Who livd in Gaza strip prior to 1946
Executive summary
Prior to 1946 the Gaza Strip was inhabited mainly by Palestinian Arabs — a mix of urban residents in Gaza City, villagers and Bedouin in the hinterland — with a small Christian minority in the city and only very limited Jewish presence in the immediate post‑Mandate years; the area had been part of the Ottoman Empire until 1917 and then under British Mandate administration until 1948 [1] [2] [3]. Contemporary sources stress that reliable pre‑1967 demographic statistics are sparse, but they confirm that Gaza’s population was modest (tens of thousands) before the 1948 war and then swelled with refugees after 1948 [4] [5].
1. Gaza as a Palestinian Arab heartland under Ottoman and British rule
From the Ottoman period through the British Mandate, the Gaza region was populated predominantly by Palestinian Arabs who lived in the coastal city of Gaza and in surrounding villages and nomadic Bedouin camps; the territory remained an agricultural and minor port district until mid‑20th century modernization pressures [1] [2].
2. Gaza City: an urban center with a Muslim majority and a Christian minority
Gaza City long functioned as the primary urban nucleus for the district, housing most local administrative, commercial and port functions and containing a largely Muslim population with an acknowledged, smaller Christian community — sources note Gaza City’s centrality and its demographic character before and after 1948 [3] [2].
3. Rural villages and Bedouin populations outside the city
Outside Gaza City, the landscape was dominated by villages and agricultural communities as well as Bedouin groups; UN and academic reviews of population trends emphasize that many rural areas had incomplete vital‑registration and health records before 1967, making precise pre‑1946 figures hard to pin down, though the rural character of much of the Strip is well documented [5] [6].
4. Limited Jewish settlement before and immediately after 1946
Modern Jewish settlement in the Gaza area was minimal before 1946; one source highlights a small kibbutz that existed for a brief period between 1946 and 1948 in the area that later became part of larger Israeli settlement blocs, indicating that Jewish presence in the Strip at that moment was minor and localized rather than a widespread demographic feature [7].
5. Why 1948 matters: refugee inflows that reshaped Gaza’s population
Although the question asks about the pre‑1946 population, contemporary histories underscore that the decisive demographic rupture came in 1948 when tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees arrived in Gaza, swelling a pre‑war population that sources estimate at roughly 60,000–80,000 up to around 200,000 by the end of the hostilities — a transformation that recast Gaza into an overcrowded refugee‑dependent territory [4] [1].
6. Caveats, gaps and what the sources do not allow one to say
Available reporting and the cited demographic studies make clear that systematic censuses and civil‑registration in rural Gaza were incomplete before the 1960s, so while it is accurate to describe Gaza before 1946 as populated primarily by Palestinian Arabs with village, Bedouin and urban Gaza City communities and only very small Jewish footholds, precise numerical breakdowns, household compositions and minority proportions for the immediate pre‑1946 years are not fully documented in these sources [5] [6].