Israel announced a “total siege” of the Gaza Strip following Hamas attacks on its territory. What is the Gaza Strip? Who lives there? Where did the Israeli raids hit? Overview.
Where is the Gaza Strip located?
The Gaza Strip is a very small territory of 365 km2, smaller than the island of Montreal, surrounded to the north and east by Israel, to the south by Egypt and to the west by the Mediterranean Sea. Entry and exit points have been restricted by a blockade imposed by Israel since 2007, after Hamas took control of the territory.
Of the seven existing border crossings on the perimeter of the Gaza Strip, only three were still open before last Saturday’s Hamas attacks. The posts of Erez, in the northeast, and Kerem Shalom, in the southeast, were under Israeli control, while the post of Rafah, on the Egyptian border, was under the command of Cairo. Currently, none of these border crossings are open: those of Erez and Kerem Shalom have been the target of Hamas attacks, while the Rafah crossing has been the subject of bombardment of Israel.
Where did the Israeli response hit?
In response to Hamas attacks, Israel ordered a “total siege” of the Gaza Strip on Sunday, even though this measure is prohibited by international law, the UN recalled. This siege notably involves a total cut of electricity, gas and water. The Gaza Ministry of Health has also announced that it will have to ration its health services in order to prioritize “essential departments” as much as possible.
Bombings were carried out throughout the territory, particularly in Gaza City, located in the north of the Palestinian enclave. This city is the most populous of the strip, with approximately 870,000 inhabitants.
Satellite images from Maxar Technologies, obtained by the Associated Press, show the damage caused by Israeli bombardments on this small Palestinian territory. In particular, we can observe two destroyed mosques in the Rimal district. Below, we can see the al-Gharbi mosque, near the Mediterranean, destroyed by bombs.
A few streets away, the al-Sousi mosque was also bombed.
Maxar images also show a residential neighborhood hit by Israeli bombings.
Who lives in Gaza?
Nearly 41% of Gaza’s population is under the age of 15, according to data from the Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics dating from July 2022. The global average is around 25%, Statista data shows. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, around 60% of those injured in the territory since the Israeli response are women and children.
Furthermore, given the small size of the territory, the Gaza Strip is very densely populated. A large part of the population lives in Gaza City, which occupies approximately 12% of the territory. The second largest city, Khan Yunis, had a population of 228,972 people in 2021.
There are also eight refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, which shelter 1.7 million refugees, according to the United Nations. This total represents approximately 80.9% of the territory’s population, numbered at 2.17 million inhabitants. According to data from 2019, the Gaza Strip then had 2,485 beds spread across 32 hospitals, or 1.3 beds per 1,000 inhabitants.