Gaza, from prosperity to below the poverty line

For millennia Gaza served as a commercial hub and bridge between Egypt and the Eastern Arab World. Palestinian writer and activist Edward Said wrote about travelling from Cairo, where his family resided, through Gaza and Jerusalem en route to the Lebanese mountains to escape Egypt's sweltering summers. Palestinian friends said their relatives living in Jerusalem would travel to Cairo via Gaza in winter to escape the cold.

- Michael Jansen, Political Correspondent

Israel's war in 1948 put an end to Gaza's strategic geography and commanding role in commerce and travel. For most in the Arab world, the 72 per cent of Palestine Israel occupied as a "black hole" and the Palestinians who remained were snubbed. The large Gaza district was reduced to the narrow coastal strip.

The population of the strip swelled to 80,000 due to the expulsion of Palestinians from the conquered areas of the district and of 200,000 refugees from elsewhere. Although Israel first occupied the strip for six months between October 1956 and March 1957 due to the Anglo-French-Israeli war on Egypt, the territory was administered by Egypt the rest of the time until mid-1967.

Gazan farmers grew vegetables and fruit and tended livestock. Foreign visitors lodged at Mrs. Nassar’s Marna House. A train linked Gaza to Cairo and the wider world. Flour, rice, fertilizers, clothes, cement, equipment, cars, trucks and belly dancers were imported from Egypt. Gazan educators, engineers, and medics travelled via Cairo to the Gulf for work. Gazan businessmen carried on a lucrative trade with Egypt and students flocked to universities in Cairo and Alexandria. The Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA sheltered, fed, educated, and trained refugees and employed thousands in its administration.

After conquering the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza in June 1967, Israel rendered the strip dependent, de-developed its economy and employed Gazans to work in mainly menial jobs in Israel at low rates of pay and without social insurance. Gaza's dependence increased after Israel withdrew its soldiers and settlers in 2005 but retained air, land and see control of the territory.