History of the Gaza Strip
Template:Short description Template:For Template:Lead too short Template:History of Palestine The history of the Gaza Strip refers to the history of the Gaza Strip, primarily since the end of Mandatory Palestine.
Before 1948
Historically part of the Palestine region, the area was controlled since the 16th century by the Ottoman Empire; in 1906, the Ottomans and the British Empire set the region's international border with Egypt.<ref name=":4">Template:Cite book pp. 369–370.</ref> With the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I and the subsequent partition of the Ottoman Empire, the British deferred the governance of the Gaza Strip area to Egypt, which declined the responsibility.<ref>James Kraska, 'Rule Selection in the Case of Israel's Blockade of Gaza:Law of Naval Warfare or Law of Sea?,' in M.N. Schmitt, Louise Arimatsu, Tim McCormack (eds.,) Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law, Template:Webarchive Springer Science & Business Media, 2011 pp.367–395, p.387</ref> Britain itself kept and ruled the territory it occupied in 1917–18, from 1920 until 1948 under the internationally accepted frame of "Mandatory Palestine". During that period, villages along the Gaza coastal plain expanded significantly, with both demographic increase and intensified agricultural production.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
1948–1959: All-Palestine government
During the 1948 Palestine war and more specifically the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees fled or were expelled to the Gaza Strip.<ref name="Reuters">Template:Cite news</ref> By the end of the war, 25% of Mandatory Palestine's Arab population was in Gaza, though the Strip constituted only 1% of the land.Template:Sfn The same year, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was established to administer various refugee programmes.Template:Sfn
On 22 September 1948 (near the end of the Arab–Israeli War), in the Egyptian-occupied Gaza City, the Arab League proclaimed the Template:Nowrap Government, partly to limit Transjordan's influence over Palestine. The All-Palestine Protectorate was quickly recognized by six of the Arab League's then-seven members (excluding Transjordan): Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
After the cessation of hostilities, the Israel–Egypt Armistice Agreement of 24 February 1949 established the line of separation between Egyptian and Israeli forces, as well as the modern boundary between Gaza and Israel, which both signatories declared not to be an international border. The southern border with Egypt was unchanged.<ref>Template:Cite treaty</ref> <ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":4" />
Palestinians living in Gaza or Egypt were issued All-Palestine passports. Egypt did not offer them citizenship. From the end of 1949, they received aid directly from UNRWA. During the Suez Crisis (1956), Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula were occupied by Israeli troops, who withdrew under international pressure. The All-Palestine government was accused of being little more than a façade for Egyptian control, with negligible independent funding or influence. It subsequently moved to Cairo and dissolved in 1959 by decree of Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
1956–1957: Israeli occupation
Template:Main Template:Further
During the 1956 Suez Crisis (the Second Arab–Israeli war), Israel invaded Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula. On 3 November, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attacked Egyptian and Palestinian forces at Khan Yunis.<ref name="Varble, Derek, p. 45">Template:Harvnb</ref> The city of Khan Yunis resisted being captured, and Israel responded with a heavy bombing campaign that inflicted heavy civilian casualties.Template:Sfn After a fierce battle, the Israeli 37th Armored Brigade's Sherman tanks broke through the heavily fortified lines outside of Khan Yunis held by the 86th Palestinian Brigade.<ref name="Varble, Derek, p. 46">Template:Harvnb</ref>
After some street-fighting with Egyptian soldiers and Palestinian fedayeen, Khan Yunis fell to the Israelis.<ref name="Varble, Derek, p. 46" /> Upon capturing Khan Yunis, the IDF committed an alleged massacre.<ref name="lat3">Joe Sacco produces comics from the hot zones Template:Webarchive . New York Times.</ref> Israeli troops started executing unarmed Palestinians, mostly civilians; in one instance men were lined up against walls in central square and executed with machine guns.Template:Sfn The claims of a massacre were reported to the United Nations General Assembly on 15 December 1956 by UNRWA director Henry Labouisse, who reported from "trustworthy sources" that 275 people were killed in the massacre, of which 140 were refugees and 135 local residents.<ref>"UNRWA Report to the UN General Assembly November 1 – December 14, 1956" Template:Webarchive</ref><ref name="Sacco2">Template:Cite book</ref>
On 12 November, days after the hostilities had ended, Israel killed 111 people in the Rafah refugee camp during Israeli operations, provoking international criticism.Template:Sfn<ref name="lat3"/>
Israel ended the occupation in March 1957, amid international pressure. During the four-month Israeli occupation, 900–1,231 people were killed.Template:Sfn According to French historian Jean-Pierre Filiu, 1% of the population of Gaza was killed, wounded, imprisoned or tortured during the occupation.Template:Sfn
1959–1967: Egyptian occupation
After the dissolution of the All-Palestine Government in 1959, under the excuse of pan-Arabism, Egypt continued to occupy Gaza until 1967. Egypt never annexed the Strip, but instead treated it as a controlled territory and administered it through a military governor.<ref>"How has the Gaza Strip influenced the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?" Template:Webarchive entry at ProCon.org citing "An Historical Encyclopedia of the Arab–Israeli Conflict"</ref> The influx of over 200,000 refugees from former Mandatory Palestine, roughly a quarter of those who fled or were expelled from their homes during, and in the aftermath of, the 1948 Arab–Israeli War into Gaza<ref>Elisha Efrat, The West Bank and Gaza Strip: A Geography of Occupation and Disengagement, Template:Webarchive Routledge, 2006 pp.74–75.</ref> resulted in a dramatic decrease in the standard of living. Because the Egyptian government restricted movement to and from Gaza, its inhabitants could not look elsewhere for gainful employment.<ref name="JB">Template:Cite journal</ref>
1967: Israeli occupation
Template:Main Template:See also In June 1967, during the Six-Day War, IDF captured Gaza. Under the then head of Israel's Southern Command Ariel Sharon, dozens of Palestinians, suspected of being members of the resistance, were executed without trial.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Between 1967 and 1968, Israel evicted approximately 75,000 residents of the Gaza Strip who Golda Meir described as a "fifth column". In addition, at least 25,000 Gazan residents were prevented from returning after the 1967 war. Ultimately, the Strip lost 25% (a conservative estimate) of its prewar population between 1967 and 1968.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1970–1971 Ariel Sharon implemented what became known as a 'five finger' strategy, which consisted in creating military areas and settlements by breaking the Strip into five zones to better enable Israeli occupation, settlement and, by discontinuous fragmentation of the Palestinian zones created, allow an efficient management of the area. Thousands of homes were bulldozed and large numbers of Bedouin families were exiled to the Sinai.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Between 1973 (after the Yom Kippur War) and 1987, official policy on economic development in the Gaza Strip remained the same as in 1969 with limited local investment and economic opportunity coming primarily from employment in Israel.<ref name=":7" />
According to Tom Segev, moving the Palestinians out of the country had been a persistent element of Zionist thinking from early times.<ref name="TSegev">Template:Cite book</ref> In December 1967, during a meeting at which the Security Cabinet brainstormed about what to do with the Arab population of the newly occupied territories, one of the suggestions Prime Minister Levi Eshkol proffered regarding Gaza was that the people might leave if Israel restricted their access to water supplies.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A number of measures, including financial incentives, were taken shortly afterwards to begin to encourage Gazans to emigrate elsewhere.<ref name="TSegev" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Following the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, "various international agencies struggled to respond" and American Near East Refugee Aid was founded to help victims of the conflict by providing immediate emergency relief.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
.jpg)
Subsequent to this military victory, Israel created the first Israeli settlement bloc in the Strip, Gush Katif, in a spot where a small kibbutz had previously existed for 18 months between 1946 and 1948. The kibbutz community had been established as part of the Jewish Agency's "11 points in the Negev" plan, in which 11 Jewish villages were built across the Negev in a single night as a response to the Morrison-Grady Plan, which threatened to exclude the Negev from a future Jewish State. In total, between 1967 and 2005, Israel established 21 settlements in Gaza, comprising 20% of the total territory. The economic growth rate from 1967 to 1982 averaged roughly 9.7 percent per annum, due in good part to expanded income from work opportunities inside Israel, which had a major utility for the latter by supplying the country with a large unskilled and semi-skilled workforce. Gaza's agricultural sector was adversely affected as one-third of the Strip was appropriated by Israel, competition for scarce water resources stiffened, and the lucrative cultivation of citrus declined with the advent of Israeli policies, such as prohibitions on planting new trees and taxation that gave breaks to Israeli producers, factors which militated against growth. Gaza's direct exports of these products to Western markets, as opposed to Arab markets, was prohibited except through Israeli marketing vehicles, in order to assist Israeli citrus exports to the same markets. The overall result was that large numbers of farmers were forced out of the agricultural sector. Israel placed quotas on all goods exported from Gaza, while abolishing restrictions on the flow of Israeli goods into the Strip. Sara Roy characterised the pattern as one of structural de-development.<ref name=":7">Template:Cite journal</ref>
On 26 March 1979, Israel and Egypt signed the Egypt–Israel peace treaty.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Among other things, the treaty provided for the withdrawal by Israel of its armed forces and civilians from the Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had captured during the Six-Day War. The Egyptians agreed to keep the Sinai Peninsula demilitarized. The final status of the Gaza Strip, and other relations between Israel and Palestinians, was not dealt with in the treaty. Egypt renounced all territorial claims to territory north of the international border. The Gaza Strip remained under Israeli military administration. The Israeli military became responsible for the maintenance of civil facilities and services.
After the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty, a 100-meter-wide buffer zone between Gaza and Egypt known as the Philadelphi Route was established. The international border along the Philadelphi corridor between Egypt and Gaza is Template:Convert long.
1987: First Intifada
The First Intifada was a sustained series of protests and violent riots carried out by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was motivated by collective Palestinian frustration over Israel's military occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as it approached a twenty-year mark, having begun after Israel's victory in the 1967 Arab–Israeli War.<ref name="LockmanBeinin1989_5">Template:Cite book</ref> The uprising lasted from December 1987 until the Madrid Conference of 1991, though some date its conclusion to 1993, with the signing of the Oslo Accords.
The intifada began on 9 December 1987,<ref name="LockmanBeinin1989_5" /> in the Jabalia refugee camp of the Gaza Strip after an Israeli army truck collided with a civilian car, killing four Palestinian workers.<ref name="OmerMan2001">Template:Cite news</ref> Palestinians charged that the collision was a deliberate response for the killing of an Israeli in Gaza days earlier.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Israel denied that the crash, which came at time of heightened tensions, was intentional or coordinated.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Palestinian response was characterized by protests, civil disobedience, and violence.<ref name="books.google.com">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Lustick 1993 560–594">Template:Cite journal</ref> There was graffiti, barricading,<ref name="BBC NEWS">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Walid Salem 2005, pp. 179">Template:Cite book</ref> and widespread throwing of stones and Molotov cocktails at the IDF and its infrastructure within the West Bank and Gaza Strip. These contrasted with civil efforts including general strikes, boycotts of Israeli Civil Administration institutions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, an economic boycott consisting of refusal to work in Israeli settlements on Israeli products, refusal to pay taxes, and refusal to drive Palestinian cars with Israeli licenses.<ref name="books.google.com"/><ref name="Lustick 1993 560–594"/><ref name="BBC NEWS"/>
1994: Gaza under Palestinian Authority
In May 1994, following the Palestinian-Israeli agreements known as the Oslo Accords, a phased transfer of governmental authority to the Palestinians took place. Much of the Strip came under Palestinian control, except for the settlement blocs and military areas. The Israeli forces left Gaza City and other urban areas, leaving the new Palestinian Authority to administer and police those areas. The Palestinian Authority, led by Yasser Arafat, chose Gaza City as its first provincial headquarters. In September 1995, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) signed a second agreement, extending the Palestinian Authority to most West Bank towns.
Between 1994 and 1996, Israel built the Gaza–Israel barrier to improve security in Israel. The barrier was largely torn down by Palestinians at the beginning of the Second Intifada in September 2000.<ref name="Doron Almog">Template:Cite journal</ref>
2000: Second Intifada
The Second Intifada was a major Palestinian uprising in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and Israel. The general triggers for the unrest are speculated to have been centred on the failure of the 2000 Camp David Summit, which was expected to reach a final agreement on the Israeli–Palestinian peace process in July 2000.Template:Sfn Outbreaks of violence began in September 2000, after Ariel Sharon, then the Israeli opposition leader, made a provocative visit to the Al-Aqsa compound on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem;Template:Sfn the visit itself was peaceful, but, as anticipated, sparked protests and riots that Israeli police put down with rubber bullets and tear gas.Template:Sfn The Second Intifada also marked the beginning of rocket attacks and bombings of Israeli border localities by Palestinian guerrillas from the Gaza Strip, especially by the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad movements.
High numbers of casualties were caused among civilians as well as combatants. Israeli forces engaged in gunfire, targeted killings, and tank and aerial attacks, while Palestinians engaged in suicide bombings, gunfire, stone-throwing, and rocket attacks.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book"The al-Aqsa Intifada ushered in an era with a new brand of violence.1 It began with a popular uprising following Ariel Sharon's visit to Temple Mount on September 28, 2000. But unlike the first Intifada, which was basically a civil uprising against the symbols of an occupation that has lasted since June 1967, the second Intifada very quickly lapsed into an armed struggle between Palestinian activists and the Israeli armed forces. Almost from the very start, armed men took to hiding among crowds of Palestinians, using them as cover to shoot from. The IDF retaliated forcefully, each time causing several casualties."</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Palestinian suicide bombings were a prominent feature of the fighting and mainly targeted Israeli civilians, contrasting with the relatively less violent nature of the First Intifada.<ref name="NMRR">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>
- Template:Cite journal
- Template:Cite journal
- Template:Cite journal
- Template:Cite journal</ref> With a combined casualty figure for combatants and civilians, the violence is estimated to have resulted in the deaths of approximately 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis, as well as 64 foreigners.<ref name=casualties2005>Template:Cite web</ref>
Between December 2000 and June 2001, the barrier between Gaza and Israel was reconstructed. A barrier on the Gaza Strip-Egypt border was constructed starting in 2004.<ref name="Anne Barnard">Template:Cite news</ref> The main crossing points are the northern Erez Crossing into Israel and the southern Rafah Crossing into Egypt. The eastern Karni Crossing used for cargo, closed down in 2011.<ref name="Greg Myre">Template:Cite news</ref> Israel controls the Gaza Strip's northern borders, as well as its territorial waters and airspace. Egypt controls Gaza Strip's southern border, under an agreement between it and Israel.<ref name="BBC">Template:Cite news</ref> Neither Israel or Egypt permits free travel from Gaza as both borders are heavily militarily fortified. "Egypt maintains a strict blockade on Gaza in order to isolate Hamas from Islamist insurgents in the Sinai."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2005: Israel's unilateral disengagement
In 2005, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip and dismantled its settlements.<ref name="auto2">Template:Cite web</ref> Israel also withdrew from the Philadelphi Route, a narrow strip of land adjacent to the border with Egypt, after Egypt agreed to secure its side of the border after the Agreement on Movement and Access, known as the Rafah Agreement.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Gaza Strip was left under the control of the Palestinian Authority.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2006: Hamas takeover
In the Palestinian parliamentary elections held on 25 January 2006, Hamas won a plurality of 42.9% of the total vote and 74 out of 132 total seats (56%).<ref>Counting underway in Palestinian elections, International Herald Tribune, 25 January 2006. Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref>Election officials reduce Hamas seats by two, ABC News Online, 30 January 2006. Template:Webarchive</ref> When Hamas assumed power the next month, Israel, the United States, the EU, Russia and the UN demanded that Hamas accept all previous agreements, recognize Israel's right to exist, and renounce violence; when Hamas refused,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> they cut off direct aid to the Palestinian Authority, although some aid money was redirected to humanitarian organizations not affiliated with the government.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The resulting political disorder and economic stagnation led to many Palestinians emigrating from the Gaza Strip.<ref>Template:Cite web, Sarah El Deeb, Associated Press, 9 December 2006.</ref>
In January 2007, fighting erupted between Hamas and Fatah. The deadliest clashes occurred in the northern Gaza Strip. On 30 January 2007, a truce was negotiated between Fatah and Hamas.<ref>Palestinian Cease-Fire Holds on 1st Day Template:Webarchive. Ibrahim Barzak, Associated Press, 31 January 2007</ref> After a few days, new fighting broke out. On 1 February, Hamas killed 6 people in an ambush on a Gaza convoy which delivered equipment for Abbas' Palestinian Presidential Guard.<ref>Template:Cite web. Nidal al-Mughrabi, Reuters, 1 February 2007. On web.archive.org</ref> Fatah fighters stormed a Hamas-affiliated university in the Gaza Strip. Officers from Abbas' presidential guard battled Hamas gunmen guarding the Hamas-led Interior Ministry.<ref>Gaza erupts in fatal clashes after truce Template:Webarchive. Associated Press, 2 February 2007 (on usatoday.com)</ref> In May 2007, new fighting broke out between the factions.<ref>Template:Cite web, By Ibrahim Barzak, Associated Press Writer, 15 May 2007.</ref> Interior Minister Hani Qawasmi, who had been considered a moderate civil servant acceptable to both factions, resigned due to what he termed harmful behavior by both sides.<ref>Top Palestinian security official quits Template:Webarchive By Sarah El Deeb, Associated Press, 14 May 2007; Resignation deepens Gaza crisis, BBC, 14 May 2007. Template:Webarchive</ref>
Fighting spread in the Gaza Strip, with both factions attacking vehicles and facilities of the other side. Following a breakdown in an Egyptian-brokered truce, Israel launched an air strike which destroyed a building used by Hamas. Ongoing violence prompted fear that it could bring the end of the Fatah-Hamas coalition government, and possibly the end of the Palestinian authority.<ref>Israel attacks in Gaza amid factional violence Template:Webarchive, by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Associated Press, 16 May 2007.</ref> Hamas spokesman Mousa Abu Marzook blamed the conflict between Hamas and Fatah on Israel, stating that the constant pressure of economic sanctions resulted in the "real explosion."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> From 2006 to 2007 more than 600 Palestinians were killed in fighting between Hamas and Fatah.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 349 Palestinians were killed in fighting between factions in 2007. 160 Palestinians killed each other in June alone.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2007: Fatah–Hamas conflict
Following the victory of Hamas in the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, Hamas and Fatah formed the Palestinian authority national unity government headed by Ismail Haniyeh. Shortly after, Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in the course of the Battle of Gaza (June 2007),<ref name="Guardian">Template:Cite news</ref> seizing government institutions and replacing Fatah and other government officials with its own.<ref name="intern_fight_p14-15">Template:Cite book</ref> By 14 June, Hamas fully controlled the Gaza Strip. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas responded by declaring a state of emergency, dissolving the unity government and forming a new government without Hamas participation. PNA security forces in the West Bank arrested a number of Hamas members.
In late June 2008, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan declared the West Bank-based cabinet formed by Abbas as "the sole legitimate Palestinian government". Egypt moved its embassy from Gaza to the West Bank.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Saudi Arabia and Egypt supported reconciliation and a new unity government and pressed Abbas to start talks with Hamas. Abbas had always conditioned this on Hamas returning control of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority. After the takeover, Israel and Egypt closed their border crossings with Gaza. Palestinian sources reported that European Union monitors fled the Rafah Border Crossing, on the Gaza–Egypt border for fear of being kidnapped or harmed.<ref name="EU_flee_Rafah_crossing">Template:Cite web</ref> Arab foreign ministers and Palestinian officials presented a united front against control of the border by Hamas.<ref name="Abbas wins Egypt backing on border">Template:Cite web</ref> Meanwhile, Israeli and Egyptian security reports said that Hamas continued smuggling in large quantities of explosives and arms from Egypt through tunnels. Egyptian security forces uncovered 60 tunnels in 2007.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Egyptian border barrier breach
On 23 January 2008, after months of preparation during which the steel reinforcement of the border barrier was weakened,<ref>Template:Cite web Ha'aretz</ref> Hamas destroyed several parts of the wall dividing Gaza and Egypt in the town of Rafah. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans crossed the border into Egypt seeking food and supplies. Due to the crisis, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak ordered his troops to allow the Palestinians in but to verify that they did not bring weapons back across the border.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Egypt arrested and later released several armed Hamas militants in the Sinai who presumably wanted to infiltrate into Israel. At the same time, Israel increased its state of alert along the length of the Israel–Egypt Sinai border, and warned its citizens to leave Sinai "without delay."
In February 2008, the Gaza–Israel conflict intensified, with rockets launched at Israeli cities. Aggression by Hamas led to Israeli military action on 29 February 2008, resulting in over 110 Palestinians being killed according to BBC News, as well as 2 Israeli soldiers. Israeli human rights group B'Tselem estimated that 45 of those killed were not involved in hostilities, and 15 were minors.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
2008–2009: Gaza War
On 27 December 2008,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Israeli F-16 fighters launched a series of air strikes against targets in Gaza following the breakdown of a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Israel began a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip on 3 January 2009.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Various sites that Israel claimed were being used as weapons depots were struck from the air : police stations, schools, hospitals, UN warehouses, mosques, various Hamas government buildings and other buildings.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Israel said that the attack was a response to Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel, which totaled over 3,000 in 2008, and which intensified during the few weeks preceding the operation. Israel advised people near military targets to leave before the attacks. Israeli defense sources said that Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the IDF to prepare for the operation six months before it began, using long-term planning and intelligence-gathering.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
A total of 1,100–1,400<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Palestinians (295–926 civilians) and 13 Israelis were killed in the 22-day war.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The conflict damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of homes,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 15 of Gaza's 27 hospitals and 43 of its 110 primary health care facilities,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 800 water wells,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 186 greenhouses,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and nearly all of its 10,000 family farms;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> leaving 50,000 homeless,<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk">Template:Cite news</ref> 400,000–500,000 without running water,<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk" /><ref name="Gaza: Humanitarian situation">Template:Cite news</ref> one million without electricity,<ref name="Gaza: Humanitarian situation" /> and resulting in acute food shortages.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The people of Gaza still suffer from the loss of these facilities and homes, especially since they have great challenges to rebuild them.
2014: Gaza War
On 5 June 2014, Fatah signed a unity agreement with the Hamas political party.<ref name="bbc.com">Template:Cite web</ref>
The 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge, was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip. Following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank by Hamas-affiliated Palestinian militants, the IDF initiated Operation Brother's Keeper, in which some 350 Palestinians, including nearly all of the active Hamas militants in the West Bank, were arrested.<ref name="nathanthrall">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="HamasAcc">Jack Khoury, Hamas claims responsibility for three Israeli teens' kidnapping and murder' Template:Webarchive, Haaretz, 21 August 2014.</ref><ref name="HamasAcc2">'Mashal: Hamas was behind murder of three Israeli teens' Template:Webarchive, Ynet, 22 August 2014.</ref> Hamas subsequently fired a greater number of rockets into Israel from Gaza, triggering a seven-week-long conflict between the two sides. It was one of the deadliest outbreaks of open conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in decades. The combination of Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli airstrikes resulted in thousands of deaths, the vast majority of which were Gazan Palestinians.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
2018–2019: Great March of Return
In 2018–2019, a series of protests, also known as the Great March of Return, were held each Friday in the Gaza Strip near the Israel–Gaza barrier from 30 March 2018 until 27 December 2019, during which a total of 223 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces.<ref name="B'tselem21">'And now for the whitewashing,' Template:Webarchive B'tselem 24 May 2021</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The demonstrators demanded that the Palestinian refugees must be allowed to return to lands they were displaced from in what is now Israel. They protested against Israel's land, air and sea blockade of the Gaza Strip and the United States recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel.<ref name="Toameh">Khaled Abu Toameh, "Hamas vows Gaza protests last until Palestinians return to all of Palestine" Template:Webarchive, The Times of Israel, 9 April 2018.
"The protests are an uprising for "Jerusalem, Palestine, and the right of return", he said, referring to the demand that Palestinian refugees and their descendants be allowed to return to their former homes in Israel."</ref><ref name="NY2" >David M. Halbfinger, Iyad Abuheweila, Jugal K.Patel "300 Meters in Gaza: Snipers, Burning Tires and a Contested Fence" Template:Webarchive, The New York Times 15 May 2018.’ Most Gazans are Palestinian refugees or their descendants, and marching on the fence highlights their desire to reclaim the lands and homes from which they were displaced 70 years ago in the war surrounding Israel's creation.’</ref><ref>
- Template:Cite news
- David M. Halbfinger & Iyad Abuheweila, "One Dead Amid Violence in 3rd Week of Protests at Gaza-Israel Fence" Template:Webarchive The New York Times, 13 April 2018.
"They are objecting to Israel's 11-year-old blockade of Gaza and seeking to revive international interest in Palestinian claims of a right of return to the lands they were displaced from in 1948." - Adam Rasgon, "Masses of Gazans head to border area for 'right of return' says organizer" Template:Webarchive The Jerusalem Post, 28 March 2018.
"Masses of Palestinians are expected to come to the Gaza border on Friday and move into tents there for a planned six-week-long protest 'to demand the right of return to the homes and villages that they were expelled from in 1948'", Ahmad Abu Ratima, an organizer of the protest, told The Jerusalem Post.</ref>
Most of the demonstrators demonstrated peacefully far from the border fence. Peter Cammack, a fellow with the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, argued that the march indicated a new trend in Palestinian society and Hamas, with a shift away from violence towards non-violent forms of protest.<ref>Daoud Kuttab, "The truth about Gaza" Template:Webarchive Al-Monitor, 23 May 2018;
"This is clearly a new trend in Palestinian society that attempts to expand the notions of resistance and nonviolent protests."</ref> Some demonstrators were setting tires on fire and launching Molotov cocktails and rocks toward the troops on the opposite side of the border.<ref name="nytimes">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Haaretz30March">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>
- Template:Cite news
- Template:Cite web
- Template:Cite web</ref> Israeli officials said the demonstrations were used by Hamas as cover for launching attacks against Israel.<ref name="jpost1">Template:Cite web</ref>
In late February 2019, a United Nations Human Rights Council's independent commission found that of the 489 cases of Palestinian deaths or injuries analyzed, only two were possibly justified as responses to danger by Israeli security forces. The commission deemed the rest of the cases illegal, and concluded with a recommendation calling on Israel to examine whether war crimes or crimes against humanity had been committed, and if so, to bring those responsible to trial.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite report</ref>
On 28 February 2019, the Commission said it had Template:"'reasonable grounds' to believe Israeli soldiers may have committed war crimes and shot at journalists, health workers and children during protests in Gaza in 2018." Israel refused to take part in the inquiry and rejected the report.<ref name="CNN1111">Template:Cite news</ref>
2021: Israel–Palestine crisis
Before the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, Gaza had 48% unemployment and half of the population lived in poverty. During the crisis, 66 children died (551 children in the previous conflict). On 13 June 2021, a high level World Bank delegation visited Gaza to witness the damage. Mobilization with UN and EU partners is ongoing to finalize a needs assessment in support of Gaza's reconstruction and recovery.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Another escalation between 5 and 8 August 2022 resulted in property damage and displacement of people as a result of airstrikes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2023–present: Gaza war
Template:Main Template:See also
On 7 October 2023, the paramilitaries in Gaza, led by the Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades, invaded southwest Israel, targeting Israeli communities and military bases, killing at least 1,300 people and taking at least 236 hostages.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On 9 October 2023, Israel declared war on Hamas and imposed a "total blockade" of the Gaza Strip,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> with Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant declaring, "There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="TimesOfIsrael_GazaHostages">Template:Cite news</ref> Gallant changed his position after pressure from US president Joe Biden, and a deal was made on 19 October for Israel and Egypt to allow aid into Gaza.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
After the outbreak of the Gaza war in 2023, there has been a renewed campaign to return Israeli settlers to Gush Katif,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> including Hanan Ben Ari singing "We return to Gush Katif" to Israeli troops.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On 19 January 2025, a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect. It lasted until 18 March, when Israel launched a surprise attack.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
On 5 February 2025, in a joint press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu, US president Donald Trump asserted that the US would "take over the Gaza Strip, we'll own it." The remark sparked discussions regarding US policy in the region.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The following day, Trump said the proposed transfer of Gaza would happen after the conclusion of the war and the resettlement of population elsewhere.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The Gaza war has caused widespread destruction, a humanitarian crisis, and an ongoing famine in the Gaza Strip.<ref name="Dannenbaum_Dill_2024">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="IPC_22_August_2025">Template:Cite web</ref> Most of the population was forcibly displaced.<ref name="Dannenbaum_Dill_2024"/> Several human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and B'Tselem, various genocide studies and international law scholars, and other experts say that a genocide is taking place in Gaza, although some dispute this.<ref name="genocide">
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite news
- Template:Cite news
- Template:Cite report
- Template:Cite report
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite web
- Template:Cite report</ref><ref name="genocide_int_law_scholars">Template:Bulleted list</ref> In September 2025 a United Nations commission of inquiry concluded that there are reasonable grounds to conclude that four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law have been carried by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Since the start of the war, over 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, almost half of them women and children, and more than 148,000 injured.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A study in The Lancet estimated 64,260 deaths in Gaza from traumatic injuries by June 2024, while noting a potentially larger death toll when "indirect" deaths are included.<ref name="Lancet2025">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As of May 2025, a comparable figure for traumatic injury deaths would be 93,000 (77,000 to 109,000), representing 4–5% of Gaza's pre-war population.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
References
Template:Palestine topics Template:Whole Gaza Strip Template:Middle East topic