PARIS: A truce announced Wednesday by Gaza militants followed a deadly exchange of cross-border fire, sparked by the death in Israel of a Palestinian hunger striker.
AFP looks back at worsening violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since last year:
March-May 2022: Deadly attacks in Israel
On March 22, 2022, a convicted Islamic State sympathiser goes on a stabbing and car-ramming rampage in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, killing four people.
A week later, a West Bank Palestinian opens fire at passers-by in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish city of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv, killing five people including an Arab-Israeli police officer.
On April 7, a gunman from Jenin, in the north of the occupied West Bank, kills three people and wounds more than a dozen others in a popular Tel Aviv nightlife district.
On May 5, two assailants swing axes at passers-by in the ultra-Orthodox city of Elad, killing three people are wounding four.
West Bank crackdown
The spate of deadly attacks causes outrage in Israel, which responds with over 2,000 raids in 2022 on the West Bank, targeting particularly the militant bastions of Jenin and Nablus.
On May 11, veteran Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh dies after being shot in the head while covering clashes between the Israeli army and militants in Jenin.
On October 25, Israeli raids leave five Palestinians dead in Nablus.
August: Gaza strikes
On August 5, Israel launches three days of artillery and air strikes against the Islamic Jihad group in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, accusing it of planning attacks in Israel.
At least 49 Palestinians are killed including 17 children.
Islamic Jihad launches hundreds of rockets in retaliation.
2023: Surge in violence
An Israeli “counter-terrorism operation” on January 26, 2023 leaves 10 Palestinians dead.
A day later, a Palestinian gunman kills seven Israelis outside a synagogue in annexed east Jerusalem.
On February 6, Israeli forces kill five people, including suspected Hamas militants, during clashes in the West Bank town of Jericho.
Four days later, two Israeli children and a student are killed in a car-ramming attack on a bus stop in east Jerusalem.
On February 22, the Israeli army carries out its deadliest West Bank incursion in nearly 20 years, killing 11 Palestinians including a teenager in Nablus.
A raid on March 7 in Jenin leaves six Palestinians dead.
In April, an Israeli woman and her two daughters are killed in a shooting in the West Bank.
February 26: Settler rampage after attack
On February 26, two Israeli settlers are shot dead as they drive through the northern West Bank town of Huwara.
That evening, hundreds of settlers in the town go on the rampage, torching Palestinian homes and cars and throwing stones.
April 5: Al-Aqsa standoff
Israeli police on April 5 storm the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound in east Jerusalem's Old City, sparking clashes in Islam's third-holiest site during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, with some worshippers armed with stones and fireworks.
The UN chief and Muslim leaders express shock at a video showing police clubbing people on the floor.
Palestinian militants in the blockaded Gaza Strip respond by firing a barrage of rockets at Israel. Rockets are also fired by suspected Palestinian militants in Lebanon.
Israel on April 7 bombards both Gaza and southern Lebanon at dawn.
May 2: Hunger striker's death
Khader Adnan, a 45-year-old Palestinian prisoner, dies from hunger strike on Tuesday, nearly three months after being detained over alleged ties to Islamic Jihad.
Gaza militants trade fire with Israel following his death, with one Palestinian killed and five others wounded in an Israeli air strike. - AFP