Israel and Gaza: How the Conflict Took Shape
Geographic context, May 2021. Map by Rr016, based on OpenStreetMap data, CC BY-SA 2.0. Source and license . This is not a current military map. Gaza’s wars are part of the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict over land, security and political rights. Competing national claims, displacement and refugees, borders, settlements, Jerusalem and Palestinian governance all shape that dispute. Gaza’s status and repeated wars have also given it a distinct place within the broader history. How the modern dispute developed Under British rule after World War I, both Arab and Jewish national movements sought political futures in Palestine. In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly recommended partition into Arab and Jewish states, with a special international arrangement for Jerusalem. Jewish leaders accepted the plan; Arab leaders rejected it. War followed the end of the British Mandate and Israel's declaration of independence in 1948. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were exp...