Israel

• 14th May 1948


  Israel declares independence as British mandate ends.
• 1949-1950s


  Fedayeen Palestinian guerrillas based in Egypt and Gaza carry out raids into Israel with Egyptian encouragement. This increases after pan-Arab officers seize power in Cairo in 1952.
• 1956-1957


  Israel colludes with Britain and France to invade Egypt during the Suez Crisis, partly to end Fedayeen incursions. UN buffer force in Sinai and Gaza drastically reduces raids.
• 1959


  Yasser Arafat forms Fatah fighting group in Egypt to carry out raids into Israel.
• 1964


  Arab League sets up Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Palestine Liberation Army under Ahmad Shukeiri.
• 1967 June


  Six-Day War leaves Israel occupying East Jerusalem, all of West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and Sinai. Jewish settlements are set up in all of these areas in coming years, with government approval.
• 1969


  Yasser Arafat takes over PLO leadership after debut as military leader in clashes with Israeli forces in Jordan in 1968, and asserts the group's independence from Egyptian control.
• 1970


  Increasing tension over the strength of the PLO in Jordan leads to the Black September clashes with Jordanian forces, driving the PLO into exile in southern Lebanon.
• 1970s-1980s


  PLO and other armed Palestinian groups turn to airline hijackings and attacks on Israeli soldiers, officials and civilians within Israel and abroad to highlight their cause.
• 1972


  Palestinian "Black September" gunmen take the Israeli team hostage at the Munich Olympics. Two of the athletes are murdered at the site and nine more killed during a failed rescue attempt by the German authorities. Israel launches a series of reprisal assassinations.
• 1973


  Israel raids PLO bases in Beirut and southern Lebanon before and during the October Yom Kippur/Ramadan War.
• 1974 October


  Arab League recognises PLO as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people'' and it admits it to full membership of the League.
• 1974 November


  Yasser Arafat becomes first non-state leader to address the United Nations General Assembly, delivers "olive branch... and freedom fighter's gun" speech.
• 1975


  Rejectionist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and German far-left armed group hijack Air France plane en route from Israel to France, divert it to Entebbe in Uganda. Israel commandos rescue most of passengers and crew, kill hijackers.
• 1977 May


  The right-wing Likud party wins surprise election victory in Israel and encourages settlements policy on West Bank and Gaza.
• 1978 March


  PLO attack kills 38 civilians on Israel's coastal road. Israel carries out first major incursion into southern Lebanon, driving PLO and other Palestinian groups out of the area.
• 1978 September


  Israel pledges to expand Palestinian self-government in the West Bank and Gaza as part of the Camp David Accords establishing diplomatic relations with Egypt.
• 1982 June


  Israel invades Lebanon again to expel PLO leadership from Beirut after assassination attempt by Palestinian faction on Israeli ambassador to London.
• 1982 September


  Massacre of Palestinians in the Beirut Sabra and Shatila camps by Israel's Christian Phalangist allies.
• 1994


  PLO leadership moves to Tunisia, where it remains until it moves to Gaza
• 1987 December


  First Palestinian Intifada uprising begins in Palestinian Territories. Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza forms the Hamas movement, which rapidly turns to violence against Israel.
• 1988


  Jordan abandons claim to West Bank, ceding it to PLO. Palestinian National Council meeting in Algiers proclaims State of Palestine.
• 1990


  PLO backs Iraq over its annexation of Kuwait, which severs ties with the PLO and subsequently expels about 400,000 Palestinians.
• 1991 October


  US-Soviet sponsored conference in Madrid brings Israeli and Palestinian representatives together for the first time since 1949.
• 1992


  Israeli Labour government of Yitzhak Rabin pledges to halt settlement expansion programme and begins secret talks with PLO.
• 1992 May-July


  Israel withdraws from most of Gaza and the West Bank city of Jericho, allowing Yasser Arafat to move his PLO administration from Tunis and set up the Palestinian National Authority.
• 1992 December


  Yasser Arafat, along with Yitzhak Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1993 September


  Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat sign Oslo Declaration to plot Palestinian self-government and formally end the First Intifada, which had been running out of steam since the Madrid Conference. Violence by various Palestinian groups that reject the Oslo Declaration continues.
• 1994 February


  Baruch Goldstein of the extremist Jewish Kach movement kills 29 Palestinians at prayer at the Cave of the Patriarchs shrine in Hebron on the West Bank.
• 1995


  Interim Agreement sets out path for transfer of further power and territory to Palestinian National Authority. Forms basis of 1997 Hebron Protocol, Wye River Memorandum of 1998 and internationally-sponsored "Road Map for Peace" of 2003.
• 2000-2001


  Talks between Israeli Labour Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat break down over the timing and extent of a proposed further Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank. Palestinian protests escalate into new Intifada.
• 2001 December


  Israel sends troops to encircle Ramallah after series of deadly Palestinian attacks inside Israel. Yasser Arafat is unable to leave his government compound.
• 2002 March


  Israeli army launches Operation Defensive Shield on the West Bank and begins building barrier there to stop armed Palestinian entering Israel. The route of the barrier is controversial as it frequently deviates from the pre-1967 ceasefire line into the West Bank.
• 2003 May


  Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says the occupation of Palestinian territories cannot continue indefinitely.
• 2003 June


  Arab League meeting in Egypt expresses support for "road map" proposed by US, European Union, Russia and UN and accepted by Palestinian National Authority and Israel, positing an independent Palestinian state and a freeze on West Bank Jewish settlements.
• 2004 March


  Israeli forces kill Sheikh Yassin, the founder and leader of Hamas, and his successor Abd al-Aziz al-Rantissi, the following month.
• 2004 July


  International Court of Justice issues advisory opinion that the Israeli separation barrier violates international law and must be removed.
• 2004 November


  Yasser Arafat dies in hospital in France, where he went for urgent medical treatment in October.
• 2005 January


  Mahmoud Abbas elected Mr Arafat's successor as head of the Palestinian National Authority.
• 2005 September


  Israel withdraws all Jewish settlements and military personnel from Gaza, while retaining control over airspace, ports and border crossings.