Israel and Hamas have reportedly agreed to a ceasefire deal, which would put an end to the war in the Gaza Strip which started in October 2023. On October 7, 2023, the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing over 1,200 people and taking hundreds of hostages.
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, formally declared war on Hamas on October 8, setting the stage for what would be 15 months of conflict. The causes of the conflict between the two countries are deep-rooted and complex, spanning at least two centuries.
Since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, it has fought multiple wars against Arab countries and Palestinian groups. Both Israelis and Palestinians lay claim to the stretch of land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. Here is a timeline of the conflict, from World War I up to the October 7 attack, a little over one year ago.
Since the early 16th century, the Ottoman Empire had controlled this contested area of the Middle East. As World War I begins, Palestinian Arabs make up around 80 per cent of the population, with Jews making up around 10 per cent. During World War One, the Allied Powers try to shape the Middle East, in several controversial and contradictory ways. Palestinians point to a series of letters from 1915 to 1916 between Mecca’s emir and the British high commissioner in Egypt, known as the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, as promising an independent Arab state after the war.
By 1917, Britain has control over most of the region. That year, Britain’s then-foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, writes a letter addressed to Lionel Walter Rothschild, the head of the British wing of the influential European Jewish banking family.
