TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israel-Palestinian conflict spans almost two centuries but has reached its peak in the last two decades. But the latest deadly attacks have been characterized as an "Israel-Hamas" conflict where a militant group is waging a major offensive.
"It's not really a religious war. It's a war between Iran and Israel and it's taking place in the Gaza Strip, in the West Bank," said TCU Professor Guy Golan, who once worked in Israeli politics.
Golan said Hamas, a militant group, is largely being fueled and funded by Iran. Golan said he believes Hamas' actions are indicative of a group that does not want the state of Israel to exist.
The state of Israel came to be in 1948 after fierce tensions and war between Arab and Jewish states.
In 1993, the Oslo Accords provided temporary peace while it gave Palestinians self-rule through most of the West Bank and Gaza.
"Hamas took over Gaza in 2007 after the parliamentary elections where Hamas won the election from the PLO," Golan said.
PLO is the Palestine Liberation Organization which is believed to want a peaceful coexistence with Israel. When Hamas took, over the region destabilized.
Israel has had a land, sea and air blockade on Gaza since 2007, a year after Hamas was democratically elected into power. Two years before that, Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had ordered most all Jewish settlements to leave Gaza.
"But the experiment failed. Instead of establishing a democracy in the Gaza strip that would empower its people they established a terror state," said Golan.
Mustafa Barghouti, general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, said in an interview with CNN that the situation that has resolved is a direct result of the continuation of what he calls the longest occupation in modern history.
"This is 56 years of occupation that has transformed into a system of apartheid," Barghouti told CNN. "Yes, maybe Hamas did not recognize Israel, but the PLO did and the Palestinian Authority did. And what did they get? Nothing. Since 2014, the Israeli government would not even meet with Palestinians, and what you see today is a reaction to several things."
Whether its two centuries or two decades, the conflict in the region and history are bloody. And, what's happened in the last two days is much of the same.