Gaza

In June 1967, a six-day war between Israel and its Arab neighbors reshaped the modern Middle East. Israel’s Arab neighbors had invaded Israel before, at the end of 1948, but failed to destroy the new state. When the 1967 war ended, Israel had captured the Gaza Strip and the Sinai desert from Egypt; the Golan Heights from Syria; and the West Bank and East Jerusalem, from Jordan. Defeat at the hands of the fledgling Israeli state led to years of upheaval for the Arabs. Read this article by the BBC for context surrounding the 1967 war between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

Violence flared up again between Israel and Palestine in 2022. After three days of violence, Egypt mediated a ceasefire. But Egypt had acted as an intermediary between Israel and Gaza before. The current violence between Israelis and Palestinians feeds off of deeply seeded issues spanning the past 100 years—the creation of Israel, the "Catastrophe", and the changing map of Israel’s boundaries. Read this article by the BBC for a concise breakdown of the history of the conflict, and what the future might hold.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict disrupts the ability to provide services to Gazan communities. According to the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC), people in Gaza have only 10 to 12 hours of interrupted power supply a day. When conflict escalates in Israel-Palestine, Gazans receive even less access to services and infrastructure. As a result, the majority of the population spends most of their time without electricity; 80 percent depend on humanitarian aid and can’t afford additional expenses. Explore this interactive site from ICRC to see how the lack of electricity in Gaza impacts people’s everyday lives, health, and mental wellbeing.

The stone head the Canaanite goddess of beauty, love and war is unearthed in a Khan Younis field.