Since 2006, Hamas and Israel have fought five wars, the most recent of which began in 2023 is ongoing as of April 2024.The present Palestine- Israel conflict began after a Palestinian extremist group Hamas attacked on Israeli territory on October 7. Subsequently, to avenge the attack Israeli army initiated a war against Palestine in the areas where the Hamas cadres were suspected to be taking safe havens. The war continues till date (month of April 2024) and has been thoroughly dominated by Israel which has claimed to have waged the war under its right to protect its sovereignty and people. Most of the Western powers have supported Israel’s actions in the name of right to self protection including the USA and UK. Although a majority of UN members expressed concern against the bloody war which has led to loss of life of ordinary Palestinian citizens and led to a humanitarian crisis due to Israel cutting off their supply lines for electricity, food, water, medicine etc, and even attacked civilian establishments including residential apartments, hospitals and schools in Palestine (often claimed by Israel as mistaken targeting). A resolution of the UN for a ceasefire to restore peace and avert a humanitarian crisis was supported by more than hundred countries, about 45 countries abstained from voting while four including the US and UK opposed the resolution on the pretext of curbing terrorism and right of Israel to self protection. Although the Arabian countries criticized the Israeli attacks, sharp opposition came from Qtar, Iran and Hezbollah from Lebanon only. However, there were mass protests in many cities across the globe against the Israeli aggression. At many places Hamas violence against Israel was also condemned.
Six months into Israel’s war on Gaza, there is no end in sight to hostilities with Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters. As things stand now, the ongoing conflict has led to heartbreaking losses of human lives and habitats and created a famine and startvation like condition in the war zones. According to latest estimates, in Gaza at least 33,137 people have been killed including more than 13,000 children and 8,400 women with more than 75,815 people injured and more than 8,000 missing. According to the latest figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the occupied West Bank, the 4 59 people have been killed which includes 117 children and leaving more than 4,750 injured. On the other hand Israel also registered 1139 deaths (revised from earlier estimate of 1405) since the October 7, 2023 attacks.
Causes of Palestine-Israel Conflict
The conflict has historical origin since the state of Israel was carved out in 1948. Key aspects of the conflict include the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the status of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements, borders, security, water rights, the permit regime, Palestinian freedom of movement, and the Palestinian right of return. The conflict has its origins in the rise of Zionism in Europe and the arrival of Jewish settlers to Ottoman Palestine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The local Arab population opposed Zionism, primarily out of fear of territorial displacement and dispossession. The Zionist movement garnered the support of an imperial power in the 1917 Balfour Declaration issued by Britain, which promised to support the creation of a “Jewish homeland in Palestine”. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire during World War I, Mandatory Palestine was established as a British mandate. Tensions between Jews and Arabs grew into intercommunal conflict. In 1936, an Arab revolt erupted demanding independence, which the British suppressed. The 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine triggered the 1948 Palestine war, which saw the expulsion and flight of most Palestinian Arabs, the establishment of Israel on most of the Mandate’s territory, and the control of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank by Egypt and Jordan, respectively. In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (which became known as the Palestinian territories), which is now considered to be the longest military occupation in modern history, and has drawn international condemnation for violating the human rights of the Palestinians.
The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has been under military occupation by Israel since 7 June 1967, when Israeli forces captured the territory, then ruled by Jordan, during the Six-Day War. The status of the West Bank as a militarily occupied territory has been affirmed by the International Court of Justice and, with the exception of East Jerusalem, by the Israeli Supreme Court. The official view of the Israeli government is that the laws of belligerent occupation do not apply to the territories, which it considers instead “disputed”, and it administers the West Bank, excepting East Jerusalem, under the Israeli Civil Administration, a branch of the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
Israel has controversially, and in contravention of international law, established numerous Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank. The United Nations Security Council has consistently reaffirmed that settlements in that territory are a “flagrant violation of international law”, most recently in 2016 with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334. The creation and ongoing expansion of the settlements have led to Israel’s policies being criticized as an example of settler colonialism. Israel has been accused of major violations of international human rights law, including collective punishment, in its administration of the occupied Palestinian territories. Israeli settlers and civilians living or traveling through the West Bank are subject to Israeli law, and are represented in the Knesset; in contrast, Palestinian civilians, mostly confined to scattered enclaves, are subject to martial law and are not permitted to vote in Israel’s national elections.
The Gaza Strip is 41 kilometres (25 miles) long, from 6 to 12 km (3.7 to 7.5 mi) wide, and has a total area of 365 km2 (141 sq mi). With around 2 million Palestinians on approximately 365 km2 (141 sq mi) of land, Gaza has one of the world’s highest population densities. More than 70% of Gaza’s population are refugees or descendents of refugees, half of whom are under the age of 18. Sunni Muslims make up most of Gaza’s population, with a Palestinian Christian minority. Gaza Strip is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the West Bank). On the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Gaza is bordered by Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the east and north. The territory came into being when it was controlled by Egypt during the 1948 Arab–Israeli war, and became a refuge for Palestinians who fled or were expelled during the 1948 Palestine war. Later, during the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel captured and occupied the Gaza Strip, initiating its decades-long military occupation of the Palestinian territories. The mid-1990s Oslo Accords established the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a limited governing authority, initially led by the secular party Fatah until that party’s electoral defeat in 2006 to the Sunni Islamic Hamas. Hamas would then take over the governance of Gaza in a battle the next year, subsequently warring with Israel.
In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew its military forces from Gaza, dismantled its settlements, and implemented a temporary blockade of Gaza. The blockade became indefinite after the 2007 Hamas takeover, supported by Egypt through restrictions on its land border with Gaza. Despite the Israeli disengagement, the United Nations (UN), the International Committee of the Red Cross, and many human-rights organizations continue to consider Gaza to be held under Israeli military occupation, due to what they consider Israel’s effective military control over the territory; Israel disputes that it occupies the territory.
Jerusalem
The status of Jerusalem has been described as “one of the most intractable issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict” due to the long-running territorial dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, both of which claim it as their capital city. Part of this issue of sovereignty is tied to concerns over access to holy sites in the Abrahamic religions; the current religious environment in Jerusalem is upheld by the “Status Quo” of the former Ottoman Empire. As the Israeli–Palestinian peace process has primarily navigated the option of a two-state solution, one of the largest points of contention has been East Jerusalem, which was part of the Jordanian-annexed West Bank until the beginning of the Israeli occupation in 1967.
The United Nations recognizes East Jerusalem (and the West Bank as a whole) as the territory for an independent Palestinian state, thus rejecting Israel’s claim to that half of the city. However, there is broader consensus among the international community with regard to West Jerusalem being Israel’s capital city, as it falls within Israel’s sovereign territory (per the Green Line) and has been recognized as under Israeli control since the 1949 Armistice Agreements.
Most countries and organizations support that West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem should be allocated as capital cities to the Israelis and the Palestinians, respectively; this position has been endorsed by the United Nations, the European Union, and France, among others. Russia, which is a member of the Middle East Quartet, already recognizes East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital and West Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.
The majority of United Nations member states hold the view that the city’s final status should be resolved through negotiations and have therefore favored locating their embassies to Israel in Tel Aviv, pending a final status agreement. Five countries have embassies to Israel in Jerusalem: the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Papua New Guinea, and the disputed Republic of Kosovo.
The Israeli permit regime
The Israeli permit regime in the West Bank is the legal regime that requires Palestinians to obtain a number of separate permits from the Israeli military authorities governing Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank for a wide range of activities. The first military order requiring permits for the Palestinians was issued before the end of the 1967 Six-Day War. The two uprisings of 1987 and 2001 were met by increased security measures, differentiation of IDs into green and red, policies of village closures, curfews and more stringent restrictions on Palestinian movement, with the general exit permit of 1972 replaced by individual permits.
The stated Israeli justification for this new permit regime regarding movements was to contain the expansion of the uprisings and protect both the IDF and Israeli civilians from military confrontations with armed Palestinians. The regime has since expanded to 101 different types of permits covering nearly every aspect of Palestinian life, governing movement in Israel and in Israeli settlements, transit between Gaza and the West Bank, movement in Jerusalem and the seam zone, and travel abroad via international borders. The Israeli High Court has rejected petitions against the permit regime, allowing that it severely impinges on the rights of Palestinian residents but that the harm was proportionate.
Israeli settlements
Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Jewish identity or ethnicity, and were first established after Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War of June 1967. The international community considers Israeli settlements to be illegal under international law, but Israel disputes this. The expansion of settlements often involves the confiscation of Palestinian land and resources, leading to displacement of Palestinian communities and creating a source of tension and conflict. Settlements are often protected by the Israeli military and are frequently flashpoints for violence against Palestinians. Further, the presence of settlements and Jewish-only bypass roads creates a fragmented Palestinian territory, seriously hindering economic development and freedom of movement for Palestinians.
Currently, Israeli settlements exist in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), which is claimed by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the sovereign territory of the State of Palestine, and in the Golan Heights, which is internationally recognized as a part of the sovereign territory of Syria. Through the Jerusalem Law and the Golan Heights Law, Israel effectively annexed both territories, though the international community has rejected any change to their status as occupied territory. Although Israel’s West Bank settlements have been built on territory administered under military rule rather than civil law, Israeli civil law is “pipelined” into the settlements, such that Israeli citizens living there are treated similarly to those living in Israel. Israel’s regulated expansion of existing settlements and construction of new settlements across the West Bank has been condemned by the international community and criticized as the main obstacle to the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. In Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (2004), the International Court of Justice found that Israel’s settlements and the then-nascent Israeli West Bank barrier were both in violation of international law; part of the latter has been constructed within the West Bank instead of on Israel’s side of the Green Line.
As of January 2023, there were 144 Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including 12 in East Jerusalem; Israel administers the West Bank as the Judea and Samaria Area, which does not include East Jerusalem. In addition to the settlements, the West Bank is also hosting over 100 Israeli outposts, which are settlements that have not been authorized by the Israeli government. In total, there are over 450,000 Israeli settlers residing in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, with an additional 220,000 Israeli settlers residing in East Jerusalem. Additionally, over 25,000 Israeli settlers live in Syria’s Golan Heights. Between 1967 and 1982, there were 18 settlements established in the Israeli-occupied Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, though these were dismantled by Israel after the Egypt–Israel peace treaty of 1979. Additionally, as part of the Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Israel dismantled all 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the West Bank.
As per the Fourth Geneva Convention, the transfer by an occupying power of its civilian population into the territory it is occupying constitutes a war crime.The presence and ongoing expansion of existing settlements by Israel and the construction of outposts is frequently criticized as an obstacle to peace by the PLO, and by a number of third parties, such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the United Nations (UN), Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and the European Union.
UN call for ceasefire and India’s current position
The Human Rights Council, United Nations’ (UN) top human rights body called on countries to stop selling or shipping weapons to Israel in a resolution passed on April 5 that aims to help prevent rights violations against Palestinians amid Israel’s blistering military campaign in Gaza. The sweeping measure, which takes aim at an array of Israeli actions such as impeding access to water and limiting shipments of humanitarian aid into Palestinian areas, also calls on UN-backed independent investigators to report on shipments of weapons, munitions and “dual use” items — for both civilian and military purposes — that could be used by Israel against Palestinians. It is not binding.
Hoever, India abstained on a resolution which was adopted by the 47-member Human Rights Council. While India’s abstention is believed to be in line with previous votes on any HRC resolutions that call for “accountability”, it did vote in favour of three other resolutions that criticised Israel for human rights violations against Palestinians, Israel’s occupation of Syrian Golan, and called for the Palestinian right to self-determination. All four resolutions were introduced at the HRC in Geneva by Pakistan on behalf of the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation.
The United States, Germany and four other countries voted against the resolution, titled “Human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the obligation to ensure accountability and justice” and India joined France and Japan amongst 13 countries that abstained. However, a significant majority, 28 members of the HRC including Bangladesh, China, Maldives, the UAE, Indonesia, Brazil and South Africa voted in favour of the resolution. The Israeli Ambassador, who criticised the resolution for its failure to mention Hamas and condemn the October 7 attacks in which 1,200 Israelis were killed, walked out of the plenary session in protest at the end of her speech.
The latest vote was significant as it followed the killing of seven international aid workers in Gaza in Israeli airstrikes, and a military strike by Israel on the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, which India had expressed “concerns” about. While India’s Ministry of External Affairs did not issue any explanation for the vote, it is understood to follow previous abstentions on similar resolutions, and also in line with its vote at the UN General Assembly in October 2023, since the HRC resolution (A/HRC/55/L.30) failed to condemn Hamas, while condemning Israel’s killing of more than 33,000 Palestinians, blockade of food and humanitarian aid into the area, and “forcible transfer” of civilians from one part of Gaza to another in the past six months.
The resolution that was finally adopted demanded that Israel “immediately lift its illegal blockade on the Gaza Strip and all other forms of collective punishment and siege”, called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, condemned Israeli actions that “may amount to ethnic cleansing”, and spoke of the “starvation of civilians” by the Israeli forces. It also pressed for punitive measures, calling on all states to “cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel” and to refrain from the transfer of “surveillance goods and technologies” used to violate or abuse human rights.