Israel and Hamas have been waging war since gunmen from the Palestinian militant group attacked southern Israel on 7 October, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages. Israel responded with a military campaign in which more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed. The war is the bloodiest chapter in an entrenched conflict between Israelis and Palestinians that has rumbled on for seven decades, destabilising the Middle East and inflicting untold human misery. What are the origins of the conflict? 1940s Israelis had demanded the establishment of a secure nation on land to which they cited deep ties stretching far back...