A Short History of the Gaza Strip

Anne Irfan & Muhammad Shehada

Language: English

Published: Oct 15, 2025

Description:

From a leading scholar of Palestine-Israel, a brief, essential history of the besieged strip of land, revealing the long-term roots of Israel's destruction of Gaza.

Since October 2023, Israel has carried out one of the most brutal military onslaughts in modern history on the Gaza Strip, in response to the Hamas-led attacks of October 7. But Gaza had long been in crisis even prior to the current violence, now widely recognized as genocidal. For seventy-seven years, the Palestinian people have endured displacement, occupation, collective punishment, and ethnic cleansing—with those in Gaza often bearing the brunt of it.

With remarkable clarity and compassion, historian Anne Irfan tells the story of the Gaza Strip through six pivotal moments in its modern history, beginning with Israel's expulsion of the Palestinian people upon its establishment in 1948, when Gaza absorbed more Palestinian refugees per head than anywhere else—a demographic...