THE Gaza Strip is a small territory located in the Middle East. It has a coastal strip to the west of 40 km, with an exit to the Mediterranean Sea, and borders Israel and Egypt. The Gaza Strip integrates the territory of Palestine and is home to one of its largest cities, Gaza. The population in this region is approximately two million inhabitants, which makes it densely populated. The territory is very poor and faces severe structural problems, in addition to the constant conflicts, which aggravate their situation even more.
Read too: What is the Palestine question?
Summary on the Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip is a narrow territory of 365 km² located in the Middle East. It is washed by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and borders Israel and Egypt.
It has arid and semiarid climates, in addition to flat and wavy relief features.
Its population is currently 2,106,745 inhabitants, and it is a densely populated territory, with more than five thousand inhabitants/km².
The population of the Gaza Strip is very young and, in addition, most consider themselves refugees. Palestinians make up the vast majority of the population, and the Islamic religion is practiced by almost everyone in the area.
Hamas has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007.
In economic and infrastructural terms, the Gaza Strip is a very poor territory and faces serious supply problems. The situation worsened after the blockade imposed by Israel in 2007.
A series of armed conflicts marks the history of the Gaza Strip. The most recent of these involve Israel and Hamas.
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Video lesson about what is the Gaza Strip
General data for the Gaza Strip
Official name: Gaza Strip
Gentile: Palestinian
Territorial extension: 365 km²
Location: Middle East
Climate: Arid
Government: since 2007, Gaza has been ruled by Hamas.
Administrative division: five administrative territories
Language: Arabic
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Religions:
Islam (98%), with the majority being Sunni Muslims;
others, including Christian-based religions: 2%.
Population: 2,106,745 inhabitants
Demographic density: 5,771.9 inhab./km²
Human Development Index (HDI): 0.708 (Palestine)
Currency: Israeli New Shekel
Gross Domestic Product (GDP): $2.93 billion
GDP per capita: $6220 (annual value)
Gini: 0.337 (World Bank, 2016) - data for the entire Palestinian territory
Time zone: GMT +3
External relations: as part of the Palestinian territory, it integrates the UN as a permanent observer State.
See too: Causes and consequences of conflicts between Israel and Palestine
Gaza Strip Map
Geography of the Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip is a narrow localized territory nothe middle east. With approximately 41 km in length and width that reaches up to 12 km, the Gaza Strip has an area of 365 km². East and northeast, borders Israel, while, to the south and southwest, it makes border with the Egypt, more specifically with the Sinai Peninsula. To the west, the territory of Gaza is bathed by the mmediterranean air.
Together with areas in the West Bank, northeast of Israel, it forms what we know as the Palestine or the Palestinian territory. Thus, the Gaza Strip in isolation it's not a country. THE United Nations (UN), however, recognizes Palestine since 2012, when it was included in the organization as an observer state, with the approval of 138 nations, nine votes against and 41 abstentions.
The territory of Gaza is divided into five administrative districts or governorates, from the northeast to the southwest:
North Gaza
Gaza
Dayr al-Ballah
Khan Yunis
Rafah (the only one located on the border with Egypt)
Bordered by the Mediterranean and surrounded by extensive desert areas, the Gaza Strip has a climate that varies from Álaughed at semiarid. You winters vary from mild to cold, with an average of 13 ºC, while the summer it is characterized by low air humidity and high temperatures, with maximum temperatures of up to 31 °C. The rains are concentrated in the transition from autumn for the winter, with volumes of 300 mm per year.
Following the pattern of climatic distribution and the soils that are mostly sandy and clayey, the vegetation cover of the Gaza Strip is relatively dense on the coast and is becoming more rarefied as one moves to the eastern and southern lands. It is composed of formations characteristic of savannas, such as shrubs, maquis, medium and small trees, and grasses, with the presence of forests in the coastal zone.
O relief, in turn, is marked by gently wavy and flat features as well as by dunes (or sandbanks), which can be observed in the western and southern portions of the Gaza Strip. The highest elevation in the territory is 105 meters above sea level and is called Abu 'Awdah (Joz Abu 'Awdah).
Demographics of the Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip has, nowadays, 2,106,745 inhabitants, according to official data for the year 2021, made available by the Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics. This contingent is equivalent to approximately 40% of the Palestinian population, also taking into account the territories in the West Bank area. With a very limited territorial extension, the Gaza Strip is densely populated. The number of inhabitants, per km², reaches 5771.9.
About 77% of Gaza Strip residents live in urbanized areas, concentrating mainly on the cities of the provinces to the north. The city of Gaza is the largest of them, and has 590 thousand inhabitants.
The population living in the territory of the Gaza Strip is very young. Official information indicates that 41% are between 0 and 14 years of age, thus constituting the largest portion. The age group between 15 and 29 years old concentrates 28.2% of the inhabitants, while the elderly, that is, those aged 60 or over, comprise only 4.6% of the inhabitants. The median age of the population in the Gaza Strip is 18.3 years, one of the lowest in the world.
Another demographic feature of the Gaza Strip is the rapid population growth, which is around 2.8%, higher than the total for Palestine, which is 2.2%. This is mostly due to the high birth rate in the region, which currently stands at 28.1 births per thousand.
Gaza Strip Economy
The Gaza Strip is one of the poorest territories in the world. Your Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is US$ 2.93 billion, while the annual GDP per capita amounts to US$ 6220.
According to a study prepared by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and released in 2020, the economic development of the area was severely affected by the blockade imposed by Israel from 2007 onwards and which has continued, which occurred after the coming to power of the nationalist group Hamas. It is known that restrictive measures imposed by Israel have been present since at least the early 1990s, but became even more severe with the shift in power in the second half of the 2000s.
The blockade covers the air, sea and land spaces of Gaza, which restricts the entry and also the exit of goods and people to a minimum and has caused, according to the United Nations, a setback in the region, increasing poverty and food insecurity rates. It is estimated that the total cost was around US$ 16.7 billion, an amount that exceeds by almost six times the territory's GDP. The poverty rate, which was 40% in 2007, rose to 56% a decade later.
Production to supply the domestic market was affected by the lack of raw materials coming from abroad and the resulting increase in production costs. Furthermore, exports shrank, and this had direct repercussions on agricultural and industrial production.
Currently, 75% of GDP comes from the service sector, while industry and agriculture contribute with, respectively, 21.1% and 3%. A minority of the employed population is in the primary sector, from which products such as tomato, cucumber, eggplant, olives, poultry and milk are derived, especially from goat. The industry is responsible for the production of furniture, food and fabrics.
Gaza Strip Culture
The cultural development of the Gaza Strip took place over millennia of occupation, as shown by archaeological records, even today great influence of Turkish populations, given the long domination of the Ottoman Empire over the region., and above all from the Arabs.
Today the population of the Gaza Strip is made up of Palestinians, most of whom consider themselves refugees. Its main language is Arabic, and, besides him, the Hebrew is spoken. Islam is the predominant religion in that territory, as in all of Palestine, with the vast majority of its practitioners being Sunni. Religion and religious precepts still play an important role in the customs and daily life of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip.
The city of Gaza is home to large mosques, places of worship for supporters of the Islam, as well as cultural centers, theaters and a private archeology museum. Furthermore, three locations in the Gaza Strip are on the list of attempts to be included as FORattrimonies of Hhumanity by Unesco, two of them cultural and one as a natural heritage. They are, respectively:
the monastery of St. Hilarion (Tell Umm Amer);
the port of Anthedon;
the coastal terraces of Wadi Gaza.
Government of the Gaza Strip
Through the Oslo Agreements, signed in 1993, it was created the Palestinian National Authority (ANP), the body responsible for the political administration of the Palestinian territories, which includes the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority is divided into the Executive and Legislative, led respectively by the President and Prime Minister and the Legislative Council of Palestine.
Since 2007, however, the agency is only responsible for the West Bank territories. The parliamentary elections held in 2006 in Palestine resulted in the election of the nationalist group Hamas. After a conflict that erupted between this group and Fatah, defeated for the first time in the 2006 election, Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.
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History of the Gaza Strip
The occupation of the area we know today as the Gaza Strip dates back millennia before the current era, having been an important merchant region due to its strategic location, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and with access to the Middle East. Gaza City, however, was occupied by the Philistines fromdthe century XII The. Ç., attributing to this area then the name of Philistia, and exerting dominion over it for a long period.
Several other peoples passed through that region and left some of their influence. Nonetheless, the longest period was that under the ottoman empire, which fell apart at the end of the First World War (1914-1918). With that, the lands of the Gaza Strip were transferred to the British mandate., which imposed itself on the areas that today correspond to the Palestinian territory.
With the Partition of Palestine, in the year 1947, carried out within the framework of the United Nations, the territory of the Gaza Strip was assigned to the Arabs, as was the case with areas of the West Bank. The Oslo Accords (1993), which instituted the Palestinian Authority,plow that this entity would be responsible for the governance of the Gaza Strip.
Conflicts in the Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip is a region that lives enormous political instability and under constant threats and conflicts, for the most part, armed. As soon as the Arab territories in Gaza and the West Bank were established in 1947 and British rule ended a year later, the FORfirst Gwar ÁArab-Israeli, and Gaza was taken over by Egyptian forces. As a result of conflicts, the territory of Gaza was reduced and became the current Gaza Strip, whose boundaries were demarcated in 1949.
Another conflict that marked the history of the territory was the 1956 Suez Crisis, when the Gaza Strip was still under the rule of Egypt. At the end of this conflict, Israel occupied the area, but the Egyptian forces managed to re-establish themselves in the year 1957.
A decade later, in 1967, the Six Day War it was fought between Arabs and Israelis, and one of the results of that conflict was, again, Israel's domination of the Gaza Strip. 1987 is marked by the FORfirstIntifada, a revolt of the Palestinian people against Israeli troops. THE ssecond Intifada it happened in the year 2000, when, once again, the Palestinian people rebelled against the Israeli military in their territory, and stones and sticks were used as weapons, which caused the death of thousands of Palestinians.
Israel withdrew its troops from the region in 2005, but new conflicts erupted in 2007, when Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the Israelis, was elected and started to govern the Gaza Strip only. The initial conflict was between Hamas and the party that lost the elections, Fatah.
Since then, several offensives have taken place between Israel and Hamas, first between 2008 and 2009, and again in 2012, 2014, 2018 and 2019. The most recent conflict took place in May 2021, and began in East Jerusalem and lasted approximately 11 days, when a ceasefire was determined.
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Gaza Strip Infrastructure
Being an impoverished territory and the target of constant conflicts, the Gaza Strip faces serious structural problems, as in health, education, security, transport and especially those linked to the supply of the population and the supply of services, such as electricity and water.
Most of the population in the area has access to the power grid., show official Palestinian data, which is generated from fossil fuels and renewable sources, like the solar mainly.
Much of the energy consumed by homes is imported from countries like Egypt and Turkey, and, added to the conflicts taking place in the region, the Israeli blockade is also one of the factors responsible for the supply crisis. It is believed that new gas supply projects for power generation can be completed by 2022, thus helping to remedy or at least reduce the impacts of the bottleneck in the sector.
Water supply is very limited in the summer months., which adds to the recurrent scarcity. The only source of the Gaza Strip is the coastal aquifer, whose water quality has rapidly deteriorated due to the excess pollution, and, in addition, part of the water is lost on the way to homes due to the precariousness of the infrastructure. In many cases, the solution is to purchase clean water.
Importance of the Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip is a area of great importance to the Palestinian people, since it represents one of its territorial seats, or at least a portion of it, taking into account that the Palestinian territory is not contiguous. However, neighboring nations, especially Israel, also see the Gaza Strip as a strategic area, whether for historical reasons or because of the expansion of its civil and military borders.
See too: What is the difference between Arabs and Muslims?
Curiosities about the Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip is surrounded by walls that serve as a physical barrier between the territories of Israel and Egypt and the Palestinian territory.
UN data indicate that almost 75% of the population of the Gaza Strip registered as refugees. The territory currently has a total of eight Palestinian refugee camps.
Due to the Israeli blockade, underground tunnels were built on the border with Egypt and used during a time for the entry of goods, such as food, hygiene items, gasoline and others.
Image credit
[1] Indech, Lencer / commons
[2] Val_Yankin / Shutterstock
[3] Anas-Mohammed / Shutterstock
By Paloma Guitarrara
geography teacher
