GEEZERPOWER

Occupation of the Gaza Strip by Egypt

Wikipedia

Gaza Strip

Military occupation by Egypt

1948–1956
1957–1967 →
Gaza Strip after 1950 Armistice
Gaza Strip after 1950 Armistice
Capital Gaza
Language(s) Arabic
Religion Islam
Political structure Military occupation
History
- Established 1948
- Disestablished 1967
- Egyptian claim relinquished 17 September 1978

The administration of the Gaza Strip by Egypt occurred between 1948 and October 1956, and again from March 1957 to June 1967. Egypt did not annex the Gaza Strip but left it under Egyptian military rule as a temporary arrangement pending the resolution of the Palestine Question.


Main article: 1948 Arab–Israeli War

After World War I, the League of Nations granted Great Britain authority over certain former Ottoman territories, including the Gaza Strip. What became known as the British Mandate for Palestine was formally confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations on 24 July 1922 and which came into effect on 26 September 1923.

After World War II, the British Mandate of Palestine came to an end. The surrounding Arab nations were also emerging from colonial rule. Transjordan, under the Hashemite ruler Abdullah I, gained independence from Britain in 1946 and was called Jordan, but it remained under heavy British influence. Egypt, while nominally independent, signed the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 that included provisions by which Britain would maintain a garrison of troops on the Suez Canal. From 1945 on, Egypt attempted to renegotiate the terms of this treaty, which was viewed as a humiliating vestige of colonialism.

On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly approved a plan to resolve the Arab-Jewish conflict by partitioning Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. (See 1947 UN Partition Plan.) In the immediate aftermath of the adoption of this plan, civil war broke out in the former Mandate territory. (See 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine.)

On 14 May 1948, David Ben-Gurion declared the independence of the state of Israel, and the war entered its second phase, with the intervention of several Arab states' armies the following day.

Egypt's early gains in the war were reversed when, on 22 December 1948, the Israeli army, in "Operation Horev" drove Egyptian forces out of the Negev and encircled the Egyptian Forces in the Gaza Strip, forcing Egypt to withdraw and accept a ceasefire. On 7 January 1949, a truce was achieved. Israeli forces withdrew from Sinai and Gaza under international pressure.[citation needed]

On 24 February, 1949 the Israel–Egypt Armistice Agreement was signed in Rhodes. Under the agreement, the armistice line was drawn along the international border (dating back to 1906) for the most part, except near the Mediterranean Sea, where Egypt remained in control of a strip of land along the coast, which became known as the Gaza Strip. See 1949 Armistice Agreements.