-gaza-hamas-military-urban-battle-89e45b149f3b88cd647cf6376dbfe0ac |access-date=2 December 2023 |work=[[AP News]] |language=en |archive-date=2 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202140527/https://apnews.com/article/israel-gaza-hamas-military-urban-battle-89e45b149f3b88cd647cf6376dbfe0ac |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== 2023–present Gaza war ===
{{main|Gaza war}}
[[File:October 2023 Gaza−Israel conflict.svg|thumb|left|Map of the [[Gaza war]] in Gaza and southern Israel]]

After the 2014 war and [[2021 Israel–Palestine crisis|2021 crisis]], Hamas began planning an attack on Israel.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hamas planned Oct. 7 from before 2014, with final decision made by 5 leaders – report |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-planned-oct-7-from-before-2014-with-final-decision-made-by-5-leaders-report/ |website=timesofisrael.com |access-date=10 February 2024 |archive-date=14 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114141217/https://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-planned-oct-7-from-before-2014-with-final-decision-made-by-5-leaders-report/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2022, Netanyahu returned to power while headlining a hardline [[Far-right politics in Israel|far-right]] [[Thirty-seventh government of Israel|government]],<ref>{{cite news |title=In Israel and the U.S., 'apartheid' is the elephant in the room |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/11/israel-palestine-apartheid-israel-scholars/ |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |archive-date=29 January 2024 |access-date=24 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240129045448/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/11/israel-palestine-apartheid-israel-scholars/ |url-status=live }}</ref> which led to greater political strife in Israel<ref>{{Cite news |title=Israel judicial reform explained: What is the crisis about? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-65086871 |work=[[BBC News]] |date=27 March 2023 |archive-date=26 July 2023 |access-date=10 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230726045539/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-65086871 |url-status=live }}</ref> and clashes in the Palestinian territories.<ref>{{cite web |date=21 August 2023 |title=Israeli-Palestinian death toll highest since 2005: UN envoy |url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/08/1139922 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230823083925/https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/08/1139922 |archive-date=23 August 2023 |access-date=24 August 2023 |publisher=UN}}</ref> This culminated in [[October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel|a surprise attack]] launched by Hamas-led militant groups on southern Israel from the Gaza Strip on 7 October 2023, in which more than 1,200 Israeli civilians and military personnel were killed, and around [[Gaza war hostage crisis|250 were taken hostage into Gaza]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Mills |first1=Andrew |last2=Hassan |first2=Ahmed Mohamed |title=Exclusive: Qatar seeking Israel-Hamas deal to free 50 hostages and 3-day truce |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/qatar-seeking-israel-hamas-deal-release-50-hostages-3-day-truce-sources-say-2023-11-15/ |work=[[Reuters]] |date=15 November 2023 |access-date=18 December 2023 |archive-date=17 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231117233749/https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/qatar-seeking-israel-hamas-deal-release-50-hostages-3-day-truce-sources-say-2023-11-15/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=What we know about the captives taken by Hamas |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/3/what-do-we-know-about-the-israeli-captives-held-by-hamas |access-date=15 December 2023 |work=[[Al Jazeera English|Al Jazeera]] |language=en |archive-date=15 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231215064234/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/3/what-do-we-know-about-the-israeli-captives-held-by-hamas |url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Israel Defense Forces|Israeli military]] retaliated by [[Gaza war|declaring war]] on Hamas and conducting an extensive [[Airstrike|aerial bombardment]] campaign on Gaza,<ref>{{cite news |title=Gaza war inflicts catastrophic damage on infrastructure and economy |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gaza-war-inflicts-catastrophic-damage-infrastructure-economy-2023-11-17/ |work=[[Reuters]] |date=17 November 2023 |archive-date=3 March 2024 |access-date=10 February 2024 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20240303120357/https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/gaza-war-inflicts-catastrophic-damage-infrastructure-economy-2023-11-17/ |url-status=live }}</ref> followed by a [[Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip (2023–present)|large-scale ground invasion]] with the stated goal of destroying Hamas, freeing hostages, and controlling security in Gaza afterwards.<ref>{{Cite news |date=31 October 2023 |title=Has Israel invaded Gaza? The military has been vague, even if its objectives are clear |url=https://apnews.com/article/israel-gaza-ground-operation-invasion-6ba5bf06f81c315252a9e53735f3de47 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231101193534/https://apnews.com/article/israel-gaza-ground-operation-invasion-6ba5bf06f81c315252a9e53735f3de47 |archive-date=1 November 2023 |access-date=2 November 2023 |work=[[Associated Press]]}}</ref> Israel killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, including civilians and combatants and [[Gaza Strip evacuations|displaced]] almost two million people.<ref>{{Cite web |title=United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – occupied Palestinian territory |url=http://www.ochaopt.org/node/10572 |access-date=6 February 2024 |website=[[United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs|UN OCHA]] |language=en |archive-date=28 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230228174724/https://www.ochaopt.org/ |url-status=live }}</ref> South Africa [[South Africa v. Israel (Genocide Convention)|accused]] Israel of [[Gaza genocide|genocide]] at the [[International Court of Justice]] and called for an immediate ceasefire.<ref name="ICJ_SA_proceedings_vs_IL_29Dec2023">{{Cite web |date=29 December 2023 |title=Proceedings instituted by South Africa against the State of Israel on 29 December 2023 |url=https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20231228-app-01-00-en.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105144115/https://www.icj-cij.org/index.php/node/203394 |archive-date=5 January 2024 |access-date=5 January 2024 |website=[[International Court of Justice]]}} [https://jusmundi.com/en/document/pdf/other/en-proceedings-instituted-by-south-africa-against-the-state-of-israel-on-29-december-2023-application-instituting-proceedings-and-request-for-the-indication-of-provisional-measures-friday-29th-december-2023 ALT Link]</ref> The court issued an order requiring Israel to take all measures to prevent any acts contrary to the [[1948 Genocide Convention]],<ref name="Patrick Kingsley">{{cite news |date=26 January 2024 |title=Israel-Hamas War: Update from Patrick Kingsley |url=https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/01/26/world/israel-hamas-gaza-news/333c0a8f-4e98-5a9f-8514-ef9aaf4f1e53 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240126131634/https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/01/26/world/israel-hamas-gaza-news/333c0a8f-4e98-5a9f-8514-ef9aaf4f1e53 |archive-date=26 January 2024 |access-date=26 January 2024 |work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=26 January 2024 |title=Order respecting South Africa's request for provisional measures |url=https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240126-ord-01-00-en.pdf |website=International Court of Justice}}</ref><ref name=Rajvanshi26Jan2024>{{cite magazine|last=Rajvanshi|first=Astha|date=26 January 2024|title=U.N. Court Says Israel Must Prevent Genocidal Acts in Gaza, But Doesn't Order a Ceasefire|url=https://time.com/6588931/icj-ruling-israel-genocidal-acts-gaza-south-africa/|magazine=Time|location=|access-date=26 January 2024|archive-date=26 January 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240126150958/https://time.com/6588931/icj-ruling-israel-genocidal-acts-gaza-south-africa/|url-status=live}}</ref> but did not order Israel to suspend its military campaign.<ref>{{Cite news |date=27 January 2024 |title=World Court stops short of Gaza ceasefire order for Israel |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-braces-world-court-ruling-focuses-attack-south-gaza-2024-01-26/ |access-date=27 January 2024 |work=Reuters}}</ref>

The war [[Middle Eastern crisis (2023–present)|spilled over]], with Israel engaging in clashes with local militias in the [[Israeli incursions in the West Bank (2023–present)|West Bank]], [[Hezbollah]] in [[Israel–Hezbollah conflict (2023–2024)|Lebanon]] and northern Israel, and other Iranian-backed militias in Syria.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/netanyahu-dismisses-international-pressure-nothing-will-stop-us-destroy-hamas/ |title=Netanyahu dismisses international pressure: 'Nothing will stop us' destroying Hamas |work=[[The Times of Israel]] |access-date=18 December 2023 |archive-date=17 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231217014118/https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/netanyahu-dismisses-international-pressure-nothing-will-stop-us-destroy-hamas/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/12/israel-gaza-war-can-hamas-actually-be-eliminated-experts-weigh-in.html |title=Can Hamas actually be eliminated? This is what military and security analysts think |first=Natasha |last=Turak |date=12 December 2023 |work=[[CNBC]] |access-date=18 December 2023 |archive-date=18 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231218214421/https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/12/israel-gaza-war-can-hamas-actually-be-eliminated-experts-weigh-in.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-says-idf-will-control-gaza-after-war-rejects-notion-of-international-force/ |title=Netanyahu says IDF will control Gaza after war, rejects notion of international force |work=[[The Times of Israel]] |access-date=18 December 2023 |archive-date=12 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231112163219/https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-says-idf-will-control-gaza-after-war-rejects-notion-of-international-force/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Iranian-backed militias also engaged in [[Attacks on US bases in Iraq, Jordan, and Syria during the Gaza war|clashes]] with the United States,<ref>{{Cite news |title=Three US troops killed in drone attack in Jordan, more than 30 injured |url=https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/28/politics/us-troops-drone-attack-jordan/index.html |work=[[CNN]] |date=28 January 2024 |archive-date=28 January 2024 |access-date=10 February 2024 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240128165542/https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/28/politics/us-troops-drone-attack-jordan/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref> while the [[Houthi movement|Houthis]] [[Red Sea crisis|blockaded]] the Red Sea in protest,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Armstrong |first=Kathryn |title=Houthis claim new attacks on Red Sea shipping |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68218901 |work=[[BBC News]] |date=6 February 2024 |archive-date=9 February 2024 |access-date=10 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240209195332/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68218901 |url-status=live }}</ref> to which the United States responded with airstrikes in [[2024 missile strikes in Yemen|Yemen]],<ref>{{Cite news |title=U.S. and U.K. launch new wave of strikes, this time targeting Houthis in Yemen |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/live-updates-rcna137078 |work=[[NBC News]] |date=4 February 2024 |archive-date=3 February 2024 |access-date=10 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240203094545/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/live-blog/live-updates-rcna137078 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[February 2024 United States airstrikes in Iraq and Syria|Iraq, and Syria]].<ref>{{Cite news |title=What we know about US retaliatory strikes in Iraq and Syria |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-68189567 |work=[[BBC News]] |date=3 February 2024 |archive-date=9 February 2024 |access-date=10 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240209154819/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-68189567 |url-status=live }}</ref>