Is there something accessible I can read (or watch) to understand the situation better?

[Icefoot]

I know some of the history and I've followed the news, but I can't claim to understand the issues fully (at all). It all seems tragic all round.

With the best will in the world I'm not going to study academic tomes but are there any good articles or documentaries? Ideally some written from each perspective?

https://consortiumnews.com/2023/10/23/watch-ilan-pappe-dehistoricizing-oct-7/
The Israeli historian explains the history essential to understanding the current attacks on Gaza and the danger of suppressing that history. He spoke last Thursday at UC Berkeley.

I've only watched the first 15 minutes of this but I am familiar with the channel and think Simon does a pretty good job of providing a balanced account of events; you'll have to make your own mind up about that.

It's nearly 2 hours long.

Radio 4 did a great series of 15 minute programmes focusing on different aspects of the conflict, its history and current status. Not sure of title but you should be able to find on BBC Sounds

I haven't listened to it myself but my OH thought Rory Stewart's podcast that he does with Alastair Campbell was interesting on the topic. Might be worth a listen.

BBC has a good podcast- Understand: Israel and the Palestinians.

The Rory Stewart podcast is the The Rest is Politics. He did a good overview on a recent episode.

I also watched a BBC documentary called the Birth of Israel. It was made in 2008 but I watched it on Iplayer last week.

There was a Channel 4 drama, a few years ago now, called The Promise ( (I think) which explains it all really well. Claire Foy is in it

Thank you everyone, I shall investigate.

I watched the Rory Stewart podcast and it made it a lot clearer for me

There's a Louis Theroux documentary, called the ultra zionists. If I remember rightly, it's based in the West Bank but I think you'll find it interesting. I've been to Hebron, one of the places he visits in the doc and it's shocking, I'm glad he could share it with the world.

The Holy Land on BBC also.

https://www.itv.com/watch/inside-iran-the-fight-for-freedom/10a4481/10a4481a0001 The majority funder for Hamas is Iran. Hamas are not operating in a vacuum.