Gaza (arabskoقطاع غزة, latinizirano: Qiṭāʿ Ġazzah) je manjše palestinsko ozemlje pod lastno upravo[4][5][6][7][8][9][10] na vzhodni obali Sredozemskega morja, ki meji na Egipt na jugozahodu in Izrael na vzhodu in severu. Gaza skupaj z Zahodnim bregom tvori Palestinska ozemlja, del načrtovane prihodnje države Palestine. Gazo in Zahodni breg deli izraelsko ozemlje. Od junija 2006 je Gaza pod upravo Hamasa, palestinske islamske organizacije,[11] ki je prevzela oblast po zmagi na volitvah leta 2006. Takrat sta Izrael in ZDA proti Gazi uvedla mednarodni ekonomski in politični bojkot.[12]
Ozemlje Gaze je dolgo 41 km in široko 6 do 12 km, s skupno površino 365 km².[13][14] Z 2,37 milijona prebivalcev[3] je tretje najgosteje poseljena politična enota na svetu.[15][16] Zaradi velikega izraelskega tamponskega območja je precejšen del Gaze nedostopen za prebivalce.[17] Z naravnim prirastom prebivalstva 2,91 % (ocena leta 2014) je trinajsta na svetu in pogosto označena za prenaseljeno.[14][18] Zaradi izraelsko-egiptovske blokade prebivalci ne smejo prosto zapustiti Gaze ali vstopiti vanjo, prepovedana sta tudi izvoz in uvoz izdelkov. Večina prebivalstva Gaze predstavljajo suniti.
Kljub izraelskemu umiku iz Gaze leta 2005[19]Združeni narodi, mednarodne organizacije za človekove pravice ter večina državnikov in pravnikov označuje, da je Gaza še vedno pod izraelsko okupacijo, ki jo podpira tudi Egipt z omejitvami prebivalcev. Izrael tako ohranja neposreden nadzor nad Gazo od zunaj in posredni nadzor nad življenjem v Gazi: nadzira zračni in pomorski prostor Gaze ter šest od sedmih mejnih prehodov Gaze na kopnem. Hkrati si jemlje pravico, da vstopi v Gazo z vojsko in ohranja tamponska območja znotraj ozemlja Gaze, ki je od Izraela odvisna na področnih oskrbe z vodo, elektriko, telekomunikacij in ostalih komunalnih storitev.[19]
Po zmagi Hamasa na volitvah leta 2006 se je Fatah odrekel sodelovanju v koaliciji, dokler ni Saudova Arabija izpogajala vlade narodne enotnosti. Ko je ta pod skupnim pritiskom Izraela in ZDA junija 2007 razpadla, je palestinski svet prevzel upravo Zahodnega brega, Hamas pa upravljanje Gaze.[20] Izrael in Višegrajska skupina sta na to odgovorila z dodatnimi gospodarskimi sankcijami proti Hamasu. V Gazi je med Hamasom in Fatahom izbruhnil kratek spopad za nadzor nad ozemljem, pri čemer so sodelovale ZDA, toda Hamas je ostal na oblasti ter izgnal člane Fataha in PA iz uprave[21][22] ter ostaja na čelu Gaze.[20]
↑»WORKING IN THE GAZA STRIP«. UNRWA. Pridobljeno 8. februarja 2016. The Gaza Strip is a coastal strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea, bordering Egypt at the south-west and Israel to the north and east.
↑Tristan Dunning, Hamas, Jihad and Popular Legitimacy: Reinterpreting Resistance in Palestine, Routledge, 2016 p.212:'Since taking sole control of Gaza in June 2007, Hamas has proven itself to be a remarkably resilient and resourceful government entity. The movement has clearly entrenched itself as the hegemonic power in the coastal enclave to such an extent that the International Crisis Group contends that the power struggle in Gaza is no longer between Hamas and Fatah. Rather the main source of confrontation is between Hamas and other more hardline Islamists and salafists. . . Hamas has been far more successful in an administrative sense than the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, despite having access to only a fraction of the resources.'
↑Sara Roy, Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist Social Sector, Princeton University Press, 2013 p.41:'Hamas's democratic victory, however, was short-lived . .followed as it was in June 2006 by an Israeli and U.S.-led international political and economic boycott of the new Palestinian government. The boycott amounted to a form of collective punishment against the entire Palestinian population and, to my knowledge, was the first time in the history of the conflict that the international community imposed sanctions on the occupied rather than the occupier.'
↑David Rose, 'The Gaza Bombshell,'Vanity Fair April,2008.'The plan was for forces led by Dahlan, and armed with new weapons supplied at America’s behest, to give Fatah the muscle it needed to remove the democratically elected Hamas-led government from power. . But the secret plan backfired, resulting in a further setback for American foreign policy under Bush. Instead of driving its enemies out of power, the U.S.-backed Fatah fighters inadvertently provoked Hamas to seize total control of Gaza.'
↑Sara Roy, Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza,p.45.' Dahlan, who was supported by U.S. officials, has been a bitter enemy of Hamas since his 1996 crackdown on the movement. He consistently refused to accept the Palestinian unity government brokered by the Saudi government in the Mecca Agreement "and made his opposition intolerable to Hamas when he refused to subject the security forces under his command, armed and trained by the U.S., to the legitimate Palestinian unity government as agreed between Hamas and Fatah." Alistair Crooke, a former Middle East adviser to the EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, similarly observed, "Dahlan refused to deal with (the independent interior minister appointed to the unity government), and put his troops on the streets in defiance of the interior minister. Hamas felt that they had little option but to take control of security away from forces which were in fact creating insecurity." Hence, Hamas was not attempting a coup against the government or the Fatah organization as a whole but also against Dahlan's U.S.-funded militia (and individual Fatah loyalists it blamed for the murder of Hamas members).'
