Known in the Arab world as the October War, and in Israel as the Yom Kippur War, a war fought between Israel, Syria and Egypt in October 1973. The war began with a surprise attack by Egyptian and Syrian forces in the midst of the Jewish fast of Yom Kippur. Despite their initial advances in Sinai and the Golan Heights, respectively, the Israeli forces repelled the Egyptians and Syrians and managed to cross the Suez Canal. Towards the end of the war, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 338, calling for a ceasefire and negotiations based on Resolution 242. The war ended with a ceasefire, followed in early 1974 by separate disengagement agreements with Egypt and Syria. Though the aftermath of the war saw the territorial status quo remain largely unchanged, within several years Israel and Egypt would sign a peace treaty, involving an Israeli withdrawal from Sinai. Following the war, the Agranat Commission was set up in Israel to investigate possible failures in the Israeli political and military leadership in preparing for the war. The publication of the commission's report triggered a political crisis that led to the resignation of Prime Minister Golda Meir and Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan. Casualties in the war numbered over 2,000 on the Israeli side, and several thousand on the Arab site.

Reference map of Arab localities in the Gaza area that remained on the Israeli side of the 1949 Israel-Egypt armistice line following the 1948 War.

Reference map of Arab localities depopulated during or following the 1948 War that have not since been repopulated by Israelis.

Reference map of Arab localities that were destroyed during or as a consequence of the 1948 War, as part of the process known in the Arab World as the Nakba (Catastrophe).

Reference map of Palestinian localities that were destroyed during the 1967 Six Day War.

Reference map of landing strips at Ben-Gurion International Airport, the primary gateway for international air traffic in and out of Israel. Located only a few kilometers away from the 1967 lines, the security of this airport is considered by Israel to be a vital component of security arrangements in a future Israeli-Palestinian settlement.

A legal document adopted by the League of Nations on 24 July 1922. It established the United Kingdom as a Mandatory in control of Palestine, which had been officially under military government since the British occupied it from the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It was based on the Sykes-Picot Agreement and the understandings reached at the Paris and San Remo Conferences. The document provided for the administration of Palestine by the British with the aim of establishing the Jewish national home as mentioned in the 1917 Balfour Declaration, ensuring that the rights and positions of other communities in Palestine, as well as holy places, be preserved. Article 25 of the Mandate allowed the British, with the consent of the League of Nations, to “withhold or postpone” the application of certain provisions of the Mandate with regard to the territory east of the Jordan River and administer it separately from the rest of Palestine, a right which it exercised with the Transjordan Memorandum later in 1922.

A “national defense scheme” for the Jewish population in Palestine authored by Elimelech ‘Avner’ Zelikowitz, a member of the Haganah, the largest Zionist militia, in June 1937. The plan was prepared in response to a request by Haganah leadership, ahead of the possible termination of the Mandate for Palestine and outbreak of a Jewish-Arab civil war. The scheme detailed the military, financial and territorial outlines of the Jewish war effort, based on a phased advancement from north to south.

A peace treaty between Israel and Egypt signed in Washington, DC, on 26 March 1979. It was signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and witnessed by US President Jimmy Carter. The treaty was the culmination of negotiations which began with Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem in 1977, and followed the framework established in the Camp David Accords of 1978, for which Sadat and Begin were awarded that year’s Nobel Peace Prize. According to the treaty, Israel was to withdraw all military and civilian presence from the Sinai Peninsula, returning to the 1949 armistice line. This included the evacuation of a number of Israeli settlements established since 1967, notably the towns of Ofira (Sharm el-Sheikh) and Yamit (near El-Arish). The withdrawal was completed in June 1982. Egypt agreed to the demilitarization of the Sinai Peninsula, except for limited police presence, monitored by the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) created in 1981. In addition, diplomatic and trade relations were established between the two countries.

A modus vivendi, or provisional understanding, signed between Israel and Egypt on 22 February 1950, and meant to complement the 1949 Israel-Egypt Armistice Agreement. In the interest of reducing tensions along the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, the understanding establishes three zones, one on the Israeli and two on the Egyptian side of the armistice line, and limits the amount and armament of military personnel in these zones. The agreement also provided for limited territorial exchange, with Egypt receiving additional territory at the intersection of the Israel-Gaza Strip-Egypt borders, while Israel was compensated with a strip of territory along the northeastern border of the Gaza Strip.