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00:00 For centuries Gaza was a strategic hub, lying at a crossroads of ancient trading routes.
00:05 But the impoverished enclave as we know it today began to take shape in the aftermath
00:08 of the Second World War.
00:10 Tens of thousands of Palestinians, fleeing Jewish militias fighting to create the State
00:14 of Israel, took refuge in the coastal strip.
00:17 It was ruled directly by Egypt for two decades, until it was captured by Israel in the 1967
00:23 Middle East War, drastically altering the regional landscape.
00:27 Israeli troops occupied the territory to guard a growing number of settlements.
00:31 Tensions were on the rise.
00:35 Things finally came to a head in 1987 with the first Palestinian uprising.
00:40 That led to the creation of both Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, militant groups which
00:45 aimed to destroy the State of Israel.
00:47 Throughout the 1990s both groups tried to derail the peace process by carrying out waves
00:52 of suicide attacks and bombings.
00:55 Israeli-Palestinian ties sunk to a new low in 2000 with the second Palestinian uprising.
01:00 For much of the past 20 years, the coastal enclave has been locked in a cycle of war
01:05 and poverty.
01:08 By 2005, when Israel evacuated its troops and settlements, Gaza had more or less been
01:14 fenced off.
01:17 Two years later, Gazans found themselves completely cut off from the outside world after Hamas
01:21 violently seized control of the territory.
01:25 International aid dried up.
01:27 Israeli attacks crippled infrastructure, causing widespread blackouts and worsening Gaza's
01:32 economic misery.
01:34 Both Israel and Egypt, which controls Gaza's southern border, tightened restrictions on
01:38 the movement of people and goods through crossings.
01:42 Conflict has made it almost impossible for Gaza to even begin the work of rebuilding
01:46 its shattered economy.
01:48 One of the biggest outbreaks of warfare happened in 2014 when Israel launched a ground invasion
01:53 to stop Hamas firing rockets from the Gaza Strip.
01:57 More than 2,000 Palestinians were killed, the majority of them civilians.
02:03 Now, almost a decade later, Israel is poised to invade again.
02:09 And many of Gaza's civilians have nowhere to flee.
02:12 [BLANK_AUDIO]