Gaza

Gaza is the capital of today’s Gaza Strip, located about 61 kilometers west of Hebron and 45 kilometers northwest of Beersheba, approximately 5 kilometers from the Mediterranean coast. The ancient city was built on a small hill about 33 meters high. Its fertile land and fifteen nearby springs, which supplied water for both residents and agriculture, made the area rich in produce. The city’s location was crucial as it controlled the coastal highway between Egypt and Mesopotamia. It was a military and commercial stronghold for over six millennia, earning it the nickname “Damascus of the South.” It was one of the five major Philistine cities and had even served as their capital, as well as an Egyptian base in Canaan on several occasions.

Although Gaza is very close to the Mediterranean Sea, its role as a Palestinian trade center came from its land routes, which brought many caravans from across the Fertile Crescent, not from sea trade (it had no port before the Roman era). However, this convenient location was also a liability. Because the coastal road was a path for armies from Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, Gaza was often a victim of war. Despite being repeatedly suppressed by these great powers, it seemed to never completely lose its sovereignty, only paying tribute and submitting to them.
Gaza was occupied by the Assyrians in 734 BC. Its ancient city was besieged by Alexander the Great in 332 BC and held out for five months, a testament to its strong fortifications. In 61 BC, it became a free city of the Roman Empire. It was completely destroyed in the Jewish-Roman War of 66 AD and came under Arab rule in 635 AD. When Israel gained independence, Gaza was under Egyptian control as their northernmost defensive line. It was then occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War. More recently, it was assigned to the Palestinian Authority along with Jericho. Its current population is approximately 50,000.

The name Gaza first appears in the Bible in Genesis 10:19, where it is described as a boundary of the Canaanite territory, extending from Sidon to Gaza. The account of Joshua’s conquest states that one of the areas he conquered was “from Kadesh-barnea to Gaza” (Joshua 10:41). Joshua wiped out all the Anakim from the land, but some remnants remained in Gaza and other Philistine cities (Joshua 11:22). During the reign of Solomon, Gaza was designated as Israel’s southern boundary. Solomon “ruled over all the kings west of the Euphrates River, and from Tiphsah to Gaza” (1 Kings 4:24). The New Testament mentions Gaza in only one place (Acts 8:26). While Philip was preaching in Samaria, an angel told him to go south “on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” On the way, he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch who was sitting in his chariot reading from Isaiah chapter 53. Philip shared the gospel with him and then baptized him.

During World War I, the Ottoman Empire, which ruled the Middle East, allied with Germany and was defeated. As a result, the victorious British took control of the region known as Palestine. At that time, the land was inhabited by a Jewish minority and a majority Arab population. Tensions between the Jews and Arabs escalated when the international community gave Britain the mandate to establish a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine.

Between the 1920s and 1940s, the number of Jewish people arriving in Palestine steadily increased. They were fleeing persecution in Europe and seeking a new home after the Holocaust. At the same time, violence between Jews and Arabs, as well as against British rule, became more frequent. In 1947, the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into independent Jewish and Arab states (UN Resolution 181) and to make Jerusalem an international city. This plan was accepted by Jewish leaders but rejected by the Arab side, which led to the outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes in what they call “the Catastrophe” (Al Nakba). When a ceasefire was reached the following year, Israel controlled the majority of Palestine’s territory; Jordan occupied the land known as the West Bank; and Egypt occupied Gaza. Jerusalem was also divided, with Israeli forces taking control of the western part and Jordanian forces occupying the eastern part.

Since a lasting peace agreement has never been reached, both Israelis and Palestinians have blamed each other, leading to more conflicts and wars over the subsequent decades. In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, as well as most of the Syrian Golan Heights, Gaza, and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula.Most Palestinian refugees and their descendants now live in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as in neighboring Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. Over the past 50 years, Israel has built settlements in these areas, where over 600,000 Jewish people currently reside. Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, while Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Consequently, the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank is often very tense.

Currently, Gaza is governed by a Palestinian militant organization named Hamas, which has fought with Israel on multiple occasions. Israel and Egypt strictly control Gaza’s borders to prevent Hamas from acquiring weapons. Since mid-April 2021, when the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began, the threat of eviction for some Palestinian families in East Jerusalem has caused increasing anger, escalating tensions, and frequent clashes. Peace talks between the two sides have been intermittent for more than 25 years but have so far failed to resolve the conflict.