The Historyof a Nation Forcefully Divided: Palestine

In 1897, the First Zionist Congress took place in Basel Switzerland with the Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl, founder of this ideology. Zionism comes from the Mount Zion, Jabal Sahyoun in Arabic. This refers to the hill in Al-Quds (Arabic name for Jerusalem) that is known for sites like the Prophet David’s Tomb. His idea was to establish, with the support of the European colonial powers, a pure Jewish secular westernized state between the Nile and the Euphrates referring to Genesis 15 in the Christian Bible. In fact, the two blue lines in the Israeli flag refer to those rivers.

In the nineteenth century, the Zionist movement began its efforts to establish a homeland exclusively for the Jews in Palestine based on what were claimed to be historical justifications. The movement worked to direct the first Jewish groups to Palestine from Russia to establish agricultural settlements between 1882 and 1884, and it created many settlements with support from wealthy Jews such as Baron Edmond de Rothschild. In fact, one of the first major Jewish colonial settlements was Rishon LeZion previously known as ‘Oyun Qara in Arabic.

After the First Zionist Congress, the Zionist movement began attempting to gain effective control over Palestine instead of relying on slow settlement. This was done by intensifying waves of Jewish immigration to Palestine and establishing new settlements to accommodate them.

In 1901, Zionist leader Theodor Herzl met with the Ottoman ruler, Sultan Abdul Hamid II offering financial aid from the Rothschild banks in order to pay the European debts in exchange for the establishment of a Zionist state in Palestine.

On May 16th, 1916, the Sykes–Picot Agreement was signed. It stipulated that Palestine would be placed under British mandate after the end of the First World War. On November 2th, 1917, the British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour issued the Balfour Declaration, which stated the establishment of a national home for the Jews in Palestine. Britain worked to provide facilities and support for waves of Jewish immigration to Palestine and increased the number of Jewish settlements there.

The Palestinian people began resisting the Zionist and British actions through armed resistance and demonstrations. These included the Revolution of 1921, the Al-Buraq Revolt of 1929, and the Arab Revolt of 1936, which renewed in 1937 and continued until 1939. At the same time, Britain continued confiscating land and transferring it to Jewish ownership. The United Nations later addressed the Palestinian issue and issued the Partition Resolution on November 29, 1947, which called for the creation of two independent states: one Arab and one Jewish.

Events continued to escalate and resistance intensified until the outbreak of the First Arab–Israeli War on May 15th, 1948, which erupted after Britain officially withdrew from Palestine. One of its outcomes was the establishment of the State of Israel, which seized the greater part of Palestine. Additionally, most of the Palestinian population was displaced from their cities and villages under pressure from Zionist organizations that committed massacres against the Palestinian people to force them to leave their land. The Palestinian Arab people then lived as refugees in camps spread across neighboring countries. Over 750,000 to 957,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes in a campaign of ethnic cleansing, with entire villages destroyed and thousands killed.

Following the 1948 war, only the West Bank, which came under Jordanian administration, and the Gaza Strip, which came under Egyptian administration, remained outside Israeli control. The Palestinian people continued their resistance to the occupation in hopes of returning and liberating their land through fedayeen operations, which were concentrated between 1951 and 1956. Israel responded with attacks that resulted in many Palestinian casualties.

In November 1956, Israel participated in a tripartite aggression alongside Britain and France against Egypt, during which it occupied the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula. Israel withdrew from these territories in March 1957 under international pressure.

On January 1st, 1965, the Palestinian armed revolution was launched under the leadership of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) with the aim of liberating the Palestinian homeland. On June 5th, 1967, Israel launched an attack against Egypt, Jordan, and the remaining Palestinian territories. As a result of this attack, Israel took control of all Palestinian land, occupying the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in addition to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt and the Syrian Golan Heights. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were once again displaced from their homeland.

In 1967, Israel expanded its territory, which had already reached about 60% of the land of Palestine by 1948, by annexing the Gaza Strip, the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, and the Syrian Golan Heights, which caused further displacement of Palestinians from their homes. The Six-Day War led to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, displacing another more than 200,000 Palestinians.

The Arab–Israeli conflict intensified after the 1967 defeat and reached a peak with the outbreak of the October War in 1973, which ended with a victory for the Arab armies led by the Egyptian army. Following this victory, Egypt regained the Sinai Peninsula after signing the Camp David Peace Accords with Israel in 1978.

In June 1982, Israel launched its full-scale invasion of Lebanon under Operation “Peace for Galilee,” aiming to expel the PLO. The siege of Beirut involved extensive bombardment, forcing thousands of civilians to flee. After the PLO evacuated Beirut, Phalangist militias, allied with Israel, massacred between 2,000 and 3,500 Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. This atrocity underscored the vulnerability of Palestinian refugees even outside the historic homeland and marked another chapter of forced displacement.

The Gaza Wars, spanning from 2008 to the present, have been devastating episodes of repeated Israeli military assaults on a densely populated territory, leaving tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians dead, including women and children, and causing massive destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, and infrastructure. Operations such as Cast Lead (2008–2009), Pillar of Defense (2012), Protective Edge (2014), and the 2023–2025 offensives have compounded a humanitarian catastrophe, exacerbated by a strict blockade that restricts food, medicine, water, electricity, and reconstruction materials. Each war has displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, reinforcing the enduring trauma of forced exile that began with the Nakba of 1948.

A list of Israeli massacres since the beginning of the occupation:

1. March 6, 1937: Haifa Market Massacre

Location: Haifa Market, Palestine

Victims: 18 civilians killed, 38 wounded

Perpetrators: “Irgun” gang

Details: Considered the first major massacre in Palestine.

Source: Matthew Hughes, Britain’s Pacification of Palestine: The British Army, the Colonial State, and the Arab Revolt 1936–1939 (Cambridge University Press, 2019); British Mandate police reports.

2. December 31, 1947: Al-Shaykh Village Massacre

Location: Village of Al-Shaykh (near Haifa), Palestine

Victims: Approximately 600 victims, including many women and children

Perpetrators: Haganah gangs

Details: The village was stormed and unarmed citizens were pursued. Most victims were found inside their homes.

Source: Benny Morris, 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War (2008); Walid Khalidi, All That Remains (1992).

3. April 10, 1948: Deir Yassin Massacre

Location: Deir Yassin village (west of Jerusalem), Palestine

Victims: 360 Palestinians, mostly elderly, women, and children

Perpetrators: Stern, Irgun, and Haganah gangs

Details: The village was stormed at 2 a.m. Residents were shot, bombs were thrown into homes, and survivors were later executed against a wall.

Source: Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited (2004); United Nations Palestine Commission reports (1948)

4. May 14, 1948: Abu Shusha Village Massacre

Location: Abu Shusha village (near Deir Yassin), Palestine

Victims: 50 people, including women, men, and children

Perpetrators: Givati Brigade

Details: Many victims were bludgeoned with blunt objects. Soldiers shot anything that moved.

Source: Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited (2004);Walid Khalidi, All That Remains (1992).

5. August 22, 1948: Al-Tantura Massacre

Location: Al-Tantura village (south of Haifa), Palestine

Victims: Over 90 men

Perpetrators: 33rd Battalion of the Alexandroni Brigade

Details: After the village fell, Israeli soldiers engaged in a bloody manhunt, killing men and burying them in a mass grave in the village cemetery.

Source: Ilan Pappé, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006); Teddy Katz thesis (University of Haifa research)

6. October 14, 1953: Qibya Massacre

Location: Qibya village, West Bank

Victims: 67-69 villagers (including women and children)

Perpetrators: Israeli military Unit 101, led by Ariel Sharon (approximately 600 soldiers)

Details: The village was surrounded and shelled. Houses were blown up with residents inside, and survivors were machine-gunned. 56 homes, the mosque, school, and water reservoir were destroyed.

Source: United Nations Security Council debate records (1953); Benny Morris (2008)

7. October 10, 1956: Qalqilya Massacre

Location: Qalqilya village (on the Green Line), West Bank

Victims: Over 70 people

Perpetrators: Israeli occupation army with an artillery battalion and ten fighter jets.

Details: A large-scale military attack on the village.

Source: Benny Morris, Israel’s Border Wars 1949–1956 (Oxford University Press, 1993).

8. October 29, 1956: Kafr Qasim Massacre

Location: Kafr Qasim village (near the Green Line), West Bank/Triangle

Victims: 49-57 Arab citizens, including 23 women and 6 children

Perpetrators: Israeli Border Police

Details: Villagers returning from work, unaware of a newly imposed curfew, were lined up and executed in cold blood by border police.

Source: Israeli court trial records; Human Rights Watch reports

9. November 3, 1956: First Khan Younis Massacre

Location: Khan Younis refugee camp, Gaza Strip

Victims: Over 250 Palestinians

Perpetrators: Israeli army

Details: A massacre committed against Palestinian refugees in the camp.

Source: United Nations General Assembly Report A/3649 (1957); Joe Sacco, Footnotes in Gaza (2009), based on UN investigations and survivor testimonies.

10. November 12, 1956: Second Khan Younis Massacre

Location: Khan Younis refugee camp, Gaza Strip

Victims: Approximately 275 civilians

Perpetrators: A unit of the Israeli army

Details: A second brutal massacre in the same camp just nine days after the first. Over 100 Palestinians were also killed in the Rafah refugee camp on the same day.

Source: United Nations General Assembly Report A/3649 (1957); UNRWA investigation reports; Joe Sacco, Footnotes in Gaza (2009).

11. September 16-18, 1982: Sabra and Shatila Massacre

Location: Beirut, Lebanon

Victims: 2,000-3,500 Palestinian refugees

Perpetrators: Lebanese Christian Phalangist militias, with Israeli military oversight and protection provided by Defense Minister Ariel Sharon.

16. April 2002: Nablus Massacre

Location: Nablus, West Bank

Victims: Over 70 Palestinians

Perpetrators: Israeli forces

Details: Systematic killings occurred in the old city of Nablus during a large-scale military operation.

Source: Amnesty International reports; UN reports on Israeli military operations in the West Bank

17. July 30, 2006: Second Qana Massacre

Location: Qana village, South Lebanon

Victims: Approximately 55 people, including 27 children

Perpetrators: Israeli Air Force

Details: An airstrike hit a three-story building where civilians, who had fled from nearby villages, were seeking refuge.

Source: Human Rights Watch, Fatal Strikes: Israel’s Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon (2006); Amnesty International reports.

18. March 2008: Beach Camp Massacre

Location: Gaza Strip

Victims: 118 Palestinians (including 33 children)

Perpetrators: Israeli forces

Details: Israeli shelling targeted a residential area.

Source: Human Rights Watch reports on Gaza operations

19. January 2009: Al-Mabada School Massacre

Location: Gaza Strip

Victims: 43 Palestinians (including 16 children)

Perpetrators: Israeli forces

Details: An Israeli shell hit a UN school where civilians were seeking refuge.

Source: United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (Goldstone Report, 2009)

20. 2018: Gaza Border Massacres (Great March of Return)

Location: Gaza border

Victims: 214 Palestinians (including 46 children)

Perpetrators: Israeli forces

Details: Killings during the Great March of Return protests near the Gaza-Israel fence.

Source: United Nations Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry (2019)

21. May 2021: Gaza City Apartment Block Massacre

Location: Gaza City, Gaza Strip

Victims: 44 members of an extended family (including 20 from one family)

Perpetrators: Israeli forces

Details: An airstrike on a residential apartment

block killed multiple members of a single extended family.

Source: UN Human Rights Office; Amnesty International investigation

22. October 7th- Now: Gaza Genocide

Location: Gaza Strip

Victims: The total death toll in Gaza could reach more than 680,000 (Albanese,2025).

Perpetrators: Israeli forces

Details: Israel erasing over 92% of all residential buildings in the Gaza Strip. (Population of over 2.2M)

To conclude, be sure to stay informed and help where you can.

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