Gaza is a territory that is today controlled 100% by Hamas, a recognized Islamist terror organization.
Though there has been Jewish history in Gaza from Biblical times, in modern history, it was largely settled by Arab communities.
In 1949, when the dust settled after the War of Independence, Gaza was occupied by Egyptian military forces. There were thousands of Palestinian Arab refugees living there, and they were not given the opportunity to obtain Egyptian citizenship or rights that native Egyptians had.
In 1967, during the Six Day War, the Israeli military conquered Gaza and the entire Sinai Peninsula. Even after the Sinai was returned to Egypt in 1982, Israel maintained its control over Gaza, and several Israeli communities developed in Gaza.
In 2005, Israel disengaged from Gaza entirely, giving the territory over to the Palestinian Authority. It uprooted approximately 8,000 Jewish Israelis who lived in Gaza, and offered to leave their infrastructure, buildings, and greenhouses intact. The Palestinians either asked for them to be destroyed prior to the disengagement, or destroyed everything themselves, rather than use them for their own benefit.
In 2007, Hamas staged a bloody coup in Gaza, and took over the small territory. Today, approximately 1.5 million Palestinians reside in Gaza under the brutal rule of Hamas. Israel maintains a blockade of Gaza by land and sea to prevent weaponds from entering the territory, because Gaza has become a staging ground for rocket attacks against Israeli civilian centres, and a significant security threat to Israel. Egypt also closely monitors its border with Gaza, as the Egyptians also view Gaza as a security risk as well.
Despite what is seen of Gaza in the media, there are also luxury homes, hotels, and shopping areas in Gaza. Tragically, the leadership of Hamas have absconded with billions of dollars of aid directed to humanitarian projects in Gaza, and has invested in terror tunnels under the territory, rather than in critical social infrastructure.
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