The Gaza Strip is a coastal strip of land that has been inhabited for thousands of years and has been ruled, destroyed, and repopulated by various dynasties, empires, and peoples. Here are some of the major milestones in its recent history:
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1948: As British colonial rule came to an end in Palestine, violence intensified between Jews and Arabs, culminating in war between the newly created State of Israel and its Arab neighbors in May 1948. Tens of thousands of Palestinians took refuge in Gaza after fleeing or being driven from their homes. The invading Egyptian army had seized a narrow coastal strip 25 miles (40 km) long, which ran from the Sinai to just south of Ashkelon. The influx of refugees saw Gazas population triple to around 200,000.
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1950s & 1960s: Egypt held the Gaza Strip for two decades under a military governor, allowing Palestinians to work and study in Egypt. Armed Palestinian "fedayeen," many of them refugees, mounted attacks into Israel, drawing reprisals. The United Nations set up a refugee agency, UNRWA, which today provides services for 1.6 million registered Palestine refugees in Gaza, as well as for Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank.
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1967: Israel captured the Gaza Strip in the Six-Day War. An Israeli census that year put Gazas population at 394,000, at least 60% of them refugees. With the Egyptians gone, many Gazan workers took jobs in the agriculture, construction, and services industries inside Israel, to which they could then gain easy access.
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1994-1999: Israel transferred security and civilian responsibility for much of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority.
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2005: Israel withdrew all of its settlers and soldiers and dismantled its military facilities in the Gaza Strip, but continues to control maritime, airspace, and other access. In early 2006, the Islamic Resistance Movement, HAMAS, won the Palestinian Legislative Council election and took control of the PA government.
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2007-08 and 2012: Brief periods of increased violence between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip led to Egyptian-brokered truces.
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Present: Gaza is now a fenced-in enclave inhabited by around 2.3 million Palestinians, most of them descendants of refugees. It is governed by Hamas, a militant, Sunni Islamic organization, which has ruled the territory since an internal conflict between Palestinian factions in 2007 that followed their electoral victory in 2006. Since then, Gaza has been under a full Israeli-led, and Egyptian supported, land, sea, and air blockade.
