Gaza is a narrow strip of land which is 4 to 7 miles wide and 25 miles long. Towards the west of Gaza is the Mediterranean Sea and to the South, Egypt and to the East and North, Israel. Gaza was one of the densest territories in the world with 11,000 inhabitants by square miles. In total around 1.8 million people lived there. This population lived in five districts. Two/thirds of the population has a refugee status and mostly live in the eight camps created by the UN. Since 1948 Gaza is not just a state but one of the two territories that make up Palestinian territories with the West Bank after being occupied by the Israeli army following the six day war in 1967. These land have been managed by the Palestinian authorities since the Oslo Accords (Oslo Accords are a pair of agreements between the Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation.) Three administrative divisions were then created in 1994.

Area A: under Palestinian control

Area B: under Palestinian civilian control whose security was jointly enforced with Israel

Area C: under Israeli control which includes the Jewish settlements. In 2005 with the dismantling of 21 Jewish settlements and the Israeli military engagement, all of Gaza went under the Palestinian Authority except for its air and maritime space. To some Israelis this was known as “The Expulsion”. At the time Palestinian Authority was in control of all the big cities in the West Bank and two/thirds of the Gaza Strip.

In 2006, Hamas, contesting under the name of change and reform won the legislative elections. It prevailed over Fatah, Yassir Arafat’s political party which traditionally represented Palestinian demands. However the poll results were not recognised by a part of the international community. This was because Hamas advocates for complete destruction of Israel according to United States, Canada and European Union and is recognised a terrorist organisation. Hamas also rejects Oslo Accords and wants to create a complete Palestinian Islamic State. Ever since they came in power, Israel stopped paying custom duties and the United States along European Union stopped their financial aid to Gaza. After violent clashes between Hamas and Fatah, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007.

Hamas refused to end the arm struggle against Israel and as a result to this violence all the borders of Gaza has been closed. In 2013 the Egyptian army destroyed the tunnel through which food, building material and weapons were smuggled. On the Israeli side there was a severe Gaza lockdown. On the border a security barrier along with buffer zones were put in place. People in Gaza could not access the buffer zones even though most of the fertile agricultural lands were located there. Gaza international airport was destroyed in 2011. Access to borders by boat has also been forbidden to Gazans since the fishing area of 20 nautical miles set by the Oslo Accords has been repeatedly reduced by Israel to six or even to three miles when tensions were at the highest. Even though fish can only be found beyond eight miles. Fishing is one of the main sources of income for Gazans.

On 8 July 2014 Israel started the operation Protective Edge which is an aerial operation in the Gaza Strip in response to rockets fired by Hamas. “According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), over 273,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip had been displaced as of 31 July 2014, of whom 236,375 (over eleven percent of the Gazan population) were taking shelter in 88 UNRWA schools.”

On 17 July 2014, the ground operation started in order to destroy the tunnel system of Gaza.This was the fourth military intervention. Israel army withdrew on 5 August.

Stuck between Israel's bombings and refusal to compromise is why Palestinians are suffering terribly in the Gaza Strip.

The rebuilding cost for Israeli-Gaza conflict is 4-6 Billion in 20 years. This conflict has caused mass destruction and people are losing their lives everyday. Is there an end to this destruction?