The Gaza strip sits inside a tiny box some 25 miles long and, for the most part, less than five miles wide. At its widest it is well under eight miles wide.

Inside this box live more than 1.4 million people, probably the sixth most densely populated area in the world. Certainly it is the most densely populated area to be surrounded on three sides by barbed wire. Most are descended from refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Almost half the population is 14 or under.

Getting in and out of Gaza is entirely governed by the whims of those who live on the other side of the barbed wire.

This is how it has been for most of the time since 1967 — more than 40 years.