Israel And The Palestinians: The Road To October 7th | Preview (BBC Two)

In 2003, Israel’s prime minister, Ariel Sharon, stunned the world with his decision to pull Israeli settlers and armed forces out of the Gaza Strip, which took place in 2005. It sparked massive turmoil, starting with the withdrawal itself, before Hamas won a shock election victory and went on to seize total control of Gaza.

Leaders and their top advisers from all sides of the conflict describe the diplomatic wranglings that led up to the withdrawal and how they grappled to deal with the fallout.

Top interviewees include US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, Sharon’s closest adviser, Dov Weissglas, and senior Palestinian officials, including Rafiq Husseini, the chief of staff to President Abbas. There are also rare interviews with Hamas’s leaders Khaled Meshal and Ismail Haniyeh, the latter of whom was killed just a month after the interview was filmed.

In 2009, two new leaders took office: Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, and Barack Obama in America. Bitter clashes between the two men were sparked by their very different ideas about how to tackle the intractable conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Top Israelis, Americans and Palestinians discuss how Obama played hardball with Netanyahu as he pressed him for a freeze in Israeli settlement building.

Obama’s secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, describes how she managed to bring Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas together to try to begin negotiations for a lasting peace agreement. This episode goes inside the room for the final meeting before talks break down completely - Abbas and Netanyahu have never met for serious negotiations since.

And Hamas leaders as well as senior Israeli officials detail how Netanyahu struck an extraordinary deal with Hamas: in exchange for one Israeli hostage, Netanyahu agrees to over a thousand Palestinian prisoners being released from Israeli jail.

When Donald Trump took office in 2017, he tore up the rulebook on how to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, holding talks with the Israelis without the Palestinians – nothing was off the table. Netanyahu, meanwhile, had his own bold plans: looking to build alliances with Israel’s Arab neighbours who had never before recognised Israel, while hoping to keep Hamas contained in Gaza.

Top officials recall how, in the years before the October 7th attacks, Trump and Netanyahu’s moves proved divisive – and how key players on all sides were blindsided when the attacks came.

Interviewees include Tony Blair, in his role as special representative for the Quartet – a group set up to mediate Middle East peace talks - as well as Trump’s ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, Israeli national security adviser Jacob Nagel, and senior Palestinian officials, including lead negotiator Saeb Erekat in the last interview that gave before he died. There are also rare interviews with Hamas’s leaders Khaled Meshal and Ismail Haniyeh.

Israel And The Palestinians: The Road To October 7th begins Monday 24th February at 9pm on BBC Two.