Gaza has been conquered numerous times - including by Egyptian Pharaohs, Assyrians and Alexander the Great - because of its strategic location along trade routes between the Levant, Europe and Africa.

But its fate is as uncertain as ever after 18 months of devastation inflicted by Israel in response to the Hamas October 7, 2023, cross-border attacks that killed over 1,200 people.

Inhabited continuously from at least the 15th century B.C., in the modern era Gaza's beaches and cheap shops made it a holiday destination for Egyptian tourists in the 1950s and 60s, before Israel seized the Strip in a 1967 war, increasingly sealing it off from the outside world.

Now, U.S. President Donald Trump's ambition is to redevelop Gaza as a "Riviera of the Middle East", with the U.S. in control and its Palestinian inhabitants moved to other countries. 

Arab countries have rejected Trump's vision and proposed an alternative plan for rebuilding the shattered enclave, though who will run Gaza and pay for reconstruction remain unanswered questions.

Israel announced this month that it intends to seize “large areas” of the blockaded territory to be part of an Israeli-controlled security zone. It says it wants to drive Hamas from power and free the hostages still held by the militant group.

The Israeli campaign has killed more than 51,000 Gazans, according to Palestinian health officials, and forced almost the entire population of 2.3 million from their homes.

Israel said 407 of its soldiers have been killed during the ground offensive, and that it has killed at least 20,000 Hamas fighters. Hamas has not released any figures.

The bombardment and ground offensive have also devastated much of the 140 square mile strip - an area about the size of Manhattan and Queens. But a few Gaza landmarks survived until the recent hostilities. Here are some of those landmarks, before and after October 7.

Gaza City’s Harbour

Gaza was a major port in antiquity along the Via Maris, or ‘Way of the Sea’, but became a backwater of the Ottoman Empire for centuries until it was captured by Britain in 1917. It changed hands again when Egypt seized it in the 1948-49 war at the birth of the State of Israel.

Two decades of Egyptian rule ended when Gaza was captured by Israel in 1967, and its rapidly growing Palestinian population found itself under Israeli military occupation.

Gaza City’s modern harbour was the Strip’s main fishing port. It sheltered a fleet of fishing boats and was a source of income for tens of thousands, including its hotels and restaurants.

It was a place where Gazans could watch Mediterranean sunsets or eat sardines, squid and the local delicacy ‘denis’, a sea bream.

The port was attacked by Israeli airstrikes and naval commandos in the first weeks of the recent war, and many of the fishing boats were destroyed. Israel said Hamas used the harbour as a training facility for seaborne militants to attack Israeli coastal targets, and that it found militant tunnels there.

Hamas never confirmed the Israeli claims and accused Israel of destroying livelihoods.

Fishermen say they now have to cast nets from shore to feed their families amid widespread hunger in Gaza.

The Beach

The sea is the defining geographical feature of the Gaza Strip.

Under Egyptian rule, liberal women drawn to its pristine beaches sported mini-skirts and 1960s Western hairdos.

In recent years, during more peaceful times, it was lined with children’s parks, bathing beaches, hotels, restaurants and cafes, some on the sites of former Egyptian buildings and abandoned Israeli settlements.

In a poor coastal enclave, the water was one of the few free resources available to all.

But there was no alcohol. Even before Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, beachside nightclubs and cinemas had been burned down – their secular owners blaming Islamist attacks. The last bar selling alcohol was a U.N. beachside compound. It was bombed at New Year in 2006 and never reopened.

The sea is also how many Palestinians arrived in Gaza - refugee families arriving in boats as they fled war with the newly created State of Israel in 1948-49. One of the largest refugee camps near the shore north of Gaza City is still called Beach Camp.

To remind refugees of their old homes, a line of concrete benches was built along the coast road. Each bore the name of a city or town in pre-1948 Palestine that the refugees came from, including Jaffa. The benches were destroyed in the recent war.

Al Mashtal Luxury Hotel

Al Mashtal (The Nursery) five-star hotel two miles north of the port was one of the fanciest hotels in Gaza.

It was not as opulent as accommodation found in Dubai or Doha, but its terraced balconies had a pristine view of the Mediterranean and its staff were originally trained by a Spanish hotel chain.

There were few foreign guests – an international airport in Gaza opened and flickered briefly during the 1990s peace process but was destroyed by Israel after 9/11. After Hamas rose to power, Israel and Egypt put a tighter blockade on the movement of people and goods into Gaza, saying they needed to stop weapons and money reaching Hamas.

Al Mashtal, which overlooked Beach refugee camp and a Hamas military training site, was in one of the first areas of Gaza attacked by the Israeli military after October 7.

Israel said it targeted Hamas command and control centers and a network of tunnels running throughout the Gaza Strip. “The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) does not aim to inflict excessive damage to civilian infrastructure,” a military spokesperson said.

Palestinians say the Israeli offensive is needlessly destructive. Their U.N. envoy has accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing”, allegations Israel staunchly denies.

Great Omari Mosque

The Great Omari Mosque in Gaza City is the oldest in the Strip and occupies a site in the Old Town of religious significance for thousands of years.

According to local tradition it is where the Philistines built a temple to Dagon, a god of crop fertility worshipped as far back as 2,500 B.C.

It was in Dagon’s temple, according to the Biblical account, that Samson brought down the building on the Philistines who had captured and blinded him.

The Romans built a temple in the area, and the early Christians a church. A mosque was built in the seventh century after Gaza was conquered by Omar Ibn al-Khattab, the ‘Commander of the Faithful’.

The Crusaders later turned it into a cathedral, but it was turned back into a mosque in 1187 when they were defeated by Salah al-Din al-Ayyub.

It was heavily damaged by Israeli airstrikes in December 2023. The Israeli military said it hit “a tunnel shaft and terror tunnel”. The Israeli military has accused Hamas of building tunnels beneath civilian structures and using civilians as human shields.

Al Qaisariyya Market

Gaza has been a trading center since antiquity: it was the southernmost of the five cities of the Philistine confederation.

In modern times, the economic heart of Gaza City has been the covered markets of the Old Town – including the Mamluk-era souk known as Al Qaisariyya, or Caesarea, and as the “Gold Market”.

It was the venue of choice for brides shopping for wedding rings and jewellery.

Palestinians have already begun documenting the damage and trying to clear debris.

The World Monuments Fund said Gaza’s archaeological heritage has suffered unprecedented damage and destruction since October 2023, saying it condemned the targeting of cultural sites during conflicts.

Israel blamed Hamas for the damage to the historic market and adjoining Omari Mosque. “The presence of these extensive terror infrastructures and terror cells in said sensitive cultural heritage site, serve to evidence Hamas’ unapologetic and systemic exploitation of Gaza’s civilian buildings including those with historical and religious significance,” an Israeli military spokesperson said.

Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, said: "These are all false accusations to justify the war crimes of destroying centuries-old tourist places."

Al Salam Restaurant

Opened in 1955, Al Salam Abu Haseira restaurant is one of many along Gaza’s coastline that bears the scars of the war.

Just north of the harbour, the waterfront restaurant was damaged in the first month of the war when an Israeli missile hit a nearby building.

The windows were blown out and debris hurled around the dining room, the owners said. The Israeli military said it was not aware of any strike at that time and place.

Palestine Stadium

The Palestine soccer stadium in Gaza City is one of the largest in the Gaza Strip, where the sport is hugely popular.

Palestine fields an international men’s soccer team. But its players from Gaza have long had problems getting through border checkpoints to play abroad.

The Palestine stadium used to host matches between Gaza clubs and was used by athletes as a training ground.

Its playing field is now crowded with humanitarian tents as temporary shelters for displaced families.