What is the Gaza Strip?

Policy Brief Program

October 2023

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On October 7, the military wing of Hamas conducted an air and ground attack against Israel, taking hostages back into the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government responded with a complete siege on Gaza, stopping deliveries of food, water, electricity and other supplies, and carried out retaliatory air strikes.

Breaking Updates (As of October 13, 2023):

• Over 1,300 people in Israel and 1,799 people in Gaza have been killed.
• Between 100 and 150 Israelis and foreign nationals have been taken into Gaza as hostages.
• Human Rights Watch verified videos showing use of artillery-fired white phosphorus by Israel in Gaza City and two rural locations at the Israel-Lebanon border.
  • White phosphorus is “unlawfully indiscriminate” when used in crowded civilian areas, where it can set fires to homes and burn civilians to the bone.
• Internet connectivity in Gaza has been below 20% since Tuesday because of the damage inflicted by Israeli air strikes, according to network analyst Doug Madory.
• The Israeli Defense Forces ordered 1 million Gazans, roughly half the population, to evacuate northern Gaza and go to the southern part of the territory.
  • The UN urged Israel to reverse the order and U.S. Secretary of State Blinken says he, “rejects the forced displacement” of Palestinians.

Geography & Demographics:

• The Gaza Strip is a 25 mile long, roughly 5-mile-wide strip of land that borders Egypt, the Mediterranean Sea, and Israel.
• The population of Gaza is roughly 2.2 million and is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. 
  • 65% of Gaza’s population is under the age of 24 and almost 40% is under the age of 15. 
  • 60% of Gaza’s population are refugees and nearly 75% are supported by UNRWA.
• More than half of the Gaza population lives in poverty.
  • 45% of Gazans are unemployed.

Humanitarian Situation:

• After Hamas gained control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Israel announced an air, land, and sea blockade that limits the movement of people and goods through Israeli-controlled crossings.
  • Israel asserts that the blockade aims to prevent Hamas from gathering weapons, yet the group has been able to smuggle weapons in and out of the country through a network of tunnels.
  • Many human rights organizations and politicians refer to Gaza as the world’s largest open-air prison.
• 80% of Palestinians in Gaza depend on international assistance to survive due to the blockade.
  • In August 2023, the World Food Programme reported that 63% of Gazans are food insecure, up from 44% in 2012.
  • UNICEF reported that 96% of water from Gaza’s sole aquifer is unfit for human consumption.
• The ongoing conflict has severe impacts on children’s mental health. One study showed as many as 42% of students needed psychosocial intervention due to trauma reactions. 
• For Palestinians, leaving the Occupied Territories requires an Israeli issued travel permit. According to Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, Israel “refuses” to issue these permits to Gazans, with rare exceptions.
  • Before the Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007, nearly 120,000 Gazans worked in Israel. In mid-2021, 7,000 Gazans had work permits and in October 2022, Israel raised the quota to 17,000. 

Governance:

• After World War II, the UN proposed a partition between a Palestinian Arab and Jewish state. 
  • After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip. 
  • After the 1967 War, Israel occupied Gaza and the West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem.
• In 2005, Israel removed all Israeli settlers from the 17 settlements in Gaza.
• Hamas won the 2006 legislative elections in Gaza, beating the Fatah party, which runs the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank.
  • Hamas has not held elections in Gaza since 2006.
• In 2007, Hamas defeated Fatah in a military conflict in Gaza. The PA was expelled from the Gaza Strip.
• According to Freedom House, the Gaza Strip is a de facto one-party state under Hamas.

Image: Ramez Habboub