What was the nature of the relationship between State of Israel and the Gaza Strip since 1948?
Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Gaza Strip has played a huge role in Israel's foreign and domestic policy, sometimes under Israel's control, most of the time not and never part of the state. Always a big headache and a source of problems and arguments.
1949 - Map 1 - Armistice lines were agreed upon between Israel, the newly born country and surrounding Arab countries. The Gaza Strip was outside of Israel, under the control of Egypt.
1967 - Map 2 - The 6-day war ended with unbelievable results: Israel tripled its territory: the Golan Heights from Syria, the West Bank from Jordan and Sinai + the Gaza Strip from Egypt. The Gaza Strip remains under Israeli military control, not part of the State of Israel.
1994 - Map 3 - Oslo agreement between Israel and the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization, chairman at the time: Yasser Arafat) - Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip but not completely, Jewish settlements were not evacuated.
2005 - Israeli disengagement from Gaza - 21 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip were unilaterally dismantled and Israeli settlers and the army were evacuated from the Gaza Strip, back to the ceasefire lines of 1949. The entire Gaza Strip was left under the control of the Palestinian Authority.
2007 - Hamas took over the Gaza Strip - The Fatah-Hamas conflict is an ongoing political and strategic conflict between Fatah and Hamas, the two main Palestinian political parties, which led to Hamas taking over the Gaza Strip in June 2007.
The Independent Palestinian Committee for Civil Rights reports that over 600 Palestinians were killed in the fighting between Hamas and Fatah from January 2006 to May 2007. Dozens more were executed by Hamas.
Summary -
1948-2024 - The Gaza Strip was never part of the State of Israel
1948-1967 - Gaza strip was under Egyptian control for 19 years
1967-1994 - Gaza strip was under Israeli control for 28 years
1994-2024 - Gaza strip was under Palestinian self-rule for 30 years.
The Palestinians have had so much time, years and years and years to turn the Gaza Strip into the Singapore of the Middle East. But they only succeeded in turning it into the worst nest of terror ever created in the history of the human kind.
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