This did not start on October 7th

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For almost half a year, Palestinians have been ruthlessly and systematically targeted by Israeli forces, in what has become the bloodiest and most well documented ethnic-cleansing campaign in decades. ¹ The response from Western governments? Silence and complicity, support and capital. I am no expert on the intricacies of the situation in the Middle East, you do not have to be an expert to understand that the current genocide – a word which will be discussed further – is not an isolated event, rather the most vivid and brutal example of a century long history. The breadth of historical context behind the current conflict is the primary focus of this essay; it will also touch upon the now infamous October 7th attacks, including the reduction and bias of media, and how this warps public opinion, as forsaking reality for palatability is largely the reason so many are misinformed about the atrocities being committed in the region every minute, as I’m writing this, and as you are reading it.

1917 – 2022

This did not start on October 7th 2023. Instead of believing that falsehood, let’s travel back over a century to 1917; cue imperialism. During the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Palestine was controlled by the Ottoman Empire, but, devised during the war and issued a year prior to its conclusion, the ‘Balfour Declaration’ transferred the state to British rule. The post-WWI ‘Mandate System’ created by the Allies stook claim to the losers’ territories in the aim of transitory administration until independence was feasible, for all states bar Palestine that is: instead of protecting the land of the “indigenous people of Palestine, whose forefathers had inhabited the land for virtually the two preceding millennia” ² , the British, in commitment to the Zionist Organisation, pledged to establish “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, whose Jewish population comprised less than 10% at the time.

Following the introduction of British involvement, the Empire facilitated migration for European Jews to populate Palestine, which led to the Jewish population rising by nearly a quarter from 1922-35. ³ The Mandate was controversial for a multitude of reasons: from the obvious European involvement in external territory against the wishes of the pre-existing natives (doesn’t that sound familiar?); as well as the further fact that the land had already been promised elsewhere. As summarised by Al Jazeera’s article on the Declaration:

“Britain had already promised the Arabs independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1915 … [and] promised the French, in a separate treaty known as 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement, that the majority of Palestine would be under international administration, while the rest of the region would be split between the two colonial powers after the war. The declaration, however, meant that Palestine would come under British occupation and that the Palestinian Arabs who lived there would not gain independence.” The intentions of the Declaration are also fairly clear: “The use of the vague term “national home” for the Jewish people, as opposed to “state”, left the meaning open to interpretation. Earlier drafts of the document used the phrase “the reconstitution of Palestine as a Jewish State”, but that was later changed. In a meeting with Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann in 1922, however, Arthur Balfour and then-Prime Minister David Lloyd George reportedly said the Balfour Declaration “always meant an eventual Jewish state”. ⁴

Jumping forward two decades brings us to 1947, and the UN partition plan. Note this time skip: the early 1940s especially are a relevant time considering the mass persecution and genocide of approximately 6 million Jews that was perpetrated over the course of the Holocaust – the regime in Europe brought “repercussions to Palestine which were to exacerbate the mounting tensions. While the majority of European Jews fleeing the Nazi terror chose the United States and Britain, large numbers sought refuge in Palestine.” ⁵ As such immigration rose drastically from 4,944 in 1930 to 16,405 in 1939. ⁶ Following a series of revolts and the Peel Commision (see UN document in footnotes for further detail), the Palestinian land was partitioned into effectively three zones – two independent states, one Palestinian and the other Jewish, with Jerusalem internationalised due to its importance to both cultures/religions.

It didn’t not take long for the partition plan to erupt into conflict. Following the formal establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948, armies from the countries of Transjordan (now Jordan), Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon, moved into the land by way of protesting how much land had been taken from native Palestinians. Israeli forces – trained by the British – responded in an ethnic cleansing campaign that is now referred to as the ‘Nakba’, literally meaning ‘catastrophe’. A report by Dr. Luay Shabaneh, President of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, explains how “the Palestinian Nakba was the result of man-made military plans and conspiracy of states … More than 800,000 out of 1.4 million Palestinians … were driven out of their homeland to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, neighbouring Arab countries and the remaining countries of the world … Israelis controlled 774 towns and villages during the Nakba. They destroyed 531 Palestinian towns and villages. Israeli forces atrocities also include more than 70 massacres against Palestinians killing 15,000 Palestinians during Nakba time.” ⁷ Furthermore, the events of 1948 led to complete loss of Palestinian territory, with Israel controlling more than 77% of the former British Mandate, Jordan taking control of the West Bank, and Egypt controlling the Gaza Strip. ⁸

1967 saw another war – sometimes dubbed the ‘Six Day War’ – which culminated in Israel taking control of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. Notably, in the 1970s the United Nations “​​reaffirmed the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, national independence, sovereignty, and to return” ⁹ , set up a related committee, and granted ‘observer status’ to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). 

Another time skip takes to June 1982, and Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in the name of eliminating the PLO – an event of considerable interest when considering the current excuse that the genocide of Palestinians is solely to eradicate the organisation Hamas, but more on that later. A ceasefire was arranged after approximately three months of IDF attacks and Arab counterattacks, and PLO troops withdrew from the capital of Beirut. This situation was not wholly resolved however as, “Despite the guarantees of safety for Palestine refugees left behind, a large-scale massacre took place in the Sabra and Shatila camps … In September 1983, the International Conference on the Question of Palestine adopted the following principles: the need to oppose Israeli settlements and Israeli actions to change the status of Jerusalem, the right of all States in the region to existence within secure and internationally recognized boundaries, and the attainment of the legitimate, inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.”  ¹⁰

The situation progressed through the 1980s as such that 2,200 armed Jewish settlers occupied 40% of the Gaza Strip, with 650,000 impoverished Palestinians crowded into the other 60%, making the Palestinian portion of the 365 km² Gaza Strip one of the most densely populated areas on earth ¹¹ ; and this is the context in which the First Intifada began on the 9th December 1987. Small-scale demonstrations had been apparent and escalating for months, but upon the crashing of an Israeli truck into a wagon carrying Palestinian workers in a Gazan refugee district (an incident which killed four and wounded ten ¹² ), protesters began to take to the streets, and riots soon spread to the West Bank. Markedly, in 1988, Palestine was established as an independent state. This did, however, not signal the end of conflict, far from it; in fact, the intifada was ongoing and it’s reported over 300 Palestians had been killed, upwards of 11,000 wounded, and even more arrested within the first year ¹³ –  roughly 200 Israelis and 1,300 Palestinians were killed over the next six years. ¹⁴

In late 1991, the parties involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict (namely delegates from Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria) convened at the Madrid Peace Conference. The talks were largely inconsequential, but two years later, negotiations in Norway’s capital Oslo were more significant, with the emergence of the ‘Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements’ (also known as the Oslo Accords), signed by Israel and the PLO. To summarise these developments: “Before the accords [were] signed, Israel and the PLO recognise[d] each other in an exchange of letters. Israel and the PLO agree[d] to the creation of the Palestinian Authority to temporarily administer the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Israel also agree[d] to begin withdrawing from parts of the West Bank, though large swaths of land and Israeli settlements remain[ed] under the Israeli military’s exclusive control. The Oslo Accords envision[ed] a peace agreement by 1999.” ¹⁵ Following the talks the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat were jointly awarded the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, and the Oslo Accords were soon implemented under the Gaza-Jericho agreement (also 1994).

Oslo II, an interim agreement, was signed by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in September 1995. The declaration “[gave] the Palestinians control over additional areas of the West Bank and define[d] the security, electoral, public administration, and economic arrangements that will govern those areas until a final peace agreement is reached in 1999.” ¹⁶ The next round of talks took place at the presidential retreat, Camp David, in the 2000 summit (not to be confused with the 1959 Cold War meeting between Nikita Khrushchev and Dwight Eisenhower), but no agreement was reached after two weeks of discussion. 2000 also saw the beginning of the Second Intifada, following Ariel Sharon (an Israeli right-wing politician) “storm[ing] al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem with more than 1,000 heavily armed police and soldiers on September 28”. ¹⁷ 

The Second Intifada is described by commentary data analyst Diana Buttu, as such: 

“[Ariel] Sharon’s visit was the spark that lit up the Intifada, but the groundwork was laid in the years before that.’ Under the Oslo agreement by May 4, 1999, there was supposed to be an independent Palestine … from the start of negotiations until the start of the Intifada we saw a fast expansion of Israel’s settlements. We saw that the number of settlers doubled from 200,000 to 400,000 just in that short period from 1993 to the year 2000. You can see that what was happening on the ground was designed to ensure that there wasn’t going to be an independent Palestinian state.” ¹⁸ As with the First Intifada, Palestinian protests began peacefully in Jerusalem and spreading to the occupied West Bank, and “The demonstrations were met with excessive force from the Israeli authorities that included rubber-coated bullets and live ammunition. Soon thereafter followed military incursions involving helicopters and tanks into heavily populated Palestinian areas.”  ¹⁹

Furthermore, Abu Yusuf notes that “The Israeli violence showed that the Israelis were not interested in a quick end to the conflict. The fact that Israel shot over a million bullets, caused great losses to Palestinian lives, and stepped over the Muslim holy places all shows that Israel wanted to militarise the Intifada. The excessive use of force that the Israeli army exercised was intended to drag the Palestinians into a military confrontation.” ²⁰ According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, at least 4,973 Palestinians were killed over the course of the Second Intifada, including 1,262 children, 274 women and 32 medical personnel; and that in addition to the deaths and injuries, the Israeli army demolished more than 5,000 Palestinians homes and damaged another 6,500 beyond repair.

Thus far, there is a name you may have noticed has not yet been mentioned, that name is Hamas. The current conflict is framed by Israel as a war against Hamas, despite the bloody history explained above; yet the group only enters our story here, in 2006. Britannica categorises Hamas as a “militant Palestinian nationalist and Islamist movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that is dedicated to the establishment of an independent Islamic state in historical Palestine.” ²¹ The group formed in 1987 in response to the First Intifada, and was designated as a terrorist organisation by the USA in 1997, and the EU in 2003. It’s not my place nor will to refute that.

In 2006, Hamas defeated Fatah (a long-dominated political faction) in Palestinian elections, and in response many countries including the USA suspended their aid to the Palestinian Authority due to their aforementioned views on Hamas. A deal was made between Fatah and Hamas to jointly govern the Gaza Strip and West Bank, however Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007 (with a Fatah-led emergency cabinet holding stake in the West Bank ²²). Israel responded the following year, with Operation Cast Lead, which the UN describes as “a massive 22-day military assault on the Gaza Strip” ²³ and notes that a ceasefire was called for in 2009.

Skipping forward to 2013, “Direct negotiations between Israel and Palestine are held following an initiative by US Secretary of State John Kerry to restart the peace process.” ²⁴ Despite that, Israel launched Operation Protective Edge, and invaded the Gaza Strip in 2014: “[The Operation] lasted for fifty days, killing about two thousand Gazans, sixty-six Israeli soldiers, and five Israeli civilians. Unlike the conflicts from 2008 to 2009 and in 2012, Palestinian rocket fire targets major Israeli cities. The war ends after the United States, in consultation with Egypt, Israel, and other regional powers, brokers a cease-fire.” ²⁵

Tensions flared again in 2017, when POTUS Donald Trump declared that the United States recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem the next year. Also in 2018, there was a spell of border protest in Gaza, in which:

“Demonstrators attempted to cross the border into Israel and sent incendiary kites and balloons into Israel, [which] was met with a violent response by Israel. The situation reached a peak on May 14, when about 40,000 people participated in the protests. Many of the protesters attempted to cross the border at once, and Israeli soldiers opened fire, killing about 60 people and wounding some 2,700 others. The violence continued to escalate, leading to Israeli air strikes and Hamas rocket fire into Israel. The fighting lasted several months and ended with a truce in November.” ²⁶

The Trump Administration once again made history in 2019, becoming the first country aside from Israel to acknowledge Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which Israel had annexed from Syria back in 1981. This controversial move is not where Trump drew the line, and in 2020 he unveiled his proposed peace plan, which had been made with no Palestinian input:

 “The plan calls for a two-state solution with significant economic aid to the Palestinians. Many analysts criticise the plan as being one sided, stipulating impossible requirements for Palestinian statehood and paving the way for Israeli annexation of the West Bank.” ²⁷ Quickly, the plan is rejected by Palestinian authorities, and the critics are proved correct as Prime Minister Netanyahu “announces Israel’s plan to annex portions of the West Bank as outlined in Trump’s proposal.” ²⁸ The annexation plans were dropped however in return for “Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates agree[ing] to normalise diplomatic relations with Israel, becoming the first Arab countries to do so in over twenty-five years … Morocco and Sudan subsequently also sign on to the agreement and normalise relations with Israel.” ²⁹

2021 and 2022 were further bloody years of conflict: as explained by Britannica, “After clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters left hundreds injured, Hamas launched rockets into Jerusalem and southern and central Israel, prompting air strikes from Israel in response.” ³⁰ A ceasefire was agreed upon after 11 days, but didn’t last long as in 2022 “Israel launche[d] a counterterrorism operation in the West Bank in response to attacks by Palestinians against Jewish Israelis. The operation and resulting resurgence contribute[d] to the deadliest year for both sides since 2005, an uptick in violence that only turned out to rise in 2023.” ³¹

Before we discuss the current situation in the Middle East, I’d like to conclude this section with a passage from Martin Bunton’s book, ‘Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Very Short Introduction’, which was first published in 2013 but remains relevant, I’d recommend reading it if you can. 

“Jewish history has been too traumatic for Israelis to accept being a minority that recognises that the Palestinian-Arab population is growing more rapidly than the Jewish-Israeli population. Such a situation can only end up consigning Palestinians to autonomous and fragmented bantustans. In 2007, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert indeed warned that the coming demographic parity of Arabs and Jews in the land of historic Palestine would necessarily carry the danger of forcing Israel to become an apartheid like state. In 2010, former prime minister Ehud Barak echoed the diagnosis: if and as long as between Jordan and the sea, there is only one political entity, named Israel, it will end up being either non-jewish or non-democratic. if the Palestinians vote in elections, it is a binational state; and if they don’t, it is an apartheid state.” ³²

October 7th Onwards; Palestine Presently 

As a preface to this section, I’d like to reaffirm that the conflict is incredibly current and ever changing, with more news coming out daily, in terms of Israeli tactics, death tolls, and ceasefire talks – this essay is largely to inform you of such current events, but this piece will still act as a product of its time.

On 7 October 2023, Hamas levied a surprise, violent assault against Israel “because of Israel’s long-running blockade of Gaza, its occupation of Palestinian lands, and its alleged crimes against Muslims, including the desecration of al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.” ³³ To use Israeli figures, the conflict’s initial strikes led to at least 250 people killed and 1,500 injured in Israel, making it the deadliest attack in the country in decades. Some 250 people in Israel were also taken by Hamas as hostages. ³⁴ The attacks were, unequivocally, blood-thirsty and abhorrent. That being said, the Israeli response has proved even more apocalyptic. Within the first month alone, it’s reported that “more than 10,000 people had been killed in Palestine and more than 1,400 in Israel [see next paragraph] … 1.4 million Palestinians within the first month of conflict have been displaced as humanitarian concerns have grown.” ³⁵ Furthermore, ten days into the conflict the US vetoed a United States vote for a humanitarian pause in the conflict, claiming Israel’s response was an act of self-defence. 

As of March 10th 2024, the figures are as follows. In Gaza, at least 31,045 people have been killed, including more than 12,300 children and 8,400 women; more than 72,654 people, including 8,663 children and 6,327 women, have been injured; and over 8,000 remain missing. In the Occupied West Bank, at least 425 people have been killed, including more than 113 children; and more than 4,650 people have been injured. In Israel, officials revised the death toll from the October 7 attacks down from 1,405 to 1,139, and at least 8,730 have been injured. ³⁶

Over 31,470 Palestinians have been killed, and at least 85,304 have been injured or are unaccounted for. I implore you to take a moment to let that sink in. 

Within a month, experts felt that the situation was, or could escalate into, a genocide. United Nations director Craig Mokhiber even resigned over the organization’s “failure” to act against what he deemed a “text-book case of genocide.” And in a press release on the 2 November, a separate coalition of U.N. experts similarly expressed concern, warning that Palestinians were “at grave risk of genocide.” ³⁷ Furthermore, as explained and cited by a Times Article:

Raz Segal, the program director of genocide studies at Stockton University, concretely says it is a “textbook case of genocide.” Segal believes that Israeli forces are completing three genocidal acts, including, “killing, causing serious bodily harm, and measures calculated to bring about the destruction of the group.” He points to the mass levels of destruction and total siege of basic necessities – like water, food, fuel, and medical supplies – as evidence.

He says Israeli leaders expressed “explicit, clear, and direct statements of intent,” pointing to Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s statement during an Oct. 13 press conference. In his statement, Herzog said, “It’s an entire nation that is out there that’s responsible. It’s not true, this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true,” Herzog said. “They could have risen up, they could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat.” (Herzog later said that he is not holding the civilians of Gaza responsible for keeping Hamas in political power, when asked to clarify by a journalist at the same press conference.) Segal says that this language conflates all Palestinians as “an enemy population,” which could help prove intent.

[…]

City University of New York professor Victoria Sanford compares what’s happening in Gaza to the killing or disappearance of more than 200,000 Mayans in Guatemala from 1960-1996, known as the Guatemalan genocide, which is the subject of her book Buried Secrets: Truth and Human Rights in Guatemala. Mayans and Palestinians have both been subject to genocidal acts, she implies. “When we match them to the lived experience of people, there are similar circumstances…if we look at contemporary conflicts like the Israeli invasion of Palestine.” Sanford and Segal were two of more than a 100 scholars and organizations that signed a letter urging the ICC to take action given the “Israeli intention to commit genocide visibly materialising on the ground.”

https://time.com/6334409/is-whats-happening-gaza-genocide-experts/

Despite these insights, ‘genocide’ is not a word you’ll see in Western media reporting. Why? Largely because it makes the USA and UK look pretty bad if it’s decided they abstained from, and voted against humanitarian aid and intervention into a genocide.. they’ll cover their tracks with terms such as “Israel-Hamas war”, negating the tens of thousands of Palestians dying with no affiliation to Hamas whatsoever. 

Neatly articled in an article by Oxfam, “The scale and atrocities that Israel is visiting upon Gaza are truly shocking. For 100 days the people of Gaza have endured a living hell. Nowhere is safe and the entire population is at risk of famine … It is unimaginable that the international community is watching the deadliest rate of conflict of the 21st century unfold, while continuously blocking calls for a ceasefire.” ³⁸ The same report calculated that the number of average deaths per day (250.8) for Gaza is higher than any recent major armed conflict, this is because on top of intense bombings, “many more people could die from hunger, preventable diseases, diarrhoea, and cold. The situation is particularly worrying for children, pregnant women and those with existing medical conditions … The only way to stop the bloodshed and prevent many more lives being lost is for an immediate ceasefire, for hostages to be released and for crucial aid supplies to be allowed in.” ³⁹

Candidly, I do not particularly know how to conclude this, or what else to say. I could continue to throw figures at you, or find the opinion of more experts, but I feel as though I have said enough: do not look away from what is happening in Gaza, educate yourself, be on the right side of history.

There is one final source I would like to bring your attention to, and that is a recent interview from Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti – his voice is arguably more important than mine, and he articulates the essential points to understand the current situation in Gaza:

“I want to say that what you see in Gaza now is an act of genocide, because 12,000 children have been killed and these are not 19 years old. These are 5- 6 years old, and 3 years old, and 2 years old. These are children for God’s sake. I am against the killing of 30 Israeli children which happened on the 7th of October, because they are children and civilians. But nothing in the world could justify, because of the killing of 30 children, the killing of 12,000 other palestinian children. That is unacceptable. You should look at the real figures: 30,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed, and 72,000 people have been injured by the Israeli murderous army […] All together 4.5% of the population of Gaza have been killed or injured. If that had happened in the United States of America, you would be talking about 12 million people killed or injured in four months of time. Is that acceptable? And mostly civilians, 70% are civilians. More than that, Israel is killing Palestinians not only with this terrible genocide, with their bombardment; they are killing Palestinians with starvation. This terrible siege. 50,000 pregnant women Palestinian women don’t find a place to give birth in. 64,000 breastfeeding women cannot help their babies. And more than that, 700,000 people are now starving because Israel is preventing milk, flour, food to the population of Gaza city and the north of Gaza. And more than that, they shoot the Palestinian hungry people when they are trying to get some food […] they shoot them, and they kill them like they did two days ago: they killed 100 people and 860 others were injured. So my response to you, yes, this is genocide. These are three war crimes happening at the same time: genocide, collective punishment, and ethnic cleansing, at the same time. 70% of all homes were destroyed, all universities were destroyed, 30 hospitals out of 36 hospitals were destroyed […] so what is that if it is not genocide?” ⁴⁰

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1. “Daily death rate in Gaza higher than any other major 21st Century conflict” – Oxfam, 11 January 2024, https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/daily-death-rate-gaza-higher-any-other-major-21st-century-conflict-oxfam.  ↩︎
2. “Part I (1917-1947) – Question of Palestine.” – the United Nations, 22 January 2021, https://www.un.org/unispal/history2/origins-and-evolution-of-the-palestine-problem/part-i-1917-1947/#Origins_and_Evolution_of_the_Palestine_Problem_1917-1947_Part_I.   ↩︎
3. “More than a century on: The Balfour Declaration explained.” – Al Jazeera, 2 November 2018, https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2018/11/2/more-than-a-century-on-the-balfour-declaration-explained.  ↩︎
4. Ibid. ↩︎
5. “Part I (1917-1947) – Question of Palestine.” – the United Nations, 22 January 2021, ↩︎
6. Ibid. ↩︎
7. “Despite tragic circumstances, Palestinians have multiplied seven times since the Nakba (Catastrophe) of 1948” – Shabaneh, Dr. Luay. PCBS President, https://www.pcbs.gov.ps/Portals/_pcbs/PressRelease/nakba%2060.pdf.  ↩︎
8. “Palestine | HISTORY , Religion & Conflicts” – History.com Editors, 11 August 2017, https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/palestine#the-partition-of-palestine.  ↩︎
9. “Part I (1917-1947) – Question of Palestine.” – the United Nations, 22 January 2021,  ↩︎
10. Ibid. ↩︎
11.  “Intifada begins on Gaza Strip | December 9, 1989” – History.com Editors, 9 February 2010, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/intifada-begins-on-gaza-strip. ↩︎
12. Ibid. ↩︎
13. Ibid. ↩︎
14. “Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Timeline | World101.” – World101, 11 October 2023, https://world101.cfr.org/understanding-international-system/conflict/israeli-palestinian-conflict-timeline. ↩︎
15. Ibid. ↩︎
16. Ibid. ↩︎
17.  “Palestinian Intifada: How Israel orchestrated a bloody takeover.” – Adam, Ali, Al Jazeera, 28 September 2020 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/28/palestinian-intifada-20-years-later-israeli-occupation-continues ↩︎
18. Ibid. ↩︎
19. Ibid. ↩︎
20. Ibid. ↩︎
21. “Hamas | Definition, History, Ideology, & Facts.” – Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hamas.  ↩︎
22. Ibid. ↩︎
23. “Historical Timeline – Question of Palestine.” –  Cruz, Margaret, the United Nations, 28 December 2023, https://www.un.org/unispal/historical-timeline/.  ↩︎
24. Ibid. ↩︎
25. “Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Timeline | World101.” – World101, 11 October 2023, ↩︎
26. “Hamas | Definition, History, Ideology, & Facts.” – Britannica, ↩︎
27. “Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Timeline | World101.” – World101, 11 October 2023,  ↩︎
28. Ibid. ↩︎
29. Ibid. ↩︎
30. “Hamas | Definition, History, Ideology, & Facts.” – Britannica, ↩︎
31. “Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Timeline | World101.” – World101, 11 October 2023,  ↩︎
32. Bunton, Martin P. The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Very Short Introduction. OUP Oxford, 2013.  ↩︎
33. “Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Timeline | World101.” – World101, 11 October 2023,  ↩︎
34. Ibid. ↩︎
35. Ibid. ↩︎
36. “Israel-Gaza war in maps and charts: Live tracker.” – Al Jazeera, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/10/9/israel-hamas-war-in-maps-and-charts-live-tracker ↩︎
37. “Is What’s Happening in Gaza a Genocide? Experts Weigh In.” – Burga, Solcyré, Time, 13 November 2023, https://time.com/6334409/is-whats-happening-gaza-genocide-experts/. ↩︎
38. “Daily death rate in Gaza higher than any other major 21st Century conflict” – Oxfam, 11 January 2024, https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/daily-death-rate-gaza-higher-any-other-major-21st-century-conflict-oxfam.   ↩︎
39. Ibid. ↩︎
40. Transcribed from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUFZQGvyDcY interview with Piers Morgan on the 4 March 2024. ↩︎