Islamic University of Gaza

Al-Azhar University – Gaza (Arabic: جامعة الأزهر بغزة), often abbreviated AUG, is a Palestinian, public, non-profit, and independent higher education institution. During the first intifada, Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat issued a decree in September 1991 to establish a Palestinian national university. AUG opened on 18 October 1991 in a two-story building with 725 students enrolled in two faculties; the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Sharia and Law (now the Faculty of Law). In 2023, the university's facilities were destroyed by Israeli bombardment of Gaza during the 2023 Israel–Hamas War.

Hind Rajab was a six-year-old Palestinian girl from the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood in Gaza City who was killed by the Israeli military, after being the sole survivor of Israeli tank fire on the vehicle she fled in with six relatives.An Israeli attack on the ambulance sent to rescue her killed two Palestine Red Crescent Society members, Yusuf Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun, despite the fact that Israel was notified of its dispatch, according to the aid group.Her story gained significant media coverage in February 2024, after her emergency 3-hour phone call with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society was released, in which she told the dispatcher, "I'm so scared, please come. Come take me. Please, will you come?"

Tel al-Hawa (Arabic: تل الهوا, "Hill of the Wind") is a neighborhood in the southern part of the Palestinian city of Gaza. Founded by the Palestinian National Authority in the late 1990s, Tel al-Hawa is one of the more affluent areas of the city. It contains the Islamic University in Gaza and the Interior Ministry of the Palestinian National Authority.Tel al-Hawa was formerly the headquarters of the Preventive Security Service, until Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007 and turned it into a police station. After capturing the neighborhood, Hamas militiamen had it renamed to "Tel al-Islam". The Doghmush family held journalist Alan Johnston in Tel al-Hawa until Hamas secured his release. The neighborhood was severely damaged in the Gaza War, codenamed "Operation Cast Lead" by Israel. It was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the war. Dozens of Hamas fighters were killed or wounded, and a dozen IDF soldiers were also killed and wounded. At least 12 civilians were killed.

Soldier's Square or Square of the Unknown Soldier (Arabic: ميدان الجندي المجهول Midan al-Jundi al-Majhool) is a city square in Gaza City, State of Palestine, situated along Omar Mukhtar Street in the Rimal district. It is currently a large public garden popular with unemployed Gazans during the day and promenading families in the evenings.

The Rashad Shawa Cultural Center was a cultural center built in 1985, in Rimal, Gaza, State of Palestine. The place was named after its founder Rashad al-Shawa, the city's Palestinian mayor who served in office for 11 years. The building was completed 1988, formally opened in 1992, and destroyed by Israel in 2023.

The siege of Gaza, as part of the Wars of Alexander the Great, took place in October of 332 BCE. Resulting in a victory for Macedon, it ended the 31st Dynasty of Egypt, which functioned as a satrapy under the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Alexander succeeded in reaching the walls of Gaza by utilizing the engines that he had employed earlier that year, during the siege of Tyre. Following three unsuccessful assaults, the Macedonian army was able to storm and take the Gazan stronghold.Batis, the military commander of Gaza's fortress, expected to hold the city as well as the rest of Egypt in complete subjection until the raising of another army by Persian king Darius III; confronting Alexander at Gaza was crucial to denying the Macedonians a route into the Egyptian mainland. The fortress was located on an eminence, on the edge of a desert from which the surrounding area could be easily controlled, including the main road from Assyria to Egypt. The city, over 18 metres (60 ft) high, was traditionally employed to control the surrounding area, which, even then, was a hotbed of dissent. Batis was aware that Alexander was leading his army southward after successfully conquering Tyre, and therefore provisioned Gaza for a long siege by the Macedonian army. It is also likely that he was aware of Alexander's intention to secure absolute control over the Mediterranean coast before mounting an invasion of the Persian mainland.

Gaza ( GAH-zə; Arabic: غَزَّة, romanized: Ġazzah, IPA: [ˈɣazza] ), also called Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of 590,481 (in 2017), making it the largest city in the State of Palestine. Inhabited since at least the 15th century BCE, Gaza has been dominated by different peoples and empires throughout its history. The Philistines made it a part of their pentapolis after the Ancient Egyptians had ruled it for nearly 350 years. Under the Roman Empire Gaza experienced relative peace and its port flourished. In 635 CE, it became the first city in Palestine to be conquered by the Muslim Rashidun army and quickly developed into a center of Islamic law. However, by the time the Crusaders invaded the country starting in 1099, Gaza was in ruins. In later centuries, Gaza experienced several hardships—from Mongol raids to floods and locusts, reducing it to a village by the 16th century, when it was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire. During the first half of Ottoman rule, the Ridwan dynasty controlled Gaza and under them the city went through an age of great commerce and peace. The municipality of Gaza was established in 1893. Gaza fell to British forces during World War I, becoming a part of Mandatory Palestine. As a result of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Egypt administered the newly formed Gaza Strip territory and several improvements were undertaken in the city. Gaza was occupied by Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967, and in 1993, the city was transferred to the newly created Palestinian National Authority. In the months following the 2006 election, an armed conflict broke out between the Palestinian political factions of Fatah and Hamas, resulting in the latter taking power in Gaza. The Gaza Strip was then subject to an Israeli-led, Egyptian-supported blockade. Israel eased the blockade allowing consumer goods in June 2010, and Egypt reopened the Rafah Border Crossing in 2011 to pedestrians.The primary economic activities of Gaza are small-scale industries and agriculture. However, the blockade and recurring conflicts have put the economy under severe pressure. The majority of Gaza's Palestinian inhabitants are Muslim, although there is also a tiny Christian minority. Gaza has a very young population, with roughly 75% under the age of 25. The city is currently administered by a 14-member municipal council. As of January 2024, as part of the Israel–Hamas war, the Israeli army has bombed large portions of the city and surrounding areas of the Northern Gaza Strip, destroying many buildings and infrastructure. Almost all residents have fled or been evacuated to Southern Gaza, or killed as a result. Therefore, previous recorded or estimated population numbers have become outdated.

Maiuma (also Maiumas or Maiouma) was an ancient town and one of the two ports of Gaza along with Anthedon. Its remains are situated at present-day Rimal near Gaza City, Palestine.

The Battle of Gaza was a military engagement in the Macedonian Empire in 312 BC, during the Wars of the Diadochi. It took place in and around the city of Gaza and saw fighting between the invading armies of Ptolemy I Soter and Seleucus I Nicator and the defending army of Demetrius I of Macedon, son of Antigonus I Monophthalmus. In late 312 BC, Ptolemy launched an invasion into the Levant from Egypt, he marched with 18,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry along the northern edge of the Sinai Peninsula. Receiving timely intelligence, Demetrius recalled his troops from their winter quarters and concentrated them at Gaza. Demetrius' advisors had apparently told him to avoid a military confrontation with Ptolemy and Seleucus, who had more military experience, but he ignored their advice; the conflict ended in a decisive defeat for Demetrius, subsequently enabling the absorption of his controlled territory by Ptolemy and Seleucus.

The Battle of Yaunis Khan, also known as the Battle of Khan Yunis (Turkish: Han Yunus Muharebesi), was fought on October 28, 1516 between the Ottoman Empire and the Mamluk Sultanate. The Mamluk cavalry forces led by Janbirdi al-Ghazali attacked the Ottomans that were trying to cross Gaza on their way to Egypt. The Ottomans, led by Grand Vizier Hadım Sinan Pasha, were able to break the Egyptian Mamluk cavalry charge. Al-Ghazali was wounded during the confrontation, and the left-over Mamluk forces and their commander Al-Ghazali retreated to Cairo.

The Battle of Gaza was a military conflict between Fatah and Hamas that took place in the Gaza Strip from 10 to 15 June 2007. It was a prominent event in the Fatah–Hamas conflict, centered on the struggle for power after Fatah lost the 2006 Palestinian legislative election. The battle resulted in the dissolution of the unity government and the de facto division of the Palestinian territories into two entities: the West Bank governed by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), and the Gaza Strip governed by Hamas. Hamas fighters took control of the Gaza Strip, while Fatah officials were either taken as prisoners, executed, or expelled. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reported that at least 161 people were killed and more than 700 were wounded during the fighting.

Al-Andalusia mall (Arabic: الأندلسية مول) is a three-story shopping mall in Gaza City. It was the city's second indoor mall and opened in July 2011. The mall is located just west of Gaza City near Haidar Abdel Shafi Square.