Asian Art

Gaza Strip

The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the West Bank) that make up the State of Palestine in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Gaza is bordered by Egypt on the southwest, Israel on the east and north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Its capital and largest city is Gaza City. The territorial boundaries were established by the Green Line of the 1949 Armistice Agreements at the conclusion of the 1948 Palestine war, at which time Gaza was controlled by the Kingdom of Egypt. During that period, the All-Palestine Protectorate, also known as All-Palestine, was established with limited recognition, and it became a refuge for Palestinians who fled or were expelled by Zionist forces in the Nakba. In the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, Israel captured and occupied the Gaza Strip among other territories, initiating a decades-long military occupation of the Palestinian territories. The mid-1990s Oslo Accords established the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a limited governing authority, initially led by the secular party Fatah until its electoral defeat in 2006 to the Sunni Islamist Hamas. Hamas would then take over the governance of Gaza in the Battle of Gaza the next year, subsequently warring with Israel. The restrictions on movement and goods in Gaza imposed by Israel date back to the early 1990s. In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew its military forces from Gaza, dismantled its settlements, and implemented a temporary blockade of Gaza. The blockade became indefinite after the 2007 Hamas takeover. Egypt also began its blockade of Gaza in 2007. Despite the Israeli disengagement, Gaza was still considered occupied by Israel under international law, being described as an "open-air prison". Israel's actions in Gaza since the start of the war that began in 2023 have resulted in large-scale loss of life, mass population displacement, a humanitarian crisis, and a partial famine. These actions have been described by scholars, international law experts, and human-rights organizations as constituting a genocide against the Palestinian people. A provisional ceasefire began in mid-January 2025, lasting two months. In August, Israel began an offensive on Gaza City. By 9 October 2025, Israel and Hamas agreed to the first part of a United States-led peace plan.

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See also

• ▸Court painter
• ▸10 Ursae Majoris
• ▸East Mountain Teaching

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