Israel says it will seize Gaza. Here's a look at the Palestinian territory's troubled recent history

JERUSALEM – Israel's Cabinet voted Monday to seize the Gaza Strip for an unspecified magnitude of clip successful a determination that could spot Israel reestablish power implicit a territory it vacated 2 decades ago.

Israel withdrew from Gaza successful 2005 aft a decades-long concern and past imposed a blockade connected the territory on with Egypt.

Israeli officials did not clarify Monday what a reoccupation of Gaza would entail, but the announcement raises the imaginable for the reestablishment of Israeli settlements wrong the territory. Israel's settler question has been emboldened nether its existent ultranationalist government.

Details were not formally announced, and Israeli leaders person said the enlargement of operations volition not statesman until aft President Donald Trump’s visit. The program whitethorn beryllium different measurement by Israel to effort to unit Hamas into making concessions successful ceasefire negotiations.

Seizing Gaza would further dim hopes for Palestinian statehood, embed Israel wrong a colonisation profoundly hostile to it and rise questions astir however Israel plans to govern the territory, particularly arsenic it considers however to instrumentality President Donald Trump’s imaginativeness to instrumentality implicit Gaza and resettle Palestinians elsewhere.

Palestinians spot Gaza arsenic an integral portion of their aboriginal state, adjacent if the rulers person changed implicit decades. Palestinian statehood connected onshore that would see the territory has wide planetary support.

Here’s a look astatine the troubled modern past of the Gaza Strip:

1967 — 1993: Israel seizes power of Gaza from Egypt

Israel seized power of Gaza from Egypt during the 1967 Mideast war, erstwhile it besides captured the West Bank and eastbound Jerusalem — areas that stay nether Israeli control. The internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, which administers semi-autonomous areas of the occupied West Bank, seeks each 3 areas for a hoped-for aboriginal Palestinian state.

Israel built much than 20 Jewish settlements successful Gaza during this period. It besides signed a peace pact with Egypt astatine Camp David — a pact negotiated by U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi referenced this 40-year-old pact erstwhile helium declined to licence Palestinian refugees from Gaza into Egypt, saying the imaginable entranceway of militants into Egypt would endanger longstanding bid betwixt Israel and Egypt.

The archetypal Palestinian uprising against Israeli concern erupted successful Gaza successful December 1987, kicking disconnected much than 5 years of sustained protests and bloody violence. It was besides during this clip that the Islamic militant radical Hamas was established successful Gaza.

1993 — 2005: The Palestinian Authority takes charge

For a time, promising bid talks betwixt Israeli and Palestinian leaders made the aboriginal of Gaza look somewhat hopeful.

Following the Oslo accords, a acceptable of agreements betwixt Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Liberation Organization person Yasser Arafat that laid the groundwork for a two-state solution, power of Gaza was handed to the fledgling Palestinian Authority.

But the optimism was abbreviated lived. A bid of Palestinian termination attacks by Hamas militants, the 1995 assassination of Rabin by a Jewish ultranationalist opposed to his peacemaking, and the predetermination of Benjamin Netanyahu arsenic premier curate the pursuing twelvemonth each hindered U.S.-led bid efforts. Another bid propulsion collapsed successful precocious 2000 with the eruption of the 2nd Palestinian uprising.

As the uprising fizzled successful 2005, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon led a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, uprooting each of Israel’s troops and astir 9,000 settlers successful a determination that bitterly divided Israel.

2005 — 2023: Hamas seizes power

Just months aft Israel’s withdrawal, Hamas won parliamentary elections implicit Fatah, the long-dominant Palestinian governmental party. In 2007 aft months of infighting, Hamas violently seized power of Gaza from the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority.

Israel and Egypt imposed a crippling blockade connected the territory, monitoring the travel of goods and radical successful and out. For astir 2 decades, the closure has crippled the section economy, sent unemployment skyrocketing, and emboldened militancy successful Gaza, which is 1 of the astir densely populated places connected the planet.

Through erstwhile wars and countless smaller battles with Israel that devastated Gaza, Hamas grew much powerful. In each consequent conflict, Hamas had much rockets that traveled farther and the radical displayed a increasing array of weapons. Its apical leaders survived and ceasefires were secured. It built a government, including a constabulary force, ministries and borderline terminals equipped with metallic detectors and passport control.

2023 Hamas onslaught sparks the Israel-Hamas war

The Oct. 7, 2023, a Hamas onslaught connected Israel killed immoderate 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw astir 250 radical taken hostage. Israel says 59 captives stay successful Gaza, though astir 35 are believed to beryllium dead.

Since Israel ended a ceasefire with the Hamas militant group successful mid-March, Israel has unleashed fierce strikes connected the territory that person killed hundreds. It has captured swaths of territory and now controls astir 50% of Gaza. Before the truce ended, Israel halted each humanitarian assistance into the territory, including food, substance and water, mounting disconnected what is believed to the beryllium the worst humanitarian situation successful astir 19 months of war.

Israel’s violative has displaced much than 90% of Gaza’s colonisation and killed much than 52,000 radical there, galore of them women and children, Palestinian wellness officials say. They bash not separate betwixt combatants and civilians successful their count.

Unlike past wars, successful this struggle Israel has acknowledged sidesplitting apical Hamas leaders similar Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, the believed masterminds of the Oct. 7 attack, and Ismail Haniyeh, the caput of Hamas’ governmental bureau.

Still, immoderate of the group’s militants survived and were quick to look from hiding pursuing the ceasefire. They were disposable policing the streets and organizing sometimes-chaotic handovers of hostages.

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