The oasis of Gaza has historically built its prosperity and influence on its strategic location as a commercial crossroads between the Levant and Egypt, and as a Mediterranean gateway for caravans from the Arabian Peninsula. The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 turned this crossroads into the 360 km² "Gaza Strip," delimited to the north and east by the Israeli-Egyptian ceasefire lines, and to the south by the border drawn in 1906 between Ottoman Palestine and British-occupied Egypt.

The crossroads has thus been transformed into an enclave, where 200,000 Palestinian refugees, driven from their homes by the creation of Israel, have swamped the 80,000 inhabitants of the local population, the vastness of Egypt's Sinai Desert forcing them to stay in place.

Now home to a quarter of Palestine's Arab population in what was once just 1% of its historic territory, Gaza has naturally become a hotbed of Palestinian nationalism and a breeding ground for its fighters, the fedayeen.

The territory was occupied twice by Israel before the present conflict. Once during four months from 1956 to 1957, a particularly murderous occupation already dedicated to "eradicating" the fedayeen, and then from 1967 to 2005, in an occupation so costly that Israel decided to disengage unilaterally. This withdrawal weakened rather than strengthened the Palestinian Authority, leading to Hamas' takeover of the territory. Israel designated the rulers of the Gaza Strip as a "terrorist entity" in 2007, and has since subjected the territory and its inhabitants to a continual blockade, which the current war has only worsened.

As early as the second millennium BC, Gaza had been the base for an invasion of Egypt by the Hyksos, who came from the Levant, before the Pharaohs of Thebes reversed the trend by seizing the Levant from Gaza. This pendulum swing of empires continued in the battles for Gaza that pitted the Pharaohs against the Assyrians and Babylonians over the centuries.

It was Cyrus the Great who, in 539 BC, fortified Gaza as a Persian garrison at the gates of Egypt, which his successor Cambyses captured in 525. In the following century, the Greek historian Herodotus called Gaza "Cadytis" and described it as governed by a "king of the Arabs" who controlled its "maritime trading posts". The Arabs in question were probably mercenaries who had gone over to Persian service, while retaining the shady autonomy of their "king".

In 333 BC, Alexander of Macedonia crushed the Persian armies at Issos, not far from Antioch, a triumph that opened the gates of Syria and the road to Egypt. But the Persian garrison of Gaza, led by "King" Batis and reinforced by Arab mercenaries, refused to submit, thus blocking the Macedonian advance towards Egypt. This marked the beginning, in 332, of a three-month siege that Alexander led in person, until he was wounded.

You have 45% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.