915
IS GAZA OCCUPIED?:
REDEFINING THE STATUS OF GAZA UNDER
INTERNATIONAL LAW
ELIZABETH SAMSON∗
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................... 916
I. A BRIEF POLITICAL AND TERRITORIAL HISTORY OF
GAZA ........................................................................................ 919
II. INTERNATIONAL LAW RELATIVE TO THE
RELATIONSHIP OF ISRAEL AND GAZA ............................ 923
A. SOURCES OF OCCUPATION LAW AND “EFFECTIVE
CONTROL” ............................................................................ 923
B. LEGALITY OF THE AGREEMENTS BETWEEN ISRAEL AND
THE
PALESTINIANS ............................................................... 926
III. OCCUPATION OF GAZA AND THE ARGUMENTS FOR
“EFFECTIVE CONTROL” ....................................................... 931
IV. DISMANTLING THE ARGUMENTS FOR EFFECTIVE
CONTROL ................................................................................ 935
A. AUTHORITY OVER GAZA’S TERRITORIAL WATERS AND
AIRSPACE ............................................................................. 935
1. Territorial Waters ............................................................ 936
2. Airspace ........................................................................... 937
B. THE BORDER BETWEEN ISRAEL AND GAZA .......................... 940
1. Borders and International Law ........................................ 940
2. The Crossings .................................................................. 942
C. GAZA’S INFRASTRUCTURE ..................................................... 947
1. Electricity, Fuel, and Telecommunications ................... 947
∗ Visiting Fellow, Hudson Institute. J.D. Fordham Law School; LL.M.
International and European Law, University of Amsterdam. The research for this
article was made possible through the support of the Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center
for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University in Israel where the author served as
Research Associate during the writing of this article. The author would like to
thank Professor Efraim Inbar of Bar-Ilan University for his guidance and Isaac
Glovinsky of Fordham Law School for his invaluable research assistance.
