Just like your knowledge of world temps and global warming - it depends on where you stop. If you go all the way back - they've been there for about 3700 years.
Really? Well as I understand it, the Israelites invaded Canaan which is now Gaza/Palestine around 1000-1200 BCE. They lived there until 600-800 CE when the Great Diaspora began and the Jews were forced out of Palestine. So that's roughly 1600-2000 years. The Arabs occupied Palestine continuously from 600 CE until the present. So then, where do you get 3700 years?
"Antiquity
Statue of Zeus unearthed in GazaIn ancient times, Gaza was the residence of the Ancient Egyptian governor of the region, then known as Canaan.[5] In the 13th century BCE, it was conquered by the Philistines, an invading people with cultural links to the Aegean, from whom the name Palestine originated.[6][5] Gaza was part of the Philistine pentapolis; a league of the Philistines' five most important city-states. In Judeo-Christian religions, Gaza was the place where Samson was imprisoned and met his death.(Judges 16:21) The prophets Amos and Zephaniah prophesied that Gaza would be deserted.[7][8][2]
Tell es-Sakan, dating to 3500 BCE, is five kilometers south of today's Gaza city. [9] Around 3000 BCE, the Canaanites developed various urban centres.[1] Artifacts from Tell al-Ajjul, including pottery, alabaster and bronze works, are housed at the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem.[10]
The city was invaded and captured by Thutmose III in 1484 BCE. This was the beginning of its rule by ancient Egypt. This was also the time where the name Gaza was first mentioned.[1] Around 1200 BCE the Philistines started the settlement of the coastal area.[1]
Under the rule of the Neo-Assyrians, Gaza had to pay a tribute in 734 BCE. The Neo-Assyrians were followed by the Neo-Babylonian domination.[1] The attack of Cambyses I was resisted in 529 BCE. Later, around 520 BCE, the Greeks established a trading post. The first coins were minted on the Athens model around 380 BCE.[1] After the Siege of Tyre in 332 BCE, Alexander the Great besieged Gaza, the last city to resist his conquest. Gaza, led by a eunuch named Batis and defended by Arab mercenaries, withstood the siege for two months, until it was overcome by storm. The defenders, most local elements, fought to death, and the women and children were taken captive. The city was resettled by neighboring Bedouins.[11]
Ptolemy started the rule in the year 301 BCE. The Seleucids dominated by the year 198 BCE.[1] In 145 BCE Gaza was conquered by Jonathan Maccabaeus, the Hasmonean (Brother of Judah the Maccabee). The new leaders under the rule of Alexander Jannaeus brought destruction and massacres around 96 BCE, the start of the Gaza era as dated by the Pompey's calendar. As they were expelled and Judea was made a client kingdom of Rome by Pompey in 63 BCE, Gaza fell under the rule of Hyrcanus and later by Herod the Great around 30 BCE.[1]
In 6 CE, it was placed under direct Roman rule. There was a prospering Jewish presence in Gaza until the Roman ruler Gavinius expelled them in 66 CE as part of the First Jewish-Roman War leading to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. Hadrian visited the city in the year 130 CE.[1] Around 250 CE Christianity started to spread.[1]
In the times of the Mishnah and the Talmud there was a large Jewish community in Gaza. The remains of the ancient Gaza synagogue, built around 500 CE, were found near the city wharf.[12]
[edit] Islamic rule
Gaza was besieged and captured by 'Amr ibn al-'As a Muslim in 637 AD.[1] During the siege, the city's Jewish community fought alongside the Byzantine garrison.[13] Believed to be the site where prophet Muhammad's great grandfather, Hashem, was buried, the city became an important Islamic center in Palestine. A mosque was built to house Hashem's grave. The arrival and domination of the Abbasids started with the end of the Umayyads around 750 CE. Gaza became a center for the art of writing in the Islamic world.[1] In 767, Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi'i was born in Gaza and lived his early childhood there. Al-Shafi'i founded one of the prominent fiqhs in Sunni Islam, named Shafi'i after him.[14]
Around 909 CE, the influence of the Fatimids from Egypt started to grow, leading to a slow decline of Gaza, although the important port of Maiouma was flourishing. The orange was introduced to the area arriving from India in 943 CE.[1] In 977 CE, the growing Fatimids established an agreement with the Seljuk Turks, whereby the Fatimids would control Gaza and the land south of it, including Egypt.[15]
The city was captured by Baldwin III of Jerusalem. The control was handed over to the Knights Templar in the year 1149.[1] The Ayyubids under Saladin unsuccessfully attempted to regain control of Gaza in their raid on the nearby fortress of Darum in 1170,[16] but eventually Gaza fell after the Ayyubids captured Ashkelon. Richard I of England recaptured the city from the Ayyubids in 1191. The end of this period marked the conquest of the city by the Mongol Hulagu Khan in 1260.[1] During this period, the Jewish community in Gaza was destroyed, most fleeing to Ashkelon.[16] The Jews, however, returned and their community was rebuilt with the arrival of the Mamluks.[12] Nearly two decades later, the domination of the Mamluks started in 1277. They finished the reconstruction of the Great Mosque of Gaza in 1344.[1]"
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