A history of refugees and violence

THE internal fighting between Palestinian factions in Gaza is the latest stumbling block to attempts to secure a peace that has been elusive since the formation of the state of Israel.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, pressure began to grow from Zionists for the creation of an Israeli state in the Middle East, where both Jews and Arabs had lived for centuries.

Under the 1947 UN-backed plan for Israel, which was founded to provide a homeland for Jewish people in the wake of the Holocaust, the state would have occupied 55% of historic Palestine.