More than 75 years after declaring statehood, Israel's borders remain largely undefined, shaped by wars, treaties, and occupation. The land that became Israel was part of the Ottoman Empire until after World War One, when the League of Nations assigned Britain to administer Palestine, tasked with establishing a Jewish national home without prejudicing the rights of non-Jewish communities. The rise of Arab and Jewish nationalism led to violence, culminating in the UN's 1947 partition plan, which was accepted by Jewish leaders but rejected by Arab states.
Israel declared independence on 14 May 1948, without specifying borders. The next day, five Arab armies invaded, leading to the 1949 armistice lines that created the boundaries of the Gaza Strip (then under Egyptian occupation), East Jerusalem, and the West Bank (under Jordanian control). The 1967 Six Day War tripled Israel-controlled territory, occupying Sinai, Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. Israel effectively annexed East Jerusalem and the Golan, moves largely unrecognised internationally until the US changed its position under the Trump administration.
Israel's borders with Egypt and Jordan were formalised after peace treaties in 1979 and 1994 respectively, with Israel withdrawing from Sinai. The border with Lebanon remains the 1949 line, and the Syrian border is unsettled. Gaza has a de facto border since Israel's 2005 withdrawal, but the UN considers Gaza and the West Bank a single occupied entity. The final status of these territories is meant to be decided in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, but talks have so far failed. The Gaza border has been reinforced with security barriers since 2014, but Hamas breached them in a major attack on 7 October 2023.
