The territory is named for the ancient city of Gaza, which lies near the northeastern end of the strip. Five centuries of rule by the Ottoman Empire came to an end in 1917, when the Gaza area became part of the League of Nations mandate of Palestine under British rule. This mandate ended on May 15, 1948, and on the same day the first Arab-Israeli war began. Egyptian forces soon established control of the territory. The boundaries of the Gaza Strip were defined in the Egyptian-Israeli armistice agreement of Feb. 24, 1949. (See also Arab-Israeli wars; League of Nations.)

Large numbers of Palestinian Arab refugees had entered the strip during the 1948–49 war. In the aftermath of the war, however, the Egyptian government did not allow the refugees to become Egyptian citizens or to migrate to other Arab countries, and Israel did not allow them to return to their former homes. Thousands of refugees were thus forced to live in camps, where they survived primarily on aid from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

Israeli forces captured the Gaza Strip in 1956, but under international pressure the territory was restored to Egyptian control the following year. In the Six-Day War of June 1967, the strip was again taken by Israel, and a small number of Israeli settlements were eventually established in the area. In 1987, as prospects for a peaceful end to Israeli occupation dimmed, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank rebelled. The uprising, which became known as the intifadah, or “shaking off,” marked the beginning of more than a decade of sporadic violence between Israelis and Palestinians in the occupied territories. In 1994, under the terms of a peace agreement negotiated by the Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) a year earlier, Israel began a phased transfer of governmental control in the Gaza Strip to the newly formed Palestinian National Authority (PNA) under President Yasir ?Arafat. A new round of violence between Israel and the Palestinians erupted in September 2000, undermining progress toward full Palestinian self-government in the territory. (See also Palestine Liberation Organization; ?Arafat, Yasir.)

Living conditions in the Gaza Strip remain poor, and the unemployment rate is high. Agriculture is the economic mainstay of the population, with citrus fruit the chief crop. Light industry is centered in Gaza, the chief city of the area. In politically stable times, many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip travel daily to jobs in Israel. Outbreaks of violence, however, have often led Israeli authorities to close the border for extended periods. Pop. (2002), 1,269,000.