Once again at the center of global attention, Gaza has become not only the site of a humanitarian crisis but also a stage for deep regional and global fractures following the outbreak of conflict on October 7, 2023. Although the large-scale clashes that erupted on this date—and the ongoing Israeli blockade that began after Hamas took control of Gaza through a coup against Palestinian Authority (PA) in 2006—have further exposed and deepened the crises in Gaza, the region was already grappling with chronic uncertainty even before these devastating events. For years, the Gaza Strip has existed in a condition described as "permanent temporariness," a state marked by ambiguous governance and unstable spatial arrangements.

The area has long been managed through "temporary" solutions that have, paradoxically, become permanent. Urban planning, public services, and infrastructure development have been systematically disrupted due to security constraints and external dependency. With 2.3 million people crammed into a narrow strip of just 365 square kilometers, Gaza has one of the lowest per capita living space ratios in the world. This extreme density severely hampers the feasibility of implementing any structured development strategies.

While discussions on housing policy, green space distribution, transport networks, and the spatial coherence of public facilities may seem impossible during ongoing conflict, these are precisely the issues that must be urgently addressed in any post-conflict reconstruction or transformation process.

You may read evaluation note from here.