2005: Gaza withdrawal

ISRAEL TIMELINE

Overview

1948: The State of Israel is founded

1956: The Sinai campaign

1967: The Six-Day War

1973: October War

1977-1979: Egyptian-Israeli peace

1982: Lebanon invasion

1987: First Intifada

1993: Oslo agreement

2000: Second intifada

2005: Gaza withdrawal

2006: Lebanon war

2008: Israel now

By now, the former general Ariel Sharon was Israeli prime minister and he abandoned the policy he had followed all his life, that of holding onto the West Bank and Gaza at all costs.

Instead, he announced that Israel would leave the Gaza Strip and would build a wall and fence to defend itself against suicide bombers and separate the Palestinian territories from Israel.

The withdrawal went ahead, but Gaza later became the scene of a power struggle between the Palestinian Authority, representing the old guard of the secular PLO, and the newer Islamic-inspired forces of Hamas. Hamas prevailed.

The Oslo accord had all but disappeared.