🤥 Israel no longer occupies Gaza and handed it to the Palestinians to govern themselves.

Israel has total control over Gaza. It practices complete control over the borders, access to water, communications and internet, electricity, fuel, food and medical aid whenever and wherever it wants. Israel is the occupying power, by any definition, and therefore by all intents and purposes governs Gaza as well.

Despite the unilateral withdrawal in 2005, Israel maintains control over the population and resources of the Gaza Strip. There is a wall-to-wall consensus in the international community, including by the ICRC – which is normally quite restrained with such assessments – that Gaza is occupied with modern methods of warfare, even if there are no Israeli boots on the ground.

Israel withdrew its military forces, illegal settlements, and settle populations from Gaza in 2005. Since then, it has maintained a brutal, full blockade under Israeli military control of Gaza. Israel controls land and maritime borders as well as what goes in and out, meaning Palestinians in Gaza have no sovereignty or self determination and therefore effectively are not allowed to govern themselves.

To blame Palestinians under a military occupation is misinformed at best and willfully ignorant at worst. Israel withdrew militarily from the Gaza Strip, but maintained control of its land borders, sea access, and destroyed the only airport. Israel “left” Gaza in the same way a prison warden leaves the prison cell. Israel never ceded control over Gaza, maintaining an iron grip on the movement of all people and goods. With most aspects of their existence still firmly under Israeli control, Palestinians cannot reasonably be held responsible for Gaza’s current state.

Israel may have left the proverbial house, but they kept a lethal barbed wire and security fence around it. They kept killing its occupants. When they tried to protest peacefully (Great March of Return 2018-2019), they also killed them. Remind me, who handed over what?

Israel never “left” Gaza. Israel simply withdrew its illegal settlers and soldiers to outside the borders of Gaza. They subsequently ratcheted up the mechanisms of external control and pressure by putting in place a brutal siege and continuing the military occupation from without.

Since 1967, Israel has maintained complete control over the Palestinian civil registry. This registry essentially determines whether or not a Palestinian exists, where he/she can live, where they are permitted to work, travel, who they can marry, and whether or not they can register their spouses and children. This registry is extremely bureaucratic and complex, with different permits covering every aspect of the lives of every Palestinian in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It has become an onerous tool for administering the occupation and oppressing the Palestinian population.