The partially recognized and partially sovereign state of Palestine consists of two unconnected regions: the West Bank of the Jordan River, lying between Israel and Jordan, and the Gaza Strip on Israel's southwestern border. In spite of common name and the same passports of the inhabitants of these two territories, de facto their internal management is carried out by two different organizations.
The situation on the borders of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is also different: the first is visited by thousands of tourists, eager for Arabic flavor and biblical monuments; the latter is one of the most closed places in the world.
Two worlds
The territory of Israel near the Gaza border resembles a world from some kind of dystopia. Here, Jewish schoolchildren with backpacks walk along the trekking path, and at a distance of less than a kilometer rises a wall separating Palestinian lands. Floating over the wall Balloon with a surveillance camera, in the distance - the gray silhouettes of the dense buildings of the settlements of Gaza.
The border on the Israeli side looks more like a modern airport terminal than a checkpoint: a glass and concrete building equipped with the latest technical means security. On the other side of the wall, a boy in a keffiyeh drives a flock of sheep across no man's land with a stick. A few meters later - the first Arab checkpoint: concrete blocks with painted flags of Palestine, a window passport control, similar to the MAF near the metro station, and seats under a metal canopy. On the fence hangs a campaign banner with a caricature of an Israeli policeman and an inscription urging Palestinians to follow the information they provide to the "occupation police" of Israel.
The policy of complete control of the border, water and airspace of the Gaza Strip, Israel began to pursue due to regular attacks by armed groups and rocket attacks from the Palestinian side. A little over 10 years ago, the situation was, though not much, but simpler. Many local Arabs went to work in Israel, and in the Palestinian territory itself there were Jewish settlements, which, however, were guarded by Israeli soldiers. In 2005, Israel withdrew all its citizens and army from the Gaza Strip. Even the bodies were removed from Jewish cemeteries and the synagogues built in the settlements were destroyed to avoid desecration. In 2006, Islamic fundamentalists from Hamas win parliamentary elections in four out of five Ghaz constituencies. At that time, they seemed to the locals a reasonable alternative to the corrupt ruling secular Fatah party. Feeling the support, Hamas removed representatives of rival political forces from all leadership positions in the Gaza Strip. Sometimes dropped into literally words: they dealt with some opponents by throwing them off the roofs of skyscrapers. Since then, there have been no democratic elections in the Gaza Strip, so it is hardly possible to accurately assess the current level of support for the authorities by the local population. And if Fatah more or less successfully negotiated a peaceful settlement of the conflict, then Hamas simply does not recognize Israel's right to exist and considers all of its territory to be its own, but temporarily occupied.
Now there is one pedestrian checkpoint and one cargo checkpoint on the border between Gaza and Israel. If a Palestinian wants to enter Israel, he will have to submit an appropriate request and justify the purpose of the visit. The local authorities check him for reliability and make a decision. But in practice, if the purpose of the trip is not business, medical treatment, education or any international mission, then it is almost impossible to obtain such permission.
An alternative exit from Gaza could be the border with Egypt. When the Muslim Brotherhood came to power in Cairo, to which, in particular, Hamas belongs, Egypt opened the border for people. However, after al-Sisi, hostile to the Islamists, took the presidency as a result of a military coup, the checkpoint stopped working on permanent basis. Now it can open for just a few days and for limited quantity persons, and then again stop working for months, and those who risked leaving Gaza will have to wait even more to return home.
survival strategy
The Gaza Strip is made up of very different districts. There are refugee camps, and war-torn corners, and there are decent enough cities with amusement parks, universities, expensive hotels and restaurants. The city of Gaza itself does not give the impression of devastation. Quite prosperous locality, unless, of course, we make allowances for the traditional for the entire Middle East garbage on the streets, chaotic buildings and complete absence what is commonly referred to as a "friendly urban environment". The streets in the center are full of cars, although a liter of gasoline here costs about $2. From any other Arab city Gaza differs only large quantity anti-Israeli graffiti and Hamas propaganda posters calling for the liberation of Jerusalem and cracking down on enemies with all possible means, including stones and knives.
But while Islamist militants are pursuing lofty religious goals, ordinary residents have to tackle much more mundane domestic issues. One of the main problems today is acute shortage electricity. The volume of electricity coming from three sources - power plants in Egypt, Israel and in the Gaza Strip itself - is not always enough to cover even half of the needs.
“People here are very poor, so we can't buy enough fuel for our stations,” explains Mohammed Thabet of the public relations department of the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company. - The Egyptian and Israeli lines also have problems: sometimes it takes weeks to repair breakdowns. Schools, hospitals and other humanitarian institutions have round the clock electricity. And at ordinary people there is light in best case 8 hours a day, but usually less than 4 hours.”
Locals solve the problem in different ways: someone buys a fuel generator, others solar panels, the third - uninterruptible power supplies. But all of these options are too expensive for most of Gaza's population, so many simply have to adjust to the light schedule. As for paying for services to foreign suppliers, Mr. Thabet assures that Gaza regularly transfers money to the Palestinian authorities in Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinian state, located on the West Bank, and they, in turn, are already paying off the Israelis.
In February 2015, the Israel Electricity Company, which has a share of more than 60% of Gaza's electricity supply, briefly shut down some cities in the West Bank due to the debt of the Palestinian authorities. In April of this year, electricity supplies were also temporarily cut off in parts of the West Bank until an agreement was reached with Palestine to pay part of the debt immediately. The IEC does not directly affect prices for consumers in the Gaza Strip, and does not separate the gas debt from the amount that must be paid for electricity, considering this money as the total debt of the Palestinian Authority. At the same time, the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip continued to receive electricity not only when their countrymen from the West Bank were without electricity, but even during last war in 2014, while gas rockets regularly flew into the Israeli city of Ashkelon, where the power plant that actually feeds Gaza is located.
To avoid humanitarian catastrophe, Israel allows the import of fuel for power plants into the Gaza Strip. At the same time, there is a long list of products and materials, the import of which is prohibited or under the strict control of international organizations. It contains cargo that, according to Israel, Hamas can use for military purposes: to create missiles, build bunkers and underground tunnels.
So, in order to get cement, a resident of the Gaza Strip needs to apply to local authorities authorities and wait up to several months until his issue is resolved jointly by the authorities of Gaza, Israel and the UN Middle East Agency for Relief and Works for Palestine Refugees. But even with such draconian restrictions, the Shijaya area to the east of the city, destroyed in 2014, now looks more like a huge construction site than a frontline zone.
Adly al-Sawada has been importing products to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank for several years. He talks about the features of the delivery of goods “All foreign cargo that we want to bring into Gaza arrives at the Israeli port of Ashdod. If the container goes to Ramallah, it is immediately loaded onto a truck. And if the goods are intended for the Gaza Strip, then the container is opened, carefully checked, and then an Israeli driver in an Israeli car delivers the goods without a container to the checkpoint. There, the Israelis inspect it again and leave it in no man's land. Through this 300-meter zone, the goods are transported by special five cars that are always there and never enter either the Gaza Strip or Israel (the scheme for crossing the neutral strip by people is similar, but, of course, instead of trucks use passenger taxis. - Auth.). On Palestinian territory, the cargo is already checked by the Gaza authorities, and a local driver delivers it to the address.
That is, it costs me $400 to bring one container to Ramallah, while it costs $3,500 to bring it to Gaza with all fees and charges. At the same time, I can't raise the price of a product because people won't buy. Therefore, the difference has to be covered from the possible profit.
The only restriction for goods is the choice of the exporting country. We cannot transport products from Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Pakistan through Israel. But this only applies to food, because, for example, there are additional restrictions for electronics.”
The main way to deliver goods to the Gaza Strip, bypassing Israeli control, was underground tunnels from Egypt. Some of them are so large that even cars were driven along them, and some passages were also used to illegally enter the Gaza Strip, bypassing a closed checkpoint on the Egyptian border. It is clear that such underground routes were also used by Hamas for completely non-humanitarian purposes. However, with the coming to power of al-Sisi and the activation of the Islamists in the Sinai Peninsula, Cairo began to vigorously fight against the tunnels, first setting up a buffer zone in the border zone, and in September last year, it completely began to flood its border with Palestine with water in order to collapse all secret passages.
Along the coast ships of the Israeli Navy ply. They not only prevent the entry of potentially dangerous goods into Gaza, but also create obstacles for local fishermen. Enough work in this area a large number of local population. “We are told that we can go 6 miles into the sea, but in fact we are not allowed further than 3-4 miles,” says Adel al-Sharif, a fisherman with more than forty years of experience. - They greatly narrowed the lane after the incident with Shalit (Gilad Shalit is an Israeli soldier abducted by Hamas militants in 2006. - Auth.). Before, when Israel was here, I lived richly. Earned even more doctors. We were allowed to go 12 miles, but we went even further, and they turned a blind eye to it. And now everything is different. Previously, if you violated the border, you could negotiate with the Israelis. And now - no, because for them it is a matter of security. Just swim up to the border - they shoot. If arrested, both you and your boat will be sent to Ashdod. You will be checked and released if all is well. But even in this case, then you will need to negotiate with Israeli intermediaries to bring your boat back. And that's a lot of money."
However, on March 30 of this year, Israel expanded coastal strip up to 9 nautical miles, and hundreds of fishing boats immediately began to use the new space.
In general, the Gaza Strip has much best view than can be imagined after the emotional reports of Arab children dying from lack of food and medicine. As for the rest, this place justifies its nickname "the largest prison in the world" to a certain extent. Despite the fact that there are two cordons of "protection" here: the internal Hamas and the external Israeli. And from the realization that most of these people will spend their whole lives on a small piece of land, it becomes uncomfortable. So much so that, just after leaving Gaza, you even rejoice at a pack of greedy taxi drivers who attack with their offers, barely noticing your European appearance. Because you perceive them only as a sign open world in which you are allowed to go anywhere.
Last Sunday I was preaching to an audience of about a thousand people, and I asked them a simple question - who controlled Gaza before Israel occupied the region in the Six Day War? For about a minute no one could answer. Finally, one woman shouted the correct answer. I am not writing this to dishonor the congregation - not at all - because the results would be similar in almost any Messianic congregation in the US. The fact remains that people do not know the history of the relationship between the parties, and this is very important in understanding the right and wrong in this entire conflict.
1948: Israel declares independence. The War of Independence begins, during which five Arab States attack Israel and about 140,000 Arabs flee from Israel to Gaza. To be clear, David Ben Gurion in Israel's Declaration of Independence called on the Arabs to stay in the country and help build the new state. He guaranteed them the same freedoms that Jewish Israelis would have. However, for many reasons the Arabs fled.
After the war: When the war is over Egypt took control of Gaza (here is the answer to the question) and turned it into a prison. Even Al Jazeera, openly supporting the Arabs, the anti-Israeli news spoke about how badly the Egyptians treated their Arab relatives.
Unlike the West Bank, which was effectively annexed by Jordan in 1950 and whose population was offered Jordanian citizenship, Egypt kept Gaza under military rule until a legislative council was elected in 1957. Also, unlike Jordan, Egypt had little ties and assistance to Gaza, and thus received little attention or investment in infrastructure between 1948 and 1967. (www.aljazeera.com)
The world was silent. Nobody cared about these Arab refugees. As long as Israel couldn't be blamed, it wasn't a problem at all. "In 1955, one observer (a member of the United Nations Secretariat) noted that "For practical purposes, it would be fair to say that in the last six years in Gaza over 300,000 poor people have been physically confined to an area the size of one large city park."(en.wikipedia.org)
1967: The Six Day War effectively freed the people of Gaza. Yes, that's right, I said freed . In the early years, Israelis and Arabs from Gaza fared very well. My wife went to Gaza with her father to buy vegetables when she was a child. It was safe. They were happy to be out of Egyptian control.
Early seventies - 1987: The PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) turns the people of Gaza against Israel. There are frequent conflicts between Israel and the Gaza Strip. In 1987, the first Intifada was unleashed against Israel, when Arab teenagers armed with large stones attacked both Israeli soldiers and civilians. Israelis were shot at on the highway and sometimes even their homes were attacked.
After the Gulf War: President Bush Sr., after Saddam Hussein's failed attack on Kuwait, called for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The first peace conference is held in Madrid. During the Clinton years, Yitzhak Rabin invited the PLO to Israel to become the de facto leadership Palestinian people. The whole season was quiet, and there was a lot of cooperation between the Palestinians and the Israelis. OOP becomes Palestinian Authority and governs West Coast and Gaza.
Late nineties: Palestinian suicide bombers unleash terror in Israel. Despite progress and cooperation between Jews and Arabs, there are many Arab groups that do not want peace with Israel. Over the next decade, 171 suicide bombers detonate themselves in an attempt to kill as many Israelis as possible, and cause terror throughout the country.
2000-2005: The Palestinians unleash the Second Intifada against Israel. Israel, in an attempt to defend itself, builds a Security Fence that suffocates the riot as it effectively stops suicide bombers.
2005: The terrorist group Hamas receives a third of the votes of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
2006: Hamas achieves a majority in the Palestinian Legislative Council.
2007: Hamas takes Gaza into Fatah (PLO).
Back to 2005: Israel, in a controversial move, evacuates and leaves Gaza without taking anything in return from the Palestinians. Hamas and other groups have fired over a thousand rockets over the years. Israel mistakenly believes if we leave, they will stop. In fact, since we left Gaza, they have fired over 9,000 rockets and mines at Israeli population centers. (Which country would tolerate this?) Even more disgusting, Hamas is using women and children as Hamas Shields and is willing to sacrifice them for its own purposes. Israel has done much more to protect the people of Gaza than their elected leaders.
2005-2009: Hamas saw Israel's 2005 evacuation as a sign of weakness and fired thousands of Kassam and Grad rockets at settlement centers in southern Israel. Finally, at the end of 2008, after Israel received 3,000 rockets in just one year, it invades Gaza with Operation Cast Lead. After 22 days, Israel leaves Gaza, feeling that it has largely neutralized Hamas's ability to attack Israel.
2012: After increasing rocket attacks, Israel ramps up counter-attacks and kills three Hamas operatives, including the top military commander who was responsible for capturing and imprisoning Gilad Shalit.
Hamas claims that Israel has "opened the gates of hell" and fires 275 rockets at Israel in a day, including three that reach the Tel Aviv area, showing that they now have the ability to kill Israelis in their largest population center - bypassing all red lines.
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Israel is calling on reservists and seeking to neutralize the threat. Morsi in Egypt violates the ceasefire.
Today: After the murder of three Israeli teenagers by Hamas activists, an Arab boy was killed by Jews. Hamas takes advantage of the unrest and fires a thousand rockets at Israel in one week. Israel is calling for 40,000 reservists. Surprisingly, there are no casualties among the Israelis as a result of a direct missile hit. The Iron Dome successfully shoots down 90% of the missiles fired. About two hundred Palestinians died, many of them were human shields at the request (insistence) of Hamas. Abbas calls it Genocide, but the world is not bought by this statement. Hamas unleashed this war in order to increase its authority in Arab world. However, most likely, they miscalculated. Even the Palestinian representative of the UN admits that Israel is waging this war humane methods while Hamas commits crimes against humanity.
Gaza Strip - Territory on the Shore mediterranean sea allocated by the UN to create an Arab state of Palestine.
From 1948 (after the first Arab-Israeli war) to 1967 it was occupied Arab Republic Egypt, and after the Six-Day War from 1967 to 2005 by Israel.
The area is considered one of the most densely populated in the world. The Gaza Strip is 54 km long and only 12 km wide. At the same time, on an area of 363 sq. km is home to about 1.5 million Palestinians. The main source of income for local residents was the export of agricultural products, mainly citrus fruits, to Israel. However, after the Al-Aqsa Intifada began in 2001, Israel practically closed the borders.
In addition, there were cities in the Palestinian territories in which Jews settled for a long time - such as Hebron, Jerusalem, Tiberias and Safed, sacred to the Jews. A significant part of the Arab population of these cities was and is hostile to the Jews, and pogroms took place more than once in these settlements. However, the Jews were reluctant to leave them, during the Six Day War, when Hebron was occupied by the Israeli army, they began to return there.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
The Gaza Strip is a territory on the Mediterranean coast allocated by the UN for the creation of the Arab state of Palestine.
From 1948 (after the first Arab-Israeli war) to 1967 it was occupied by the Arab Republic of Egypt, and after the Six Day War from 1967 to 2005 - by Israel.
The area is considered one of the most densely populated in the world. The Gaza Strip is 54 km long and only 12 km wide. At the same time, on an area of 363 sq. km is home to about 1.5 million Palestinians. The main source of income for local residents was the export of agricultural products, mainly citrus fruits, to Israel. However, after the Al-Aqsa Intifada began in 2001, Israel practically closed the borders.
In addition, there were cities in the Palestinian territories in which Jews settled for a long time - such as Hebron, Jerusalem, Tiberias and Safed, sacred to the Jews. A significant part of the Arab population of these cities was and is hostile to the Jews, and pogroms took place more than once in these settlements. However, the Jews were reluctant to leave them, during the Six Day War, when Hebron was occupied by the Israeli army, they began to return there.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
After the collapse Ottoman Empire some of its territories in the Middle East were under British administration under a League Mandate. In 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution according to which the British Mandate was terminated, and it was recommended that two states be created in this territory by 1948 - Arab and.
The Arab community considered the division of Palestine unfair, because many lived in the territory, which, according to the UN plan, was given to the Jewish. Immediately after the declaration of Israel in May 1948, the Arab League declared new country war. Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Iraq and Lebanon participated in the attack on Israel. Thus began the Arab-Israeli conflict, which lasted for many years.
Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip is an area of 360 sq. km with its capital in the city of Gaza. In the northeast it is with Israel, and in the southwest with Egypt.
The UN plan for the partition of Palestine assumed that the Gaza Strip would become part of, but it was never created as a result of the war that began in 1948. During this war, the Gaza Strip was occupied by Egypt and remained under its control until 1967. Many Arabs who previously lived in the territories given to Israel moved to the Gaza Strip. The population of the territory consists of two-thirds of these and their descendants.
Since the 50s of the 20th century, groups of terrorists have regularly penetrated into Israel from Gaza, arranging sabotage and Act of terrorism. Israeli army launched retaliatory raids. The actions of Arab terrorists dictated to Israel the need to take the Gaza Strip under its control.
Fight for the Gaza Strip
Israel managed to establish control over the Gaza Strip in 1956, but three months later, through the efforts of the United States and the USSR, it was returned to Egypt.
In 1967, during the Six Day War between Israel and several Arab countries The Gaza Strip was once again under Israeli control. Residents were not forced to accept, but Jewish settlements began to be created on the territory. UN and others international organizations considered it a violation international law, but Israel did not agree with this, stating that previously this territory did not belong to another state, therefore it cannot be considered occupied. The existence of Israeli settlements became the main point of contention in the Gaza Strip.
In 2005, all Israeli citizens were evacuated from this territory, and the troops were withdrawn, but control over airspace and territorial waters was preserved. In this regard, the Gaza Strip is still considered the territory occupied by Israel. At the same time, rocket attacks on Israel were carried out from the territory of the Gaza Strip, which was the reason for the military operations undertaken by Israel in 2008 and 2012.
The situation in the Gaza Strip remains tense. Both Israeli and Palestinian observers acknowledge that the territory has become an enclave of terrorism.
