The following is the general introduction to Wikipedia’s entry on “Gaza Strip.”

The Gaza Strip (Wikipedia gives the Arabic spelling and IPA pronunciation) is a strip of land on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea that borders Egypt on the southwest (11 km) and Israel on the east and north (51 kilometers (32 mi). It is 41 km (25 mi) long, and from six to 12 kilometres (3.7 to 7.5 mi) wide, with a total area of 365 square kilometers (141 sq mi).[1] The population of Gaza Strip is about 1.7 million people.[2] While the majority were born in the Gaza Strip, a large percentage identify as Palestinian refugees,[3] fleeing to Gaza as part of the 1948 Palestinian exodus following the Arab-Israeli War. The population is predominantly Sunni Muslim. With a yearly growth rate of about 3.2 percent, the Gaza Strip has the seventh highest population growth rate in the world.[2]

The Gaza Strip acquired its current boundaries at the cessation of fighting in the 1948 war [Times Editor’s note: Between Egypt and Israel], confirmed by the Israel-Egypt Armistice Agreement on 24 February 1949.[4] Article V of the Agreement declared that the demarcation line was not to be an international border. The Gaza Strip continued to be occupied by Egypt. At first Gaza Strip was officially administered by the All-Palestine Government, established by the Arab League in September 1948. From the dissolution of the All-Palestine Government in 1959 until 1967, the Gaza Strip was directly administered by an Egyptian military governor.

Israel captured and occupied the Gaza Strip in the Six-Day War in 1967. Pursuant to the Oslo Accords signed in 1993, the Palestinian Authority became the administrative body that governed Palestinian population centers. Israel maintained control of the airspace, territorial waters and border crossings apart from the land border with Egypt. Israel unilaterally disengaged from Gaza in 2005.

The Gaza Strip forms part of the Palestinian territories.[5][6][7][8] Since July 2007, following the 2006 Palestinian legislative election and the following Battle of Gaza [Times Ed’s note: Between Hamas and PA-Fatah forces], Hamas has functioned as the de facto ruler in the Gaza Strip, forming an alternative Hamas Government in Gaza.

(End of Wikipedia general introduction to its entry on Gaza Strip.)

CIA World Factbook
The following are excerpts from the CIA World Fact Book entry on “Gaza Strip”.

The September 1993 Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements provided for a transitional period of Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Under a series of agreements signed between May 1994 and September 1999, Israel transferred to the Palestinian Authority (PA) security and civilian responsibility for many Palestinian-populated areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Negotiations to determine the permanent status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip stalled following the outbreak of an intifada in September 2000. In April 2003, the Quartet (US, EU, UN, and Russia) presented a roadmap to a final settlement of the conflict by 2005 based on reciprocal steps by the two parties leading to two states, Israel and a democratic Palestine.

Following Palestinian leader Yasir ARAFAT’s death in late 2004, Mahmud ABBAS was elected PA president in January 2005. A month later, Israel and the PA agreed to the Sharm el-Sheikh Commitments in an effort to move the peace process forward. In September 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew all of its settlers and soldiers and dismantled its military facilities in the Gaza Strip and withdrew settlers and redeployed soldiers from four small northern West Bank settlements. Nonetheless, Israel still controls maritime, airspace, and other access to the Gaza Strip; Israel also enforces a restricted zone along the border inside Gaza.

In January 2006, the Islamic Resistance Movement, HAMAS, won control of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). HAMAS took control of the PA government in March 2006, but President ABBAS had little success negotiating with HAMAS to present a political platform acceptable to the international community so as to lift economic sanctions on Palestinians.

Violent clashes between Fatah and HAMAS supporters in the Gaza Strip in 2006 and early 2007 resulted in numerous Palestinian deaths and injuries. In February 2007, ABBAS and HAMAS Political Bureau Chief Khalid MISHAL signed the Mecca Agreement in Saudi Arabia that resulted in the formation of a Palestinian National Unity Government (NUG) headed by HAMAS member Ismail HANIYA. However, fighting continued in the Gaza Strip, and in June 2007, HAMAS militants succeeded in a violent takeover of all military and governmental institutions in the Gaza Strip. ABBAS that same month dismissed the NUG and through a series of presidential decrees formed a PA government in the West Bank led by independent Salam FAYYAD.

Late November 2007 through June 2008 witnessed a substantial increase in Israeli-(Hamas) Palestinian violence. (Times Editor’s Note: This is called the Gaza War by some writers.)
An Egyptian-brokered truce in June 2008 between Israel and HAMAS brought about a five-month pause in hostilities, but spiraling end-of-year violence resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1,100 to 1,400 Palestinians and left tens of thousands of people homeless.

International donors pledged $4.5 billion in aid to rebuild the Gaza Strip, but by the end of 2011 large-scale reconstruction had not begun.

Fatah and HAMAS in May 2011, under the auspices of Egyptian-sponsored reconciliation negotiations, agreed to reunify the Palestinian territories, but the factions have struggled to finalize details on governing and security structures. The status quo remains with HAMAS in control of the Gaza Strip and ABBAS and the Fatah-dominated PA governing the West Bank.

(End of excerpts from CIA World Factbook)

But Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip have continued firing at targets in Israel and Israel’s military has been quick to defend their people and country.

The result is this week’s escalation of what turn into 2nd Gaza War between Hamas Palestinians and Israel.