Until October 7, 2023, the general impression was that things were rather quiet, regarding relations between Gaza and Israel.

Life in the Strip was getting better, with a non-written arrangement considering the Hamas authorities as a gradually peaceful partner, which was not interested in warfare.

As a consequence, most of our work in Gaza had been classified here as Archives.
Despite a clear foresight in 2018, warning that mayhem, chaos and bloodshed was around the bend, with a major border breach - not into Egypt like in 2008, but into Israel.  cf § 6 of the section GAZA - The Long March, here below.

The infos contained in these Archives can shed more light on the evolution of life in Gaza from 2007-2008 till now.

6- What of the "March of Return"? 

It can be seen as a ploy, a Trojan Horse of vast proportions, with an ultimate scheme of mayhem and bloodshed * - since bloodshed is the only element that may attract the world's attention.

Close to 800,000 people desperately broke through the border with Egypt in 2008. This time the focus is on Israel, with the irreal goal of the 1948 refugees and their descendants (millions of them) returning to their former lands and homes. No Israeli government can ever yield to that. It would mean the implosion of the Jewish State, by the force of numbers and chaos. 1948 was 70 years ago. Where in the world do refugees return en masse after 70 years ?

Add to this the number of military tunnels that have been dug from Gaza into Israel in the latter years, and you will understand that the Israelis have reasons to fear anything that could look like the Great Border Breach of 2008, this time into their land.

Looking back, to February 1984 - a first trip to Gaza - there were 8,000 Israeli settlers in the Strip, installed upon a quarter of the 365 square-kilometer land. It felt like a lawless zone in most places, one you would not feel safe in.

When Hamas won the 2006 elections, it first gave an impression of a rational change, more aimed at fighting corruption, and restoring order and social justice. My first views of the Strip in 2007 were of young men in the streets, busy with brooms, to make the cities clean. It felt a lot safer then. In June 2007, there was what is known as the Battle of Gaza, between Hamas men and their secular rivals of the Ramallah regime. The latter were either expelled, executed, or imprisoned.

The last Israeli settlers and most soldiers had left the Strip by the end of August 2005. On September 11, 2005, the Israeli flag was lowered in the IDF headquarters. The very next day two qasam rockets were fired from Gaza, one at Sderot, the other at kibbutz Yad Mordekhai, two miles North of the border.

Actually, 286 such rockets were fired at Israel in the whole of 2005, and close to 600 mortar shells, causing six deaths and close to 70 wounded. The next year, 2006, 1,250 rockets were fired from Gaza.

2007 marked the beginning of new rockets, Katyushas, with a longer range. 2,800 rockets and mortars were fired at Israel in 2007. Rising to 3,000 in 2008 (2,000 rockets+ mortar shells). After a violent confrontation in 2008, the number fell to 860 (569 rockets) in 2009 and 370 (150) in 2010 and 677 (419 rockets) in 2011. To rise again to 2,221 rockets in 2012.

Hence the wide spread view in Israel that the Gaza Strip was peacefully evacuated, despite fierce, desperate opposition of settlers, to only become a hostile fortress constantly firing at its neighbour.

Looking for what went wrong, so wrong, in the Gaza Strip.

Take it back to the summer of 2007.

The Talibanization of Gaza

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hamas-tightens-its-grip-on-gaza/

A detailed report by Jonathan Schanzer, an intelligence analyst, for the National Review, published on August 15, 2007.

"The Hamas terror organization that gained power through a violent coup in the Gaza Strip in June is now signaling that it will maintain its rule through a combination of violence, authoritarianism, and Islamism. Witness the Talibanization of Gaza."

 On seven levels :

Forced conversions

Muzzling the media

Beating demonstrators

Disintegration of Law

Killing political rivals

Islamizing the police

Al Qaeda links - not just "Al Qaeda", but the many Islamist groups of insurgents in nearby Sinai (up to fifteen known armed organizations) who have led the Sinai Insurgency, from the 2011 popular uprising till 2023.

This analysis is not "just" the fruit of some American intelligence professional, but shared by the man who was the Director general of the Palestinian Interior Ministry, Samir Mashharawi, as he declared to the London daily Al-Hayat :

"Hamas aims to establish a mini-state in the Gaza Strip modeled on the Taliban [state] in Afghanistan."   June 13, 2007