Daily TribuneThe major Hamas attack on 07 October 2023 marked the official start of the Israel-Hamas war, but the conflict dates back decades.
Two Palestinian youth react to the news of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas from Khan Younis. Photo by Ramadan Abed on Reuters.
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The latest 12 and 13 October hostage deal marks the most significant ceasefire negotiations in the Israel-Hamas War. While the war officially started 07 October 2023, the conflict between Israel and Palestine dates back decades.
Towards the end of World War 1, British forces conquered Palestine on 31 October 1917. Previously, Palestine had been under 1,400 years of Islamic Rule under the Ottoman-Turks Empire.
Before the British Mandate, Jews made up around six percent of the total population. Britain then pledged to establish a national home for Jewish people in Palestine under the Balfour Declaration. This declaration started a large-scale Jewish migration to Palestine, accelerated by Jewish people fleeing Nazism in Europe.
Between 1918 and 1947, the Jewish population in Palestine rose from six to thirty-three percent.
When the Jewish population grew, Palestinians were alarmed by the demographic change. Tensions grew between Jews and Arabs. Jewish people claimed their historical link to the land, while Palestinian's asserted their claim based on history that spanned centuries. In an attempt to reclaim their country, Palestinians led the Palestinian revolt from 1936 to 1939.
Zionism, a political ideology created in the late 19th century, became more widespread as Jewish people continued to flee to Palestine to escape persecution in Europe. Zionists called for the creation of a Jewish homeland, and they deployed armed militias to attack the Palestinian people and squash the Palestinian revolt.
As violence became more widespread in Palestine, the matter was referred to the newly formed United Nations. In 1947, the UN adopted Resolution 181. This called for a partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states, which had the goal of appeasing the two groups. No Arab nations supported the partition plan, as it guaranteed Jews 55 percent of the land even though their population was smaller. Despite this, the Partitian Plan followed through, and Jerusalem was divided into East and West Jerusalem. The former had a majority Palestinian population, while the latter a predominantly Jewish population.
The UN resolved the issue on 14 May 1948, with Britain abstaining. By 1949, Israel was recognized as a separate state.
The day after Israel declared independence, it was attacked and surrounded by armies of five Arab nations, all of which did not support the original partition plan. The conflict became recognized as Israel's war of independence. The fighting ended in 1949, with Israel (backed by the Global West) controlling most of the land.
Agreements left Egypt occupying the Gaza Strip, Jordan occupying the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Israel occupying West Jerusalem. Zionists militias ethnically cleansed more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homes. This mass exodus became known as "The Nakba" which means catastrophe in Arabic.
Israel, fearing attacks by Egypt and Syria, launched a preemptive strike on Egypt's airforce, which marked the start of the 1967 Six-Day War.
Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza from Egypt, most of Golan Heights from Syria, and East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan. By this point, Zionists forces ruled and occupied most of the area, and this occupation has lasted until this day. In 1980, Israel declared the annexation of East Jerusalem, but it still remained an occupied territory.
Around 300,000 more Palestinians were displaced and forced to flee their homes by Israeli forces.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo Accords, which aimed to achieve peace within five years starting 1993. It was the first time the two sides recognized each other. In 1995, a second agreement divided the West Bank into Area A (under Palestinian Control), Area B (under joint Israeli-Palestinian Control), and Area C (Under Israeli Control). The agreements left Palestinians with only 18 percent of the land. Meanwhile, Area B originally intended for joint control, saw increased Israeli control.
After the Oslo Accords, Jewish people built and occupied illegal settlements on Palestinian land, violating the two-state solution. This is considered illegal under international law, with the United Nations calling the settlements a "big hurdle" in the realization of a viable Palestinian state.
Alongside the settlements, Israel built a separation wall on occupied territories, which fragmented Palestinian communities and restricted their mobility. There are, to this day, least 645 fixed obstacles, 49 constantly Israeli-staffed checkpoints, and 139 occasionally-staffed checkpoints dotted the West Bank. In 2022, Israel also deployed an average of four flying checkpoints each week. Meanwhile, around 70,000 Palestinians are required to have Israeli work permits to cross these checkpoints.
In response to Israeli control, Hamas, a militant Palestinian group, was formed, with the goal of organizing armed resistance against Israeli rule and establishing an independent Islamic state in historical Palestine.
In 2007, Israel imposed a land, air, and sea blockade on Gaza after Hamas came into power, effectively trapping two million people inside the Gaza Strip. This blockade led to increased Israeli military control, a 45 percent unemployment rate, 64 percent food insecure households, in one of the most densely populated areas in the world.
Since 2007, Israel has launched five military assaults on Gaza. The September 2008 assault lasted 23 days. The 2012 assault lasted 8 days. 2014 saw the second-longest military assault, lasting 50 days. Then in 2021, the Israeli assault lasted 11 days. The fifth military assault in 2023 is what we now call the Israel-Hamas War.
On 07 October 2023, Hamas launched a major attack on Israel, in response to the decades of occupation and control. The attack killed over 1,200 people and captured 251 hostages. Israel declared war and launched a large-scale bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza. This marks the longest and deadliest assault on Palestine.
From October to November 2023, Israel advanced into Gaza City and Khan Younis. Israeli forces deployed airstrikes on Gaza, bombing hospitals and civilians in an attempt to "drive out Hamas from hiding." The humanitarian crisis in Gaza reached international news, sparking concerns over a polio epidemic, the blockage of relief trucks which caused starvation and dehydration, carpet bombing, and journalists killed. A seven-day truce from 24 to 30 November led to the initial exchange of hostages and Palestinian detainees.
In 2024, the war saw escalating offensives, particularly in Rafah and the Egypt-Gaza border area. Regional tensions flared when Israel targeted Iran. Multiple attempts at humanitarian pauses and ceasefires took place but mostly collapsed. The famine in Gaza worsened. Estimated death toll in October 2024 reached more than 70,000. Almost 60 percent are the elderly, women, and children.
This year, violence and airstrikes continued despite short ceasefire agreements in the first quarter of 2025. Humanitarian concerns persisted, and Israeli forces blocked relief trucks and vessels carrying humanitarian aid from reaching Palestinians.
The Gaza Freedom Flotilla, carrying 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid and multiple activists around the world (including Greta Thunberg), was raided by the Israeli Defense Forces, which left nine people dead.
Gaza was declared to have catastrophic levels of food insecurity, reaching Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Phase 5 Level Famine.
Most recently, the 12 and 13 October 2025 ceasefire took effect after protracted negotiations and a US-backed hostage exchange deal. All 20 remaining living Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza were released, supervised by the Red Cross, in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners by Israel. This number includes 250 people serving life sentences for convictions in attacks on Israelis. The rest are Palestinian civilians with no charges, captured during the war.
World leaders from around the world convene in Egypt to sign the ceasefire deal, led by US President Donald Trump and mediating partners such as Egypt, Qatar, and Turkiye. Alongside this are discussions on future governance and negotiations on who will pay for a billion-dollar reconstruction process. Israel wants to ensure that the weakened Hamas disarms. Hamas, on the other hand, wants to ensure Israel pulls its troops completely out of Gaza and return the land back to Palestinians.
