Samson, Saul, and David are biblical figures who were in conflict with the inhabitants of Gaza, who at that time were the Philistines. Since then, the area has been occupied by a succession of empires for centuries until the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) was founded in 1964 and Yasser Arafat moved there 30 years later.
Israel’s conflict with Gaza has a long history. Philistia, an ancient region that included what is now Gaza, caused conflicts for the inhabitants of Israel as far back as the time of the Book of Judges, more than 3,000 years ago. The first Philistines (not to be confused with modern Palestinians) were seafaring invaders, and biblical Philistia consisted of five cities: Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, and Gath.
The Israelite tribe of Dan lived near northern Philistia, which forbade the Israelites from producing weapons — prompting judges such as Samson to use highly unconventional ones. Samson’s conflicts with the Philistines stand out among biblical stories: he tied flaming torches to the tails of 300 foxes and released them into Philistine fields, and he slew 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of aa ass. The secret of his strength was revealed by his Philistine wife Delilah, but at the end of his life, he brought down the temple of Dagon in Gaza, killing himself and thousands of Philistines.
Israel’s first king, Saul of the tribe of Benjamin, won several battles against the Philistines before his successor King David defeated the giant Philistine Goliath with his sling — causing the Philistines to flee so that the Israelite army could plunder their camp.
After the Roman Empire’s victory following the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE, the Romans renamed the province of Judea to Syria-Palestina, from which the modern name “Palestine” is derived.
Jewish Community Destroyed
Toward the end of the Hasmonean era about 2,000 years ago, a Jewish community was established in Gaza which was later destroyed during Arab pogroms in 1929. The background to this was that the Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini tried to prevent Jews from praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. During the 1929 riots, the Jews of Gaza were forced to flee the city, marking the official end of a Jewish presence there that had lasted thousands of years.
During the Six-Day War of 1967, Israeli forces returned to Gaza and occupied it.
The first Jewish communities were established in the early 1970s. In 1981, as part of a peace agreement with Egypt, Jewish residents left Sinai, some of them moving to the Gaza Strip.
After the Arab world rejected the UN Partition Plan of 1947, five Arab states attacked Israel following the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948. The Egyptian army captured the Gaza Strip during the ensuing Israeli War of Independence.
The area was occupied by Egypt, which in 1959 decided that Gaza should be incorporated into the United Arab Republic—that is, become part of Egypt—with little or no protest from the international community. With Egypt’s support, the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) was founded in 1964 with the goal of “liberating” the territory that became the State of Israel in 1948 — in other words, to eliminate the Jewish state.
In the 1967 defensive war (the Six-Day War), Israel captured the Gaza Strip from Egypt, and Gaza was under Israeli control from 1967 to 1994. The first Jewish communities were re-established in the early 1970s. In 1981, as part of a peace agreement with Egypt, Jewish residents left Sinai, some of them moving to the Gaza Strip.
In 1994, as part of the Oslo Accords, the PLO-dominated Palestinian Authority assumed control of Gaza, where Arafat established his headquarters. In the summer of 2005, Israel completed its withdrawal from the area and evacuated the 8,000 israeli residents who had lived in southern Gaza for decades without any demands for concessions from the Palestinian Authority. Even 46 Jews buried in Gaza were exhumed and reinterred elsewhere.
No Elections Since 2006
The terrorist organization Hamas won the first and only Palestinian parliamentary election in 2006 and, the following year, seized control of the Gaza Strip by force from the Palestinian Authority. Both Israel and Egypt then closed their border crossings with Gaza.
In the 18 years since, no further elections have been held, and since 2007, tens of thousands of rockets have been fired from Gaza at civilian targets in southern Israel. These rockets are often launched from densely populated areas to use human shields. Rockets have been fired from or hidden beneath UN schools, residential neighborhoods, cemeteries, and hospitals.
In May 2007, 40% of the population of Sderot was evacuated after rocket attacks from Gaza. In 2008, thousands of Israelis fled their homes in Ashkelon due to rocket bombardments. During the war between Hamas and Israel, 27,000 missiles have been launched at Israel, forcing half a million Israelis to leave their homes in southern and northern Israel.
Palestinian rockets often fall short and land in Gaza, killing hundreds of Palestinians due to misfires.
