Struggle cements bonding to Gaza

The ongoing massacre of Gazans is not the first in the history of the strip. However, it surely is the best documented.

Throughout history Gazans have suffered waves of invasions that have done nothing but make them more attached to their land and, paradoxically, the strip has become one of the most densely populated areas in the world — 1.5 million people living in an area 40 kilometres long and 8 kilometres wide.

Waves of invaders have killed the people of the strip randomly. The latest of them, the Israeli army, has been the most inhumane, said Professor Mohammad Al Hawary, a specialist in Israeli history from the Cairo-based Ain Shams University.

“The ancestors of Gazans, living in the area between the Sinai Peninsula to the west and the historical Palestine to the south and east, faced many invasions throughout history.

However, they failed to drive Gazans out of their homes,'' Al Hawary said.

Gaza City, the largest urban centre in Gaza, was held through history by Persia, Egypt, Syria, Babylonia, the Romans and the Hellenic state.

In 1570, the Ottomans ruled this part, followed by the British before it was reoccupied by the Israelis in 1967.

Gazans are a proud community, Al Hawary said. “Part of their pride is based on the historical importance of the strip.

The tombs of Samson and Hashim, the great grandfather of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), were found on their land.

They love to be called the ancestors of Jabareen (The grandsons of Samson) or the grandsons of Hashim, the father of Arabs and Muslims,'' he said.

Nowadays the majority of the strip's population is made up of refugees who had fled their homes in Palestine following attacks by Israeli terrorist groups before the formation of Israel in 1948.

Following the establishment of Israel over part of historical Palestine, Gaza was annexed to Egypt and ruled by that country's military authority.

“Egypt has always proclaimed that the strip is being held by its forces in trust for the Arab-Palestinians and will be returned to their state whenever such a state becomes viable,'' Al Hawary said.

The strip briefly came under Israeli occupation during the Suez-Sinai War, when Egypt fought Israel, France and England following the nationalisation of the Suez Canal by then Egyptian president Jamal Abdul Nasser.

The occupation troops withdrew in 1957 as a result of international pressure for a ceasefire.

The ceasefire agreement was signed in 1957 as per which the strip was placed under the UN emergency force with Egypt in control of its civil administration.

Ten years later, Al Hawary said, Israel recaptured the strip during the Arab-Israeli war of June 1967 and placed it under Israeli administrative and military rule. It never annexed or incorporated the strip, though.

The UN Security Council called for an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza strip and other Palestinian territories in its resolution 242, which was never implemented since it was passed more than 40 years ago.

Till 2006, before its withdrawal from Gaza, Israel argued that it would not withdraw unless it reached a proper peace agreement with the Arabs and Palestinians. This condition impeded the peace process in Gaza.

According to Al Hawary, Gaza finds mention in the Torah and the Old Testament (15th century BC). In the 13th century BC, it was taken by the Philistia and Philistines.

Since then Gaza changed hands many times over the next 20 centuries.

It came under King David's rule in 1000 BC and the Assyrians in 732 BC, Egyptians and Babylonians in 586 BC, followed by Persians in 525 BC.

Alexander the Great faced great resistance when he invaded the strip in 332 BC. After he conquered the strip, he sold its inhabitants as slaves to neighbouring nations.

Gazans enjoyed liberty after ages of troubled history with the spread of Islam in the region in the 7th century.

But this did not last long since Gaza and neighbouring Palestinian areas were attacked by waves of Crusaders and invaders from Europe and the West.

The province was liberated by Islamic leader Al Nasir Salahuddin and captured by the Ottomans in 1517.

Napoleon conquered the territory in 1799 and in 1832, Gaza became part of Egypt.

The region witnessed fierce battles between the Ottomans and the British during the First World War over the control of Sinai and the coastal route to the Levant that starts in Gaza.
The strip fell into British control on November 3, 1917, following the “3rd battle over Gazain''.

Under the British Mandate of Palestine, the British authority implemented the Balfour Declaration according to which a “national home for the Jewish people'' was to be established.

The British, however, vowed that under the declaration nothing should be done that might prejudice the civil and the religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.

“One can see today how the declaration has been enforced and how the international commitment was respected in Gaza and elsewhere in Palestine,'' Al Hawary said.

Gaza under Israeli occupation

1947: United Nation Partition Plan decides Gaza should become part of the state of Palestine.

1949: Egypt takes over Gaza as per the Armistice Agreement with Israel.

1949 to 1967: Palestinian-Arab refugees flee to Gaza to escape massacres conducted by Israeli terrorists in their villages and towns in Israel.

June 1967 to 1994: Israel creates 21 settlement blocks comprising 20 per cent of the territory.

May 1994: Oslo agreement signed with the PLO. Israel controls air space, territorial waters, offshore maritime access, the population registry, entry of foreigners, imports and exports, and the tax system.

September 2000: The second Intifada forces Israel to implement a unilateral disengagement plan. February 2005: Israel completes withdrawal.

September 2005: Israel removes all 9,000 Israeli settlers but maintains its control over the crossings in and out of Gaza. The Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza is monitored by the Israeli army through special surveillance cameras.

Official documents such as passports, ID cards, export and import papers, and many others must be approved by the Israeli army.

January 2006: Hamas wins majority of the FNC seats and forms the first national government. Israel boycotts the democratically elected government and enforces blockade against Gaza, prompting Hamas to retaliate by firing missiles against Israel.

June 2008: Israel and Hamas agree on a six-month truce under mediation by Egypt. The truce is not enforced by Israel and dozens of Gazans are killed by Israeli army.

The two parties fail to extend the truce when it expires. A new war erupts on the eve of New Year.