Gaza City

Overview

Gaza City is the largest city in the Gaza Strip, which takes its name from the ancient city. Situated near the Mediterranean coast on the route between Egypt and the Levant, Gaza served at different times as an administrative center, a fortress and a market for regional trade. Its long history includes Egyptian rule in antiquity, its place among the cities of the Philistines, Jewish settlement and successive imperial governments. The city’s name refers to the historic urban center; the Gaza Strip is the wider territory that emerged under Egyptian administration after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

Gaza City’s modern political history changed sharply during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Israel captured it from Egypt in the Six-Day War of 1967. Under the Oslo process, civil authority passed to the PLO-led administration in 1994, and Fatah made the city its headquarters. Israel withdrew its forces and uprooted the Jewish communities of Gush Katif and northern Gaza in 2005. Hamas, a terrorist organization, violently seized power in Gaza in 2007 and established its rule over Gaza City. The city subsequently became a principal setting for wars between Hamas and Israel, especially the war that began in 2023.

Geography

Gaza City stands in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, close to the Mediterranean shore. Its position links the coastal plain to routes running toward Egypt and the inland Levant. That location helps explain why ancient armies, merchants and later governments repeatedly treated Gaza as an important point of passage. The city and the Gaza Strip must be distinguished geographically: Gaza City is one urban center within a territory that also includes Khan Yunis to the south and Rafah on the Egyptian border.

The modern city grew beyond its older center during the twentieth century. Its dense neighborhoods, multistory buildings and limited space between civilian and military sites shaped later fighting. In comparisons with the 2017 battle for Raqqa, Gaza City presented a different urban battlefield because Hamas had built an extensive tunnel network and because taller buildings gave armed units elevated positions. Streets, buildings and underground passages consequently formed connected parts of the battlefield during Israeli operations after October 2023.

Ancient and biblical history

Gaza’s recorded history extends into antiquity. Egyptian rulers used the area as a base for operations in Canaan, and ancient records identify Gaza as an Egyptian administrative center. The city’s position near routes between Egypt and the lands to its north gave it continuing military value even as its commercial importance changed over time. Its Hebrew name, Azzah, appears in the Bible. Biblical accounts place Gaza among the settlements of Canaan, associate it with the territory allotted to Judah and describe it as the setting for episodes in the life of Samson.

By the early first millennium BCE, Gaza was one of the five principal cities of the Philistines. It remained important as regional powers competed for control of the southern coastal plain. Assyrian, Egyptian and Persian campaigns all reached the city. Under Persian rule, Gaza developed as a fortress and a point of exchange on trade routes connecting the Mediterranean with Arabia. Alexander the Great besieged Gaza in 332 BCE. During the Hellenistic period, the city’s commercial role expanded as goods moved along caravan routes toward the coast.

Gaza later came under Roman rule and developed a reputation for learning and urban culture. Christianity became dominant in the city during the Byzantine period, after a lengthy transition from older religious practices. The succession of rulers and faiths left Gaza with a history broader than any single modern conflict. Its ancient significance rests on its location, its repeated use as a governing and military center, and its connections with the peoples who lived along the southern coastal plain.

Jewish history

Jewish history in Gaza reaches from biblical tradition into later antiquity and the early modern era. Biblical texts place Gaza within the geographical world of ancient Israel while also describing long periods when other peoples held the city. Jewish forces attacked Gaza in the Hasmonean period, and Alexander Jannaeus captured it after a siege. Jews also lived there during the Talmudic period. Their presence was one part of a city whose rulers and population changed repeatedly over centuries.

Jewish travelers and residents continued to appear in accounts of Gaza after antiquity. Obadiah of Bertinoro recorded a Gaza rabbi, Moses of Prague, during his visit in 1488. In the seventeenth century, Gaza became associated with the messianic movement surrounding Shabbetai Zevi and his follower Nathan of Gaza. These episodes illustrate that Jewish life in and around Gaza did not end with the biblical or Roman periods.

The twentieth century brought another rupture. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip and other areas taken by Arab armies were lost; Kfar Darom was among the Gaza communities affected. Decades later, Jewish communities were established in Gaza, including those of Gush Katif. Israel’s 2005 disengagement removed all 21 Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip and their approximately 8,000 residents, as well as Israeli forces. Gush Katif lay outside Gaza City, but its uprooting was central to the territory’s modern history and to the political setting in which Gaza City subsequently developed.

Modern history

After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Egypt controlled Gaza City and administered the newly formed Gaza Strip. The city became the territory’s largest urban center. Israel captured Gaza City from Egypt during the Six-Day War in 1967; Israeli forces took the city on June 6. The change placed Gaza City under Israeli military control and made it a center of security activity in the Gaza Strip during the following decades.

The Oslo process altered the city’s administration. In 1994, Israel transferred civil authority in Gaza to the administration led by the PLO, and Gaza City became Fatah’s headquarters. The transfer made the city a principal seat of Arab self-government in Gaza. It did not settle the conflict with Israel or remove the rivalry among armed and political factions within the territory.

Israel’s 2005 withdrawal removed its permanent forces and Jewish communities from Gaza. Its disengagement plan included Gush Katif, communities in northern Gaza and other communities across the Strip. The decision was made in pursuit of a political and security change, but the subsequent struggle for power in Gaza moved in a different direction. Hamas and Fatah fought for control. In 2007, Hamas violently seized power in Gaza and established its rule over Gaza City.

That seizure had immediate consequences for the city’s political life. At a November 12, 2007 rally commemorating Yasser Arafat in Gaza City, Hamas security forces fired on the crowd, killing seven Fatah supporters and wounding about 150 people. Fatah remained an important rival to Hamas but no longer governed the city. Mahmoud Abbas later cut salary payments to Gaza government employees and transfers for electricity and fuel in an effort to weaken Hamas. The dispute between the rival movements affected public administration and daily life across Gaza.

Gaza City also hosted political demonstrations connected to wider regional disputes. On November 3, 2012, protesters in Gaza City, northern Gaza and Khan Yunis burned images of Arthur Balfour and Mahmoud Abbas. At a 2022 World Jerusalem Day rally in the city, Hossein Salami, a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, praised attackers who had killed Israeli civilians. Such events showed Gaza City’s role as a public stage for both local factional politics and campaigns directed against Israel.

Security

Hamas used Gaza City as a center of government and military activity after its 2007 seizure of power. Its armed organization operated in a crowded urban environment where civilian buildings, command facilities and underground routes could stand close together. The city figured in the 2008–2009 war between Israel and Hamas and again in the 2014 Gaza War. Israeli operations in those conflicts responded to attacks from Gaza, while fighting and airstrikes placed the city’s residents amid recurring danger. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s government also regarded Hamas as a security threat during the 2014 conflict.

Hamas’s military structure included a Gaza City Brigade. Bassem Issa commanded that brigade when Israel targeted him on May 12, 2021. Hamas leaders also used the city to reinforce the organization’s history and identity. On March 22, 2017, Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar led Hamas figures to Ahmed Yassin’s former Gaza City home to mark thirteen years since his death. Under Sinwar, Hamas worked to build military capacity in Gaza and connect several fronts against Israel.

Hamas’s October 7 attacks in 2023 began a new war. The scale of the attack and the operations that followed found Israel without sufficient weapons inventories and production capacity for the ensuing campaign in Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces subsequently fought Hamas in Gaza City. Dense streets, taller buildings and Hamas tunnels complicated operations above and below ground. Hamas’s use of civilian buildings for military purposes increased the danger to residents and made the identification of military targets more difficult.

Hamas’s tunnels were especially important to fighting in the city. Underground routes allowed armed units to move, shelter and prepare attacks while Israeli forces operated on the surface. High-rise buildings created elevated positions for surveillance, snipers and anti-tank units. Hamas also rigged some buildings as explosive traps intended to collapse on Israeli forces. The combination of tunnels and high-rises distinguished Gaza City from other urban battlefields, including Raqqa, whose 2017 battle was later used as a point of comparison.

In March 2025, Israel renewed extensive strikes against Hamas commanders, leaders and military infrastructure in Gaza. On August 8, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet adopted a resolution to take control of Gaza City after moving an estimated 800,000 residents to the southern Gaza Strip. The cabinet set October 7, 2025 as the target date. The proposal drew concern about risks to hostages, civilians and Israeli soldiers. Those concerns became more immediate as preparations for a ground operation advanced in September.

Present day

During September 2025, Gaza City remained a central battlefield and a place where Hamas held Israeli hostages. Hamas released a propaganda video on September 5 showing Alon Ohel and Guy Gilboa-Dalal alive after 700 days in captivity. Gilboa-Dalal said in the video that he was being held in Gaza City. The Hostage Families Forum warned that the planned Israeli operation posed an immediate threat to the remaining hostages. At the time, Hamas held 48 hostages, of whom 20 were believed to be alive.

Hamas moved some hostages into homes and tents above ground ahead of the Israeli ground operation, using them as human shields and complicating Israeli operations. Gilboa-Dalal’s mother received confirmation that he was being held above ground. Hamas also urged Gaza City residents to ignore Israeli evacuation orders and threatened residents who left for safe zones in southern Gaza. Hamas’s decisions to hold captives in the city and pressure civilians to remain in combat areas added to the dangers posed by the fighting.

Israeli forces intensified strikes on Gaza City high-rises used by Hamas for surveillance. On September 5, the Israeli Air Force destroyed one such building after Israel issued an evacuation notice to give civilians time to leave the area. The building housed underground facilities, Hamas command-and-control centers and routes used to plan ambushes against Israeli troops. Israeli forces planned further demolitions of high-rises serving as Hamas outposts. In early September, the Israel Defense Forces reported control of 40 percent of Gaza City.

Four Hamas commanders led field operations against Israeli forces in the city during that phase of the campaign: Izz ad-Din Haddad, head of Hamas’s military wing; Raed Saad, head of its Operations Division; Muhammad Odeh, head of its Intelligence Division; and Muhannad Rajab, a senior official in its Gaza Brigade. Their roles reflected the city’s importance to Hamas’s remaining military command as Israel expanded its operations.

Civilian movement and aid delivery were also major concerns. By September 14, 2025, an estimated 300,000 of Gaza City’s approximately one million residents had evacuated. Israel planned to facilitate the continued entry of aid trucks during its operations. Three Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution sites were active when the campaign began, and the organization planned to expand to eight sites within six weeks. The movement of residents, the fate of the hostages and the use of buildings and tunnels for combat remained closely connected questions throughout the Gaza City operation.