With a population of 2 million and an area of 365 square kilometers, Gaza is a coastal strip of land that lay on ancient trading and maritime routes along the Mediterranean shore.
It was part of the Ottoman Empire for most of the period from the 16th century until 1917, until it was taken by British troops during World War I.
After British rule, violence intensifies between Jews and Arabs, culminating in war between the newly created State of Israel and its Arab neighbours in May 1948.
Egypt held the Gaza Strip for two decades under a military governor
War and Israeli military occupation Israel captured the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war.
First Palestinian uprising. Hamas formed
Israel and the Palestinians signed an historic peace accord in 1993 that led to the creation of the Palestinian Authority. Under the interim deal, Palestinians were first given limited control in Gaza, and Jericho in the West Bank. Yasser Arafat returned to Gaza after decades in exile.
In 2000, Israeli-Palestinian relations sank to a new low with the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada.
Israel evacuates its Gaza settlements
In 2006, Hamas scored a surprise victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections and then seized full control of Gaza, overthrowing forces loyal to Arafat's successor, President Mahmoud Abbas.
Gaza's economy has suffered repeatedly in the cycle of conflict, attack and retaliation between Israel and Palestinian militant groups. Before 2023, some of the worst fighting was in 2014, when Hamas and other groups launched rockets at Israel.