New Delhi: Hamas pounded Israel with 5,000 rockets on October 7 as its operatives infiltrated the country using motorised gliders, boats, and on foot. Israel retaliated with a devastating bombing campaign on Gaza that has claimed over 2,300 lives in the Strip.
As tensions escalate, here’s a look at Yasser Arafat, the man who dared to bridge the gap between Israel and Palestine:
- Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini, popularly known as Yasser Arafat, was the first president of Palestine and the chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).
- Mr Arafat played a crucial role in bringing peace between Israel and Palestine. Addressing the UN General Assembly in 1974, he said he was holding “an olive branch for peace in one hand and a freedom fighter’s pistol in the other”.
- In 1993, Mr Arafat and Israel’s President Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo Accord in the White House. A year later, the two were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
- Yasser Arafat founded the Fatah movement in the late 1950s. The idea behind this movement was to rally Palestinians who had been driven out of Israel in 1948 to take up arms.
- Mr Arafat was placed under house arrest in 2002 after the 9/11 attack in the US forced the government to declare a global war on terror. He died two years later.
