Gaza

Climate

Temperate, mild winters, dry and warm to hot summers.

History

Gaza has been around for a while: the earliest known reference is an inscription in the Temple of Amun at Karnak, Egypt, dated 1500 BC, which states that the town of Gaza is 'flourishing'. And for a long time it did: a staging post on trade routes connecting Asia and Persia with Arabia, Egypt and Africa, even the name means "treasure" in Arabic. Alexander the Great laid siege to the town in 332 BC, executing 10,000 defenders after being held off for two months. Later, the town was held by the Romans, the Crusaders, the Mamluks, the Ottomans and briefly even by the French in 1799, when Napoleon Bonaparte set up camp on his way to defeat in Egypt. The Turks took it back, then lost it to the British in World War I. The Egyptian army grabbed it during the 1948 war that led to Israel's independence, opening camps for Palestinian refugees - and the current situation began when Israel occupied the Strip in 1967.

Spurred by the violence of the 1987-1993 Intifada "Uprising", Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed a "Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements" in 1993, under which the Palestinian Authority PA was created to govern the Gaza Strip and the West Bank for a transitional period "not exceeding five years" as a step towards full independence. Parts of the territories were indeed handed over the PA between 1994 and 1999, but the peace plans were derailed by the second intifada that broke out in September 2000, unleashing another spiral of violence.

Israel unilaterally disengaged from Gaza in 2005, evacuating all Jewish residents and withdrawing its troops from the territory. It did however retain control of the airspace and the coastline in addition to the fact the entire region is circled by a large armed security fence. The Islamist organization Hamas won elections in 2006 and violently kicked out the remnants of the Palestinian Authority in 2007. Under Hamas rule, the rain of Qassam rocket fire, as well as mortars, from Gaza into southern Israel increased, and Israel responded by locking down the borders down tighter than ever and conducting raids against Arab militants. From December 2008 to January 2009, Israel launched a massive coordinated air, naval, and land offensive in response to rocket attacks.

Understand

Positioned between Israel and Egypt, Gaza isn't quite the pure hellhole you might expect given TV coverage, although this birthplace of the intifada and one of the most overpopulated bits on the planet isn't exactly paradise on earth, either. It does have reasonably modern infrastructure and architecture despite its troubles, but a UN report as early as 1952 stated that the Strip was too small to support its population of 300,000, and now, there are now well over one million inhabitants and the latest figures from the Palestinian Authority put unemployment amongst those at a whopping 79%.

Geography

The Gaza Strip is a narrow, 40-km long slice of land between the Mediterranean to the west and the Negev desert to the east. Egypt lies to the south, the north and east border Israel. The urban sprawl of Gaza City, mostly stretching along and around the 3-km long Omar al-Mukhtar Street, covers much of the north. The other main towns of Khan Yunis and Rafah are near the southern border, with most of the rest covered with agricultural land.

A bit of terminology disentanglement: Gaza Strip refers to the entire 40-by-6 kilometer patch of territory. Gaza City refers to the town itself, in the northern part of the strip, but due to huge population growth the City now sprawls into many of the surrounding villages and it's a tough task to say what is a part of the City and what isn't. Both city and strip are pretty much interchangeably referred to as Gaza and this guide will follow suit.