What Is the West Bank and Who Controls It?

Israeli troops raided two Palestinian cities on Wednesday in what they called an effort to tamp down rising militancy in the northern West Bank. The raids continued on Thursday, with the Israeli military saying it had killed several militants during a gun battle in a mosque.

The renewed violence has cast a spotlight on the Israeli-occupied territory, where over 600 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces, according to the United Nations, in parallel to the devastating war in Gaza.

Here’s what to know:

What is the West Bank?

Roughly three million Palestinians and 500,000 settlers live in the West Bank, a kidney-shaped area between Israel and Jordan that has been a battleground between Israelis and Palestinians for decades.

The modern territory emerged after the 1948 war that created Israel; during the conflict, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes, with many taking refuge in the West Bank. Jordan occupied and then annexed the territory after the war.

In 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank and other territories in a war with neighboring Arab states. For religious Jews, the territory’s rolling hills and ancient sites were the heart of what they deemed a divinely promised homeland.

Israel slowly began permitting its own citizens — propelled by both nationalism and religious fervor — to build and expand settlements in the West Bank. But it never formally annexed the territory, fearing both the diplomatic repercussions abroad and that it might end the country’s coveted Jewish majority at home.