A Timeline of Israel and Palestine

1700 BC: Located within the biblical bounds of Canaan, Israel was settled by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. King David established Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and it’s where King Solomon built the first temple. 

(Genesis and Exodus)

931 BC: Israel was divided into two nations: the Kingdom of Israel in the north, with Samaria as its capital, and the Kingdom of Judah in the south, ruled by Davidic kings with Jerusalem as its capital. Assyria and then Babylon conquered the northern and southern kingdoms, pushing the Israeli population out.

(1 Kings, 2 Kings)

538 BC, Second Temple Period: After 70 years of exile in Babylon, Persia’s Cyrus the Great allowed the Jewish people to return to Israel. They resettled in the land without a king, rebuilding Jerusalem’s temple and walls. For the next several hundred years, they lived there under Persian, then Greek, then Roman control.

(Ezra, Nehemiah)

63 AD: During the Roman Empire, the land was given the name Palestine. 

636 AD: A series of Arab conquests saw Islam spread to the region, and the Dome of the Rock—an Islamic shrine—was built in Jerusalem on the ruins of the 2nd temple. Jerusalem became a holy city for three religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

1096-1291: The Crusades to the Holy Land pushed more Jewish people out of Israel as Christians fought against Islamic control of Jerusalem.

1517-1917, The Ottoman Empire: Palestine remained under Islamic control, with Christians and Jews facing persecution (treating someone unfairly or cruelly because of their race, religion, or political beliefs). Zionism—the desire to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine—starts and grows.

Post-World War I: Britain and France divided the land that had been part of the Ottoman Empire. Britain was in charge of Palestine—now called the British Mandate of Palestine—and they liked that because it was right in the middle of a trade route to India. However, Arabs and Zionists both wanted the land for their own countries. Britain worked with the Arabs to push out the Ottoman Turks and then split the land up among the Arabs and Zionists, increasing tensions between the two. 

World War II: During the Holocaust, many Jews wanted to flee to Palestine. Britain limited the number of Jewish people who could immigrate, and people started fighting over the land. Some British troops protected the immigrating Jews, but Jewish people also started forming their own military groups for protection. 

Post-World War II: With the creation of the United Nations and heightened tensions between the Palestinians and Jews, Britain announced it would leave the region and left its guardianship up to the United Nations. 

1947: The UN proposed a two-state solution, creating a Jewish state with 56.5% of the land and an Arab state (Palestine) with the rest of the land — it left Jerusalem as an international zone. The Jews accepted the proposal, but the Arab nations were not happy since the Jews only represented ⅓ of the land’s population. 

1948, The 1948 Arab-Israeli War: Britain officially left Palestine, and Israel officially became a country, the world’s only Jewish state. Five Arab nations—Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq—wanted a unified Arab state, not a Jewish state, and declared war on Israel. During the war, Arab people living within the new boundaries of the Jewish state left or were removed from their homes. In some instances, it was harsh and gruesome. Arab people refer to this as The Nakba (The Catastrophe).

1949: Israel won the war and seized more territory—taking control of nearly 60% of the Arab state’s land. Jordan claimed a partial victory, taking control of areas of the West Bank, and Egypt took control of the Gaza Strip. Jewish people in surrounding countries migrated to Israel. 

1964: The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was formed in Cairo, Egypt, in response to an increasing number of Jewish people settling in the West Bank and Gaza. The PLO wants to reclaim all of British Palestine and end the Jewish state. 

1967, The Six Day War: Tensions remained high after the Arab-Israeli War, pushing Egypt to close sea passage to Israel’s only Red Sea port. War broke out between Israel and a group of Arab states – mainly Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. Israel captured and occupied land from Syria, the West Bank from Jordan, and the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt. While Israel occupied these territories, more Israelis settled there. 

1968-1974: Palestinian resistance to Israel shifted from threats of war to threats of terrorism. The PLO launched small attacks from Jordan and Lebanon, and Israel raided Lebanon to oust the PLO.

1973, The Yom Kippur War: In what is also known as the October War, Egypt and Syria launched surprise attacks on Israel to regain territory lost to Israel in the Six Day War. The attacks took place on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur and the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Fighting lasted for nearly 3 weeks, with Israel claiming victory. Ensuing peace negotiations with Egypt led to the eventual return of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt.

1978, The Camp David Accords: The U.S. brokered a peace deal between Israel and Egypt, and Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula in 1982. Israeli settlements continued growing in the West Bank and Gaza with Israeli soldiers following to provide security, increasing tensions and muddling the two-state solution. 

1987, The First Intifada: An Israeli Defense Force truck collided with a civilian car in a refugee camp at the Gaza border, killing 4 Palestinians. Though Israel said it wasn’t, Palestinians said it was intentional, and responded with widespread protests and violence. The uprising was called the Intifada (Arabic for “shaking off”).

1987-1988: Hamas, a Sunni Islamist political and militant organization and offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, was founded following the First Intifada. Its published charter stated that it intended to establish an Islamic state throughout Palestine and that it rejects a two-state solution, stating that the conflict cannot be resolved “except through jihad”. In 1995, the U.S. designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.

1993, The Oslo Accords: Leaders from Israel and the PLO signed agreements to divide up the West Bank, giving Palestinians total control of some areas, splitting control between Palestinians and Israelis in some areas, and leaving some areas solely under Israeli control. Extremist groups from both sides opposed the compromise. 

2000, 2nd Camp David Accords & the 2nd Intifada: A second attempt at U.S.-brokered peace was unfruitful, and a second, more violent Intifada followed. Israel built walls and checkpoints in an effort to start controlling and managing the conflict rather than solving it. The uprising lasted for five years.

2005-2006: Israel withdrew from four settlements in the West Bank and from Gaza. Hamas won a majority of seats in legislative elections. 

2007, the Battle of Gaza: Fighting broke out between Hamas and Fatah, the group with which it shared control of Gaza. Hamas ousted all Fatah leaders in Gaza, and Israel and Egypt both permanently blockaded Gaza in response to Hamas assuming control. 

2008-2009 Gaza War: Egypt brokered a peace deal between Hamas and Israel to open Gaza’s borders, but other militant groups like the Islamic Jihad didn’t adhere to the ceasefire, causing Israel to re-close the border and Hamas to start shooting rockets at Israel again. 

2014 Gaza War: Israel launched an offensive to counter increased Hamas rocket fire from Gaza; the conflict lasted 7 weeks. Following the conflict, tensions with Israel remained on shaky ground.

2023 Israel–Hamas War: Hamas leaders led Israel to believe they weren’t seeking conflict, but took Israel by surprise with an attack on October 7, taking hundreds of hostages and calling for Palestinians held in Israeli jails to be freed in return for their release. Over a thousand Israelis and over a thousand Palestinians were killed in the first 4 days of the war.  

Today: It’s been two years since the October 7 attack, and the Israel-Hamas War is still unresolved. Active fighting continues, and diplomatic efforts keep pressing ahead. Most recently, with a U.S.-brokered peace plan that Israel has accepted, and Hamas is still mulling over.