Al-Quds Hospital

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.

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?"

University College of Applied Sciences (UCAS) is a technical college in Gaza founded in 1998. It offers 40 majors in engineering, health, technology, administration, education and the humanities. The school has a student population of 6,000. The main campus is in Gaza City. The College offers undergraduate degrees in a number of specializations such as education technology, technological management and planning, and geographic information systems.

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.

The Islamic University of Gaza (Arabic: الجامعة الإسلامية بغزة), also known as IUG and IU Gaza, is an independent Palestinian university established in 1978 in Gaza City. It was the first higher education institution to be established in the Gaza Strip. The university has eleven faculties capable of awarding BA, BSc, MA, MSc, MD, PhD, diplomas and higher diplomas, in addition to twenty research centers and institutes and the affiliated Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital.The Islamic University of Gaza is a member of twelve regional and international associations and networks of higher education, including the International Association of Universities (IAU), Mediterranean Universities Union (UNIMED), Association of Arab Universities (AAU), Federation of the Universities of the Islamic World (FUIW), Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean Academic Network (BSEMAN), and the Global University Network for Innovation-GUNi.Large parts of the Islamic University of Gaza were damaged by air strikes during the 2008–2009 Gaza war, the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, and the 2023 Israel–Hamas war. Professor Sufyan Tayeh, the University's president and prominent scientist, was killed along with his family in an Israeli air strike on Jabalia refugee camp on the 2nd of December 2023.

The flour massacre occurred in Gaza on 29 February 2024. At least 118 Palestinian civilians were killed and at least 760 were injured after Israeli forces opened fire on civilians who were attempting to get food from aid trucks on al-Rashid street at the Al-Nabulsi roundabout to the west of Gaza City. The event has been recognized as a massacre by journalists, diplomats, and human rights organizations, although the description is disputed by the Israeli military. Officials from three hospitals respectively reported treating over 100, 142, and "dozens" of people with gunshot wounds, with a "large number of gunshot wounds" confirmed at al-Shifa Hospital by the United Nations. The details of the incident are under investigation; Israel stated that Israeli forces first fired warning shots in the air and then opened fire out of fear of a moving "mob" of Palestinians, and that the event caused a mass panic.Israeli and Palestinian accounts differ regarding what occurred. Three journalists present at the killing described deliberate Israeli fire targeting people seeking food as they surrounded trucks providing humanitarian aid. By their accounts, the gunfire precipitated chaos, including people being injured by the trucks themselves. The Gaza Health Ministry dubbed the incident a massacre where 118 people were killed, while Israeli officials said that most of the casualties were from a stampede, and that their soldiers fired warning shots when a crowd endangered them. Other Israeli officials stated that they did in fact shoot some of the victims, although added that they believed that they were responsible for fewer than ten of the casualties. Al Jazeera and CNN said the attack was part of a broader pattern of Israeli attacks on people seeking humanitarian aid. Survivors described it as an ambush, stating that Israeli forces opened fire as people approached the aid trucks, resulting in a rush away from the gunfire that added to the death toll.The convoy was organized by Israel in conjunction with local Palestinian businessmen to provide supplies to Northern Gaza; trucks were provided by local businessmen, with security and organization done by Israel. The incident occurred one day after Carl Skau, the deputy executive director of the World Food Programme, told the United Nations Security Council that more than 500,000 people were at risk of famine in Gaza.

The Port of Gaza is a small port near the Rimal district of Gaza City. It is the home port of Palestinian fishing-boats and the base of the Palestinian Naval Police, a branch of the Palestinian National Security Forces. Under the Oslo II Accord, the activities of the Palestinian Naval Police are restricted to 6 nautical miles from the coast. Since 2007, the Port of Gaza has been under an Israeli-imposed naval blockade as part of a blockade of the Gaza Strip, and activities at the port have been restricted to small-scale fishing.

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.

Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in Gaza, was placed under siege by Israel in mid-November 2023 during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, after claiming it had contained a Hamas command and control center beneath it. On 11 November, the hospital was completely encircled, cutting it off from the rest of Gaza City, which contained 1,500 patients, along with 1,500 medical workers and some 15,000 displaced people seeking shelter in the hospital according to Gazan health officials. Israel and the United States alleged that below the hospital Hamas maintained command centers. Both the hospital's administration and Hamas denied that, the former asked the international community to send security experts to verify the Israeli allegations.On 15 November, Israeli forces entered the hospital, with the Israeli military claiming it had discovered a Hamas command centre. BBC News and CNN reported that the Israeli army had rearranged, or even added, weapons for the media tour; and that an Israeli video showing the alleged discoveries had been edited. NBC News said that Israel released several pieces of inaccurate or disputed information, which weakened Israel's credibility. According to Al Jazeera, Israel was accused of fabricating evidence. On 22 November, Israel published video showing multiple tunnels beneath the hospital; the Wall Street Journal and the Guardian reported that this fell short of the original command center claims. Israel published surveillance footage taken by the hospital's cameras, appearing to show two hostages being taken into the hospital. The Guardian reported that Hamas had previously publicized taking hostages to receive medical treatment. On 21 December, the Washington Post published analysis concluding that the hospital buildings in question were not actually connected to the tunnels. On 2 January 2024, the United States released newly declassified documents showing that its spy agencies continued to believe that the hospital had been used as a command and control centre, and the following day Israel announced that it had dismantled a tunnel beneath the hospital. However, news reports the next day said that that both Israeli and US statements are not considered as conclusive proof of Hamas use of al-Shifa.The raid on the hospital and Israel's limited findings of military infrastructure led to international criticism, including by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk who called for an independent investigation. International law prohibits the targeting of hospitals unless used for a military purpose that is "harmful to the enemy", as well as the use of human shields for combatants; both constitute war crimes. Israel has been accused of waging a propaganda war to detract from accusations that its actions at al-Shifa constitute violations of international law, and medical staff at al-Shifa have accused Israel of directly causing the deaths of civilians being treated at al-Shifa, including prematurely born babies. The head of the World Health Organization said, "hospitals are not battlegrounds," and that Israel's action was "totally unacceptable."

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.