JERUSALEM: Gaza has lengthy been a powder keg, and it exploded after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on Oct 7 and started killing and abducting folks.
Greater than 1,400 folks in Israel — principally civilians — had been killed within the Hamas attack, and the Israeli military says about 200 hostages had been taken into Gaza.
In the meantime, Israeli airstrikes have killed greater than 4,000 Palestinians, in keeping with Gaza’s Hamas-run Well being Ministry. Practically half Gaza’s inhabitants — the overwhelming majority of whom are already refugees — have been displaced.
Israel has imposed a complete siege on Gaza, stopping the doorway of meals, water and gas — a transfer that has created a catastrophic humanitarian state of affairs.
Because the Israeli navy gears up for a ground invasion and pledges to topple Hamas, the futures of Gaza and its 2.3 million Palestinians look unsure.
Right here’s a take a look at the historical past of the Gaza Strip:
1948-1967: EGYPT
Earlier than the warfare surrounding Israel’s institution in 1948, present-day Gaza was a part of the massive swath of the Center East underneath British colonial rule. After Israel defeated the coalition of Arab states, the Egyptian military was left in charge of a small strip of land wedged between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea.
Through the warfare, some 700,000 Palestinians both fled or had been compelled from their houses in what’s now Israel — a mass uprooting that they name the Nakba, or “disaster”. Tens of hundreds of Palestinians flocked to the strip.
Beneath Egyptian navy management, Palestinian refugees in Gaza had been caught, homeless and stateless. Egypt did not contemplate them to be residents and Israel would not allow them to return to their houses. Many had been supported by UNWRA, the United Nations company for Palestinian refugees, which has a heavy presence in Gaza to this present day. In the meantime, some younger Palestinians grew to become “fedayeen” — insurgency fighters who carried out raids into Israel.
1967-1993: ISRAEL
Israel seized management of Gaza from Egypt throughout the 1967 Mideast warfare, when it additionally captured the West Financial institution and east Jerusalem — areas that stay underneath Israeli management. The internationally acknowledged Palestinian Authority, which administers semi-autonomous areas of the occupied West Financial institution, seeks all three areas for a hoped-for future state.
Israel constructed greater than 20 Jewish settlements in Gaza throughout this era. It additionally signed a peace treaty with Egypt at Camp David — a pact negotiated by US President Jimmy Carter.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi referenced this 40-year outdated treaty Wednesday when he declined to allow Palestinian refugees from Gaza into Egypt, saying the potential entrance of militants into Egypt would threaten longstanding peace between Israel and Egypt.
The primary Palestinian rebellion towards Israeli occupation erupted in Gaza in December 1987, kicking off greater than 5 years of sustained protests and bloody violence. It was additionally throughout this time that the Islamic militant group Hamas was established in Gaza