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How long has Palestine been attacking Israel?
Executive summary
The question “How long has Palestine been attacking Israel?” requires historical context: organized Palestinian armed actions date back to the early 20th century amid rising Arab–Jewish tensions under Ottoman and then British rule, and large-scale interstate Arab attacks against the new state of Israel began in 1948 [1] [2]. More recent cycles of violence—notably repeated Gaza–Israel rounds involving Hamas—include major escalations in 2008–09, 2012, 2014, 2021, and the Hamas-led assault of 7 October 2023 that Israeli officials say killed roughly 1,200 people [3] [4] [5].
1. The roots: nationalist mobilization before statehood
Violence between Jewish and Arab communities in Palestine emerged alongside political Zionism and rising Arab nationalism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; what became recurring communal clashes and revolts (for example the 1936 Arab revolt) formed the early pattern of intercommunal attacks and counterattacks well before Israel’s 1948 founding [1] [6].
2. 1947–49: Partition, declaration of Israel, and regional war
When the U.N. proposed partition in 1947 and Israel declared independence in May 1948, fighting exploded. The day after Israel declared statehood it was attacked by armies from five neighboring Arab states and by Palestinian Arabs in what Israel calls its War of Independence and others frame as Nakba-era fighting and dispossession; that war set the modern interstate contours of the conflict [2] [7].
3. Post-1948: multiple wars and prolonged conflict
The Israel–Arab and Israeli–Palestinian conflicts continued as a sequence of wars, uprisings, and negotiations—six‑day and Yom Kippur wars, intifadas, and periodic Gaza campaigns. Histories and timelines compiled by institutions such as Britannica and the UN document repeated confrontations across decades, showing the dispute is not a short-term phenomenon but a century-long struggle over territory, sovereignty and refugees [4] [6].
4. Palestinian armed groups and Gaza cycles since 2000
Since the 2000s, militant groups based in Gaza—most prominently Hamas after it took control in 2007—have engaged in rocket fire, raids and other attacks on Israeli territory, triggering multiple Israeli military operations in Gaza (2008–09, 2012, 2014, 2021) and recurrent exchanges of violence; each round produced different casualty patterns and ceasefires [4] [3] [8].
5. The October 7, 2023 attack and its aftermath
A pivotal recent escalation occurred on 7 October 2023 when Hamas fighters crossed from Gaza into southern Israel in a large-scale assault that Israeli authorities say killed about 1,200 people and took hostages; that attack precipitated an extended Israeli military campaign in Gaza and a broader regional crisis [5] [3].
6. Different meanings of “attacking” change the time-frame
Answering “how long” depends on what the questioner means: communal violence between Arabs and Jews stretches back to the late 1800s/early 1900s [1]; large-scale Arab-state invasions and full-scale warfare began in 1948 [2]; organized Palestinian militant attacks against Israeli civilians and territory, often from Gaza, have been recurrent especially since the 1990s–2000s and intensified after Hamas’s takeover in 2007 [4] [3].
7. Competing framings and political implications
Different sources and actors frame these events differently: Israeli narratives emphasize state defense against terrorism and cross-border attacks (e.g., accounts of October 2023), while Palestinian and many international sources emphasize decades of occupation, displacement and resistance—each framing affects whether incidents are described as “attacks,” “resistance,” or part of broader war [5] [6]. Timelines assembled by neutral bodies such as the UN or academic outlets aim to present sequence without adopting political labels [6].
8. Limitations in available sources and what they don’t say
Available sources in this set provide broad timelines and highlight major escalations (late 19th/early 20th origins, 1948 war, repeated Gaza conflicts, October 7, 2023) but do not offer a single definitive metric answering “how long” in years for a simple “Palestine has been attacking Israel for X years.” Determining that would require a precise operational definition of “Palestine” (state? multiple factions?), “attacking” (sporadic raids vs. organised campaigns?), and a comprehensive incident-by-incident dataset not contained in the provided snippets (not found in current reporting).
9. Bottom line for readers
If you mean “when did organized Palestinian or Arab attacks on the territory that became Israel begin?” the answer traces back to the late 19th/early 20th century communal violence and escalated into full-scale war in 1948 [1] [2]. If you mean “How long have Palestinian militant groups been launching cross-border attacks and rocket fire?” the most sustained episodes are concentrated since the late 20th century and especially after 2007 with repeated Gaza–Israel rounds [4] [3].