1987-1993: First Intifada and Oslo Accords

In the 20 years since the war of 1967, the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza had not reconciled itself to Israeli rule.
Open revolt broke out in November 1987, with the intifada, or uprising. The Palestinians were largely unarmed, so the enduring picture
of the intifada is one of young men and boys throwing stones and rocks at Israeli troops. The intifada was a reminder to Israelis of
what their first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion had said in 1938: "A people which fights against the usurpation of its land will not tire
so easily."
However, the Israeli settlements continued to spread out across the territories occupied in 1967. Some were settled by visionaries
quoting Biblical justification, some by families wanting less expensive housing and some by those who wanted Isarel to keep a buffer
zone west of the River Jordan. The intifada had rallied the Palestinian people but the PLO also realised that both this method of
opposing the Israelis and its own armed struggle would not be enough to bring political benefits.
The Palestinian National Council (a government-in-exile) had in 1988 accepted the two-state solution, as envisaged by the UN
resolution 181 in 1947. It renounced terrorism and started to seek a negotiated settlement based on Resolution 242, which called for
Israel to withdraw from territory captured in the 1967 war, and Resolution 338.
Secret talks encouraged by the Norwegian government took place and these resulted in a Declaration of Principles. This said they had
agreed it was "time to put an end to decades of confrontation and conflict, recognise their mutual legitimate and political rights, and
strive to live in peaceful coexistence and mutual dignity and security and achieve a just, lasting and comprehensive peace settlement".
It called for a five-year transitional period in which Israeli forces would withdraw from occupied territories and a Palestinian Authority
would be set up, leading to a permanent settlement. It was signed on the White House lawn in September 1993 in the presence of
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat. It was followed by a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994.
2000s: The Second Intifada and the Election of HAMAS.
After the Oslo agreement, Yasser Arafat returned to Palestinian territory, the Palestinian Authority was established and Israeli
withdrawals began. However, the agreement was denounced by hardline Israelis and Palestinians as a sell-out and it did not take hold.
Opposition to the agreement was led on the Palestinian side by the Islamic militant group HAMAS and the deadly phenomenon of the
suicide bomber emerged, in which dozens of Israeli civilians were killed. Israeli counter-strikes killed many Palestinians.
President Bill Clinton got Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak together at Camp David in 2000 but the final-status
issues of Jerusalem and the future of Palestinian refugees broke the talks. By 2000, a second intifada was being openly fought and
Israel re-occupied the West Bank
War Against Lebanon: Israel had had experience of modern missile warfare in 1991, when Iraq fired Scud missiles at it during the war
over Kuwait. In 2006, it was under rocket attack again and had an ineffective response. After eight Israeli soldiers had been killed and
two captured by the Lebanese group Hezbollah, Israel and Hezbollah engaged in a 33-day war in which Hezbollah fired a hail of rockets
into Israel and the Israelis bombed Lebanese towns, villages and infrastructure but made little headway in ground operations. The war
ended inconclusively but with Hezbollah largely intact. A new element had also been introduced into Israel's wars. It accused Iran of
arming Hezbollah (and HAMAS).
The Wall: By now, the former general Ariel Sharon was Israeli prime minister and he abandoned the policy he had followed all his life,
that of holding onto the West Bank and Gaza at all costs. Instead, he announced that Israel would leave the Gaza Strip and would
build a wall and fence to defend itself against suicide bombers and separate the Palestinian territories from Israel.
The withdrawal went ahead, but Gaza later became the scene of a power struggle between the Palestinian Authority, representing the
old guard of the secular PLO, and the newer Islamic-inspired forces of HAMAS. HAMAS prevailed. The Oslo accord had all but
disappeared. Sixty years after independence, Israel has established the national home for the Jewish people promised in the Balfour
Declaration. It is a democratic society with a high standard of living comparable to that in Western Europe, a vigorous free press and
excellent educational and health facilities. It has a hi-tech industry and agriculture and the strong military, economic and diplomatic
support of the United States and other Western states.
It has also established itself with important parts of the Arab world, with offers or hints of acceptance by others if there is a peace
agreement. But all its borders have not been fixed and, above all, it has not reached a settlement with the Palestinians. It faces
hostility from HAMAS, Hezbollah and Iran and it fears that Iran is preparing one day to build a nuclear bomb, which makes it determined
to hold on to its own nuclear weapons. It is powerful but it is not at peace.
2008-2009: The War in Gaza
In December of 2008 and into January 2009, Israel launched Operation Cast Lead against HAMAS in the Gaza Strip. The following is
information about the offensive.

Why did the Israelis launch their 27 December offensive? The Israelis say they attacked in order to stop the firing of rockets into Israel.
Israel wants all firing to stop and measures to be taken to prevent HAMAS from re-arming. It is trying to destroy or reduce HAMAS as a
fighting force and to capture its stocks of weapons to help achieve this. The Israeli attack began on 27 December 2008, not long after
HAMAS had announced that it would not renew a ceasefire that had started in June 2008.
Why did HAMAS not renew the ceasefire? The six-month ceasefire, brokered by the Egyptians, was often broken in practice. Its terms
were never written, but were widely understood to include HAMAS ending all rocket fire from Gaza and weapons smuggling from Egypt,
while Israel stopped military activity against militants in the strip and carried out a phased lifting of its blockade of Gaza. Negotiations on
the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit were also supposed to begin. Rocket fire was greatly reduced, though not completely stopped,
for the first few months of the truce. The volume of goods allowed into Gaza also increased for some of the time, but remained well
below pre-embargo levels.
Events began to come to a climax after the Israelis carried out their first incursion into southern Gaza during the truce, killing six
militants, on 4 November 2008. Israel said its troops entered to destroy a tunnel which could be used to abduct its soldiers. This led to
the further firing of HAMAS missiles into Israel and in turn to a much tighter Israel blockade. HAMAS said Israel had broken the truce
by failing to lift the blockade; Israel said HAMAS had used the period to smuggle more rockets into Gaza, was planting explosive
devices on the border fence and had not stopped the rocket fire completely. HAMAS demanded that the blockade be ended or it would
not renew the ceasefire.
Why does HAMAS fire missiles into Israel? HAMAS is an acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement. It regards the whole of
historic Palestine as Islamic land and therefore views the state of Israel as an occupier, though it has offered a 10-year "truce" if Israel
withdraws to the lines held before the war of 1967. It therefore generally justifies any actions against Israel, which has included suicide
bombings and rocket attacks, as legitimate resistance. Specifically in Gaza, it argued that Israel's blockade justified a counter-attack
by any means possible.
What casualties have the HAMAS rockets caused? Since 2001, when the rockets were first fired, more than 8,600 have hit southern
Israel, nearly 6,000 of them since Israel withdrew from Gaza in August 2005. The rockets have killed 28 people and injured hundreds
more. In the Israeli town of Sderot near Gaza, 90% of residents have had a missile exploding in their street or an adjacent one. The
range of the missiles is increasing. The Qassam rocket (named after a Palestinian leader in the 1930s) has a range of about 10km (6
miles) but more advanced missiles, including versions of the old Soviet Grad or Katyusha, possibly smuggled in, have recently hit the
Israeli city of Beersheba, 40km (25 miles) from Gaza and brought 800,000 Israelis into range.
Palestinian medical sources say that more than 1,000 people have been killed in Gaza during Israel's military that started on 27
December 2008.
What have been the effects of the Israeli blockade? They have been severe. Little but humanitarian basics have been allowed into
Gaza since HAMAS seized power in 2007. Before the Israeli operation began, health, water, sewage and power infrastructure were
seriously ailing because of a lack of spare parts. The blockade includes limits on fuel, which have on several occasions forced the
power plant that supplies Gaza City to shut down. vvA total ban on exports has left the already fragile economy devastated.
Unemployment has soared. The United Nations Relief and Works agency (Unrwa) provides basic food aid to about 750,000 people in
Gaza, but in the weeks preceding the Israeli operation these were suspended because the UN ran out of food because Israel closed the
crossings into Gaza citing security reasons. Goods ranging from food to missiles have, however, been brought in through smuggling
tunnels from Egypt
How did HAMAS come to control Gaza? After the Israeli evacuation in August 2005, the Palestinian Authority took control of Gaza.
The PA was made up mainly of secular-minded Palestinian nationalists from the Fatah party, which, unlike HAMAS, thinks that a final
agreement with Israel for a two-state solution - Israel and Palestine - can be made. In January 2006, HAMAS won elections to the
Palestinian legislature and formed a government in Gaza and the Palestinian territories on the West Bank. A unity government between
HAMAS and Fatah was then formed in March 2007 but the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a Fatah leader directly
elected in an earlier vote, subsequently dissolved the government. In June 2007, HAMAS, claiming that Fatah forces were trying to
launch a coup, took control of Gaza by force, but not the West Bank territories. HAMAS was boycotted by the international community,
which demands that it renounce violence and recognise Israel.
Why has Israel declared a ceasefire and what are its terms? The ceasefire was unilaterally declared by Israel, 22 days after its
offensive began. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the nation HAMAS had been "badly beaten" and that Israel's goals "have been
more than fully achieved". The goals had been to stop rocket fire into southern Israel and, in the words of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni,
"to change realities on the ground". Israel has been under intense diplomatic pressure to end its action and a day before the ceasefire
received assurances from the United States that it would take concrete steps to halt the flow of arms and explosives into the Gaza Strip.
Israel said its soldiers would remain inside Gaza for the time being and reserve the right to strike back if militants continued to launch
attacks.