Knowledge Nugget: Why are the Gaza Strip and Golan Heights relevant for UPSC exam

Why successful the news?

During a associated property briefing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump said that the US volition “take implicit the Gaza Strip” and crook it into “the Riviera of the Middle East”, for “world people” to unrecorded in. He said that helium saw the United States taking “a semipermanent ownership position” successful Gaza. Saudi Arabia and Turkey person rejected the thought of the USA taking implicit Gaza and displacing Palestinians. Hamas, which controls Gaza, said Trump’s connection was a “recipe for creating chaos and hostility successful the region.” Netanyahu, however, backed Trump, saying, “After the jaws drop, radical scratch their heads and they say, ‘You know, he’s right’.”

Trump’s latest comments are successful enactment with his outlandish claims astir buying Greenland, making Canada the 51st authorities of the US, etc. However, for Palestinians, they revive achy past — erstwhile different Western powerfulness wrote their destiny and they mislaid their homeland.

Key Takeaways:

1. According to American media outlet CBS News, Trump said,

The US volition instrumentality implicit the Gaza Strip, and we volition bash a occupation with it, too. We’ll ain it and beryllium liable for dismantling each of the unsafe unexploded bombs and different weapons connected the site, level the tract and get escaped of the destroyed buildings — level it out. Create an economical improvement that volition proviso unlimited numbers of jobs and lodging for the radical of the area. Do a existent job. Do thing different.

2. When asked who would unrecorded successful the caller Gaza, Trump said, “I envision satellite radical surviving there, the world’s people… representatives from each implicit the world, Palestinians also.” He said Palestinians would not privation to spell backmost to Gaza, arsenic they lone “end up dying there”.

3. Gaza is simply a portion of land, conscionable 365 sq km successful size, wedged betwixt the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the northbound and east, and Egypt to the south. It is 41 km agelong and 12 km wide astatine its widest point.

4. It has been nether subject concern since 1967, and adjacent though Israel maintains that it pulled retired successful 2005, the United Nations, the European Union and different planetary organisations inactive see Gaza arsenic occupied territory. There are 3 functional borderline crossings betwixt Gaza and the extracurricular satellite – Karem Abu Salem Crossing and Erez Crossing controlled by Israel, and Rafah Crossing controlled by Egypt.

A representation of the Gaza Strip. (Wikimedia Commons)

The opening of the Gaza blockade

1. Six-Year War (1967): In 1967, the Six-Day War was fought betwixt a agreed Arab beforehand and Israel successful which Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the Gaza Strip and the West Bank from Jordan. In this war, Arabs not lone mislaid their territories but besides the feeling of a agreed front.

2. Oslo Agreement (1993): Under the agreement, the Palestinian Authority got administrative power implicit Gaza aft Israel pulled out, and an predetermination was held successful 2006.

3. Post-Oslo Agreement: In 2005, Israel withdrew its settlements from Gaza. Between past and 2007, it imposed impermanent blockades connected the question of radical and goods into and retired of Gaza connected aggregate occasions. In 2007, aft Hamas assumed powerfulness successful Gaza, Israel made the blockade permanent. Egypt, which besides has a borderline crossing with Gaza, participated successful the blockade. This efficaciously meant that astir radical could not spell into oregon retired of Gaza and that the question of goods and assistance was highly restricted.

4. Recent development: In January 2025, Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire woody to halt warring successful the Gaza Strip, aft months of intermittent negotiations mediated by Egypt and Qatar, with enactment from the United States. The woody outlines the instrumentality of displaced Palestinians to their homes successful Gaza, the facilitation of aesculapian question for those injured oregon sick owed to the conflict, and the repositioning of Israeli forces on the Gaza border.

5. The woody says that the Israeli forces would retreat from Gaza’s cities to a buffer portion astatine the borderline of the strip. The displaced Palestinians would beryllium allowed to determination freely betwixt the southbound and northbound of the territory, which Israel has divided with a subject corridor. The 3rd signifier of the woody would see a reconstruction program for Gaza. However, plans for the aboriginal governance of the portion stay unclear.

BEYOND THE NUGGET: Golan Heights

1. In December past year, Turkey powerfully criticised Israel’s program to treble the colonisation successful the occupied Golan Heights, arsenic per The Guardian, calling it a determination to “expand its borders” and a menace to determination stability.

2. The Golan Heights were portion of Syria until 1967, erstwhile Israel captured astir of the country successful the Six Day War (1967), occupying it and annexing it successful 1981. That unilateral annexation was not recognised internationally, and Syria demands the instrumentality of the territory.

3. Syria tried to regain the Heights successful the 1973 Middle East warfare but was thwarted. Israel and Syria signed an armistice successful 1974 and the Golan has been comparatively quiescent since.

4. In 2000, Israel and Syria held their highest-level talks implicit a imaginable instrumentality of the Golan and a bid agreement. But the negotiations collapsed and consequent talks besides failed.

5. The Golan Heights is location to astir 50,000 residents, divided betwixt Jewish settlers and the Druze, an Arabic-speaking ethno-religious minority. While the Trump medication recognized Israel’s sovereignty implicit the Golan Heights successful 2019, astir countries inactive see it occupied Syrian territory.

(Read more: A little past of Israel-Palestine conflict, Why Trump said US should ‘take implicit Gaza’, A to Z of the Israel-Palestine conflict, Middle East Geopolitics and Implications for India, Explained: Golan Heights; Where are they, and wherefore bash they matter?)

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