This timeline of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict lists events from 1948 to the present. The

Israeli–Palestinian conflict The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing military and political conflict about Territory, land and self-determination within the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. Key aspects of the conflict include the Israeli occupation ...

emerged from

intercommunal conflict in Mandatory Palestine During the British rule in Mandatory Palestine, there was civil, political and armed struggle between Palestinian Arabs and the Jewish Yishuv, beginning from the violent spillover of the Franco-Syrian War in 1920 and until the onset of the 1948 ...

between Palestinian Jews and Arabs, often described as the background to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The conflict in its modern phase evolved since the declaration of the State of

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

on May 14, 1948 and consequent intervention of Arab armies on behalf of the Palestinian Arabs.

Background

Israel gained independence on May 14, 1948, while a Palestinian attempt to establish a

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

in the Gaza Strip in September 1948 under an Egyptian protectorate failed, being de facto managed by Egyptian military and announced dissolved in 1959.

1948–1949: Arab–Israeli War

1948–1966

Between 1949 and 1953, there were 99 complaints made by Israel about the infiltration of armed groups or individuals and 30 complaints of armed Jordanian units crossing into Israeli territory.UN DOC S/PV 630 of 27 October 1953
Several hundred Israeli civilians were killed by infiltrators, and some were raped and mutilated. Israel launched numerous reprisal raids in response. Between 1949 and 1956, 286 Israeli civilians were killed. During the same period, excluding the

Suez War The Suez Crisis, also known as the Second Arab–Israeli War, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so w ...

, 258 Israeli soldiers were killed. Between 2,700 and 5,000 Arab infiltrators were killed. It is unclear whether these Arabs were really infiltrators or were simply unauthorized crossers, as many Palestinians were crossing into Israel for economic reasons. The Israeli forces necessarily treated anyone attempting unauthorized entry as a potential infiltrator, given the level of bloodshed.

1967–1973

1974–1980s: Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon

1980s

1987–1991: First Intifada

The

First Intifada The First Intifada (), also known as the First Palestinian Intifada, was a sustained series of Nonviolent resistance, non-violent protests, acts of civil disobedience, Riot, riots, and Terrorism, terrorist attacks carried out by Palestinians ...

began with violence, riots, general strikes, and civil disobedience campaigns by Palestinians spread across the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli forces responded with tear gas, plastic bullets, and live ammunition against the demonstrators. After the outbreak of the First Intifada, Shaikh

Ahmed Yassin Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin (; June 1936 – 22 March 2004) was a Palestinian politician and imam who founded Hamas, an Islamist political and military organization. He also served as the first chairman of the Hamas Shura Council and ...

created

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

from the Gaza wing of the

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

ian

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...

. Until that point the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza had enjoyed the support of the Israeli authorities and had refrained from violent attacks. However, Hamas quickly began attacks on Israeli military targets, and subsequently, Israeli civilians. The Israeli army killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the First Intifada whilst 164 Israelis were killed. Allegedly almost half (1,000) of the total Palestinian casualties were caused by internal fighting among Palestinian factions.

1991–present: Peace process

2000–2005: Al-Aqsa Intifada

2005–present: Post-Intifada, Gaza conflict

After Israel completely withdrew from Gaza in 2005, Hamas and other militants unleashed a barrage of daily rocket attacks into Israel. The city of Sderot, for example, one mile away from Gaza, was hit by over 360 Qassam rockets within a six-month period after Israel's withdrawal. In June 2006, militants from Gaza tunneled into Israel, killing two soldiers and capturing one. Two weeks later, Hezbollah, supported by Iran and Syria, attacked Israel across the internationally recognized Israeli–Lebanese border, killing eight soldiers and kidnapping two, simultaneously launching a barrage of rockets against civilian towns in northern Israel. Israel responded with a military operation that lasted 34 days. After Hamas fired thousands of rockets at Israeli communities and refused to renew a six-month truce, Israel responded with a military operation against Hamas to protect Israeli citizens. The 22-day operation ended on January 18, 2009. In May 2010, Turkish activists with the Free Gaza flotilla tried to break Israel's naval blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza. In August 2010, Lebanese soldiers shot and killed an Israeli soldier during routine IDF maintenance on the border. Three Lebanese soldiers and one Lebanese journalist were killed in the exchange of gunfire.

2023–present

In 2023, heavy warfare between Palestinians (dominated by

) and

again erupted, more deadly and destructive than ever since the 1973

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was fought from 6 to 25 October 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states led by Egypt and S ...

Death timelines

Data is from the

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is a United Nations (UN) body established in December 1991 by the General Assembly to strengthen the international response to complex emergencies and natural disaster ...

Deaths in Palestine and Israel 2008-2023

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Timeline of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict *Timeline Articles containing video clips

Israeli-Palestinian conflict Israelis (; ) are the citizens and nationals of the State of Israel. The country's populace is composed primarily of Jews and Arabs, who respectively account for 75 percent and 20 percent of the national figure, followed by other ethnic and ...