Gaza Strip:
Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip were exchanging fire in the worst bout of cross-border violence since an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas last year.
- The Gaza Strip or simply Gaza, is a Palestinian enclave on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
- It borders Egypt on the southwest for 11 kilometers (6.8 mi) and Israel on the east and north along a 51 km (32 mi) border.
- The Gaza Strip and the West Bank are claimed by the de jure sovereign State of Palestine.
- The territories of Gaza and the West Bank are separated from each other by Israeli territory.
- Both fell under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, but the Strip has, since the Battle of Gaza in June 2007, been governed by Hamas, a militant, Palestinian, fundamentalist Islamic organization, which came to power in the last-held elections in 2006.
- It has been placed under an Israeli and US-led international economic and political boycott from that time onwards.
