Gaza Strip

Broadcast media

1 TV station and about 10 radio stations; satellite TV accessible (2008)

Internet country code

.ps; note - same as West Bank

Internet users

total: 1,379,000 (includes West Bank) | percent of population: 34.4% (includes West Bank) (2009)

Radio broadcast stations

AM 0, FM 10, shortwave 0 (2008)

Telephone system

general assessment: Gaza continues to repair the damage to its telecommunications infrastructure caused by fighting in 2009 | domestic: Israeli company BEZEK and the Palestinian company PALTEL are responsible for fixed-line services; the Palestinian JAWWAL company provides cellular services | international: country code - 970 (2009)

Telephones - fixed lines

403,118 (includes West Bank) (2014 est.)

Telephones - mobile cellular

total: 3,197,550 (includes West Bank) | subscriptions per 100 inhabitants: 117 (includes West Bank) (2014 est.)

Television broadcast stations

1 (2008)

Agriculture - products

olives, fruit, vegetables, flowers; beef, dairy products

Budget

see entry for West Bank

Commercial bank prime lending rate

see entry for West Bank

Current account balance

(2014 est.)

Debt - external

see entry for West Bank

Economy - overview

Israeli security controls imposed since the end of the second intifada have degraded economic conditions in the Gaza Strip, the smaller of the two areas comprising the Palestinian territories. Israeli-imposed border closures, which became more restrictive after HAMAS seized control of the territory in June 2007, have resulted in high unemployment, elevated poverty rates, and a sharp contraction of the private sector that had relied primarily on export markets. Egyptian authorities began a crackdown on Gaza’s extensive tunnel-based smuggling network in 2013, creating fuel, construction material, and consumer goods shortages in the territory. Israel’s military operation in Gaza from July to August 2014 - the latest in a series of periodic conflicts between Israel and Gaza-based Palestinian militants -destroyed one-fifth of the territory’s industrial infrastructure, displaced more than 100,000 people, and left 30% of households without access to potable water. Since the conflict, Israel has allowed limited Gaza exports and relaxed some restrictions on construction material imports to assist reconstruction efforts, but the Palestinian Authority will depend on donor and humanitarian aid to finance the $4billion needed to rebuild.

Exchange rates

see entry for West Bank

Exports

(2013 est.)

Exports - commodities

strawberries, carnations, vegetables, fish (small and irregular shipments, as permitted to transit the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing)

Fiscal year

calendar year

GDP (purchasing power parity)

see entry for West Bank

GDP - composition, by end use

data exclude West Bank (2014 est.)

GDP - composition, by sector of origin

5.7% | 16.9% | 77.4% | note: data exclude West Bank (2014 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP)

see entry for West Bank

GDP - real growth rate

-15% (2014 est.) | 6% (2013 est.) | 7% (2012 est.) | note: data exclude West Bank | country comparison to the world: 223

Imports

see entry for West Bank

Imports - commodities

food, consumer goods, fuel

Industrial production growth rate

see entry for West Bank

Industries

textiles, food processing, furniture

Inflation rate (consumer prices)

see entry for West Bank

Labor force

1.255 million (2014 est.) | country comparison to the world: 138

Labor force - by occupation

agriculture: 8.4% | industry: 12.3% | services: 79.3% | note: data exclude West Bank (2013 est.)

Population below poverty line

39% | note: data exclude West Bank (2011 est.)

Stock of broad money

$2.356 billion (31 December 2014 est.) | $2.16 billion (31 December 2013 est.) | country comparison to the world: 149

Stock of domestic credit

$1.147 billion (31 December 2014 est.) | $1.168 billion (31 December 2013 est.) | country comparison to the world: 153

Stock of narrow money

see entry for West Bank

Unemployment rate

45.1% (2014 est.) | 29.5% (2013 est.) | note: data exclude West Bank | country comparison to the world: 199

Crude oil - proved reserves

0 bbl (1 January 2010 est.) | country comparison to the world: 144

Electricity - consumption

202,000 kWh (2009) | country comparison to the world: 218

Electricity - exports

0 kWh (2011 est.) | country comparison to the world: 149

Electricity - imports

193,000 kWh (2011 est.) | country comparison to the world: 111

Electricity - production

51,000 kWh (2011 est.) | country comparison to the world: 220

Area

total: 360 sq km | land: 360 sq km | water: 0 sq km | country comparison to the world: 206

Area - comparative

slightly more than twice the size of Washington, DC

Climate

temperate, mild winters, dry and warm to hot summers

Coastline

40 km

Elevation extremes

lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m | highest point: Abu 'Awdah (Joz Abu 'Awdah) 105 m

Environment - current issues

desertification; salination of fresh water; sewage treatment; water-borne disease; soil degradation; depletion and contamination of underground water resources

Geographic coordinates

31 25 N, 34 20 E

Geography - note

strategic strip of land along Mideast-North African trade routes has experienced an incredibly turbulent history; the town of Gaza itself has been besieged countless times in its history; there are no Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip; the Gaza Strip settlements were evacuated in 2005 (2014)

Irrigated land

240 sq km; note - includes West Bank (2003)

Land boundaries

total: 72 km | border countries (2): Egypt 13 km, Israel 59 km

Location

Middle East, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Egypt and Israel

Map references

Middle East

Maritime claims

see entry for Israel | note: effective 3 January 2009, the Gaza maritime area is closed to all maritime traffic and is under blockade imposed by Israeli Navy until further notice

Natural hazards

droughts

Natural resources

arable land, natural gas

Terrain

flat to rolling, sand- and dune-covered coastal plain

Country name

conventional long form: none | conventional short form: Gaza Strip | local long form: none | local short form: Qita' Ghazzah | etymology: named after the largest city in the region, Gaza, whose settlement can be traced back to at least the 15th century B.C. (as "Ghazzat")

Background

Inhabited since at least the 15th century B.C., Gaza has been dominated by many different peoples and empires throughout its history; it was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in the early 16th century. Gaza fell to British forces during World War I, becoming a part of the British Mandate of Palestine. Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Egypt administered the newly formed Gaza Strip; it was captured by Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967. Under a series of agreements known as the Oslo accords signed between 1994 and 1999, Israel transferred to the newly-created Palestinian Authority (PA) security and civilian responsibility for many Palestinian-populated areas of the Gaza Strip as well as the West Bank. Negotiations to determine the permanent status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip stalled in 2001, after which the area witnessed a violent intifada or uprising. | In early 2003, the "Quartet" of the US, EU, UN, and Russia, presented a roadmap to a final peace settlement by 2005, calling for two states. Following PA President Yasir ARAFAT's death in late 2004 and the subsequent election of Mahmud ABBAS (head of the Fatah political faction) as the PA president in 2005, Israel and the Palestinians agreed to move the peace process forward. Israel by late 2005 unilaterally withdrew all of its settlers and soldiers and dismantled its military facilities in the Gaza Strip, but continues to control the Gaza Strip’s land and maritime borders and airspace. In early 2006, the Islamic Resistance Movement, HAMAS, won a majority in the Palestinian Legislative Council election. Attempts to form a unity government between Fatah and HAMAS failed and violent clashes between their respective supporters ensued, culminating in HAMAS's violent seizure of all military and governmental institutions in the Gaza Strip in June 2007. Israel and Egypt since HAMAS’s takeover have enforced tight restrictions on movement and access of goods and individuals into and out of the territory. Since then, Fatah and HAMAS have reached a series of agreements aimed at restoring political unity between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank but have struggled to implement them. In April 2014, the two factions signed an agreement and two months later President ABBAS formed an interim government of independent technocrats, none of whom were affiliated with HAMAS. The factions, however, continue to disagree over how to implement the deal and HAMAS remains in de facto control of the Gaza Strip. | In July 2014, HAMAS and other Gaza-based militant groups engaged in a 51-day conflict with Israel—the third conflict since HAMAS’s takeover in 2007—culminating in late August with an open-ended truce that continues to hold despite the absence of a negotiated cease-fire and occasional violations by both sides. Reconstruction efforts since the end of the conflict have been hampered by Israeli restrictions on goods entering the Gaza Strip and inadequate donor aid. The UN in 2015 published a study assessing that the Gaza Strip could become uninhabitable by 2020 absent a substantial easing on border restrictions.

Manpower available for military service

males age 16-49: 385,961 (2010 est.)

Manpower fit for military service

males age 16-49: 335,820 | females age 16-49: 319,847 (2010 est.)

Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually

male: 18,805 | female: 17,903 (2010 est.)

Military branches

HAMAS does not have a conventional military in the Gaza Strip but maintains security forces in addition to its military wing, the 'Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades; the military wing reports to the Hamas Political Bureau leadership, which remains scattered throughout the region since relocating from its Damascus headquarters in early 2012 (2015)

Age structure

0-14 years: 42.75% (male 410,599/female 388,473) | 15-24 years: 20.34% (male 194,798/female 185,295) | 25-54 years: 30.66% (male 293,556/female 279,471) | 55-64 years: 3.59% (male 33,843/female 33,198) | 65 years and over: 2.67% (male 20,667/female 29,155) (2015 est.)

Birth rate

31.11 births/1,000 population (2015 est.) | country comparison to the world: 37

Contraceptive prevalence rate

52.5% (includes Gaza Strip and West Bank) (2010)

Death rate

3.04 deaths/1,000 population (2015 est.) | country comparison to the world: 221

Dependency ratios

total dependency ratio: 76% | youth dependency ratio: 70.8% | elderly dependency ratio: 5.2% | potential support ratio: 19.2% | note: data represents Gaza and the West Bank (2015 est.)

Drinking water source

urban: 50.7% of population | rural: 81.5% of population | total: 58.4% of population | urban: 49.3% of population | rural: 18.5% of population | total: 41.6% of population | note: includes Gaza and the West Bank (2015 est.)

Ethnic groups

Palestinian Arab

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate

NA

HIV/AIDS - deaths

NA

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS

NA

Hospital bed density

1.3 beds/1,000 population (2010)

Infant mortality rate

total: 14.94 deaths/1,000 live births | male: 15.97 deaths/1,000 live births | female: 13.86 deaths/1,000 live births (2015 est.) | country comparison to the world: 105

Languages

Arabic, Hebrew (spoken by many Palestinians), English (widely understood)

Life expectancy at birth

total population: 74.87 years | male: 73.11 years | female: 76.74 years (2015 est.) | country comparison to the world: 110

Literacy

definition: age 15 and over can read and write | total population: 96.5% | male: 98.4% | female: 94.5% | note: estimates are for Gaza and West Bank (2015 est.)

Maternal mortality rate

45 deaths/100,000 live births | note: data represents Gaza Strip and West Bank (2015 est.) | country comparison to the world: 94

Median age

total: 18.4 years | male: 18.2 years | female: 18.6 years (2015 est.)

Nationality

noun: NA | adjective: NA

Net migration rate

0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2015 est.) | country comparison to the world: 96

Physicians density

2.1 physicians/1,000 population (2013)

Population

1,869,055 (July 2015 est.) | country comparison to the world: 152

Population growth rate

2.81% (2015 est.) | country comparison to the world: 13

Religions

Muslim 98.0 - 99.0% (predominantly Sunni), Christian <1.0%, other, unaffiliated, unspecified <1.0% | note: dismantlement of Israeli settlements was completed in September 2005; Gaza has had no Jewish population since then (2012 est.)

Sanitation facility access

urban: 93% of population | rural: 90.2% of population | total: 92.3% of population | urban: 7% of population | rural: 9.8% of population | total: 7.7% of population | note: includes Gaza and the West Bank (2015 est.)

School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)

total: 13 years | male: 12 years | female: 14 years | note: data represents Gaza and West Bank (2013)

Sex ratio

at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female | 0-14 years: 1.06 male(s)/female | 15-24 years: 1.05 male(s)/female | 25-54 years: 1.05 male(s)/female | 55-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female | 65 years and over: 0.71 male(s)/female | total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2015 est.)

Total fertility rate

4.08 children born/woman (2015 est.) | country comparison to the world: 35

Unemployment, youth ages 15-24

total: 41% | male: 37% | female: 64.7% | note: includes West Bank (2013 est.) | country comparison to the world: 14

Urbanization

urban population: 75.3% of total population (2015) | rate of urbanization: 2.81% annual rate of change (2005-10 est.) | note: data represents Gaza Strip and West Bank

Disputes - international

the status of the Gaza Strip is a final status issue to be resolved through negotiations; Israel removed settlers and military personnel from Gaza Strip in August 2005

Refugees and internally displaced persons

refugees (country of origin): 1,258,559 (Palestinian refugees) (2014) | IDPs: at least 263,500 (includes persons displaced within the Gaza strip due to the intensification of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since June 2014 and other Palestinian IDPs in the Gaza Strip and West Bank who fled as long ago as 1967, although confirmed cumulative data do not go back beyond 2006) (2015)

Airports

1 (2013) | country comparison to the world: 219

Airports - with paved runways

total: 1 | over 3,047 m: 1 (2013)

Heliports

1 (2013)

Ports and terminals

major seaport(s): Gaza

Roadways

note: see entry for West Bank