Jews lived there but kept being colonized by various empires. In 70CE the Romans came and destroyed the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and sent most Jews into the Diaspora. About 60 years later the Jews tried to revolt again against the Romans in Israel (what they had renamed Phalestina after the ancient Israelite's enemy the Philistines). The Jews end up all over the Roman empire, Middle East and Northern Africa. About 500 years later, Islam is founded by Muhammad and the Islamic empire conquers all of the middle east, northern Africa, Spain and parts of eastern Europe. They treat the Jews as second class citizens, but better than the European Jews are treated where they face pogroms and expulsions. In the 11th century, the Christians start the crusades and want to make the Holy Land Christian. Meaning they not only fight the Muslims there, but also the Jews who remained. This goes back and forth between the Christians and the Islamic empires (none of whom are actually from the Levant) until the Ottomans come and take it. The ottomans held Israel up until they lost World War I when it falls into British hands. The Brits promised both the Jews and the Arabs in the region their own national homeland (some extremists will say that Jordan is what they promised for the Arabs of the region). After WWII, it becomes all more evident that the Jews need a national homeland and on 29 November 1947, the UN votes to partition the land between the Jews and Arabs. Just before the British leave, Israel declares independence in the borders it was granted by the UN. Arab armies from Jordan, Syria, Egypt, and Iraq invade Israel, but dispite heavy losses, Israel won and took a little more territory than they were granted by the UN because it proved these borders were indefensible. Along the way in the war, Israel exppeled and killed many Palestinians. A lot, but not all, of this was done by Jewish paramilitary groups that did not end up officially becoming part of the IDF. Eventually, a ceasefire line was drawn, called the Green Line, which people think is the border of Palestine, but in reality it was governed by Jordan and Egypt. In 1967, Egypt blocked the straights of Tiran, blocking Israeli ships from access to the Indian Ocean, a declaration of war. Israel took over the Sinai, Gaza, West Bank Goaln Heights, and the eastern part of Jerusalem in the process of the war. The Sinai was exchanged with Egypt about 10 years later in exchange for peace and eventually Jordan relinquished claim over the West Bank and made peace with Israel as well in exchange for a water sharing agreement. The Golan Heights (not historically part of the same region, but contiguous nonetheless) was offered in exchange for peace with Syria, but was turned down. Before the foundation of the State of Israel, there were Jews who lived in most of these areas and had to move because of the war. Most of these Jews move back starting the first "settlements". Over time these settlements get bigger and bigger and others form as well. Bigger issues happen in places like Eastern Jerusalem where formerly Jewish homes had Palestinians move in under Jordanian rule, leading to issues we still deal with today like in Sheikh Jarah. Over time these settlements draw in more and more extremists who want all of the land to be Israel permanently. Meanwhile Palestinian leaders in the land react with incitement to terror, which leads to two intafadas and many terror attacks. These Jewish extremists respond with what are called "price tag" attacks in reaction to Palestinian attacks, just worsening the cycle of violence. In the mid 1990s, the Oslo accords are signed giving Palestinians a government, splitting the West Bank into three sections with varying degrees of autonomy. This led not only to terror from the Palestinian side, but also from the Jewish side who saw it as giving in to the Palestinian and culminated with the assassination of the Israeli prime Minister and the rise of Benjamin Netanyahu. In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza and took all the settlers out. The Palestinians in Gaza in turn elected Hamas to represent them as a government which resulted in Israel's blockade on them. They begin to send rockets into Israel on a semi-regular basis. Sometimes it is met with a response, sometimes not.

And this is more or less where we stand today. I hope I gave you some perspective.

Settlers (often very religious, right wing) view all of historic Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) as their rightful land, regardless of actual borders. In their mind, they are reclaiming the homeland of the Jewish people. International law, Palestinians, and many Israelis, however, disagree with that take.

The West Bank is a bit of a clusterfuck. Palestine launched attacks from there and Israel took it over. Israel gave it back and Palestine went back to launching attacks from it. So now Israel isn't necessarily against it's people moving in. Which honestly is pretty fair as they tried to be nice and give it back, and now they may as well claim it as their own.