ANALYSIS
What is the Israel-Gaza war about? The conflict explained
The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 was one of the bloodiest episodes in this conflict. Our maps show how the borders of Palestine and Israel have changed throughout the past century
The Sunday Times
Four thousand years ago an old man left his temporary home in southern Turkey with his wife, nephew and some slaves, and walked south.
The scriptures say that God had appeared to this man — whom Jews, Muslims and Christians call Abraham — and promised a patch of land, wedged between the eastern Mediterranean and the river Jordan, to him and his descendants.
But which descendants?
Jews claim this promised land through Isaac, Abraham’s son. Hebrew tribes lived here for centuries before the Romans largely expelled them almost 2,000 years ago.
Arabs, who settled in the area and have been there for much of the time since, claim the land through Ishmael, Abraham’s eldest son and their fabled ancestor. They adopted Islam in the seventh
