Terms, background and guidance related to the current conflicts in the Middle East, compiled from Associated Press coverage, AP experts and the AP Stylebook. Newsrooms and organizations outside the AP might make decisions that differ from the AP's specific recommendations.

See full AP coverage for updates and more background, context and terms.

This updates and expands on what had previously been titled the Israel-Hamas Topical Guide.

It includes a change in style to ceasefire, no hyphen, as the noun and adjective in keeping with Merriam-Webster and common usage.

Middle East Conflicts Topical Guide

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Hamas-led militants stormed out of the Gaza Strip into nearby Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which coincided with a major Jewish holiday. The attack killed some 1,200 people, most of them civilians. It stunned Israel and caught its military and intelligence apparatus off guard. Some 250 people, including children, were captured by Hamas and other groups and taken into Gaza.

Israel says the hostages held citizenship from more than 20 countries — though in most cases they were dual Israeli citizens.

The then-leader of Hamas' military wing, Mohammed Deif, said in a recorded message released on the day of the attack that the assault was in response to the 16-year blockade of Gaza; Israeli raids inside West Bank cities; violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque — built on a contested Jerusalem holy site sacred to Jews as the Temple Mount; increased attacks by settlers on Palestinians; and the expansion of Jewish settlements on occupied lands Palestinians claim for a future state.

Israel immediately launched airstrikes on Gaza, followed by a broad ground offensive that is ongoing. Israel has vowed to press ahead until it realizes its goals of destroying Hamas' military and governing capabilities, bringing home all hostages and ensuring that Hamas never again poses a threat to Israel.

Previous Israel-Hamas wars were in 2008-2009, 2012, 2014 and 2021. This one is the deadliest and most destructive since the Islamic group took power in Gaza in 2007.

The Gaza Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government, said over 44,000 people as of mid-November 2024 had been killed in the Israeli offensive. The Health Ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. The figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants but the Health Ministry has said over half the dead have been women and children. The Israeli army says some 17,000 militants have been killed, but it has given little evidence to support this figure.

The United Nations estimates that 90% of Gaza's population has been displaced, often multiple times. Palestinians in Gaza have been subject to evacuation orders that have moved the population into densely packed areas, including into what Israel calls a humanitarian zone. The civilian humanitarian crisis in the enclave has deepened, with shortages of food, shelter and access to clean water in the wartime conditions. In November a U.N.-backed panel of experts warned that "famine thresholds may have already been crossed or else will be in the near future," and said conditions were worse in the north, where Israel continues to fight Hamas.

On Nov. 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes. The warrants said there was reason to believe the men have used "starvation as a method of warfare" by restricting humanitarian aid and have intentionally targeted civilians. Israel angrily denied the charges, calling them antisemitic and a victory for terrorism and said the charges failed to recognize the country's right to defend itself. The court also issued a warrant for Deif for his role in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. Israel says it killed Deif months ago, but Hamas has not said whether he is dead or alive.

Nearly half the hostages taken in the attack were released during a one-week ceasefire in November 2023 in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. But repeated attempts at reaching a new ceasefire deal have faltered. Israel has rescued eight hostages in military operations, but dozens of others have been pronounced dead. Israel estimates that two-thirds of the roughly 100 hostages still inside Gaza are alive and believes one-third are dead.

Israel also has carried out military raids in the occupied West Bank. Israel says the raids are against local militants. Hundreds of militants have been killed, but stone throwers and uninvolved civilians have also been among the dead. Rights groups and Palestinians say the violence has been accompanied by an increase in settler attacks against local Palestinians.

Across the region, Israel is now engaged in a multifront conflict with Iran and its proxies, including Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran-linked groups in Syria, the Houthis in Yemen and militants in Iraq.

In solidarity with Hamas, Hezbollah militants in Lebanon began firing rockets into northern Israel on Oct. 8, 2023. Months of back-and-forth fighting between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah has erupted into a full-blown war in recent months, with Israel killing Hezbollah's main leaders and sending ground forces into southern Lebanon.

Israel's conflict with Hezbollah escalated rapidly following a wave of remotely triggered explosions that hit pagers and walkie-talkies carried by Hezbollah members in mid-September 2024. The explosions were widely blamed on Israel, which has not directly confirmed or denied involvement. The blasts which went off in grocery stores, homes and on streets killed at least 37 people, including two children, and wounded around 3,000 people, according to Lebanese authorities, deeply unsettling even Lebanese who have no Hezbollah affiliation.

Beginning on Sept. 23, 2024, Israel launched a heavy aerial bombardment of large swaths of southern and eastern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs, areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence, killing hundreds and leading to a mass wave of displacement.

Israel's Oct. 1, 2024, invasion of Lebanon, following nearly a year of Hezbollah rocket fire and Israeli airstrikes, was its fourth invasion of the neighboring country in the past 50 years: 1978, 1982, 2006 and now in 2024. Israel occupied south Lebanon from 1982 to 2000 and withdrew under sustained armed pressure from Hezbollah.

Israeli bombardment has killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and wounded more than 15,000, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. It also displaced about 1.2 million, or a quarter of Lebanon's population. On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by rockets, drones and missiles in northern Israel and in the ground fighting in Lebanon. Some 60,000 have been displaced from northern Israel near the Lebanon border since Oct. 8, 2023. There is no clear breakdown of civilian and combatant casualties in Lebanon, but according to the Health Ministry, more than a quarter of those killed were women and children

Israel says it has killed dozens of senior Hamas commanders, including Deif and Hamas leader Yahya Sinyar, who was killed in combat in October 2024 in southern Gaza. Sinwar's predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in a blast in Tehran in July 2024 that Iran has blamed on Israel. Hamas confirmed the deaths of Sinwar and Haniyeh but has never confirmed Deif's death.

Among several major Hezbollah leaders killed in the war have been the group's longtime and much-revered leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and Ibrahim Akil, who led Hezbollah's elite Radwan Forces, as well as Hashem Safieddine, an official who was widely seen as Nasrallah's anointed successor.

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balance

When approaching the 76-year Israeli-Arab and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, it is important to understand the deep wells of anger, hurt, bitterness and grievance built up over generations among Israelis and Palestinians who have lived with insecurity and conflict their whole lives, and who have seen many attempts at negotiation and mediation fail.

Words should be chosen carefully to reflect respect for different perspectives on the conflict.

Palestinians are divided between more moderate viewpoints seeking accommodation with Israel and more radical positions seeking the destruction of Israel through armed resistance. Similarly, Israelis are divided between more moderates who seek peaceful coexistence through the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel and security hawks and ultranationalists who oppose Palestinian statehood and seek continued control over occupied territories on security or religious grounds.

Avoid stereotyping, discuss nuance, and in broad ways maintain a balanced perspective.

When talking about attacks, keep in mind that in a conflict going back so many years, there are often many antecedents.

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ceasefire

Nearly half the hostages taken in Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack were released during a one-week ceasefire in November 2023 in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Since then, international attempts to secure ceasefires and hostage releases have failed as of November 2024, although diplomatic efforts continue led mainly by the United States. The sides remain deadlocked over a number of issues — including Hamas' insistence that Israel end the war, not pause it temporarily, and withdraw all troops from Gaza as part of any deal.

In Lebanon, the U.S. as of mid-November 2024 is pushing a ceasefire plan based on U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 but gradually unraveled. That resolution called for Hezbollah to disarm and withdraw from southern Lebanon, for Israeli forces to withdraw from all Lebanese territory, and for remaining border disputes to be resolved peacefully. Hezbollah violated the resolution by rearming and beefing up forces in southern Lebanon, while Lebanon accused Israel of violating its airspace with military overflights and of continuing to occupy small pockets of Lebanese land.

The exact details of the latest plan are unknown.

Israel's defense minister insisted on his country's right to act militarily against Hezbollah in any agreement to end the fighting in Lebanon. Lebanon's government is likely to view any such demand as an infringement on its sovereignty, and Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem has said that the group would not agree to a deal that allows Israel to continue to launch military operations in Lebanon after a ceasefire.

AP style has been updated to ceasefire (n. and adj.); cease fire (v.). Deletion of the hyphen for the noun and adjective is in keeping with Merriam-Webster and common usage.

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Israel-Hamas war, Israel-Hezbollah war

Lowercase the word war. AP capitalizes that word only as part of a formal name, which as of now does not exist.

The Israel-Hamas war can be called the latest war between Israel and Hamas, the latest Israel-Hamas war or simply the Israel-Hamas war if the context makes clear that the reference is not to a previous war.

Do not use terms such as Israel-Palestinian war or Gaza war. The term Israel-Palestinian war would suggest Israel is fighting against all Palestinians, while Gaza war would indicate that the war is confined to Gaza.

Do not call the Israel-Hezbollah war a war between Israel and Lebanon.

Hezbollah waged an insurgency against Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon from 1982 until the Israeli withdrawal in 2000, and the two sides fought a 34-day war in 2006. The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began in September 2024 after nearly a year of lower-level conflict.

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terrorism

The calculated use of violence, especially against civilians, to create terror to disrupt and demoralize societies for political ends. Israel, the U.S., the European Union and some other Western countries have branded Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist groups

However, the terms terrorism and terrorist have become politicized, and often are applied inconsistently around the world. Because they can be used to label such a wide range of actions and events, and because the debate around them is so intense, detailing what happened is more precise and better serves audiences.

Instead of labeling an attack or attacker as terrorism or terrorist, AP describes the specific atrocity, massacre, bombing, or assassination, and so on. We do not use the terms terrorism or terrorist for specific actions or groups, other than when attributed to authorities or others.

We continue to use the terms in broad references to terrorism as a threat and anti-terrorism efforts, fear of terror, etc.

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militant, militants

AP uses this term to describe Hamas and Hezbollah, in keeping with the Merriam-Webster definition: aggressively active (as in a cause), and Webster's New World College Dictionary: ready and willing to fight; especially, vigorous or aggressive in supporting or promoting a cause.

Terms such as Hamas fighters, attackers or combatants or Hezbollah fighters, attackers or combatants are also acceptable depending on the context. Do not use the term Hamas soldiers or Hezbollah soldiers or Hamas resistance or Hezbollah resistance, other than in direct quotations.

The Israeli army has soldiers. It also can be called the Israeli military. Use its official name, Israel Defense Forces, and the acronym IDF only in direct quotations.

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Palestine

Use Palestine only in the context of Palestine's activities in international bodies to which it has been admitted.

Do not use Palestine or the state of Palestine in other situations, since it is not a fully independent, unified state. For territory, refer specifically to the West Bank or Gaza, or the Palestinian territories in reference to both.

Palestinians are Arabs who live in, or whose ancestors lived in, the geographic area that comprises Israel, the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank, and east Jerusalem. These areas were once part of the traditional eastern Mediterranean region of Palestine.

See Gaza Strip, Gaza; West Bank; east Jerusalem.

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the Gaza Strip, Gaza

The Gaza Strip is an area of about 140 square miles and 2.3 million people at the border of Israel and Egypt on the Mediterranean Sea. One of two Palestinian territories along with the West Bank, it is one of the most densely populated and impoverished areas in the world. Gaza is acceptable on second reference.

Palestinians seek Gaza, along with the West Bank and east Jerusalem — all areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war — for a future state.

The 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization were meant to lay the groundwork for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. The interim agreement created the Palestinian Authority and set up self-rule areas in the Palestinian territories. Several rounds of peace talks over the years all ended in failure and violence has been frequent.

Israel unilaterally withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005. Hamas won legislative elections held in the West Bank and Gaza in 2006 and seized control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in 2007.

After Hamas took control, Israel and Egypt severely restricted the flow of goods into the territory and the movement of people in and out, in what Israel says is a security measure meant to prevent Hamas from building up its military capabilities. The blockade ravaged Gaza's economy, and Palestinians accused Israel of collective punishment. Despite the restrictions, Hamas managed to build up a formidable arsenal and extensive underground tunnel network.

In the current war, Israel briefly cut off all fuel, food and electricity. Under international pressure, it eased these restrictions, but food and basic supplies remain limited, and Gaza has plunged into a humanitarian crisis. The U.N. and international aid agencies have warned of severe hunger and the spread of diseases, with conditions in the hard-hit north especially dire.

In May, Israel seized control of the Rafah crossing into Egypt — the only other way out with the Israeli side sealed — making it impassable.

The Israeli government has said that Israel must maintain control over the so-called Philadelphi corridor, which runs along Gaza's southern border with Egypt, to prevent Hamas from replenishing its arsenal through smuggling tunnels in the area. The issue has been an obstacle to ceasefire talks with Hamas, which demands full Israeli withdrawal. Egypt says it halted smuggling through the tunnels years ago.

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Gazans

Avoid this term. Instead: Palestinians in Gaza.

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Gaza Health Ministry

The Gaza Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. We refer to it as the Gaza Health Ministry or the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Avoid Hamas-run Health Ministry, which could falsely imply that Hamas dictates its figures. See this story for more detail.

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Hamas

An armed Palestinian militant group, Hamas governs some 2.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip after violently seizing control of Gaza in 2007 from the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. It is one of the Palestinian territories' two major political parties; the other is the more moderate Fatah party.

Hamas has always espoused violence as a means to liberate what it says are occupied Palestinian territories, including what is now Israel. The group has vowed to annihilate Israel and has been responsible for many suicide bombings and other deadly attacks on civilians and Israeli soldiers.

The U.S. State Department designated Hamas a terrorist group in 1997. The European Union and other Western countries also consider it a terrorist organization.

Hamas has carried out suicide bombings and over the years fired tens of thousands of increasingly powerful rockets from Gaza into Israel. It also established a network of tunnels running from Gaza to Egypt to smuggle in weapons, tunnels throughout Gaza to move troops and supplies, and attack tunnels burrowing into Israel.

Hamas was founded in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian refugee living in Gaza, during the first intifada, or Palestinian uprising. The word Hamas is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement.

Over the years, Hamas received backing from Turkey, as well as from some Arab countries, such as Qatar, where its main political office has been based in recent years.

Recently, it has moved closer to Iran and its allies, including Hezbollah, and some of its leaders had relocated to Beirut prior to the Israel-Hezbollah war.

Possessive form: Hamas' not Hamas's.

See militant, militants.

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Hezbollah

Hezbollah was founded with Iranian support in 1982 at the height of Israel's invasion of Lebanon to fight the Palestinian Liberation Organization. It has become the largest and most heavily armed militant group in the Middle East. The Shiite militant group, based in Lebanon, is largely armed and funded by Iran.

Though Hezbollah was not involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, it began firing rockets and shells into northern Israel the following day. The fighting has boiled over into war and threatened to trigger an even broader regionwide conflagration. In April, Iran fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel to avenge what it said was an Israeli strike on an Iranian consular building in Syria that killed two Iranian generals. Most of the incoming fire was intercepted and caused little damage.

And in October, Iran again launched nearly 200 missiles at Israel to avenge Israel's killings of top Hezbollah, Hamas and the Iranian military officials. The missiles caused little damage or casualties, but Israel responded with airstrikes on Iranian military targets.

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels also have launched drones and missiles at Israel, in one case killing a man in Tel Aviv.

Hezbollah, supported by Iran and allied with Syria, has fought intermittently with Israel since its formation, and is the major power broker in Lebanon.

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Houthis

Yemen's Houthi rebels are a militant group drawn from Yemen's Zaydi community, a branch of Shiite Muslims who ruled a 1,000-year kingdom in Yemen up until 1962. The Houthis emerged in the 1990s and later battled Yemen's central government, which it opposed for its ties to both neighboring Saudi Arabia and the United States.

In September 2014, the Iranian-armed Houthis swept into Yemen's capital, Sanaa, seizing control. Its fighters pushed southward toward Aden, where Yemen's exiled central government made its headquarters. In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition entered the war, which has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians. It has created one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands more. A ceasefire that expired in October 2022 broadly has held in the time since.

The Houthis have targeted around 100 merchant vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden with missiles and drones since October 2023, in reaction to the Israel-Hamas war and later Israel's ground invasion of Lebanon. Some attacks have either been intercepted by U.S. and European-led coalitions operating in the region or failed to reach their targets, which have included Western military vessels as well.

The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the United Kingdom to force Israel to end the wars. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran. A United Nations panel of experts also has alleged that the Houthis may be shaking down some shippers for about $180 million a month for safe passage through the area.

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Israel

The modern state was declared in 1948 after Arab countries rejected the United Nations' partition resolution — a plan that would have divided the region into two states with Jerusalem controlled by the U.N. The Palestinians would have gotten less than half the territory, even though they made up the majority of the population and owned the vast majority of the land.

Israelis believed in creating a Jewish state in the biblical land of Israel as a guarantor of Jewish survival, an idea that gained strength internationally in the wake of the Holocaust.

The state was immediately recognized by the United States and admitted to the U.N. Israel was attacked by neighboring Arab countries, winning the war. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in what would become Israel fled or were forcibly expelled and settled in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. This mass displacement is a source of tension to this day known to Palestinians as the Nakba, the Arabic word for catastrophe.

Later wars, including the 1956 Suez Crisis, the 1967 Six-Day War and the 1973 war, further defined the de facto frontiers of Israel, which developed over the years into an undeclared nuclear-armed regional power backed by the United States.

An uneasy peace was achieved with Egypt in 1978 with the Camp David Accords, and the 1993 and 1995 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization were meant to usher an eventual two-state solution in which Israel would trade land for peace with the Palestinians.

Although the Palestinians achieved limited autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza, the process bogged down in acrimony and repeated rounds of violence, and the goal of a two-state solution was never achieved. Palestinian demands for a return of refugees and their descendants, the construction of Jewish settlements in areas claimed by Palestinians, competing claims to Jerusalem and its holy sites, and the lack of a clear statement of Israel's right to exist from some on the Palestinian side have been among the major impediments to a settlement.

In addition to the Egypt accords, Israel and Jordan reached a peace treaty in 1994. The Abraham Accords of 2020 normalized relations or established ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

Violence has ebbed and flowed. Israel has been subject to attacks from Palestinian militants and Hezbollah for years, including rocket attacks, suicide bombings and other violence against ordinary citizens. Israel has carried out bombardments that have also killed many civilians in Palestinian territories, deadly raids in Palestinian towns in the West Bank, and assassinations against Palestinian leaders both in the region and beyond. At various stages, Israel has occupied southern Lebanon, for multiple years after a full-scale invasion of Lebanon and war in 1982.

Israel exercises security control of the occupied West Bank, leaving the Palestinian Authority with limited administrative authority over Palestinian population centers. Israel fully withdrew from Gaza in 2005, turning it over to the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, while retaining control of most access to Gaza by land, air and sea. Even before the latest war, the United Nations still considers Gaza to be occupied due to the blockade.

Israel has a parliamentary system. The present government led by Benjamin Netanyahu is a far-right coalition of ultra-nationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties. His coalition includes religious and nationalist parties active in creating West Bank settlements and considered hostile to Palestinians.

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Iran

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran's Shiite theocracy has aligned itself with Palestinian militant groups and openly called for Israel's destruction. It has armed and trained through its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard a self-described "Axis of Resistance," including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iraqi militant groups and others, as an asymmetrical threat against both Israel and the United States to counter their technologically advanced weapon systems.

Iran also has backed Syria's embattled President Bashar Assad, whose nation has been at war with neighboring Israel since Israel's founding in 1948. For its part, Israel has viewed Iran's nuclear program as an existential threat and has carried out a series of assassinations targeting scientists and other sabotage campaigns against it.

The two countries before the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel had been engaged in a wider "twilight war" across the Mideast and elsewhere, though not openly attacking each other. That changed in April 2024, when Iran fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel in response to an alleged Israeli strike on an Iranian consular building in Damascus that killed two Iranian generals. Much of the incoming fire was intercepted by Israel, the U.S. and others and caused little damage. Israel responded with a pinpoint strike on an air defense system near Isfahan, Iran.

In October 2024, Iran launched some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel to avenge Israel's killing of leaders in Hezbollah and Hamas, and of an Iranian general. A piece of a falling missile killed a Palestinian and saw minor damage. Israel responded with an attack later that month that killed four Iranian soldiers and a civilian. Satellite images showed damage at a secretive military base near Tehran that experts in the past have linked to Iran's onetime nuclear weapons program and at another base tied to its ballistic missile program. The attack also likely damaged a base run by the Guard that builds ballistic missiles and launches rockets as part of the Guard's space program.

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settlements

Over 500,000 Israelis live in Israeli settlements built in the occupied West Bank, in addition to more than 200,000 settlers in east Jerusalem. Israel considers the settlements in east Jerusalem to be neighborhoods of its capital.

The international community overwhelmingly considers all settlements to be illegal. Palestinians believe that the settlements, built on lands they claim for a future state, make it increasingly difficult, even impossible, to reach a two-state solution. Israel's government has pressed ahead with aggressive settlement plans throughout the war.

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the West Bank

One of two Palestinian territories, along with the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority, dominated by the Fatah movement, administers semiautonomous areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank but is barred from 60% of the territory, including all the settlements as well as rural areas. Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 war.

The West Bank, which is not part of Israel, can be described as occupied territory.

The Palestinian Authority, as well as Fatah, are led by President Mahmoud Abbas. The veteran Palestinian leader is internationally recognized as the Palestinians' leader. He seeks a two-state solution with Israel, Israel does not see him as a reliable partner and he is widely seen by his own people as corrupt, weak and ineffective. The authority has been further weakened throughout the war by Israeli military raids in the West Bank and Israel's decision to revoke tens of thousands of work permits for Palestinian laborers, sending the territory into economic freefall. The U.S. has said a reformed Palestinian Authority should play a future role in Gaza, something Israel rejects.

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the Golan Heights

Israel captured the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau overlooking northern Israel, from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed the territory. In 2019, President Donald Trump became the first world leader to recognize Israel's control of the Golan. The United States remains the only country to consider the Golan part of Israel. The rest of the international community considers it occupied Syrian territory. Spell out in stories that the Golan was annexed by Israel and is considered by most of the world to be occupied. Do not use the shorthand Israeli-annexed or Israeli-occupied. Include the article the: the Golan Heights on first reference; the Golan thereafter. No the in datelines: KATZRIN, Golan Heights.

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east Jerusalem

Israel captured east Jerusalem, along with the West Bank and Gaza, territories the Palestinians want for their future state, in the 1967 war. Israel annexed east Jerusalem and views the entire city as its capital. The annexation is not recognized internationally and most of the world considers east Jerusalem to be occupied territory.

The Palestinians view east Jerusalem — which includes some of the holiest sites for Jews, Christians and Muslims — as their capital, and its fate is one of the most sensitive issues in the Mideast conflict.

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Jerusalem

Do not refer to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel or refer to the Israeli government as "Jerusalem." Likewise, the Israeli government should not be referred to as "Tel Aviv."

Israel considers the entire city to be its capital. The Palestinians view annexed east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

Most of the international community does not recognize Israel's annexation of east Jerusalem and believes its final status should be determined in peace talks.

However, in 2017, during the first administration of Donald Trump, the United States recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, though he said this did not preclude a settlement over its final borders. Several small countries have followed suit.

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Al-Aqsa Mosque, Temple Mount

These terms are used to identify a walled, hilltop compound inside Jerusalem's Old City revered by Jews and Muslims.

Jews call the site the Temple Mount, home to the ancient Jewish temples that were destroyed in antiquity. It is the holiest site in Judaism.

The compound now houses the centuries-old Dome of the Rock shrine and Al-Aqsa Mosque and is known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary. Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad made his night journey to heaven from the site. It is the third-holiest site in Islam — after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Muslims refer to the whole area as the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Any reference to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound/Temple Mount should note both names and its importance to both Muslims and Jews. These conflicting claims have repeatedly raised tensions and sparked violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

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pro-Israeli, pro-Palestinian

These shorthand descriptions can be misleading in that people can be critical of the current leadership or policies on either side and still support Israel or the Palestinian people. A critic of the present government of Israel may nevertheless be pro-Israeli, and a critic of Hamas may still be a supporter of Palestinians. When possible, try to say exactly what the individual believes.

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antisemitism

Prejudice or discrimination against Jews.

The term was coined in the 19th century by the German writer Wilhelm Marr, who opposed efforts to extend the full rights of German citizenship to Jews. He asserted that Jews were Semites — descended from the Semitic peoples of the Middle East and thus racially different from (and threatening to) Germany's Aryans. This racist pseudoscience was applied only to Jews, not Arabs.

The previous style was based on common usage. In recent years, that style has come under criticism from those who say it could give credence to the idea that Jews are a separate race. In response, a growing number of Jewish organizations and others have settled on the style antisemitism.

Avoid using the term antisemite for an individual other than in a direct quotation. Instead, be specific in describing the person's words or actions.

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Some key players

Benjamin Netanyahu: Israeli prime minister. He is Israel's longest-serving leader and was sworn in for his sixth term in 2022 and has built Israel's most hard-right government ever, dominated by ministers who adamantly reject Palestinian statehood. Israel Katz: Israeli defense minister since Nov. 8., 2024; previously was the foreign minister. Katz is a longtime Netanyahu loyalist and veteran Cabinet minister.

Yoav Gallant: Had been Israeli defense minister when the war began; was fired by Netanyahu on Nov. 5 and replaced with Israel Katz, the former foreign minister. Gallant's dismissal set off mass protests; many in Israel view him as the sole moderate voice in a far-right government.

Itamar Ben-Gvir: Israeli national security minister and leader of the far-right Jewish Power party. Ben-Gvir is an ultranationalist West Bank settler leader and admirer of the late racist rabbi, Meir Kahane, and calls for a hard line against Palestinian violence.

Benny Gantz: Former Israeli defense minister, military chief and senior opposition figure; former member of Israel's now-dissolved wartime cabinet created to oversee the fight against Hamas.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari: Chief Israeli military spokesman.

Mohammed Deif: Leader of Hamas' military wing; he does not appear in public. Israel claims to have assassinated him. Hamas has not confirmed or denied the death.

Yahya Sinwar: A Hamas leader who was a mastermind with Deif of the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the current Israel-Hamas war. He was killed in what appeared to be a chance front-line encounter with Israeli troops in Gaza on Oct. 16, 2024. Hamas had not named a new leader as of mid-November 2024.

Ismail Haniyeh: Hamas' supreme leader before Sinwar; lived in exile in Qatar but was killed in a July 2024 blast in Iran. Israel has not claimed responsibility.

Hassan Nasrallah: One of Hezbollah's founders and its leader from 1992 until an Israeli airstrike killed him on Sept. 28, 2024. Nasrallah has been linked by Israel to numerous deadly attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets. His assassination is by far the biggest and most consequential of Israel's targeted killings in years, and significantly escalated the wars in the Middle East.

Naim Kassem: A cleric chosen by Hezbollah to lead the Lebanese militant group after the killing of its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb in late September. Kassem had been Nasrallah's deputy leader for over three decades. Like Nasrallah, Kassem is one of the founding members of the Shiite political party and armed group.

Hashem Safieddine: Had been the second-most powerful person in Hezbollah and was expected to be elected Hezbollah's next leader after the death of Hassan Nasrallah, his cousin. He was killed in an Israeli airstrike in early October 2024.

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Some key locations

Netzarim corridor: An east-west road running from the Israeli border to the Mediterranean that divides northern and southern Gaza. Israel has not allowed displaced Palestinians to move north of the corridor.

Rafah: Gaza's southernmost city, located along the Egyptian border. Israel moved into the city in May, seizing control of its crossing with Egypt, and the Philadelphi corridor along the border. Before the war, the crossing served as Gaza's main gateway to the outside world.

Erez crossing: Before the war, the crossing served as the main point for Palestinians leaving Gaza via Israel. The crossing has been sealed to foot traffic since Oct. 7, though Israel now allows some cargo deliveries into Gaza.

Kerem Shalom: The main cargo crossing into Gaza. It is the primary delivery point for aid entering the territory.

Gaza City: Gaza's largest city. Most of the population has been displaced and moved south, though many Palestinians displaced from northern Gaza in late 2024 have relocated to Gaza City.