Is this ethnic cleansing? Israel is preparing to attack Hamas in the Gaza Strip "from the air, sea and land". Aid groups fear thousands of Palestinians will be caught in the crossfire.
Gaza ‘evacuation’ revives grim memory of 1948
Ready to go: Over the past week, Israeli tanks have been moving next to the Gaza border. Glossary
Gaza - The smaller of two Palestinian territories, home to two million people. It is located on the Mediterranean coast, bordered by Israel and Egypt.
Israel - A country in the Middle East, and the only Jewish nation in the modern period. It is seen by Jews, Christians and Muslims as the Holy Land.
Palestinians - People from Palestine, an area located in the Southern Levant region of Western Asia.
Nakba - Meaning "catastrophe" in Arabic, used to refer to the displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Hamas - A militant Palestinian organisation, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007. It is listed as a terrorist organisation in the UK.
Ethnic cleansing - The systematic forced removal from one area or killing of an ethnic group, with the aim of creating a region that is ethnically homogeneous.
Holocaust - The murder of six million Jewish people in Europe by Nazi Germany. Members of other minority groups were also killed.
Civilians - People who are not in the army or the police.