Gaza
:''The article is about the Middle Eastern city. For the province in
Mozambique, see
Gaza Province.''
The city of
Gaza is the principal city in the
Gaza Strip.
In
Arabic it is written
غزة Ġazzah;, in the
Hebrew alphabet it is
עזה, in Standard Hebrew it is
ʿAzza, in Tiberian Hebrew it is
Ġazzāh or
ʿAzzāh. It sometimes called
Gaza City to distinguish it from the
Gaza Strip. It has a population of about 400,000. It is currently under the control of the Palestinian Authority, which took it over from
Israel following the 1993
Oslo Accords.
History
Gaza has long been sought after by many groups due to its location between
Asia and
Africa, its fertile land, and its value as a sea port.
The earliest known reference to the city was by the Egyptian
Pharaoh Thutmose III in the
15th century BC. It is also mentioned in the Tell el-Amarna tablets. The exact site of ancient Gaza is not known.
Modern Gaza was built in the time of
Herod the Great. In biblical times Gaza was one of the major cities of the
Philistines. The Philistine city was built on a hill about 150 feet (45 meters) above sea level, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the
Mediterranean Sea. It was a walled city of about 200 acres (80 hectares). It came successively under the control of the
Israelites,
Assyrians, Egyptians, Babylonians, and
Persians.
Gaza became a
Muslim city in 635, when it was captured by the
Arabs. The city was taken by Crusaders in the
1100s, although it was recaptured by Muslims in 1187.
The
Ottoman Empires took control of Gaza in the in the
1500s. During
World War I on
November 7, 1917 the
Third Battle of Gaza ended and
United Kingdom forces captured Gaza from the Ottoman Empire.
Gaza served as the administrative headquarters for the Israeli military forces that militarily administered the Gaza Strip from 1967 to 1994.
The origin of the name
Gaza is unclear. It has been variously reported to derive from the Canaanite,
Hebrew, and Persian languages.
Gaza city in the Gaza strip
See also
External link
ar:غزة
de:Gaza (Stadt)
fr:Gaza
he:עזה
nl:Gaza
zh:加沙
Category:Coastal cities
Category:Hebrew Bible/Tanakh places
Category:Palestinian Cities