| History of Gaza | |
The known history of Gaza spans 4,000 years. Gaza was ruled, destroyed and repopulated by various dynasties, empires, and peoples. Originally a Canaanite settlement, it came under the control of the ancient Egyptians for roughly 350 years before being conquered and becoming one of thePhilistines' principal cities. Gaza fell to the Israelites in about 1000 BCE and later became part of the Assyrian Empire. Alexander the Great besieged and captured the city in 332 BCE. Most of the inhabitants were killed during the assault, and the city, which became a center for Hellenisticlearning and philosophy, was resettled by nearby Bedouins. The area changed hands regularly between two Greek successor-kingdoms, theSeleucids of Syria and the Ptolemies of Egypt until it was besieged and taken by the Hasmoneans in 96 BCE.
Gaza was rebuilt by Roman General Pompey Magnus, and granted to Herod the Great thirty years later. Throughout the Roman period, Gaza maintained its prosperity, receiving grants from several different emperors. A 500-member senate governed the city, which had a diverse population ofGreeks, Romans, Jews, Egyptians, Persians and Nabateans. Conversion toChristianity in the city was spearheaded and completed under Saint Porphyrius, who destroyed its eight pagan temples between 396 and 420 CE. Gaza was the first city in Palestine to be conquered by the Muslim general Amr ibn al-'As in 634 CE. During early Muslim rule, most Gazans adopted Islam as their religion, and the city went through periods of prosperity and decline. The Crusaders wrested control of Gaza from theFatimids in 1100, but were driven out by Saladin. Gaza was in Mamlukhands by the late 13th-century, and became the capital of a province that stretched from the Sinai Peninsula to Caesarea. It witnessed a golden age under the Ottoman-appointed Ridwan family in the 16th century.
Gaza experienced destructive earthquakes in 1903 and 1914. In 1917,British forces captured the city during World War I. Gaza grew significantly in the first half of the 20th-century under Mandatory rule. The population of the city swelled as a result of the Palestinian exodus during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Gaza came under Egyptian rule until it was occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War. Gaza became a center of political resistance during the First Intifada, and under the Oslo Accords of 1993, it was assigned to be under the direct control of the newly establishedPalestinian Authority. Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005. In 2007, Hamas emerged as the victor in Palestinian factional fighting withFatah in the city and in the wider Gaza Strip and has since been the solegoverning authority. Israel has blockaded the Strip since then and has launched assaults against it in 2008–2009, 2012 and 2014, which it characterized as a response to rocket attacks. more from Wikipedia
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