What is the Gaza Strip?
This large map shows the 360 square kilometers of the Gaza Strip, a small but troubled region bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt, and Israel. According to the World Factbook, over one million people live in the Gaza Strip, and most are of Palestinian Arab ethnicity. Over 6,000 Israeli settlers also live in Gaza. Before 1948, the Gaza Strip, as well as the adjacent West Bank area of the Jordan River, and what is now the state of Israel, were all known as Palestine. This area had been under the jurisdiction of Great Britain since World War I, and before that was part of the Ottoman Empire. Zionism, a political movement advocating the establishment of a Jewish nation-stat
The Gaza Strip is a sliver of land about 140 square miles along the Mediterranean Sea that Israel captured from Egypt during the 1967 Middle East War. Israel, which occupied the area until 2005, still controls most of the border, the airspace and access from the sea. It is currently governed by Hamas. Q: What is Hamas? A: Hamas is an acronym based on the Islamic Resistance Movement’s Arabic name. The Islamist group was founded in 1987 with a goal of destroying Israel. Hamas runs social service programs in Gaza and is a political party that won the Palestinian parliamentary elections in January 2006. Western governments consider Hamas a terrorist organization and have shunned the group because it has refused to formally accept Israel’s right to exist. Q: Why is Israel attacking Hamas? A: Israeli officials maintain that they were forced to act to curb the Hamas rocket attacks, which they say put 900,000 Israeli citizens at risk. Officials say two broad principles need to be met before th
