Gaza - Ghazzahboth: gäzˈə, or Ghuzzehgŭzˈə, town (2003 est. pop. 380,000), principal city and administrative center of the Gaza Strip, SW Asia, on the Philistia plain between the Mediterranean Sea and W Israel. In ancient times, Gaza was an Egyptian garrison town (it is mentioned in the Tell el Amarna letters); later, it was one of the chief cities of the Philistines. There Samson brought down the temple on his captors and himself. Gaza was besieged for five months by Alexander the Great and during the wars of the Maccabees and in the Crusades. The town has long been of commercial importance, the meeting place of caravans between Egypt and Syria. The site of modern Gaza dates from the building programs of Herod the Great. Opinions differ on the site of ancient Gaza.

The Gaza Strip

The Gaza Strip (2003 est. pop. 1,330,000) is a rectangular coastal area (c.140 sq mi/370 sq km) on the Mediterranean Sea adjoining Egypt and Israel, in what was formerly SW Palestine. It is a densely populated and impoverished region inhabited primarily by Palestinian refugees; the majority live in large, overcrowded refugee camps. There are about 7,000 Israeli settlers living in semimunicipal developments in the Gaza Strip. The number of inhabitants has fluctuated with tensions in the Middle East, increasing greatly due to the Arab-Israeli Wars.

The Gaza Strip has a small construction industry, some farming, a modest citrus fruit industry, olive crops, and livestock grazing. However, Gaza depends on Israel for nearly 90% of its imports (largely food, consumer goods, and construction materials) and exports (mainly citrus fruit and other agricultural products), as well as employment, and the economy, such as it is, has been devastated by recent fighting.

Between 1917 and 1948 the region was part of Great Britain's Palestine mandate from the League of Nations. After the armistice agreement of 1949 until the 1967 war (with the exception of the Israeli occupation from Nov., 1956, to Mar., 1957), the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian administration. However, the Arab residents were never given Egyptian citizenship, thereby remaining stateless. After the 1967 war, Israel occupied the region, but autonomy for the area was promised by the 1978 Camp David Accords.

With the inception of the Palestinian uprising ( Intifada) in Gaza in 1987, the city became a major center of political unrest and violence, and the Gaza Strip remained under frequent military curfew, imposed by Israeli troops sent to quell violence and maintain order. High unemployment and low wages have been chronic problems. As a result of the Persian Gulf War (1991), masses of Palestinian workers in that area fled back to their families in the Gaza Strip, creating a dire economic crisis and greater unemployment.

In 1993 an accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) called for limited self-rule in the area. Under a May, 1994, agreement, Israel's occupying forces left much of the Gaza Strip and a Palestinian police force was deployed. Israel retained frontier areas and buffer zones around Israeli settlements. The breakdown in peace talks in 2000 and the subsequent resumption of violence hurt the local economy. Although the Gaza Strip has seen less fighting with Israelis than the West Bank, in 2003 the Israeli army moved more aggressively to control sections of the Gaza Strip in response to Palestinian attacks. The Israelis have also launched attacks against leaders of Hamas, which has carried out many suicide attacks; in 2004 Hamas's spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, killed in an Israeli strike. The area also has been the scene of fighting between Palestinian National Authority forces and Hamas, which has many supporters there.

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright© 2004, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved.