Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Gaza Strip is a Palestinian territory in the Southern Levant region of West Asia, bordered by Egypt on the southwest, Israel on the east and north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. It is 41 km long, between 6 and 12 km wide, with a total area of 365 square kilometres. Its capital and largest city is Gaza City.
As of 2010, the Gaza Strip had a population of just over 2 million, mostly Palestinian refugees and their descendants. It is one of the most densely populated territories in the world. It has a high proportion of youth, with 43.5% being children 14 or younger and 50% under the age of 18.
Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip by the 14th of June 2007 during the Battle of Gaza, seizing government institutions and replacing Fatah officials with its own. This followed Hamas winning 42.9% of the vote and 74 of 132 seats in the Palestinian parliamentary elections of the 25th of January 2006.
Rights groups including the UN, Human Rights Watch, and the Norwegian Refugee Council describe Gaza as an open-air prison because of the Israeli and Egyptian blockade that began as temporary in 2005 and became indefinite after the 2007 Hamas takeover. The population is not free to leave or enter, and the blockade has caused shortages of essential supplies, limited access to healthcare, and high poverty and unemployment.
Despite Israel's 2005 disengagement, the UN, international human rights organisations, and most governments consider Gaza still occupied because Israel controls its air and maritime space and six of its seven land crossings. Israel disputes this, and its Supreme Court ruled on the 30th of January 2008 that Gaza was not occupied. On the 19th of July 2024, the International Court of Justice held that Israel's presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory was unlawful.
On the 7th of October 2023, paramilitaries led by Hamas's Al-Qassam Brigades invaded southwest Israel, killing at least 1,300 people and taking at least 236 hostages, after which Israel declared war and imposed a total blockade on the 9th of October 2023. Over 60,000 Palestinians have since been killed, almost half of them women and children. A US-led peace plan took effect in October 2025, and UN Security Council Resolution 2803 was adopted on the 17th of November 2025.