U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss plans to annex parts of the West Bank.

The strategic location of Gaza strip, West Bank, Dead Sea etc. creates a hotspot for a possible map based prelims question.  Consider this PYQ from 2015 CSP:

Q. The area known as ‘Golan Heights’ sometimes appears in the news in the context of the events related to:

a) Central Asia
b) Middle East
c) South-East Asia
d) Central Africa

Where is West Bank Located?

• The West Bank is located to the west of the Jordan River.
• It is a patch of land about one and a half times the size of Goa, was captured by Jordan after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
• Israel snatched it back during the Six-Day War of 1967 and has occupied it ever since.
• It is a landlocked territory, bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel to the south, west, and north.
• Following the Oslo Accords between the Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) during the 1990s, part of the West Bank came under the control of the Palestinian Authority.
• With varying levels of autonomy, the Palestinian Authority controls close to 40 percent of West Bank today, while the rest is controlled by Israel.

Back2Basics: Gaza Strip

• The Gaza Strip is a small boot-shaped territory along the Mediterranean coast between Egypt and Israel.
• A couple of years later in 2007, Hamas, an anti-Israel military group, took over Gaza Strip. The militia group is often involved in violent clashes with the Israeli Defence Forces.
• While Palestine has staked claim to both territories — West Bank and Gaza Strip — Israel’s objective has been to keep expanding Jewish settlements in these regions.

For complete details on Israel-Palestine conflict, kindly refer:

[Burning Issue] West Asia Peace Plan

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