The Israel-Palestine conflict has a long history, with roots dating back to the early 20th century. The conflict pits Israeli demands for security in what it has long regarded as a hostile region against Palestinian aspirations for a state of their own. The conflict began with the establishment of the modern State of Israel on May 14, 1948, which neither the Palestinians nor the neighboring Arab countries accepted. Fighting between Jewish armed groups and Palestinians escalated until the armies of Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, and Syria invaded after Israel declared independence in May 1948. In 1967, Israel launched what it said was a pre-emptive defensive war against Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, achieving rapid victories including seizing the Sinai peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan. The six-day war was a spectacular military success for Israel, and its capture of all of Jerusalem and newly acquired control over the biblical lands called Judea and Samaria in Israel opened the way to the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which became central to the conflict.

The current conflict in 2023 began with a large-scale offensive and invasion launched from the Gaza strip against Israel on October 7, 2023, by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Attacks that do not distinguish between civilian and military objectives but instead target citizens and civilian structures are seen by the international community as being against international law. The conflict has worsened as a result of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, and a joint Egyptian Israeli bombardment of Gaza. The prospects that Israel will have to fight a multi-front campaign in the West Bank and Gaza remain high.

The conflict has drawn in outside powers and destabilized the wider Middle East. The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has focused on trying to secure a "grand bargain" in the Middle East that includes normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Numerous countries of the Muslim world cited the denial of Palestinian self-determination as the root cause of the escalation.