Israel’s boundaries were defined by the United Nations when it adopted the partition resolution in 1947.
In a series of defensive wars, Israel captured additional territory. Israel has withdrawn from more than 90 percent of the area it won in these wars and has repeatedly offered to give up additional lands it now controls in exchange for peace and security.
As part of the 1974 disengagement agreement, Israel returned territories captured in the 1967 and 1973 wars to Syria.
Under the terms of the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, Israel withdrew from the Sinai peninsula for the third time.
It had already withdrawn from large parts of the desert area it captured in its War of Independence. After capturing the entire Sinai in the 1956 Suez conflict, Israel relinquished the peninsula to Egypt a year later. In September 1983,
Israel withdrew from large areas of Lebanon to positions south of the Awali River. In 1985, all troops were withdrawn with the exception of a small force holding a narrow “security zone” just north of the Israeli border.
In 2000, Israel evacuated completely from Lebanon.
After signing the Oslo agreements with the Palestinians, and a treaty with Jordan, Israel agreed to withdraw from most of the territory in the West Bank captured from Jordan in 1967.
A small area was returned to Jordan, and more than 40 percent was passed to the Palestinian Authority.
In 2205 Israel withdrew entirely from Gaza which it captured from Egypt in 1973.
Result: non stop terrorism.
In 2000, Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak offered to withdraw from 97 percent of the West Bank and 100 percent of the Gaza Strip in a final settlement.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and his successors offered to withdraw from virtually all of the Golan Heights in exchange for peace with Syria.
These offers were rejected.
In August 2005, all Israeli troops and civilians were evacuated from the Gaza Strip and the territory was turned over to the control of the Palestinian Authority.
In addition, four communities in Northern Samaria that covered an area larger than the entire Gaza Strip were evacuated as part of the disengagement plan. As a result, Israel has now withdrawn from approximately 94 percent of the territory it captured in 1967.