Gaza's 75-year painful history
(Baonghean.vn) - Gaza is a coastal strip of land located on an ancient trade and shipping route along the Mediterranean coast. Over the past century, Gaza has passed from British military rule to Egypt and then Israel, and is now a fenced-off area, home to 2 million Palestinians.
Here are some important milestones in the area's recent history:
1948 - End of British rule
As British colonial rule in Palestine ended in the late 1940s, violence increased between Jews and Arabs, culminating in war between the newly established State of Israel and its Arab neighbors in May 1948.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians sought refuge in Gaza after fleeing or being driven from their homes. The Egyptian army then seized a narrow 40-kilometer strip of coastline running from Sinai to just south of Ashkelon. The influx of refugees tripled Gaza’s population to about 200,000.
The 1950s,1960 - Military rule in Egypt
Egypt controlled 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, have carried out attacks on Israel and sparked reprisals.
The United Nations established the refugee agency UNRWA, which now provides services to 1.6 million registered Palestinian refugees in Gaza, as well as to Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank.
1967 - War and occupation ofarmyIsrael
Israel captured the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war. The Israeli census that year showed Gaza's population to be 394,000, at least 60% of whom were refugees.
When the Egyptians withdrew, many Gazan laborers went to work in agriculture, construction, and services in Israel, which they could easily access at the time. The Israeli military continued to administer the territory and protect the settlements that Israel built in the following decades, which became a source of growing Palestinian resentment.
1987 - The First Palestinian Uprising;Hamas founded
Twenty years after the 1967 war, Palestinians launched their first uprising – the intifada. It began in December 1987 after a traffic accident in which an Israeli truck hit a vehicle carrying Palestinian workers in the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza, killing four people. Stone-throwing protests, strikes and factory closures followed.
Taking advantage of the situation, the Egyptian-based Muslim Brotherhood formed a Palestinian militant wing called Hamas, with its power base in Gaza. Hamas, which advocates the destruction of Israel and the restoration of an Islamic regime in what it sees as occupied Palestine, has become a rival to Yasser Arafat's secular Fatah party, which leads the Palestine Liberation Organization.
1993 - Oslo Accords and Palestinian semi-autonomy
Israel and the Palestinians signed a historic peace agreement in 1993 that led to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority. Under the interim agreement, the Palestinians were first given limited control over Gaza and Jericho in the West Bank. Arafat returned to Gaza after decades of exile.
The Oslo process gave the newly formed Palestinian Authority some autonomy and was expected to achieve statehood in five years. But that never happened. Israel accused the Palestinians of violating security agreements and Palestinians were angry at continued Israeli settlement building.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad have carried out bombings in an attempt to derail the peace process, prompting Israel to impose more restrictions on Palestinian movement out of Gaza. Hamas has also highlighted growing Palestinian criticism of Arafat's inner circle for corruption, nepotism and economic mismanagement.
2000 - Second Palestinian Intifada
In 2000, Israeli-Palestinian relations hit a new low after the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada. It ushered in a period of Palestinian suicide bombings and gun attacks, as well as Israeli airstrikes, demolitions, restricted zones, and curfews.
One of the casualties was Gaza International Airport, a symbol of the thwarted Palestinian hopes for economic independence. It was also the Palestinians’ only direct connection to the outside world that was not controlled by Israel or Egypt. The airport opened in 1998, but Israel viewed it as a security threat and destroyed its radar antenna and runway in the months after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Another casualty is Gaza's fishing industry, which provides income for tens of thousands of people. Gaza's fishing zone has been restricted by Israel, a restriction that Israel says is necessary to stop arms smuggling boats.
2005 - Israel evacuates settlements in Gaza
In August 2005, Israel evacuated all troops and settlers from Gaza, which was by then completely fenced off from the outside world by Israel.
Palestinians have demolished abandoned buildings and infrastructure for scrap. The dismantling of settlements has led to greater freedom of movement within Gaza and a booming “tunnel economy” as armed groups, smugglers and businessmen rapidly dig more tunnels into Egypt.
But the withdrawal also removed settlement factories, greenhouses and workshops that once employed some of Gaza's population.
2006 - Isolated under Hamas
In 2006, Hamas won a surprise victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections and then took full control of Gaza, ousting forces loyal to Arafat's successor, President Mahmoud Abbas.
Much of the international community has cut aid to Palestinians in Hamas-controlled areas because they consider Hamas a terrorist organization.
Israel has blocked tens of thousands of Palestinian workers from entering the country, cutting off a vital source of income. Israeli airstrikes have crippled Gaza's only power plant, causing widespread blackouts. Citing security concerns, Israel and Egypt have also imposed tighter restrictions on the movement of people and goods through Gaza's border crossings.
Hamas' ambitious plans to shift Gaza's economic focus eastward, away from Israel, collapsed before they even began.
Seeing Hamas as a threat, Egypt’s military-backed leader Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who came to power in 2014, closed the border with Gaza and blew up most of the tunnels. Once again isolated, Gaza’s economy fell into recession.
Cycle of conflict
Gaza's economy has been hit by a constant cycle of conflict, attacks and retaliation between Israel and Palestinian militant groups.
Some of the worst fighting before 2023 occurred in 2014, when Hamas and other groups launched rockets into central Israeli cities. Israel carried out airstrikes and shelling that devastated residential areas in Gaza. More than 2,100 Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians. Israel also reported its own casualties as 67 soldiers and six civilians.
2023 - Surprise Attack
While Israel believes it is reining in war-weary Hamas by providing economic incentives to Gaza workers, the group's fighters are being trained and educated in secret.
On October 7, Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel, destroying towns, killing hundreds and taking dozens of hostages back to Gaza. Israel retaliated, hitting Gaza with airstrikes and leveling entire districts in what was considered the bloodiest incident in the 75-year conflict.