NY Times Interactive Media: Israel, the Gaza Strip, and Hamas

The Israeli/Palestinian conflict dates back about a thousand years but it has intensified more recently when Israel became a country in 1948. In 1956, Israel invaded Egypt and seized Gaza strip from them. Back then Israel had Europe on it's side because of what had happened during the holocaust. Now Europe just wants the fighting to stop. After 31 years of fighting, Israel signed a peace treaty with Egypt. The treaty included giving Palestine it's own government. Seven years later Hamas was founded as a resistance to Israeli occupation. In 1993, Yasir Arafat signed an accord with Israel but Hamas was opposed to it and increased their violent attacks. After 38 years of occupying it, Israel pulled it's troops out of Gaza in 2005. Hamas was elected in 2006 and then violently took over Gaza in 2007. Since then there has been pretty much constant fighting back and forth