What's Happening in Palestine?
For some, October 7, 2023 marks the beginning of the latest war on Gaza. For Palestinians, it is not a beginning but a brutal intensification of a catastrophe that has been unfolding for more than 75 years. To understand the destruction being inflicted upon Gaza today, one must look not to the events of a single day, but to the maps drawn in 1948, the mass expulsions, and the creation of a refugee population that has been displaced and targeted ever since. The current devastation is widely seen by Palestinians as the latest chapter of the Nakba, the catastrophe that began with the creation of Israel and has shaped Palestinian life ever since.
The roots of the conflict stretch back to the aftermath of World War I, when the League of Nations granted Britain the mandate to govern Palestine. Embedded within this mandate was the Balfour Declaration’s promise to establish a “national home for the Jewish people.” At the same time, the indigenous Arab majority was referred to only as “non-Jewish communities,” with civil and religious rights but no political recognition. This created a profound imbalance in which a settler project received international backing while the native population’s aspirations for self-determination were ignored.
The conflict entered its most consequential phase in 1947 and 1948. As the British mandate ended, the United Nations proposed Resolution 181, a plan to partition Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states. The proposal granted the Jewish state more than half the territory even though Jews made up roughly one third of the population and owned only a small percentage of the land. Palestinians and surrounding Arab nations rejected the plan as unjust. The war that followed led to the mass displacement of Palestinians in what they call the Nakba.
During this period, more than 750,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled their homes, and hundreds of villages were destroyed. Massacres, including the widely documented killing of civilians in Deir Yassin, spread fear among the population and accelerated the flight of civilians. By the end of the fighting, the new state of Israel controlled about 78 percent of historic Palestine, leaving behind a vast refugee population that continues to exist today.
Decades later, Palestinians remain under military occupation and blockade. Israel has controlled the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza since 1967, while Gaza has been under a strict blockade since 2007. For many Palestinians, the events of October 7 were a dramatic eruption of resistance from a population living under siege and occupation. Supporters of this view argue that the attack cannot be understood without the broader context of raids, settlement expansion, detentions without trial, and the long isolation of Gaza.
Israel’s military response has devastated the Gaza Strip. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed, and much of the territory’s infrastructure, including homes, schools, hospitals, and universities, has been destroyed. The humanitarian situation has been described by aid organizations as catastrophic, with severe shortages of food, water, and medical supplies.
International legal scrutiny has also intensified. South Africa filed a case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of violating the Genocide Convention. In early 2024, the court ruled that allegations of genocide were plausible and ordered provisional measures aimed at protecting civilians and preventing further destruction. Human rights organizations have pointed to the scale of civilian casualties and widespread devastation as evidence of an unfolding humanitarian disaster.
Even ceasefires have offered little relief. Temporary truces have repeatedly broken down amid accusations of violations and renewed attacks. For many Palestinians, these cycles reinforce the belief that the international system has failed to protect them while powerful allies continue to support Israel diplomatically and militarily.
The world watches as bombs fall on refugee camps whose inhabitants have already been displaced for 75 years, as families are starved by siege, and as international court rulings are ignored. From the expulsions of 1948 to the devastation of Gaza today, Palestinians see a continuous struggle over land, freedom, and survival. Understanding the present crisis requires recognizing this long history of displacement, occupation, and resistance. Criticism within this perspective is directed at Zionism as a political ideology and at Israeli state policies, not at Jewish people or Judaism.