Gaza

The Gaza Strip is a 365 sq km Palestinian territory on the eastern Mediterranean coast, bordered by Israel and Egypt. Home to approximately 2.3 million people, it has been governed by Hamas since 2007 and under Israeli blockade for the same period. The territory was thrust into war following the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel.

Israel launched a military campaign that has continued into 2026, with the UN estimating over 46,000 Palestinians killed and the majority of Gaza's built environment destroyed. By March 2026 the operational methods developed in Gaza were being directly applied to Lebanon: Defence Minister Israel Katz explicitly cited Beit Hanoun and Rafah as models for border demolitions , while Human Rights Watch identified at least three potential war crimes in Israeli operations across the same period .

Gaza now carries two concurrent legal processes: ICJ proceedings under the Genocide Convention (South Africa v. Israel) and ICC arrest warrants for Israeli officials. Hamas itself has signalled internal strain, publicly calling on Iran to avoid targeting Gulf neighbours during the wider conflict . Whether Gaza's devastation produces accountability or merely exportable doctrine is the unresolved question of the 2026 regional war.

Gaza's connection to the Iran conflict runs through two channels: the OFAC sanctions architecture and the historical Iran-Hamas proxy relationship. OFAC's 19 May 2026 SDN round designated individuals across multiple jurisdictions including Gaza, as US Treasury continued targeting Hamas-linked financial networks as part of the broader Iran sanctions campaign. Gaza-based individuals in the SDN list are typically identified as nodes in Hamas's external financing structure, which has historically been supported by Iran's Quds Force.

The Iran-Hamas relationship has been structurally important to Gaza's conflict posture since the 2000s. The Quds Force provided weapons, financing, and training to Hamas over two decades, though the relationship became strained after 2011 over Hamas's stance on the Syrian civil war. By October 2023, Iranian support had been partially reconstituted, though the extent to which Iran directed the 7 October attack remains contested. During the 2026 Iran-Israel war, Hamas publicly urged Iran not to target Gulf neighbours, an unusual public constraint that reflected Hamas's dependence on Gulf funding to rebuild after the 2023-2025 campaign.