makāna

Since its creation, demographics are a central issue to the occupying settler state. With the historic developments in Gaza’s borders and demographics, we see that Israel consistently worked on the exclusion of Palestinians from their lands and the enforcement of Jewish communities instead.

In the case of the Gaza cover, planting Zionist settlers population is a deliberate strategy employed by ‘Israel’ to create a demographic and geographical buffer that ‘protects the border’ and prevents any geographical connection between Palestinians in Gaza and the West bank.

Since October 7th, many of these settlements, development towns and kibbutz have been hit hard by the resistance which has caused a huge number of the settlers to seek shelter elsewhere, therefore causing the occupation a huge economic and strategic blow. As the cost of the occupation and apartheid continues to outweigh the benefits, the dismantlement of the criminal settler state takes place.

The Map

Before the Nakba, under the British Mandate, Palestine consisted of 5 districts (liwa’), subdivided into 16 subdistricts (qadaa’). The Gaza district included the subdistricts of Gaza and Be'er Seba.

The Gaza subdistrict covered an area of 1,111.5 km² and included three main cities: Al-Majdal, Gaza, and Khan Yunis, in addition to 54 villages and towns.

From Qadaa' to Gaza Strip

The current borders of the Gaza Strip are a product of the colonial violence exercised by the occupation. Like most colonial borders, they do not follow any natural or demographic features. After the massacres and the subsequent forced displacement of Palestinians during the Nakba of 1948 and the establishment of the state of Israel, Zionist militias took control of most of the Gaza subdistrict and all of the Be'er Seba subdistrict. What remained for Palestinians is what is now known as the Gaza Strip, where refugees make up 80% of the population.

The Gaza Strip came under Egyptian military administration, covering an area of 365 km², with a length of 41 km and a width ranging between 5–15 km. It remained under Egyptian rule until 1967.

Settlements

Since the occupation’s control of the Liwa of Gaza in 1948, and while the Gaza strip was still under the Egyptian military rule, ‘Israel’ had already started its strategy of establishing settlements and kibbutz, many of which on deserted palestinian villages, in what is now known as the gaza cover.

After the 1967 war, when Israel occupied the gaza strip again, it directed the expansion of illegal settlements across the Gaza strip, which would eventually number 21 settlements. These settlements were according to Israel’s ‘five-finger plan’ which aimed to break up the Palestinian inhabited areas’ continuity. They were built on extensive land that Egypt had classified as government property when Gaza was under its military rule.

After the first intifada, which erupted from Jabalia camp in Gaza in 1987, and ended with the signing of the Oslo accords in 1993, the PLO gained control of the Gaza strip, but the illegal Israeli settlements within it remained.

The second intifada in 2000, saw the expulsion of the Israeli settlements and their dismantlement in 2005. Israel continues to maintain the occupation of Gaza by controlling its air and sea borders, and all its land borders except for the short border with its ally Egypt.

Gaza Strip and its Surroundings

Since the occupation of the Gaza Liwa in 1948, the occupation forces had started their strategy of creating an "isolating area" along the Gaza Strip by

In what is now known as the Gaza cover. It extends up to 40km surrounding the strip, and contains about 50 settlements, and around 55,000 settlers.

The civilian occupation of the Gaza cover is a deliberate strategy employed to ‘protect the border’ and create a demographic and geographical buffer that prevents any geographical connection between Palestinians in Gaza and the West bank.

Most of the settlers in the cover are the eastern jews that immigrated from Arab and muslim countries, which the white supremacist state discriminated against, and saw them as the ideal candidates to settle the underdeveloped, dangerous border.

In addition to these settlements being Israel’s first line of defense, the area is also considered Israel’s food basket, producing 75% of its vegetables, 20% of its fruit, and 6.5% of its milk.