Israel war on Gaza: History of the conflict explained
against October 7, the militant Palestinian organisation Hamas unleashed a never-before-seen onslaught against Israel, infiltrating neighbourhoods close to the Gaza Strip with hundreds of fighters.
Israeli estimates put the death toll at about 1,200, with over 250 captured as prisoners and sent to Gaza.
The Israeli military responded by carrying out air and artillery strikes on Gaza that resulted in the deaths of over 33,000 Palestinians, according to the health ministry run by Hamas in Gaza.
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More about the battle in Gaza and Israel
What is Hamas and why is it fighting Israel? Why is there a war?
Map of the Gaza Strip: Living under siege in Gaza
Described in detail: The faces of the Israeli hostages that were seized
Before 1948, what was Israel?
After the Ottoman Empire, which had dominated that region of the Middle East, was defeated in World War One, Britain seized control of the region known as Palestine.
A majority of Arabs and a minority of Jews lived in the region, along with many smaller ethnic groups.
When the international world tasked the UK with creating a "national home" for Jews in Palestine, tensions between the two peoples increased.
This was a result of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which was a promise given to the Jewish population in Britain by then-foreign secretary Arthur Balfour.
The proclamation was accepted by the newly established League of Nations, which served as the model for the United Nations, in 1922 and was codified in the British mandate over Palestine.
Although Palestinian Arabs also claimed the land and were against the relocation, Jews considered Palestine to be their ancestral home.
Prior to the outbreak of the Israeli War of Independence in 1948, a Haganah (Jewish Underground) fighter brandishing a gun while donning a cap and spectacles
image description A combatant for the Jewish Underground, or Haganah, shortly before the 1948 Israeli War of Independence
Jews began to arrive in greater numbers between the 1920s and the 1940s; many of them were escaping persecution in Europe, particularly the Nazi Holocaust during World War Two.
There was also a rise in violence against British rule and between Jews and Arabs.
The UN decided in 1947 to divide Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem becoming a global metropolis.
Though it was never carried out, the Arab side rejected the idea, which was approved by Jewish officials.
On March 6, 1948, during the first Arab-Jewish conflict, soldiers from the allied Arab Legion forces opened fire on Jewish fighters of the Haganah, the Jewish Agency self-defense group, which was headquartered in the Jemin Moshe neighbourhood of the West sector of the city.
Image caption: In March 1948, fighters from the Jewish Agency self-defense force, the Haganah, were fired upon by soldiers of the allied Arab Legion forces.
Why and how was Israel established?
Jewish leaders proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 after Britain left due to its inability to resolve the issue.
It was meant to serve as both a sovereign homeland and a safe refuge for Jews escaping persecution.
Months of fighting had escalated between Arab and Jewish militias, and five Arab nations launched an attack on Israel the day it became a state.
1949 Armistice Lines on a Map
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There was a "Catastrophe" known to the Palestinians as Al Nakba, when hundreds of thousands of them were forced to flee their homes.
