Gaza Strip

Who controls the Gaza Strip?

Israeli forces hold at least 60% of the Gaza Strip, behind a line of yellow concrete blocks called the Yellow Line. Hamas holds the rest. Israeli forces pulled back to the line under the ceasefire of October 10, 2025. The line runs east of Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, then turns west to the sea north of Rafah. Israel holds Beit Hanoun, Rafah and the Rafah crossing. Almost all of Gaza's 2.1 million people live in the part west of the line, by UN figures.

At first Israel held about 53% of Gaza. On May 28, 2026, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel held 60% and had ordered the army to take 70%. A UN commission of inquiry said Israel controlled at least 60% by September 2, 2026. In early October the commander of the Israeli army's Gaza Division said it held 63%. The UN commission counted at least 196 Palestinians killed near the line from the ceasefire to early April 2026. Israel says its troops fire on people who cross the line and threaten them.

Israel says it will not pull back further until Hamas is disarmed. Its army chief, Eyal Zamir, called the line "a new border line" and "a forward defensive line for our communities" in December 2025. Hamas says it will not fully disarm until Israeli forces leave Gaza.

How did Israel and Hamas come to control Gaza?

Egypt took the Gaza Strip in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and ran it until 1967, but never annexed it. About 200,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes in what became Israel took refuge there, tripling its population, by UNRWA's account.

Israel captured Gaza in the Six-Day War of June 1967. It kept troops there and built 21 settlements. Under the Oslo accords, the Palestinian Authority took over most of Gaza in May 1994, while Israel kept the settlements and the border with Egypt. In 2005 Prime Minister Ariel Sharon withdrew about 8,000 settlers and all Israeli troops, a step Israel calls the disengagement. Israel kept control of Gaza's airspace, its coast and most of its borders.

Hamas, an Islamist movement founded in 1987, won the Palestinian legislative election in January 2006. In June 2007 Hamas took control of Gaza from the Fatah party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas called it a coup. Hamas says it acted to stop a plan by Fatah, backed by the United States, to remove it by force. Israel and Egypt then restricted movement in and out of Gaza. Israel says the restrictions keep weapons from reaching Hamas. Palestinians call them a blockade that punishes Gaza's civilians. Hamas and other groups fired thousands of rockets at Israel from Gaza, and Israel fought wars with Hamas in 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2021.

What happened in the Gaza war?

On October 7, 2023, Hamas-led fighters broke through the fence around Gaza and attacked towns, army posts and a music festival in southern Israel. They killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures. Hamas said it was answering Israel's occupation, its blockade of Gaza and Israeli actions at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Israel launched air strikes the same day and sent ground troops into Gaza on October 27. Israel said its goals were to destroy Hamas and bring the hostages home.

The Gaza Health Ministry counted 74,594 Palestinians killed and 175,834 wounded from October 7, 2023 to October 31, 2026, including 1,580 killed after the October 2025 ceasefire. The ministry, which Israel says Hamas controls, does not separate civilians from fighters. The UN uses its figures. A senior Israeli military official said in January 2026 that about 70,000 Gazans had been killed. Before the ceasefire, the Israeli military said it had killed at least 22,000 fighters. The Israeli military has named 973 soldiers killed on all fronts since October 7, 2023, 475 of them in the ground war in Gaza.

Israel halted all aid to Gaza from March 2 to May 19, 2025, saying it wanted to press Hamas to free more hostages. The IPC hunger monitor confirmed famine in Gaza City in August 2025. Israel rejected the finding.

What is Trump's plan for Gaza?

The White House published a 20-point plan on September 29, 2025, and its ceasefire took effect on October 10. Hamas freed the last 20 living hostages on October 13, and Israel released 1,968 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. UN Security Council Resolution 2803 endorsed the plan on November 17, 2025, by 13 votes to none, with Russia and China abstaining. It welcomed a Board of Peace, chaired by Trump, as Gaza's transitional administration and authorized an International Stabilization Force. The Palestinian Authority welcomed the resolution. Hamas rejected it, saying it imposed "an international guardianship mechanism" on Gaza.

The plan says that no one will be forced to leave Gaza and that "Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza." Israeli forces are to hand the land they hold to the stabilization force in stages tied to disarmament. Israel would keep a "security perimeter presence" until Gaza is "properly secure from any resurgent terror threat." In February 2025 Trump had proposed that the United States take over Gaza and that its people move to other countries. Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians rejected that idea.

Who will run and rebuild Gaza?

Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Albania, Kosovo and Uganda have pledged troops for the International Stabilization Force. Israel's security cabinet approved a first deployment of about 200 troops on July 26, 2026, but as of late October the force had not deployed. A committee of Palestinian technocrats led by Ali Shaath was formed in January 2026 to run Gaza. It works from Cairo because Israel has not let it in. In July 2026 Hamas said it had dissolved its administration in Gaza to hand over to the committee. Israel called the move a "stunt".

The UN, the World Bank and the European Union estimate that rebuilding Gaza will cost about $70 billion. Israel says Gaza will not be rebuilt until Hamas disarms. In late July 2026 the mediators said Hamas had agreed to a roadmap to give up its weapons. Netanyahu said Israel did not agree to it, and Hamas has not disarmed.

What is the legal status of Gaza?

The Palestinians claim Gaza as part of the State of Palestine, with the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Abbas told the UN in September 2025 that "Gaza is an integral part of the State of Palestine." By most counts, about 157 of the 193 UN members recognize Palestine.

Israel says it ended its occupation of Gaza when it withdrew in 2005, and its Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that Israel no longer had effective control there. The UN still considers Gaza occupied. In an advisory opinion of July 19, 2024, the International Court of Justice said Israel's presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Gaza, is unlawful and must end as rapidly as possible. The court said Israel kept the duties of an occupying power in Gaza after 2005, to the extent of its effective control there. The opinion is not binding, and Israel rejected it.

South Africa accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza at the ICJ. In January 2024 the court ordered Israel to prevent acts of genocide and to let aid in, and it called for the hostages' release. The court has not ruled on the charge, which Israel rejects. In November 2024 the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his former defense minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, whose death Hamas later confirmed. Israel challenges the court's jurisdiction.