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Gaza strip is in the news after the statement made by the US president. Take a look at the essential concepts, terms, quotes, or phenomena every day and brush up your knowledge. Here’s your knowledge nugget for today.
(Relevance: The recent conflict in West Asia is important for your UPSC exam. In the Prelims, questions have been asked about the Yom Kippur War, countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, the two-state solution, and the Golan Heights. Considering that the Gaza Strip is in the news, it is important to understand the history and geography of the region.)
During a joint press briefing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump said that the US will “take over the Gaza Strip” and turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East”, for “world people” to live in. He said that he saw the United States taking “a long-term ownership position” in Gaza. Saudi Arabia and Turkey have rejected the idea of the USA taking over Gaza and displacing Palestinians. Hamas, which controls Gaza, said Trump’s proposal was a “recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region.” Netanyahu, however, backed Trump, saying, “After the jaws drop, people scratch their heads and they say, ‘You know, he’s right’.”
Trump’s latest comments are in line with his outlandish claims about buying Greenland, making Canada the 51st state of the US, etc. However, for Palestinians, they revive painful history — when another Western power wrote their destiny and they lost their homeland.
1. According to American media outlet CBS News, Trump said,
The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings — level it out. Create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area. Do a real job. Do something different.
2. When asked who would live in the new Gaza, Trump said, “I envision world people living there, the world’s people… representatives from all over the world, Palestinians also.” He said Palestinians would not want to go back to Gaza, as they only “end up dying there”.
3. Gaza is a strip of land, just 365 sq km in size, wedged between the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the north and east, and Egypt to the south. It is 41 km long and 12 km wide at its widest point.
4. It has been under military occupation since 1967, and even though Israel maintains that it pulled out in 2005, the United Nations, the European Union and other international organisations still consider Gaza as occupied territory. There are three functional border crossings between Gaza and the outside world – Karem Abu Salem Crossing and Erez Crossing controlled by Israel, and Rafah Crossing controlled by Egypt.
1. Six-Year War (1967): In 1967, the Six-Day War was fought between a united Arab front and Israel in which Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the Gaza Strip and the West Bank from Jordan. In this war, Arabs not only lost their territories but also the feeling of a united front.
2. Oslo Agreement (1993): Under the agreement, the Palestinian Authority got administrative control over Gaza after Israel pulled out, and an election was held in 2006.
3. Post-Oslo Agreement: In 2005, Israel withdrew its settlements from Gaza. Between then and 2007, it imposed temporary blockades on the movement of people and goods into and out of Gaza on multiple occasions. In 2007, after Hamas assumed power in Gaza, Israel made the blockade permanent. Egypt, which also has a border crossing with Gaza, participated in the blockade. This effectively meant that most people could not go into or out of Gaza and that the movement of goods and aid was highly restricted.
4. Recent development: In January 2025, Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal to halt fighting in the Gaza Strip, after months of intermittent negotiations mediated by Egypt and Qatar, with support from the United States. The deal outlines the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes in Gaza, the facilitation of medical travel for those injured or sick due to the conflict, and the repositioning of Israeli forces along the Gaza border.
5. The deal says that the Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza’s cities to a buffer zone at the edge of the strip. The displaced Palestinians would be allowed to move freely between the south and north of the territory, which Israel has divided with a military corridor. The third phase of the deal would include a reconstruction plan for Gaza. However, plans for the future governance of the strip remain unclear.
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India’s position |
| India’s position in this conflict has remained consistent. It has supported a “negotiated two-state solution, towards the establishment of a sovereign, independent and viable State of Palestine within secure and recognised borders, living side by side in peace with Israel.” It has been providing humanitarian aid to Palestine and has political, strategic and defence relations with Israel. |
1. In December last year, Turkey strongly criticised Israel’s plan to double the population in the occupied Golan Heights, as per The Guardian, calling it a move to “expand its borders” and a threat to regional stability.
2. The Golan Heights were part of Syria until 1967, when Israel captured most of the area in the Six Day War (1967), occupying it and annexing it in 1981. That unilateral annexation was not recognised internationally, and Syria demands the return of the territory.
3. Syria tried to regain the Heights in the 1973 Middle East war but was thwarted. Israel and Syria signed an armistice in 1974 and the Golan has been relatively quiet since.
4. In 2000, Israel and Syria held their highest-level talks over a possible return of the Golan and a peace agreement. But the negotiations collapsed and subsequent talks also failed.
5. The Golan Heights is home to around 50,000 residents, divided between Jewish settlers and the Druze, an Arabic-speaking ethno-religious minority. While the Trump administration recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights in 2019, most countries still consider it occupied Syrian territory.
(Read more: A brief history of Israel-Palestine conflict, Why Trump said US should ‘take over Gaza’, A to Z of the Israel-Palestine conflict, Middle East Geopolitics and Implications for India, Explained: Golan Heights; Where are they, and why do they matter?)
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