Thousands of years of history are hard to sum up in one article on the internet, but here, the KSAT Explains team is breaking down some of the key conflicts that have transpired involving Israel, Gaza and its surrounding areas since Israel gained its independence in 1948.
It’s a look back that gives more context to the war between Israel and Hamas prompted by the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
“We have a lot of gasoline and a lot of matches that, at any combination here, can come together,” said Edward Westermann, Ph.D., Regents Professor of History at Texas A&M University-San Antonio.
Israel became a nation in 1948 after declaring its independence from Palestine, which was not an independent nation itself.
Palestine was a British protectorate, which is similar to a territory.
“Then immediately, once Israel declares independence, a war breaks out with Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. And Israel ends up winning that war,” said Jon Taylor, Ph.D., who is an Associate Dean and Department Chair of Political Science and Geography at UTSA.
That led to Palestinian territory being reduced to Gaza and the West Bank, as we know it now.
A two-state solution
The year before Israel gained its independence, the United Nations came up with a plan: U.N. Resolution 181.
It was a proposal to give both Palestine and Israel sovereignty by creating a nation for each.
“What the dual-state solution was intended to do was to carve up Israel not in a contained contiguous way, but kind of gerrymandering the map so that each side would get access to seaports, for example, access to certain areas,” said Westermann.
Jewish Israelis accepted the proposal, but Palestine and surrounding Arab states did not.
“The problem is that for Israel to have a two-state solution, you have to have countries surrounding Israel agreeing that they will not attempt to attack and destroy Israel,” said Taylor. “And that’s been the biggest sticking point.”
The Israeli victory the year following the resolution forced Palestinian refugees into what’s now known as the Gaza Strip.
“700,000 Palestinians were made into refugees, and many of them went to the West Bank, which is an area near Jordan, and many of them went to the west, which is the Gaza Strip, which was controlled by Egypt,” Westermann said.
Gaza’s size in San Antonio terms
Gaza sits along the Mediterranean Sea and is bordered by Egypt to the west and south and Israel to the north and east.
“It’s an area that (comparatively) stretches essentially from Stone Oak Parkway to downtown in terms of length,” said Taylor. “And width, essentially from 281 to I-10 and 1604. It’s not very big.”
After the 1948 war, Palestinian refugees flooded into that small area and to the West Bank, which sits to Israel’s north.
Then, the West Bank was controlled by Jordan while Gaza was controlled by Egypt.
But that changed after six days in 1967.
The Six-Day War
Tensions between Arab nations and Israel were rising in 1967.
“Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and those areas wanted to see the creation again of an Arab state or a Palestinian state, but that would only come at the expense of Israeli territory,” said Westermann.
Israel launched an air assault in June 1967 and won the quick war six days later.
Israel began occupying Gaza and seized the West Bank and Oslo, a city that is perhaps the most significant spot on the map for the world’s three biggest religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
“The Hebrew Bible describes the city as the place where God lives. And that’s why the Jerusalem temple was built there,” said Chad Spigel, Ph.D., professor of religion at Trinity University.
“In the New Testament, Jerusalem is a location where Jesus was crucified and resurrected,” Spigel added. “And in Islam, in the Koran, there’s a night journey where Muhammad is ascended to heaven, and that supposedly takes place in Jerusalem.”
The foundations of all three religions are rooted in Jerusalem and, for thousands of years, the conflict between Israel and surrounding nations has shared a religious root, as well.
The Yom Kippur War
During the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in 1973, Egypt and Syria led an attack against Israel.
And yet, it resulted in another Israeli victory.
Israel captured Egyptian territory all the way to the Suez Canal but later returned that land to Egypt in a peace deal.
In the years that followed, there were two Arab uprisings, or Intifadas, that lasted years themselves.
“Palestinians were fighting for more autonomy or autonomy in the case of Gaza and in the West Bank,” said Westermann.
The Intifadas led to thousands of deaths of both Israelis and Palestinians.
Finally, came the Oslo Accords in 1993.
It was an agreement between Israel and the group representing the Palestinian territories, the Palestinian Liberation Organization or PLO.
“It allowed self-government through Gaza and parts of the West Bank. That’s what the Israelis agreed to. And in turn, the Palestinian Authority agreed to recognize Israel,” said Westermann. “And that was a significant step.”
The rise of Hamas
Hamas formed during the first Intifada in 1987 and in the years following continued to momentum in the region.
In 1987, the Palestinian authority fractured into two groups — Fatah (formerly PLO) and Hamas, which continued to gain momentum in the region.
“So you had, again, to complicate this picture even more in Gaza, you had inter-ethnic violence between between the two sides in 2005 and 2006,” Westermann said.
Since then, Hamas has governed Palestinians in Gaza while Fatah controls the West Bank.
Today, the U.S. and the European Union recognize Hamas “as a terrorist organization, which does not recognize the right of Israel to exist,” said Westermann.
There has not been an election in Gaza in nearly 20 years.
“The people running it are running it because they have they have the guns and the power to do it,” said Taylor.
Blockades on Gaza’s borders with Egypt and Israel control people coming in and out of Gaza.
“According to some human rights groups and some Palestinians, it’s an open door or open-air prison in some ways, because they are at the mercy of Israel and Egypt,” said Sussan Siavoshi, Una Chapman Cox Professor of International Affairs at Trinity University.
Today, some 2 million people live in that roughly 140-square-mile area.