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Tel Aviv (dpa) - Basically, the Middle East conflict revolves around the little more than 100 kilometers wide strip of land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean.
But it's also about home and security.
There have been many attempts in the past to ease tensions between Israel and the Palestinians through negotiations, treaties and agreements.
But there were and will always be attacks on armed forces.
However, there was hardly any significant progress in solving the problems.
How did the State of Israel come about?
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Long before the Holocaust, the Zionist political movement aimed to establish a nation state for Jews. This was supposed to arise in the area of the "Holy Land" - at that time mainly inhabited by Arabs - the root of Judaism in the Hebrew Bible and place of residence of the Jews already in antiquity. Even after the Romans expelled the Jews from Judea - later called Palestine - in the first and second centuries there was a small Jewish presence in several cities until modern times.
During the anti-Semitic terror in Europe under German Nazi rule, Palestine became one of the most important places of refuge from 1933 onwards to escape the Shoah.
Even from Arab states that sympathize with the Nazi regime, Jews are fleeing pogroms to the British mandate on the Mediterranean.
After the Second World War, the United Nations called for the region to be divided into a Jewish and a Muslim Arab state.
The Jews agree, the Arabs reject the plan.
How does the armed conflict with the Arabs begin?
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Immediately after Israel gained independence on May 15, 1948, its neighbors Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria declared war.
In battle, the new state can expand its territory and conquer the western part of Jerusalem.
Around 700,000 Palestinians are fleeing to neighboring countries, where some of their descendants are still living in refugee camps today.
Their number has now grown to more than five million.
On the other hand, Jews are being expelled from the Arab states - or are fleeing to Israel.
It is estimated that of the 900,000 Jews who lived in Arab countries before 1948, only a few thousand still live there today.
What will happen after independence?
Over the decades there have been repeated wars between Israel and its neighbors who want to destroy the young state.
In the 1967 Six Day War, Israel captured the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula.
The later incorporation of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights into Israeli territory is not internationally recognized.
In 1973 the Jewish state succeeded in repelling an attack by Arab states led by Egypt and Syria on Yom Kippur, the most important Jewish holiday, only with heavy losses.
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To date, Israel has made peace with some of its neighbors.
The country now maintains diplomatic relations with Egypt, which received Sinai back in 1982, and Jordan.
The relationship is also to be normalized with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
And what about the Palestinians?
They continue to feel deprived of their home.
Two million people in the Gaza Strip are currently living under miserable conditions and under a blockade of Israel that Egypt has supported and justified with security interests.
Life in the occupied West Bank is also characterized by many hurdles because of the Israeli occupation.
In the past, protests often resulted in spirals of violence and terrorist attacks with many deaths in Israel.
The first Intifada (Arabic for “uprising”) in December 1987 was triggered by a traffic accident in which four Palestinians were killed in an already tense situation.
The Second Intifada begins in 2000 after a demonstrative visit by the then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Jerusalem Temple Mount.
After that, the number of Palestinian suicide attacks rose rapidly - including in the Israeli heartland.
In 2003, Israel began building a 750-kilometer barrier around the West Bank.
Fences and walls run partly on Palestinian territory.
What have the Palestinians achieved so far?
Under the Oslo Peace Accords signed after 1993, the Palestinians achieve partial autonomy in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
But key issues in the conflict, for example about the future borderline of a possibly independent Palestine, the question of Israeli settlements and the fate of the Palestinian refugees have not yet been conclusively settled.
What do the Palestinians want?
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The Palestinian leadership is calling for a state of its own in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as the capital. She also wants the refugees to have the right to return to their old homeland, but Israel rejects this. The secular ruling Fatah of Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, ruling the West Bank, is striving for an independent state within the 1967 borders. But there are also anti-Semitic efforts to completely wipe the Jewish state off the map. Above all, Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization in Europe and the USA, is denying Israel's right to exist and calling for the forcible establishment of an Islamic Palestine from the Mediterranean to the Jordan. From the Gaza Strip, which is blocked by Israel and Egypt and ruled by Hamas,rockets are repeatedly fired at the neighbors and incendiary and explosive balloons are sent. Israel responds with military operations.
But are the Palestinians basically in agreement?
No.
After Israel evacuated the Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip against great resistance and withdrew its troops, in 2007 the radical Islamic Hamas drove Fatah out of the coastal area in a bloody power struggle.
Since then, Hamas has been trying to gain more and more influence - including in the West Bank.
This also includes demonstrations of military force.
Since late 2008, Israel and Hamas have fought three wars.
What does Israel want?
Above all, the recognition of the state and an end to terror. However, the systematic settlement of Palestinian territory, which began after the conquests of 1967, remains a major bone of contention. While Israel cleared the settlements in the Gaza Strip in 2006, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem there are now 600,000 Israeli settlers in addition to the Palestinians. The regions of the West Bank in which there are Jewish settlements or military facilities remain completely under Israel's control. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), this area comprises more than 60 percent of the West Bank. The settlers claim to settle in the land of their forefathers.The United Nations regards settlements as a violation of international law and a major obstacle to peace.
What about Jerusalem?
This is one of the central issues in the conflict.
Israel claims Jerusalem as its "eternal and indivisible capital".
The Palestinians want the eastern part as the capital of their own state.
Central religious centers for Judaism, Islam and Christianity are mainly located in the Arabic-influenced eastern part.
There is the old town with the Temple Mount, which is considered an important sanctuary for Jews and Muslims alike.
According to Jewish belief, the progenitor Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac there out of godliness.
For Jews, the Holy of Holies lies on the Temple Mount, it is considered the place of creation.
Muslims believe that it was from there that the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven.
What is the goal in the room?
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A peaceful solution to the Middle East conflict is largely unanimous internationally that the area is divided into two independent countries.
A democratic Palestine is to be created alongside Israel.
But all diplomatic initiatives for such an outcome have so far failed.
So far around 140 countries around the world have recognized Palestine as a sovereign state, but most Western countries such as the USA or Germany take the view that a Palestinian state should only exist after a peace settlement with Israel.
The country has observer status at the United Nations, but is not a full member.
The split between the rival Palestinian organizations Hamas and Fatah is also seen as a major obstacle to a solution.
How many victims have been lamented in the Middle East conflict over the years?
There are various details about this.
According to the UN office of Ocha, between 2008 and the end of 2020, 5,686 people on the Palestinian side and 251 Israelis died in connection with the Middle East conflict.
The human rights organization Betselem, which is considered critical of Israel, puts the number of Palestinian civilians and fighters killed at 10,657 between autumn 2000 and the end of April 2021 - i.e. before the current escalation.
Some of them were killed by the Palestinians themselves.
According to Betselem, 1,268 people (440 soldiers and 828 civilians) were killed on the Israeli side.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry reports that since September 2000, more than 1,360 people have been killed by Palestinian violence and terrorism.
The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, which is affiliated with the Israeli military, states that more than 13,000 rockets were fired at Israel between 2006 and 2020.
According to the army, around 2,300 rockets have been fired at Israel since the start of the most recent escalation.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210516-99-615552 / 2