Background
Zionism was emerged in 1897 and the core goal of the movement was the establishment of homeland state for the jews people in Palestine which was under the rule of ottoman empire, Palestine was always considered as the promised land by the jews people which was forcefully taken-away by the muslims, ancient jews religious scripts indicated Palestine as "the land of Israel".
In the late of 19th century, zionism emerged from Germany and Austria and gradually spread to the entire European continent, the uprising that began as the resettlement demand of the jews people in Palestine later turned to be a national rival that stood for the statehood of jews people in their ancient promised land of Israel.
November-9th-1917, Balfour Declaration was published in the press by the British government, the declaration was the first of its kind which was officially announced the support of the establishment of Jews State in Palestine.
The Balfour Declaration and jews holocaust by Nazi Germany in the World War2(1941-1945) which Claimed the lives of 6million European jews escalated the exodus of jews people into their so called promised land.
In 1947, UN General assembly approved a resolution partitioning Palestine into two division, one division for the jews people and the other for the Arab, the resolution stated Jerusalem to be under the administration of the United Nation.
14-May-1948, David Ben Grunion, the head of the jews agency claimed the establishment of the state of Israel and on the same day president of USA Harry S Truman recognised Israel as a sovereign state.
Nakba
More than 800,000 Palestinians out the 1.4 million of the palestinian inhabitants of the newly formed state were evacuated from their home land, over 500 Palestinian villages were destructed.
before the declaration of the independence of Israel more than 300,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes
UNRWA-United Nations Relief and Works Agency estimated 46,000-156,000 Palestinians were internally displaced by the year1949.
The results of population, housing and establishment census 2007, showed that the number of the Palestinians in the Palestinian Territory was 3.76 millions as in 01/12/2007, of which 2.34 millions in the West Bank and 1.42 millions in Gaza Strip. The number of Palestinians in Jerusalem was about 363 thousands, 60% of them live in those parts of Jerusalem which were annexed forcefully by Israel in 1967.
the census also showed that 44.6% of the population in the Palestinian Territory are refugees (approximately 1.7 million) , of which 31.0% are in the West Bank and 67.6% are in Gaza Strip.
The total fertility rate in 2006 was 4.2 births in the West Bank and 5.4 in Gaza Strip.
Recently it is estimated 2.2 million people live in Gaza Strip which is just an area of 42km long and 10km wide, which makes Gaza according to the density of its population one of the mostly populated cities in the world.
Clashes
In 2005, Israel evacuated it is forces from Gaza Strip, after the withdrawal of the Israeli forces from Gaza civil war between Hamas and Fatah (formally known as Palestinian national liberation movement) broke out in the strip after Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, in this civil war Hamas gained full control of the city.
After Hamas gained full control of Gaza, Egypt and Israel branded Hamas as a terrorist organisation and imposed extensive and strong full blockade on the city , the blockade which was imposed on the city to prevent smuggling of weapons into the region also restricted the movement of goods coming into the city which devastated the collapse of the economy in Gaza.
Some called the blockade as a collective punishment including the vulnerable innocent people.
Since Hamas took over the control of Gaza, Hamas and Israel Defence Forces(IDF) clashed against each other in multiple occasions including the recent one of 2023.
In the next few paragraphs I will illustrate some of the major clashes that caused most devastating humanitarian crises
Operation hot winter
In January 2008, Israel security forces accused Hamas for smuggling weapons into the city including some missiles which are capable of reaching 25km into the industrial city of ashkelon, 27 February 2008, Hamas fired Al Qasam missiles which reached 10km away from Gaza, those rockets didn't cause any major casualties but it created fear and vigilance of the Israel forces which insisted and thrilled them to turn their defensive tactics into an action of invading Gaza.
The hot winter operation which started on 29 may 2008 claimed the lives of 150 Palestinian civilians and 3 Israel soldiers.
Gaza War
27 December 2008, Israel launched a major military campaign, the aim of the Israel forces was to stop the rockets firing by Hamas into southern Israel and to stop the smuggling of weapons into Gaza.
In the beginning Israel intensified it bombarding of Gaza Strip after the 6 months ceasefire brooked by Egypt which expired on 19-December-2008.The Israeli air strikes targeted mosques, police stations and schools.
On 03-January-2009, Israel ordered a ground invasion of Gaza which killed 1,166 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, this invasion is widely known as in the Arab world as the "massacre of Gaza "
Human rights organisation and some of Aid organisations accused Israel and Hamas of war crimes [bbc new 8- January 2009 news].
During this war Hamas intensified its shelling of the Israeli territories by targeting southern cities of Ashdod and Beersheba.
18-January-2009, Hamas and Israel announced unilateral ceasefire which halted the conflict and on 21-January 2009, the Israel forces withdrew their troops from Gaza.
Since the 6day war of 1967, this was the deadliest military operation carried out by Israel and on second march 2009 international donors pledged $1.4 billion in aid for the Palestinians in Gaza strip to recover catastrophe of the invasion.
Operation Pillar of Defence
On October 2012, Israel air strikes killed a senior leader of Hamas militants called Ahmed Jabari, the missiles and the airstrikes targeted Ahmed Jabari caused a major civilian casualties for the pelestinians including 30 children and 13 women, most of the operation was not ground based military operation rather it was artillery missiles and rockets exchanged by both sides, as usual the rockets fired from Gaza usually do not cause major casualties, in this entire operation which was attack after contra attack killed only four Israelis.
2014 Clashes
UN OCHA estimated 20,25 causalities including 77 Israeli civilians and 66 IDF soldiers who have been killed in the 2014 full scale ground operation in which Israel entered into the city, this operation was far more deadlier than the 2008 war in Gaza.
Since 2014 there were multiple attacks between both sides, but there was no major ground operation in which Israel tried to invade Gaza.
October 2023
On 7-October-2023, Hamas launched unprecedented attack in which they broke down the Gaza Israel border barrier, approximately 1,000 Hamas soldiers entered into Israel through the wall, from inside Gaza Hamas launched more than 3,500 rockets some of the rockets reached as far as 70k into the northern Israel, the Hamas militants killed 1,400 Israelis mostly civilians and over 230 Israelis were taken as hostages, they also militants also attacked 8 IDF military bases in southern cities of Israel. Hamas named this surprise attack as 'Al-aqsa flood'.
In response to the Al-aqsa floods attack waged by Hamas , the prime minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu called for an emergency war and promised to turn Gaza into rubble.
Israel attacked Gaza from the sky and from the sea by bombarding the city, later the attack turned to be face to face battle between both sides after the Israeli government ordered full scale ground operation of which they named 'Operation Iron Sword'.
The cost of this operation was mostly paid by the innocent women and children in Gaza, the attack which entered its 30th day claimed the lives of more than 10,000 Palestinian civilians including 4,000 children.
The United Nations held multiple emergency meetings concerning the current ongoing war in Gaza, and many countries and international humanitarian organisations condemned the ongoing bombarding in Gaza and some proposed immediate and unconditional ceasefire, but Israeli government rejected the call for ceasefire and continues killing innocent children.
one of the most grievous remarkable incident was the aerial strikes which targeted Al-Ahli hospital on October 17, Gaza healthy ministry said almost 500 people were killed in this attack alone. [the hindu.com]
Conclusion
The current ongoing conflict in Gaza is much more bigger than all the previous incident which were happening. In the two palestinian territories, due to hatrade it circulated between the Arab world and jews people.
This conflict might also ignite much wider conflict in the region due to the ongoing protests and political pressure it has caused in the Arab world.
a limited ceasefire will not solve the issue of Gaza but the leaders in the middle east need to take an action into a long lasting peaceful political agreement that can reduce the recurrent blood shed in the region.
Many scholars suggested a two state solution for both Israel and Palestine but many of western countries including the United States of America opposed this solution. similarly the Israeli government rejected this suggestion.
If this conflict is not resolved with long-lasting peaceful resettlement plan for the Palestinians, many incidents just like the October 7 one will for ever occur with more complex advanced tactics.