The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is rooted in a seemingly intractable dispute over land claimed by Jews as their biblical birthright and by the Palestinians, who seek self-determination.
World´s longest refugee crisisHumanitarian suffering in Gaza
Despite repeated attempts to end the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, there is no peace settlement in sight.
Neither side has fulfilled the commitments it made under the 2003 roadmap – a phased timetable designed to lead to a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel put together by the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations.
Under that peace blueprint, the Palestinian Authority was to rein in militants, and it embarked on a U.S.-backed law-and-order campaign in the occupied West Bank. But Hamas, a militant group whose stated aim is the destruction of Israel, is in control of the Gaza Strip. Hamas has rejected Western calls to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept existing interim peace deals. Despite the road map´s call for a halt to Israeli settlement activity, Israel continues to build within settlements in the West Bank and in Arab East Jerusalem.
Within the Palestinian Territories, a power struggle between rival Palestinian factions has led to the establishment of two administrations. Hamas controls Gaza, while the Fatah party controls the West Bank.
Fatah and Hamas signed a reconciliation agreement in May 2011. The deal included an agreement to form a unity government, and to hold elections within a year. Israel said it would reject any government that included Hamas.
More than 45 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza – 2 million people – are refugees, many of whom live in crowded camps.
Life in the Palestinian territories has got worse in recent years and economic hardship has deepened.
Socio-economic conditions in Gaza, which is subject to the most severe restrictions, have deteriorated particularly sharply and the population is increasingly reliant on food aid.
At the end of 2008, Israel launched a major operation in Gaza with the declared aim of stopping Hamas militants from firing rockets into the Jewish state. The offensive, the biggest in four decades, killed hundreds including many civilians.
