Mostly sandy plains and low, rolling hills, with 1.3 million inhabitants, the Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated regions of the world. The population is over-whelmingly Palestinian Arab and Muslim (98.7%), with a Christian Palestinian minority of about 1 percent. Approximately three-fourths of the Gaza population are refugees from Palestine. Until 2005 there was a post-1967 Jewish settler population of about 7,000 persons.
The economies of both the West Bank and Gaza Strip are primarily agricultural, with minimal industry. Remittances from migrant laborers—the vast majority working in nearby Israel—provide a vital source of income. In the last decade, employment within the emergent Palestinian bureaucracy has also grown.
History
Prior to 1948, both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were part of British "mandate" Palestine. Palestine was carved out of the former Turkish Ottoman Empire (1299–1922) after World War I (1914–1918) and placed by the League of Nations under a mandate system. The system was designed to assist new nations, still unequipped to self-govern, build toward democracy and independence under the "tutelage" of a European power.
The Palestine mandate incorporated the Balfour Declaration, a 1917 statement by the British government of support for the Zionist movement's goal to create of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
