Palestinian flags at Yasser Arafat's tomb

The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, politically under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian National Authority and the Hamas Government in Gaza. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries to be part of the State of Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the United Nations, Israel and major Western nations, including the United States. Effectively parts of the West Bank are currently governed by the Palestinian National Authority, while other parts are governed by Israeli military authorities, which the UN and international legal bodies often refer to as the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The Gaza Strip is being controlled by Hamas-led Palestinian Government.

The territories were part of the territory west of the Jordan River of Mandate Palestine, formed in 1922. In March 1946, the territory east of the Jordan River, which had been ruled as a separate province of Mandate Palestine, became the independent kingdom of Transjordan, though general international recognition took a bit longer. From the 1948 Arab–Israeli War until the 1967 Six Day War, the West Bank was occupied and annexed by Jordan (annexation recognized only by UK and Pakistan) and the Gaza Strip occupied by Egypt, though limited authority was exercised in Gaza by the All-Palestine Government until 1959. The borders of Palestinian territories are currently considered to be delineated by the 1949 Armistice Agreements.