Gaza Strip

This article is about the Palestinian territory. For the city, see Gaza City. For the governorate in Palestine, see Gaza Governorate. For the 2002 film, see Gaza Strip (film).

Gaza Strip
قطاع غزة
Flag of the Gaza Strip
Status
CapitalGaza City
31°30′53″N 34°27′15″E / 31.51472°N 34.45417°E / 31.51472; 34.45417
Largest cityRafah[d][7]
Official languagesArabic
Ethnic groups
Palestinian Arabs
Religion
Demonym(s)Gazan
Palestinian
Government
• Hamas Chief in the Gaza Strip[8]
Mohammed Sinwar
Essam al-Da'alis
Area
• Total
365 km2 (141 sq mi)
Population
• 2024 estimate
2,141,643[9]
• Density
5,967.5/km2 (15,455.8/sq mi)
CurrencyIsraeli new shekel
Egyptian pound[10]
Time zoneUTC+2 (Palestine Standard Time)
• Summer (DST)
UTC+3 (Palestine Summer Time)
Calling code+970
ISO 3166 codePS

The Gaza Strip (/ˈɡɑːzə/ ⓘ;[11] Arabic: قِطَاعُ غَزَّةَ Qiṭāʿ Ġazzah [qɪˈtˤɑːʕ ˈɣaz.za]), also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. Inhabited by mostly Palestinian refugees and their descendants, Gaza is one of the most densely populated territories in the world. Gaza is bordered by Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the east and north. The territory has been under Israeli occupation since 1967.[12]

The territorial boundaries were established while Gaza was controlled by Egypt at the conclusion of the 1948 Arab–Israeli war, and it became a refuge for Palestinians who fled or were expelled during the 1948 Palestine war.[13][14] Later, during the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel captured and occupied the Gaza Strip, initiating its decades-long military occupation of the Palestinian territories.[13][14] The mid-1990s Oslo Accords established the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a limited governing authority, initially led by the secular party Fatah until that party's electoral defeat in 2006 to the Sunni Islamic Hamas. Hamas would then take over the governance of Gaza in a battle the next year,[15][16] subsequently warring with Israel.

The restrictions on movement and goods in Gaza imposed by Israel date back to the early 1990s.[17] In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew its military forces from Gaza, dismantled its settlements, and implemented a temporary blockade of Gaza.[18] The blockade became indefinite after the 2007 Hamas takeover.[19][18] Egypt also began its blockade of Gaza in 2007.

Despite the Israeli disengagement, Gaza is still considered occupied by Israel under international law.[20][21] The current blockade prevents people and goods from freely entering or leaving the territory, leading to Gaza often being called an "open-air prison".[22][23] The UN, as well as at least 19 human-rights organizations, have urged Israel to lift the blockade.[24] Israel has justified its blockade on the strip with wanting to stop flow of arms, but Palestinians and rights groups say it amounts to collective punishment and exacerbates dire living conditions. Prior to the Israel–Hamas war, Hamas had said that it did not want a military escalation in Gaza partially to prevent exacerbating the humanitarian crisis after the 2021 conflict.[25] A tightened blockade since the start of the Israel–Hamas war has contributed to an ongoing famine.[26]

The Gaza Strip is 41 kilometres (25 miles) long, from 6 to 12 km (3.7 to 7.5 mi) wide, and has a total area of 365 km2 (141 sq mi).[27][9] With around 2 million Palestinians[9] on approximately 365 km2 (141 sq mi) of land, Gaza has one of the world's highest population densities.[28][29] More than 70% of Gaza's population are Palestinian refugees, half of whom are under the age of 18.[30] Sunni Muslims make up most of Gaza's population, with a Palestinian Christian minority. Gaza has an annual population growth rate of 1.99% (2023 est.), the 39th-highest in the world.[9] Gaza's unemployment rate is among the highest in the world, with an overall unemployment rate of 46% and a youth unemployment rate of 70%.[19][31] Despite this, the area's 97% literacy rate is higher than that of nearby Egypt, while youth literacy is 88%.[32] Gaza has throughout the years been seen as a source of Palestinian nationalism and resistance.[33][34][35]

Gaza Strip Gaza
Emblem of Palestine Government of Gaza
  1. ^ "Mideast accord: the overview; Rabin and Arafat sign accord ending Israel's 27-year hold on Jericho and the Gaza Strip" Archived 9 December 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Chris Hedges, The New York Times, 5 May 1994.
  2. ^ Beaule, Victoria; Ferris, Layla (5 January 2024). "Visual analysis shows 60% of Gaza now under evacuation orders". ABC News. Archived from the original on 2 April 2024. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  3. ^ Michaeli, Yarden; Scharf, Avi (28 March 2024). "Buffer Zone and Control Corridor: What the Israeli Army's Entrenchment in Gaza Looks Like". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 1 April 2024. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
  4. ^ Sanger, Andrew (2011). "The Contemporary Law of Blockade and the Gaza Freedom Flotilla". In M.N. Schmitt; Louise Arimatsu; Tim McCormack (eds.). Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law - 2010. Vol. 13. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 429. doi:10.1007/978-90-6704-811-8_14. ISBN 978-90-6704-811-8. Israel claims it no longer occupies the Gaza Strip, maintaining that it is neither a State nor a territory occupied or controlled by Israel, but rather it has 'sui generis' status. Pursuant to the Disengagement Plan, Israel dismantled all military institutions and settlements in Gaza and there is no longer a permanent Israeli military or civilian presence in the territory. However, the Plan also provided that Israel will guard and monitor the external land perimeter of the Gaza Strip, will continue to maintain exclusive authority in Gaza air space, and will continue to exercise security activity in the sea off the coast of the Gaza Strip as well as maintaining an Israeli military presence on the Egyptian-Gaza border, and reserving the right to reenter Gaza at will. Israel continues to control all of Gaza's seven land crossings, its maritime borders and airspace and the movement of goods and persons in and out of the territory. Egypt controls one of Gaza's land crossings. Gaza is also dependent on Israel for water, electricity, telecommunications and other utilities, currency, issuing IDs, and permits to enter and leave the territory. Israel also has sole control of the Palestinian Population Registry through which the Israeli Army regulates who is classified as a Palestinian and who is a Gazan or West Banker. Since 2000 aside from a limited number of exceptions Israel has refused to add people to the Palestinian Population Registry. It is this direct external control over Gaza and indirect control over life within Gaza that has led the United Nations, the UN General Assembly, the UN Fact Finding Mission to Gaza, International human rights organisations, US Government websites, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a significant number of legal commentators, to reject the argument that Gaza is no longer occupied.
    * Scobbie, Iain (2012). Elizabeth Wilmshurst (ed.). International Law and the Classification of Conflicts. Oxford University Press. p. 295. ISBN 978-0-19-965775-9. Even after the accession to power of Hamas, Israel's claim that it no longer occupies Gaza has not been accepted by UN bodies, most States, nor the majority of academic commentators because of its exclusive control of its border with Gaza and crossing points including the effective control it exerted over the Rafah crossing until at least May 2011, its control of Gaza's maritime zones and airspace which constitute what Aronson terms the 'security envelope' around Gaza, as well as its ability to intervene forcibly at will in Gaza.
    * Gawerc, Michelle (2012). Prefiguring Peace: Israeli-Palestinian Peacebuilding Partnerships. Lexington Books. p. 44. ISBN 9780739166109. Archived from the original on 28 February 2023. Retrieved 8 November 2016. While Israel withdrew from the immediate territory, it remained in control of all access to and from Gaza through the border crossings, as well as through the coastline and the airspace. In addition, Gaza was dependent upon Israel for water, electricity sewage communication networks and for its trade (Gisha 2007. Dowty 2008). In other words, while Israel maintained that its occupation of Gaza ended with its unilateral disengagement Palestinians – as well as many human rights organizations and international bodies – argued that Gaza was by all intents and purposes still occupied.
  5. ^ Cuyckens, Hanne (1 October 2016). "Is Israel Still an Occupying Power in Gaza?". Netherlands International Law Review. 63 (3): 275–295. doi:10.1007/s40802-016-0070-1. ISSN 0165-070X.
  6. ^ Cuyckens, Hanne (2016). "Is Israel Still an Occupying Power in Gaza?". Netherlands International Law Review. 63 (3): 275–295. doi:10.1007/s40802-016-0070-1. ISSN 0165-070X.
  7. ^ "ActionAid: Conditions in Rafah at breaking point, with over one million displaced people". wafa agency.
  8. ^ "Israeli occupation's threats against Hamas officials reflect political impasse". Hamas. 25 September 2022. Archived from the original on 27 February 2023. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  9. ^ a b c d Gaza Strip Archived 12 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine Entry at the CIA World Factbook
  10. ^ Chami, Ralph; Espinoza, Raphael; Montiel, Peter J. (26 January 2021). Macroeconomic Policy in Fragile States. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-885309-1. Archived from the original on 11 April 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
  11. ^ The New Oxford Dictionary of English. 1998. p. 761. ISBN 0-19-861263-X. "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza...".
  12. ^ Gross, Aeyal (12 October 2024). "The Functional Approach as Lex Lata". Verfassungsblog. doi:10.59704/133f2ff82e19d7f9 – via verfassungsblog.de.
  13. ^ a b "Gaza Strip | Definition, History, Facts, & Map | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 6 September 2024. Archived from the original on 19 October 2023. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
  14. ^ a b Samson, Elizabeth (2010). "Is Gaza Occupied: Redefining the Status of Gaza under International Law". American University International Law Review. 25: 915. Archived from the original on 22 November 2023. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
  15. ^ Tristan Dunning, Hamas, Jihad and Popular Legitimacy: Reinterpreting Resistance in Palestine, Archived 2 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine Routledge, 2016 p.212:'Since taking sole control of Gaza in June 2007, Hamas has proven itself to be a remarkably resilient and resourceful government entity. The movement has clearly entrenched itself as the hegemonic power in the coastal enclave to such an extent that the International Crisis Group contends that the power struggle in Gaza is no longer between Hamas and Fatah. Rather the main source of confrontation is between Hamas and other more hardline Islamists and salafists. . . Hamas has been far more successful in an administrative sense than the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, despite having access to only a fraction of the resources.'
  16. ^
    • Joshua Castellino, Kathleen A. Cavanaugh, Minority Rights in the Middle East, Archived 2 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine Oxford University Press 2013 p.150:'Palestinians under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza constitute a majority (demographically) with representation by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), a self-governing body run by Fatah in the West Bank, and by Hamas in the Gaza Strip'.
    • David Rose, 'The Gaza Bombshell,' Archived 28 April 2018 at the Wayback Machine Vanity Fair April, 2008. 'The plan was for forces led by Dahlan, and armed with new weapons supplied at America's behest, to give Fatah the muscle it needed to remove the democratically elected Hamas-led government from power. . But the secret plan backfired, resulting in a further setback for American foreign policy under Bush. Instead of driving its enemies out of power, the U.S.-backed Fatah fighters inadvertently provoked Hamas to seize total control of Gaza.'
    • Sara Roy, Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza, p.45 Archived 2 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine. 'Dahlan, who was supported by U.S. officials, has been a bitter enemy of Hamas since his 1996 crackdown on the movement. He consistently refused to accept the Palestinian unity government brokered by the Saudi government in the Mecca Agreement "and made his opposition intolerable to Hamas when he refused to subject the security forces under his command, armed and trained by the U.S., to the legitimate Palestinian unity government as agreed between Hamas and Fatah." Alistair Crooke, a former Middle East adviser to the EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, similarly observed, "Dahlan refused to deal with (the independent interior minister appointed to the unity government), and put his troops on the streets in defiance of the interior minister. Hamas felt that they had little option but to take control of security away from forces which were in fact creating insecurity." Hence, Hamas was not attempting a coup against the government or the Fatah organization as a whole but also against Dahlan's U.S.-funded militia (and individual Fatah loyalists it blamed for the murder of Hamas members).'
  17. ^ "Preliminary Assessment Of The Economic Impact Of The Destruction In Gaza". Archived from the original on 5 April 2024. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  18. ^ a b Alfarsi, Haroun (10 October 2023). "Gaza Strip Blockade: Explained". Profolus. Retrieved 30 May 2024.
  19. ^ a b "Gaza Strip: devastated by conflict and Israel's economic blockade". Reuters. 12 October 2023. Archived from the original on 13 November 2023. Retrieved 13 November 2023.
  20. ^ Sanger, Andrew (2011). "The Contemporary Law of Blockade and the Gaza Freedom Flotilla". In M.N. Schmitt; Louise Arimatsu; Tim McCormack (eds.). Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law - 2010. Vol. 13. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 429. doi:10.1007/978-90-6704-811-8_14. ISBN 978-90-6704-811-8. Israel claims it no longer occupies the Gaza Strip, maintaining that it is neither a State nor a territory occupied or controlled by Israel, but rather it has 'sui generis' status. Pursuant to the Disengagement Plan, Israel dismantled all military institutions and settlements in Gaza and there is no longer a permanent Israeli military or civilian presence in the territory. However the Plan also provided that Israel will guard and monitor the external land perimeter of the Gaza Strip, will continue to maintain exclusive authority in Gaza air space, and will continue to exercise security activity in the sea off the coast of the Gaza Strip as well as maintaining an Israeli military presence on the Egyptian-Gaza border. and reserving the right to reenter Gaza at will.
    Israel continues to control six of Gaza's seven land crossings, its maritime borders and airspace and the movement of goods and persons in and out of the territory. Egypt controls one of Gaza's land crossings. Troops from the Israeli Defence Force regularly enter pans of the territory and/or deploy missile attacks, drones and sonic bombs into Gaza. Israel has declared a no-go buffer zone that stretches deep into Gaza: if Gazans enter this zone they are shot on sight. Gaza is also dependent on Israel for water, electricity, telecommunications and other utilities, currency, issuing IDs, and permits to enter and leave the territory. Israel also has sole control of the Palestinian Population Registry through which the Israeli Army regulates who is classified as a Palestinian and who is a Gazan or West Banker. Since 2000 aside from a limited number of exceptions Israel has refused to add people to the Palestinian Population Registry.
    It is this direct external control over Gaza and indirect control over life within Gaza that has led the United Nations, the UN General Assembly, the UN Fact Finding Mission to Gaza, International human rights organisations, US Government websites, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a significant number of legal commentators, to reject the argument that Gaza is no longer occupied.
  21. ^
    • "Military occupation of Palestine by Israel". Rule of Law in Armed Conflicts Project. 18 May 2014. Archived from the original on 4 April 2022. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
    • Scobbie, Iain (2012). Elizabeth Wilmshurst (ed.). International Law and the Classification of Conflicts. Oxford University Press. p. 295. ISBN 978-0-19-965775-9. Even after the accession to power of Hamas, Israel's claim that it no longer occupies Gaza has not been accepted by UN bodies, most States, nor the majority of academic commentators because of its exclusive control of its border with Gaza and crossing points including the effective control it exerted over the Rafah crossing until at least May 2011, its control of Gaza's maritime zones and airspace which constitute what Aronson terms the 'security envelope' around Gaza, as well as its ability to intervene forcibly at will in Gaza.
    • Gawerc, Michelle (2012). Prefiguring Peace: Israeli-Palestinian Peacebuilding Partnerships. Lexington Books. p. 44. ISBN 9780739166109. Archived from the original on 28 February 2023. Retrieved 8 November 2016. While Israel withdrew from the immediate territory, it remained in control of all access to and from Gaza through the border crossings, as well as through the coastline and the airspace. In addition, Gaza was dependent upon Israel for water, electricity sewage communication networks and for its trade (Gisha 2007. Dowty 2008). In other words, while Israel maintained that its occupation of Gaza ended with its unilateral disengagement Palestinians – as well as many human right organizations and international bodies – argued that Gaza was by all intents and purposes still occupied.
  22. ^ Sara Roy, Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist Social Sector, Archived 2 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine Princeton University Press, 2013 p.41:'Hamas's democratic victory, however, was short-lived . .followed as it was in June 2006 by an Israeli and US-led international political and economic boycott of the new Palestinian government. The boycott amounted to a form of collective punishment against the entire Palestinian population and, to my knowledge, was the first time in the history of the conflict that the international community imposed sanctions on the occupied rather than the occupier.'
  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference open-air prison was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  24. ^ "UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Call for Strengthening of International Support to the oPt". OCHA. 20 January 2020. Archived from the original on 15 April 2021. Retrieved 29 December 2020. ..." including lifting of the blockade in Gaza..."
  25. ^ "Gaza has suffered under 16 year siege". The New York Times. 7 October 2023. Archived from the original on 24 October 2023. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
  26. ^ Knutson, Jacob. "U.S. aid official says famine has begun in northern Gaza". Axios. Archived from the original on 12 April 2024. Retrieved 12 April 2024.
  27. ^ Cite error: The named reference Arnon was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  28. ^ Cite error: The named reference nbcpd was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  29. ^ Cite error: The named reference arc was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  30. ^ Norman G. Finkelstein (2018). Gaza. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-29571-1. Archived from the original on 11 March 2024. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  31. ^ Humaid, Maram. "Gaza graduates demand UNRWA solutions for high unemployment rate". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 13 November 2023. Retrieved 13 November 2023.
  32. ^ "World Bank Open Data". World Bank Open Data. Archived from the original on 26 May 2023. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  33. ^ Sara M. Roy (2016). The Gaza Strip. Institute for Palestine Studies USA, Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-88728-321-5. Archived from the original on 11 March 2024. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
  34. ^ Filiu, Jean-Pierre (1 November 2014). "The Twelve Wars on Gaza" (PDF). Journal of Palestine Studies. 44 (1): 52–60. doi:10.1525/jps.2014.44.1.52. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 April 2024. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
  35. ^ Rynhold, Jonathan; Waxman, Dov (2008). "Ideological Change and Israel's Disengagement from Gaza". Political Science Quarterly. 123 (1): 11–37. doi:10.1002/j.1538-165X.2008.tb00615.x. ISSN 0032-3195. JSTOR 20202970. Archived from the original on 17 October 2023. Retrieved 21 January 2024.


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