Israel-Palestine Mega Fact Check!

It is true that Israel pulled out its soldiers and settlers (some of them kicking and screaming) from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

As a result, some argue that Israel is no longer occupying Gaza. As per a summary from the Atlantic Council, Israel, the US, and “many international legal, military, and foreign policy experts—argue that Israel ceded the effective control needed under the legal definition of occupation, therefore ending the occupation.”

This however overlooks the fact that, after pulling out in 2005, Israel has, among other things:

• Increasingly blockaded the air, land, and sea around Gaza so that most civilians cannot easily leave to work, do business, attend school, or travel for other reasons.
• Blocked an increasingly long list of items from being imported into Gaza, making it harder for Gazans to start businesses or build anything new.
• Periodically shut down the coast to prevent Gazans from fishing, by shooting at any boat daring to venture into the water.
• Bombed their only airport so that they could no longer fly in or out.
• Sprayed pesticides on large sections of agricultural fields to prevent crops from growing.
• Tore down most orchards, further reducing their ability to feed themselves.
• Regularly limited or froze banking transactions in/out of Gaza as collective punishment.
• Regularly shut off water, gas, electricity as collective punishment.
• Continued to periodically carry out major military incursions in Gaza.

As Oxfam International states in 2019, "The blockade has devastated Gaza’s economy, caused widespread destruction and left most people largely cut off from the outside world.”

That is why, as per the Atlantic Council, “many prominent international institutions, organizations and bodies—including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, UN General Assembly (UNGA), European Union (EU), African Union, International Criminal Court (ICC) (both Pre-Trial Chamber I and the Office of the Prosecutor), Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch—as well as international legal experts and other organizations, argue that Israel has occupied Palestinian territories including Gaza since 1967. While they acknowledge that Israel no longer had the traditional marker of effective control after the [2005] disengagement—a military presence—they hold that with the help of technology, it has maintained the requisite control in other ways.”

Likewise, the International Court of Justice ruled in 2024 that Israel's 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip did not end Israel's occupation of Gaza since Israel continued to exercise effective control over it, via it’s air, land, and sea blockades, and other means.