What Exactly is the Gaza Strip?

Palestine attacked Israel recently on October 7 and brutally killed over 1,4000 people, and now, Israel is all set to retaliate against Hamas.

A total of 2,450 people were killed in the airstrikes on Gaza. After this, Israel is all set to mass military equipment and troops on its border with the Gaza Strip. Gaza is actually under the control of Hamas. Israel has alarmed over 1.1 million people in the Gaza Strip's northern half to evacuate, as per the United Nations.

Israel is working on a ground offensive into the strip. Here is everything you need to know about Gaza.

Understanding Gaza

A narrow land strip Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas of the world. The Gaza Strip or simply the Gaza is over seven miles wide and over twenty-five miles in length. One can consider the size of Gaza by thinking of it as about twice the complete size of Washington DC.

The Gaza Strip has Israel to its north and east, and the Mediterranean Sea to its west. Egypt lies in the south of Israel.

It is a Palestinian territory that borders Jordan.

The people of the Gaza Strip

As stated above, the Gaza Strip is densely populated, as it has about 2 million people residing in it. Data by the World Health Organization reveals that a majority of these 2 million people are actually young in age. Over 50 percent of the population of the country is under the age of 18.

Talking about the religion followed by its people, almost all (98-99 percent) of the people of Gaza are Muslim, as per the CIA World Factbook. The rest of the people are Christians.

More than a million people in Gaza are actually refugees. There are a total of eight recognized Palestinian refugee camps, as per the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. The Agency helps Palestine.

History of Gaza

The history of Gaza has been quite eventful. The area has been inhabited for thousands of years. The very first historical event that people talk about regarding Gaza is that the region has been an Egyptian base. Secondly, the place has also been a Philistines' royal city. Thirdly, it is also the place where Hebrew Samson died.

From the 16th to the 20th century, Gaza fell under the Ottoman Empire. However, later, the place was taken over by the British post the First World War.

In the year 1947, the UN decided to split the British Mandate of Palestine into two different lands, one for the Arab population and the other for Jews.

The founder of Israel, David Ben Gurion proclaimed in the year 1948, the setup of the state of Israel. Over 70,000 Palestinians or more were either expelled or fled. Most of them were denied return.

Following the independence declaration by Israel, Egypt attacked the newly independent state via the Gaza Strip. In this attack, Israel came out victorious, but Gaza stayed under the control of Egypt.