Israel occupied the Gaza Strip after the Six-Day War in June 1967, until its withdrawal in 2005.
In some ways, the economic conditions for the Palestinians improved during this period: they were allowed to cross over into Israel to work; about 35 percent of Gaza's GNP was from wages earned in Israel. Israel also became a major trading partner; Gazan agricultural products, for example, were exported to Israel and often re-exported by Israel to the rest of the world, as "Produce of Israel." By this time it had become one of the most densely populated regions on Earth, 1.5 million people on a strip of land 20 miles long and 7 miles wide.
About 8,000 Israelis were allowed to settle in Gaza on about 25 percent of the territory and take the lion's share of its scarce water resources. They were forcibly removed by the Israeli army in August 2005 as part of the withdrawal plan of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (now in a coma in an Israeli hospital). Their settlements were destroyed by the Israeli Defense Forces, which withdrew all its forces from Gaza by December 2005.
Before leaving, the Israeli army bombed the northeast section of the Gaza Strip to create a border-buffer zone, ostensibly to protect Israel from Palestinian rockets and missiles.
Yes and no. After 2005, Israel retained control of all access routes in and out of Gaza, by land, sea and air. The Strip was converted overnight into what has been described by many as a prison.
Israel controls Gaza's electricity and fuel supply and often leaves the strip in darkness as a punishment for rocket attacks. Israel uses its control of the border to determine whether Gazans can get to work and earn a living. It also controls the flow of food into the Strip; many Gazans are forced to depend on food aid.
Israel enjoyed unrestricted freedom to drop bombs when it considered itself provoked, carried out targeted assassinations against Palestinian militants and generally made life miserable for its inhabitants, by now the grandchildren, even great-grandchildren of the Palestinian refugees from present-day southern Israel.
In June 2006, for example, Israel conducted a major military campaign inside the Gaza Strip lasting two weeks and destroying much of the infrastructure in Gaza City, following the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit. (He has never been found).
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