History of the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict

Two national movements’ claims to the same homeland lie at the center of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, connecting questions of national identity with demands for self-determination, statehood, and justice.[1] Modern Zionism developed as a Jewish national movement seeking a homeland, while Arab inhabitants developed demands for independence and self-government alongside it.[2] Its history therefore encompasses both relations between Jewish and Arab communities and the policies of Ottoman, British, regional, and international authorities.[2][5]

The wars of 1948 and 1967 produced major changes in territorial control and Palestinian residence, while the establishment of Israel and subsequent Palestinian representative institutions changed the political framework of the conflict.[3][2] The 1993 exchange of recognition between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, or PLO, established a basis for direct negotiations and Palestinian self-government without settling permanent borders or the other central issues.[4]

Diplomatic proposals have repeatedly addressed security, borders, Israeli settlements, Palestinian refugees, and Jerusalem.[4] Other recurring questions include water and resource distribution, recognition of the Jewish people, and whether a political settlement should take the form of two states or a single state.[6] More recent phases have also centered on the division between Palestinian Authority administration in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — and Hamas rule in Gaza, together with Gaza’s future governance and security.[7][8]

Modern Zionism took shape in late-nineteenth-century Europe amid nationalism and antisemitism.[2] Theodor Herzl’s publication of The Jewish State in 1896 and the First Zionist Congress in 1897 helped advance the movement for Jewish settlement in Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire.[2] Early Zionist immigration included Jews escaping antisemitic persecution in Europe.[7] The territory had a predominantly Muslim population, alongside Christian and Jewish residents.[2]

Ottoman rule in the region extended from 1517 until British occupation during World War I.[9] In the late nineteenth century, disputes between Jewish settlers and local Arabs included disagreements over land ownership and grazing rights.[5] Arab inhabitants’ aspirations for self-determination and independence from European colonial powers developed alongside the Jewish national movement.[2]

During World War I, British official Henry McMahon and Sharif Hussein exchanged letters concerning Arab independence in return for an Arab revolt against Ottoman rule.[2] On November 2, 1917, British Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour sent Lionel Walter Rothschild a declaration supporting the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine.[2] The declaration also protected the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities and the rights and political status of Jews in other countries.[2]

The Balfour Declaration became an important expression of international support for Zionist aspirations.[2] Its reception extended beyond Palestine: more than 200,000 Jews in Odessa enthusiastically greeted a Zionist delegation after the declaration.[2] The declaration was subsequently incorporated into the preamble of the British Mandate for Palestine.[10]

The League of Nations formally approved the British Mandate for Palestine on July 24, 1922.[2] Its terms assigned Britain responsibility for facilitating a Jewish national home, developing self-governing institutions, and safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all inhabitants.[2] The Mandate recognized the Jewish people’s historical connection with Palestine.[11] Its immigration provisions called for facilitating Jewish immigration and close Jewish settlement on the land while protecting other sections of the population.[2]

A British memorandum excluded Transjordan, east of the Jordan River, from provisions concerning the Jewish national home and Jewish immigration.[9] Britain and the League adopted this arrangement in September 1922; the excluded territory constituted approximately three-fourths of the Mandate territory and later became Jordan.[11] Britain governed Mandatory Palestine from 1922 to 1948.[5]

During the Mandate, the Yishuv, or Jewish community in Palestine, developed elected institutions and educational, religious, health, and social-service networks.[11] Palestinian opposition to Zionism and Jewish settlement grew during the 1920s, accompanied by fears that continued immigration would lead to domination or expulsion.[5] Palestinian demands included ending Jewish immigration, stopping land sales to Jews, and establishing Palestinian Arab independence.[5]

Violence occurred in 1920, 1921, 1929, and 1933, and during the Arab revolt of 1936–1939.[5] The 1929 violence included the Hebron massacre.[11] Jewish immigration expanded as German Jews faced persecution following the Nazi rise to power: 174,000 Jews arrived between 1933 and 1936, including more than 62,000 in 1935.[2] By 1936, the Jewish population had reached approximately 384,000.[5]

Following killings and demonstrations in 1936, the Arab Higher Committee demanded an end to Jewish immigration and land sales and the establishment of an Arab representative government.[2] The ensuing revolt opposed British rule as well as Zionist efforts and lasted until 1939.[2][5]

In July 1937, the Peel Commission recommended partition into Jewish and Arab states, with proposed land and population exchanges.[2] The Zionist Congress accepted partition as a basis for further negotiations, although a Yad Vashem historical account describes the movement’s practical response to the specific proposal as rejection; Arab leaders opposed partition.[11][12] Britain’s 1939 White Paper instead proposed a single state, limited Jewish immigration to 75,000 over five years, and restricted Jewish land acquisition.[2] The Zionist movement rejected this sharp restriction on the development of the Jewish national home as European Jews faced Nazi persecution and the Second World War began.[12]

Britain referred the Palestine question to the United Nations in 1947.[11] On November 29, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 181 by 33 votes to 13, with 10 abstentions.[2] It recommended independent Jewish and Arab states, an economic union between them, and a special international regime for Jerusalem.[13] The proposed economic union included shared arrangements for customs, currency, transport, and development.[13]

Jerusalem was to be a “corpus separatum under a special international regime” administered by the United Nations.[13] The plan also prescribed boundaries and a transitional timetable for ending the British Mandate and establishing the states.[2] Jewish community leaders welcomed the proposal; Palestinian Arab leaders and the Arab League rejected it, arguing that partition was unfair to the Arab majority.[2] The United Nations did not succeed in implementing the plan before the conflict worsened.[11]

Israel’s War of Independence began on November 30, 1947, the day after the partition vote, with fighting between the Jewish and Arab communities.[14] Palestinian Arab irregulars fought Jewish forces, including the Haganah, Irgun, and LEHI.[3] Large-scale Arab assaults began in January 1948, while the Haganah took the initiative in early April and captured towns including Tiberias and Haifa.[15]

Operation Nachshon in April 1948 sought to open the road to blockaded Jerusalem.[14] Once the route was cleared, convoys carried food, equipment, and ammunition into the city.[14] The operation marked a turning point in the transition of Jewish forces from defensive operations to offensive action.[14]

Israel declared independence in Tel Aviv on May 14, 1948, before the British Mandate expired.[2][16] The declaration established a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel called Israel and cited the end of the Mandate and the UN resolution.[16] It promised equality of social and political rights regardless of religion, race, or sex, alongside freedoms of religion, conscience, language, education, and culture.[16] The United States recognized Israel immediately, and the Soviet Union followed on May 17.[2]

On May 15, the armies of Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded, transforming the conflict into conventional warfare involving the new state and neighboring Arab countries.[11] Fighting continued intermittently into 1949, and more than 6,000 Israelis were killed.[11] The war lasted approximately 20 months with pauses, ending through separate armistice agreements rather than a comprehensive peace settlement.[14][3]

Israel signed armistice agreements with Egypt on February 24, 1949, Lebanon on March 23, Jordan on April 3, and Syria on July 20.[2] Iraq did not negotiate an armistice.[11] Israel held territory beyond that assigned to the Jewish state in the UN partition recommendation, while Jordan controlled the West Bank and Egypt administered Gaza.[3] Jerusalem was divided, with Israel controlling its western sector and Jordan its eastern sector.[11] Jordan formally annexed the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 1950.[2]

The war displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians through flight and expulsion.[17] Approximately 700,000 were driven from or fled their homes, and Palestinians call the displacement the Nakba, meaning “catastrophe.”[17] More than 150,000 Arabs remained in Israel; those who remained became Israeli citizens.[2] Many refugees settled in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.[17]

The exodus began in December 1947, within days of the partition vote and the outbreak of hostilities.[18] Contemporary estimates conveyed to a United States vice-consul placed 80,000–100,000 Palestinian refugees in Transjordan by late July 1948.[18] Lebanon had an estimated 90,000–120,000 refugees by the beginning of 1949.[18] Large-scale Jewish immigration to Israel after independence also changed the population balance.[19]

Postwar disputes included borders, refugee return or compensation, Jerusalem, water distribution, and Arab recognition of Israel.[5] A UN body established in 1948 sought a settlement involving refugees, regional economic development, and water resources.[5]

The refugee issue continued across generations and subsequent wars.[20] Approximately 250,000 additional Palestinians fled the West Bank and Gaza during the 1967 war, including people previously displaced in 1948.[20] UNRWA’s refugee category includes descendants, and published accounts reported a total of approximately five million refugees and descendants.[20][17]

The Palestine Liberation Organization was established in 1964 after an Arab League summit called for an organization representing Palestinians.[2] It brought together several Palestinian groups, with Fatah becoming its most important constituent.[9] Its original stated goal was the liberation of Palestine, and its 1968 charter called for eliminating Zionism in Palestine through armed struggle.[2]

Before the June 1967 war, regional tensions included Palestinian guerrilla attacks, Israeli reprisals, Egypt’s deployment of troops in Sinai, the withdrawal of the United Nations Emergency Force, and Egypt’s announcement that it would close the Straits of Tiran.[21] Egypt and Jordan also concluded a mutual-defense agreement.[22] Israel launched a preemptive strike against Egypt on June 5, and the war ended on June 10.[22]

Israel captured Sinai and Gaza from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria.[21] Approximately one million Arabs came under Israeli responsibility in the captured areas.[22] Palestinian communities previously divided among Jordanian rule, Egyptian rule, refugee communities, and citizenship in Israel now experienced a substantially changed territorial and political setting.[23]

On November 22, 1967, the Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 242.[2] It linked withdrawal from territories occupied in the conflict with ending belligerency, recognizing regional states’ sovereignty and territorial integrity, and establishing secure and recognized boundaries.[21] It also addressed freedom of navigation and a just settlement of the refugee problem.[9] The resolution became a foundation for later United States peace efforts but did not establish a Palestinian state or identify Palestinian representatives as negotiating parties.[21][2]

After 1967, Palestinian nationalist factions strengthened their role within the PLO.[5] Palestinian organizations established bases in the eastern Jordan Valley and sent terrorists into Israel; after Jordan expelled them following Black September in 1970, many relocated to southern Lebanon and Syria.[24] The period included terrorist attacks on Israeli civilian aviation and other prominent targets.[24]

In 1974, the Arab League recognized the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinian people.[2] That November, the UN General Assembly recognized it as their representative and granted it observer status.[2]

The 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt included a framework for Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza.[5] It envisaged five years of autonomy followed by discussions of final status.[9] Jordan and Palestinian representatives did not participate in the autonomy negotiations conducted by Egypt and Israel between 1979 and 1982, and those talks produced no agreement.[9] The separate Israel–Egypt peace treaty followed in 1979, and Israel completed its return of Sinai to Egypt in 1982.[5]

The First Intifada began in December 1987 after a traffic collision near the Jabalia refugee camp killed four Palestinian workers.[2] Demonstrations spread across Gaza and the West Bank, and the uprising included strikes, boycotts, civil disobedience, demonstrations, and violent street confrontations.[2] Its wider setting included unemployment, Israeli occupation, and Palestinian demands for political independence.[2] Settlement construction, land expropriation, and the repression of protests also contributed to the unrest.[25]

The uprising heightened concern within Israel that continued political control over the West Bank and Gaza was unsustainable.[26] It began to subside in 1991 amid security measures and economic harm to Palestinians, and ended with the first Oslo agreement in 1993.[27][25]

In 1988, Jordan’s King Hussein severed Jordan’s legal and administrative links with the West Bank.[9] The Palestinian National Council proclaimed a State of Palestine in Algiers, with Jerusalem as its capital, and accepted the principle of two states.[9][2] The PLO accepted conditions for opening dialogue with the United States that included rejecting terrorism, recognizing Israel’s right to exist, and accepting Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338.[25]

The Madrid Conference, held from October 30 to November 1, 1991, created the first official diplomatic negotiating framework involving Israel and Palestinian representatives.[2] Palestinians participated within a Jordanian delegation.[2] Bilateral talks envisaged a five-year period of Palestinian self-government followed by permanent-status negotiations, while parallel tracks involved Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.[2] Further negotiating rounds took place in Washington.[2]

Secret Israeli–PLO negotiations in Norway led to an exchange of recognition letters on September 9, 1993.[9][28] Yasser Arafat recognized Israel’s right to exist in peace and security and renounced terrorism and other violence, while Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people and agreed to negotiate with it.[9]

The Declaration of Principles was signed in Washington on September 13, 1993, launching the Oslo process.[4] It established an interim framework for a Palestinian Authority to assume governing responsibilities in the West Bank and Gaza over a five-year period.[4] Permanent-status negotiations were to address Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security arrangements, borders, and other outstanding questions.[29] The declaration specified that interim arrangements should not predetermine the permanent settlement.[29]

The 1994 Cairo Agreement implemented Israeli withdrawal from most of Gaza and Jericho.[4] Israel also released 5,000 Palestinian prisoners.[30] In October 1994, Israel and Jordan signed a separate peace treaty.[24]

Oslo II, concluded in 1995, provided for a Palestinian Council, elections, cooperation, staged transfers of civilian powers, and the allocation of security responsibilities.[4][9] It divided the West Bank into Areas A, B, and C, covering approximately 18, 22, and 60 percent of the territory respectively.[2] These areas received different combinations of Palestinian civil administration and Israeli security responsibility.[2] Approximately 90 percent of Palestinians were expected to live under Palestinian self-government within the interim arrangement.[2]

Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups attacked Israeli civilian targets during the interim period.[28] On November 4, 1995, Rabin was assassinated by Israeli right-wing extremist Yigal Amir, an opponent of Oslo.[24] The 1997 Hebron redeployment agreement subsequently divided security responsibilities between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and included an international monitoring arrangement.[30]

By September 2000, the Palestinian Authority controlled more than 85 percent of Gaza and 39.7 percent of the West Bank, and 99 percent of the Palestinian population lived under its jurisdiction.[28] Nevertheless, the process did not deliver its intended final-status agreement.[28] Oslo II remained the principal Israeli–Palestinian agreement, although its practical relevance for Gaza diminished after the 2005 disengagement and Hamas’s 2007 takeover.[2]

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat met at Camp David in July 2000 under United States President Bill Clinton’s auspices.[1] Negotiations addressed territory, borders, Jerusalem, security, settlements, and refugees but ended without agreement.[2] The unresolved questions included whether Israel would recognize Palestinian refugees’ right of return.[4]

The Second Intifada began in September 2000, as the Oslo process faltered.[25] Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount on September 28, followed by riots and escalating violence.[4] Seven Palestinians were killed and approximately 300 wounded on September 29.[1] Disturbances spread to other parts of the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel.[1]

An initial phase of mass disturbances and clashes escalated into armed conflict, attacks on civilians and security forces, and suicide bombings.[1] A suicide bombing in Netanya on March 4, 2001, killed three people.[1] The confrontation included a campaign of terrorism and violence and led Israel to tighten security measures in the West Bank.[11][26]

By August 2002, recorded deaths included 603 Israelis and 1,596 Palestinians.[2] Over the approximately five-year uprising, more than 4,300 people were killed, with Palestinian deaths slightly more than three times Israeli deaths.[25] The uprising had largely run its course by late 2005 and severely damaged prospects for peace.[25][26]

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon introduced a unilateral disengagement plan in 2003 after years of confrontation and lack of negotiating progress.[1] Israel implemented the withdrawal in August–September 2005, removing its forces and all Israeli settlements from Gaza, along with four settlements in northern Samaria.[1][31] The Gaza evacuation involved approximately 8,000 Israeli civilians in 21 settlements.[32] The withdrawal was completed on September 12, 2005, without close coordination with the Palestinian Authority over Gaza’s governance and development.[31]

Hamas won a majority of Palestinian Legislative Council seats in the 2006 elections.[7] Its power struggle with Fatah became violent, and Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007 following armed clashes with forces associated with Fatah and the Palestinian Authority.[33] The Palestinian Authority continued governing in the West Bank, creating a division between the two territories’ administrations.[7][32]

Israel and Egypt tightened restrictions on the movement of people and goods into and out of Gaza following Hamas’s takeover.[33] The restrictions included a blockade affecting imports, exports, and travel, imposed in response to security concerns and Hamas’s hostility.[31] Rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza continued after disengagement.[24] Major rounds of Israel–Hamas fighting followed in 2008–2009, 2012, 2014, and 2021.[33]

On October 7, 2023, Hamas led a terrorist assault from Gaza into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.[7] The coordinated attack used land, sea, and air routes, and those killed were primarily Israeli civilians.[34] Israel declared war the following day and launched a large-scale military campaign in Gaza.[34] Its stated goals included destroying Hamas’s military and governing capabilities and returning the hostages.[7]

The ensuing war caused extensive destruction and a mounting death toll in Gaza.[34] More than 70,000 Gazans had been killed by November 2025.[34] The war renewed international attention to Gaza’s postwar administration and security, its relationship with the West Bank, Jerusalem’s status, and the prospects for a negotiated political settlement.[35]

A ceasefire took effect on October 10, 2025, and the final surviving hostages were released on October 13.[34] The arrangement proposed a transitional Palestinian technocratic administration, international oversight, Hamas’s disarmament, and an international stabilization force.[34] A November 10, 2026, report described Hamas as continuing to govern parts of Gaza while Israel controlled other areas, with limited progress on disarmament and future governance negotiations.[8] Israeli strikes, humanitarian needs, and reconstruction remained part of the situation at that report’s publication.[8]

The 1993 mutual-recognition exchange changed the diplomatic framework from mutual non-recognition to negotiations over borders, powers, and responsibilities.[9] Palestinian self-government expanded through agreements and Israeli redeployments, but the interim framework left the central permanent-status questions unresolved.[4] The experience of Oslo therefore combines the establishment of representative negotiating relations with the absence of an agreed final settlement.[4][9]

Successive proposals have returned to the same interconnected issues: permanent borders, security arrangements, settlements, Palestinian refugees, and Jerusalem.[6] Water distribution, other resources, and Palestinian recognition of the Jewish people have also appeared among the central questions.[6] Two-state and one-state proposals represent different approaches to these issues, while disagreements over the proposed solution and lack of trust have hindered past efforts.[6]

The refugee issue connects the consequences of the War of Independence with later diplomacy over Palestinian statehood.[17] Israel has opposed a right of return to Israel on the grounds that it would alter the population balance and undermine the state’s Jewish character, while also raising the displacement of Jews from Arab countries.[17] Gaza’s governance and security have added another set of questions to the longstanding disputes over territory, refugees, and recognition.[35]

Historical narratives differ over the conflict’s starting point, the development of national identities, and responsibility for major turning points.[7] The McMahon–Hussein correspondence remains a significant example: Britain maintained that its promise of Arab independence was qualified, while Hussein understood Palestine to have been included.[2]

Estimates and explanations of Palestinian displacement in 1948 vary.[19] Published estimates range from 625,000–675,000 in cited Israeli sources to 700,000–850,000 in cited Palestinian sources.[19] Neither a uniformly voluntary exodus nor a systematic expulsion master plan adequately captures the multiple circumstances of flight and expulsion described in historical research.[36] Refugee definitions and the inclusion of descendants also remain disputed.[20]

The interpretation of Resolution 242’s withdrawal language and the legal status of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and settlements are major continuing disagreements.[37][21] Israel distinguishes the West Bank as disputed territory, whereas most countries regard settlements there as illegal transfers of civilians into occupied territory.[37] Security Council Resolution 2334 characterized settlements as violating international law, a position Israel rejects.[37]

Accounts of Camp David’s failure and the Second Intifada’s origins also diverge: Barak described far-reaching offers rejected without a counterproposal, while Palestinian negotiators regarded the proposals as insufficient for a durable state.[1] Palestinian accounts connected the uprising to Sharon’s visit and frustrated national aspirations; the Israeli government asserted that the Palestinian Authority had planned it.[2] Legal characterizations, casualty reporting, military conduct, and responsibility during the Gaza war remain subjects of significant dispute.[35][34]