The Israel-Hamas war | The Freeman

I find it fitting to mention here the then British foreign minister, Arthur Balfour, the person responsible for the Balfour Declaration in 1917 proposing to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. Part of his letter read like this, "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."

The State of Israel was established on May 15, 1948 with David Ben-Gurion as its founder and first prime minister through United Nations General Assembly Resolution No. 181 calling for the establishment of the State of Israel and the State of Palestine. Israel is one of the 193 members of the United Nations, with the Philippines being one of the signatories for it to become a state.

The Palestinians rejected the proposed land partition, thus, a Palestinian State was not established in 1948. It was only established as a separate state in 1988.

The West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip were administered by Jordan and Egypt, respectively (info extract from reliable source).

In manifestation of their sympathy to the Palestinians and discontented with the UN's imprimatur of establishing a Jewish State, an alliance of Arab nations, namely, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Egypt attacked Israel; unfortunately, the Arab nations suffered a stunning defeat despite Israel's limited weapons of war at the time.

Then came the year 1967, commonly called the six-day war, a coalition of Arab countries like Syria, Jordan and Egypt attacked Israel. Just the same, Israel won the war and occupied a portion of land at the Golan Heights in Syria and the Suez Canal in Egypt. Israel also occupied and took control of The West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip.

In 1973, Arab nations Egypt and Syria allied themselves and attacked Israel, but again, Israel emerged victorious in the war. From 1973 until