GAZA STRIP

Arabic Qita' Ghazzah, Hebrew Rezu'at 'Azza territory occupying 140 square miles (363 square km) along the Mediterranean Sea just northeast of the Sinai Peninsula. Except for Jammu and Kashmir in the northwestern Indian subcontinent, the Gaza Strip is the world's only densely settled area not recognized as a de jure part of any extant country. After Ottoman Turkish rule there ended in World War I, the Gaza area became part of the League of Nations mandate of Palestine under British rule. Before the termination in 1948 of this mandate, the General Assembly of the United Nations in November 1947 accepted a plan for the Arab-Jewish partition of Palestine under which the town of Gaza and an area of surrounding territory were to be allotted to the Arabs. The British mandate ended on May 15, 1948, and on the same day the first Arab-Israeli War broke out and Egyptian forces entered Gaza town, which became the headquarters of the Egyptian expeditionary force in Palestine. As a result of heavy fighting in autumn 1948, the area around the town under Arab occupation was reduced in extent to a strip of territory 25 miles (40 km) long and 45 miles (68 km) wide, which became known as the Gaza Strip. Its boundaries were demarcated in the Egyptian-Israeli armistice agreement of Feb. 24, 1949. The Gaza Strip was under Egyptian military rule during the periods 194956 and 195767. The chief economic and social problem of the area from its creation was the presence of large numbers of Palestinian Arab refugees, living in extreme poverty in squalid camps. Not considering the area its territory, Egypt did not allow the refugees to become citizens or to migrate to Egypt proper or to other Arab countries where they might be integrated into the population. Israel, on the other hand, did not allow them to return to their former homes. The refugees were maintained largely through the aid of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Many of the younger refugees became fedayeen (Arab guerrillas operating against Israel); their attacks on the Israeli civil populace were one of the causes precipitating the Sinai campaign of 1956, when the strip was taken by Israel. The strip reverted to Egyptian control in 1957 following strong international pressures on Israel. In the Six-Day War (June 1967) the area was retaken by Israel, whose military administered it until 1994. In December 1987 rioting and violent street clashes between Gaza's Palestinians and occupying Israeli troops marked the birth of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising. In 1994 Israel began a phased transfer of governmental authority in the Gaza Strip to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) under the terms of the Israel-PLO accords. By 1995 the fledgling Palestinian government, led by PLO chairman Yasir 'Arafat, struggled with such problems as a stagnant economy, divided popular support, negotiations with Israel on troop withdrawals and territoriality, and threats of terrorism from such militant Islamic groups as the Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Resistance Organization (Hamas). Living conditions in the Gaza Strip are poor owing to its dense and rapidly increasing population; inadequate water, sewage, and electrical services; and extreme unemployment. Agriculture is the economic mainstay of the employed population; nearly three-fourths of the land area is under cultivation. The chief crop, citrus fruits, raised on irrigated lands, is exported to European and other countries under arrangement with Israel. Truck crops, wheat, and olives also are produced. Light industry and handicrafts are centred in Gaza, the chief city of the area. As much as one-tenth of the Palestinian population travels daily to Israel (where they are not allowed to stay overnight) to work in menial jobs. The first accurate census, conducted in September 1967, showed a population smaller than had previously been estimated by the UNRWA or by Egypt, with nearly half of the people living in refugee camps. Pop. (1994 est.) 755,200.