On October 7th, 2023, the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a massive and unprecedented attack on Israel, hitting cities across the country with rockets and mobilizing ground forces to storm the border. This surprise offensive shocked the world and left hundreds dead while threatening to ignite a major new war in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
For many observers around the globe, Hamas’s brazen assault seemed to come out of nowhere. Why did this happen? What are the origins of the enmity between Israelis and Palestinians? Getting context on the decades of tension and periodic violence in this region is key to understanding the motivations behind Hamas’s recent actions.
The Roots of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
The present-day conflict has its roots in the early 20th century, when both Jews and Arabs sought to establish national homelands in the territory between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. This land is significant for both groups – Jews trace their ancestral homeland here thousands of years ago, while Palestinian Arabs have lived in the area for generations.
In the late 19th century, Zionism, the movement to establish a Jewish homeland, began drawing Jewish immigrants to settle in Palestine, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire. As their numbers increased and Jews purchased land for settlements, tension rose with the local Arab population.
In 1917, the British issued the Balfour Declaration favoring a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine while ensuring the rights of existing non-Jewish communities were not infringed. However, the British also promised Arab independence if they revolted against the Ottomans in WWI, which they did. This created conflicting British promises for Palestinian self-rule versus Jewish statehood.
As Jewish immigration continued in the 1920s and 30s, violent clashes broke out between Jews and Arabs. The Arabs in Mandatory Palestine revolted against British rule and Jewish settlement several times, concerned Zionism would displace them from the land.
The Holocaust during WWII dramatically intensified the push for Jewish independence. In 1947, the newly formed United Nations approved a partition plan dividing the territory into separate Jewish and Arab states. While Jews accepted the plan, Arabs rejected it, still wanting sole control.
Founding of Israel, Displacement of Palestinians
In May 1948, Israel declared independence as a Jewish state. The next day, five Arab armies from neighboring countries attacked Israel to crush it at birth, beginning the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Israel ultimately prevailed and expanded its territory beyond the 1947 UN boundaries.
During this war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes and were unable to return, becoming refugees in neighboring lands. Their plight continues to drive the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today.
For the Arab world, Israel’s founding was a traumatic event – they saw it as depriving Palestinians of their own state and displacing much of the population. To Palestinians and other Arabs, the 1948 war is remembered as al-Nakba, “the Catastrophe.”
This first war set the pattern for subsequent decades – Israel clashing militarily with its Arab neighbors who refuse to recognize its legitimacy. Major wars erupted again in 1956, 1967, 1973 and 1982 as Arab nations tried and failed to defeat Israel.
After each war, Israel occupied more territory like the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Golan Heights and Sinai Peninsula, lands inhabited by many Palestinian Arabs. Israel still largely controls these “Occupied Territories” today, though it withdrew settlements from Gaza and Sinai.
The Rise of Hamas and Palestinian Militancy
During the 1967 Six Day War, Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This began the ongoing Israeli military occupation and settlement of these Palestinian areas, deeply resented by Palestinians as an unjust foreign rule over their ancestral lands.
In the 1970s, some Palestinians began embracing violence and terrorism against Israel to reclaim their homeland, giving rise to groups like Black September and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Frustration over Israel’s occupation only grew over the decades as conditions worsened for Palestinians. The radical Islamic group Hamas emerged in 1987 at the start of the First Intifada Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule.
Hamas opposed negotiations or compromises with Israel, calling for Palestinian control of all the land through armed resistance. The more moderate PLO later recognized Israel’s right to exist and engaged in peace talks in the 1990s, a path rejected by Hamas.
Hamas vs. Fatah Civil War
In 1993, a milestone Oslo Accords agreement created the Palestinian Authority, giving Palestinians some control in parts of Gaza and the West Bank. However, talks stalled without a final peace deal. Tensions mounted in 2000 when the Second Intifada uprising was met with severe Israeli military reprisals.
In 2005, Israel withdrew all settlements from Gaza which was then taken over by Hamas in a coup. Gaza became a launching point for Hamas and other groups to fire rockets into Israel, prompting Israeli retaliation campaigns in Gaza.
In 2006, the rivalry between Hamas and Fatah, the PLO’s political party controlling the West Bank, exploded into a Palestinian civil war. Hamas defeated Fatah and ousted them from Gaza, leading to the current divided rule of Palestinians – Hamas governing Gaza while Fatah manages parts of the West Bank through the Palestinian Authority.
This split has hampered efforts to unify and advance the Palestinian cause. Hamas remains committed to aggressively confronting Israel, launching three major wars in 2008, 2012 and 2014. On the diplomatic front, the peace process has stalled for over a decade with a lack of trust between the parties.
The Impact of Recent Escalations
Tensions in Jerusalem and West Bank violence have surged since 2021, but Hamas mostly refrained from rocket attacks, instead allowing Islamic Jihad militants to fire at Israel. However, a major Israeli raid on a Jenin refugee camp in August that killed 10 Palestinians led Hamas’s military wing to threaten retaliation.
Analysts speculate Hamas felt emboldened by the perceived weakness of Israel’s new right-wing government and sought to capitalize on recent tensions. On October 7th, 2023, Hamas launched a carefully coordinated surprise attack dubbed “Sword of Jerusalem”, firing hundreds of rockets deep into Israel while sending ground troops through tunnels to breach the Gaza border fences.
This was a major escalation, with Hamas directly engaging in warfare rather than through proxies. The bold offensive represents Hamas’s eagerness to reassert its primacy over Palestinian resistance at a time when its popularity was lagging. Beyond inflicting damage and casualties, Hamas likely aims to extract concessions from Israel to ease Gaza’s economic crisis caused by 15 years of blockade.
However, the attack carries huge risks for Hamas and the people of Gaza if it triggers a severe Israeli response. The shock opening days of this assault could mark the start of another devastating Gaza war that continues the cycle of violence haunting this decades-long conflict. With peace prospects ever elusive, the future remains uncertain for both sides.