Gaza is a Palestinian city located in the Gaza Strip, a territory along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It has a population of 590,481 people, making it the largest city in the State of Palestine. Gaza has been inhabited since at least the 15th century BCE and has been dominated by several different peoples and empires throughout its history. In the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan, Gaza was assigned to be part of an Arab state in Palestine but was occupied by Egypt following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Gazas growing population was augmented by an influx of refugees fleeing or expelled from nearby cities, towns, and villages that were captured by Israel. Today, Gaza is governed by the Islamist group Hamas, which formed in 1987 as a militant “resistance” group against Israel and won political power in a 2006 US-based election. The Gaza Strip has been under the de facto governing authority of Hamas since 2007 and has faced years of conflict, poverty, and humanitarian crises.