A brief history of the violence in Gaza

Gaza, one of the most densely populated places on the planet, has been sealed off from the outside world since the early 1990s. The territory is predominantly inhabited by refugees and their descendants who in 1947/1948 fled or were expelled from what today is known as the state of Israel.

This week a bloody conflict erupted between Israel and the Palestinians of Gaza with fears it could escalate into a full-blown war.

Here is a timeline of some of the most important events in many years of confrontation.

1987 - Hamas is created at the start of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Two years later, Hamas carries out its first attacks on Israeli military targets, including the kidnap and murder of two Israeli soldiers.
1993 - After years of violence, the first Oslo Accord, aimed at establishing peace between Israel and the Palestinians, is signed. Hamas opposes the peace process, and seeks to derail it with bus bombings and gun attacks in Israel.
2000 - Israel and the Palestinians fail to reach a final agreement in the peace process at a summit in the US in July. Two months later, Palestinian protests against a visit by Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in East Jerusalem - known to Jews as Temple Mount, because it was the site of ancient Jewish temples, and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary - escalate into a second intifada.
2001-2002 - Hamas carries out a series of suicide bombings in Israel, including killing 21 Israelis outside a Tel Aviv disco in June 2001, and 30 Jewish celebrants at a Passover seder dinner in Netanya in March 2022. Four months later, Hamas's military commander, Salah Shehadeh, is killed in an Israeli airstrike. Israel starts a siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
March-April 2004 - Israeli airstrikes kill Hamas co-founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and co-founder and political leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi in Gaza within a month of each other. The Hamas leadership goes into hiding and the identity of Rantissi's successor is kept secret.
August 15 2005 - Israeli forces start a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, captured from Egypt in the 1967 Six-Day war, abandoning settlements and leaving the densely populated enclave under the control of the Palestinian Authority.
January 25 2006 - Hamas wins a majority of seats in a Palestinian legislative election. Israel and the US cut off aid to Palestinians because Hamas refuses to renounce violence and recognise Israel.
June 25 2006 - Hamas militants capture Israeli conscript Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid, prompting Israeli airstrikes and incursions. Shalit is finally freed five years later in a prisoner exchange.
June 14 2007 - Hamas takes over Gaza in a brief civil war, ousting Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is based in the West Bank.
December 27 2008 - Israel launches a 22-day military offensive in Gaza after Palestinians fire rockets at the southern Israeli town of Sderot. About 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis are reported killed before a ceasefire is agreed.
November 14 2012 - Israel kills Hamas's military chief of staff, Ahmad Jabari, and eight days of Palestinian militant rocket fire and Israeli airstrikes follow.
July-August 2014 - The kidnap and killing of three Israeli teenagers by Hamas leads to a seven-week war in which more than 2,100 Palestinians are reported killed in Gaza and 73 Israelis are reported killed, 67 of them military.
March 2018 - Palestinian protests begin at Gaza's border with Israel and Israeli troops open fire to keep them back. More than 170 Palestinians are reported killed in several months of protests, which also prompt fighting between Hamas and Israeli forces.
May 7 2021 - After weeks of tension during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, Israeli police clash with Palestinian protesters near the Al-Aqsa mosque over a legal case in which eight Palestinian families face losing their East Jerusalem homes to Jewish settlers.
May 10 - After a weekend of sporadic violence, hundreds of Palestinians are hurt in clashes with Israeli security forces at the Al-Aqsa compound, Islam's third holiest site. After demanding Israel withdraw its security forces from the compound, Hamas fires a barrage of rockets from Gaza into Israel. Israel hits back with airstrikes on Gaza.
May 11 - The death toll mounts as the aerial bombardments continue. A 13-storey residential building in Gaza collapses after being hit during an Israeli airstrike. Palestinian militants launch rockets deep into Israel.
May 12 - The US announces it will send an envoy to the region. Israel's military kills a senior Hamas commander in Gaza.
May 13 - Israeli airstrikes and militant rocket fire continue, and violence worsens in mixed communities of Jews and Arabs in Israel. Synagogues are attacked and clashes break out in some towns.
May 14 - Israel uses fighter-bombers, tanks and artillery against a network of tunnels under Gaza in an operation that is followed by more Palestinian rocket salvoes.