Along with the West Bank, the Gaza Strip is one of two territories under the government of the Palestinian National Authority, according to the 1993 Oslo Accords; However, since 2007, the area remains de facto under the control of Hamas, a Palestinian paramilitary organization that defends armed struggle as a strategy to achieve recognition of the sovereign and independent state of Palestine, whose capital is said to be East Jerusalem.

The Gaza Strip is an area 41 kilometers long and between 6 and 12 kilometers wide, with a total of 360 km², bordering southwestern Israel and northeastern Sinai Peninsula (Egypt).

It is home to approximately 2.3 million people and has one of the highest population densities in the world. According to the UN, almost 600,000 refugees live in eight overcrowded camps in the area.

The Gaza Strip is a self-governed Palestinian territory that, together with the West Bank, forms the State of Palestine and is governed by the Palestinian National Authority, but since June 2007 it has been governed by Hamas, a Palestinian Islamic organization considered a terrorist organization . by eight countries that came to power through free elections in 2006.

Conquered during the Ottoman Empire

Area It has a long history of sieges and occupations dating back 4,000 years, BBC recalls.

It has been ruled, destroyed and repopulated by various dynasties, empires and peoples, from ancient Egypt – hundreds of years before Christ – to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century.

It was conquered by Alexander the Great, the Roman Empire or the Islamic general Amr ibn al-As, changing religious beliefs and alternating periods of prosperity and decline.

Gaza was part of the Ottoman Empire until 1917, the year it came under the mandate of the British, who undertook to facilitate the formation of a unified Arab kingdom, which, however, did not materialize and was adopted. to become part of the British Mandate of Palestine, approved by the League of Nations, which lasted between 1920 and 1948.

Start of the Arab-Israeli war

After the end of the Second World War, the British decided to transfer the decision regarding Palestine to the newly established United Nations (UN).

In 1947, the organization passed Resolution 181, dividing Palestine as follows: 55% of the territory for the Jews, Jerusalem under international control, and the rest for the Arabs (including the Gaza Strip).

After the given resolution birthplace of the state of Israel There was an arrival of Jewish immigration from Europe to the region, which caused tensions between the Arab community installed there and the new Jewish community, as the British partition plan divided the Palestinian territory into a Jewish state and an Arab state.

The conflict created hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who eventually settled in the Gaza Strip.

With the signing of the armistice, Gaza was occupied and administered by Egypt until 1967, the year the Six-Day War broke out, pitting Israel against an Arab coalition formed by the United Arab Republic – the former official name of Egypt and Syria. -, Jordan and Iraq.

After the victory in this conflict, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem, This led to a series of violent confrontations that continue to this day.

Israel bans Palestinians from entering or leaving the area “except in extremely rare cases, including urgent life-threatening medical conditions and a very short list of traffickers,” according to B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group.

Human Rights Watch compared conditions in Gaza “an open-air prison”referring to the restriction of movement that Israel imposes on the Palestinians there.

Israel says the blockade, which gives it control over Gaza’s borders and is also enforced by Egypt, is necessary to protect Israeli citizens from Hamas.

To try to bypass the blockade, Hamas built a network of tunnels which uses it to introduce goods and weapons into the Strip and also as an underground command center.

Israel views these tunnels as a threat and often marks them as targets for air strikes.

Oslo Accords

The The first intifada (uprising) by Palestinians against Israelis arose in Gaza in 1987, the same year that the Islamist group Hamas was founded. Later it spread to the other occupied territories.

The 1993 Oslo Accords between Israelis and Palestinians created the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and granted limited autonomy to Gaza and parts of the West Bank occupied during the 1967 war. It appeared that the shocking photo of the handshake between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the then President of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the then Prime Minister of Israel, Isaac Rabin, would make way for a new reality on the grounds of the White House with Bill Clinton as an intermediary.

However, Hamas has promised to destroy Israel and wants to replace it with an Islamic state.

Hamas as a whole, or in some cases its military wing, It is designated as a terrorist group by Israel, the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom, as well as other powers. (JO)