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The Gaza Strip is a narrow strip of land (40km by 6km to 14km) in the Middle East that is bordered on the west by the Mediterranean Sea, on the south by Egypt's Sinai Desert and on the east and north by Israel. It takes its name from its main city, Gaza. After the Ottoman Empire dissolved at the end of World War I, the Gaza Strip became part of British Mandate Palestine. Following the 1948 war in Palestine and the establishment of Israel as an independent nation, the Strip was occupied by Egypt. This occupation lasted until 1967, when it was seized by Israel during the war with Egypt. Israel began a phased withdrawal after the Oslo peace agreement in 1994, but then retained a military presence and settlements following the collapse of this agreement. Today the population of the Gaza Strip is entirely Palestinian. However, there has been a strong Jewish presence for most of the past several thousand years, with several notable gaps. For example, the community was destroyed during the crusades, but it was subsequently rebuilt. Also. in 1799, it was struck by a plague which caused the Jews to move to other areas in the region. During World War I, the Gaza Jews were deported by the Ottomans, and they were again forced to leave in 1929 after massacres there. Life in the Gaza Strip in recent years has been characterized by an increasingly poor economy, declining incomes, limited opportunities, continued lawlessness and political violence, and a general sense of despair. This is the result of several factors, including the failure to establish a democratic government that emphasizes improving the quality of life, the extremely rapid population growth and the continuing conflict with Israel. A major factor in the continued deterioration of the economic situation has been the violence against Israel, including the frequent launching of rockets into Israeli territory and the use of suicide bombers. This forced Israel to seal off the previously porous border with the Gaza Strip, resulting in a termination of the daily inflow of thousands of Gaza workers into Israel. The violence also caused Israel to abandon industries that it had in the Strip that provided employment there and to discontinue cross-border trade. The Gaza Strip has one of the highest population densities in the world, with roughly 1.4 million residents crammed into a 360 square kilometer area. This is the result of an extremely rapid population growth rate that has occurred during the past several decades and that continues today because of families having very large numbers of children. This high density has been a major factor in the poverty and environmental degradation of the Gaza Strip, and it will likely be a major impediment to improving the standard of living and quality of life for decades into the future. Created November 30, 2006. |