Gaza has long been a powder keg, and it exploded after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and began killing and abducting people, sparking a crushing Israeli military operation there that’s only recently reached an uneasy ceasefire. President Donald Trump’s suggestion Tuesday that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be permanently resettled outside the war-torn territory and the US take “ownership” may spark new tension over the enclave on the Mediterranean Sea. Here’s a look at the troubled modern history of the Gaza Strip:
1948 – 1967: Egyptian rule of Gaza
Before the war surrounding Israel’s establishment in 1948, present-day Gaza was part of the large swath of the Middle East under British colonial rule. After Israel defeated the coalition of Arab states, the Egyptian army was left in control of a small strip of land wedged between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean.
During the war, some 700,000 Palestinians either fled or were forced from their homes in what is now Israel — a mass uprooting that they call the Nakba, or “catastrophe.” Tens of thousands of Palestinians flocked to the strip.
Under Egyptian military control, Palestinian refugees in Gaza were stuck, homeless and stateless. Egypt didn’t consider them to be citizens and Israel wouldn’t let them return to their homes. Many were supported by UNWRA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, which has a heavy presence in Gaza to this day. Meanwhile, some young Palestinians became “fedayeen” — insurgency fighters who conducted raids into Israel.
1967 – 1993: Israel seizes control
Israel seized control of Gaza from Egypt during the 1967 Mideast War when it also captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem — areas that remain under Israeli control. The internationally recognised Palestinian Authority, which administers semi-autonomous areas of the occupied West Bank, seeks all three areas for a hoped-for future state. Israel built more than 20 Jewish settlements in Gaza during this period. It also 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-old treaty when he declined to permit Palestinian refugees from Gaza into Egypt, saying the potential entrance of militants into Egypt would threaten longstanding peace between Israel and Egypt.
The first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation erupted in Gaza in December 1987, kicking off more than five years of sustained protests and bloody violence. It was also during this time that the Islamic militant group Hamas was established in Gaza.
1993 – 2005: The Palestinian Authority Takes Charge
For a time, promising peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders made the future of Gaza look somewhat hopeful. Following the Oslo Accords — a set of agreements between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Liberation Organisation leader Yasser Arafat that laid the groundwork for a two-state solution — control of Gaza was handed to the fledgling Palestinian Authority.
But the optimism was short-lived. A series of Palestinian suicide attacks by Hamas militants, the 1995 assassination of Rabin by a Jewish ultranationalist opposed to his peacemaking and the election of Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister the following year all hindered US-led peace efforts. Another peace push collapsed in late 2000 with the eruption of the second Palestinian uprising.
As the uprising fizzled in 2005, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon led a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, uprooting all of Israel’s troops and roughly 9,000 settlers in a move that bitterly divided Israel.
2005 – 2023: Hamas Seizes Power
Just months after Israel’s withdrawal, Hamas won parliamentary elections over Fatah, the long-dominant Palestinian political party. The following year, after months of infighting, Hamas violently seized control of Gaza from the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority.
Israel and Egypt imposed a crippling blockade on the territory, monitoring the flow of goods and people in and out. For nearly two decades, the closure has crippled the local economy, sent unemployment skyrocketing, and emboldened militancy in the region, which is one of the most densely populated places on the planet.
Through previous wars and countless smaller battles with Israel that devastated Gaza, Hamas has only grown more powerful. In each subsequent conflict, Hamas has had more rockets that have travelled farther. The group has displayed a growing array of weapons. Its top leaders have survived, and ceasefires have been secured. In the meantime, it has built a government, including a police force, ministries and border terminals equipped with metal detectors and passport control.
2023 Hamas Attack Sparks The Israel-Hamas War
The October 7, 2023, Hamas attack killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw around 250 people taken hostage. Over 100 hostages were freed during a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023, eight have been rescued alive and dozens of bodies have been recovered by Israeli forces. Israel’s air and ground war has killed over 47,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many of the dead were fighters. The war has left large parts of several cities in ruins and displaced around 90 per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people.
Under the first phase of the latest ceasefire, which went into effect on Jan. 19, Hamas is to release a total of 33 hostages, eight of whom Hamas says are dead, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israeli forces have pulled back from most areas and allowed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to devastated northern Gaza while aid flows in.
Negotiations on the second phase, which would end the war and see the remaining 60 or so hostages returned, are set to begin Monday. If mediators the United States, Qatar and Egypt are unable to broker an agreement between Israel and Hamas, the war could resume in early March.
