Ted Poe: “Israel and Hamas are fighting each other in the Gaza Strip. The question is, what is this fighting all about? For…”

“Israel and Hamas are fighting each other in the Gaza Strip. The question is, what is this fighting all about? For centuries, the Jews and Muslims have fought over a strip of land in what we call the Holy Land called the Gaza Strip. It's a territorial dispute, but it's also a conflict of a religious nature. The Gaza Strip is a tiny sliver of land about two times the size of Washington, D.C., with a population of about 1.5 million people. It is bordered by the State of Israel on three sides and the Mediterranean Sea to the West. The modern war between Israel and the Palestinians began after Israel became a sovereign nation in 1948, after the end of World War II. After the Egyptian invasion of Israel in May of 1948 and the subsequent occupation of the Gaza Strip, large groups of Palestinian refugees began to arrive and live in Gaza. In the last half of the 20th century, territorial control bounced back and forth between Israel and its Muslim neighboring countries. In the 1990s, Israel transferred security and civilian responsibility for the Palestinian-populated areas of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority. After that transfer, Palestinians elected Yasser Arafat to be their leader, a person who was by no means pro-Israel, but a leader at the very least who worked for peace between Israel and Palestine.”