The Palestinian group Hamas claimed responsibility for the rocket attack on Israel, saying its militants had fired more than 5,000 rockets.
“We have decided to end all crimes of the occupation (Israel), the time for violence without their responsibility is over,” Hamas’ military wing, the Ezzeddine al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement. “We announce Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. We fired more than 5,000 rockets in the first 20 minutes of the attack,” the statement said.
Israeli officials said Hamas fired rockets into Israel and that Palestinian militants had infiltrated several locations into Israeli territory. The Israeli military said in a statement that Hamas “must take responsibility for these incidents and face the consequences.”
Contents
The story of struggle is very old
After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, Britain gained control of Palestine. In Palestine the Jews were the minority and the Arabs the majority. The international community entrusted Britain with the responsibility of creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Due to which the tension between the two groups increased.
The 1920s and 1940s saw a significant increase in the number of Jewish immigrants to Palestine. Many Jews fled persecution in Europe and arrived here in search of a homeland.
Tensions between Jews and Arabs began to rise and resistance to British rule intensified. In 1947, the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into two separate Jewish and Arab states. This placed Jerusalem under international administration. The Jewish leadership accepted the plan, but the Arab side rejected it and never implemented it.
British officials, unable to end the conflict, withdrew in 1948 and Jewish leaders announced the establishment of Israel. Many Palestinians protested this and war broke out. Neighboring Arab countries intervened with military force in this matter. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes in what they called Al Nakba, or “The Catastrophe.”
War and Peace
There have been many clashes between Israel and Palestine in the past few years. Some of these conflicts were minor and some were devastating. In which thousands of people died.
In 1987, Harkat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya (Hamas), i.e. the Islamic Resistance Movement, was founded. It is a political group with military capabilities, founded by the Palestinian cleric Sheikh Ahmed Yassin as the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, an international Sunni Islamist organization.
Two Palestinian uprisings (intifadas) had a profound effect on Israeli-Palestinian relations, especially the second one. This ended the peace process of the 1990s and started a new conflict. Hamas was involved in both intifadas.
US President Bill Clinton convened the Camp David Summit on July 11, 2000. In which Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat were brought together for the last round of intensive negotiations. But the summit ended without any decision. Due to which the relations between the two countries deteriorated further.
The current phase of the conflict
Hamas has called on the Arab and Islamic countries of the West Bank to join the fight against Israel by sending their fighters. In the current phase of the conflict, there are high tensions between Israel and the Palestinians in East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank.
Israel and Egypt maintain tight control over Gaza’s borders in an effort to prevent Hamas from obtaining weapons. This has created a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with many people struggling for basic needs such as food and water. Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank claim they are suffering because of Israel’s actions.
Israel argues that it is only taking steps to protect itself from Palestinian violence, citing the fact that Hamas has fired thousands of rockets into Israeli territory and that Palestinian militants have carried out numerous attacks on Israeli civilians.
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