Palestine (Palestinian territories)فلسطين

Jericho, in the Jordan Valley, is among the oldest continuously inhabited towns on earth, with walls dating to about 8000 BCE. The hill country around Hebron, Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Nablus was home to Canaanites and Israelites, then ruled in turn by Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans and Byzantines; Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity was first built under Constantine in the fourth century. Arab armies took the region in the 630s, and the Umayyads built the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem around 691. Crusaders, Ayyubids and Mamluks followed, and the Ottomans ruled from 1516 to 1917.

Under the British Mandate (1920–48), Arab Palestinians — Muslims and Christians — resisted a policy that promoted a Jewish national home; the 1936–39 revolt was crushed. In the 1948 war around Israel's founding, about 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled and hundreds of villages were depopulated; Palestinians call this the Nakba, the catastrophe. Jordan annexed the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Egypt administered Gaza.

Israel captured both in 1967. The Palestine Liberation Organization under Yasser Arafat became the recognised voice of Palestinians; the First Intifada (1987–93), a largely civilian uprising, led to the Oslo Accords and the Palestinian Authority. Final-status talks on borders, Jerusalem, refugees and settlements failed at Camp David in 2000, and the Second Intifada brought suicide bombings, Israeli reoccupation of West Bank cities and the separation barrier, which the International Court of Justice advised in 2004 was unlawful where it runs inside the West Bank.

Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005; Hamas won the 2006 legislative elections and took Gaza by force in 2007, after which Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade. Wars followed in 2008–09, 2012, 2014 and 2021. After the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel's war in Gaza killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and displaced nearly the entire population; the International Court of Justice took up a genocide case against Israel, which Israel rejects. In the West Bank, Israeli military operations, settlement expansion and settler attacks intensified. A ceasefire in Gaza was agreed in October 2025 (check the current state).

About 5.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza (check), and millions more in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and further afield. Roughly two in five people in the territories are registered refugees from 1948 or their descendants; the camps, run with UN (UNRWA) services, are now dense urban neighbourhoods. Family, village of origin and clan remain central to identity.

Most Palestinians are Sunni Muslims. Christians — Greek Orthodox, Latin Catholic, Melkite, Armenian, Lutheran and others — are a small, long-established community centred on Bethlehem, Beit Sahour, Beit Jala, Ramallah and Jerusalem, and have declined through emigration. A few hundred Samaritans keep their ancient faith on Mount Gerizim above Nablus.

Palestinian identity is carried in symbols: the keffiyeh, embroidery patterns (tatreez) specific to each village, the olive tree, the key kept from homes left in 1948, and poetry — Mahmoud Darwish is the national poet. Politics is split between Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas; no national elections have been held since 2006.

UNESCO lists the Church of the Nativity and the pilgrimage route in Bethlehem, the olive and vine terraces of Battir, Hebron's old city with the Ibrahimi Mosque/Cave of the Patriarchs (holy to Muslims and Jews and divided between them since 1994), and ancient Jericho. Jerusalem's Old City is listed separately and its status is contested.

Hebron's old city is the sharpest example of how the conflict shapes heritage: Israeli settlements sit inside it, main streets such as Shuhada Street are closed to Palestinians, and the market is partly shuttered under netting that catches debris thrown from above.

Gaza's heritage — the Great Omari Mosque, the Church of Saint Porphyrius, the Pasha's Palace, Anthedon harbour and the Byzantine monastery of Saint Hilarion (a UNESCO site since 2024) — was heavily damaged or destroyed in the war after 2023 (check UNESCO assessments).

Movement defines the day. Palestinians need Israeli permits to enter Jerusalem or Israel, pass checkpoints such as Qalandiya between Ramallah and Jerusalem, and use roads that can be closed by army gates at short notice; a 20-minute journey can take hours. Palestinians from the West Bank cannot fly from Ben Gurion and travel abroad via Jordan.

Friday is the weekly day off for most, Sunday for many Christians. Food centres on olive oil, za'atar, bread from taboun ovens, musakhan (roast chicken with sumac and onions), maqluba and Nablus's knafeh. The autumn olive harvest is a family event and, near settlements, a flashpoint.

Salaries depend on the Palestinian Authority's budget, which relies on customs revenue Israel collects and often withholds; many public employees have been paid partial wages. Since 2023, work permits in Israel have largely been cancelled, and West Bank unemployment has risen sharply.