The Gaza Strip, a narrow slice of land on the Mediterranean Sea, is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, inhabited by approximately 2.3m Palestinians.
Historically part of the geographical region of Palestine, it was a vital coastal location for centuries, linking Asia with Europe, and has been controlled by the Ottoman and then the British empires and, more recently, been under Egyptian and Israeli military occupations.
Where is Gaza?
The strip is wedged between the sea to the west, Israel to the north and east, and Egypt’s Sinai peninsula to the south. Gaza is geographically disconnected from the other Palestinian territory, the occupied West Bank, and Palestinians cannot freely travel between the two.
Who lives there?
The vast majority of the Palestinians who live in Gaza are refugees or the descendants of refugees who moved to Gaza after being expelled or fleeing Zionist forces during the wars around the creation of Israel in 1948. Palestinians call that exodus the Nakba, or catastrophe. This is why many in Gaza object to being called Gazans, as it suggests they are from the strip and diminishes their rights as refugees to return to their homes.
Nearly half the people in Gaza live in refugee camps – tented communities that have become impoverished concrete slums. Most young people in Gaza have never left the territory.
Who governs Gaza?
Israel occupied Gaza during the 1967 war with its neighbours, taking it from Egyptian forces. Israeli troops remained there until 2005, when the then prime minister, Ariel Sharon, “disengaged”, withdrawing more than 8,000 Jewish settlers from the area. Sharon wanted instead to solidify Israel’s control of the “biblical heartlands” in the West Bank.
In 2006, the Islamist movement Hamas won a Palestinian election, leading to a rupture in Palestinian politics. Armed clashes broke out in Gaza between Hamas and militias linked to the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority, a secular body formed during failed international efforts to create a Palestinian state.
Since 2007, Hamas has been the de facto administration in Gaza and has ruled with an iron fist. However, Israel has never relinquished its overall control of the territory, and the UN considers Gaza still occupied. Israeli forces, in coordination with Egypt, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, have kept Gaza enclosed by land, air and sea.
How is the blockade enforced?
People, food, fuel, internet, power and water cannot leave or enter Gaza without permission from Israel. Egypt has a land crossing in the south, Rafah, but in practice, the military regime in Cairo – an enemy of Hamas and ally with Israel’s most powerful backer, the US – acts as an enforcer of the blockade.
Israel says the blockade is for its own security, citing repeated Hamas rocket attacks and incursions. But UN experts say the blockade, and intense bombing during five wars on Gaza, amounts to collective punishment on civilians, a war crime under international law.
Human Rights Watch describes Gaza as an “open-air prison”.
