Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, but retained control of its borders. Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections and later forcibly seized control of the territory in 2007. Israel imposed a tighter blockade on the flow of goods and materials into Gaza after its military offensive against Hamas from December 2008 to January 2009. That offensive destroyed much of Gaza's infrastructure, but Israel has obstructed the delivery of rebuilding materials that it said could also be used to manufacture weapons and for other military purposes.

Since shortly after the establishment of limited Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the mid-1990s, the United States has periodically provided assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA) for civil security and counterterrorism purposes. Following the death of Yasser Arafat in late 2004 and the election of Mahmoud Abbas as his successor as PA President in early 2005, then-U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice created the office of U.S.

On December 27, 2008, Israel launched a major military campaign dubbed ?Operation Cast
Lead? against the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip in order to counter
Palestinian rocket fire and, more broadly, to significantly weaken all aspects of Hamas rule in
Gaza. On January 3, 2009, Israel began a ground offensive into Gaza intended to eliminate
Hamas?s willingness or capability to launch rockets at Israeli towns and cities.