Gaza Strip

Map of the Gaza Strip from The World Factbook . The Gaza Strip is a narrow strip of land just northeast of the Sinai Peninsula . At the end of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War it was occupied by the Egyptians , under which it remained until it was claimed by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967 . The Gaza Strip is unusual in being a densely settled area not recognized as a de jure part of any sovereign country. Together with parts of the West Bank , it is mostly run by the Palestinian Authority . Substantial portions of the Gaza Strip, (mainly the sites of areas populated by Israeli citizens) are controlled by Israel. The Palestinian Authority is not permitted conventional military forces; there are, however, a Public Security Force and a civil Police Force. In February 2005 the Israeli government voted to withdraw Israel's presence from the Gaza strip during the summer of 2005, including dismantling all the Israeli settlements and removing all Israeli settlers from the strip. After withdrawal Israel may still retain some offshore maritime control and/or a small strip of land (the so-called "Philadelphi Corridor") alongside the Egypt-Gaza Strip border. The government still faces significant opposition to the plan.

The Gaza Strip ( Qiṭāʿ Ġazza/Qita' Ghazzah , ) lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea . The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about to mi long, and between 6 and 12 kilometers (4–7.5 mi) wide, with a total area of to sq mi . The territory takes its name from Gaza , its main city. The territory has a population of about 1.5 million people, as of July 2009, 1 million of whom were, as of March 2005, refugees who fled to the territory as part of the 1948 Palestinian exodus following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War , from those parts of Mandate Palestine that became Israel, and their descendants. The population is predominantly Sunni Muslims and speaks a Western Egyptian dialect of Arabic. The Gaza Strip acquired its current boundaries at the cessation of fighting in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War , which was confirmed in the Israel-Egypt Armistice Agreement on 24 February 1949. Article V of the Agreement declared that the demarcation line was not to be an international border. The Gaza Strip continued to be occupied by Egypt. At first it administered the territory through the All-Palestine Government and then directly from 1959 until 1967, when Israel occupied it following the Six-Day War . Pursuant to the Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in 1993, the Palestinian Authority was set up as an interim administrative body to govern Palestinian population centres, with Israel maintaining control of Gaza Strip's airspace , some of its land borders and territorial waters , until a final agreement could be reached. As agreement remained elusive, Israel unilaterally disengaged from Gaza in 2005. The Gaza Strip is one of the territorial units forming the Palestinian territories . Actual control of the area within the Gaza Strip borders is in the hands of Hamas , an organization that won civil parliamentary Palestinian Authority elections in 2006 and took over de facto government in the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority by way of its own political maneuvering and armed militia in July 2007, while consolidating power by violently removing the Palestinian Authority's security forces and civil servants from the Gaza Strip.

Gaza makes up part of the Palestinian territories which includes the West Bank , and in 2012 the United Nations General Assembly "accorded Palestine non-Member Observer State status in the United Nations". In 1994, Israel granted certain rights of civil self-governance to the Palestinian Authority in Gaza through the Oslo Accords . Gaza has been subject to military occupation by Israel since 1967 and prior to that by Egypt (1948–67) (see Occupation of the Gaza Strip by Egypt ). Previously, it was ruled by the United Kingdom (1918–48) and Turkey when Gaza was part of the Ottoman Empire . In 2007 Hamas violently overthrew and expelled Fatah and a the Gaza Strip has since been de facto governed by Hamas , a Palestinian group claiming to be the representatives of the Palestinian National Authority and the Palestinian people. Gaza forms a part of the Palestinian territory defined in the Oslo Agreements and UNSC Resolution 1860 . The territory is still considered to be " occupied " by the United Nations, International human rights organisations, and the majority of governments and legal commentators, despite the 2005 Israeli disengagement from Gaza . After the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, Israel instituted a naval bloackede and closed and then heavily monitored their border crossings to try and stop weapons from being smuggled in and to prevent attacks into Israel. Hamas still refuses to recognize the right of Israel to exist and it's charter calls for the destruction of Israel. After Operation Protective Edge , it was estimated that Hamas diverted over 800,000 tons of concrete in order to build underground attack tunnels into Israel. Likewise, Egypt has accused Hamas of contributing to the Sinai Insurgency and regularly closes the Rafah border crossing into Gaza. After a suicide attack against Egyptian soldiers in 2014, Egypt created a 1 km buffer zone on its border with Gaza, and plans to build a trench to thwart tunnel building. Israel continues to maintain direct external control over Gaza and indirect control over life within Gaza through controlling Gaza's air and maritime space, control of six of Gaza's seven land crossings, maintaining a no-go buffer zone within the Gaza territory, and maintaining Gaza's dependence on Israel for trade, water, sewage, electricity, currency, communication networks, issuing IDs, and permits to enter and leave the territory and the Palestinian Population Registry. Gaza has an annual population growth rate of 2.91% (2014 est.), the 13th highest in the world, and is overcrowded. There is a limited capability to construct new homes and facilities for this growth. The territory is 41 kilometers (25 mi) long, and from 6 to 12 kilometers (3.7 to 7.5 mi) wide, with a total area of 365 square kilometers (141 sq mi). As of 2014, Palestinians of the Gaza Strip numbered around 1.82 million people. Sunni Muslims make up the predominant part of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip acquired its current northern and eastern boundaries at the cessation of fighting in the 1948 war , confirmed by the Israel–Egypt Armistice Agreement on 24 February 1949. Article V of the Agreement declared that the demarcation line was not to be an international border. At first the Gaza Strip was officially administered by the All-Palestine Government , established by the Arab League in September 1948. All-Palestine in the Gaza Strip was managed under the military authority of Egypt, functioning as puppet state, until it officially merged into the United Arab Republic and dissolved in 1959. From the time of the dissolution of the All-Palestine Government until 1967, the Gaza Strip was directly administered by an Egyptian military governor. Pursuant to the Oslo Accords signed in 1993, the Palestinian Authority became the administrative body that governed Palestinian population centers while Israel maintained control of the airspace , territorial waters and border crossings with the exception of the land border with Egypt. In 2005, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip under their unilateral disengagement plan . In July 2007, after winning the 2006 Palestinian legislative election , Hamas became the elected government. In 2007 Hamas expelled the rival party Fatah from Gaza. This broke the Unity Government between Gaza Strip and the West Bank, creating two separate governments for the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In 2014, following reconciliation talks , Hamas and Fatah formed a Palestinian unity government within the State of Palestine . Rami Hamdallah became the coalition's Prime Minister and has planned for elections in Gaza and the West Bank . In July 2014, a set of lethal incidents between Hamas and Israel led to the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict . Following the takeover of Gaza by Hamas, the territory has been subjected to a blockade, maintained by Israel and Egypt, with Israel arguing that it is necessary to impede Hamas from rearming and to restrict Palestinian rocket attacks . Critics argue the blockade extends to drastic reductions in basic construction materials, medical supplies, and food stuffs. Under the blockade, Gaza is viewed by some critics as an "open-air prison," though the claim is contested. Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law 2010 . 13 . Israel claims it no longer occupies the Gaza Strip, maintaining that it is neither a Stale nor a territory occupied or controlled by Israel, but rather it has 'sui generis' status. Pursuant to the Disengagement Plan, Israel dismantled all military institutions and settlements in Gaza and there is no longer a permanent Israeli military or civilian presence in the territory. However the Plan also provided that Israel will guard and monitor the external land perimeter of the Gaza Strip, will continue to maintain exclusive authority in Gaza air space, and will continue to exercise security activity in the sea off the coast of the Gaza Strip as well as maintaining an Israeli military presence on the Egyptian-Gaza border. and reserving the right to reenter Gaza at will. Israel continues to control six of Gaza's seven land crossings, its maritime borders and airspace and the movement of goods and persons in and out of the territory. Egypt controls one of Gaza's land crossings. Troops from the Israeli Defence Force regularly enter pans of the territory and/or deploy missile attacks, drones and sonic bombs into Gaza. Israel has declared a no-go buffer zone that stretches deep into Gaza: if Gazans enter this zone they are shot on sight. Gaza is also dependent on israel for inter alia electricity, currency, telephone networks, issuing IDs, and permits to enter and leave the territory. Israel also has sole control of the Palestinian Population Registry through which the Israeli Army regulates who is classified as a Palestinian and who is a Gazan or West Banker. Since 2000 aside from a limited number of exceptions Israel has refused to add people to the Palestinian Population Registry. It is this direct external control over Gaza and indirect control over life within Gaza that has led the United Nations, the UN General Assembly, the UN Fact Finding Mission to Gaza, International human rights organisations, US Government websites, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a significant number of legal commentators, to reject the argument that Gaza is no longer occupied. : Unknown parameter |editors= ignored ( |editor= suggested) ( help ) * Scobbie, Iain (2012). International Law and the Classification of Conflicts . Even after the accession to power of Hamas, Israel's claim that it no longer occupies Gaza has not been accepted by UN bodies, most States, nor the majority of academic commentators because of its exclusive control of its border with Gaza and crossing points including the effective control it exerted over the Rafah crossing until at least May 2011, its control of Gaza's maritime zones and airspace which constitute what Aronson terms the 'security envelope' around Gaza, as well as its ability to intervene forcibly at will in Gaza. * Gawerc, Michelle (2012). While Israel withdrew from the immediate territory, Israel still controlled all access to and from Gaza through the border crossings, as well as through the coastline and the airspace. ln addition, Gaza was dependent upon Israel for water electricity sewage communication networks and for its trade (Gisha 2007. Dowty 2008). ln other words, while Israel maintained that its occupation of Gaza ended with its unilateral disengagement Palestinians - as well as many human right organizations and international bodies - argued that Gaza was by all intents and purposes still occupied. "Some Concrete Facts about Hamas" . : Cite journal requires |journal= ( help ) "Egypt to raze 2,000 more homes for Gaza buffer zone" . McClatchy Newspapers . 8 December 2008:'Since Hamas took control of Gaza last year, Israel has dramatically reduced the amount of food, fuel and supplies going through its border crossings with Gaza that are the main Palestinian lifeline to the outside world. . Since the Israeli military operation on Nov. 4th, according to humanitarian groups, about 700 truck loads of goods have gone into Gaza. That's what should be going in-and-out on a single day.' "Israel tightens its blockade of Gaza for 'security reasons' " . Middle East Monitor . 14 October 2013. :'Yet critics point out that it is not just military supplies that cannot enter Gaza, but basic construction materials, medical supplies, and food stuffs. The issue came to international attention in 2010, when a flotilla of activists attempted to break the blockade and carry humanitarian aid into Gaza. Nine were killed when the Israeli navy entered the ship.The incident shone a spotlight onto the harsh blockade of Gaza. At one stage, prohibited materials included coriander, ginger, nutmeg and newspapers. A relaxation of the rules in June 2009 meant that processed hummus was allowed in, but not hummus with extras such as pine nuts or mushrooms. These small details highlight the excessive nature of the restrictions. One of the biggest issues has been building materials. The strict restrictions on goods going into Gaza meant that it was impossible to start reconstruction work after intensive air strikes on the city in December 2008. A leaked UN report in 2009 warned that the blockade was "devastating livelihoods" and causing gradual "de-development". It pointed out that glass was prohibited; it was therefore impossible to repair shattered windows to keep out the winter rain.' "Gaza's Tunnel Economy" . Jonathan Cook , 'How Israel is turning Gaza into a super-max prison,' The National October 27, 2014: 'One Israeli analyst has compared the proposed solution to transforming a third-world prison into a modern US super-max incarceration facility.' Alistair Dawber, 'Tales from Gaza: What is life really like in 'the world's largest outdoor prison'?' The Independent 13 April 2013.'Locals call it "the world's biggest prison", and it's not difficult to understand why.' W.

Self-governing Palestinian territory next to Egypt and Israel This article is about the territory. The Gaza Strip ( / ˈ ɡ ɑː z ə / ; Qiṭāʿ Ġazzah ), or simply Gaza , is a Palestinian exclave on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea . The smaller of the two Palestinian territories , it borders Egypt on the southwest for 11 km (6.8 mi) and Israel on the east and north along a 51 km (32 mi) border. Together, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank make up the State of Palestine , while being under Israeli military occupation since 1967. The territories of Gaza and the West Bank are separated from each other by Israeli territory. Both fell under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority , but the Strip is governed by Hamas , a militant, fundamentalist Islamic organization, which came to power in the last-held elections in 2006 . Since then, Gaza has been under a full Israeli-led land, sea and air blockade . This prevents people and goods from freely entering or leaving the territory. The Strip is 41 km (25 mi) long, from 6 to 12 km (3.7 to 7.5 mi) wide, and has a total area of 365 km (141 sq mi). With around 2 million Palestinians on some 365 square kilometers, Gaza, if considered a top-level political unit, ranks as the 3rd most densely populated in the world. Sunni Muslims make up the predominant part of the population in the Gaza Strip. Gaza has an annual population growth rate of 2.91% (2014 est.), the 13th highest in the world, and is often referred to as overcrowded. Gaza suffers from shortages of water, electricity and medicines. The United Nations , as well as at least 19 human rights organizations, have urged Israel to lift its siege on Gaza, while a report by UNCTAD , prepared for the UN General Assembly and released on 25 November 2020, said that Gaza's economy was on the verge of collapse and that it was essential to lift the blockade. When Hamas won a majority in the 2006 Palestinian legislative election , the opposing political party, Fatah , refused to join the proposed coalition, until a short-lived unity government agreement was brokered by Saudi Arabia . When this collapsed under pressure from Israel and the United States, the Palestinian Authority instituted a government without Hamas in the West Bank, while Hamas formed a government on its own in Gaza . Further economic sanctions were imposed by Israel and the European Quartet against Hamas. A brief civil war between the two Palestinian groups had broken out in Gaza when Fatah contested Hamas's administration. Hamas emerged the victor and expelled Fatah-allied officials and members of the PA's security apparatus from the Strip, and has remained the sole governing power in Gaza since that date. Israel stopped issuing permits for Gazans to work in Israel in 2007 after Hamas took control. In 2007, more than 100,000 Gazans worked in Israel. In 2021, however, it began granting them again in a search for stability following an 11-day war with Hamas . In 2022 Defense Minister Benny Gantz decided to issue an additional 1,500 work permits for a total of 17,000 and aims to increase it to 20,000. Gaza Strip, with borders and Israeli limited fishing zone. Despite the 2005 Israeli disengagement from Gaza , the United Nations, international human rights organisations, and the majority of governments and legal commentators consider the territory to be still occupied by Israel, supported by additional restrictions placed on Gaza by Egypt. Israel maintains direct external control over Gaza and indirect control over life within Gaza: it controls Gaza's air and maritime space, as well as six of Gaza's seven land crossings. It reserves the right to enter Gaza at will with its military and maintains a no-go buffer zone within the Gaza territory. Gaza is dependent on Israel for water, electricity, telecommunications, and other utilities. An extensive Israeli buffer zone within the Strip renders much land off-limits to Gaza's Palestinians. The system of control imposed by Israel was described in the Fall 2012 edition of International Security as an "indirect occupation". "مليونان و375 ألف نسمة عدد سكان قطاع غزة مع نهاية 2022" . arabic.news.cn . James Kraska, 'Rule Selection in the Case of Israel's Blockade of Gaza:Law of Naval Warfare or Law of Sea?,' in M.N. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - occupied Palestinian territory . The movement has clearly entrenched itself as the hegemonic power in the coastal enclave to such an extent that the International Crisis Group contends that the power struggle in Gaza is no longer between Hamas and Fatah. Rather the main source of confrontation is between Hamas and other more hardline Islamists and salafists . . . The boycott amounted to a form of collective punishment against the entire Palestinian population and, to my knowledge, was the first time in the history of the conflict that the international community imposed sanctions on the occupied rather than the occupier.' Arnon, Arie (Autumn 2007). "UN report finds Gaza suffered $16.7 billion loss from siege and occupation" . 25 November 2020. But the secret plan backfired, resulting in a further setback for American foreign policy under Bush. He consistently refused to accept the Palestinian unity government brokered by the Saudi government in the Mecca Agreement "and made his opposition intolerable to Hamas when he refused to subject the security forces under his command, armed and trained by the U.S., to the legitimate Palestinian unity government as agreed between Hamas and Fatah." Alistair Crooke, a former Middle East adviser to the EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana , similarly observed, "Dahlan refused to deal with (the independent interior minister appointed to the unity government), and put his troops on the streets in defiance of the interior minister. Hamas felt that they had little option but to take control of security away from forces which were in fact creating insecurity." Hence, Hamas was not attempting a coup against the government or the Fatah organization as a whole but also against Dahlan's U.S.-funded militia (and individual Fatah loyalists it blamed for the murder of Hamas members).' "Israeli work permits offer slight relief to 'exhausted' Gaza economy" . Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law - 2010 . Israel claims it no longer occupies the Gaza Strip, maintaining that it is neither a Stale nor a territory occupied or controlled by Israel, but rather it has 'sui generis' status. Pursuant to the Disengagement Plan, Israel dismantled all military institutions and settlements in Gaza and there is no longer a permanent Israeli military or civilian presence in the territory. However the Plan also provided that Israel will guard and monitor the external land perimeter of the Gaza Strip, will continue to maintain exclusive authority in Gaza air space, and will continue to exercise security activity in the sea off the coast of the Gaza Strip as well as maintaining an Israeli military presence on the Egyptian-Gaza border. and reserving the right to reenter Gaza at will. Israel continues to control six of Gaza's seven land crossings, its maritime borders and airspace and the movement of goods and persons in and out of the territory. Egypt controls one of Gaza's land crossings. Troops from the Israeli Defence Force regularly enter pans of the territory and/or deploy missile attacks, drones and sonic bombs into Gaza. Israel has declared a no-go buffer zone that stretches deep into Gaza: if Gazans enter this zone they are shot on sight. Gaza is also dependent on Israel for water, electricity, telecommunications and other utilities, currency, issuing IDs, and permits to enter and leave the territory. Israel also has sole control of the Palestinian Population Registry through which the Israeli Army regulates who is classified as a Palestinian and who is a Gazan or West Banker. Since 2000 aside from a limited number of exceptions Israel has refused to add people to the Palestinian Population Registry. It is this direct external control over Gaza and indirect control over life within Gaza that has led the United Nations, the UN General Assembly, the UN Fact Finding Mission to Gaza, International human rights organisations, US Government websites, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a significant number of legal commentators, to reject the argument that Gaza is no longer occupied. * Scobbie, Iain (2012). International Law and the Classification of Conflicts . Even after the accession to power of Hamas, Israel's claim that it no longer occupies Gaza has not been accepted by UN bodies, most States, nor the majority of academic commentators because of its exclusive control of its border with Gaza and crossing points including the effective control it exerted over the Rafah crossing until at least May 2011, its control of Gaza's maritime zones and airspace which constitute what Aronson terms the 'security envelope' around Gaza, as well as its ability to intervene forcibly at will in Gaza. * Gawerc, Michelle (2012). While Israel withdrew from the immediate territory, it remained in control of all access to and from Gaza through the border crossings, as well as through the coastline and the airspace. In addition, Gaza was dependent upon Israel for water, electricity sewage communication networks and for its trade (Gisha 2007. Dowty 2008). ln other words, while Israel maintained that its occupation of Gaza ended with its unilateral disengagement Palestinians – as well as many human right organizations and international bodies – argued that Gaza was by all intents and purposes still occupied.

Autonomous territory in the Middle East Not to be confused with Gaza Province or Gaza Strip (film) . The Gaza Strip , also known simply as Gaza , is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea ; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories , the other being the West Bank , that make up the State of Palestine . Inhabited by mostly Palestinian refugees and their descendants, Gaza is one of the most densely populated territories in the world . An end of 2024 estimate puts the population of the Strip at 2.1 million, which was a 6% decline from the previous year due to the Gaza war . Gaza is bordered by Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the east and north. Its capital and largest city is Gaza City . The territorial boundaries were established while Gaza was controlled by the Kingdom of Egypt at the conclusion of the 1948 Arab–Israeli war . During that period the All-Palestine Protectorate , also known as All-Palestine, was established with limited recognition and it became a refuge for Palestinians who fled or were expelled during the 1948 Palestine war . Later, during the Six-Day War , Israel captured and occupied the Gaza Strip , initiating its decades-long military occupation of the Palestinian territories. The mid-1990s Oslo Accords established the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a limited governing authority, initially led by the secular party Fatah until that party's electoral defeat in 2006 to the Sunni Islamic Hamas . Hamas would then take over the governance of Gaza in the Battle of Gaza the next year, subsequently warring with Israel . The restrictions on movement and goods in Gaza imposed by Israel date back to the early 1990s. In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew its military forces from Gaza, dismantled its settlements , and implemented a temporary blockade of Gaza . The blockade became indefinite after the 2007 Hamas takeover. Egypt also began its blockade of Gaza in 2007. Despite the Israeli disengagement, Gaza is still considered occupied by Israel under international law . The current blockade prevents people and goods from freely entering or leaving the territory, leading to Gaza often being called an "open-air prison". The UN, as well as at least 19 human-rights organizations, have urged Israel to lift the blockade. Israel has justified its blockade on the Strip with wanting to stop flow of arms, but Palestinians and rights groups say it amounts to collective punishment and exacerbates dire living conditions. Israel's actions in Gaza since the start of the war begun in 2023 have been described by scholars, international law experts, and human-rights organizations as constituting a genocide against the Palestinian people . A provisional ceasefire began in mid-January 2025, lasting two months. The Gaza Strip is 41 kilometres (25 miles) long, from 6 to 12 km (3.7 to 7.5 mi) wide, and has a total area of 365 km (141 sq mi). As of 2010, the Strip's population mostly comprised Palestinians and refugees. It has a high proportion of youth, with 43.5% being children 14 or younger and 50% under age of 18. Sunni Islam is almost ubiquitous, with a Palestinian Christian minority. Gaza has an annual population growth rate of 1.99% (2023 est.), the 39th-highest in the world. Gaza's unemployment rate is among the highest in the world, with an overall unemployment rate of 46% and a youth unemployment rate of 70%. Despite this, the area's 97% literacy rate is higher than that of nearby Egypt, while youth literacy is 88%. Gaza has throughout the years been seen as a source of Palestinian nationalism and resistance. There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or templates on this page, but the references will not show without a template or template (see the help page ). "Mideast accord: the overview; Rabin and Arafat sign accord ending Israel's 27-year hold on Jericho and the Gaza Strip" . The New York Times . Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law - 2010 . Israel claims it no longer occupies the Gaza Strip, maintaining that it is neither a State nor a territory occupied or controlled by Israel, but rather it has 'sui generis' status. Pursuant to the Disengagement Plan, Israel dismantled all military institutions and settlements in Gaza and there is no longer a permanent Israeli military or civilian presence in the territory. However, the Plan also provided that Israel will guard and monitor the external land perimeter of the Gaza Strip, will continue to maintain exclusive authority in Gaza air space, and will continue to exercise security activity in the sea off the coast of the Gaza Strip as well as maintaining an Israeli military presence on the Egyptian-Gaza border, and reserving the right to reenter Gaza at will. Israel continues to control all of Gaza's seven land crossings, its maritime borders and airspace and the movement of goods and persons in and out of the territory. Egypt controls one of Gaza's land crossings. Gaza is also dependent on Israel for water, electricity, telecommunications and other utilities, currency, issuing IDs, and permits to enter and leave the territory. Israel also has sole control of the Palestinian Population Registry through which the Israeli Army regulates who is classified as a Palestinian and who is a Gazan or West Banker. Since 2000 aside from a limited number of exceptions Israel has refused to add people to the Palestinian Population Registry. It is this direct external control over Gaza and indirect control over life within Gaza that has led the United Nations, the UN General Assembly, the UN Fact Finding Mission to Gaza, International human rights organisations, US Government websites, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a significant number of legal commentators, to reject the argument that Gaza is no longer occupied. * Scobbie, Iain (2012). International Law and the Classification of Conflicts . Even after the accession to power of Hamas, Israel's claim that it no longer occupies Gaza has not been accepted by UN bodies, most States, nor the majority of academic commentators because of its exclusive control of its border with Gaza and crossing points including the effective control it exerted over the Rafah crossing until at least May 2011, its control of Gaza's maritime zones and airspace which constitute what Aronson terms the 'security envelope' around Gaza, as well as its ability to intervene forcibly at will in Gaza. * Gawerc, Michelle (2012). While Israel withdrew from the immediate territory, it remained in control of all access to and from Gaza through the border crossings, as well as through the coastline and the airspace. In addition, Gaza was dependent upon Israel for water, electricity sewage communication networks and for its trade (Gisha 2007. In other words, while Israel maintained that its occupation of Gaza ended with its unilateral disengagement Palestinians – as well as many human rights organizations and international bodies – argued that Gaza was by all intents and purposes still occupied. Macroeconomic Policy in Fragile States . "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza...". The Times of Israel . American University International Law Review . 25 : 915. Since taking sole control of Gaza in June 2007, Hamas has proven itself to be a remarkably resilient and resourceful government entity. The movement has clearly entrenched itself as the hegemonic power in the coastal enclave to such an extent that the International Crisis Group contends that the power struggle in Gaza is no longer between Hamas and Fatah. Rather the main source of confrontation is between Hamas and other more hardline Islamists and salafists . . . Hamas has been far more successful in an administrative sense than the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, despite having access to only a fraction of the resources. But the secret plan backfired, resulting in a further setback for American foreign policy under Bush. He consistently refused to accept the Palestinian unity government brokered by the Saudi government in the Mecca Agreement "and made his opposition intolerable to Hamas when he refused to subject the security forces under his command, armed and trained by the U.S., to the legitimate Palestinian unity government as agreed between Hamas and Fatah." Alistair Crooke, a former Middle East adviser to the EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana , similarly observed, "Dahlan refused to deal with (the independent interior minister appointed to the unity government), and put his troops on the streets in defiance of the interior minister. Hamas felt that they had little option but to take control of security away from forces which were in fact creating insecurity." Hence, Hamas was not attempting a coup against the government or the Fatah organization as a whole but also against Dahlan's U.S.-funded militia (and individual Fatah loyalists it blamed for the murder of Hamas members).' "Preliminary Assessment Of The Economic Impact Of The Destruction In Gaza" . Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law - 2010 . Israel claims it no longer occupies the Gaza Strip, maintaining that it is neither a State nor a territory occupied or controlled by Israel, but rather it has 'sui generis' status. Pursuant to the Disengagement Plan, Israel dismantled all military institutions and settlements in Gaza and there is no longer a permanent Israeli military or civilian presence in the territory. However the Plan also provided that Israel will guard and monitor the external land perimeter of the Gaza Strip, will continue to maintain exclusive authority in Gaza air space, and will continue to exercise security activity in the sea off the coast of the Gaza Strip as well as maintaining an Israeli military presence on the Egyptian-Gaza border. and reserving the right to reenter Gaza at will. Israel continues to control six of Gaza's seven land crossings, its maritime borders and airspace and the movement of goods and persons in and out of the territory. Egypt controls one of Gaza's land crossings. Troops from the Israeli Defence Force regularly enter pans of the territory and/or deploy missile attacks, drones and sonic bombs into Gaza. Israel has declared a no-go buffer zone that stretches deep into Gaza: if Gazans enter this zone they are shot on sight. Gaza is also dependent on Israel for water, electricity, telecommunications and other utilities, currency, issuing IDs, and permits to enter and leave the territory. Israel also has sole control of the Palestinian Population Registry through which the Israeli Army regulates who is classified as a Palestinian and who is a Gazan or West Banker. Since 2000 aside from a limited number of exceptions Israel has refused to add people to the Palestinian Population Registry. It is this direct external control over Gaza and indirect control over life within Gaza that has led the United Nations, the UN General Assembly, the UN Fact Finding Mission to Gaza, International human rights organisations, US Government websites, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and a significant number of legal commentators, to reject the argument that Gaza is no longer occupied. International Law and the Classification of Conflicts . Even after the accession to power of Hamas, Israel's claim that it no longer occupies Gaza has not been accepted by UN bodies, most States, nor the majority of academic commentators because of its exclusive control of its border with Gaza and crossing points including the effective control it exerted over the Rafah crossing until at least May 2011, its control of Gaza's maritime zones and airspace which constitute what Aronson terms the 'security envelope' around Gaza, as well as its ability to intervene forcibly at will in Gaza. While Israel withdrew from the immediate territory, it remained in control of all access to and from Gaza through the border crossings, as well as through the coastline and the airspace. In addition, Gaza was dependent upon Israel for water, electricity sewage communication networks and for its trade (Gisha 2007. In other words, while Israel maintained that its occupation of Gaza ended with its unilateral disengagement Palestinians – as well as many human right organizations and international bodies – argued that Gaza was by all intents and purposes still occupied. "UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Call for Strengthening of International Support to the oPt" . In Dumper, Michael; Badran, Amneh (eds.). Routledge Handbook on Palestine (1st ed.). In this context we should not overlook the latest turning point in the history of Palestine – the attack by Hamas on 7th October 2023 on Israeli settlements adjacent to Gaza and the subsequent genocidal war that the state of Israel has carried out in the Gaza strip Speri, Alice (20 December 2024). Reexamining the question, a year later" . This report focuses on the Israeli authorities' policies and actions in Gaza as part of the military offensive they launched in the wake of the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023 while situating them within the broader context of Israel's unlawful occupation, and system of apartheid against Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. It assesses allegations of violations and crimes under international law by Israel in Gaza within the framework of genocide under international law, concluding that there is sufficient evidence to believe that Israel's conduct in Gaza following 7 October 2023 amounts to genocide. The only normative definition we have, codified at the United Nations Genocide Convention of 1948, accurately describes the current situation in Palestine ... describes exactly what is happening in Gaza today "One year of denouncing the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza" .