Gaza’s 100-year history of war

Gaza’s 100-year history of war

Subject :IR

Section: Places in news

Before Haifa, Gaza:

• Ten months before the Battle of Haifa, Indian lancers and Gurkha riflemen played a pivotal role in the Third Battle of Gaza in November 1917.
• They fought alongside the Empire forces against the Ottomans, commanded by German General Kress von Kressentstein and Erich von Falkenhayn, the former Prussian Minister of War.
• The Imperial Service Cavalry Brigade, composed of Indian troops, engaged in intense battles and strategic maneuvers, ultimately leading to the retreat of the Ottoman forces from Gaza and the northeastern end of the Gaza Strip, marking a turning point in the Palestine campaign.

The history of Gaza after 1918:

• Gaza came under British control in 1918 after the Ottomans were defeated in World War I.
• After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, it fell into Egyptian hands.
• An Egyptian puppet government was dissolved in 1959 when Egypt took control.
• In 1967, Israel launched preemptive strikes against Egypt, leading to its occupation of Gaza, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights.
• This Six-Day War resulted in a clear Israeli victory, reshaping the region’s dynamics and conflicts.
• The Yom Kippur War in 1973, despite an Israeli victory, made it clear that a continuous state of war was unsustainable.
• Efforts to negotiate peace escalated as Egypt moved away from the Soviet sphere.
• The Camp David Accords of 1978 brought significant changes, with Israel agreeing to withdraw from Sinai in exchange for diplomatic relations with Egypt and recognition of Palestinian rights.
• The Accords earned President Anwar Sadat and Prime Minister Menachem Begin the Nobel Peace Prize, leading to the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty.
• The Oslo Accords in 1993 and 1995 established the Palestinian National Authority and led to the coexistence of Fatah-controlled areas in the West Bank and Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
• That year, Hamas, the militant Palestinian organization, founded in 1987 with the aim of armed resistance to Israeli occupation, won the elections. A year later, they ousted Fatah  which was co-founded by Yasser Arafat in 1959 and which is now led by President Mahmoud Abbas from Gaza, and took full control of the Strip.
• Ariel Sharon’s government unilaterally dismantled Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip in 2005, leading to criticism and concern over Hamas’s rise to power.
• After Israel’s disengagement plan in 2005, Israeli settlements were removed, and around 9,000 settlers were evacuated from the Gaza Strip.
• While Palestinians were promised control over the territory, Israel retained authority over Gaza’s airspace and territorial waters according to the Oslo agreements. 
• The Gaza Strip initially had seven border crossings for the movement of goods and people. However, due to a blockade imposed in 2007, only the Rafah crossing in Egypt and the Erez crossing in northern Gaza with Israel remain accessible to people.
• Israel faces criticism for its perceived restrictions and control over Gaza, likened by some to an open-air prison.