Gaza is a part of Palestine located on the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea that borders Egypt on the south and Israel on the north and south. 

Gaza has been ruled, destroyed and repopulated by different empires. It was a Canaanite settlement, then it was under the ancient Egyptians rule for many years. Then it was settled by the Philistines. Many other empires have ruled Gaza, such as the Roman and Byzantine empires.  The arrival of Arab-Muslims brought drastic change to the region.

Gaza was a small town when the Ottoman Empire ruled Palestine. It expanded at the beginning of the twentieth century under the British mandate and the population increased rapidly as a result of the Arab-Israeli war and the migration of Palestinian refugees from Palestine.

After the war, Gaza was ruled by Egypt from 1948 until 1967, when Egypt lost the war against Israel. Then, the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula were all part of Israel for a period of time. The land was eventually given back in 1978, with the signing of the Camp David Accords.

In 2005, Israel unilaterally pulled out of Gaza and moved its settlers. In 2007, Hamas won the factional war with the Palestinian authority and has been the authority ever since. Israel has blockaded Gaza since the 2008 assault on the city, killing over 1300 people and demolishing over 4000 buildings. “It’s a violating human rights by killing innocent civilian and infants,” junior Jeanine Barakat said.   

Another brutal aggression happened in 2012 when Israel bombarded Gaza from sea, air and land killing 2000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, destroying the cities infrastructures.

This summer Israel attacked Gaza and despite the brutal aggression, the Palestinian resistance didn’t waiver. It is not the first time Israel had attacked the imprisoned people of Gaza who cannot flee anywhere.

Egypt has closed Rafag crossing since the new military cue took place last year by Sisi (Egytian Leader). The people of Gaza are imprisoned since Israel too closed all it’s crossing.

Israeli generals and military leaders are talking about long wars that they’ve been reparing for.  The prime minister of Israel, Binyamin Netanyahu, justifies the death of so many civilians claiming that Hamas fighters are using their citizens as “human shields.”

As a matter of fact, when a Palestinian family signaled from a roof to Israeli pilots.  The representatives of the “humanitarian and democratic westerner civilization”, the pilots have showed no mercy and bombed the building to the ground killing the whole family.  “This is a crime against humanity and it’s a massacre against innocent Palestinian people,” Barakat said. 

Now after almost two months, the war is over and both sides are claiming victory.

Israel has the fourth strongest army in the world. Can’t claim victory or talk about great achievements, since they were fighting a small group like Hamas with primitive self-made weapons, where Israel possesses the most advanced weapons from the west and the USA.  “There will be no peace in Palestine until Israel is out,” Barakat said.   

The final results of the war was killing over 2000 Palestinians, injuring over 10000 people, which is over 80 percent civilians and destroying over 7000 buildings on the Israeli side. 160 soldiers were killed and four civilians, and millions lived in the shelters and left their homes.