New Delhi: In the latest development after the Israeli airstrikes, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired dozens of rockets into Israel on Friday. In the airstrike, Isreal killed a senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement. It came after Israeli security forces arrested Bassam a-Saadi, a senior leader of the Islamic Jihad group, during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin earlier this week.
On the strike, Prime Minister Yair Lapid said, ”We carried out a precise counterterror operation against an immediate threat.” However, the strike is reported over a year after an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in May 2021, claiming 250 people’s life in Gaza and 13 in Israel.
What is Israel and Palestine controversy?
The issue between Israel and Palestine is over 100 years old. It started after Britain captured an area known as Palestine in the Middle East during the time period of World War One (1914-1918).
In the area, Jewish people were the minority and Arabs were in majority. However, tension surfaced between the two people after the world community said Britain to establish a home for Jewish people in Palestine.
But the move was not accepted by Palestinian Arabs who claimed the land. After World War Two (1939-1945), the number of Jews arriving there from Europe grew, deteriorating the conflict between Jews and Arabs.
In 1947, the UN passed a resolution to create two separate states for Jewish and Arab people. It added that Jerusalem is an international city. However, the plan was again rejected by the Arab side.
Creation of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank
Unable to solve the problem, British rulers decided to leave the area in 1948. Following this Jewish leaders declared the creation of the state of Israel. Owing to this, a war began and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have to leave their homes.
The fight ended with Israel controlling most of the territory. Notably, Egypt took control of an area called Gaza and Jordan occupied land which became known as the West Bank.
Jerusalem was also divided between Jordanian forces in the East and Israeli forces in the West. In 1967, Israel won East Jerusalem and the West Bank. It also took control over most of the Syrian Golan Heights, Gaza and the Egyptian Sinai peninsula.
Notably, everything was done without any peace agreement so more wars and fighting can still be seen.
Gaza, occupied by Egypt, is ruled by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. With this group, Israel has been fighting for years. The tension is on both sides, Israel and Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank.
On the military action, Israel says it is only trying to protect itself from Palestinian violence.
