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The Israel-Palestine Conflict - The Israel-Palestine conflict has a contentious and complex history. Keep reading to learn more about the teenage kidnappings and deaths that sparked the recent violence between Israel and Gaza and how the deadly situation has worsened over the past several weeks. — Patrice Peck(Photo: AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Photo By Photo: AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis

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The Gaza Strip - One of the most densely populated places on earth, the Gaza Strip lies on the border of Egypt between the Mediterranean Sea and Israel. Roughly 1.8 million people, mostly Palestinians, live in just 139 square miles (the same size as Detroit), ABC News reports.(Photo: Abid Katib/Getty Images) 

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Home to Hamas - The Palestinian Islamist political organization Hamas, formed in 1987 as a militant “resistance” group against Israel, rejects the country’s existence and seeks its destruction. Hamas has governed Gaza since 2007, yet the region is under Israeli blockade, which stifles economic life and, subsequently, produces Palestinian civilian deaths.(Photo: Pawel Gaul/Getty Images)

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At War for Years - Hamas and Israel have been engaged in a bloody war against one another for the past 27 years. Most of the international community condemns Hamas’s explicit suicide bombings and rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, Israel’s massive military strength and its targeting of militants in dense urban neighborhoods has resulted in disproportionately more Palestinian civilian deaths overall.(Photo: Reuters Photographer / Reuter)

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Celebrating Cease-Fire - The fighting during the early 2000s killed about 3,200 Palestinians and 1,100 Israelis until a cease-fire negotiation was reached in 2012. Fast forward to 2014, when the United States began brokering peace talks between Israel and Palestine.(Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

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Kidnapped and Murdered - The latest round of the violent conflict began with the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers, one with American citizenship, as they attempted to hitchhike home from seminary school in the West Bank on June 12, 2014. The Israeli military launched a widespread campaign to locate Eyal Yifrach, Naftali Fraenkel and Gilad Shaer, resulting in the detention of nearly 300 Palestinians. The teens were ultimately found dead on June 30.(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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A Revenge Killing - On the night the boys’ bodies were found, Israel responded by launching airstrikes into Gaza against Hamas targets. While Hamas did not retaliate, other Gaza-based Palestinian militant groups fired rockets into Israel. Then, on July 2, a Palestinian teenager named Muhammed Abu Khdeir was kidnapped and burned to death in Jerusalem in an apparent revenge killing by Israeli extremists.(Photo: CNN)

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Outrage Overflows - Israeli forces cracked down on protests around Khdeir’s death and the brutal beating of his 15-year-old cousin, further infuriating Palestinians. Hamas and other Gaza groups fired rockets with unprecedented reach that killed one Israeli. (Photo: Ariel Schalit/AP Photo)

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Israel Retaliates - Israel responded with extensive air strikes that killed more than 200 Palestinians, 70-plus percent of whom were civilians, UN agencies reported.(Photo: Adel Hana/AP Photo)

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A Deadly Conflict - As journalist Max Fisher of Vox notes, while Israelis certainly suffer deeply and in great numbers, the vast majority of the conflict’s toll is incurred by Palestinian civilians. This graph shows the Israeli and Palestinian conflict-related deaths every month since late 2000.(Photo: Abid Katib/Getty Images)

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A Full-Blown War - On July 10, during an emergency security council meeting, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon called for restraint from both Israel and the Hamas leadership in Gaza. He warned of the deteriorating situation spiraling into “another full-blown war.” Both Israel and Hamas have demonstrated a willingness to continue fighting if they felt it was necessary, ABC News reports.(Photo: Stan HondaAFP/Getty Images)

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Ground Troops - Both Israel and Hamas agreed to a five-hour ceasefire requested by the U.N. to allow Gaza to receive humanitarian aid. At 3 p.m. sharp, just as the ceasefire was scheduled to end, a rocket was launched into Israel by Hamas’s military wing. Israel responded with a new airstrike. Then later that evening, Israeli ground troops were sent into Gaza to allegedly collapse the tunnels that run basic supplies, like food and medicine, for civilians and weapons for militant groups from across the border in Egypt.(Photo: AP Photo/Israeli Defense Forces)

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Banned Flights - On Tuesday, July 22, The Federal Aviation Administration prohibited U.S. airlines from flying to Israel's Tel Aviv airport for 24 hours following a Hamas rocket attack about one mile away.(Photo: AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

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Will the Fighting End Soon? - That same day, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said it was his "hope and belief" that his emergency mission to the Middle East will lead to an end to the fighting between Hamas and Israel "in the very near future.” By July 22, AP reported that the escalating two-week war between Israelis and Hamas had already claimed at least 609 Palestinians — the vast majority civilians — and 29 Israelis, 27 soldiers and two civilians. (Photo: AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

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Steps Forward - During his trip to Jerusalem, where he met with U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon for the second time this week, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on July 23 that “we certainly have made steps forward” with negotiations to broker a truce, adding that “there’s still work to be done.” As for an end result, White House deputy national security adviser Tony Blinken said in a recent interview that, ideally, one of the results of a cease-fire would be some form of demilitarization so that this conflict doesn't continue or repeat itself.”(Photo: AP Photo/Pool)

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Strike on School Shelter - On July 24, the 17th day of the increasingly bloody conflict, a set of explosions tore through a United Nations school and shelter. At least 16 people were killed and many were wounded, mostly women and children, the New York Times reported. The source of the blasts have yet to be determined.(Photo: AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

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No Deal Yet - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on July 25 that more work was required to reach a deal between Hamas and Israel for a seven-day truce in the Gaza war, AP reported. Israel’s defense minister Moshe Yaalon also warned that the military’s ground operation might soon be broadened “significantly.” At this point, more than 820 Palestinians and 38 Israelis have been killed.(Photo: AP Photo/Pool)

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"We Have Serious Concerns" - President Obama has also called for a Middle East ceasefire. "We have serious concerns about the rising number of Palestinian civilian deaths and the loss of Israeli lives," Obama said on July 25. "And that is why it now has to be our focus and the focus of the international community to bring about a ceasefire that ends the fighting and can stop the deaths of innocent civilians, both in Gaza and in Israel."(Phto: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Photo By AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

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Israel, Hamas Trade Blame for Hospital Strike - On Monday, July 28, the same day that United Nations held an emergency meeting to reach a cease fire between Israel and Hamas, a Gaza hospital and a refugee camp were reportedly hit. Israel and Hamas accused one another for the strike. New fighting broke out throughout the weekend even though Israel and Hamas had offered brief truces. More than 1,000 people have been killed in the conflict, about 406 of when were Palestinian civilians (69 women and 129 children.)(Photo: AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

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Broken Truce - On Friday, Aug. 1, a three-day cease fire agreement quickly unraveled in only two hours in a southern town in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military claimed that two soldiers were killed and an infantry officer was abducted, while at least 40 Palestinians were killed in Israeli shelling. both sides accused each other of breaking the truce.(Photo: AP Photo/Dusan Vranic)

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Kerry Speaks Out - Secretary of State John Kerry demanded on Aug. 1 that Hamas “immediately and unconditionally release” the alleged missing Israeli soldier. He also condemned the militant attack that killed two Israeli soldiers as “outrageous.” "The international community must now redouble its efforts to end the tunnel and rocket attacks by Hamas terrorists on Israel and the suffering and loss of civilian life," he said in a statement.(Photo: AP Photo/Lucas Jackson, Pool)

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AP Journalist Killed - AP video journalist Simone Camilli and freelance Palestinian translator Ali Shehda Abu Afash were killed in Gaza on Aug. 13 when an explosive ammunition was set off as police engineers tried to diffuse it. The weapon had been fired by Israel during recent fighting, AP reports. Camilli is reportedly the first foreign journalist killed in the Gaza conflict.(Photos: AP Photo)

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An Unprecedented Amount of Destruction - Gaza will require massive reconstruction given “the unprecedented amount of destruction...and the corresponding unprecedented level of humanitarian need," according to a top U.N. official. On Aug. 18, Robert Serry told the U.N. Security Council that there are indications that "the volume of reconstruction will be about three times” the amount required after the 2009 Israel-Hamas war.(Photo: Khalil Hamra/AP Photo)

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No One Is Immune - On Aug. 20, the day after after the collapse of ceasefire talks in Cairo, Egypt, an Israeli airstrike killed the 7-month-old child and one of the wives of Hamas’ military chief Mohammed Deif at his home. Hamas officials announced that the leader was still alive, saying that Deif would "lead the army that will enter to liberate the holy al-Aqsa mosque" in Jerusalem. "The leaders of terror organizations are legitimate targets,” Netanyahu replied when asked whether Deif had been targeted. "No one is immune.”(Photo: Khalil Hamra/AP Photo)

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Hamas Abducted Israeli Teens - Hamas took responsibility for the June kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teens, an attack that helped to instigate the current deadly fighting in the Gaza Strip. A senior Hamas leader announced at a conference in Turkey on Aug. 21 that the group’s military wing had carried out the “heroic operation.”(Photo: AP Photo/Israel Defense Forces, File)

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An Apartment Collapses - On Aug. 23, the Israeli military launched missiles at an apartment tower in downtown Gaza, collapsing the 12-story residence in an unprecedented strike, AP reports. A number of residents fled the building after a warning missile was fired five minutes earlier, but, according to Gaza hospital officials, 22 people were injured, including 11 children and five women.The military claimed it was targeting a Hamas operation room in the building.(Photo: Adel Hana/AP Photo)

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A Shaky Ceasefire - Israel and Hamas agreed on Aug. 26 to an open-ended ceasefire that would halt the deadly war but avoid the most difficult issues, including the Palestinian appeals for the removal of the Gaza blockade.(Photo: Adel Hana/AP Photo)

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Hit Hard - Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed victory on Aug. 27 in the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. "Hamas was hit hard," Netanyahu said during a prime-time address on national television, adding that Israel "didn't agree to accept any of Hamas' demands" under the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire deal.(Photo: Gali Tibbon, Pool/AP Photo)

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Victory? - Hamas, on the other hand, has also declared victory despite the damage done to Gaza and the heavy Palestinian civilian death toll. "Gaza achieved victory because it has done what major armies failed to do. It forced the enemy to retreat," Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the Hamas military wing, reportedly said. "We must know that no voice is louder than the voice of the resistance.(Photo: Adel Hana/AP Photo)