Gaza Strip
In 2005, Israel pulled out all its remaining forces of Gaza Strip and dismantled its settlements. Nevertheless the Gaza Strip is still considered to be occupied by Israel according to the international community. Israel has denied that it occupies the Gaza Strip, but the borders of the Gaza Strip, including coast and airspace are completely controlled by Israel. The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 stated in 2007:
"Israel remains an occupying Power in respect of Gaza. Arguments that Israel ceased its occupation of Gaza in 2005 following the evacuation of its settlements and the withdrawal of its troops take no account of the fact that Israel retains effective control over Gaza by means of its control over Gaza’s external borders, airspace, territorial waters, population registry, tax revenues and governmental functions. The effectiveness of this control is emphasized by regular military incursions and rocket attacks."
Read more about this topic: Palestinian Territories
Famous quotes containing the word strip:
“The annals of this voracious beach! who could write them, unless it were a shipwrecked sailor? How many who have seen it have seen it only in the midst of danger and distress, the last strip of earth which their mortal eyes beheld. Think of the amount of suffering which a single strand had witnessed! The ancients would have represented it as a sea-monster with open jaws, more terrible than Scylla and Charybdis.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)