Over the long years of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Gaza Strip has transformed from a site of peripheral battles into an area that attracts special attention from the world media. And it all started with the actions of Israeli army units against fidayeen detachments and militants of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Despite its military superiority, Israel was unable to achieve complete victory over the enemy, and during the Six-Day War, the Gaza Strip again became an arena of confrontation...
The peace agreements of 1949, which ended the first Arab-Israeli war, secured Egyptian protectorate over the territory of the Gaza Strip. While declaring plans to create an Arab state in Palestine and concern for Palestinian Arabs, the Egyptian authorities turned the Gaza Strip into a “gray zone” whose residents did not receive Egyptian citizenship.
Map of the Gaza Strip
Source: guide-israel.ru
Israeli army against fidayeen units
The Egyptians used the territory of the Gaza Strip to train militant groups (the so-called fidayeen) who committed sabotage and terrorist acts against the Israelis. Terrorist camps, which began to be created back in 1948, were also located in Jordan, but it was the Gaza Strip that became the main base of the militants, and they themselves were subordinate to Egyptian military intelligence. The three largest military camps were located on the Mediterranean coast west of Gaza City.
Official Israeli historiography considers the revanchist policy of Egypt after the defeat in the 1947–1949 war to be the only reason for the start of the fidayeen’s activities. However, according to Israeli researcher Benny Maurice, who belongs to the group of so-called “new historians”, the reason for the emergence of the fidayeen was also the brutal treatment of Arabs who illegally entered Israeli territory by the Israeli military.
Map of fidayeen raids from Gaza and West Bank
Source: mapper.3bb.ru
From 1949 to 1956, the fidayeen killed and wounded 1,300 Israelis, damaged numerous military and civilian installations, and destroyed large areas of crops. Israel responded to the terrorists' actions with similar raids, without hesitation calling them “punitive operations.” The objective of such operations was to destroy military camps and kill terrorists while minimizing the number of civilian casualties. The Israeli General Staff viewed Palestinian civilians as potential allies, believing that the IDF's actions would lead to an uprising of Palestinian Arabs against the fidayeen and the Egyptian authorities.
In 1955, Palestinian terror against the Israelis reached unprecedented proportions, but Israel did not dare to enter into open confrontation with Egypt until October 1956. The reason for this was the outdated weapons of the IDF, which were enough to defeat the Arabs in 1948, but which looked hopelessly backward after the conclusion of the Egyptian-Czechoslovak arms supply agreement in September 1955. According to this agreement, Egypt received 230 tanks, 200 armored personnel carriers, 100 self-propelled artillery units, about five hundred artillery systems and two hundred military aircraft, as well as a number of submarines, torpedo boats and destroyers. According to historian Gennady Isaev, the catalyst for the signing of this agreement was the so-called “raid on Gaza” on February 28, 1955 - a punitive operation by the Israelis, which resulted in the death of Egyptian soldiers. This operation did not outrage the world community and did not lead to any negative consequences for Israel. For this reason, the current agenda in Egypt was to improve the combat effectiveness of the army, which was carried out thanks to the supply of weapons and military equipment from Czechoslovakia.
In 1956, Israel nevertheless started a war with Egypt, which went down in history as the Suez Crisis. The terrorist activities of the fidayeen became the formal reason for the start of the war and only one of its reasons. A more compelling reason was the Egyptian blockade of the Tyrrhenian Strait and the Suez Canal for Israeli ships, which was installed in several stages throughout 1953-1956 and deprived Israel of the shortest sea route to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.
On July 26, 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser announced the nationalization of the Suez Canal, which hit the economic interests of Great Britain and France, making these countries situational allies of Israel in the fight against Egypt. On October 22, in the French city of Sèvres, secret agreements were signed between Israel, France and Great Britain, according to which Israel was to attack Egypt from the east, and France and Great Britain were to send their troops into the Suez Canal zone, explaining this to protect their economic interests.
Gaza Strip« for a snack»
When planning military operations against the Egyptian army and fidayeen detachments on the territory of the Sinai Peninsula, Israel decided to begin them by sending landing groups behind enemy lines. The paratroopers had to encircle and block the Egyptian positions, cut off communications, and then, joining with infantry and tank units, deliver a decisive blow to the Egyptians, capturing the key heights of Sinai. Only after capturing most of the peninsula did the IDF General Staff intend to engage in the Gaza Strip. The operation to capture it was seen by the Israelis as the simplest task in the entire campaign, so the mobilization of soldiers who were to fight in the Gaza Strip began just four days before the offensive.
On the night of October 29-30, 1956, the Israelis landed the first landing group at the Mitla Pass, beginning the military campaign in Sinai. On October 31, French and British troops entered the war. On the evening of the same day, the Israelis began an assault on the Egyptian fortified area of Rafah, located on the border of Egypt and the Gaza Strip. The defense of Rafah and the neighboring city of El-Arish was held by six infantry battalions, two companies of a motorized border battalion, an artillery regiment, an anti-tank battery and an air defense battery. To capture Rafah and El-Arish, the Israeli General Staff allocated two brigades - the 1st Infantry and the 27th Armored. On the night of October 31 to November 1, the Israeli Air Force and Navy fired at Egyptian positions from the sea and from the air, and at 3:00 the offensive of ground forces began. By the morning of November 1, Rafah and El-Arish fell into Israeli hands.
On November 2 at 6:00, the 11th Infantry Brigade, which included two infantry battalions and reinforced by an armored tactical group from the 37th Armored Brigade, began an assault on the Gaza Strip. They were opposed by the 8th Division of the Egyptian Army, whose strength did not exceed 10,000 people. The Egyptian defense was divided into two sections: northern and southern. The key point of the northern section was the city of Gaza, and the southern one was the city of Khan Yunis. Several more Egyptian garrisons were scattered along the entire border with Israel.
After the loss of Rafah and El-Arish, the morale of the Egyptians fell, and the poor training of the soldiers did not allow them to fight successfully outside their fortifications. For these reasons, the Israelis quickly captured the Gaza Strip: some Egyptian units did not wait for the enemy to attack and immediately laid down their arms. Already at 13:30, soldiers of the 11th brigade liberated the entire sector from the enemy and linked up with the 1st brigade, which was in Rafah. Israeli casualties were 11 killed and 65 wounded. In addition, two Israeli tanks and one armored vehicle were damaged.
Map of the fighting during the 1956 Suez Crisis
Source: dic.academic.ru
Residents of the Gaza Strip, to whom the Egyptians distributed weapons in the hope that they would start a guerrilla war against the Israelis, did not resist. As for the fidayeen, some of them were captured, and the rest disappeared among the local population. Thirty years after the Suez Crisis, a dispute erupted between Israel and Egypt over war crimes committed in the Sinai and Gaza Strip in 1956. According to the Arabs, as well as a number of Israeli historians and left-wing political figures, the Israelis shot hundreds of Egyptian prisoners of war. In turn, Israel recognizes the facts of the execution of prisoners of war by both sides, but emphasizes that we are not talking about Egyptian soldiers, but about fidayeen, and not in peacetime, but in wartime.
Lightning Throw
As in the previous conflict, during the Six Day War of 1967, the Israeli takeover of the Gaza Strip was preceded by fighting in Rafah and Al-Arish. The railway connecting Gaza and the main supply base for Egyptian troops in the Sinai Peninsula passed through El Arish, and Rafah was traditionally the most protected settlement on the border of the Gaza Strip. During the 1956 campaign, the Israeli military was able to thoroughly study the geographical and infrastructural features of the Sinai Peninsula, which facilitated the implementation of tactical tasks in the Six-Day War.
On June 5, 1967, at 8:15 a.m., Brigadier General Israel Tal's armored units of 250–300 tanks launched an attack on Rafah and El Arish, which were defended by the Egyptian 7th Infantry Division, reinforced by an artillery brigade and a battalion of 100 mm guns. In addition, the approaches to the Egyptian positions were protected by minefields.
General Tal undertook two roundabout maneuvers at once. One of his brigades launched an attack on the city of Khan Yunis, adjacent to Rafah, which was out of range of enemy artillery. The Israeli Second Brigade moved south to bypass the minefields and hit the rear of the Egyptian artillery units. The Israeli advance towards Khan Yunis was accompanied by heavy Egyptian artillery fire, as a result of which six Israeli tanks were destroyed in the first minutes of the battle. However, the speed and onslaught of the Israelis determined the outcome of the battle - Khan Yunis was taken.
At this time, the second Israeli brigade, having destroyed forty Egyptian tanks, was surrounded. A fierce battle ensued, during which, according to Tal, the brigade commander “shooting a machine gun with one hand, holding a microphone in the other hand”. A reserve battalion of motorized infantry, as well as the “northern” brigade, which ended the fighting in Khan Yunis, were sent to help those surrounded. The battle ended two hours after dark with a victory for the Israeli army.
After the breakthrough in the Rafah El-Arish sector, Israeli troops entered the Gaza Strip and began a slow but successful advance inland, knocking the enemy out of his positions. By noon on June 6, the Egyptians and Palestinians had capitulated.
« Suitcase without handle»
Since 1967, the Gaza Strip has been under Israeli control. The Israeli government treated the Arab population with the same indifference as Egypt - residents of the Gaza Strip did not receive Israeli citizenship, but were forced to cede part of their land for the construction of Jewish settlements, farms and enterprises.
In 1978, at the signing of the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt at Camp David, the parties agreed that the territory of the Gaza Strip, as well as the West Bank, would be part of the future Palestinian Authority. Some historians claim that during the negotiations, the Israeli side proposed that the Gaza Strip become part of Egypt, but the Arabs rejected this prospect. The process of implementing the Camp David Accords began only in 1993 after the signing of the Oslo Accords and has not been completed to date.
The Gaza Strip is a territory on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. In the east and north it borders with Israel, from whose territory it is separated by a separation fence (equipped with checkpoints), and in the southwest it borders by land with Egypt. The Gaza Strip is approximately 50 km long and 6 to 12 km wide. The total area is about 360 km2. The capital is Gaza City.
Settlement history
According to the UN Plan for the division of Palestine (1947) into Arab and Jewish states, the sector was part of the territory allocated for the creation of an Arab state. As a result of the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-1949, which began after the UN decision and the subsequent formation of the State of Israel, an Arab state was not created, and from 1948 to 1967 the sector was under Egyptian control. As a result of the Six-Day War, from 1967 to 2005 the sector was under Israeli control. Under the Oslo Accords (1993), signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, Israel temporarily maintains military control over the Gaza Strip's airspace, some of its land borders (the rest are under Egyptian control) and territorial waters. As a result of the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was formed on the basis of the West Bank and the sector.
In August 2005, during the implementation of the Unilateral Disengagement Plan, Israel withdrew troops from the sector and liquidated its settlements.
As a result of the coup carried out by the Islamist organization Hamas in July 2007, the government institutions of the PNA and its security forces, and then the sector as a whole, came under the control of Hamas.
Demography
More than two-thirds of the population of the Gaza Strip consists of refugees who fled Israeli territory as a result of the 1948-1949 Arab-Israeli War and their descendants. According to updated data, 1.06 million people live in the territory. (there is an opinion from the opposite side, where the population is estimated at 1.6 million people (CIA estimate as of July 2011)). The population density is 2044 people/km². The Palestinian side indicates more than 4 thousand people per square kilometer.
According to various estimates, from 1.06 million to 1.6 million people live on an area of 360 km² (CIA estimate as of July 2011).
The main source of income for local residents was the export of agricultural products, mainly citrus fruits, to Israel. However, after the outbreak of the Al Aqsa Intifada in 2001, Israel practically closed its borders.
The birth rate in the Gaza Strip is one of the highest in the world, more than half the population is under 15 years of age, and the population doubles every 20-25 years. Almost 3/4 of the population are Palestinian refugees and their descendants (772,293 people).
Data provided by the Palestinian Authority:
Birth rate: 37.2 per 1000 people (2011)
Mortality: 3.9 per 1000 (2011)
Net population growth due to migration: 1.54 per 1000
Infant mortality: 22.4 per 1000 live births (2010)
Fertility: 4.9 children per woman (2010)
Population growth: 3.77%
Israeli sources believe that there is reason to doubt these data, since all indicators are based on reports from the Palestinian Authority, which “does not provide any possibility of serious verification of these data.” There is no consensus among Israeli demographers on this matter: Professor A. Sofer believes that it is these data that should be used, since there are no others, but Dr. J. Ettinger and Dr. B. Zimmerman (AIDRG Institute) believe (based on comparison with data on emigration, hospital data on birth rates, etc.), that the figures are overestimated by at least a third.
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, parts of its territories in the Middle East were administered by Britain under a League mandate. In 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution according to which the British Mandate was terminated, and it was recommended to create two states in this territory by 1948 - Arab and.
The Arab community considered the division of Palestine unfair, because many lived in the territory that, according to the UN plan, was given to the Jews. Immediately after the proclamation of Israel in May 1948, the Arab League declared war on the new country. The attack on Israel involved Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Iraq and Lebanon. Thus began the Arab-Israeli conflict, which lasted for many years.
Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip is an area of 360 square meters. km with the capital in Gaza City. In the northeast it is with Israel, and in the southwest it is with Egypt.
The UN plan to partition Palestine included the Gaza Strip, but it was never created as a result of the war that began in 1948. During this war, the Gaza Strip was occupied by Egypt and remained under its control until 1967. Many Arabs who previously lived in territories given to Israel moved to the Gaza Strip. Two-thirds of the territory's population consists of these people and their descendants.
Since the 50s of the 20th century, groups of terrorists regularly penetrated into Israel from Gaza, carrying out sabotage and terrorist attacks. The Israeli army launched retaliatory raids. The actions of Arab terrorists dictated to Israel the need to take control of the Gaza Strip.
The fight for the Gaza Strip
Israel managed to establish control over the Gaza Strip in 1956, but three months later, through the efforts of the United States and the USSR, it was returned to Egypt.
In 1967, during the Six Day War between Israel and several Arab countries, the Gaza Strip came back under Israeli control. Residents were not forced to accept, but Jewish settlements began to be created on the territory. The UN and other international organizations considered this a violation of international law, but Israel did not agree with this, saying that this territory had not previously belonged to another state, so it could not be considered occupied. The existence of Israeli settlements has become the main point of contention in the Gaza Strip.
In 2005, all Israeli citizens were evacuated from the area and troops were withdrawn, but control over the airspace and territorial waters was maintained. In this regard, the Gaza Strip is still considered territory occupied by Israel. At the same time, rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip, which was the reason for the military operations undertaken by Israel in 2008 and 2012.
The situation in the Gaza Strip remains tense. Both Israeli and Palestinian observers acknowledge that the territory has become an enclave of terrorism.
The Gaza Strip is a territory on the Mediterranean coast allocated by the UN for the creation of the Arab state of Palestine.
From 1948 (after the first Arab-Israeli war) to 1967 it was occupied by the Arab Republic of Egypt, and after the Six-Day War from 1967 to 2005 by Israel.
The area is considered one of the most densely populated in the world. The Gaza Strip is 54 km long and only 12 km wide. Moreover, on an area of 363 sq. km there are about 1.5 million Palestinians. The main source of income for local residents was the export of agricultural products, mainly citrus fruits, to Israel. However, after the outbreak of the Al Aqsa Intifada in 2001, Israel practically closed its borders.
In addition, in the Palestinian territories there were cities in which Jews had settled for a long time - such as Hebron, Jerusalem, Tiberias and Safed, sacred to the Jews. A significant part of the Arab population of these cities was and is hostile to Jews, and pogroms occurred in these settlements more than once. However, the Jews were reluctant to leave them; during the Six Day War, when Hebron was occupied by the Israeli army, they began to return there.
The material was prepared based on information from open sources
