Israel and Palestine: a complete guide to the crisis

The world has repeatedly failed to address the dispute in the Holy Land. Composite: Guardian/Getty

Occupied territories, two-state solution, apartheid, peace process, proscribed terrorist organisations, the Nakba, proxy militias, disproportionate force. The decades-long crisis in Israel and Palestine has gripped the world but it has a tangled history that can feel overwhelming – and terminology that many find confusing.

Below are Guardian explainer articles that aim to answer the deeper questions and give historical context, as well as provide some simple definitions.

What are the roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict?

Hopes were high after Bill Clinton facilitated a meeting in 1993 between the Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, and the Palestine Liberation Organisation leader, Yasser Arafat. Photograph: J David Ake/AFP/Getty Images

Newcomers should start here: a short history of the dispute in the Holy Land that the world has repeatedly failed to address.
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Gaza: who lives there and why it has been blockaded for so long

In this 1968 photo from the UN Relief and Works Agency archive, Palestinian refugees have just arrived in east Jordan in a continuing exodus of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Photograph: G Nehmeh/AP

A narrow slice of land on the Mediterranean Sea, Gaza is inhabited by approximately 2.3 million Palestinians. They have lived under occupation for decades. Human Rights Watch describes Gaza as an “open-air prison”.

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What happened in first few days and what led to the current war?

A building in Tel Aviv destroyed by Hamas rocket attacks. Photograph: Abir Sultan/EPA

Leaving history behind, this explainer was written the day after the 7 October Hamas attack on Israeli communities just outside the Gaza frontier.

Information was still emerging but it was clear that militants were deliberately killing civilians as well as Israeli soldiers during the onslaught.
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Who are the hostages taken by Hamas from southern Israel?

A man holding his baby looks at posters of hostages being held in Gaza, during a vigil in Jerusalem marking 30 days since the Hamas attack. Photograph: Maya Alleruzzo/AP

Scores of hostages were taken to Gaza by militants. The vast majority of those remain captive, although several have been freed under secret deals. The breakdown of civilians and military hostages is not clear.

For a full explanation of what happened in the first week of the war, read this piece:
Seven days of terror that shook the world and changed the Middle East
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What are Israel’s aims in launching Gaza ground invasion?

Israel has formidable conventional military advantages, with air superiority, 400 tanks at the ready and a standing army estimated to number 126,000. Photograph: Amir Cohen/Reuters

Israel launched its ground invasion. The urban warfare operation is likely to be lengthy and fraught with danger for its military and for Palestinian civilians. The operation’s specific goals remain uncertain.
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What is Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza?

A Palestinian Hamas supporter. Photograph: Khalil Hamra/AP

Several militant groups operate in Gaza, chief among them Hamas, an armed Islamist group that has ruled inside the blockaded territory since 2007.
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What is Palestinian Islamic Jihad and what is its relationship with Hamas?

Hundreds of people are thought to have been killed in the explosion at al-Ahli Arab hospital. Photograph: Shadi Al-Tabatibi/AFP/Getty Images

The second largest armed group in Gaza, which sometimes works with Hamas, is the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine. It is considered one of the most extreme and uncompromising Palestinian armed factions.
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How Iran uses proxy forces across the region to strike Israel and US

Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian (left), speaks to the Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Doha on 31 October. Photograph: Iranian foreign ministry/AP

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are considered to be Iranian proxies – groups that receive support from and are influenced by Iran, the arch-enemy of Israel.
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What is Hezbollah and how will it influence the Israel-Hamas war?

Hezbollah fighters raise their flags and shout slogans as they attend the funeral procession of two comrades killed by Israeli shelling in Kherbet Selem village, south Lebanon. Photograph: Hussein Malla/AP

Hezbollah, the Lebanese political and militant group, is Iran’s most prominent proxy movement. The group grew in influence during the Israeli occupation of Lebanon and is now a major political force. Many fear the hatred born out of the Gaza war will push Hezbollah and Israel to enter a new war.
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‘From the river to the sea’: where does the slogan come from and what does it mean?

A march in London at the weekend organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Andy McDonald, an MP now suspended from the Labour party, spoke at the protest. Photograph: Guy Smallman/Getty Images

The slogan is used by Palestinians and Israelis and is open to an array of interpretations, from the genocidal to the democratic.
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Is the two-state solution the answer to the crisis?

A photo taken in 2019 shows a part of the Israeli settlement of Efrat situated on the southern outskirts of the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images

The bloodiest fighting for decades has revived an option once thought dead as the last hope for peace. But how it would look and whether the will to achieve it exists remain unclear.

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