Fifty years to the day after the start of the Yom Kippur War, Israel and Palestine are once again at odds.

On October 6, 1973, a group of Arab countries launched a surprise attack on Israel on Yom Kippur which is the holiest day in Judaism. This sparked the Yom Kippur War.

The fighting took place mostly in the Golan Heights, Sinai, and other areas that Israel had captured from Arab countries in the Six-Day War in 1967.

Youm e Kippur War

The war was a major turning point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

As the war intensified, the Arab members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) suspended oil deliveries to all western countries that supported Israel. This triggered a global energy crisis.

After two weeks of fighting and nearly 20,000 deaths, Israel won the war. It now controlled more land than it did before the war started.

Youm e Kippur war 2

On October 6, 2023, 50 years after the Yom Kippur War, the Hamas group attacked Israel.

Hamas fired over 5,000 rockets into Israel and called on fighters in the West Bank and Arab and Islamic countries to join the battle. Hamas said that Israel is illegally occupying Palestinian land.

The attack came amid heightened tensions over the sacred Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a "state of war" and launched a retaliatory strike against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.

The ensuing violence has killed hundreds of people on both sides and raised fears of a wider conflict.