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Gaza Strip

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                   قطاع غزة
   Gaza Strip

   Flag of Palestine Coat of arms of Palestine
   Flag              Coat of arms
   Anthem: Biladi
   Location of Palestine
   Capital
   (and largest city) Gaza
                      31°25′N 34°20′E
   Official languages Arabic
   Government         Palestinian National Authority
        Created       1949
                         Area
    - Total           360 km² ( 212th)
                       sq mi
    - Water (%)       0
                      Population
    - Density         3,823/km² ( n/a)
                      /sq mi
       GDP ( PPP)     estimate
    - Total           $768 million ( n/a)
    - Per capita      $600 ( n/a)
        Currency      Israeli new sheqel ( ILS)
       Time zone      ( UTC+2)
    - Summer ( DST)   ( UTC+3)
      Internet TLD    .ps
      Calling code    +970

   The Gaza Strip is a narrow coastal strip of land along the
   Mediterranean, in the Middle East. It takes its name from Gaza, its
   main city, and has about 1.4 million residents, all Palestinians, in an
   area of 360 km².

   The Gaza Strip is not currently recognized internationally as a de jure
   part of any sovereign country. According to the international community
   the Gaza Strip is occupied by Israel; in particular, the United States
   government recognizes it as "Israeli-occupied with current status
   subject to the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement - permanent status
   to be determined through further negotiation" . The Israeli government
   disputes this, especially after the withdrawal of Israel and the
   liquidation of its settlements in the strip in 2005.

   Israel controls the Gaza strip's airspace and offshore maritime access.
   The Strip itself and its population is under the jurisdiction of the
   Palestinian Authority, which also operates the Strip's Rafah border
   crossing into Egypt under European Union supervision. The crossing has
   been closed due to Israeli demands since June 2006, after Israel
   recaptured parts of the Strip.

Background

   Geographically, the Strip forms the westernmost portion of the
   Palestinian territories in Southwest Asia, having land borders with
   Egypt on the south-west and Israel on the north and east. On the west,
   it is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea.

   The Strip's borders were originally defined by the armistice lines
   between Egypt and Israel after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which
   followed the dissolution of the British mandate of Palestine. It was
   occupied by Egypt (except for four months of Israeli occupation during
   the Suez Crisis) until it was captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day
   War. In 1993, after the Palestinian-Israeli agreements known as the
   Oslo Accords, much of the Strip came under limited Palestinian
   Authority control. In February 2005, the Israeli government voted to
   implement Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for unilateral
   disengagement from the Gaza Strip beginning on August 15, 2005. The
   plan required the dismantling of all Israeli settlements there,
   transferring the lucrative hot house industry to Palestinian control to
   spur economic development, and the removal of all Israeli settlers and
   military bases from the Strip, a process that was completed on
   September 12, 2005 as the Israeli cabinet formally declared an end to
   military rule in the Gaza Strip after 38 years of control. The
   withdrawal was highly contested by the nationalist right in Israel,
   particularly the religious nationalist tendency, and some supporters of
   these tendencies now consider the Gaza Strip to be an occupied part of
   Israel. Following withdrawal, Israel retains offshore maritime control
   and control of airspace over the Strip. Israel withdrew from the "
   Philadelphi Route" that is adjacent to the Strip's border with Egypt
   after an agreement with the latter to secure its side of the border.
   The future political status of the Gaza Strip remains undecided, and is
   claimed as part of any prospective Palestinian state.

Demographics

   Around 1.37 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip. The majority
   of the Palestinians are direct descendants of refugees who fled or were
   expelled from Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. By 1967, the
   population had grown about six-fold, and the Strip's population has
   continued to increase since that time. Poverty, unemployment, and poor
   living conditions are widespread, and their causes have been attributed
   to the extremely high birth rate, disruptions to the economy due to
   Israeli closure policies since the first intifada, and/or corruptness
   and inefficiency of the Palestinian Authority. From the 1970s onwards,
   21 Israeli settlements were constructed in the Gaza Strip, but these
   were removed in August 2005. See Gaza Strip Israeli Settlements. On
   July 14, 2006, hundreds or thousands of Palestinians flooded into the
   Gaza Strip from Egypt, after Palestinian militants forced openings in
   the border wall. The Palestinian population is growing by around 4% a
   year. Over 99% residents of the strip are Palestinian Muslim, with a
   small Palestinian Christian (0.7%) minority.

   Demographic numbers for the Gaza Strip are acquired from the Palestine
   Ministry of Health (2005 estimates) :
     * Birth rate: 30.8 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)
     * Death rate: 3.2 deaths/1,000 population :
     * net migration: 1.54 migrant(s)/1,000 population
     * infant mortality: 21.3 deaths/1,000 live births
     * fertility: 4.7 children born/woman
     * Population growth rate: 2.8% :

Geography

   The Gaza Strip which is located in the Middle East (at 31°25′N
   34°20′E). It has a 51km border with Israel, and an 11km border with
   Egypt, near the city of Rafah. Khan Yunis is located 7km northeast of
   Rafah, and several towns are located along the coast between it and
   Gaza City. Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun are located to the north and
   northeast of Gaza City, respectively.

   The Gush Katif bloc of Israeli localities used to exist on the sand
   dunes adjacent to Rafah and Khan Yunis, along the southwestern edge of
   the 40 km Mediterranean coastline. A few months after the disengagement
   in December 2005, a controversial buffer zone was created on the
   northern border with Israel. Part of it reaches 2.5 km into the
   Palestinian Authority controlled territory, on roughly the area of the
   former northern Israeli localities, an area now used to launch Qassam
   rockets into Israel.

   The Gaza Strip has a temperate climate, with mild winters, and dry, hot
   summers subject to drought. The terrain is flat or rolling, with dunes
   near the coast. The highest point is Abu 'Awdah ( Joz Abu 'Auda), at
   105 metres above sea level. Natural resources include arable land
   (about a third of the strip is irrigated), and recently discovered
   natural gas. Environmental issues include desertification; salination
   of fresh water; sewage treatment; water-borne disease; soil
   degradation; and depletion and contamination of underground water
   resources. It is considered to be one of the fifteen territories that
   comprise the so-called " Cradle of Humanity."

   It currently holds the oldest known remains of a manmade bonfire and
   some of the world's oldest dated human skeletons.

Economy

   Economic output in the Gaza Strip declined by about one-third between
   1992 and 1996. This downturn has been variously attributed to
   corruption and mismanagement by Yassir Arafat and to Israeli closure
   policies—the imposition of generalized border closures which disrupted
   previously established labor and commodity market relationships between
   Israel and the Strip. The most serious negative social effect of this
   downturn was the emergence of high unemployment.

   Israel's use of comprehensive closures decreased during the next few
   years and, in 1998, Israel implemented new policies to reduce the
   impact of closures and other security procedures on the movement of
   Palestinian goods and labor into Israel. These changes fueled an almost
   three-year-long economic recovery in the Gaza Strip. Recovery ended
   with the outbreak of the al-Aqsa Intifada in the last quarter of 2000.
   The al-Aqsa Intifada triggered tight IDF closures of the border with
   Israel as well as frequent curbs on traffic in Palestinian self-rule
   areas, severely disrupting trade and labor movements. In 2001, and even
   more severely in early 2002, internal turmoil and Israeli military
   measures in Palestinian Authority areas resulted in the destruction of
   capital plant and administrative structure, widespread business
   closures, and a sharp drop in GDP. Another major factor has been the
   decline of income earned due to reduction in the number of Gazans
   permitted entry to work in Israel. After the Israeli withdrawal from
   Gaza, Palestine again resumed the flow of a limited number of workers
   into Israel but has stated its intention to reduce or end such permits
   due to the victory of Hamas in the 2006 parliamentary elections.

   During the time of Israeli settler presence in the Gaza Strip, settlers
   built greenhouses and experimented with new forms of agriculture. These
   greenhouses also provided employment for many hundred Gazan
   Palestinians. When Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in the Summer of
   2005, these greenhouses were bought by the World Bank and given to the
   Palestinian people to jump-start their economy. Most of these
   greenhouses are now utilized by Palestinian farmers, although there
   have been incidents of looting and vandalism in a few locations.

   According to the CIA World Factbook, GDP in 2001 declined 35% to a per
   capita income of $625 a year, and 60% of the population is now below
   the poverty line. Gaza Strip industries are generally small family
   businesses that produce textiles, soap, olive-wood carvings, and
   mother-of-pearl souvenirs; the Israelis have established some
   small-scale modern industries in an industrial centre. Electricity is
   supplied by Israel. The main agricultural products are olives, citrus,
   vegetables, Halal beef, and dairy products. Primary exports are citrus
   and cut flowers, while primary imports are food, consumer goods, and
   construction materials. The main trade partners of the Gaza Strip are
   Israel, Egypt, and the West Bank.

Health

   A study carried out by Johns Hopkins University (USA) and Al-Quds
   University (in Jerusalem) for CARE International in late 2002 revealed
   very high levels of dietary deficiency among the Palestinian
   population. The study found that 17.5% of children aged 6–59 months
   suffered from chronic malnutrition. 53% of women of reproductive age
   and 44% of children were found to be anaemia. In the aftermath of the
   Israeli withdrawal of August and September 2005, the healthcare system
   in Gaza continues to face severe challenges .

Transport and communication

   Damaged part of Yasser Arafat International Airport
   Enlarge
   Damaged part of Yasser Arafat International Airport

   The Gaza strip has a small, poorly developed road network. It also had
   a single standard gauge railway line running the entire length of the
   strip from north to south along its centre; however, it is abandoned
   and in disrepair, and little trackage remains. The line once connected
   to the Egyptian railway system to the south as well as the Israeli
   system to the north.

   The strip's one port was never completed after the outbreak of the
   Al-Aqsa Intifada. Its airport, the Gaza International Airport, opened
   on 24 November 1998 as part of agreements stipulated in the Oslo II
   Accord and the 23 October 1998 Wye River Memorandum. The airport was
   closed in October 2000 by Israeli orders, and its runway was destroyed
   by the Israel Defense Forces in December 2001. It has since been
   renamed Yasser Arafat International Airport.

   The Gaza strip has rudimentary landline telephone service provided by
   an open-wire system as well as extensive mobile telephone services
   provided by PalTel (Jawwal) or Israeli providers such as Cellcom. Gaza
   is serviced by four internet service providers that now compete for
   ADSL and dial-up customers. Most Gaza households have a radio and a TV
   (70%+), and roughly 20% have a personal computer. People living in Gaza
   enjoy access to satellite television (Al Jazeera, Lebanese and Egyptian
   entertainment programs, etc.), local private channels, and broadcast TV
   from the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, the Israel Broadcasting
   Authority and the Second Israeli Broadcasting Authority.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
