Gaza Strip
A narrow 41 km strip on the Mediterranean and one of the most densely populated places on earth.
~365 km²area
~2.1 millionpeople today
Palestinian territoriesstatus
History
- 1917–48Part of the British Mandate. The 1947 UN Partition Plan assigned it to the proposed Arab state.
- 1948–67Held by Egypt after the 1948 war. Tens of thousands of refugees from the war settled in camps that are still there. Egypt never annexed it.
- 1967Captured by Israel in the Six-Day War.
- 2005Israel withdrew all soldiers and removed its 21 settlements (about 8,000 people).
- 2007Hamas took control from the Palestinian Authority after a short civil war. Israel and Egypt then imposed a blockade.
- 2023–25Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 hostages. The war that followed killed tens of thousands in Gaza and displaced most of its population. A US-brokered ceasefire began in October 2025.
Today
The Palestinian Authority does not govern it. Who runs it after the war is still unsettled.
Select Gaza Strip on the map