Dream - It was a shocking morning. At 06.30, on Saturday, October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel during the Jewish holiday. The attack surprised Israel and leaders around the world. Fierce battles erupted in Israel and Gaza after Hamas launched thousands of rockets into Israel and infiltrated hundreds of armed Hamas fighters into Southern Israel. At least more than 1,300 Israelis were killed and 3,500 injured as a result of the shocking attack.

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“We are currently at war, and we will win it,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This battle may be the worst in the last 50 years, but it is part of a complex and bitter conflict that began since World War I. This dispute dates back to pre-Biblical times. Although the borders have shifted over the years, the Palestinian territories were once Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank.

History, culture, and identity of Jewish Israel and Arab Palestine are related to the Palestinian territories and the ancient city of Jerusalem, one of the most disputed cities in the world. The Ottoman Empire ruled the region for about 400 years before its defeat, along with Germany, in World War I. Palestine was placed under British control by the League of Nations in 1920, based on a mandate called the British Mandate.

In 1917, the British government indicated its support for the establishment of a Jewish state in Israel with the Balfour Declaration. Although the declaration expressed its support, it also stated that "no action shall be taken which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."

The migration of Jews from Eastern and Central Europe directly surged from 1922 to 1947 when Jewish people fled from persecution and the destruction of their communities during the interwar period and World War II. By the end of the Holocaust, over 6 million European Jews had been killed, and many survivors were stateless. As the number of Jewish immigrants increased, many Palestinian citizens became refugees. They began to resist, and violence ensued.

In 1929, 67 Jews were killed in a massacre in Hebron, part of the Palestinian riots against Jewish immigration in Palestine. Disputed territory Gaza: Also known as the Gaza Strip, this is home to approximately 2 million Palestinian residents, many of whom are refugees who left or were expelled from Israel during the War of Independence.

West Bank: The West Bank is located east of Israel. Around 3 million Palestinian residents live there, the majority of whom are Muslim Arabs. The West Bank contains several Jewish holy sites that are visited by thousands of pilgrims every year. East Jerusalem: Jerusalem itself is a divided and disputed city. This division occurred after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Israel controls the western part and Jordan controls the eastern part. Israel captured the entire city during the Six-Day War in 1967.

Although the ownership of Jerusalem is still debated, Israeli officials claim it as the undivided capital of Israel. In 2017, the Trump administration relocated the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, which was a formal recognition of Jerusalem as its capital. However, most countries do not recognize Jerusalem as belonging to either Israel or Palestine.

Who is fighting? Hamas. Hamas is the largest Palestinian fighter group and has launched rockets from Gaza to Israeli cities in the battle. This group was established in 1987 during the Palestinian uprising or the first intifada against the Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank, and has controlled Gaza since winning the elections in 2007. This group is committed to destroying the Israeli occupation.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) IDF is a combination of the military forces of Israel, including the army, navy, and air force. It was established in 1948, two weeks after Israel declared itself as a country.***How did the conflict between Palestine and Israel begin? Here is a summary of the main events of the conflict that has lasted for two centuries:

1947: The UN decided to divide Palestine into Jewish and Arab states and make Jerusalem an international city. The Arab community rejected the plan, but it was later canceled. 1948: After the British Mandate over Palestine ended on May 14, the Jewish People's Council met in Tel Aviv and established the State of Israel. The United States officially recognized the new state on the same day, and the Soviet Union recognized it three days later.

1956: Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal and prohibits Israeli ships from using it and the Strait of Tiran, as well as other shipping routes. Israel, aided by Britain and France, invades Egypt. The Soviet Union, an ally of Egypt, threatens nuclear retaliation, and the US pressures British, French, and Israeli forces to withdraw. The UN deploys peacekeeping forces. 1964: The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a group aimed at uniting Arab groups and liberating Palestinian territories through armed struggle, is formed in Egypt.

1967: The Six-Day War emerged from the conflict of the Suez Canal. Egypt ordered UN forces to leave, closed the Strait of Tiran to Israel, and planned a secret attack on Israel. In a preemptive strike, Israel attacked Egypt and then Jordan and Syria, capturing Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula.

1973: The Yom Kippur War began with Egypt and Syria attacking Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish year. The war was an attempt to reverse the defeat of the 1967 war. Unaware, Israel launched a counterattack and emerged victorious. The US helped secure a ceasefire agreement from the fighters, laying the groundwork for future peace efforts.

1979: Camp David Agreement, a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, was made by President Jimmy Carter and signed by President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel. 1979: Israel began withdrawing gradually from Sinai.

1987: Palestinian residents initiated the first uprising, or the first intifada, in Gaza, Israel, and the West Bank, utilizing mass boycotts, civil disobedience, and stone-throwing attacks against Israeli citizens. Over 50 Israeli civilians were killed. The intifada lasted for more than five years, ending in September 1993. During the first intifada, members of the Muslim Brotherhood established Hamas. The Israeli military killed 1,070 Palestinian residents, including 237 children, according to B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization. Jewish settlers killed 54 Palestinian residents. The United States and the United Nations criticized Israel's use of lethal force.

1991: In response to the intifada, the Madrid Conference was held, a historic meeting of all participants in the Arab-Israeli conflict, led by the US and Russia. 1993: Oslo I, known as the Declaration of Principles, was signed by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. They committed to negotiate an end to the conflict based on a two-state solution. Hamas, which opposed the agreement, launched a series of suicide bombings in Israel.

1995: Oslo II was signed, the second agreement in which the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) recognized the state of Israel and Israel allowed limited Palestinian self-government in Gaza. 1997: Two suicide bomb attacks killed 27 Israeli civilians, and Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres stated that he would launch an endless war against Hamas.

2000: President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat gathered at the Camp David Summit, a meeting intended to end the hostilities. The meeting ended without an agreement. Frustrated by the failure to establish a Palestinian state, Palestinian citizens initiated the second Intifada in September, which lasted until February 2005. B'Tselem estimated that over 3,100 Palestinian citizens and nearly 1,000 Israeli citizens were killed. 2005: Israel withdrew from Gaza but maintained control.

2007: Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, won the election in Gaza. 2008: Israel launched a large-scale military campaign against Hamas in Gaza after an increase in rocket fire from militants. The battle ended on January 18, 2009, with 1,440 Palestinian civilians and 13 Israeli citizens killed. 2012: Israeli forces killed Ahmed Jabari, a Hamas military commander, in a missile attack. The attack was part of Israel's operation to destroy weapons and fighters in Gaza. Hamas said the killing had "opened the gates of hell."

2014: Hamas kidnapped and killed three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, triggering the Gaza War, in which rocket attacks and airstrikes killed 2,251 Palestinian civilians and 73 Israeli civilians. A senior Hamas leader praised the kidnapping and stated that it was intended to spark a new uprising in Palestine. The war lasted for 50 days and ended with a ceasefire. A UN report stated that both sides may have committed war crimes, which is disputed by Israel and Hamas.

2017: The Trump administration announced that it would move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which is the US's official recognition of Israel's claim to the city. The embassy was relocated in 2018. 2018: Protests erupted at the Gaza-Israel border when the US Embassy was relocated. Demonstrators threw explosives and stones across the border fence and were met with gunfire and tear gas. At least 58 Palestinian citizens were killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

2021: The battle resumed when Israeli police raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on April 13, the first night of the holy month of Ramadan, and disconnected the speaker broadcasting the prayer of Reuven Rivldi, the President of Israel, while speaking at the Western Wall, a sacred site for Jews. The police then closed the nearby square, where people gather. Palestinian and Jewish residents began attacking each other, and Israeli police raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque on May 7.

The raid, which took place at a location considered sacred by Muslims on one of the holiest nights of Ramadan, is seen by Muslims as an insult. Hamas and other fighters fired rockets at Israel from Gaza on May 10. Israel retaliated with air strikes. A ceasefire came into effect on May 21. This ceasefire lasted until June 16, when Hamas sent burning balloons - helium balloons or kites equipped with flammable devices - across the Gaza border into Israel.

The device caused 20 fires in the land near the border, according to the Israeli fire department. Hamas launched the device after Israeli officials allowed ultranationalist demonstrators to march in Jerusalem. 2022: In the spring and summer of 2022, Israel experienced a series of attacks that prompted them to take preventive actions, including airstrikes targeting senior commanders and weapon depots, against Iran-backed militant groups such as Islamic Jihad.

At least 44 Palestinian civilians, including 15 children, were killed in three days of violence in August 2022. In January of this year, Israel launched the first of two attacks on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, which it claimed was a hiding place for Palestinian fighters and activists. The second attack, in July 2023, saw Israel sending around 1,000 soldiers, supported by drone strikes, to Jenin to destroy what was deemed as a militant "command center."

October 2023: In the largest attack in recent years, hundreds of armed men from the Palestinian group Hamas infiltrated southern Israel in a surprise attack that coincided with the Jewish holiday. Hamas also launched thousands of rockets into Israel. The Israeli national rescue service reported at least 1,300 people killed and 3,500 others injured. (eha) Source: The New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post