Gaza has been a real tragedy since the very beginning. In 1947, King Farouk's Egypt wanted to trade-off Israeli independence with Gaza, which would be annexed by Egypt. Upon Israel and other partners' refusal, the 1948 war was started against Israel by the joint and totally unprepared armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. As a matter of fact, none of these Arab countries, most of them recently recovering their independence, had a modern army worth its name. The Israeli armed forces were able to repel the attacks, but starting from the Arab-Israeli war in 1948, the region has been living in an atmosphere of "in between the last war and before the coming war." One cannot really talk about peace, or at least a durable "modus vivendi" in the region.This continuous tension has created millions of refugees within and outside of the region. Desperate diasporas or refugee populations have been raised in the hatred of Israel or other authoritarian Arab regimes. Two major wars, in 1967 and 1973, framed a state of deep and ongoing suspicion, fear and hatred between not only Israel and the Palestinians, but among different factions, countries and political forces in the region. For decades, Palestinians have been organized in different political movements. They tried to establish almost "autonomous" entities within Jordan first and then in Lebanon, which ended in very tragic wars. Over time, Palestinians have become the stereotype of a landless, wandering population. The first time that real authority and governance were made possible was after the retreat of Israeli forces from Gaza. It is a very small coastal strip, an enclave bounded by Israel and the sea with a tiny but very important border with Egypt.Gaza's fate has been dreadful ever since its "autonomy." The Egyptian regime under Hosni Mubarak wholeheartedly despised the idea of a miniature Palestine whose politics could give a margin of maneuverability for Muslim Brotherhood-inspired political movements like Hamas. The border crossing between Egypt and Gaza has always been closed, or barely ajar, which has created a very dangerous smuggling system. Regarding Israel, which was very susceptible about an "independent" Palestinian authority, relations have been at best very inimical and at worst open warfare.Gradually, Gaza has turned into a concentration camp whose infrastructure was heavily bombarded every other year by the Israeli air force, to no avail. Each time Israel has bombarded Gaza there was a new window of opportunity for more and more radicalizing movements appear and strengthen. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), weakened by nepotism and corruption, has been totally evicted by Hamas. But today Hamas itself is in a very dire situation because of the newly appearing marginal paramilitary forces. Salafi jihadists are getting more and more organized by the day. Their number and leadership is not serious enough to challenge Hamas, but when it comes to sending rockets into Israel, which every time unclenches the retaliation of the Israeli air force, Hamas can hardly control or stop these small military units from operating.No country today wants to help rebuild Gaza, because so far as rockets will be sent into Israel, the whole region will be devastated once again by military means. This forgotten tragedy has to be dealt with when the bloodshed in Syria and Yemen is stopped.