Throughout history, Gaza has seen its fair share of foreign captivity and torrid periods. This is because Gaza has been held to be of major strategic importance. It is the only overland route between Africa and Asia which led predynastic Egypt to establish the citadel of Tell Sakan on the banks of the Wadi Ghazzeh in 3500 B.C. In the second millennia B.C., the Egyptians lost control of the city to the "Hyksos" who in turn expanded Gaza near the sea front and built "Tell al Ajjul". The Hyksos invaded southward and captured the Great Egyptian Empire around 1650 B.C. They lasted around 100 years before the Egyptian army chased them to the outskirts of Gaza (Tell al Ajjul). The Egyptians then besieged Gaza for a little over three years. When they failed to crack Gaza they retreated until 200 years later when Gaza fell once again under the domination of Egypt. This event is marked in history as the conquest by Thutmose III on April 25th, 1468 B.C.

Gaza's history has been shaped because of its strategic location. In 734 B.C., the Assyrian empire took complete control of Gaza, while the Persian Empire in 539 B.C. expanded and annexed Gaza as well. Gaza is home of the ancient Greek city of Antidon which dates to around 520 B.C. It is a port and settlement four kilometers from Gaza City. During Alexander the Great's conquests in 332 B.C., Gaza was the last city to resist his design for control of the ancient world. Most of the old Babylonian domain, including Egypt, swiftly crumbled into Alexander's hands.

The Gazan siege of two months was followed by ruins as complete as that of Tyre. The defenders, mostly local Arabs, fought to death while women and children were taken captive. In 145 B.C., Gaza was conquered by Jonathan the Hasmonean (brother of Judah the Maccabee) who destroyed the suburbs of Gaza by fire .The Jewish King Alexander Jannaeus brought destruction and massacres around 96 B.C., following a siege that lasted a year. Neither Alexander the Great's bloody conquest in 332 B.C. nor the brutal one by Alexander Janneus in 96 B.C. could vanish Gaza who endured and rose time and time again.

Around 50 B.C. Gaza became magnificent and luxurious under the Romans. Gaza would reach the peak of civilization here. Gaza's exports during the Byzantine era, in the 5th century A.D., would reach as far as England, Ireland and Geneva. Gaza's schools graduated leading theologians such as Barsanuphius, John of Gaza and Mark the Deacon, whose writings profoundly influenced Christianity at its very early stages. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, famous Gazan Jews have included the medieval liturgical poet Israel Najara, who is buried in Gaza's local cemetery, the Sabbatean prophet Nathan of Gaza as well as Rabbi Abraham Azulai who lived in Gaza in 1619, it was there that he wrote his Kabbalistic work "Hesed le-Avraham".

The arrival of the Islam in 637 A.D. would not change Gaza's unique character. Gaza remained a central crossroad from the 8th century and sheltered the most highly celebrated school of law in all of Islam, founded by Muhammad al-Shafi. The Crusaders under Baldwin fought hard against the Arabian armies of control of Gaza. In the 1170, the Crusaders lost Gaza to Saladin.

Gaza became a prosperous city under the Mameluks between the 13th and 16th centuries. "A city so rich in trees it looks like a cloth of brocade spread out upon the land," wrote the 14th-century Syrian scholar al-Dimashqi of his extensive view of Gaza City. In 1516, at the battle of Khan Yunis, Gaza's southern major town, Turkish forces under the Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha defeated the Mameluks in Khan Yunis allowing Gaza to fall under Turkish control. In 1660, Hussein Pasha made Gaza the capital of Palestine. Napoleon captured Gaza City In February 1799, when his forces entered the city, the plague had engulfed them and forced Napoleon to retreat from Gaza.

In 1832 Mohammad Ali made Gaza part of Egypt and later it would become part of the Ottoman Empire who fought the British three Battles in defence of Gaza. The Ottomans would eventually lose it to the British in the Third Battle of Gaza on the 7th of November 1917 during the First World War. Sir Archibald Murray who led the first and the second Battle of Gaza in 1916 - 1917 was dismissed and replaced by General Edmund "The Bull" Allenby, who deceived the defenders by carrying a surprise attack in Beersheba and then besieging Gaza. Gaza fell and allowed Allenby's road to Jerusalem to open. On September 12, 2005, the Israeli cabinet formally declared an evacuation of Gaza and an end to military rule. While the occupation remains the same, the IDF dismantled the settlements and retreated behind the walls and electric fences. It was another astonishing reminder of Gaza's history of defiance.