flat to rolling, sand- and dune-covered coastal plain
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
highest point: Abu 'Awdah (Joz Abu 'Auda) 105 m
Natural resources:
arable land, natural gas
Land use:
arable land: 28.95%
permanent crops: 21.05%
other: 50% (2001)
Irrigated land:
120 sq km (1998 est.)
Natural hazards:
droughts
Environment - current issues: desertification; salination of fresh water; sewage treatment; water-borne disease; soil degradation; depletion and contamination of underground water resources
Geography - note:
there are 25 Israeli settlements and civilian land use sites in the
Gaza Strip (February 2002 est.)
People Gaza Strip
Population:
1,376,289
note: in addition, there are more than 5,000 Israeli settlers in the
Gaza Strip (July 2005 est.)
Age structure:
0–14 years: 48.5% (male 342,186/female 325,899)
15–64 years: 48.8% (male 342,927/female 329,354)
65 years and over: 2.6% (male 15,036/female 20,887) (2005 est.)
Median age:
total: 15.65 years
male: 15.5 years
female: 15.81 years (2005 est.)
Population growth rate:
3.77% (2005 est.)
Birth rate:
40.03 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Death rate:
3.87 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Net migration rate:
1.54 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.)
Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15–64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.72 male(s)/female
total population: 1.04 male(s)/female (2005 est.)
Infant mortality rate:
total: 22.93 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 24.05 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 21.76 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 71.79 years
male: 70.5 years
female: 73.15 years (2005 est.)
Total fertility rate:
5.91 children born/woman (2005 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
NA
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
NA
HIV/AIDS - deaths:
NA
Nationality:
noun: NA
adjective: NA
Ethnic groups:
Palestinian Arab and other 99.4%, Jewish 0.6%
Religions:
Muslim (predominantly Sunni) 98.7%, Christian 0.7%, Jewish 0.6%
Languages:
Arabic, Hebrew (spoken by Israeli settlers and many Palestinians),
English (widely understood)
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 91.9%
male: 96.3%
female: 87.4% (2003 est.)
Government Gaza Strip
Country name: conventional long form: none conventional short form: Gaza Strip local long form: none local short form: Qita Ghazzah
Economy Gaza Strip
Economy - overview:
High population density, limited land access, and strict internal
and external controls have kept economic conditions in the Gaza
Strip - the smaller of the two areas under the Palestinian Authority
- even more degraded than in the West Bank. An anticipated Israeli
withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005 may offer some medium-term
opportunities for economic growth. The beginning of the second
intifadah in September 2000 sparked an economic downturn, largely
the result of Israeli closure policies; these policies, which were
imposed in response to security interests in Israel, disrupted labor
and commodity relationships with the Gaza Strip. In 2001, and even
more severely in 2003, Israeli military measures in Palestinian
Authority areas resulted in the destruction of much capital plant,
the disruption of administrative structure, and widespread business
closures. Including the West Bank, the UN estimates that more than
100,000 Palestinians out of the 125,000 who used to work in Israel
or in joint
