"I don’t want a cease-fire; I want a solution"

The Gaza Strip, or simply Gaza, is home to 2 million Palestinians currently under a near-total blockade on the movement of people and goods in or out of the territory. It has been under military occupation since 1967 together with the West Bank and East Jerusalem. A border-wall surrounds the territory and only two-checkpoints for civilians exist today: one administered by Israel and a second by Egypt.

There is no functioning airport and Israel imposes an air- sea- and land-blockade since Hamas took over Gaza in June 2007. A permit system controlled by Israel regulates all entry and exit of civilians to other occupied Palestinian and Israeli territories, and has been accused of being arbitrary and opaque.  Although special permits for humanitarian reasons such as medical treatment exist, the same critique applies.

The Egyptian crossing also uses a permit system but would regularly close for months prior to February 2021 when it was made functional 'indefinitely' at the writing of this info-box. Prior to this, it remained closed for all but a few days between 2014 and 2018.

In 2005, the then-Israeli Prime Minister withdrew all military forces and Jewish citizens from Gaza citing the demographic-threat of an Arab majority in an Israeli state. Shortly after, an Islamic resistance movement called Hamas won legislative elections and eventually took over administering Gaza following infighting with the more moderate Palestinian group Fatah. Hamas does not recognise Israel's right to exist and is considered a terrorist organisation by most Western countries for its military-wing's use of suicide bombers against civilians, the use of tunnels to smuggle goods and attack Israeli settlements in Palestinian occupied territories, and most notoriously rocket-attacks on Israeli settlements and territory.

During Jewish holidays, attacks on Israeli settlements and territories, and at times for undefined reasons, Israeli may close all civilian and goods border-crossings on its side. Since 2007, import-restrictions on so-called dual-use goods that could be misused by Hamas to manufacture rockets or build underground tunnels into its territories and settlements in occupied territories are also in place. These include fuel, concrete, or water pipes. Successive bombing-raids by Israel on Gaza have left key infrastructure unable to be rebuilt. Israel accuses Hamas of misusing civilian buildings and infrastructure, as well as civilian populations, to hide military equipment. Today, less than 5% of fresh water in Gaza is drinkable, its sewage system has collapsed, and despite various negotiations having at times improved access of humanitarian aid and goods, the humanitarian situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The international community considers Israel the occupying power in Gaza, a status which puts special obligations on Israel regarding the humanitarian situation inside Gaza. Israel denies this status on the basis that it has no physical presence in Gaza and cites security-reasons as necessitating the blockade.

The UN calls the blockade of Gaza a form of collective punishment against its inhabitants, which is illegal under international humanitarian law. As part of the UN and shared EU position, Luxembourg calls for the end of the blockade.

By the end of 1949, 80% of Palestinians had been turned into refugees, the new State of Israel controlled 78% of historical Palestine, and the first Arab-Israeli war had been decisively won by Israel. This catastrophe for Palestinians, Nakba in Arabic, is commemorated each 15th May as the day after the end of the British Mandate for Palestine on 14th May 1947 ended and the declaration of Israeli statehood on the 14th gave birth to the State of Israel on the 15th. Even before the 15th, almost half of all displacement had already incurred, with Palestinians deliberately and systematically driven from hundreds of cities, towns, and villages. A civil war had started after the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 181 on the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into Jewish and Palestinian states in November 1947. 56% of historic Palestine were to be given to a new Jewish state, and 43% to a Palestinian state. An international regime would have administered Jerusalem.

Although Jewish representatives had issues with some of the territorial outline, the resolution represented the then-zenith of Zionist efforts and they accepted it. Their eventual declaration of a state of Israel broadly followed the territorial partition envisaged in the resolution. Arab states voted against it and threatened war over any partition of Palestine. Ultimately, the resolution was never implemented as civil war broke out shortly after. Initially, Arab support for the Palestinians did not match previous rhetoric however, and early military wins were rebuffed by the local Zionists proto-state built over previous past decades. Better organised and expecting war, it would overcome the Palestinian militias. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians were driven from the eventual outline of the Israeli state.

On 15th May 1948, the symbolism of a Jewish state on Arab lands, significant refugee flows into surrounding Arab nations, interests by Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq to annex parts of Palestine, and a general underestimation of Israeli military might have started the invasion of Israel by several Arab forces. Although the West Bank would be captured for Jordan, Jewish immigrants, arms supplies, and the newly formed IDF would stop and reverse advancements. By mid-1949, Israel controlled 78% of historic Palestine and had signed armistice agreements with the different Arab invading forces. In a subsequent Six-Day War in 1967, it would reclaim the West Bank, expand its territory further, and take on most of its modern boundaries.

The conclusion of fighting brought with it profound territorial and demographic changes. Although about 150.000 Palestinians remained in Israel, Palestinian refugees became the largest refugee population in the world until the Syrian war. Many became stuck in refugee camps and essentially stateless to this day. In 2021, 5.6M Palestinian refugees are registered with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and mostly reliant on aid. Their right to return is a key demand by Palestinians in the Israel-Palestinian peace process regarding an eventual return to their homes and property they left behind. This demand remains unacceptable to Israel, not least as it would fundamentally alter the demographic balance of a Jewish Israel. Demographic calculations were part of early partition assessments, and a key concern for Zionists. This all plays into what constitutes the Naqba to Palestinians.

In addition, the 1950 Absentee Property Law and its subsequent provisions have essentially barred Palestinians to reclaim property and land, especially in East Jerusalem where protests on this issue would eventually spiral into the May 2021 violence. The Law applies to almost all Palestinians, including any Palestinian living outside Israel or who left their residence between November 1947 and September 1948. The ownership of their properties is transferred to a custodianship which are usually given to Jewish settler-organisations for a fee. Only a special committee with no specific criteria can release property to someone claiming original ownership. All settlements in occupied territories, including those established under the absentee-property law are illegal under international law.

The Naqba then is much more than Palestinians commemorating their initial expulsion from their homes and lands. Rather, it is a key part of their identity as Palestinians, of their unrealised right to return, the loss of their ancestral homes and communities, and by extension much of their culture. Israeli organisations that commemorate Naqba Day can be fined if they receive financial support by the state.

Sheikh Jarrah is a historically Palestinian neighbourhood in East Jerusalem and the site of regular protests over possible eviction of Palestinians by Jewish settlers. Crucially, the gradual growth of Jewish settlements in and around East Jerusalem is undermining a future two-State solution, as well as being illegal under international law. Weeks of protests that started in Sheikh Jarrah were met by violent crackdowns which spiralled out of control and grew in size, ultimately involving the storming of Islam's third-holiest site, the al-Aqsa mosque, by Israeli security forces. Hamas called on Israeli forces to withdraw from the al-Aqsa compound and started launching rockets into Israel when this did not happen. These evictions and clashes must be understood in a larger historical context, including the 1980 Jerusalem Law that states "Jerusalem, complete and united is the capital of Israel", and the Property Absentee Law which allows for the seizing of absentee-property that is then usually given to settler-organisations

In the case of East Jerusalem, Israel's conquest in 1967 from Jordan introduced a set of specific challenges to Palestinians living there. The right to claim property owned prior to Jordan's takeover in 1948 was granted to Jews but withheld from Palestinians as they were considered Jordanian citizens. Specifically, Jordan negotiated with the UN Refugee Works Agency for Palestinians to swap the refugee status of some Palestinian families with ownership and citizenship in East Jerusalem, including in Sheikh Jarrah. This has made Palestinians ineligible to reclaim property in Sheikh Jarrah and others fighting court-battles for their ownership. Originally, these swaps were honoured against the paying of a rent. Jewish settlers incurred into East Jerusalem and started court-proceedings in the 1970s, with legal proceedings over land-deeds going back to Ottoman times being subject of contention. Israel's Supreme Court has most recently offered 4 families the option to stay in their homes for three generations if they sign that the land they live on originally belonged to Jewish settlers. None have signed.

As protests spiralled, Israeli security-forces stormed the al-Aqsa compound, creating an outcry by Muslims across the world. The site has seen a long-running feud between Muslims and extremist Jews, the latter of which seek to tear down the mosque and rebuild the biblical Third Temple. Muslims currently administer the compound through a special Islamic organisation called Waqf, but fears and tensions run deep that some Jewish settlers want to take control of the compound. When in 2000 then-politician Ariel Sharon entered the compound, the symbolism was akin to desecration of the compound, and pent-up tensions between Palestinians and Israelis unleashed the Second Intifada. Subsequently, large groups of Jews have repeatedly tried entering the compound, including during the last days of Ramadan in previous years. The most provocative actions to Palestinians have been Israeli restrictions on their access to the compound when tourists and Jews had free access.

Masjid al-Aqsa or al-Aqsa mosque is the third-holiest site in Islam and part of the "Noble Sanctuary" compound that Jews call the Temple Mount and understand as their holiest site. It includes the Dome of the Rock, from which Muslims believe their prophet ascended to heaven. Specifically, they believe he ascended by the help of a winged beast called Buraq, which he tied to what Jews call the Wailing Wall. Jews pray against the wall as they believe it constitutes the last remains of the biblical Second Temple. Both Muslims and Jews believe the ground of the compound to be blessed. Jews however are not permitted to pray on it due to the assumption that they could stand on the remains of HaDvir, or Holy of Holiest, an inner sanctum of the biblical First Temple.

Hamas, or Islamic Resistance Movement, has ruled Gaza since 2006 when it won the Palestinian legislative elections of the Palestinian National Authority (PA) in a surprise victory. Its origins lie with the First Intifada, when it emerged as offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, calling for jihad against Israel. Hamas' use of military and terrorist tactics (specifically rocket and suicide attacks) against the military occupation, denial of Israel's right to exist, partial refusal to engage in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and its original aim to establish an Islamic state in all of historic Palestine meant the international community and Israel sought to contain its influence.

Days after Hamas' electoral victory, the Quartet for Middle East Peace, consistent of the United Nations, the European Union, Russia, and the US, conditioned foreign aid to Palestinians on any new government aligning with the principles of non-violence, recognition of Israel's right to exist, and accepting all previous peace-agreements. These conditions were essentially unacceptable to Hamas at the time, even if moderates had moved it to accept pre-1967 borders, a truce if not recognition with Israel amongst other changes to its previous hardline stances.

Outside pressure and internal differences gradually eroded trust and space for cooperation between Palestinian factions. Hamas would soon create its own security force, which raised tensions with Fatah, a more moderate and secular party which the international community expected to win and which continues to hold the Presidency of the PA under Mahmoud Abbas. In parallel, it emerged that the PA's Presidential Guard loyal to Fatah was given military hardware and support by outside powers to possibly overthrow Hamas. Factional in-fighting and clashes resulted in Hamas taking over Gaza militarily in 2007. In an attempts to improve security and pressure Hamas, Israel and Egypt imposed the Gaza Blockade which endures to this day.

Although repeated attempts have been made to reconcile parties and form a Palestinian Unity Government, most efforts were short-lived or never came to fruition. New elections keep being postponed by Abbas. Although there are multiple complex reasons for this, one argument is that Hamas is expected to win an even greater share of seats, although not necessarily a majority. Mediation by the UN and Egypt have made some recent progress. Observers argue the current state of affairs is in an untenable deadlock, with Hamas having returned to many of its more hardline positions. Intra-Palestinian and external differences will have to be resolved somehow. Countries such as Norway and Switzerland have rejected recognising Hamas as terrorist organisation to this end, so they may continue engaging in diplomatic exchange and political engagement.

Hamas does not tolerate dissent. Planning, organising, and attending protests against its rule incur arrests, and critical reporting can result in jailtime, torture, and beatings. Contact with any Israelis is tried as treason, and civilians are tried in military courts. Over the years, such repression has taken on different levels of severity, with recent anti-Hamas protests facing greater repression. During its rule, Hamas has been accused of using human-shields to protect its military-hardware and to purposefully store weapons or run military units in residential areas to shield it from Israeli air-strikes. The Gaza-strip has one of the highest population-densities in the world, making any strike against a military target almost certain to incur civilian casualties.

Since the 90s, but especially in 2008, 2012, 2014, 2018, and most recently in 2021, Hamas and other militant groups have regularly launched improvised unguided rockets and mortars into Israel. Their numbers have varied from low double-digits into the thousands, and Israel relies on an anti-missile defence system called Iron Dome to intercept about 90% of them. Although casualties are low, their target is causing terror. At various stages, cease-fires were signed and aid was allowed back into Gaza in exchange for a stop to rocket-fire.

Israel's own retaliations in Gaza have equally been considered possible war crimes or crimes against humanity due to their disproportionate impact on civilians and infrastructure. Under international humanitarian law, civilian infrastructure is protected and any attacks must be proportional to the military aim it seeks to achieve. Israel's process of designating military targets has faced intense scrutiny following investigations of civilians and civilian infrastructure being systematically targeted over the years. Specifically, water, energy, health, education, and agricultural infrastructure has suffered under repeated bombing campaigns.

The blockade makes reconstruction and maintenance often impossible, with more infrastructure still falling into disrepair. Most basic goods and medicine are in short supply or completely unavailable. A 2012 UN report estimated Gaza to become unliveable by 2020 due to a lack of available freshwater amongst other reasons. Today, less than 5% of water is drinkable, with untreated sewage and wastewater seeping into an overdrawn aquifer. Energy is available for about half a day at a time, the unemployment rate is almost 50% for adults and higher for young people. Covid restrictions imposed by Israel and later by Hamas have decimated what little economic activity survives. Previous reports have found a mental health crisis, with up to 90% of children being constantly afraid, and suffering from nightmares and bedwetting even a year after bombing raids.

A two-State solution would see the creation of an independent democratic Palestinian state based on borders with Israel as they existed in 1967 before the Six-Day War. The West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem (as capital) are considered occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) and form the territorial basis for a future Palestinian state.

Following the end of the First Intifada in 1993, the Oslo Accords and subsequent peace initiatives and treaties aimed at building a schedule or phasing of issues to be negotiated for achieving peace. As progress would be made, greater autonomy would be handed would be over to the Palestinian Authority (PA) for the administration of oPt until potential statehood could be considered. Negotiations have repeatedly broken down and treaties have not always been honoured.

Key issues remaining unsolved are over borders, the status of East Jerusalem (as Jerusalem is meant to become the shared capital under a two-State solution), the status of Israeli settlements, access of Palestinians to their lands, Palestinian refugees' right to return, and security guarantees.

Unfortunately, the past 30 years have made a two-State solution look increasingly unlikely. Israeli settlement activities in the form of expropriations, construction of settlements, and the building of border-walls in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have created new realities on the ground that preclude most of the original plans for a viable partition of territories. Subsequent UN Security Council and UN General Assembly resolutions calling on Israeli to withdraw troops from oPt and calling its settlements illegal under international law have largely gone ignored. In addition, Israeli politics continues shifting right - meaning supporting continued settlements and annexation of land - just as the splintering of Palestinian leadership between Gaza and the West Bank weakened the potential for negotiating and implementing any agreement. Whilst the international community recognises the Palestinian Authority as main representative of Palestinians, ever more Palestinians see the PA as collaborators to the state which is occupying their lands and continuing to evict them from it. For Israel, there can be no real negotiations over Palestinian statehood as Hamas controls Gaza and rejects all such efforts.

Although Hamas controls Gaza since 2007 and the blockade and regular bombing of Gaza has seen ever-worsening humanitarian conditions, its popularity increased. This outcome is the exact reverse of the blockade's intentions, and the PA's support of it implicates it in the needless suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. Moreover, Hamas has been able to shoot rockets at Israel and Israeli settlements with greater precision and range even as tunnels for smuggling goods into Gaza have been systematically destroyed by Israel. When the Sheikh Jarrah and al-Aqsa protests flared up, protests were initially independent of formal Palestinian institutions such as the PA or groups such as Hamas. Yet, Hamas was able to capitalise on them by positioning itself as a defender of Palestinian interests to a new generation of protestors. Its own governance structures keep evolving, and it is likely to gain a political foothold in the West Bank. Meanwhile, Mahmoud Abbas, President of the PA, postponed new elections once more as it is likely Hamas would win them.

What remains of the two-State solution are arguments for limited Palestinian statehood within parts of the West Bank (Israel currently controls about 60% of it directly), as does a form of confederacy (or 1.5 State solution), or an unacceptable to all 1-state solution. Violent protests and Israel and Palestinian mobs in cities across Israel that include mixed populations further add to the tensions that exist within Israel and the oPt at this stage. Even if the US as main ally of Israel were to pressure Israel to conform with international law, it is doubtful what remains salvageable of the original two-State solution.

Luxembourg supports a two-State solution based on the borders as they existed in 1967 before the Six-Day War. This is in line with EU and UN positions. Whilst 9 EU Member States* already recognise Palestine as a state, Luxembourg does not. Foreign minister Jean Asselborn argues that for any such recognition to make a material difference it has to come as part of a greater diplomatic effort, such as the EU as a whole recognising Palestinian statehood. To this end, Asselborn has repeatedly pushed for a common position by the EU, but to no avail.

As most UN and EU Member States, Luxembourg considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal under international law, as well as condemning them as colonisation undermining the two-State peace process. Previously, Asselborn threatened Luxembourg would recognise Palestine unilaterally should Israel annex the West Bank.

During the Gaza protests in 2018 and the most recent escalations in 2021, Luxembourg supported calls for respective UN Human Rights Council special sessions on events in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel. The latest such call and subsequent resolution established an ongoing independent, international commission of inquiry  looking at all possible abuses committed against international humanitarian and international human rights law that may have lead to the most recent events.

*Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Sweden.a