This article was written for Toufik’s Guide Magazine by Akida Bintee Islam Nooha. Statements or opinions expressed in this content strictly reflect the views of the author and not that of Magazine’s.
Palestine, officially known as State of Palestine is a small region of land that has played a vital role in ancient and modern history of the middle east. After the end of world war one in 1918, the British took control of Palestine. The land was inhabited by a Jewish minority and Arab majority. In 1947, the UN voted for Palestine to be split into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem becoming an international city. This plan was accepted by Jewish leaders but vehemently rejected by the Arab side and never implemented. British failing to solve this issue withdrew from Palestine in May 1948. Jewish leaders declared the creation of the state of Israel, implying a willingness to implement the Partition Plan. Troops from neighboring Arab countries (Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon) moved in to prevent the establishment of the Israeli state which led to the Arab-Israeli War. By the time the fighting ended in July 1949, Israel controlled most of the territory whiles Jordan took control of the West Bank, Egypt and the Gaza Strip. The 1948 conflict opened a new chapter in the struggle between Jews and Palestinian Arabs and has been one of the world’s most persisting conflicts.
The situation between Israel and Palestine has worsened so much that it has put a question to humanity. Israel v/s Palestine is a 73 years old beef that has stumped everybody. As this conflict has been ongoing for so long that, people often forget it’s ongoing. There are flare ups that the world can’t ignore. An Overnight deadly barrage on May 11th 2021 from Israeli forces lighting up the strikes over Gaza with explosions and warning air raid sirens heard echoing through Bethlehem in the west bank. The channel 12 television reported that there has been a direct rocket hit on a building in Suburb of Holon. Israel proclaimed their attack was a retaliation to an earlier attack by Palestinian militant groups firing more than 200 rockets into Israel. Most of the Hamas rockets were stopped by Israel’s missile defense system or they fell short.
In Gaza, Israeli air strikes reportedly killed 28 people including 10 children, over 150 people were wounded. In Israel, Hamas rockets killed only 2 people. All these exchange of fire comes as a result of tension that had been building up in weeks due to Israeli threats to evict Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem. Israeli police assaulted Palestinian protesters using tear gas around the Al-Aqsa mosque. This left more than 600 Palestinian protesters, worshippers and civilians wounded by rubber bullets and a few dozen Israeli police.
The Latest attacks out of this enduring conflict involves fire balloons and air strikes which has mounted pressure on a temporal cease fire between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers that came into place on 21 May, after 11 days of intense fight. 260 Palestinians were reportedly killed by Israeli air strike according to Gaza authorities. In Israel, police and army reported that 13 people including a soldier were killed by rockets fired from Gaza.
References:
1. History.com Editors. (2017). Palestine. A&E Television Networks.
2. (“Children among 28 Palestinians killed in Israeli air raids on Gaza” 2021) Retrieved from https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.trtworld.com/middle-east/children-among-28-palestinians-killed-in-israeli-air-raids-on-gaza-46611/amp
3. (“Israel strikes on Gaza for second time since ceasefire” 2021) Retrieved from https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.france24.com/en/middle-east/20210617-israel-strikes-gaza-in-response-to-fire-balloons-for-second-time-since-ceasefire
About the Author
Akida Bintee Islam Nooha is a student at Viqarunnisa Noon College ,Dhaka. She is the Head of marketing at Seize the Day and the Chief outreach officer at Creativerstic. She has been affiliated in different national and international debates, Olympiads and programs since last 6 years. She is interested to pursue my dream as an doctor in future. She has been affiliated in 25+ Model United Nations in different countries including Bangladesh, Nepal, United Kingdom, India, Ukraine, Indonesia, Tanzania and so on. She has achieved Record of Achievement on “Emerging respiratory viruses including COVID-19: method for detection, prevention, response and control” , “COVID-19 operational plannings: Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) for novel coronavirus (COVID-19)” and “Ebola: course on knowledge for health professionals “ from World Health Organization. She dreams to eradicate melancholy from the world.