The Caanaanites held the land when Abram was called by God from out of Babylon and was told to come to Caanaan and settle there with his family. Abram owned a lot of slaves and had a wife and some concubines. They settled in Caanaan. Later, Abram's name was changed to Abraham and Yahweh told him he would give Abraham all the land he dwelt in. But it would not happen in his lifetime. Abraham had a son named Ishmael, from which the Arab nations descended and Abraham had a son from his wife Sarah whom they named Issac.
From Issac came Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. Jacob had 12 sons from his wives and concubines and later, the whole clan, numbering about 75 souls, moved into Egypt because of a famine and Egypt had all the food. The children of Israel, as they were called, lived in Egypt over 400 years. according to Exodus 12:40. Some people number the 430 years from Abraham to the departure from Egypt, but Exodus 12:40 said the "Children of Israel (Jacob) had dwelt in Egypt 430 years". Anyway, after the 430 years, Israel departed out of Egypt and wandered in the Sinai Peninsula for 40 years.
At the end of the 40 years the Israelites invaded Caanaan and began to disposess the Caanaanites of their land. Israel never did completely disposess all of the Caanaanites, and found themselves at war for hundreds of years with various groups of the people of Caanaan. One of the groups were the Philistines, where modern day Gaza is. Israel became a kingdom under Saul and later Yahweh replaced Saul with David. David founded the 12-tribed Kingdom of Israel and after his son Solomon died, the kingdom became known as the divided Kingdom.
In the North, there were the ten tribes that constituted the nation of Israel. In the south there was the kingdom of Judah. This was about the tenth century CE. For the next eleven centuries Palestine belonged to the Israelites and the Jews (with some exceptions while they had various periods of captivity). In the early second century CE the Jews had one rebellion too many and the Romans, who were in charge dispersed them among the nations of the earth.
Control of Palestine switched back and forth between certain nations in the next 19 centuries and the city of Jerusalem proved to be a sticking point between the warring nations. In 1948 Israel was re-established as a nation, 18 centuries after they were scattered to the four winds. Every since the descendants of those who owned the land before 1948 have claimed the land is theirs. But the Jews and Christians point out that God (Yahweh) had promised Abraham and his descendants that Land thousands of years ago. At the time the Christian book of Hebrews was written it was believed Abraham and his descendants had not yet possessed the land.