On May 21st, Israel and Palestine agreed to a cease-fire to end the bloody 11-day war. Armed conflict between them that lasted during the period has killed more than 200 people on both sides. The armed conflict began from May 10th, with strikes from the Israeli air force. According to the local media of Israel, the air strikes were a response to the rocket attacks by Hamas, the Palestine fundamentalists.

　Ramadan* start from April 12th to May 12th. However, during the Ramadan, Palestinians protested furiously against Israel to stop them from invading their territory and Israeli police suppressed them. Haaretz, the longest running newspaper of Israel, reported that the size of the protest was the biggest since 2015. In fact, Israel and Palestine have had a long history of conflicts. After the Ottoman Empire lost World War I, Britain took control of the region known as the "Palestinians." Most of the people who lived here were Arabs, and Jews were ethnic minorities. After that, tension between the two ethnic groups built up as the international community placed the task of building a homeland for Jews in the Palestinian region after World War 2. Since the United Nations partitioned the Palestinian and Israeli land in 1947, Jews and Palestinians have both claimed Jerusalem belongs to their land. Therefore, the conflict has continued among the areas such as east Jerusalem, Gaza city, etc. In particular, in 2008, a war broke out over Gaza city, resulting in more than 1400 victims.

　Kim Jung-Myung (Prof. of Arabic Studies, Myongji University) said, “The issue is very complex because there are lots of intertwined relationships between and inside them. However, although they ceased fire, they have to make more efforts to find ways of securing peace.”