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Gaza Strip

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Gaza
غَزَّة
Flag of the Gaza Strip
Location of Gaza within Palestine
Location of Gaza within Palestine
Status
Capital
and largest city
Gaza City
31°30′53″N 34°27′15″E / 31.51472°N 34.45417°E / 31.51472; 34.45417
Official languagesArabic
Ethnic groups
Palestinian
Religion
Demonym(s)Palestinian
Government State of Palestine
Area
• Total
365 km2 (141 sq mi)
Population
• 2022 estimate
2,375,259[2]
• Density
6,507/km2 (16,853.1/sq mi)
CurrencyIsraeli new shekel
Egyptian pound[3]
Calling code+970
ISO 3166 codePS
  1. ↑ The State of Palestine is recognized by 147 members of the United Nations as well as the Holy See.
State of Palestine Gaza
Emblem of Palestine Governance of Gaza


Gaza (also called the Gaza Strip) is a polity along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of two territories that make up the State of Palestine. (The other is the West Bank).

Gaza City is its main city. The Palestinian National Authority governed Gaza until 2006, and before 2007, Harakat At-Tahriri Al-Filistiniya administered the territory.

Geography

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Size

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Gaza is a small area:

According to one article:[4]

The whole of Gaza (aka the Gaza Strip) is about twice the size of Washington, D.C. and three times the population. [...] The Gaza Strip is geographically about the size of Philadelphia, Detroit or the country of Grenada. The Gaza Strip has the same land area as Las Vegas but more than three times the population. There are approximately 2.23 million residents of the small territory.

Features

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Three mountain ridges run alongside Gaza's coastline. These ridges are very important to Gaza's topography.

Gaza's major river is Wadi Gaza. The Wadi Gaza Nature Reserve was established to protect the country's only coastal wetland.

Gaza's major cities include:

Al Deira beach is popular for surfers.[5]

Climate

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Gaza has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen BSh). Summers are hot and dry. Winters are warm, and the country gets almost all of its rain during this season. Despite the dryness, humidity is high throughout the year.

Annual rainfall is higher than in any part of Egypt: between 225 mm (9 in) in the south and 400 mm (16 in) in the north. However, almost all of this rain falls between November and February.

The country has various environmental problems, including soil degradation and salination of fresh water.

History

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Gaza was historically part of Palestine. However, the Ottoman Empire controlled the area from the 16th century through the end of World War I. At that point, the Ottoman Empire was broken up.

Now the British offered to let Egypt govern Gaza. (Previously, in 1906, the Ottomans and the British Empire had set Gaza's international border with Egypt.) Egypt refused, so Britain itself occupied the territory from 1917–1918.

The British also occupied Gaza from 1920 until 1948. Then, in 1948, the League of Nations ordered a "Mandatory Palestine".

1948–1959

During the 1948 conflict (particularly the 1948 War), tens of thousands of Palestinians were forcibly expelled to Gaza by Israeli and Jewish terrorist groups. By the end of the war, 25% of Mandatory Palestine's Arab population was in Gaza, though the area constituted only 1% of the land. The same year, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was established to administer various refugee programmes.

Palestinians in an outdoor market in Gaza, 1956

Demographics

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Children in Gaza City lining up for class, 2009

In 2010, approximately 1.6 million people lived in Gaza.[6] Almost a million of them were UN-registered refugees.[7] The majority have parents who were refugees and were forcibly driven out of their homes by Israeli/Jewish terrorist groups during the 1948 War. Gaza's population has increased since then.

Many people living in Gaza are children. Almost half (43.5%) of the population is 14 or younger. In 2014, the median age was 18.

Sunni Muslims make up 99.8% of Gaza's population. Christians make up the other 0.2%; there are between 2,000 and 3,000 of them in Gaza.[8]

Sports

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In 2010, Gaza inaugurated its first Olympic-size swimming pool at the As-Sadaka club. The opening ceremony was held by the Islamic Society. The swimming team of as-Sadaka holds several gold and silver medals from Palestinian swimming competitions.

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References

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  1. ↑ "Mideast accord: the overview; Rabin and Arafat sign accord ending Israel's 27-year hold on Jericho and the Gaza Strip" Archived 9 December 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Chris Hedges, New York Times, 5 May 1994.
  2. ↑ "مليونان و375 ألف نسمة عدد سكان قطاع غزة مع نهاية 2022". arabic.news.cn. Archived from the original on 5 January 2023. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
  3. ↑ Chami, Ralph; Espinoza, Raphael André; Montiel, Peter J. Macroeconomic policy in fragile states. Oxford: Oxford university press. ISBN 978-0-19-885309-1.
  4. ↑ "How Big is Gaza?". Anera. Retrieved 2024-10-01.
  5. ↑ Roug, Louise (23 August 2007). "In Gaza, surfers find peace and freedom riding the deep blue". Articles.latimes.com. Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
  6. ↑ "CIA — The World Factbook — Gaza Strip". CIA. 2014. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
  7. ↑ "UNRWA: Palestine refugees". Un.org. Archived from the original on 17 December 2007. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
  8. ↑ Middle East Christians: Gaza pastor Archived 23 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine BBC News, 21 December 2005




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