. . . 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, which has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967.
The territories of Gaza and the West Bank are separated from each other by Israeli territory. Both are 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, leading to the territory being often called an "open-air prison".
. . . Gaza was part of the Ottoman Empire before it was occupied by the United Kingdom (1918–1948), Egypt (1948–1967), and then Israel, which in 1993 granted the Palestinian Authority in Gaza limited self-governance through the Oslo Accords. Since 2007, the Gaza Strip has been de facto governed by Hamas, which claims to represent the State of Palestine and the Palestinian people.
The United Nations, international human rights organizations, and the majority of governments and legal commentators still consider the territory to be occupied by Israel despite the 2005 Israeli disengagement from Gaza. Israel maintains direct external control over Gaza and indirect control over life within Gaza:
-Israel controls Gaza's air and maritime space and six of Gaza's seven land crossings
- Israel 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 its water, electricity, telecommunications, and other utilities.
- Hamas.
. . . an Islamic political and military organization that currently governs the Gaza Strip, one of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank. While the organization is headquartered in Gaza City, it also has a presence in the West Bank, in which Fatah exercises control. It is widely considered to be the "dominant political force" within the Palestinian territories.
Hamas was established soon after the first Intifada in 1987. Campaigning on using armed resistance to end the Israeli occupation, it won the 2006 Palestinian legislative election,[38] gained a majority in the Palestinian parliament, and became the de facto governing authority of the Gaza Strip after 2007. Israel and Hamas have engaged in several wars of varying intensity since then. It holds that the existence of Israel is inherently illegitimate, rejects a proposed two-state solution to the conflict, and promotes a solid position on the creation of a Palestinian Islamic state stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Under the ideological principles of Islamism, it promotes Palestinian nationalism in an Islamic context; it has pursued a policy of jihad, armed struggle, against the State of Israel. Hamas has pushed through changes that gave greater influence to Islamic law in the Gaza Strip.
