Gaza passed successively into the hands of the United Kingdom, Egypt and Israel. At the end of the Second World War, Palestine was under the mandate of the English crown. The United Nations (UN) wants to share this territory to allow Arab residents and Jewish communities to live together, which created Israel on May 14, 1948. But the Jewish state has seized more territory vast than that which had been granted to him.
Egyptian administration of Gaza before 38 years of Israeli occupation
200,000 Palestinians driven from their homes are taking refuge in the south, in this narrow strip of sand wedged between the Mediterranean Sea and Egypt, where 80,000 other Palestinians from there already reside. To counter Israel’s decision, Egyptian soldiers are stationed in the area, sent by this neighboring country which administers without annexing what will become the current Gaza Strip.
Israel recovered this territory in 1967, during the Six-Day War. It was the start of 38 years of occupation and clashes between settlers and Gazans. After two uprisings called Intifadas – one in 1987 and the other in 2000 – Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in power from 2001 to 2006, decided to disengage his troops. The 75,000 Jewish civilians who had settled there were expelled in 2005.
The rise of Hamas and the Israeli blockade
In Gaza, the Palestinian flag once again flies atop the summit, but internal political forces disagree. The Palestinian Authority, led first by Yasser Arafat (from 1993 to 2004), then by Mahmoud Abbas (since 2005), was defeated in the 2006 legislative elections by Hamas, which asserted its military control on the ground.
But this control is relative. Israel, considering Hamas a terrorist organization, established a land, air and sea blockade. Since 2007 and until today, everything that enters or leaves Gaza is monitored, a list of prohibited products has been established, food is rationed… And the area is fenced, surrounded by a concrete earth wall and underground, true to its image. of an “open-air prison”.
This article is originally published on nouvelles-dujour.com
