Record Detail

The West Bank and the Gaza Strip came under Israeli occupation in 1967. Both territories had been under constant Israeli control since then, until Israel decided to withdraw its land forces and settlements from the Strip in 2005. Whereasthe occupied status of the West Bank still remains uncontested, the status of Gazaafter the disengagement is less clear. This article addresses the question whether theGaza Strip can still be considered to be occupied after the 2005 disengagement. Inorder to formulate an answer to this question, the article will first outline thedifferent elements needed to trigger occupation. It will then show that, even thoughthe majority argues that the Gaza Strip is still occupied, the effective control test atthe core of the law of occupation is no longer met and hence Gaza is no longeroccupied. Given that Israel nevertheless continues to exercise some degree ofcontrol over Gaza and its population, the absence of occupation does not mean theabsence of accountability. This responsibility is however not founded on the law ofoccupation but on general international humanitarian law, potentially comple-mented by international human rights law.