From a British promise in 1917 to the genocide in Gaza today. Scroll to move through time.
Britain's foreign secretary promises "a national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, a land where Palestinian Arabs were more than 90% of the population and were never consulted.
Read: Palestinians' Century-Long Fight: A breakdown from then to now. →Palestinians rise up against British rule and mass land transfers. Britain crushes the revolt with air raids, house demolitions and executions.
UN Resolution 181 proposes giving about 56% of Palestine to a Jewish state, when Jews were about a third of the population and owned under 7% of the land. Palestinians reject it.
Zionist militias, then the new Israeli army, expel Palestinians town by town. Massacres like Deir Yassin spread terror. Israel bars refugees from ever returning.
Israel occupies the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, the rest of historic Palestine. Hundreds of thousands are displaced again. Settlement building begins.
Read: Understanding Israeli Settlements →A mass popular uprising against occupation: strikes, boycotts and stone-throwing youth. Israel answers with its "break their bones" policy.
The Palestinian Authority is created with limited self-rule in pockets of the West Bank and Gaza. Settlements keep growing through the "peace process."
A second uprising. Israel reoccupies Palestinian cities and imposes closures and checkpoints across the West Bank.
The International Court of Justice finds that the wall Israel is building inside the occupied West Bank violates international law and must be dismantled. Construction continues.
Read: Israel's Separation Barrier: Security Measure or Apartheid Wall? →Israel seals Gaza by land, air and sea, controlling food, fuel, medicine and who can leave. The UN calls it collective punishment.
Read: Living in the World’s Biggest Prison: The Gaza Strip →Repeated Israeli military assaults on Gaza. The 51-day war of 2014 is the deadliest of them.
Weekly unarmed protests at Gaza's fence demand the right of return. Israeli snipers kill more than 200 protesters and wound thousands.
B'Tselem, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International each conclude that Israel's system of control over Palestinians amounts to apartheid.
Read: Israeli Apartheid: The Systematic Oppression of Palestinians →After the Hamas-led attack of 7 October, Israel declares a total siege and begins bombing Gaza on a scale not seen in modern conflict: homes, hospitals, schools, refugee camps.
Read: The Gaza Crisis →January: the ICJ orders Israel to prevent genocidal acts in South Africa's case under the Genocide Convention. July: the ICJ rules the occupation itself unlawful. November: the International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, including for starvation as a method of warfare.
August: the UN-backed IPC confirms famine in Gaza City. September: the UN Commission of Inquiry concludes Israel has committed genocide. October: a ceasefire takes effect, but strikes and aid restrictions continue.
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