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The Gaza Strip is currently witnessing the sixth day of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war on its territory. As the conflict intensifies, the history of the Strip is now repeating itself.
Gaza first became a site of international involvement in 1916, when the Sykes-Picot Agreement marked Palestinian territories as an “International Zone” to be ruled by British military forces after the First World War. One year later, the Balfour Declaration was released, stating British support for a Jewish state to be established in Palestine.
Gaza wouldn’t be separated from Palestinian territories until 1947, when the United Nations General Assembly approved the plan for the Jewish state of Israel to be instated in Palestine, where the town of Gaza and surrounding territories were to be allocated to the Arabs.
When the British mandate ended on 15 May 1948 and the Israeli state was born, tensions were high in Palestinian territories, and conflict erupted. The date is known in Palestinian history as the Nakba. To appease the situation on its borders, Egypt sent troops into Gaza to enforce its control over the Strip.
In 1949, the Egyptian-Israeli armistice demarcated the borders of the Gaza Strip, borders which are still upheld today.
Following this involvement, the Egyptian military ruled Gaza from 1949 to 1956, until the Suez Canal Crisis forced Israel to take control of Gaza for a year. Once that year elapsed, Gaza was back under Egyptian rule and remained so until the 1967 six-day war.
Israel seized the opportunity of the six-day war to regain official control of Gaza until 1994.
The Intifada and the Oslo Accords
In December 1987, violent clashes and rioting broke out in Gaza, events which became known as the Intifada. The clashes continued into 1993, when Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and President of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Yasser Arafat signed the Oslo Accords, allowing the PA to take control of Gaza and the West Bank.
Official PA rule began in 1994 under the control of Fatah. But Israeli troops still remained in Gaza.
In 2000, street clashes erupted once again. And after five years of ongoing conflict, Israel totally withdrew its forces from Gaza.
Hamas Control
In 2006, Hamas won the PA elections after years of Fatah rule. Following the results of this election, Israel, the United States, and the European Union all imposed sanctions on Gaza, deeming Hamas a terrorist group.
The sanctions included power cuts, heavily restricted imports, and border closures.
Gaza’s population is estimated at around 2.3 million people residing on 365 square kilometers of land. The area is considered one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with a population density of 5,500 people per square kilometer.
Gaza struggles with an unemployment rate of 45%, power cuts, food insecurity, and Hamas control.
Today, it is again the site of a war that seems never-ending to its people.
