'Green Signal Given To Israel Defence Force'

The Palestinian terror group Hamas launched an unprecedented assault on Israel on 7 October, with hundreds of gunmen infiltrating communities near the Gaza Strip.

At least 1,400 Israelis were killed, while the Israeli military says 203 soldiers and civilians, including women and children, were taken to Gaza as hostages.

More than 3,700 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in air and artillery strikes carried out by the Israeli military in response. Israeli troops are also massing along the Gaza boundary and Palestinians are bracing themselves for a major ground operation. Israel-Palestinian peace talks were held on and off between the 1990s and 2010s, interspersed with outbreaks of violence.

A negotiated peace did seem possible in the early days. A series of secret talks in Norway became the Oslo peace process, forever symbolised by a ceremony on the White House lawn in 1993 presided over by President Bill Clinton.