Gaza ( ; also referred to as
Gaza City) is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip
, with a population of about 410,000, making it the
largest city under the control of the Palestinian National
Authority.
Inhabited since at least the 15th century BCE, Gaza has been
dominated by several different peoples and empires throughout its
history. The
Philistines made it a part
of their
pentapolis after the
Ancient Egyptians had ruled it for nearly 350
years. Under the
Romans and later the
Byzantines, Gaza experienced
relative peace and its port flourished. In 635, it became the first
city in
Palestine to be conquered by the
Rashidun army and quickly developed
into a center of
Islamic law. However, by the
time the
Crusader invaded the city, it was
in ruins. In later centuries, Gaza experienced several hardships
from
Mongol raids to floods and
locusts, reducing it to a village by the 16th century when it was
incorporated into the
Ottoman Empire.
During the first half of Ottoman rule, the Ridwan dynasty
controlled Gaza and under them the city went through an age of
great commerce and peace.
Gaza fell to
British forces during
World War I, becoming a part of the
British Mandate of
Palestine.
As a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Egypt
administered
the newly-formed Gaza Strip territory and several improvements were
undertaken in the city. Gaza was captured by Israel
in the
Six-Day War in 1967, but in 1993, the
city was transferred to the Palestinian National Authority.
Hamas took over the city in 2007 after months
of clashes with its rival
Fatah, and since
then Gaza has been under a
blockade by Egypt and
Israel.
The primary economic activities of Gaza are small-scale industries,
agriculture and labor. However, the economy has been devastated by
the blockade and recurring conflicts. Most of Gaza's inhabitants
adhere to
Islam, although there exists a
Christian minority. Gaza has a very young
population with roughly 75% being under the age of 25, and today
the city has one of the highest population densities in the
world—
refugees make up over half
of the residents.
Etymology
According to Zev Vilnay, the name "Gaza," from the Arabic "Ġazza",
originally derives from the Canaanite/Hebrew root for "strong"
(ʕZZ), and was introduced to Arabic by way of the
Hebrew, "ʕazzā", i.e. "the strong one (f.)";
cpr. English
stronghold. According to Mariam Shahin, the
Canaanites gave Gaza its name, the
Ancient
Egyptians called it "Ghazzat" ("prized city"), and the Arabs
often refer to it as "Ghazzat Hashim", in honor of
Hashim, the great-grandfather of
Muhammad, who is buried in the city,
according to Islamic lore.
History
Gaza's history of habitation dates back 5,000 years, making it one
of the oldest cities in the world.
Located on the Mediterranean coastal route between North Africa
and the Levant, for most of its history it
served as a key entrepot of southern Palestine and an important
stopover on the spice trade route
traversing the Red
Sea
.
Ancient period
Statue of Zeus unearthed in Gaza
Settlement in the region of Gaza dates back to Tell as-Sakan, an
Ancient Egyptian fortress built in
Canaanite territory to the south of
present-day Gaza. The site went into decline throughout the
Early Bronze Age II as its trade
with Egypt sharply decreased.
Another urban center known as Tell al-Ajjul
began to grow along the Wadi Ghazza
riverbed. During the
Middle
Bronze Age, a revived
Tell
es-Sakan became the southernmost locality in Palestine, serving
as a fort. In 1650 BCE, when the Canaanite
Hyksos occupied Egypt, a second city developed on the
ruins of the first Tell as-Sakan. However, it was abandoned by the
14th century BCE, at the end of the Bronze Age. Gaza later served
as Egypt’s administrative capital in
Canaan.
During the reign of
Tuthmosis III, the
city became a stop on the Syrian-Egyptian caravan route and was
mentioned in the
Amarna letters as
"Azzati". Gaza remained under Egyptian control for 350 years until
it was conquered by the
Philistines in
the 12th century BCE, becoming a part of their "
pentapolis".
In
Judeo-Christian religions, Gaza
was the place where, according to the
Book of Judges,
Samson
was imprisoned and met his death. After being ruled by the
Israelites,
Assyrians, and then the Egyptians, Gaza
achieved relative independence and prosperity under the
Persian Empire.
Alexander the Great besieged Gaza, the
last city to resist his conquest on his path to Egypt, for five
months before finally capturing it 332 BCE; the inhabitants were
either killed or taken captive. Alexander brought in local Bedouins
to populate Gaza and organized the city into a
polis (or "
city-state").
Greek
culture consequently took root and Gaza earned a reputation as
a flourishing center of
Hellenic
learning and philosophy. Gaza experienced another siege in 96 BCE
by the
Hasmonean king
Alexander Jannaeus who "utterly
overthrew" the city, killing 500 senators who had fled into the
temple of
Apollo for safety.
Josephus notes that Gaza was resettled under the
rule of
Antipas, who cultivated friendly
relations with Gazans,
Ascalonites and
neighboring Arabs after being appointed governor of Idumea by
Jannaeus. Rebuilt after it was incorporated into the
Roman Empire in 63 BCE under the command of
Pompey Magnus, Gaza was temporarily
ruled by
Herod the Great before
becoming a part of the
Roman province of
Syria. It was targeted by the Jews during their rebellion
against Roman rule in 66 and was partially destroyed.
It nevertheless
remained an important city, even more so after the destruction of
Jerusalem
.
Throughout the Roman period, Gaza was a prosperous city and
received grants and attention from several emperors.
A 500-member senate
governed Gaza, and a diverse variety of Philistines, Greeks,
Romans, Canaanites, Phoenicians
, Jews, Egyptians, Persians, and Bedouin populated
the city. Gaza's mint issued coins adorned with the busts of
gods and emperors.
During his visit in 130 CE, Emperor Hadrian personally inaugurated wrestling,
boxing, and oratorical competitions in Gaza's new stadium, which
became known from Alexandria
to Damascus
. The
city was adorned with many pagan temples; the main cult being that
of
Marnas. Other temples were dedicated
to
Zeus,
Helios,
Aphrodite,
Apollo,
Athene and the local Tyche.
Christianity began to spread throughout Gaza in
250 CE, last in the
port of Maiuma.
Conversion to Christianity in Gaza was accelerated under
Saint Porphyrius between 396 and 420. In
402, he ordered all eight of the city's pagan temples destroyed,
and four years later Empress
Aelia
Eudocia commissioned the construction of a church atop the
ruins of the Temple of Marnas.
Islamic era
Following the division of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century BCE,
Gaza remained under control of the
Byzantine Empire.
In 635 CE, Gaza was
quickly besieged and captured by the Arab Rashidun Caliphate under general 'Amr ibn al-'As following the Battle of
Ajnadayn
in central Palestine. Believed to be the
site where Muhammad's great grandfather
Hashim ibn Abd Manaf was buried, the
city was not destroyed by the victorious
Rashidun army.
The arrival of the Muslim Arabs brought
drastic changes to Gaza; its churches were transformed into
mosques, including the present Great Mosque of Gaza
(the oldest in the city), the population swiftly
adopted Islam, and Arabic became the
official language. In 767,
Muhammad
ibn Idris ash-Shafi'i was born in Gaza and lived his early
childhood there; al-Shafi'i founded a prominent
Sunni Muslim legal philosophy (or
fiqh) called
Shafi'i, in
his honor. In 796, Gaza was destroyed during a
civil war between the Arab
tribes of the area. However, by the 10th century CE the city had
been rebuilt by a third Arab
caliphate
ruled by the
Abbasids; Arab
geographer
al-Muqaddasi described Gaza
as "a large town lying on the highroad to Egypt on the border of
the desert." In 977 CE, a fourth Arab caliphate ruled by the
Fatimids established an agreement
with the competing
Seljuk Turks,
whereby the Fatimids would control Gaza and the land south of it,
including Egypt.
European
Crusaders conquered Gaza from the
Fatimids in 1100 and King
Baldwin III built a castle there in
1149. After the castle's construction, Baldwin granted it and the
surrounding region to the
Knights
Templar. He also had the Great Mosque converted into the
Cathedral of Saint John. In 1154, Arab traveler
al-Idrisi wrote Gaza "is today very populous and
in the hands of the Crusaders."
In 1170, King Amalric I of Jerusalem withdrew
Gaza's Templars to assist him against an Islamic Ayyubid force led by Saladin at the nearby city of Deir al-Balah
; however, Saladin evaded the Crusader force and
assaulted Gaza instead, destroying the town built outside the
castle. Seven years later, the Templars prepared for another
defense of Gaza against Saladin, but this time the Islamic forces
attacked Ascalon. In 1187, Saladin captured Gaza and ordered the
destruction of the city's fortifications in 1191.
Richard the Lionheart apparently
refortified the city in 1192, but the walls were dismantled again
as a result of the
Treaty of Ramla
agreed upon months later in 1193. The Ayyubid period of rule ended
in 1260, after the
Mongols under
Hulagu Khan completely destroyed Gaza,
which became his southernmost conquest.
Following Gaza's destruction by the Mongols, Muslim slave-soldiers
based in Egypt known as the
Mamluks
began to administer the area in 1277. The Mamluks made Gaza the
capital of the province that bore its name,
Mamlakat
Ghazzah ("the Governorship of Gaza").
This district
extended along the coastal plain from Rafah
in the south
to just north of Caesarea
, and to the east as far as the Samaria
highlands and the Hebron
Hills. Other major towns in the province included
Qaqun
, Ludd
, and
Ramla
. In 1294, an earthquake devastated Gaza, and
five years later the Mongols again destroyed all that had been
restored by the Mamluks.
However, circa 1300, Syrian
geographer
al-Dimashqi described Gaza as a "city so
rich in trees it looks like a cloth of brocade spread out upon the
land." In 1348, the
Bubonic
Plague infested the city, killing the majority of its
inhabitants and in 1352, Gaza suffered from a destructive flood,
which was rare in that arid part of Palestine. However, when Arab
traveler and writer
Ibn Batutta visited
the city in 1355, he noted that it was "large and populous, and has
many mosques." The Mamluks contributed to Gazan architecture by
building mosques, Islamic schools, hospitals, caravansaries, and
public baths.
Ottoman rule
In 1516, Gaza—by now a small town with an inactive port, ruined
buildings and reduced trade—was incorporated into the
Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman army quickly and
efficiently crushed a small-scale uprising, and the local
population generally welcomed them as fellow
Sunni Muslims. The city was then made the
capital of
Sanjak Gaza, part of the
larger
Province of Damascus. The
Ridwan family, named after governor Ridwan Pasha, was the first
dynasty to govern Gaza and would continue to rule the city for over
a century.Ze'evi, 1996, p.40.
Although
no explanation is provided in the biographies of the Ridwan family,
they chose Gaza as their home and the location of their castle,
Qasr
al-Basha
.
Husayn Pasha, a member of the Ridwan family, inherited the
impoverished governorship of Gaza in the 17th century. His period
in office was peaceful and prosperous for Gaza and he gained a good
reputation for considerably reducing the strife between the nearby
Bedouins and the settled population. In 1660, Gaza was designated
the capital of Palestine, indicating the city's rapid recovery. The
Great Mosque was restored, and six other mosques constructed, while
Turkish baths and market stalls
proliferated. Anonymous petitions sent to Istanbul complaining
about Husayn's failure to protect the
Hajj caravan, however, served as an excuse for the
Ottoman government to depose him. After the death of Husayn's
successor, Ottomans officials were appointed to govern in place of
the Ridwans. The Ridwan period was Gaza's last golden age during
Ottoman rule. After the family was removed from office, the city
itself went into gradual decline.Ze'evi, 1996, p.41.
Gaza was briefly occupied by the
French
Army under
Napoleon Bonaparte
in 1799, but they abandoned the city after the failed
siege of Acre that same year. Starting
in the early 1800s, Gaza was culturally dominated by neighboring
Egypt;
Muhammad Ali of Egypt
conquered Gaza and most of Palestine in 1832. American scholar
Edward Robinson visited
Gaza in 1838, describing it as a "thickly populated" town larger
than Jerusalem, with its Old City lying upon a hilltop, while its
suburbs laid on the nearby plain. Gaza's port was inactive in the
mid-19th century, however, the city benefited from trade and
commerce because of its position on the caravan route between Egypt
and Syria as well as from producing soap and cotton for trade with
the Bedouin. Robinson noted that virtually all of Gaza's vestiges
of ancient history and antiquity had disappeared due to constant
conflict and occupation. The Bubonic Plague struck again in 1839
and the city, lacking political and economic stability, went into a
state of stagnation. In 1840, Egyptian and Ottoman troops battled
outside of Gaza. The Ottomans won control of the territory,
effectively ending Egyptian rule over Palestine. However, the
battles brought about more death and destruction in Gaza whilst the
city was still recovering from the effects of the plague.
Modern era

Gaza after surrender to British
forces, 1918
While leading the
Allied Forces during
World War I, the British won control of
the city during the
Third Battle of
Gaza in 1917. After the war, Gaza was included in the
British Mandate of Palestine.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Gaza underwent major expansion. New
neighborhoods were built along the coast and the southern and
eastern plains. International organizations and missionary groups
funded most of this construction. In the 1947
United Nations Partition Plan,
Gaza was assigned to an Arab state but was later administered by
Egypt following the
1948
Arab-Israeli War. Gaza's growing population was augmented by an
influx of refugees fleeing nearby cities, towns and villages that
were captured by Israel. In 1957, Egyptian president
Gamal Abdel Nasser made a number of
reforms in Gaza, which included expanding educational opportunities
and the civil services, providing housing, and establishing local
security forces.
Gaza was occupied by Israel during the 1967
Six Day War following the defeat of the
Egyptian Army. Frequent conflicts have erupted
between Palestinians and the Israeli authorities in the city since
the 1970s. The tensions lead to the
First
Intifada in 1987. Gaza was a center of confrontation during
this uprising, and economic conditions in the city worsened. In
September 1993, leaders of Israel and the
Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) signed the
Oslo
Accords.
The agreement called for Palestinian
administration of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank
town of Jericho
, which was implemented in May 1994. Israeli
forces withdrew from Gaza, leaving a new
Palestinian National
Authority (PNA) to administer and police the city. The PNA, led
by
Yasser Arafat, chose Gaza as its
first provincial headquarters. The newly-established
Palestinian National Council
held its inaugural session in Gaza in March 1996.
Since the Palestinian organization
Hamas won a
surprise victory in the
Palestinian elections of 2006,
it has been engaged in a violent power struggle with its rival
Palestinian organization
Fatah. In 2007, Hamas
overthrew Fatah forces in the Gaza Strip and Hamas members were
dismissed from the PNA government in the West Bank in response.
Currently, Hamas has
de facto control of the city and
Strip.
In March 2008, a coalition of human rights groups charged that the
Israeli blockade of the city had caused the humanitarian situation
in Gaza to have reached its worst point since Israel occupied the
territory in the 1967 Six-Day War, and that Israeli air strikes
targeting militants in the densely populated areas have often
killed bystanders as well. In 2008, Israel commenced an
assault against
Gaza. Israel stated the strikes were in response to repetitive
rocket and mortar attacks from the Gaza Strip into Israel since
2005, while the Palestinians stated that they were responding to
Israel's military excursions and
blockade of the Gaza Strip. In
January 2009, the
BBC reported that a total of
more than 1,300 Palestinians were killed and a further 5,500 had
been injured in the conflict. In addition, 4,000 buildings have
been destroyed and 20,000 damaged throughout the Gaza Strip.
Geography

Beach in Gaza City
Central Gaza is situated on a low-lying and round hill with an
elevation of above sea level. Much of the modern city is built
along the plain below the hill, especially to the north and east,
forming Gaza's suburbs. The beach and the port of Gaza are located
west of the city's nucleus and the space in between is entirely
built up on low-lying hills.
Gaza is
southwest of Jerusalem
, south of Tel Aviv
, and north of Rafah
.
Surrounding localities include Beit Lahiya
, Beit
Hanoun
, and Jabalia
to the north, and the village of Abu Middein
, the refugee
camp of Bureij
, and the
city of Deir
al-Balah
to the
south.
The municipal jurisdiction of the city today constitutes about . In
the British Mandate era, Gaza's urban or "built-up" area consisted
of , while its rural area was . Irrigated land made up and lands
planted with cereals made up .
The population of Gaza depends on groundwater as the only source
for drinking, agricultural use, and domestic supply. The nearest
stream is Wadi Ghazza to the south, sourced
from Abu Middein along the coastline. It bears a small amount of
water during the winter and virtually no water during the summer.
Most of its water supply is diverted into Israel. The Gaza Aquifer
along the coast is the main
aquifer in the
Gaza Strip and it consists mostly of
Pleistocene and sandstone. Like most of the Gaza
Strip, Gaza is covered by quaternary soil; clay minerals in the
soil absorb many organic and inorganic chemicals which has
partially alleviated the extent of groundwater contamination.
A well-known hill southeast of Gaza, known as Tell al-Muntar, has
an elevation of above sea level. For centuries it has been claimed
as the place to which
Samson brought the city
gates of the Philistines. The hill is crowned by a Muslim shrine
(
maqam) dedicated to Ali al-Muntar ("Ali of the
Watchtower"). There are old Muslim graves around the surrounding
trees, and the lintel of the doorway of the
maqam has two
medieval Arabic scriptures.
Old City and districts
The Old City forms the main part of Gaza's nucleus. It is roughly
divided into two quarters; the northern Daraj Quarter (also known
as the Muslim Quarter) and the southern Zaytoun Quarter (also known
as the Christian Quarter). Most of the structures date from the
Mamluk or Ottoman era ans some are built atop earlier structures.
The ancient part of the Old City is about .
There are seven historic gates to the Old City: Bab Asqalan (Gate
of Ashkelon), Bab al-Darum (Gate of Deir al-Balah), Bab al-Bahr
(Gate of the Sea), Bab Marnas (Gate of Marnas), Bab al-Baladiyah
(Gate of the Town), Bab al-Khalil (Gate of Hebron), and Bab
al-Muntar (Gate of Tell al-Muntar). Some of the older buildings use
the
ablaq style of decoration which features red and white
masonry, prevalent in the Mamluk era.
A few of Gaza's main
markets, such as the Gold Market as well
as its oldest mosque, the Great Mosque of Gaza
, are located here. In the Zaytoun
Quarter is the Church of Saint Porphyrius
, the Welayat Mosque
, and Hamam
as-Sammara ("the Samaritan's Bathhouse").
Gaza is composed of eleven districts (
hai) outside of the
Old City.
The first extension of Gaza beyond the city
center was the district of Shuja'iyya
, built on an eastern hill during the Ayyubid period of rule. In the 1930s and
1940s, a new spacial residential district, Rimal
, was
constructed on the sand dunes west of the city center, and the
district of Zeitoun
was built along Gaza's southern and southwestern
borders, while Shuja'iyya expanded into the east to form the
al-Judeide ("the New") and al-Turukman districts.
The areas between Rimal and the Old City became the districts of
al-Sabra and al-Daraj. To the northwest is the district of
al-Nasser, built in the early 1950s and named in honor of Egyptian
president Gamal Abdel Nasser.
To the northeast is the district of Tuffah
, which is
roughly divided into eastern and western halves.
The
district of Sheikh
Radwan
is to the north of the Old City and is named after
Sheikh Radwan—the tomb of whom is located within the
district. Gaza has absorbed the village of al-Qubbah
near the the border
with Israel
, as well as the Palestinian refugee camp of
al-Shati
along the coast, although the latter is not under
the city's municipal jurisdiction. In the late 1990s,
the PNA founded the more affluent neighborhood of Tel al-Hawa
along the southern edge of Rimal. Along the
southern coast of the city is the neighborhood of Sheikh
Ijlin.
Climate
Gaza has a relatively temperate
Mediterranean climate with mild
winters and dry, warm to hot summers. Spring arrives around
March-April and the hottest months are July and August, with the
average high being . The coldest month is January with temperatures
usually at . Rain is scarce and generally falls between November
and March, with annual precipitation rates approximately at .
Demographics
Population
Year |
Population |
1596 |
6,000 |
1838 |
15,000-16,000 |
1882 |
16,000 |
1897 |
36,000 |
1906 |
40,000 |
1914 |
42,000 |
1922 |
17,426 |
1945 |
34,250 |
1982 |
118,272 |
1997 |
353,113 |
2004 (Projected) |
381,247 |
2006 (Projected) |
409,680 |
According to Ottoman tax records in 1557, Gaza had 2,477 male tax
payers. The statistics from 1596 show that from the Muslims there
456 household heads, 115 bachelors, 59 religious persons, and 19
disabled persons. In addition to the Muslim figure were 141
Jundiyan or soldiers in the Ottoman army. Of the
Christians there 294 household heads and 7 bachelors and there were
73 Jewish household heads 8 Samaritan household heads.
In total, an
estimated 6,000 people lived in Gaza, making the third largest city
in Palestine after Jerusalem and Safad
.
In 1838, there were roughly 4,000 Muslim tax payers and 100
Christian ones, implying a population of about 15,000 or
16,000—making it larger than Jerusalem at the time. The total
number of Christian families was 57. Before the outbreak of
World War I, the population of Gaza had
reached 42,000; however, the fierce battles between Allied Forces
and those of the Ottomans and the Germans in 1917 in Gaza resulted
in a massive population decrease.
According
to a 1997 census by the Palestinian Central
Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Gaza and the adjacent al-Shati camp
had a population of 353,115 inhabitants, of which
50.9% were males and 49.1% females. Gaza has an
overwhelmingly young population with more than half being between
the ages of infancy to 19 (60.8%). About 28.8% were between the
ages of 20 to 44, 7.7% between 45 and 64, and 3.9% were over the
age of 64.
A significant number of Gaza's pre-1948 residents were
Egyptians or their descendants who had fled
political turmoil in Muhammad Ali's Egypt. A massive influx of
Palestinian refugees swelled
Gaza's population after the
1948
Arab-Israeli War. By 1967, the population had grown to about
six times its 1948 size. In 1997, 51.8% of Gaza's inhabitants were
refugees or their descendants.
The city's population has continued to
increase since that time to 409,680 in 2006, making it the largest
city in the Palestinian territories
. Gaza has one of the highest overall growth
rates and population densities in the world, with about 5,261
people per square mile. Poverty, unemployment and poor living
conditions are widespread and many residents rely on
United Nations food
aid to survive.

Natives of Gaza
Religion
The population of Gaza is overwhelmingly composed of
Arabic-speaking Muslims, who entirely
adhere to
Sunni Islam. While held by the
Fatimids,
Shia Islam was dominant in
Gaza, but after Saladin conquered the city, he promoted a strictly
Sunni religious and educational policy, which at the time was
instrumental in uniting his Arab,
Kurdish, and
Turkish soldiers.
There exists a small minority of about 3,500
Arab Christians in the city. The majority of
Gaza's Christians live in the Zaytoun Quarter of the Old City and
belong to the
Greek Orthodox,
Roman Catholic, and
Baptist denominations. In 1906, there were
only 750 Christians, of which 700 were Greek Orthodox and 50 were
Roman Catholic.
Gaza's Jewish community was roughly 2,000 years old, and in 1481
there were sixty Jewish households. Most of them left Gaza after
the
1929 Palestine riots, when
they consisted of fifty families. In Sami Hadawi's land and
population survey, Gaza had a population of 34,250, including 80
Jews in 1945. Most of them left the city after the 1948 War, due to
mutual distrust between them and the Arab majority.
Economy
Nineteenth century
Gaza was among six soap-producing cities in Palestine, overshadowed
by Nablus.
Gaza's factories purchased qilw
from merchants from Nablus and Salt, Jordan
. Gaza's port was eclipsed by the ports of
Jaffa and Haifa
, however,
it retained its fishing fleet. Although its port was
inactive, commerce thrived because of its strategic location.
Most
caravans and travelers coming from Egypt stopped in Gaza for
supplies, likewise Bedouins from Ma'an
, east of
the Wadi
Araba
, bought up all sorts of provisions from the city to
sell to Muslim pilgrims coming from Mecca
. The
bazaars of Gaza were well-supplied and were
noted by Edward Robinson as "far better" than those of Jerusalem.
Its principal commercial crop was cotton which was sold to the
government and local Arab tribes.
Modern era

Backyard industry
Since occupying Gaza in the
Six-Day War,
Israel has controlled Gaza's borders and restricted the flow of
goods and people into and out of Gaza. Israel greatly intensified
its blockade of Gaza in June 2007, when Hamas took over. Since
then, according to the
BBC, "there are high
levels of poverty, deprivation and unemployment in Gaza City ...
Only basic humanitarian items have been allowed in [the Gaza
Strip], and virtually no exports permitted, paralyzing the
economy."
Following the Six-Day War, Israel closed down
Gaza's port and consequently, the city lost its
fishing income. There were previous Palestinian and international
attempts to construct a major port in Gaza for the benefit of the
planned
State of Palestine, but
objections from Israel prevented such attempts. The major
agricultural products are strawberries, citrus, dates, olives,
flowers, and various vegetables. Pollution and massive population
pressure on water have reduced the productive capacity of the
surrounding farms, however.
Small-scale industries in the city include the production of
plastics, construction materials, textiles, furniture, pottery,
tiles, copperware, and carpets. Following the Oslo Accords,
thousands of residents were employed in the various government
ministries and security services, while others were employed by the
UNRWA and other international organizations
that support development of the city. Gaza contains some minor
industries, including textiles and food processing. A variety of
wares are sold in Gaza's street bazaars, including carpets,
pottery, wicker furniture, and cotton clothing; commercial
development in the city is minimal.
There are six hotels in Gaza: Palestine, Adam, al-Amal, al-Quds,
Cliff, and Marna House. All, except the Palestine Hotel, are
located along the coast. The
United
Nations (UN) has a beach club on the same street.
Gaza is not a
frequent destination for tourists, and most foreigners who stay in
hotels are journalists, aid workers, UN and Red Cross
personnel. Al-Quds Hotel is regarded as the
most up-market hotel in the city, and is the most recently
built.
Many Gazans worked in the Israeli service industry when the border
was open, but part of Israel's 2005 disengagement stipulated that
Gazans will no longer be able to work in Israel and few Gazans are
presently allowed to enter Israel. Gaza has serious deficiencies in
housing, educational facilities, health facilities, infrastructure,
and an inadequate sewage system, all of which have contributed to
serious hygiene and public health problems.
According to a recent report by
OXFAM,
unemployment in Gaza is close to 40% and is set to rise to 50%. The
private sector which generates 53% of all jobs in Gaza has been
devastated, businesses have been bankrupted and 75,000 out of
110,000 workers are now without a jobs. In 2008, 95% of Gaza's
industrial operations were suspended due to lack of access inputs
for production and the inability to export what is produced. In
June 2005, there were 3,900 factories in Gaza employing 35,000
people, but by December 2007, there were just 195 remaining,
employing only 1,700 people. The construction industry was
paralyzed with tens of thousands of laborers out of work. The
agriculture sector has also been damaged severely and nearly 40,000
workers who depend on
cash crops now have
no income.
Gaza's economic conditions have been stagnant in the long-term and
most development indicators are in decline. Food prices have risen
during the blockade, with wheat flour going up 34%, rice up 21%,
and baby powder up 30%. The number of Gazans who live in absolute
poverty has increased sharply, with 80% relying on humanitarian aid
in 2008 compared to 63% in 2006. In 2007, households spent an
average of 62% of their total income on food, compared to 37% in
2004. In less than a decade, the number of families depending on
UNRWA food aid has increased ten-fold.
Culture

Skyline of Gaza
Cultural centers and museums
The Rashad Shawa Cultural Center, located in Rimal, was completed
in 1988 and named after its founder, former mayor
Rashad al-Shawa. A two-story building with a
triangular plan, the cultural centers performs three main
functions: a meeting place for large gatherings during annual
festivals, a place to stage exhibitions, and a library.
The
French Cultural Center is a symbol of French
partnership
and cooperation in Gaza. It holds art exhibits, concerts,
film screenings, and other activities. Whenever possible, French
artists are invited to display their artwork, and more frequently,
Palestinian artists from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are
invited to participate in art competitions.
Established in 1998, the Arts and Crafts Village is a children's
cultural center with the objectives of promoting comprehensive,
regular and periodic documentation of creative art in all of its
forms. It interacted on a large scale with a class of artists from
different nationalities and organized around 100 exhibitions for
creative art, ceramics, graphics, carvings and others. Nearly
10,000 children from throughout the Gaza Strip have benefited from
the Arts and Crafts Village.
Gaza has
one film theater, the Gaza Theater, which opened in 2004 using
donated equipment and movies from Norway
. The
theater is not properly equipped and does not receive much funding
from the PNA, depending mostly on donations from foreign aid
agencies. The Qattan Foundation, a
Palestinian arts charity, runs several
workshops throughout Gaza that helps the local youth find artistic
skills and give teachers basic drama skills. In 2005, the Gaza
Theater Festival was held, playing in makeshift venues, although no
foreign theater companies attended, as well as any company from the
West Bank or
Israel's Arab
community.
The
Gaza Museum of
Archaeology, founded by Jawdat N. Khoudary, was opened in the
summer of 2008. The exhibition is in a hall made partly of stones
from old houses, discarded wood ties of a former railroad, and
bronze lamps and marble columns uncovered by Gazan fishermen and
construction workers. The museum collection features thousands of
items, but some will not go on display, including a statue of a
full-breasted
Aphrodite in a diaphanous
gown, images of other ancient deities and oil lamps featuring
menorahs.
Cuisine
Gaza's cuisine is characterized by its generous use of spices and
chillies. Other major flavors and ingredients include dill, chard,
garlic, cumin, lentils, chickpeas, pomegranates, sour plums and
tamarind. Many of the traditional dishes
rely on clay-pot cooking, which preserves the flavor and texture of
the vegetables and results in fork-tender meat. Traditionally, most
Gazan dishes are seasonal and rely on ingredients indigenous to the
area and its surrounding villages. Poverty has also played an
important role in determining many of the city's simple meatless
dishes and stews, such as
saliq wa adas ("chard and
lentils") and
bisara (skinless fava beans mashed with
dried
mulukhiya leaves and chilies).
Seafood is a key aspect of Gaza life and a local staple, but in
recent years, due to Israeli restrictions on Palestinian fishing
zones off Gaza’s coast, the industry has been in decline, and
seafood prices have skyrocketed. Some well-known seafood dishes
include
zibdiyit gambari, literally, "shrimps in a clay
pot", and
shatta which are crabs stuffed with red hot
chili pepper dip, then baked in the oven. Fish is either fried or
grilled after being stuffed with cilantro, garlic, chillies and
cumin, and marinated with various spices. It is also a key
ingredient in
sayyadiya, rice cooked with caramelized
onions, a generous amount of whole garlic cloves, large chunks of
well-marinated fried fish, and spices such as turmeric, cinnamon,
and cumin.
Many of the 1948-era refugees were
fellahin ("peasants") who would rely on eating
seasonally, based on what they grew and these refugees highly
influenced the basic cuisine of Gaza. Due to its geographic
isolation from the rest of Palestine, as a result of decades of
occupation, many of its dishes have not been heard of outside of
Gaza. One of the most popular dishes is called
sumaghiyyeh.
Gaza has several restaurants, most of the well-known located in the
Rimal district. Al-Andalus, which specializes in fish and seafood,
is particularly popular with tourists, as is al-Sammak. Throughout
the Old City there are street stalls that sell cooked beans,
hummus, roasted sweet potatoes, falafel, and kebabs. Coffeehouses
(
qahwa) regularly accommodate locals with
hookah (
sheesha),
Arabic coffee, and tea. Gaza's well-known
sweet shops, Saqqala and Arafat, sell common Arab sweet products
and are located off
Wehda Street.
Alcohol is a rarity, found only in the United Nations Beach
Club.
Costumes and embroidery
Gauze is reputed to have originated in Gaza.
Cloth for
the Gaza thob was often woven at nearby Majdal (Ascalon
). Black or blue cottons or striped pink and
green fabric that had been made in Majdal continued to be woven
throughout the Gaza
Strip
by refugees from the coastal plain villages until
the 1960s. Thobs here had narrow, tight, straight
sleeves. Embroidery was much less dense than that applied in
Hebron. The most popular motifs included: scissors
(
muqass), combs (
mushut) and triangles
(
hijab) often arranged in clusters of fives, sevens and
threes, as the use of odd numbers is considered in Arab
folklore to be effective against the
evil eye.
In recent decades,
Hamas and other Islamic
movements sought to increase the use of the
hijab ("headscarf") among Gazan women, especially
urban and educated women, and the
hijab styles since
introduced have varied according to class and group identity.
Sports
Palestine
Stadium
, the Palestinian national stadium, is located in
Gaza and has a capacity for 10,000 people. It serves as the home
of the Palestine
national football team, but after an Israeli air strike that
severely damaged the stadium's field, home games have been played
in Doha
, Qatar
.
Gaza has several local football teams that participate in the
Gaza Strip League. They include
Khidmat al-Shatia (al-Shati Camp), Ittihad al-Shuja'iyya
(Shuja'iyya neighborhood), Gaza Sports Club, and al-Zeitoun
(Zeitoun neighborhood).
Government
Today,
Gaza serves as the administrative capital of the Gaza
Governorate
. It contains the
Palestinian Legislative
Council building, as well as the headquarters of most of the
Palestinian Authority ministries.
The first municipal council of Gaza was formed in 1893 under the
chairmanship of Ali Khalil Shawa. Modern mayorship, however, began
in 1906 with his son
Said al-Shawa,
who was appointed mayor by the Ottoman Authorities. Al-Shawa
oversaw the construction of Gaza's first hospital, several new
mosques and schools, the restoration of the Great Mosque, and the
introduction of the modern plow to the city.
On July
24, 1994, the PNA proclaimed Gaza the first city council in the
Palestinian
territories
. The 2005 Palestinian municipal
elections were not held in Gaza, nor in Khan Yunis
or Rafah. Instead,
Fatah party officials selected the smaller cities,
towns, and villages to hold elections, assuming they would do
better in less urban areas. The rival
Hamas
party, however, won the majority of seats in seven of the ten
municipalities selected for the first round with voter turnout
being around 80%. 2007 saw
violent
clashes between the two parties, ultimately resulting in Hamas
taking over the city. Normally, Palestinian municipalities with
populations over 20,000 and that serve as administrative centers
have municipal councils consisting of fifteen members, including
the mayor. The current municipal council of Gaza, however, consists
of fourteen members, including the mayor, Rafiq al-Makki.
Mayors
Education
According to the PCBS, in 1997, approximately over 90% of Gaza's
population over the age of 10 was literate. Of the city's
population, 140,848 were enrolled in schools (39.8% in elementary
school, 33.8% in secondary school, and 26.4% in high school). About
11,134 people received bachelor diplomas or higher diplomas.
In 2006, there were 210 schools in Gaza; 151 were run by the
Education
Ministry of the Palestinian National Authority, 46 were run by
the
United
Nations Relief and Works Agency, and 13 were private schools. A
total of 154,251 students were enrolled and 5,877 teachers were
employed. The currently downtrodden economy has affected education
in the Gaza Strip severely. In September 2007, a UNRWA survey in
the Gaza Strip revealed that there was a nearly 80% failure rate in
schools grades four to nine, with up to 90% failure rates in
mathematics. In January 2008, the
United Nations Children's
Fund reported that schools in Gaza had been canceling classes
that were high on energy consumption, such as
information technology, science labs
and extra curricular activities.
Gaza has
four universities: al-Azhar
University - Gaza, al-Quds
Open University, al-Aqsa University
and the Islamic University of Gaza
. The Islamic University, consisting of
ten facilities, was founded by
Ahmed
Yassin and a group of businessmen in 1978, making it the first
institution of higher education in Gaza. In 2006-07, it had an
enrollment of 20,021 students. Al-Azhar is generally secular and
was founded in 1992. Al-Aqsa University was established in 1991.
Al-Quds Open University established its Gaza Educational Region
campus in 1992 in a rented building in the center of the city
originally with 730 students. Because of the rapid increase of the
number of students, it constructed the first university owned
building in the Nasser District. In 2006-07, it had an enrollment
of 3,778 students.
The Public Library of Gaza is located off al-Wahda Street and has a
collection of nearly 10,000 books in
Arabic,
English and
French. A total area of about , the building
consists of two floors and a basement.
The library was
opened in 1999 after cooperation dating from 1996 by Gaza under
mayor Aoun Shawa, the municipality of Dunkerque
, and the World
Bank. The library's primary objectives are to provide
sources of information that meets the needs of beneficiaries,
provide necessary facilities for access to available information
sources, and organizing various cultural programs such as, cultural
events, seminars, lectures, film presentations, videos, art and
book exhibitions.
Local infrastructure
Landmarks
Landmarks
in Gaza include the Great Mosque
in the Old City. Originally a pagan temple,
it was consecrated a Greek Orthodox church by the Byzantines, then
a mosque in the 8th century by the Arabs. The Crusaders transformed
it into a church, but it was reestablished as a mosque soon after
Gaza's reconquest by the Muslims.
It is the oldest and largest in the
Gaza
Strip
and was identified as the "only structure of
historical importance" in the city by some 19th century Western
travelers.
Other
mosques in the Old City include the Mamluk-era Sayed Hashem
Mosque
that believed to house the tomb of Hashem ibn Abd
al-Manaf in its dome. There is also the nearby Welayat
Mosque
that dates back to 1334. In Shuja'iyya
, the Ibn Uthman
Mosque was built by Nablus native Ahmad ibn Uthman in 1402 and
the Ibn Marwan Mosque, housing the
tomb of a holy man, was built in 1324.

Gaza War Cemetery
The
Soldier's
Square
, located in Rimal
, is a
monument dedicated to an unknown Palestinian fighter who died in
the 1948 War. In 1967, the monument was torn down by
Israeli forces and remained a patch of sand, until a public garden
was built there with funding from Norway
.
Qasr al-Basha
, originally a Mamluk-era villa that was used by
Napoleon during his brief sojourn in Gaza, is located in the Old
City and is today a girl's school. The Commonwealth Gaza War
Cemetery, often referred to as the British War Cemetery, that
contains the graves of fallen Allied soldiers in World War I is in
the Tuffah neighborhood.
Utilities
According to the 1997 census by the
Palestinian Central
Bureau of Statistics, 98.1% of Gaza's residents were connected
to the public water supply while the remainder used a private
system. About 87.6% were connected to a public sewage system and
11.8% used a cesspit.
The blockade on Gaza has severely restricted the water supply to
the city and its sewage system. The six main wells for drinking
water for no longer function, and roughly 50% of the population is
without access to water on a regular basis. The municipality claims
it is forced to pump water to the citizens though "salty wells"
because of the unavailability of electricity in some of the wells
fails to meet the needs of the citizens. Most sewage plants
struggle to work, and more than 75% of the untended sewage in the
city, has periodically led to a rash of waste water to the homes of
residents. About 20 million liters of raw sewage and 40 million
liters of partially treated water per day leak to the Mediterranean
Sea due to the lack of electricity, fuel and spare parts at Gaza's
treatment plants. The municipality claims that accumulation of
garbage in the streets, roads, wells, and sewage overflow cause the
risk of disease outbreaks and insect epidemics, as well as mice and
in residential areas.
Health care
One of
the first hospitals in Gaza was al-Shifa
("the Cure") founded in the Rimal District by the
British Mandate government in the 1940s. Housed in an army
barracks, it originally provided quarantine and treatment for
febrile diseases. When Egypt administered
Gaza, this original department was relocated and al-Shifa became
the city's central hospital. When Israel withdrew from the Gaza
Strip after occupying it in the
1956
Suez Crisis, Egyptian president
Gamal Abdel Nasser had al-Shifa hospital
expanded and improved. He also ordered the establishment of a
second hospital in the Nasser District with the same name. In 1957,
the quarantine and febrile disease hospital was rebuilt and named
Nasser Hospital. Today, al-Shifa remains Gaza's largest medical
complex.
Throughout the late 1950s, a new health administration, Bandar Gaza
("Gaza Region"), was established and headed by
Haidar Abdel-Shafi. Bandar Gaza rented
several rooms throughout the city to set up government clinics, but
they were fairly basic, just providing essential
curative care.
The Ahli Arab Hospital, originally founded in 1907 by the Christian
Missionary Society, was destroyed in World War I. It was rebuilt as
the Southern Baptist Hospital in the 1950s. In 1982, the Episcopal
Diocese of Jerusalem took leadership and the original name was
restored.
Al-Quds Hospital, located in the Tel al-Hawa
neighborhood and managed by the Palestine Red Crescent
Society, is the second largest hospital in Gaza.
As a result of fuel and electricity restrictions, hospitals
currently experience power cuts lasting for 8–12 hours daily. There
is currently a 60-70 percent shortage reported in the diesel
required for power generators. According to the
World Health Organisation (WHO),
the proportion of patients given permits to exit Gaza for medical
care decreased from 89.3% in January 2007 to 64.3% in December
2007, an unprecedented low.
Transportation
The Rasheed Coastal Road runs along Gaza's coastline and connects
it with the rest of Gaza Strip's coastline north and south.
The main
road of the Gaza Strip, Salah ad-Din
Street (the modern Via Maris) runs
through the middle of Gaza City, connecting it with Deir al-Balah,
Khan
Yunis
, and Rafah in the south and Jabalia
and Beit
Hanoun
in the north. The northern crossing
of Salah ad-Din Street into Israel is the Erez Crossing
and the crossing into Egypt is the Rafah
Crossing
.
The crossings have been closed by Israel and Egypt since
2007.
Omar Mukhtar Street is the main
road in the city of Gaza running north-south, branching off Salah
ad-Din Street, stretching from the Rimal coastline and the Old City
where it ends at the
Gold Market.
Prior to
the Blockade of the Gaza
Strip, there existed regular lines of collective taxis to
Ramallah
and Hebron
in the
West
Bank
.
The
Yasser Arafat International
Airport
near Rafah
opened in
1998 and is south of Gaza. Its runways and facilities became
significantly damaged during the
Second
Intifada.
The Ben Gurion
International Airport
in Israel is located roughly northeast of the
city.
International relations
Twin towns — Sister cities
Gaza is
twinned with:
See also
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Bibliography
External links