Ignorant person seeking to be educated - Isreal conflict

[hollyblueivy]

I apologise for me head being buried so far into the sand I have no idea what the headlines about Isreal / Palestine / Gaza / Hamas etc mean

Can anyone please (I realise my ignorance is unreasonable) explain to me what this is about. The history / context / what caused tensions to flair now??

Many thanks

this

Momr

To be even handed you ought to acknowledge that one of the reasons how Israel has extended its territory is because Arab nations attacked them and Israel won the battle and the land as a consequence.

The antagonists cannot then wail "Not fair" can they?

One thing I have always struggled with is getting perspective on the geographical size of different countries. I am Australian and never really understood how vast our country is until I moved to the Netherlands.
Israel is just over 22,000 square km. This is roughly one tenth the size of the Aussie state of Victoria. Roughly half the size of the Netherlands and very slightly bigger than Wales.
All my life there has been military conflict there. It has been happening since the UN decreed that this piece of land would be arbitrarily given away to become the land of Israel which had never before been a physical state. I can understand that there is bitterness on both sides, but can’t understand how people can’t put the safety of their children ahead of their need to make war and just live alongside each other. (VERY simplistic I know. I am not religious and have never been there.) Generation after generation has dealt with violence and heartbreak. Seems like there are no easy answers.

You need to start from 3000 BC when people from that area were called Canaanites

Mainly because Israel’s response is massively out of proportion
They are obliterating a whole country by using the terrorist attack as cover to destroy Palestine, and steal the land for themselves

Israelis have cut off water, food and food and aid supplies to a place where the people living there are already living as hostages in a big prison controlled by Israel. They have bombed hospitals and religious places when international law agreements protect these places - but somehow they are allowed to get away with it and are supported to continue bombing and killing innocents.

honestly I consider myself very ignorant on the whole history of the region- but just looking at the current situation, it’s a hugely unfair power play from Israel and it’s powerful friends.