The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a long-standing military and political conflict in the Levant that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced many millions of people. The conflict has its roots in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the birth of major nationalist movements among the Jews and among the Arabs, both geared towards attaining sovereignty for their people in the Middle East. The conflict has been ongoing since the mid-20th century and is one of the worlds longest continuing conflicts. The following are some key events and factors that have contributed to the conflict:

• The Balfour Declaration: A public statement issued by the British government in 1917 during the First World War announcing support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine.

• The United Nations Partition Plan: In 1947, the United Nations adopted Resolution 181, known as the Partition Plan, which sought to divide the British Mandate of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was created, sparking the first Arab-Israeli War.

• The Nakba: The 1948 Nakba, or the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, saw an estimated 750,000 Palestinians forced out of their homes. Today, their descendants live as six million refugees in 58 squalid camps throughout Palestine and in the neighboring countries of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt.

• The Six-Day War: In another war in 1967, Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, as well as most of the Syrian Golan Heights, Gaza, and the Egyptian Sinai peninsula.

• The Oslo Accords: In 1993, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) signed the Oslo Accords, which were intended to be a framework for peace negotiations. However, the accords failed to resolve the conflict.

• Hamas: Hamas is a Palestinian Islamist political organization and militant group that has been in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, and the European Union.

The motivations behind the conflict are complex and multifaceted. The conflict is rooted in issues of land, sovereignty, and national identity, as well as religious and cultural differences. The conflict has been characterized by violence and terrorism on both sides, with Palestinian violence being a concern for Israelis. The primary approach to solving the conflict today is a so-called “two-state solution” that would establish Palestine as an independent state in Gaza and most of the West Bank, leaving the rest of the land to Israel.