Timeline of Israeli history


This is a timeline of modern Israeli history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Israel and its predecessor entities from 1881 onward, along with important events in Jewish history and the history of Zionism from that year on.

2000-present

YearDateEvent
200117 OctoberAssassination of Rehavam Ze'evi: Tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi was shot at a Jerusalem hotel by Hamdi Quran of the Palestinian nationalist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He died of his injuries that night in hospital.
200223 JuneConstruction of the Israeli West Bank barrier began.
200429 JanuarySome four hundred prisoners, the remains of sixty Lebanese militants and civilians, and maps showing the locations of Israeli mines in southern Lebanon, were transferred to Hezbollah in exchange for the bodies of the three soldiers abducted in 2000, as well as the abducted Israeli reservist Elhanan Tannenbaum.
200512 SeptemberIsraeli disengagement from Gaza: The last Israeli settlers and security personnel were withdrawn from the Gaza Strip.
20064 JanuaryPrime minister Ariel Sharon suffered a severe hemorrhagic stroke and fell into a coma. The designated acting prime minister Ehud Olmert became acting prime minister.
200612 July2006 Hezbollah cross-border raid: Hezbollah forces crossed into Israel and ambushed two IDF vehicles, killing three soldiers and capturing two others.
200612 July2006 Lebanon War: Israeli forces began shelling Lebanese territory in response to the Hezbollah attack of earlier that morning.
20076 SeptemberOperation Orchard: Israel carried out a surprise air strike on a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria's Deir ez-Zor Governorate.
200827 DecemberGaza War: Israel began conducting a series of airstrikes on assets of the Palestinian Sunni Islamist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip in response to ongoing rocket fire on the western Negev.
200918 JanuaryGaza War : The war ended with a unilateral Israeli ceasefire.
201031 MayGaza flotilla raid: The navy boarded a flotilla organized by the Free Gaza Movement and the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, which was attempting to break an Israeli and Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip, in international waters. During the takeover, a violent confrontation erupted on board the MV Mavi Marmara in which nine activists were killed.
20102 DecemberMount Carmel Forest Fire: A forest fire began on Mount Carmel which would kill forty and burn nearly twenty square miles over the next three days.
201114 July2011 Israeli social justice protests: Filmmaker Daphni Leef set up a tent in Habima Square and invited others to join a protest over the absence of affordable housing.
201110 September2011 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Egypt: A crowd of thousands of Egyptian protestors breached the Israeli embassy in Cairo.
201118 OctoberGilad Shalit prisoner exchange: Hamas released the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit to Egypt in exchange for one thousand Palestinian other Arab prisoners held in Israel, including some three hundred serving life sentences for planning and perpetrating terror attacks.
201214 NovemberOperation Pillar of Defense: The IDF began an eight-day anti-Hamas operation in the Gaza Strip, a response to ongoing rocket fire on the western Negev, with an airstrike on the senior officer Ahmed Jabari.
20148 July2014 Israel–Gaza conflict: The IDF launched a series of airstrikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.
20176 DecemberUnited States recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel: U.S. President Donald Trump formally announces the United States recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
201925 MarchUnited States recognition of Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights: U.S. President Donald Trump signed a presidential proclamation to officially recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
202010 DecemberIsrael–Morocco normalization agreement: Following the Abraham Accords, Israel and Morocco signed a security cooperation agreement and began normalizing relations.
202130 April2021 Meron stampede: The deadliest civil disaster in Israel's history.
2021May2021 Israel–Palestine crisis
202116 JuneNaftali Bennett of the Yamina party was sworn in as Prime Minister, forming a coalition government with Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid party, marking the end of Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year tenure as Prime Minister.
202114 JulyIsrael opened its embassy in the United Arab Emirates in accordance with the Abraham Accords
202211 MayAl Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot and killed while covering an Israeli military raid in Jenin. Her death led to international condemnation and calls for an investigation into the circumstances of the shooting.
202230 JuneThe Israeli Knesset voted to dissolve itself, triggering the fifth election in less than four years.
20221 NovemberIsrael held its fifth election in less than four years, resulting in a victory for Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, which led to the formation of a controversial right-wing government.
20237 January2023 Israeli judicial reform protests: Large-scale protests erupted across Israel in response to proposed judicial reforms by the Netanyahu government, which critics argued would undermine judicial independence.
20239 MayOperation Shield and Arrow: The IDF launched a series of airstrikes against Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza following rocket fire towards southern Israel.
20237 OctoberOctober 7 attacks and Gaza war: Hamas and several other Palestinian militant groups launched coordinated armed incursions from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, killing 1,143 and taking 250 hostages, marking the deadliest attack in Israeli history and the first invasion of Israeli territory since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
20238 OctoberIsrael–Hezbollah conflict: Hezbollah begins attacking northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights.
202327 OctoberIsraeli invasion of the Gaza Strip: The IDF launched a full-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip with the goal of eliminating Hamas and releasing the hostages.

Timelines of older periods and wider concepts

Other