Reports said that Israel has split the Gaza Strip into three parts and has encircled Gaza City in an effort to cut off flows of arms, supplies and soldiers within the densely populated territory. The Gaza Strip is a salient of land between Israel and Egypt. It is about 140 square miles in size and has a population of 1.5 million. Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in August 2005. Since then, Hamas has fired thousands of rockets into civilian areas of Israel. The group demands that Israel open its borders and release control of the waterways outside Gaza. Critics say Hamas has done little to rehabilitate the area's refugee camps and begin building the infrastructure for a state. Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S., the European Union and Israel. The organization, which has sworn to destroy Israel, won a majority in the parliament of the Palestinian Authority -- the administrative organization established to govern parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip -- in a January 2006 vote. A year and a half later, Hamas took control of Gaza from Palestinian rivals after several days of violent fighting.
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