Gaza Strip

Summary

The Gaza Strip, often known simply as Gaza, is a seventeen-mile segment of the Mediterranean coast with an estimated population in 2023 of 2.3 million Palestinians. Gaza and the West Bank together constitute what are known as the Palestinian territories, occupied by Israel since 1967. Gaza became a hotspot for crisis after being taken over in 2007 by Hamas, a militant group whose charter denies Israel's right to exist. By the 2020s Hamas had been declared a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, and a number of other countries.

Israel took control of the Gaza Strip in the Six-Day War of 1967. It withdrew in 2005, leaving the Palestinian Authority (PA) to govern the area. However, the PA soon fractured, as its dominant party, Fatah, lost the elections of 2006 to Hamas. Street fighting broke out between the two factions in Gaza. Fatah retained control of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, but Hamas controlled Gaza. The Hamas government allowed militants to launch rocket attacks into Israel, provoking a series of retaliations over the years.

A blockade imposed by Israel disabled the economy in the Gaza Strip, leaving much of the population dependent on international aid. The blockade also occasioned another crisis—a lethal confrontation between international protesters and Israeli commandos in 2010. Public support for Hamas weakened in Gaza after years of economic hardship. Still, the group regained its stature as fighting ended in 2014 with a truce agreement to loosen Israel's blockade. However, sporadic rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza and retaliatory Israeli air strikes continued. Hamas and Fatah attempted another reconciliation in late 2017, and in 2018, Palestinians in Gaza began a months-long protest at the border with Israel known as the Great March of Return. In the early 2020s, fighting continued as the territory remained economically depressed and geographically isolated, culminating in a devastating surprise attack by Hamas militants into Israel that killed some 1,200 Israelis. This triggered the Israel–Hamas war, a conflict of unprecedented violence in which the Israeli military reduced much of the Gaza Strip to rubble and killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, in what became the region's deadliest conflict in decades.

Key Events

  • June 2005—Israel withdraws troops and settlers from Gaza, leaving the Palestinian Authority in charge.
  • June 2007—Hamas takes control of Gaza by force, driving out the rival party, Fatah.
  • December 2008—In Operation Cast Lead, Israel sends ground forces into Gaza to halt militant rocket attacks and destroy their weapons stores. Israel withdraws unilaterally after twenty-two days.
  • May 2010—A flotilla of protesters sails from Turkey to challenge the blockade of Gaza. Nine die aboard one of the vessels in a raid by Israeli commandos.
  • November 2012—In Operation Pillar of Defense, Israel launches air strikes in retaliation for rocket attacks from Gaza. The conflict ends after eight days in a cease-fire mediated by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.
  • July 2014—In Operation Protective Edge, Israeli air and ground forces enter Gaza to destroy tunnels used by smugglers and terrorists. After seven weeks of fighting, the two sides agree to a truce and further negotiations.
  • 2017—Following an agreement, the PA resumes control of the Gaza Strip's public institutions at the Rafah border crossing but fails to establish full control. Funding is cut in 2018.
  • 2018-2019—Organized Palestinian protests, largely against the blockade, at the Israeli border begin in March and continue weekly.
  • 2020—The Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) launches many mortar and rocket attacks, which the IDF counters.
  • May 2021—Israel and Hamas engage in an eleven-day conflict that ended in an unofficial truce. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Gaza exchange rocket attacks periodically through the early 2020s.
  • August 2022—As many as 147 intense air strikes damage infrastructure and killed many civilians.
  • May 2023—Israel's Operation Shield and Arrow conduct airstrikes for several days after Khader Adnan dies in an Israeli jail. An eventual cease-fire is reached.
  • October 2023—Israel declares war on Hamas after Hamas launches a surprise attack on Israel that kills 1,400 Israelis, including many civilians, and leads to the kidnapping of hundreds of others. The Israeli military initiates a devastating series of counterattacks that kill and injure tens of thousands of Palestinians while also halting the delivery of food, water, fuel, and other resources and services to the territory. The Israeli military campaign in Gaza continues well into 2024.
  • March 2024—The United Nations Security Council passes a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. In subsequent weeks, Israel withdraws more of its ground forces from the territory.
  • May 2024—Israeli forces launch a large-scale assault on Rafah, a large city in southern Gaza on the border with Egypt. At the end of the month Israel rejects an order by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to stop its offensive.

In-Depth Description

Gaza is one of the most densely populated places in the world, with roughly 2.3 million people packed into an area the size of Washington, D.C. in 2023. More than two-thirds are designated by the United Nations (UN) as refugees from the formation of Israel in 1948. At that time, the Gaza Strip was Egyptian territory following the end of British Mandatory Palestine. Egypt was pushed out in 1967 due to the Six-Day War, and for the next twenty-five years, Gaza was governed by the Israeli military as an occupied territory.

Jewish settlements were illegally established in Gaza and became a significant part of the economy. Many Palestinians worked across the border in Israel. Palestinian resentment boiled over in 1987 in the form of the first Intifada ("uprising"), a period of large-scale demonstrations, boycotts, vandalism, and scattered violence (such as Molotov cocktails thrown at police). Hamas emerged as a Sunni fundamentalist organization in this period and enjoyed strong support in Gaza. The first Intifada died down by 1993 with the signing of the Oslo Accords.

The status of Gaza was a vital part of the Oslo Accords and the idea of a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. In the 1993 Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, Israel agreed gradually to transfer authority over Gaza and the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority (PA), the successor to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the representative of the Palestinian people. The Israeli military stepped back as the PA took over police duties and the courts and built other civil institutions. Progress was too slow for some, and the second Intifada, also known as the Al Aqsa Intifada, broke out in 2000 following the provocative visit of right-wing Israeli presidential candidate Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, home of the Al Aqsa mosque and a highly contested site between Jews and Muslims. The Al Aqsa Intifada brought more intense violence, including the first suicide bombings—with Hamas clerics providing religious justification for terrorism. This period ended in 2005 when Israel withdrew unilaterally from Gaza.

Hamas Takes Over

The Palestinian Authority suffered a shock in its parliamentary elections in 2006. Hamas organized a political party and campaigned hard against the long-dominant Fatah party, founded by Yasser Arafat. Hamas rejected Fatah's policy of negotiations with Israel and rejected, in principle, Israel's right to exist. In the January 26, 2006 elections, Hamas won 76 of the 132 seats in parliament, a sharp defeat for Fatah and Arafat's successor, President Mahmoud Abbas. Two months later, Abbas and Hamas agreed on a unity government headed by Ismail Haniya of Hamas. However, street fighting erupted in Gaza between Hamas and Fatah supporters in May–June 2007. Hamas won when Fatah's gunmen left Gaza, and the PA withdrew its police. Gaza became a rebel territory, with its Hamas leadership not recognized by Israel, Egypt, the UN, or the Palestinian Authority. Hamas appointed its cabinet in Gaza, with Haniya as prime minister, and took over the running of day-to-day government.

Under the Hamas government, militants began firing rockets into Israel. The frequency and intensity of the attacks increased until Israel retaliated with Operation Cast Lead, beginning on December 27, 2008. Air attacks by Israel and a ground invasion on January 3 left most government buildings in Gaza in ruins. A UN report later blamed both sides for misconduct—and possibly war crimes—during the fighting, which ended on January 18, 2009, with Israel's withdrawal of forces.

Gaza Blockade and Aftermath

After the 2008–2009 invasion, Israel tightened its controls on imports to Gaza. The strategy was to isolate Hamas and persuade it to stop attacks on Israeli territory and participate in peace talks. The blockade cut supplies of weapons, explosives, and potentially war-related materials—including cement, used to build bunkers and tunnels. The blockade allowed only humanitarian supplies, making Gaza dependent on Israel for food, fuel, and jobs. This led to accusations that Israel was creating a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. News reports said there were water, food, and fuel shortages. Hamas declared that "resistance is a choice that can work."

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s government cooperated with the blockade. In 2005, when Israel withdrew from Gaza, Egypt agreed to station guards along the border and to control a border crossing at Rafah. The crossing was closed in July 2007 and remained closed after Operation Cast Lead ended, except for a brief fence breach in 2008. Palestinians had to scavenge for materials to rebuild.

In May 2010, a coalition of aid groups organized a flotilla of six ships to deliver ten thousand tons of goods from Turkey to Gaza in defiance of the Israeli blockade. Israeli commandos boarded the ships to redirect them to a port in Israel. Fighting broke out, and nine people—all citizens of Turkey—were killed. The incident generated worldwide criticism of Israel and strained relations with Turkey, at the time Israel's closest ally in the Muslim world. These international reactions suggested to many that rather than weakening Hamas politically, the blockade had the opposite effect. After the 2010 flotilla incident, Egypt reopened its border with Gaza. However, after the overthrow of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, the border primarily remained closed once more, only opening occasionally for humanitarian purposes.

2012: Another Round of Fighting and Economic Pressure

Hardships caused by the continuing blockade led to a renewed campaign of rocket attacks by Hamas's Qassam Brigades and other militant groups, which brought reprisals from Israel in November 2012. Air strikes beginning November 14 killed a high-level Hamas commander, Ahmed al-Jabari, and damaged twenty sites associated with rocket attacks. Israel called up ground forces for another ground invasion, but peace talks mediated by Egypt's President Morsi yielded a truce on November 21. Hamas fired over one thousand rockets into Israel, including longer-range Fajr 5 rockets supplied by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted about a third of the rockets.

Hamas claimed victory in its resistance against Israel, but the blockade remained in place, and the economy became listless. Smugglers brought proscribed materials into Gaza through tunnels, but not in large enough quantities to enable a return to 2007 living standards. In 2013, the unemployment rate was about 40 percent, and the number of Gazans living in poverty was near 50 percent. Humanitarian aid from the UN was vital to many. The most important sector of the economy was spending by the Hamas government, which depended on international donors, including Qatar and private donors in the Gulf states.

Opinion polls in 2014 indicated that public support for Hamas had weakened significantly in Gaza. Large majorities said that crime and corruption were severe problems. More than two-thirds supported a policy of nonviolence toward Israel, as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas proposed. Most said they would be willing to work in Israel in well-paid jobs.

2014: Ground Invasion and Agreement to End the Blockade

Hamas and Fatah took a step toward reconciliation in April 2014. Hamas agreed to support a unity government until new elections for the Palestinian Authority could be held later in the year. Ismail Haniya announced he was stepping down as prime minister to allow the PA to resume power. Israel rejected the proposed unity government, and tensions worsened in June after the kidnapping and murder of three Jewish seminary students. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the killings on the PA's deal with Hamas. The murder of a Palestinian teenager in retaliation inflamed public anger on both sides. Rocket fire from Gaza led to Israeli air strikes, beginning Operation Protective Edge on July 8, 2014.

Israel sent ground forces into Gaza on July 17 for eighteen days. The troops located and destroyed thirty-two tunnels used by militants and smugglers. Israel came in for global criticism when attacks hit UN shelters on three occasions—July 24 in the town of Beit Hanoun, killing fifteen; July 30 at the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza City, killing nineteen; and August 3 in Rafah, killing ten. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the incidents as a moral outrage. Israel held a stern policy on hazards to civilians, made necessary by Hamas's practice of embedding weapons and fighters in heavily populated areas. After dropping leaflets that warned civilians to stay away from buildings used by Hamas, Israeli jets leveled a twelve-story apartment building in Gaza City on August 23 and a seven-story commercial building in Rafah the following day. On August 25, Israeli jets attacked two mosques, one used as an armory, the other as a Hamas meeting place.

On August 26, 2014, the two sides announced that negotiations mediated by Egypt had produced an agreement, which provided for a cease-fire, easing of restrictions on imports into Gaza (allowing building materials), expansion of the fishing zone permitted to Palestinians, and guarantees to prevent weapons from being brought into Gaza. The seven-week conflict resulted in more than 2,100 deaths, all but 69 being Palestinian. The UN estimated that 75 percent of the Palestinian casualties were civilians. An estimated 485,000 people were displaced during the fighting, and 100,000 were left homeless. Hamas executed twenty-five Palestinians as collaborators with Israel.

In late August 2014, Israel and Hamas announced a cease-fire. The two sides agreed to ease Israel's blockade in talks mediated by Egypt. Hamas declared the outcome a "victory for the resistance." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had achieved all its goals in the conflict. Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon warned that "any peace effort that does not tackle the root causes of the crisis will do little more than set the stage for the next cycle of violence."

Renewed War between Israel and Hamas

Conflict between Gaza and Israel has been chronic since the Hamas takeover. Examples of the sporadic incidents raising tension included the death in 2016 of seven Hamas members in a tunnel collapse in January, the discovery and destruction of a new tunnel in April, and mortar fire and retaliatory air strikes in May. Such intermittent conflict occurred at a greater rate once more after Palestinians in Gaza began regularly protesting at the border with Israel in March 2018. As the weekly protests, which took aim mainly at the blockade but also at the refusal to allow displaced Palestinians to return to lands claimed by Israel, stretched over months, Israeli forces at times responded with live rounds that resulted in the deaths of reportedly hundreds of Palestinians. Later that year, a failed Israeli raid in Gaza led to an incredibly violent and deadly two days. Palestinian militants reportedly launched approximately four hundred rockets into Israel in retaliation before a brokered cease-fire was reached. Attempts to rebuild Gaza's infrastructure, devastated during the conflict, have been severely limited by the Israeli blockade of goods allowed to enter the region. The restriction on building materials was lifted in May 2016.

Fighting between Israel and Hamas continued into the 2020s, and escalated to unprecedented intensity in October 2023. That month, Israel declared war on Hamas following a surprise attack by Hamas that killed some 1,200 Israelis and wounded nearly 2,400. In addition to those killed and wounded, an additional 250 people were kidnapped by Hamas militants. Initial sympathy in many countries for Israel became complicated by the scale of the Israeli response, which leveled huge swaths of Gaza, devastated infrastructure in two of the territory's largest cities (Gaza City and Khan Younis), and killed an estimated 34,000 Palestinians, a large percentage of whom were women, children, and other civilians, by April 2024. Additionally, an estimated 85 percent of the territory's roughly 2.3 million residents were displaced, and over a million people in Gaza faced severe food insecurity, raising concerns of a famine in the territory. Amid rising criticism of Israel over the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, in December 2023 South Africa filed genocide charges against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), a body of the United Nations.

Between October 2023 and April 2024 the UN Security Council attempted on four occasions to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas; the US, a permanent member of the Security Council with the power to veto any resolution, vetoed three of these resolutions and abstained from another resolution that passed in March 2024. Although Israel continued some aspects of its campaign against Hamas after the resolution passed, it withdrew most of its ground forces from Gaza in early April, including all of its forces from southern Gaza. The Israeli government described this as a strategic withdrawal that would allow these forces to eventually carry out a planned assault on Rafah, the largest city in southern Gaza to remain relatively unscathed in the previous months of fighting and the temporary home of over a million Palestinians displaced by fighting in northern Gaza. Meanwhile, as fighting subsided to its lowest intensity in months, international efforts to broker a more permanent ceasefire continued.

Fighting intensified once again starting in early May when Israeli forces launched an offensive on Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians had sought shelter from fighting in other parts of Gaza. In late May the International Criminal Court (ICC) ordered Israel to stop its offensive, but fighting in Rafah continued into July. By that time the humanitarian situation in Gaza had become increasingly dire, with numerous international observers expressing concerns over damaged medical infrastructure and rising food insecurity that resulted, at least in part, from the Israeli blockade of the territory. While attempts to reach a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel continued, an actual stop to the fighting remained elusive as the two sides continued to disagree on a number of terms, including Israel's demand for the release of hostages still held by Hamas and Hamas's insistence that the Israeli military halt its campaign in Gaza. The question of whether or not Hamas would remain in power in Gaza after the end of the war also complicated attempts to reach a peace agreement. By July 2024, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health, 38,000 Palestinians had been killed since the war began the previous October, though some independent observers, such as the British medical journal The Lancet, placed the death toll at a far higher number.

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