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Everything you need to know about Israeli - Palestinian conflict

Israelis and Arabs have been fighting over Gaza on and off, for decades.

After World War II and the Holocaust in which six million Jewish people were killed, more Jewish people wanted their own country.

They were given a large part of Palestine, which they considered their traditional home but the Arabs who already lived there and in neighbouring countries felt that was unfair and didn't accept the new country.

In 1948, the two sides went to war. When it ended, Gaza was controlled by Egypt and the West Bank, by Jordan. They contained thousands of Palestinians who fled what was now the new Jewish home, Israel.

A Palestinian child's blown off head. :'(

Israel's recognition

But then, in 1967, after another war, Israel occupied these Palestinian areas and Israeli troops stayed there for years.
Israel finally left Gaza in 2005 but soon after, a group called Hamas ( Harakat Al Mukawama Al Islamia, which means "Islamic Resistance Movement") won elections and took control there. Much of the world ( America , Japan, Britain, Jordan, Israel) calls Hamas a terrorist organisation. It refuses to recognise Israel as a country and wants Palestinians to be able to return to their old home - and will use violence to achieve its aims.

Life in Gaza

Life for the many of the 1.5 million Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip is difficult.

There is no working airport. Because access is so restricted, not many goods get into or out of Gaza. Not much food is allowed in. There are often power cuts.

Large numbers of people are unemployed because businesses can get very few of their products out of Gaza to sell, and people don't have much money to buy things.

During the 1948 and 1967 wars hundreds of thousands of Palestinians left, or were forced out of, their homes and moved to neighbouring countries to become refugees.

More than 4.6 million Palestinians are refugees and their descendants, many living in camps in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. They get help from the United Nations.

Violence in Gaza

Though the Palestinians don't have an army, rockets are regularly fired from Gaza into Israel. Israelis living in border towns are used to having to take shelter and adapting their lives to deal with the rockets.

In the years since Israel withdrew its troops in 2005, Gaza has seen several Israeli offensives. Israel says these were aimed at putting a stop to rocket fire

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In 2008, Israel sent soldiers into Gaza. An estimated 1,300 people, many of them civilians, were killed in Gaza before a ceasefire was declared; 13 Israeli soldiers also died.