Gaza Strip

The Gaza Strip is a coastal region of the Middle East along the Mediterranean Sea that is about 26 miles long and 4 to 8 miles wide, bordering Egypt and Israel. It is home to about 1.4. million Palestinian people, mostly refugees dependent on international aid, and is one of the most overcrowded areas of the world; the land and sea borders are controlled by Israel and Egypt, so movement out of the Gaza Strip is restricted. The main urban centre is Gaza City. Claimed by the Palestinian National Authority, the area has been governed by the Hamas organisation since June 2007, and has previously been occupied by Israel (1967-2005, following the six-day Arab-Israeli War) and Egypt (1948-1967). Israel maintains control of the Strip's airspace and its navy continues to patrol Gazan waters; the homes that it set up in the Gaza Strip during its occupation housed about 8,000 Israelis and were assigned much of the land.

Hamas and other organisations such as Islamic Jihad do not recognise Israel and their military wings have fought against their neighbours for some years, mainly through launching hundreds of rockets of crude sophistication into Israeli territory. Israel, for its part, has used its extensive technological advantage in firepower to launch attacks against targets in the Gaza Strip. Following violence between Hamas and Fatah which saw Hamas take power in the Gaza Strip, a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas broke down in 2008, towards the end of a period which saw about 20 Israelis killed since 2001. Over 2000-2008, about 3,000 Gazan Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces, according to an Israeli human rights group, and more died due to restrictions on movement. In January 2009, Israel launched an invasion of the Gaza Strip with the stated aim of ending rocket attacks; this widened to the removal of Hamas. The operation led to hundreds of Palestinian deaths, with limited humanitarian assistance permitted. The Israeli civilian death toll since the invasion began remains in single figures.