Arab, Gazan

Gazan Arabs are the Arabic-speaking Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, the coastal strip between Sinai and southern Israel that was cut out of Mandatory Palestine in the 1948 war. Gaza City is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, a Philistine, Roman, Byzantine and Mamluk port on the Via Maris, and its old families, the townspeople of Gaza, Khan Yunis and Rafah and the villagers of Deir al-Balah, Jabalia and Beit Lahia, are the natives (muwatinun). In 1948 some 200,000 refugees from Jaffa, Majdal, Isdud, Yibna and the villages of the southern coastal plain and Negev tripled the population, and their descendants, about three-quarters of Gazans, still identify by their lost town and live in or around eight UNRWA camps. Egypt ruled the Strip without annexing it from 1948 to 1967, leaving Gazans stateless with Egyptian travel papers and close ties to Egypt; Israel occupied it from 1967 to 2005, Hamas has governed it since 2007, and blockade and repeated wars have isolated Gazans from the West Bank and the world. Gazans call themselves Palestinians first; 'Gazan' (Ghazzawi) marks their home and its distinct dialect, food and history. Society is organised by large patrilineal families and clans, with Bedouin families of Tarabin and Tiyaha origin in the south.

Gazan life revolves around the extended family, the neighbourhood and the camp quarter named after the village of origin. Families are large (fertility above three children per woman) and the population is very young; marriages are arranged within families or between allied families, and weddings bring zaffeh processions, dabke and henna nights. Clan elders and mukhtars settle disputes through customary law (sulha, 'atwa), and since 2026 many families elect councils beside them. Gaza's kitchen differs from the rest of Palestine: fish from the sea, dill seed, garlic and red chilli; sumaghiyya (sumac, tahini, chard and beef), dagga (crushed tomato and chilli salad pounded in a clay bowl), rummaniyya (unripe pomegranate and lentils), fukhara (dishes baked in clay jars, such as qidra rice and zibdiyya shrimp) and maftoul. Women's embroidery, Majdal-style weaving, pottery and wicker work survive as crafts. Education is prized: literacy is 97% and Gaza's universities (Islamic University, al-Azhar) produced many graduates, though few found jobs. Football, the beach, kites and poetry were everyday pleasures before the war; since 2023 life has centred on tents, water queues and community kitchens.

Gazans are almost all Sunni Muslims of the Shafi'i school, and religion is woven into public life: Friday prayer, Ramadan with its night meals and lanterns, the two Eids and the pilgrimage are central, and many families keep Quran memorisation circles for children. The Muslim Brotherhood's social work since the 1970s and Hamas rule since 2007 made Islamist piety dominant, with a smaller Salafi current and a secular, Fatah-leaning minority. Older folk practices (visits to shrines such as the Mosque of Sayyid Hashim, ancestor of the Prophet, buried in Gaza City; vows and amulets against the evil eye) persist alongside. War has deepened recourse to faith in martyrdom, patience (sabr) and divine will, while also producing grief, anger and doubt that people express more openly than before. Gaza's ancient Christian community, mostly Greek Orthodox with a Catholic parish and a Baptist church, keeps feasts with its Muslim neighbours and shares their losses.

The full Bible is available in Standard Arabic, which all Gazans read, with Levantine Arabic Scripture portions, the Jesus Film in Arabic, audio recordings and Arabic Christian satellite, radio and online media. Gaza has one of the oldest churches in the world (St Porphyrius, 5th-century foundation) and Christian schools and hospitals (al-Ahli Arab Hospital, Holy Family schools) that serve Muslims, but almost no evangelical witness beyond the small Gaza Baptist Church, whose members dropped from about 60 before the war. Barriers include Hamas's religious and security control, family honour and the link many draw between Christianity and Western support for Israel; on the other hand, the churches' sheltering and feeding of Muslim neighbours during the war is widely remembered.

With ministries, courts and police largely paralysed since 2024, Gaza's large families have taken on government-like roles. Some, such as the al-Astal and al-Qassas families of Khan Yunis, held internal elections in 2026, choosing family councils beside their mukhtars and registering hundreds of adult men; aid bodies such as the Egyptian Relief Committee distribute food to about 450,000 families through family-supplied lists; and family councils settle feuds, killings and arson cases. A few clans, notably the Tarabin Bedouin Abu Shabab family of Rafah, formed Israel-backed militias opposed to Hamas, while others, such as the Doghmush of Gaza City, fought Hamas after the ceasefire; many families publicly disowned members who joined such groups.

Gaza's 1948 refugees, about three-quarters of today's population, and the native Gazans (muwatinun) of the old towns and villages were once sharply divided: relief agencies registered and served refugees separately, natives owned the land and refugees filled the camps. Ilana Feldman's work shows that both groups mixed townspeople and villagers, and that the line was drawn by war and aid rather than older social divisions. Intermarriage, shared schools and decades of common hardship have blurred it, but families still name their home village (Majdal, Isdud, Yibna, Barbara) and refugee status still shapes access to UNRWA schools, clinics and food.