10 Aug 2022 Israel and Palestine
- Israel and Palestine recently ended a ceasefire after three days of violence that killed dozens of people in both countries.
- Earlier this year, tensions escalated between Palestinians and Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
- These recurring conflicts are part of the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.
Current Conflict:
Reason for conflict:
- Israeli planes hit targets (leaders of Islamic Jihad) in Gaza.
- In response, the Iranian-backed Palestinian Jihad terrorist group fired hundreds of rockets at Israel.
- Islamic Jihad has fewer fighters and supporters than Hamas.
Israeli Action:
- Israel began its campaign with an attack on an Islamic Jihad leader and another prominent leader with the intent to attack followed.
Gaza Action:
- According to the Israeli army, terrorists fired about 580 rockets towards Israel in Gaza.
- Israel intercepted many of them and killed two who were fired towards Jerusalem.
UNSC meeting:
- The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting over the violence.
- China, which will preside over the council for August 2022, scheduled the session in response to a request from the United Arab Emirates, which represents Arab countries in the council, as well as China, France, Ireland and Norway.
Disputes between Israel and Palestine:
The dispute over Jerusalem:
- Jerusalem has been at the center of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
- According to the United Nations (UN) original partition plan of 1947, Jerusalem was proposed as an international city.
- However, in the First Arab-Israeli War of 1948, the Israelis occupied the western half of the city, and the eastern part, including the ancient city, where Haram al-Sharif is located, was occupied by Jordan.
- After the Six-Day War in 1967, there was an armed conflict between Israel and a coalition of Arab states that mainly included Jordan, Syria and Egypt, the Jordanian Ministry of Waqf, which until then controlled the Al-Aqsa Mosque, stopped taking care of this mosque.
- Israel annexed Jordan-controlled East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War.
- Israel expanded settlements in East Jerusalem after the annexation.
- Israel views the entire city as its “unified, eternal capital”, while the Palestinian leadership has maintained that it will not accept any settlement for a future Palestinian state unless East Jerusalem is recognized as its It is not recognized as the capital.
Recent Activity:
Al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah:
- In May 2021 the Israeli armed forces attacked the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Haram al-Sharif, before a march to commemorate Israel’s occupation of the eastern part of the city in 1967 by Zionist nationalists.
- Sheik Jarrah’s threat to evict dozens of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem added to the crisis.
West Bank Settlement:
- Israel’s Supreme Court has dismissed a petition against the eviction of more than 1,000 Palestinian residents from rural parts of the occupied West Bank in an area Israel has selected for military exercises.
- The decision paved the way for the demolition of eight small villages in a rocky, dry area near Hebron known as Masafar Yatta by the Palestinians and the South Hebron Hills to the Israelis.
India’s stand on the crisis:
- India has been following a de-hyphenation policy in recent years to maintain relations between Israel and Palestine.
- India’s policy towards the longest-running conflict in the world was clearly pro-Palestinian for the first four decades but relations with Palestine have been strained due to over three decades of friendly relations with Israel.
- In an unprecedented move in 2017, the Prime Minister of India visited only Israel and not Palestine.
- The recent visit of the Prime Minister to Palestine (2018), Oman and the United Arab Emirates is again a continuation of a similar policy.
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