HISTORY OF GAZA STRIP.
THE 25-mile stretch of land which makes up the Gaza Strip had been fought over for hundreds of years before the Arab-Israeli conflict.After the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, a million Arabs fled there, expelled from the newly-created state of Israel.
Egypt controlled the region until Israel seized it in 1967.
Thirty years of fighting over Israeli settlements followed until Israel withdrew in 2005. But the following year armed group Hamas were elected in Palestine and in 2007 seized control of Gaza.
They used the strip to launch rocket and terrorist attacks into Israel, while Israeli forces responded with strikes on settlements.
Since 2007 Israel has banned all but essential food and medicine entering the Strip to try to crush Hamas... a move condemned by human rights groups.
A six-month truce in 2008 came to nothing and in December that year Israel launched air strikes.
The following month Israel invaded in Operation Cast Lead, a 22-day war which cost the lives of 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.
The rocket attacks and air strikes continue.
CAPTION(S):
Bloody battles continue in Gaza
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| Publication: | Sunday Mirror (London, England) |
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| Date: | Jun 6, 2010 |
| Words: | 181 |
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