 Many deportees subsequently died from hunger and disease.In 1917, towards the end of World War I, following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, Palestine was occupied by British forces.The United Kingdom was granted control of the area west of the River Jordan now comprising the State of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (Mandatory Palestine), and on the east bank of what later became Jordan (as a separate mandate) by the Versailles Peace Conference which established the League of Nations in 1919.