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The blockade of the Gaza Strip is the ongoing land, air, and sea blockade of the Gaza Strip imposed by Israel and Egypt temporarily in 2005–2006 and permanently from 2007 onwards, following the Israeli disengagement from Gaza.The blockade was made permanent after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip during the Battle of Gaza, seizing government institutions and replacing Fatah and other Palestinian Authority (PA) officials with Hamas members. Earlier, after Hamas won elections and formed the PA government in March 2006, led by Ismail Haniya, Israel and the Quartet on the Middle East set conditions before they would continue to provide aid to the PA or have any dialogue with any member of a Hamas-led PA government. These conditions were: recognition of Israel, disavowal of violent actions, and acceptance of previous agreements between Israel and the PA, including the Oslo Accords. Hamas refused to accept these conditions and aid to the PA was stopped and sanctions against the PA imposed.When Hamas took over Gaza, Egypt and Israel largely closed their border crossings with Gaza, on the grounds that Fatah and PA forces had fled the Strip and were no longer able to provide security on the Palestinian side. Egypt was worried that Hamas control of Gaza would increase Iranian influence. Egyptian Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit also explained that opening the Rafah border crossing, the only crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border, would undermine the legitimacy of the PA. Israel said that the blockade was necessary to protect Israeli citizens from "terrorism, rocket attacks and any other hostile activity" and to prevent dual use goods from entering Gaza.Israel has been accused of violating or failing to fulfil specific obligations it had committed to under various ceasefire agreements on different occasions to alleviate or lift the blockade. "Crossings were repeatedly shut and buffer zones were reinstated. Imports declined, exports were blocked, and fewer Gazans were given exit permits to Israel and the West Bank." PA President Mahmoud Abbas has expressed his approval of the Egyptian border restrictions. In 2014 and subsequent years, Abbas supported Egypt's crackdown on smuggling tunnels, and welcomed the flooding of the tunnels by Egypt in coordination with the PA.

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