During the 1948 war, Egypt backed the creation of the All‑Palestine Government to claim a Palestinian political authority. In practice, its effective control was limited to the Gaza area under Egyptian military control, setting an early pattern of separate administration for Gaza and the West Bank.
Israel and Egypt signed a General Armistice Agreement that ended fighting between their forces and fixed an armistice demarcation line. The agreement left the Gaza Strip under Egyptian control rather than being incorporated into Israel, creating a distinct Gaza administrative situation after the war.
Israel and Jordan signed an armistice agreement that set the armistice demarcation line later known as the “Green Line.” This line left the territory west of the Jordan River (the West Bank) under Jordanian control and created special arrangements in and around Jerusalem, including divided control and no‑man’s‑land areas.
The UN General Assembly created UNRWA to provide relief and works programs for Palestine refugees displaced by the 1948 conflict. Refugee assistance became a long-term administrative reality across Gaza and the West Bank, shaping governance needs and international involvement.
Jordan formally annexed the West Bank, integrating it into the Hashemite Kingdom’s state structures. This step strengthened Jordan’s administrative control in the West Bank, while also drawing international controversy about the annexation’s legal status and recognition.
Egypt annulled the All‑Palestine Government, ending the short-lived Gaza-based Palestinian governmental structure it had sponsored. After this, Gaza was administered more directly by Egypt, reinforcing Gaza’s separate administrative path from the Jordan‑run West Bank.
Palestinian representatives meeting in Jerusalem proclaimed the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ratified an early version of the Palestinian National Charter. The PLO’s creation reflected growing efforts to organize Palestinian politics across territories that were still administered by Jordan (West Bank) and Egypt (Gaza).
War broke out in early June 1967, and within days Israel captured the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt. This ended the 1948–1949 armistice-era arrangement in which Jordan and Egypt administered these areas separately from Israel.
Soon after the West Bank was captured, Israeli authorities issued early military proclamations to govern the territory “in the interests of security and public order.” These proclamations marked the shift from Jordanian civil administration to Israeli military administration as the controlling authority.
Israel used a rapid set of legal and administrative measures to apply Israeli “law, jurisdiction and administration” to East Jerusalem and expand Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries. This changed the governance boundary in and around Jerusalem from a military front line into a city administered under Israeli law, with major long-term effects on borders and services.
After the war, the 1949 armistice demarcation line (“Green Line”) remained a key reference for describing Israel’s pre‑1967 boundary versus the newly occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The line’s renewed importance reflected a shift from Jordanian/Egyptian administration to Israeli control across both territories.
The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 242 in the aftermath of the June 1967 war. It set a framework for later diplomacy by emphasizing the inadmissibility of acquiring territory by war and calling for a negotiated peace, with the status of territories occupied in 1967—including the West Bank and Gaza—at the center of the dispute.
West Bank and Gaza: administrative controls and territorial boundary changes (1948–1967)