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Mati Milstein
2000: Palestinian laborers make a predawn border crossing on their way to day jobs in Israel via the Erez border crossing from the Gaza Strip.
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Mati Milstein
2002: An Israeli armored fighting vehicle patrols the Tel El-Sultan neighborhood of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip during the second intifada.
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Mati Milstein
2005: Palestinian girls walk adjacent to a fenced-off Israeli settlement in the southern Gaza Strip.
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Mati Milstein
2005: Palestinian boys on the beach in the southern Gaza Strip.
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Mati Milstein
2005: A Palestinian child cowers against a wall in the southern Gaza Strip as Israeli vehicles pass.
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Mati Milstein
2005: Palestinian homes riddled by bullets and shells fired by Israeli military forces in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah.
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Mati Milstein
2005: An Israeli settler on her cell phone in the southern Gaza Strip. An elderly Palestinian man rides past on a cart.
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Mati Milstein
2012: Graffiti painted by Israeli soldiers marks a concrete barrier on the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip during the second war between them.
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Mati Milstein
2012: An Israeli tank sits atop a transport truck en route to the Gaza Strip during the second war.
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Mati Milstein
2012: An Israeli guard tower; evening on the Gaza border during the second war.
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Mati Milstein
2012: Smoke rises after an Israeli bomb strike in the northern Gaza Strip during the second war.
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Mati Milstein
2012: Illumination shells fall as Israeli naval and artillery units pound the northern Gaza Strip in the final hours of the second war.
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Mati Milstein
April 6, 2018: An Israeli tank in position along the Gaza border during recent protests by Palestinian civilians against Israeli occupation.
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Mati Milstein
April 6, 2018: Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip assemble on the border as part of the Great March of Return as Israeli soldiers look on.
Israel occupied the Gaza Strip in the 1967 war. The invading country imposed rule over the Palestinian population, building settlements and military installations along the length of the coastal territory. In 2005, Israel withdrew its settlements and military from Gaza only to impose, two years later, a land, sea, and air blockade that remains in place to this day. Since then, Israel and Gaza have engaged in three wars, in which some 3,800 Palestinians and 100 Israelis have been killed. These photographs, dating from 2000, provide context for the recent popular protests by Palestinian residents of Gaza, documenting almost twenty years of Israeli military violence against Gaza and its people.
Mati Milstein is a freelance photojournalist whose images have appeared in media outlets such as the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bild, Le Monde, El Pais, The Globe & Mail, and United Press International.