Editing Israeli settlement (section)

=== Settlements in the Gaza Strip ===
{{See also|Proposed Israeli resettlement of the Gaza Strip}}
[[File:Gaza Strip 1999.jpg|thumb|Settlement area in the Gaza Strip (March 1999)]]
Land in the Gaza Strip available to its Palestinian inhabitants has historically been limited as a result of Israeli land confiscation and the establishment of settlements. Settlement growth in the Gaza Strip before 1977 was limited, as the Israeli labor party's policy of containment preferred the establishment of a collection of settlements along the border of the Strip. At this point, 6 settlements in the Strip existed, Kfar Darom, Netzarim, Morag, Eretz, Katif, and Netzer Hazani. With the Likud party's revisionist Zionist policies entering with Begin's government, the scale of settlement expansion increased, although the basic policies relating to the settlements did not change. By 1978, 13 settlements had been built as part of a buffer zone along Gaza's southern border in Rafah.<ref name="Sara M. Roy2">{{cite book |author=Sara M. Roy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gXAqjgEACAAJ&pg=PA |title=The Gaza Strip |publisher=Institute for Palestine Studies USA, Incorporated |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-88728-321-5 |pages= |access-date=23 January 2024 |archive-date=11 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240311045308/https://books.google.com/books?id=gXAqjgEACAAJ&pg=PA |url-status=live }}</ref>

The discussions at [[Camp David Accords|Camp David]] that year surrounding the idea of potential future Palestinian autonomy would trigger an increase in settlement expansion in the Gaza Strip, following the Israeli policy of establishing "[[facts on the ground]]". Political economist Sara Roy described this as a policy intended to make the establishment of an independent Palestinian state more difficult. The locations and size of these new settlements would contribute to geographically isolating Palestinian communities from each other.<ref name="Sara M. Roy2" />

In the seven years between 1978 and 1985, 11,500 acres of land were confiscated by the Israeli government for the establishment of settlements. By 1991, the settler population in Gaza would reach 3,500 and 4,000 by 1993, or less than 1% of Gaza's population. The land available for use by the Jewish settler community exceeded 25% of the total land in Gaza. The ratio of dunams to people was 23 for Jewish settlers, and 0.27 for Palestinians. Comparing the available built-up area available to each of the two groups in 1993, the ratio is 115 people per square mile for Jewish settlers and over 9,000 people per square mile for Palestinians. Sara Roy estimates the increase in Palestinian population density in Gaza due to Israeli policies alone to be an increase of almost 2,000 people per square mile in 1993.<ref name="Sara M. Roy2" />

All the settlements were surrounded by electric fences or barbed wire.<ref>Geoffrey Aronson, “Gaza Settlement—Building a Dream World,” Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories 3, no.5 (September 1993): 4-5.</ref>

While the settlements maintained an isolated economic system, they affected the Gazan economy via land confiscation, the disproportionate consumption of local resources such as water, by overwhelmingly denying work opportunities and through the large disparities in funding (both private and governmental) for economic development.<ref name="Sara M. Roy2" />