Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip (in Arabic, قطاع غزة, romanized: Qiṭāʿ Ġazza o Qita' Ghazzah; in Hebrew, רצועת עזה, romanized: Retzu'at 'Azza), sometimes referred to simply as Gaza, is a narrow strip of land in the Near East, of which 51 kilometers borders on southwestern Israel and another 11 kilometers with the northeast of the Sinai peninsula (Egypt).
It is a self-governing Palestinian territory that, together with the West Bank, makes up the State of Palestine 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, who came to power in free elections in 2006. The territory of Palestine is defined in the Oslo Accords and in UN Security Council resolution 1860, by which it was admitted by the United Nations General Assembly as State with the status of "non-member observer state" under the name of the State of Palestine. The Gaza Strip, together with the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, is considered by the international community as "occupied territory" by Israel since 1967. In addition, since 2007 it has been subject to a military blockade by Israel and Egypt.
The Gaza Strip is 41 kilometers long and between 6 and 12 kilometers wide, with a total area of 360 square kilometers. With a population of 1,943,398 in 2017, the Gaza Strip is the third largest political entity most densely populated in the world, behind only Singapore and Hong Kong. A 500-meter wide no man's land imposed by the Israeli army makes part of the Strip's surface inaccessible to its inhabitants (a total of 29 square kilometres, more than 8% of the Strip's territory). With an annual growth rate of 2.33% in 2017, the Gaza Strip is the 31st fastest growing political entity in the world. With that rate of growth and with the numerous supply and infrastructure problems derived from the Israeli and Egyptian blockade, a UN report stated that, by the year 2020, the Gaza Strip would become "uninhabitable". blockade, the population of the Strip they do not have the ability to enter or leave it whenever they want, nor can they freely import or export products. Most of the population of this enclave is Sunni Muslim.
Despite Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, the United Nations, international human rights organizations, and most of the world's governments and legal experts consider the Gaza Strip still it is occupied by Israel, which in turn is aided in its occupation by the restrictions imposed from Egypt. Israel maintains direct control of Gaza's borders and indirect control of life inside the Strip: it controls its air and sea space, as well as six of Gaza's seven border crossings. In addition, it reserves the right to enter the Gaza Strip when it sees fit and its army maintains a no man's land within Gaza's own territory. The Gaza Strip is dependent on Israel for running water, electricity, telecommunications and other services.
When Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, the defeated political party, Fatah, refused to enter a Hamas coalition until Saudi Arabia managed to reach a brief government agreement between them. When joint pressure from Israel and the United States succeeded in derailing this deal, the Palestinian National Authority formed a government without Hamas in the West Bank while Hamas formed its own government in the Gaza Strip. Economic sanctions by both Israel and some European countries such as Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic or Slovakia continued to grow. A brief civil war between the two Palestinian groups took place in the Gaza Strip when Fatah refused to accept Hamas administration. Hamas won the conflict and expelled the Fatah party officials and members of the Palestinian National Authority security forces from the Strip, since then remaining the only party in charge of the administration of this coastal territory.
Unemployment rose in 2019 to 53% of the active population, poverty reached more than one in two people and the local economy has collapsed (-6.9% growth in 2018). In addition, infrastructures and "productive capacities have been destroyed", stresses UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development).
Geography and climate
The Gaza Strip is located in the Middle East, between 31° 25′ N and 34° 20′ E. It has a 51 km border with Israel and 11 km with Egypt, as well as 40 km of coastline at sea Mediterranean. Its climate is arid, with mild winters (in which almost all the annual rainfall occurs) and dry and hot summers, exposed to droughts. Despite the dry nature of its climate, humidity is high throughout the year. The territory is flat or undulating, with dunes near the coast and the highest point is 105 m s. no. m. (Abu 'Awdah or Joz Abu 'Auda). Natural resources are limited to farmland (one third of the Strip is irrigated), although natural gas has recently been discovered. Environmental problems include desertification, salinization of water, wastewater treatment, diseases caused by contaminated water, soil degradation, land exhaustion, and groundwater contamination. The Gaza Strip is heavily dependent on the Habesor River, which is also a resource for Israel.
History
Early 20th century
In the time of the Ottoman Empire, the Gaza Strip belonged to the administration of Gaza, which in turn depended, together with Jaffa and Hebron, on the district or sanjak of Jerusalem, included within the vilayate of Syria. Although the region's population was generally multi-denominational, according to the 1914-15 census, 98% of Gaza's inhabitants were Muslim.
During World War I, between 1915-1916, British High Commissioner Henry McMahon and Emir Hussein of the Hejaz established an agreement whereby the Gaza Strip and most of the Asian Arab territories belonging to the Ottoman Empire would be incorporated, in exchange for their support for the allies, a future Arab kingdom. But at the same time, other secret agreements were negotiated between France and Great Britain, the so-called Sykes-Picot, by which these same territories were divided between them, leaving the area of Palestine undefined. During the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, the winning European powers prevented the creation of the promised unified Arab kingdom that the Emir Faisal claimed, establishing a series of mandates that allowed them to divide up and protect the entire region.
British Mandate of Palestine
The Gaza Strip was part of the British Mandate for Palestine, authorized by the League of Nations, which ran from 1920 to 1948. This mandate was based on the principles contained in Article 22 of the founding draft of the League of Nations. Nations and in the resolution of the San Remo Conference of April 25, 1920, held by the main allies and their associates.
The Zionist slogan of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine was supported by the British, who encouraged the formation of a Jewish Agency. This was in charge of buying land and organizing massive emigration to the region, going from about 84,000 Jews in 1922 to about 485,000 in 1942. Faced with demographic pressure and the blockade of a political outlet, the Arabs began to rise up and the clashes followed one another. The Peel (1937) and Woodhead (1938) commissions recommended the partition of the territory into two states, while the 1939 White Paper rejected this possibility. With the start of World War II a truce was established and thousands of Jews enlisted in the British forces. But when the Germans were driven back from the Middle East, the Zionist organizations unleashed a terrorist campaign against Britain.
Government of All Palestine
After the end of the war and the dissolution of the League of Nations, Great Britain decided to transfer the problem of Palestine to the recently created United Nations Organization (UN), which approved in 1947 resolution 181 by which divided between the two communities: 55% of the territory for the Jews, Jerusalem under international control and the rest for the Arabs (including the Gaza Strip). Almost immediately fighting began, which erupted into open warfare with the British withdrawing.
During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the territory was used by the Egyptian army as a platform to attack Jaffa and Jerusalem, starting from Sinai. On September 22, 1948, the Arab League proclaimed Government of all Palestinians. Conceived partially as an attempt to limit Transjordanian influence in Palestine, it was quickly recognized by six of the League's seven members: Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, though not by Transjordan. With the signing of the After the armistice, the Strip was occupied and administered by Egypt. The separation line between Egyptian and Israeli forces is still today the border between the Strip and Israel, despite the fact that both sides then declared that it would not be an international border. The southern border with Egypt remains the one demarcated in 1906 between the Ottoman Empire and the British.
Palestinians living both in the Gaza Strip and in Egypt itself were given All-Palestinian passports, so Egypt did not offer them citizenship. The 1948 war had produced hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees, many of whom had been driven from their homes by Jewish troops while others decided to flee at news of massacres or attacks on civilians. Some 200,000 of these refugees (approximately a quarter of the total) fled to the Gaza Strip, then controlled by Egypt, where the newly created UNRWA (United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East)) established eight refugee camps that are still in operation today.
During the Suez Crisis in 1956, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula were occupied by Israeli troops, although they withdrew from both due to international pressure. The Palestinian government was accused of being a mere front for Egyptian rule; it moved to Cairo and was finally dissolved in 1959 by a decree from Nasser.
Egyptian occupation
After the dissolution of the All-Palestinian Government in 1959, and under the pretext of pan-Arabism, Egypt maintained its occupation of the Gaza Strip until 1967. Egypt never took the step of formally annexing the Strip, instead treating it as a territory under its control and administered by a military governor. In 1959 Iraq first proposed the creation of an "autonomous Palestinian entity" that included the occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank. The massive arrival of refugees from the 1948 war had caused a dramatic drop in the standard of living in the Gaza Strip, something that did not help to improve the restrictions on the movement of Gazans imposed by the Egyptian military government.
Israeli occupation
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In 1967, following the Six Day War, the Strip was conquered by Israel, along with the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Sinai and the Golan Heights. All of them are still occupied to this day, with the exception of the Sinai peninsula, returned to Egypt after the Camp David Accords of 1978. The UN unanimously adopted resolution 242 in which it demanded the Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories, while advocating for the right of all States in the region to secure borders. The Palestinians rejected it, since for them it ignored their rights and made no explicit mention of their right to a State of their own. Their organizations radicalized, increasing between 1968-1970 the number of operations of the fedayeen and the attacks, which obtained a disproportionate Israeli response on the Palestinian civilian population.
According to various Israeli historians such as Tom Segev or Ilan Pappé, a persistent element in Zionist thought since its origin has been the expulsion of the Palestinian population from the lands that constituted the State of Israel. In December 1967, during At a meeting in which the Israeli security cabinet discussed various ideas on what to do with the Arab population of the conquered territories, Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol suggested that the Gazans would leave on their own if Israel radically restricted their access to the aquifers, stating "Perhaps, if we do not give them enough water they will have no choice, because the orchards will wither and die". increase the emigration of Gazans to the outside of the Strip.
Shortly after the military victory and subsequent Israeli occupation, the first Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip, Gush Katif, was established near Rafah and the Egyptian border, in the southwestern corner of the territory. The site chosen for its location had been occupied by a small kibbutz between 1946 and 1948. In total, from the beginning of the occupation in 1967 until the dismantlement of the settlements in 2005, Israel built 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip which it occupied. 20% of its surface. All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, as the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the transfer of civilian population from an occupying country to occupied territory.
The annual economic growth rate between 1967 and 1982 was approximately 9.7%, due in large part to higher incomes offered by job opportunities within Israel, which found great benefit in the occupation thanks to the abundant pool of unskilled and half-skilled Palestinian workers. In contrast, Gaza's agricultural sector was seriously affected by the occupation, as Israel took over a third of the Strip, but also because competition for scarce water resources became increasingly tough and because Israel prohibited the planting of new trees and taxed the Palestinian plantations without doing the same with the beans, all of which ended up harming the citrus crops characteristic of the area. To improve Israeli citrus exports to Western countries, Israel prohibited direct exports of Gazan citrus to those countries (although export to Arab countries, with which Israel did not have commercial relations, was allowed), having to pass through Israeli markets first. As a result of all of the above, a large number of farmers had to leave this sector. Since then, Israel has imposed quotas on all products imported from the Gaza Strip while it has abolished all restrictions on the flow of Israeli goods into the territory. Harvard University professor Sara Roy has characterized these policies as an example of reversal. of structural development, something that the UN also criticized in 2017.
1979: Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty
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The start of a bilateral peace process between Egypt and Israel had the unintended consequence of the former breaking off diplomatic relations with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and many of the Arab countries. By signing this separate peace through the Camp David agreements of 1978, the possibility of creating an autonomous Palestinian government in Gaza and the West Bank for a transitional period of five years was also established. But the subsequent status of such territories was not defined and they remained under the guardianship of Egypt and Jordan. Egypt was expelled from the Arab League.
The final peace treaty between Egypt and Israel was signed on March 26, 1979. Among other things, it provided for the Israeli withdrawal from the entire Sinai Peninsula and the Egyptian commitment to keep it demilitarized. However, the final status of the Gaza Strip or relations between Israelis and Palestinians was left out of the negotiations. Egypt renounced all territorial claims beyond its internationally recognized borders, effectively leaving the Gaza Strip out of its aspirations. In addition, the peace treaty provided for the establishment of a 100-meter no-man's-land between the Gaza Strip and Egypt that would come to be known as the Philadelphi Route, which runs along the 11-kilometre Egyptian-Gazan border.
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1987: First Intifada
The First Intifada began in December 1987 as a spontaneous reaction by the youth of Gaza and the West Bank against the Israeli occupation and the instrumentalization of the Palestinian issue by Arab countries. The incident that gave rise to the protests that would end up leading to the First Intifada took place on December 9, 1987, when four Palestinian workers from the Jabalia camp, in the Gaza Strip, died in a traffic accident in which their vehicle was hit. by an Israeli military truck. The First Intifada arose outside the leadership of the PLO, most of which was in exile in Tunisia, and in Gaza it was led by Islamic Jihad. To regain the political initiative, the PLO accepted in 1988 United Nations Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, implicitly recognizing the State of Israel.
1994: Palestinian National Authority
In September 1992, Israeli Prime Minister Isaac Rabin told a delegation from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy: "I wish Gaza would sink into the sea, but that's not going to happen, so there's to find a solution".
After the Gulf War, the Madrid Conference between Israel, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan-PLO was held. This first meeting would lead to a series of bilateral meetings that led to an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, established in Oslo in 1993, by which autonomy was initially granted to only part of the Gaza Strip (excluding settlements and Israeli military zones) and Jericho, giving them very similar terms to Camp David. Israeli forces abandoned Gaza City and the rest of the Strip's urban areas, which were left in the hands of the newly formed Palestinian National Authority (PNA). In fact, the first provincial headquarters of the Authority was established in Gaza. Subsequently, in 1995 in Washington, the territory controlled by the Palestinian National Authority was extended to other fragmented areas of the West Bank.
Subsequent 1996 elections were boycotted by Hamas and left-wing Palestinian organizations, with Fatah victorious. Between 1994 and 1996 Israel erected a security barrier around the entire Strip, but it was extensively damaged at first of the Second Intifada in September 2000.
2000: Second Intifada
Between December 2000 and June 2001, said barrier was rebuilt and another began to be erected on the border with Egypt starting in 2004. The Second Intifada broke out in September 2000 with a wave of protests against the visit to the Esplanade of the Mosques of the then head of the Israeli opposition, Ariel Sharon. This new popular Palestinian uprising was characterized by greater virulence both in Palestinian protests and attacks, as well as in military incursions and Israeli repression. It also marked the beginning of the firing of rockets towards Israel from the Gaza Strip, especially by paramilitary groups such as Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
From 2001 to date, the Israeli army has carried out numerous retaliatory raids into the Strip, setting up border checkpoints and restricting people from entering Israel from the Strip. The Palestinian militants, in turn, have launched more or less regularly Qassam-type rockets and mortars against border towns such as Sederot initially, reaching Tel Aviv in 2012.
2005: Unilateral Israeli withdrawal
In February 2005 the Israeli Parliament approved a unilateral withdrawal plan from the Strip, which was implemented that same year: by September all 9,000 Israeli settlers had been forcibly evicted and all their settlements and the Erez Joint Industrial Zone they were dismantled.
The Israeli army left the Gaza Strip on September 1, 2005 as part of the withdrawal plan. In November 2005, then-US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice coordinated an "Agreement on Movement and Access" between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority in order to improve freedom of movement and economic activity for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The terms of the agreement established that the Rafah Pass (which links the Strip with Egypt) would be reopened and that the transit of people and goods would be controlled by the Palestinian National Authority and the European Union. Only those with Palestinian identity cards could cross through it, as well as, exceptionally, foreigners who obtained permission from Israel. All goods and vehicles coming from or destined for Egypt should pass through the Kerem Pass, under full Israeli supervision. Products would also be allowed to enter or exit through the Karni Pass, further north.
On September 12, 2005, the Israeli government cabinet formally declared the end of the Israeli military occupation of the Gaza Strip. However, both the United Nations and the United States and the European Union, as well as the vast majority of countries in the world and international organizations in defense of human rights, consider that the Gaza Strip continues to be territory occupied by Israel today. The Israeli NGO B'Tselem claims that "the Oslo Accords gave Israel complete control over Gaza's airspace, but provided that the Palestinians could build an airport in the area", while the Israeli withdrawal plan states that "Israel will maintain exclusive control of Gazan airspace and continue its military activity in the waters of the Gaza Strip." "Therefore, Israel continues to maintain exclusive control of the airspace and territorial waters of the Gaza Strip, as it has done since it occupied it in 1967." For its part, Human Rights Watch has advised the United Nations Human Rights Council that this body (and others) consider Israel an occupying power in the Gaza Strip because Israel controls the airspace, the territorial waters of the Strip, as well as the movement of people to and from it both by sea and by air".
2006: Hamas comes to power
In the Palestinian parliamentary elections held on January 25, 2006, Hamas won an upset victory with 42.9% of the vote and 74 of 132 seats (56% of the total). When Hamas came to power the following month, Israel, the United States, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations demanded that Hamas accept all previous agreements, renounce violence, and recognize Israel's right to exist, something Hamas agreed to. he refused. International aid to the Palestinian National Authority was immediately cut off, although some of this aid was transferred to non-government humanitarian organizations. Political instability and economic stagnation led many Palestinians to emigrate from the Gaza Strip. Gaza.
On June 25, 2006, in the context of the escalation of tensions that led to the 2006 Lebanon War between the Israeli army and Hezbollah, Hamas militants broke through the border fence and ambushed an Israeli patrol that it resulted in the death of two soldiers and the capture of a third, Gilad Shalit. More than five years later, on October 18, 2011, Corporal Shalit was exchanged for Palestinian prisoners through the Rafah crossing.
In January 2007, following the refusal of Fatah member Mohammed Dahlan to place Palestinian security forces at the service of the democratically elected Hamas government, a series of infighting broke out between these two Palestinian parties. The most violent clashes took place in the northern Gaza Strip, where Palestinian security forces General Muhammed Gharib, a Fatah member, was killed by a missile strike at his home. On January 30, 2007, a truce was reached between Hamas and Fatah, although fighting resumed a few days later. On February 1, Hamas in Gaza killed six people in an ambush of a convoy carrying equipment for Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Presidential Guard. According to Hamas, the goods transported in the convoy were intended to promote sedition while withholding money and aid from the Palestinians themselves. According to diplomatic sources, the convoy was intended to compensate for the smuggling of more powerful weapons into the hands of Hamas. Fatah militants attacked a Hamas-linked university in the Gaza Strip, while Presidential Guard officers fought Hamas militants patrolling the Ministry of the Interior, in the hands of the latter.
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Fighting between the two factions resumed in May 2007. Interior Minister Hani Qawasmi, who was seen as a moderate official acceptable to both Hamas and Fatah, resigned due to what he described as damaging behavior on both sides. Fighting raged throughout the Gaza Strip, with both factions attacking the other side's vehicles and facilities. After an Egyptian-sponsored truce failed, Israel launched an attack that destroyed a building used by Hamas. The incessant violence raised fears for the future of the Fatah-Hamas coalition government, as well as for the future of the Palestinian National Authority itself.
Hamas spokesman Moussa Abu Marzouk blamed the conflict between Hamas and Fatah on Israel because, according to him, the constant pressure of economic sanctions had caused the "real explosion". In 2007, more than 600 Palestinians died as a result of sectarian violence between Hamas and Fatah; 160 were killed in the month of June 2007 alone. Following the 2008-2009 Gaza War, Hamas had 19 Fatah members executed in the Strip whom he accused of being traitors.
2007: Hamas Takeover
Following Hamas' electoral victory in the 2006 parliamentary elections, Fatah and Hamas formed a rally-attack government headed by Hamas leader Ismail Haniya. Less than a year later, harassed by strong international economic sanctions and by the disobedience of the Palestinian security forces in the hands of Fatah, Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip after the so-called Battle of Gaza, in which it obtained a decisive victory over Fatah forces, seized government institutions, and replaced Fatah officials with their own. On June 14, 2007, Hamas was in full control of the Gaza Strip. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas responded by declaring a state of emergency, dissolving the rally government and forming a new government without Hamas involvement. Palestinian security forces arrested crowds of Hamas members in the West Bank.
In late June 2008, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan issued a statement declaring Abbas's cabinet in the West Bank as "the sole legitimate government of Palestine." Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak ordered to move his embassy from Gaza to the West Bank.
Saudi Arabia and Egypt tried to promote reconciliation and pressured Abbas to start talks with Hamas. Abbas had always conditioned talks with Hamas on Hamas returning control of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian National Authority. Different Hamas representatives visited a number of countries, including Russia and some states of the European Union. Various political parties and leaders called for dialogue with Hamas and an end to economic sanctions.
Following the takeover of the Gaza Strip by Hamas, Israel and Egypt closed their border posts with this territory. Palestinian sources reported that the EU observers fled the Rafah Crossing for fear of being kidnapped or injured. Some Arab foreign ministers and Palestinian officials formed a common front against Hamas' control of the border. Meanwhile, sources in the Israeli and Egyptian security apparatuses reported that Hamas was continuing to smuggle large quantities of weapons into the Gaza Strip. and explosives through tunnels from Egypt. Egyptian security forces discovered 60 tunnels in 2007.
After Hamas' victory in June 2007, officials related to Fatah were expelled from various positions of power or authority, such as government positions, security services, universities, newspapers, etc.), after which it was proposed to apply the law by progressively removing weapons from the hands of peripheral militias, clans and criminal groups, as well as gaining control of the tunnels under the border with Egypt. According to Amnesty International, newspapers were closed down and journalists harassed under Hamas' rule. Fatah demonstrations were banned or suppressed, and in at least one case, following a large demonstration on the anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death, there were seven killed when protesters began throwing stones at Hamas security forces.
According to Israel, since Hamas's takeover until the end of January 2008, 697 rockets and 822 mortar shells have been fired at Israeli towns. Israel has attacked suspected Qassam launchers and military targets and has declared the Gaza Strip "hostile entity". In January 2008, Israel drastically reduced departures from Gaza and the entry of goods, also cutting off the supply of fuel, which led to energy shortages and the so-called Gaza crisis. This blockade has led the international community to condemn Israel for what is considered a collective punishment of the population of Gaza. Despite multiple reports that food and other essentials were in short supply in the Strip, Israel maintained that there is enough food and energy in Gaza for weeks.
Gap in the border with Egypt
On January 23, 2008, after months of preparation during which the steel of the border barrier had weakened, Hamas destroyed numerous sections of the wall dividing the Gaza Strip and Egypt near the city of Rafah. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans poured across the border into Egypt in search of food and supplies. Due to the severe humanitarian crisis in the Strip, Egyptian troops allowed the entry of the Palestinians after verifying that they were not carrying weapons. Egypt temporarily detained a number of armed Hamas militants in the Sinai Peninsula who allegedly They were trying to get into Israel. For its part, Israel raised the alert level on its border with Egypt and asked its citizens to leave Sinai "without delay." The Fatah-controlled Palestinian National Authority demanded that Egypt deal only with it on border issues.
In early March 2008, airstrikes and ground raids by the Israeli army killed around 110 Palestinians and 2 Israeli soldiers, and extensively damaged the town of Jabaliya. Israeli NGO B&## 39;Tselem stated that 45 of the Palestinian victims were civilians who had nothing to do with the conflict, and that at least 15 of them were minors.
After a series of reciprocal arrests by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Fatah in the West Bank, on August 4 it was agreed to transfer the Hilles clan to the West Bank city of Jericho.
On November 11, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared "The question is not if there will be a confrontation, but when it will take place, under what circumstances and who will control these circumstances, who will dictate them, and who will know how to exploit in the best possible way the time elapsed between the start of the ceasefire and the moment of the confrontation". Three days later, on November 14, following the breakdown of a five-month ceasefire, Israel completely closed its border with the Gaza Strip. On November 25, Israel also closed its borders to the passage of goods after the firing of Qassam rockets across the border.
2008 Gaza War
On December 27, 2008, Israeli F-16 fighter jets launched a series of airstrikes against targets in the Gaza Strip at the conclusion of a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel. Israeli sources claimed that Defense Minister Ehud Barak had ordered his army to prepare this offensive six months before it began, gathering information and using plans in advance.
Police stations, schools, hospitals, UN warehouses, mosques, government buildings and other structures were attacked, all places where Israel claimed weapons were stored. The casus belli for Israel was the Hamas rocket fire on southern Israel (some 3,000 in all of 2008), which had intensified in the weeks leading up to the attack. According to Israel, residents of the attacked areas were advised in advance to move away from them. Palestinian medical staff claimed that at least 434 Palestinians were killed and more than 2,800 wounded (most of them civilians) in the first five days of Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army denied that most of the dead were civilians. On January 3, 2009, Israel launched a ground invasion of the Strip and bombed a mosque in Beit Lahia, killing eleven people, initially rejecting all calls for a ceasefire and later declaring a ceasefire that Hamas refused. According to the UN Office for Humanitarian Coordination (OCHA), on January 4, Israeli troops ordered 110 Palestinians to take refuge in a building in the Gazan neighborhood of Zeitun, half of them children; the next day it bombed that same building, resulting in the death of 30 people. That same day, the Red Cross found another 12 bodies in Zeitun along with four children huddled together and in a state of malnutrition. -Fakhur in the Jabalia refugee camp, managed by the UN. Because the school was considered a "safe haven," it was full of internally displaced persons. More than 40 people were killed, according to UN figures, including several children. On January 15, Israel bombed an UNRWA compound in the capital Gaza with white phosphorus, a substance whose use in urban areas is considered a war crime. On January 17, another bombardment on a UN school, this time in Beit Lahia, caused six deaths, including a child with his mother.
At the end of the war, 22 days after it began, the Palestinian death toll ranged from 1,409 (according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights PCHR), 1,387 (according to the Israeli NGO B& #39;Tselem) and 1,166 (according to the Israeli Army). Of these, 326 (PCHR), 252 (B'Tselem) or 89 (Israeli Army) were children. 916 (PCHR), 773 (B'Tselem) or 295 (Israeli Army). On the Israeli side, 13 people died, 10 of them soldiers (4 by friendly fire) and 3 civilians. The conflict destroyed or damaged dozens of thousands of homes, 15 of the 27 hospitals in the Gaza Strip and 43 of its 110 primary care clinics, 235 schools, 800 water wells, 186 greenhouses and nearly 10,000 farms. Some 50,000 Palestinians were left homeless, about half a million without running water and a million without electricity, all of which caused serious food shortages. The population of Gaza it still suffers from the loss of facilities and homes that were devastated in the 2008 war, especially due to the great difficulties of rebuilding.
By February 2009, food availability returned to pre-war levels, although there was a significant shortage of fresh produce due to extensive damage to the agricultural sector.
The Gaza Strip since the 2008 War
On May 31, 2010, the Israeli Navy carried out an attack on the so-called "Freedom Fleet"; some boats where some 633 volunteers of different nationalities were going, including activists from different NGOs, twenty MEPs and a Nobel Peace Prize, with the aim of bringing humanitarian aid and breaking the naval blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip. In the attack they killed nine activists, most of them Turkish, and wounded around thirty more. To justify itself, the Israeli government linked them to al Qaeda, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, acknowledged that there is "international pressure" on his country to end the blockade of Gaza, but stressed that it will continue "by air, sea and land" with the aim of "preserving security of Israel and its right to defend itself".
Between November 14 and 21, 2012, the Gaza Strip was heavily bombed by Israel as part of Operation Defensive Pillar: more than 150 people were killed and 1,200 injured. On July 8, 2014, a new assault on the Strip began as part of Operation Protective Edge, in which nearly 2,000 Palestinians lost their lives, the vast majority being civilians and seventy Israelis.
Currently, the main points for entering or leaving the Strip are, to the north, the Erez Pass, which connects the Gaza Strip with Israel, and to the south, the Rafah Pass, which connects it to Egypt. The Karni Pass, located to the east and used for goods, was closed in 2011. Israel controls the northern and eastern border, as well as its territorial waters and airspace. Egypt controls the southern border thanks to an agreement with Israel, through which the Rafah crossing is monitored thanks to special surveillance cameras. Neither country allows free access to or from Gaza and both borders are militarily fortified.
The March of Return was a campaign called from March 30, 2018, during Palestinian Land Day, in which tens of thousands of Palestinians participated in front of the Israeli border in the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces killed at least 312 Palestinian protesters, including doctors, journalists, the disabled and at least 59 children, as of the end of January 2019. Approximately 29,000 Protesters were injured (among them, 370 doctors and nurses, 3,565 children, 1,168 women and 104 elderly people), all of them in Gazan territory, of whom more than 17,000 received bullet wounds. More than 120 protesters suffered amputations from gunshot wounds.
In February 2019, a United Nations commission of inquiry concluded that the violence perpetrated by Israel during demonstrations in the vicinity of Gaza could "constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity."
Government and politics
The Gaza Strip was administered by Egypt from 1948 until it was conquered and militarily occupied by Israel in 1967. In 2005, the Israeli army withdrew unilaterally, although it continued to maintain control of its borders, its airspace and its territorial waters. Despite the fact that the Israeli government formally declared the end of the military occupation, both Human Rights Watch and the European Union, the United States, the UN and other organizations consider that it continues, since Israel controls the airspace, territorial waters and all movements of population or merchandise by such means.
In the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, Hamas won 42% of the vote and 74 of 132 seats (56%). The United States and the EU refused to recognize his right to govern the PNA, cutting off all direct economic aid, although some of it was redirected to humanitarian organizations not affiliated with the government. The political upheaval and resulting economic stagnation forced many Palestinians to emigrate from the Strip.
On March 17, 2007, as a result of Hamas's victory in Gaza, a Palestinian national unity government was formed headed by Ismail Haniya. But as early as January of the same year, intermittent fighting between Hamas and Fatah took place, resulting in more than 600 deaths, 160 of whom in June alone, during the so-called Battle of Gaza, for the which Hamas gained full control of the Strip. By June 14, Hamas had seized all government institutions and replaced Fatah and other government officials with its own men. Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas responded by declaring a state of emergency, dissolving the unity government, forming another without Hamas participation and arresting its members in the West Bank. In June 2008, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia declared that they only recognized the Palestinian government formed by Abbas as the legitimate government, and Egypt moved its embassy from Gaza to the West Bank.
On May 4, 2011, a national reconciliation political agreement was reached between Fatah and Hamas, which implied the formation of a joint government and the preparation of parliamentary and presidential elections in eight months, but it could not be carried out.. A new reconciliation attempt was formalized in Doha in 2012, but it was not implemented either.
In early September 2012, the formation of the second Hamas-dominated government since the 2007 break with the PNA was announced in the Strip. The reconstruction of the previous government was approved by Gazan parliamentarians in the Palestinian Legislative Assembly (Parliament). Seven new ministers were appointed to the new government. Prime Minister Ismail Haniya announced that the priorities would be ending the blockade and making life easier of citizens, especially with regard to access to water and electricity.
After years of negotiations and successive ruptures between both parties, a reconciliation agreement was reached on April 23, 2014, which gave way, on June 2, 2014, to the formation of a unity government headed by Mahmud Abbas and made up of 17 ministers appointed by both groups. The three ministers residing in the Gaza Strip could not attend the inauguration in Ramallah because Israel did not allow them to leave. Abbas declared that the new government recognized the State of Israel and maintained its commitment to seek a peace agreement to the conflict with Israel. Six months were also given to call new presidential and legislative elections.
The US State Department said it was "willing to work with the new government, as long as it respects the principles reiterated by Abbas." In response to the agreement with Hamas and before the end of the nine-month period that the parties had set to draw up a draft peace agreement, the head of the Israeli executive, Benjamin Netanyahu, interrupted the peace negotiations that were held with the government. of Mahmud Abbas under the auspices of the United States.
Other political organizations
Palestinian Islamic Jihad is a Palestinian militant organization operating in Gaza and the West Bank and has been considered a terrorist group by the US, EU and other countries. It is financed primarily by Iran, with the second largest group of Islamic militants in Gaza, with 8,000 fighters. In June 2013, Islamic Jihad severed ties with Hamas leadership after its police shot and killed the commander of the organization's military branch.
Political-administrative organization
The Gaza Strip is a territory belonging de jure to the Palestinian National Authority, although de facto it is a self-governing entity. 5 of the 16 governorates into which the Palestinian National Authority is divided are located in the Strip. Its main towns are Gaza, Rafah, Khan Yunis, Jabaliya, Dayr al Balah, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia.
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Demographics
There were 1,943,398 people living in the Gaza Strip as of July 2017, according to figures from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. On the other hand, the CIA World Factbook gives a lower figure for the Gazan population: 1,795,183 inhabitants. The Gaza Strip would rank 151st in the world in terms of population if it were an independent state. Much of the population of the Gaza Strip is descended from refugees who were expelled or had to flee before the advance of Israeli troops in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War (26% of the total refugees generated in that conflict). UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, has registered 1,388,668 refugees in the Gaza Strip.
Most are Sunni Muslims, with a small number of Christian Arabs estimated at 2,000-3,000, making up 0.2% of the total.
Although previously its population was growing at about 4% a year, according to 2017 estimates, the Gaza Strip has an annual population growth of 2.3%, the 33rd highest in the world. Taking into account that the territory of Gaza, 41 km long and between 6 and 12 km wide, has a total area of 365 km², the population density of this region is one of the highest in the world with 4073 inhabitants per square kilometer in 2009, and the capacity to build the new houses and infrastructures necessary for their development is very limited.
Religion and culture
Islamic Law in Gaza
From 1987 to 1991, during the First Intifada, Hamas carried out a campaign of Islamization of Gaza, which included the use of the Islamic veil or hijab and other measures (such as the promotion of polygamy, the segregation of women and men and insist that they stay home). In the course of this campaign, women who chose not to wear the hijab were verbally and physically harassed by Hamas activists, leading to wearing hijabs "just to avoid trouble on the streets".
In October 2000, Islamic extremists burned down the Windmill Hotel, owned by Basil Eleiwa, when they learned it had served alcohol.
Salafism
In addition to Hamas, a Salafist movement began to appear around 2005 in Gaza, characterized by "a strict lifestyle based on that of the early followers of Islam". he estimates there are "hundreds or maybe a few thousand" of Salafists in Gaza. The various conflicts with Israel have weakened the population's support for Hamas, which has caused some of the Salafists to associate with the Islamic State, something against which Hamas, linked to the more moderate Muslim Brotherhood, has sworn to fight.
The movement has clashed with Hamas on several occasions. A Salafist leader, Abdul Latif Moussa, declared an Islamic emirate in the city of Rafah, on Gaza's southern border, in 2009. Moussa and 19 others were killed when Hamas forces stormed his mosque and his home. In 2011, Salafists kidnapped and murdered an Italian pro-Palestinian activist, Vittorio Arrigoni. Following this, Hamas again took steps to counter its Salafi competitors.
Religious persecution
Until recently, around 1,300 Christians lived in the Gaza Strip, but the number of Christians is rapidly declining and their heritage destroyed. Persecution and pressure from Muslims to convert to Islam, it has caused approximately 100 Christians to leave Gaza each year.
In October 2007, Rami Ayyad, the Baptist manager of The Teacher's Bookshop, the only Christian bookstore in the Gaza Strip, was assassinated, following the firebombing of his bookstore and receiving death threats from Muslim extremists.
Humanitarian situation
On March 6, 2008, several human rights NGOs presented a report in which they considered that the situation of the population of the Gaza Strip was the worst since the Six Day War, qualifying the Strip as "a prison". According to this report, the blockade carried out by the Israeli army against it had a negative influence on employment, taking the unemployment rate to 40%; in industry, suspending 90% of the industrial activity of the Strip; and in the economic capacity of its inhabitants, who depend 80% on foreign humanitarian aid. Its declaration by Israel as a "hostile entity" It meant cutting off the supply of electricity, fuel, goods and water.
In 2013, the UN published a report titled "Gaza in 2020: a habitable place?" in which he stated that "the Gaza Strip will be uninhabitable by 2020 unless the current situation is changed. (...) Demand for electricity will double, damage to the coastal aquifer will be irreversible, and hundreds of new schools and social services will be needed to serve a growing population". The situation has since changed for the worse, with significant setbacks such as those caused by the 2014 war with Israel, the maintenance of the Israeli blockade or the decision of the US to cut humanitarian aid to UNRWA, which manages the refugee camps in the Strip.
In 2017, after the 2012 and 2014 wars (with a total of 2,500 Palestinians and 72 Israelis killed), Robert Piper, the [UN] humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, said: " The deterioration of the situation has accelerated more quickly than expected (...). Gaza may already be uninhabitable.
Education
In 2010, illiteracy among Gazan youth was less than 1%. As of 2012, there were five universities in the Strip and eight new schools under construction. According to figures from the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA), there are 640 schools where a total of 441,452 students study.. Of these, 383 belong to the government, 221 to UNRWA itself and 36 are private.
The Community College of Applied Science and Technology (CCAST) was founded in 1998 in Gaza City. In 2003, the institution moved to a new campus and in 2006 founded the Gaza Polytechnic Institute (GPI) in the south of the Strip. In 2007, the institution received degree-granting accreditation as University College of Applied Sciences (UCAS). In 2010, 6,000 students were enrolled in eight departments offering more than forty specialties.
In June 2011, Gazans who had lost their homes in the second intifada and were concerned about UNRWA's inactivity in rebuilding, blocked some of UNRWA's equipment, forcing it to close its emergency department, social services and supply warehouses, also preventing their summer camps from being held.
Health
In the Strip there are hospitals and other complementary medical facilities. In 2012 two hospitals funded by Turkey and Saudi Arabia were under construction.
The infant mortality rate is 16.55 deaths per 1,000 births, which places it in 104th place worldwide. According to the human poverty index, it would be in 24th place starting from the end of a list of 135 countries. According to the leaders of the Strip, most of the medical aid that is delivered to them has expired. Mounir el-Barash, director of donations at the health department, claims that 30% of the aid is used. Gazans who want medical care in Israeli hospitals have to apply for a special medical permit. In 2007, they granted 7,176 permits and denied 1,627.
A study conducted by Johns Hopkins University and Al-Quds University for CARE International (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere) in late 2002 revealed very high levels of dietary deficiencies among the Palestinian population. According to the report, 17.5% of children between the ages of 6 and 59 months suffered from chronic malnutrition; 53% of women of reproductive age and 44% of children were anemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concern about the possible health consequences for Gazans of internal Palestinian political fragmentation, economic decline, military actions, and the physical, psychological, and economic isolation they experience. In a study carried out in the occupied territories in 2012, the WHO reported that approximately 50% of children under two years of age and 39.1% of pregnant women receiving care in Gaza suffered from anemia due to lack of iron. The organization also found that chronic malnutrition among children under five years of age was not improving and could deteriorate.
The director of the blood tumors department at Gaza's Al-Rantisy hospital has seen an increase in blood cancers: by March 2010 his department had already seen 55 cases that year, while they were normally found with between 20 and 25 cases per year. According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the average life expectancy in the Strip is 72 years.
Access to health care has been seriously compromised by the embargo. Hospitals are short of medicines, equipment and beds to treat the sick. The health system in the Gaza Strip suffers from, among other things, a ban on importing basic necessities, a lack of staff, power cuts and damage from Israeli artillery. More than 50% of basic medicines are inaccessible, 65% of cancer patients are deprived of treatment, a large part of surgical interventions cannot be performed.
Culture and sports
The Gaza Strip has been home to a significant branch of the Palestinian contemporary art movement since the mid-20th century. Notable artists include painters such as Fayez Sersawi, Abdul Rahman al Muzayan and Ismail Shammout and media artists such as Taysir Batniji (living in France) and Laila al Shawa (living in London). An emerging generation of artists is also active in non-profit organizations such as Windows From Gaza and Eltiqa Group, which regularly host exhibitions and events open to the public.
In 2010, the Strip's first Olympic-sized swimming pool was opened at the As-Sadaka club, whose swimming team has won several gold and silver medals in Palestinian swimming competitions.
Economy
Unemployment rises in 2019 to 53% of the active population, poverty affects more than one in two people and the local economy has collapsed (-6.9% growth in 2018). In addition, infrastructures and "productive capacities have been destroyed", stresses UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development).
The Israeli government uses economic measures to put pressure on Hamas: among others, it encourages Israeli companies such as banks and oil companies to abandon their businesses in the Strip. The role that private corporations play in Israel-Gaza relations is an issue that has not been well studied to its full extent.
Due to the blockade on the Strip, the area continues to be financially dependent on UN humanitarian aid, which comes through Israel, although military blockades make this assistance difficult. Gazan women generally work in housework, thus building the foundation of society (educating children) or in local handicraft industries, since the man has the responsibility of supporting his wife and children.
Thus, family income is obtained by men and older children, who work in service industries (36%), in construction (33%), in agriculture (20%) and in other industrial activities (10%). Approximately 40% of these jobs are in Israel; however, political problems frequently interrupt the flow of workers to that country.
This has caused great hardship for the Palestinian population, as 35% of their gross national product (GNP) comes from wages earned in Israel. Projects promoted by international companies to create local employment and improve the quality of life in Gaza (including the construction of new houses and the creation of a sewage treatment system) have not yet been launched.
Citrus exports to Europe have increased, although due to the scarcity of water and little available land, agricultural activity cannot sustain the population on its own.
The agricultural sector has decreased by more than 30% between 2014 and 2019, in particular due to the establishment of a military exclusion zone by the Israeli army.
Fishing
In the year 2000, the Gaza Strip had about 10,000 fishermen Lacking access to the waters teeming with fish — Israel excludes them from 85% of the sea areas to which it nevertheless gives them access international law—two thirds had to throw in the towel: there are only 3,500 fishermen left today, 95% of whom live below the poverty line (less than 5 euros a day), compared to 50 % in 2008.
Fishermen are regularly targeted by Israeli snipers. During the first half of 2019, the Israeli naval forces opened fire more than 200 times on the fishermen, injuring around 30 of them and seizing a dozen boats. Two sailors were killed in 2018.
Electricity
Since Israel's destruction of the only power station in June 2006, access to electricity is haphazard. Partly rebuilt, the plant, which is short of fuel, is only operating at 20% of its capacities. Thus, the territory must be supplied primarily by Israel, which provides electricity — billed to the West Bank Palestinian Authority — in limited quantities, which only allow residents access to electricity for about 10 hours a day, at different times of the day.
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