Even before the last war between Israel and Hamas, Gaza had one of the highest unemployment rates in the world. Many people lived under the poverty line and depending on the food aid to survive.
The Gaza border was placed as a result of the 1948 Middle East war, when Egypt occupied it.
Egypt was expelled from Gaza in the 1967 war and was occupied by Israel, which built settlements and placed the Palestinian residents of Gaza under military rule.
In 2005, Israel withdrew its forces and settlers from Gaza, although it retained the control of its common borders, air field and coastal script, giving it effective control over the movement of people and commodities.
The United Nations still considers Gaza as an Israeli region to occupy it due to the level of control of Israel.
Hamas won the Palestinian elections in 2006, and removed its competitors from the region after the intense fighting the following year.
Israel and Egypt imposed the siege in response, as Israel controls most of what allowed the region to enter.
In the years after this, Hamas and Israel fought many major conflicts – including those in 2008-2009, 2012 and 2014. The main conflict between the two sides ended in May 2021 in a ceasefire after 11 days.
Each round of fighting saw people killing both sides, and the vast majority of them are Palestinians in Gaza.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas fighters launched an attack from Gaza, killing about 1,200 people in Israel and taking more than 250 hostages.
