The division of the former British mandate of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel in the years after the end of World War II has been at the heart of Middle Eastern conflict for the past half century.

The creation of Israel was the culmination of the Zionist movement, whose aim was a homeland for Jews scattered all over the world. After the Nazi Holocaust, pressure grew for the international recognition of a Jewish state, and in 1948 Israel came into being.

Much of the history of the region since that time has been one of conflict between Israel on one side and the Palestinians, represented by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), and Israel's Arab neighbours, on the other. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced, and several wars were fought involving Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have lived under Israeli occupation since 1967. The settlements that Israel has built in the West Bank are home to around 400,000 people and are deemed to be illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

Israel evacuated its settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and withdrew its forces, ending almost four decades of military occupation. However, after the militant Islamic group Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007, Israel intensified its economic blockade of the Gaza Strip. In late December 2008, Israel initiated an aerial attack against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and in early January 2009, its armed forces re-entered Gaza. The Israeli government said the operation was aimed at stopping increasingly frequent rocket attacks launched against southern Israel from Gaza. Several hundred Palestinians were reported killed and more than two thousand others injured in the fighting. (See updates on Gaza in Current conflicts section and Applicable international law section)

In 1979, Egypt and Israel signed a peace agreement, but it was not until the early 1990s, after years of an uprising known as the intifada, that a peace process began with the Palestinians. Despite the handover of Gaza and parts of the West Bank to Palestinian control, a "final status" agreement has yet to be reached. The main stumbling blocks include the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees and Jewish settlements.

^{This overview is adapted from the BBC online country profile of Israel.}

Last updated: 16 November 2009