Coping with Egypt’s and Israel normalisation process: Gaza Strip siege and Hamas governance

Abstract

Over the last fourteen years, the Gaza Strip has been under a land, sea and air siege imposed by Israel and Egypt. Throughout these years, Palestinians from the Gaza Strip have endured three Israeli military operations inside a besieged territory and have seen their lives becoming increasingly hard to bear. Moreover, to contain 2 million people inside a 365 km² enclave, Israel has received continuous support from Egypt. Hence, the article’s focus is the Egyptian-Israeli relationship from 1981 to 2017, the Gaza Strip siege, the Hamas governance and how the asymmetric relations between Egypt and Israel with Gaza and its inhabitants materialise. Furthermore, due to events such as the peace treaties signed between Israel with United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, Israel’s refusal to let Covid-19 vaccines entering the Gaza Strip and the election of Israel’s new coalition government, the topics examined in this article are increasingly relevant.