Miles Long

Home to 2. 2 million People , the Gaza Strip is 41km (25 miles) long and 10km wide, an enclave bounded by The Mediterranean Sea, Israel and Egypt.

Originally occupied by Egypt, Gaza was captured by Israel during the 1967 Middle East war. Israel withdrew its troops and about 7,000 settlers in 2005.

It is under the control of the militant Islamist group Hamas , which ejected forces loyal to the then governing Palestinian Authority (PA) after a violent rift in 2007.

Since then, Israel and Egypt have restricted The Movement of goods and People in and out of Gaza, saying their blockade is needed for security reasons.

Hamas - designated a terrorist group by the US, EU and UK, as well as other Powers - has fought several wars with Israel since taking power in Gaza.

It has also fired, or allowed other militant groups to fire, thousands of rockets at Israel and carried out other deadly attacks.

On 7 October, hundreds of Hamas militants launched an unprecedented assault on southern Israel, killing at least 1,200 People and taking dozens of hostages back to Gaza.

Israel has carried out waves of air and artillery strikes on Gaza in response, in which More Than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed, and its troops are massing for a possible ground operation.

Israel's Prime Minister has vowed to defeat Hamas in The War and " change the Middle East ".

As part of its response to Hamas 's attack, Israel's Defence Minister ordered a " complete siege" of Gaza on 9 October, adding: " There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. "

The Israeli infrastructure minister later cut off The Strip 's water supply too.

The Move immediately worsened the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where 80% of the population was already in need of international aid.

Gaza's sole Power Plant stopped working after running out of fuel on 11 October, leaving hospitals overwhelmed with injured relying on back-up generators. Some hospitals with limited stores are expected to run out of fuel within days.

More Than 600,000 People were also left without drinkable water by the Israeli decision to cut off the water supply. Local water pumps and sewage systems will also need fuel to function.

The closure of the Kerem Shalom goods crossing with Israel has meant that food stocks are being depleted: a third of shops in Gaza are reporting a shortage of commodities. The UN says most shops have enough food for about Two Weeks .

At least 200,000 People have been displaced, after fleeing for fear of their lives or because their homes have been destroyed in air strikes. Most are taking shelter in UN schools.

Even before the current conflict, power cuts were an everyday occurrence in Gaza, with households receiving electricity for only 13 Hours per day on average, according to the UN.

The Strip was purchasing almost two-thirds of its power from Israel, with the rest generated by the Gaza Power Plant (GPP). But the combined supply only met less than half of the demand.

To cope with blackouts, service providers and households must resort to back-up generators. But they are unreliable because of their dependence on scarce fuel and Spare Parts , which are subject to import restrictions because Israel classifies them as having a " dual-use" civil and military capacity.

Civilians have little hope of being able to leave Gaza to escape The Conflict .

Israel has indefinitely shut the Erez Crossing in the north of The Strip , while the Egyptian-controlled Rafah border crossing in The South was closed on 9 and 10 October because of Israeli air strikes near the gate on the Palestinian side.

Before the escalation, Palestinians were banned from leaving Gaza via Israel unless they obtained an Israeli-issued exit permit. The permits were limited to day labourers, businesspeople, medical patients and their companions, and aid workers.

In August, 58,600 People were allowed to travel through Erez, which was 65% above the monthly average for 2022, according to the UN.

Palestinians wanting to leave via Rafah, meanwhile, had to register with the Palestinian authorities several weeks in advance and apply to Egypt, which imposes limits on numbers and severe security controls.

Egypt allowed 19,600 People to exit Gaza through Rafah in August, which was the highest number since July 2012.

Gaza has one of the highest population densities in The World .

On average, there are More Than 5,700 People per sq km - Very similar to the density of population in London - But that figure rises to More Than 9,000 in Gaza City.

Just over 75% of Gaza's population - Some 1. 7 million People - are registered refugees, according to the UN. More Than 500,000 of them live in eight crowded camps located across The Strip .

The conflicts between Palestinian militants in Gaza and Israel, and the slow pace of reconstruction, have left many People in Gaza without adequate housing.

The UN said in January that out of the 13,000 homes destroyed since 2014, about 2,200 had yet to be funded for reconstruction. Another 72,000 homes that were partially damaged had not received any repair assistance.

Reconstruction has been hindered by limited access to construction material and specialist equipment because of Israeli restrictions on " dual-use" items.

Palestinian officials say the current Israeli air strikes have destroyed 1,000 homes and that 500 have been damaged so severely that they are uninhabitable.

Gaza's Public Health facilities are overstretched and frequently affected by power cuts and shortages of medical supplies and equipment. Many services and specialist treatments are not available.

The UN says Israel and Egypt's blockade, lower health expenditure from the West Bank -based Palestinian Authority and internal political conflict between the PA - which has responsibility for healthcare in the Palestinian territories - and Hamas are all to blame.

Patients from Gaza needing life-saving or advanced care in West Bank or East Jerusalem hospitals must first get requests approved by the PA And Then exit passes approved by the Israeli authorities.

From 2008 to 2022, More Than 70,000 or a third of patient permit applications were delayed or denied. Some patients also died while awaiting a response to their application.

The UN says about 1. 3 million People are food-insecure and require food assistance in Gaza, which where the population is reliant on imports to meet its needs.

About 22% of the 12,000 truckloads of goods that Israel and Egypt allowed through the Kerem Shalom and Rafah crossings in August 2023 were food supplies, according to the UN.

Israeli restrictions on access to Agricultural Land and fishing have reduced the amount of food Gazans can produce themselves.

Areas up to 100m (330ft) from the 60km-long Israeli perimeter fence are considered to be " no-go" areas. Farmers cannot grow anything there, even if they own The Land . People other than farmers are not allowed within 300m.

Israel also imposes a sailing limit in The Mediterranean Sea, meaning Gazans can only fish within a certain distance of The Shore - currently between 6 and 15 nautical miles (11-28km) - disrupting the livelihoods of about 5,000 fishermen and related workers.

After the start of the latest conflict, Israel shut Kerem Shalom and banned any fishing.

To try to get round the blockade, Hamas has built a network of tunnels which it uses to bring goods into The Strip from Egypt and also as an underground command centre.

Israel says the tunnels are also used by militants to smuggle weapons and move around out of sight. It frequently targets them with air strikes.

Clean water is unavailable for 95% of Gaza's population.

Because of over-extraction from the coastal aquifer and infiltration by sea water and sewage, the Tap Water is salty and polluted and not fit for drinking.

The World Health Organization set the minimum requirement for daily water needs at 100 litres per person - to cover drinking, washing, cooking and bathing. In Gaza, average consumption is about 84 litres. Only 27 litres of that is considered suitable for human use.

The UN warned on 10 October that Israel's decision to cut supplies of water, electricity and fuel would result in a severe shortage of drinkable water.

It said local authorities were urging residents to conserve water to maintain essential services, and that wastewater treatment plants had stopped working for lack of fuel, leading to tens of millions of gallons of raw sewage being pumped daily into The Sea .

Many children attend schools run by the UN and many of them are acting as places of shelter for tens of thousands of People who have fled the latest conflict.

According to the Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, 71% of its 278 schools in Gaza run a " double shift" system, with one school of students in The Morning and another in the afternoon.

An average class size was about 41 pupils in 2022.

The literacy rate for those aged 15-19 was 98% in 2021.

Gaza has one of The World 's youngest populations, with almost 65% of the population under 25 years old, according to the CIA World Factbook.

That compares with just over 20% in London , where according to data from the 2021 census, More Than 65% of People are aged between 25 and 64.

More Than 80% of the population lives in poverty in Gaza, where unemployment levels are among the highest in The World , reaching 45% in 2022.

Youth Unemployment is far higher, with 73. 9% of People aged between 19 and 29 who hold Secondary School diplomas or university degrees out of work.

Source of news: bbc.com