More than 20 people have been killed in Gaza following fighting between militants and Israel, violence has surged into the occupied West Bank and Arab communities inside Israel have held demonstrations. What has caused the increase in violence?
Since its establishment in 1948, the State of Israel has fought seven recognized wars, two Palestinian intifadas, and a series of armed conflicts in the broader Arab-Israeli conflict . Israel has been involved in a number of wars and large-scale military operations, including:
Why is Jerusalem such a flashpoint? Jerusalem has always been the centre of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, with its holy sites revered by Jews and Muslims. The Old City’s Western Wall forms part of the holiest site in Judaism – the Temple Mount.
It all relates to Israel’s half-century military occupation and its ever-deepening grip over Palestinian life. Long-building anger has exploded because a series of events have all converged at once, reaching a climax on Monday. What is the background to those events?
Two decades later, Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordanian forces in the 1967 war and later annexed it.
Meanwhile, an Israeli election in March further emboldened Israel’s far right, bringing a party of Jewish ultranationalists allied with the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, into parliament.
More than 20 people have been killed in Gaza following fighting between militants and Israel, violence has surged into the occupied West Bank and Arab communities inside Israel have held demonstrations.
A decision by Mahmoud Abbas, the 85-year-old leader of the unpopular semi-autonomous Palestinian Authority, to postpone planned elections has added frustration for Palestinians, whose last parliamentary ballot was in 2006.
The most prominent terror attacks committed against Israelis during 1979 include: 22 April – 1979 Nahariya attack: A group of four PLF militants, led by the 16-year-old Samir Kuntar, enter Israel from Lebanon by boat and infiltrate the Israeli town of Nahariya, located ten kilometers south of the Lebanese border.
The most prominent events related to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict which occurred during 1979 include: 14 March – IDF soldier Avraham Amram, who was killed during the 1978 South Lebanon conflict, are returned to Israel as part of a prisoners exchange, in exchange for 76 Fatah militants.