After rule by the Ottoman Empire ended there in World War I (1914–18), the Gaza area became part of the League of Nations mandate of Palestine under British rule. Before this mandate ended, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in November 1947 accepted a plan for the Arab-Jewish partition of Palestine under which the town of Gaza
and an area of surrounding territory were to be allotted to the Arabs.
The British mandate ended on May 15, 1948, and on that same day the
first Arab-Israeli war began. Egyptian
forces soon entered the town of Gaza, which became the headquarters of
the Egyptian expeditionary force in Palestine. As a result of heavy
fighting in autumn 1948, the area around the town under Arab occupation
was reduced to a strip of territory 25 miles (40 km) long and 4–5 miles
(6–8 km) wide. This area became known as the Gaza Strip. Its boundaries
were demarcated in the Egyptian-Israeli armistice agreement of February
24, 1949.The Gaza Strip was under Egyptian military rule from 1949 to 1956 and again from 1957 to 1967. From the beginning, the area's chief economic and social problem was the presence of large numbers of Palestinian Arab refugees living in extreme poverty in squalid camps. The Egyptian government did not consider the area part of Egypt and did not allow the refugees to become Egyptian citizens or to migrate to Egypt or to other Arab countries where they might be integrated into the population. Israel did not allow them to return to their former homes or to receive compensation for their loss of property. The refugees were maintained largely through the aid of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Many of the younger refugees became fedayeen (Arab guerrillas operating against Israel); their attacks on Israel were one of the causes precipitating the Sinai campaign during the Suez Crisis of 1956, when the strip was taken by Israel. The strip reverted to Egyptian control in 1957 following strong international pressures on Israel.
 |
| Israeli riot police being delivered by helicopter to forcibly evacuate Israeli settlers from a ynagogue roof, Kefar Darom, Gaza Strip, 2005 |
In
the Six-Day War of June 1967, the Gaza Strip was again taken by Israel,
which occupied the region for the next quarter century. In December
1987 rioting and violent street clashes between Gaza's Palestinians and
occupying Israeli troops marked the birth of an uprising that came to
be known as the intifāḍah (Arabic: “shaking off”). In 1994 Israel began a phased transfer of governmental authority in the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority (PA) under the terms of the Oslo Accords that were signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO). The fledgling Palestinian government, led by Yāsir ʿArafāt,
struggled with such problems as a stagnant economy, divided popular
support, stalled negotiations with Israel over further troop
withdrawals and territoriality, and the threat of terrorism from
militant Muslim groups such as Islamic Jihād and Ḥamās,
which refused to compromise with Israel and were intent on derailing
the peace process. Beginning in late 2000, a breakdown in negotiations
between the PA and Israel was followed by a further, more extreme
outbreak of violence, termed the second, or Aqṣā, intifāḍah. In an effort to end the fighting, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
announced in late 2003 a plan that centred on withdrawing Israeli
soldiers and settlers from the Gaza Strip. In September 2005 Israel
completed the pullout from the territory, and control of the Gaza Strip
was transferred to the PA, although Israel continued to patrol its
borders and airspace. The Gaza Strip was the site of escalating
violence between leading Palestinian parties Ḥamās and Fatah
in 2007; as a result of these clashes, Ḥamās took control of the Gaza
Strip, while a Fatah-led emergency cabinet took control of the West
Bank. Despite calls by PA Pres. Mahmoud Abbas for Ḥamās to relinquish its position in the Gaza Strip, the territory remained under Ḥamās control.
In fall 2007 Israel declared the Gaza Strip under Ḥamās a hostile entity and approved a series of sanctions that included power cuts, heavily restricted imports, and border closures. In January 2008, facing sustained rocket assaults into its southern settlements, Israel intensified its sanctions, completely sealing its border with the Gaza Strip and temporarily preventing fuel imports. Later that month, after nearly a week of the Israeli blockade, Ḥamās forces demolished portions of the barrier along the Gaza Strip–Egypt border (closed since Ḥamās's mid-2007 takeover), opening gaps through which, according to some estimates, hundreds of thousands of Gazans passed into Egypt to purchase food, fuel, and goods unavailable under the blockade. Egyptian Pres. Hosnī Mubārak temporarily permitted the breach to alleviate civilian hardship in Gaza before efforts could begin to restore the border.
Living conditions in the Gaza Strip are typically poor because of its dense and rapidly increasing population (the area's growth rate is one of the highest in the world); inadequate water, sewage, and electrical services; and high rates of unemployment. Agriculture is the economic mainstay of the employed population, and nearly three-fourths of the land area is under cultivation. The chief crop, citrus fruit, is raised on irrigated lands and is exported to Europe and other markets under arrangement with Israel. Truck crops, wheat, and olives also are produced. Light industry and handicrafts are centred in Gaza, the chief city of the area. In politically stable times, as much as one-tenth of the Palestinian population travels daily to Israel (where they are not allowed to stay overnight) to work in menial jobs. Political tension and outbreaks of violence have often led Israeli authorities to close the border for extended periods, putting many Palestinians out of work.
The first accurate census, conducted in September 1967, showed a population smaller than had previously been estimated by the UNRWA or by Egypt, with nearly half of the people living in refugee camps. Pop. (2006 est.) 1,444,000...
