GAZA

INTRODUCTION The city of Gaza on the Mediterranean coast of Palestine has made the headlines since biblical times. The first mention of the city on record dates to the reign of Thutmosis III (1504–1450 B.C.), the Egyptian ruler who defeated the Syrians at Megiddo and extended Egyptian military and political influence over Asia. Gaza was Egypt’s administrative centre in Palestine under Thutmosis III. Throughout history, Gaza, situated on one of the world’s great crossroads—between Africa and Asia—was of great importance both strategically and as a trade route linking Egypt with the Levant. The road passing through the port city of Gaza was the traditional Spice Road of Western Arabia and of all land trade from the Nile Valley to the East. It was also the route over which armies shuttled back and forth through the centuries in the constant clashes between the powers ruling Egypt and Syria. When the Philistines conquered the coastal plain of Canaan, Gaza became one of their main cities. The Philistines resisted Jewish penetration under the rule of David and Solomon, and the coastal plain from Jaffa to Gaza remained in their hands until the Assyrian conquest in 734 B.C. Then came the Greeks in 332 B.C., and later the Romans who rebuilt the city of Gaza on a new site in 57–56 B.C. Soon Gaza became a Christian centre, but was later the first Palestinian city to embrace Islam when the Arabs came in 634 A.D. Arab geographers described mediaeval Gaza as a large, flourishing city surrounded by cultivated land and orchards. During the Crusades, Gaza and the surrounding area became once more a battlefield until 1224 when it was liberated by Sultan Beybars. The Turks occupied the city in 1517; Napoleon conquered it in 1799; but it reverted to the Turks after the French defeat in 1801. After World War I, Gaza and the whole of Palestine came under the British Mandate. In May 1948, the Egyptian armed forces entered Gaza to support the Palestinians, to frustrate Zionist attempts to take over the whole of Palestine, and to protect Egypt’s Sinai border at Rafah. After the 1948 Arab–Israeli war, Gaza became a refuge for displaced Palestinians from the north of the country, Jerusalem, and the area surrounding Gaza.