Trump’s call for US ‘ownership’ of Gaza draws attention to Strip’s tumultuous history
Enclave’s recent past has been marked by conflict, from Egyptian military rule to IDF capture, the Oslo Accords to Hamas coup that ejected PA, the October 7 attack and subsequent war
Gaza has long been a powder keg, and it exploded after Hamas terrorists stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and began killing and abducting people, sparking a crushing Israeli military operation that’s only recently stopped under a tenuous ceasefire.
US President Donald Trump’s suggestion Tuesday that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be permanently resettled outside the war-torn territory and the US take “ownership” of the land is triggering new tensions over the future of the enclave.
While “owning” land is a term that appears to be more applicable to real estate than to territories, the Palestinians see the Gaza Strip as an integral part of their future state, even if the rulers have changed over decades. Palestinian statehood on land that would include the Gaza Strip has broad international support.
Here’s a look at the troubled modern history of the Gaza Strip:
1948 – 1967: Egyptian rule of Gaza
Before the war surrounding Israel’s establishment in 1948, present-day Gaza was part of the large swath of the Middle East under British colonial rule. After Israel defeated the coalition of Arab states, the Egyptian army was left in control of a small strip of land wedged between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean.
During the war, some 700,000 Palestinians either fled or were forced from their homes in what is now Israel — a mass uprooting that they call the Nakba, or “catastrophe.” Tens of thousands of Palestinians flocked to the strip.
Under Egyptian military control, Palestinian refugees in Gaza were stuck, homeless and stateless. Egypt didn’t consider them to be citizens and Israel wouldn’t let them return to their homes. Many were supported by UNWRA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, which has a heavy presence in Gaza to this day. Meanwhile, some young Palestinians became “fedayeen” — insurgency fighters who conducted raids into Israel.
1967 – 1993: Israel captures the Strip
Israel gained control of Gaza from Egypt during the 1967 Mideast war, when it also captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem — areas that remain under Israeli control. The internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, which administers semi-autonomous areas of the West Bank, seeks all three areas for a hoped-for future state.
Israel built more than 20 Jewish settlements in Gaza during this period. It also signed a peace treaty with Egypt at Camp David — a pact negotiated by US President Jimmy Carter.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has referenced this 40-year-old treaty when he declined to permit Palestinian refugees from Gaza into Egypt, saying the potential entrance of militants into Egypt would threaten longstanding peace between Israel and Egypt.
The first Palestinian uprising against Israel erupted in Gaza in December 1987, kicking off more than five years of sustained protests and bloody violence. It was also during this time that the Islamic terrorist group Hamas was established in Gaza.
1993 – 2005: The Palestinian Authority takes charge
For a time, promising peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders made the future of Gaza look somewhat hopeful.
Following the Oslo Accords — a set of agreements between then-Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and then-Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat that laid the groundwork for a two-state solution — control of Gaza was handed to the fledgling Palestinian Authority.
But the optimism was short-lived. A series of Palestinian suicide attacks by Hamas terrorists, the 1995 assassination of Rabin by a Jewish ultranationalist opposed to his peacemaking and the election of Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister the following year all hindered US-led peace efforts. Another peace push collapsed in late 2000 with the eruption of the second Palestinian uprising, marked by an onslaught of Palestinian suicide bombings.
As the uprising fizzled in 2005, then-Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon led a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, uprooting all of Israel’s troops and roughly 9,000 settlers in a move that bitterly divided Israel.
2005 – 2023: Hamas seizes power
Just months after Israel’s withdrawal, Hamas won parliamentary elections over Fatah, the long-dominant Palestinian political party. The following year, after months of infighting, Hamas violently seized control of Gaza from the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority.
Israel and Egypt imposed a crippling blockade on the territory, monitoring the flow of goods and people in and out. For nearly two decades, the closure crippled the local economy, sent unemployment skyrocketing and emboldened extremism in the region, which is one of the most densely populated places on the planet.
Through previous wars and countless smaller battles with Israel that devastated Gaza, Hamas has only grown more powerful. In each subsequent conflict, Hamas has had more rockets that have traveled farther. The terror group has displayed a growing array of weapons. Its top leaders survived, and ceasefires were secured. It built a government, including a police force, ministries and border terminals equipped with metal detectors and passport control.
2023 Hamas attack sparks the Israel-Hamas war
The October 7, 2023, Hamas attack saw some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists invade southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages. The slaughter sparked an Israeli declaration of war, followed by a major IDF air assault and ground invasion.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 47,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
The war left large parts of several cities in ruins and displaced around 90 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people.
Unlike past wars, in this conflict Israel has acknowledged killing top Hamas leaders like Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, the believed masterminds of the Hamas-led attack, and Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political bureau.
Still, some of the group’s fighters survived and were quick to emerge from hiding following the ceasefire, visible policing the streets and organizing sometimes-chaotic handovers of hostages.
Since the start of the current ceasefire-hostage release deal last month, 13 Israelis and five Thai hostages have been freed from Hamas captivity. An additional 20 Israelis are slated to be released over the coming weeks, although Israel has said it believes eight of them are no longer alive.
Seventy-six of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Negotiations on the second phase, which would end the war and see the remaining 60 or so hostages returned, are set to begin this week. If mediators the United States, Qatar and Egypt are unable to broker an agreement between Israel and Hamas, the war could resume in early March.
