The Gaza Strip, an enclave that is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, takes its name from its shape: a long, narrow rectangle of 360 km2, wedged between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea.
Gaza's borders as they exist today date back to 1967. From that time, the "strip" and its inhabitants lived under Israeli occupation for 38 years, until 2005. In 2006, the Islamist party Hamas, which calls for the destruction of Israel, won the legislative elections. After a Palestinian civil war that saw the historic Fatah party ousted from power, Israel, backed by Egypt, imposed in 2007 a land, air and sea blockade around the strip, which is still in place today.
Following Hamas's October 7 attacks on Israeli territory, Israel's "complete siege" of Gaza, accompanied by massive bombardments since October 8, risks worsening an already "dire" humanitarian situation that will "deteriorate exponentially," warned United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.
In this three-minute video, Le Monde explains how the Gaza Strip came to be, and why this enclave is so often compared to an "open-air prison."
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.