The United Nations has published and credited third-party estimates of the number of those killed and injured in the war. Those include estimates that more than 34,900 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and more than 1,200 people in Israel.

Israel believes that Iran poses an existential threat as evidenced by Tehran's rhetoric, its build-up of proxy forces in the region including the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah that are sworn to Israel's destruction, and its funding and arming of Palestinian groups including Hamas.

From targeting humanitarian vehicles to standing by as mobs attack trucks, Israel is blocking aid from reaching Gaza. May 18 2024, 6:00 a.m. On Monday, a mob of Israeli settlers attacked aid trucks carrying food supplies to Gaza.

Very soon after its conquest of East Jerusalem in 1967, Israel merged East Jerusalem with West Jerusalem by administratively extending the municipal boundary of the city. In July 1980, the Knesset passed the Jerusalem Law as part of the country's Basic Law, which declared Jerusalem the unified capital of Israel.