Home to almost two million Palestinians, the majority of whom are long-term refugees, Gaza is one of the most crowded places on Earth
Gaza is bordered to the south by Egypt, to the north and east by Israel and to the west by the Mediterranean sea
1. Where is Gaza?
Friday 25 May 2018
Gaza is home to almost two million Palestinians, the majority of whom are long-term refugees (a further 3.25 million Palestinians live in the West Bank). It’s been run by Hamas since elections in 2007: the group is designated as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the EU among others. The West Bank is governed by the Palestinian Authority, which is currently controlled by Fatah, rivals of Hamas.
2. The event that changed Palestinians
The dominant event for Palestinians in Gaza during the past century has been the Nakba of 1948, when hundreds of thousands were driven from, or else fled, their homes in what is now modern-day Israel as the state came into existence. The right of return to ancestral homes (or "Haq al-Awda") is the over-riding long-term priority for many Palestinians: it forms part of United Nations resolution 194.
3. Palestinians recall what was lost
Palestinian houses and cinemas, shops and mosques, train stations and markets were all lost in 1948. Tarek Bakri, a researcher and archivist based in Jerusalem, started to collect archive photography which documented these losses. The image below slides left and right: MEE has published more examples.
Above: Israelis looting houses in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Musrara in Jerusalem. Musrara is one of the oldest neighbourhood built outside Jerusalem's Old City walls in the 1860s.
4. Gaza since 1948
The seven decades after the Nakba have been ones of turmoil and crisis for the residents of Gaza, including occupation, uprisings and Israeli military operations.
