The periodic removal of Jews from Gaza goes back at least to the Romans in 61 CE, followed much later by the Crusaders, Napoleon, the Ottoman Turks, the British and the contemporary Egyptians, and more recently Jews removed themselves from Gaza in 2005 and it appeased no one. Within a few weeks of every last Jew removing themselves from Gaza, Hamas rockets rained down on Israel. Lesson learned! However, Jews definitely lived in Gaza throughout the centuries, with a stronger presence in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. How many live there now? At the beginning of the year there were less than 1000 Christians left in Gaza, as they could not even were a cross in public.
Hamas I pretty honest in their Charter’s Preamble: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”
“The land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [Holy Possession] consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgment Day.” (Article 11)