Two years ago, Gaza’s largest city was sprawling with life. Classrooms brimmed with schoolchildren, markets were full of shoppers and beachside cafes offered respite for those escaping the stresses of a besieged enclave.

Gaza City boasts a rich history, inhabited for thousands of years and shaped by successive takeovers from ancient civilizations. It served as a key landing point for Palestinians displaced during Israel’s founding in 1948 and has hundreds of millennia-old sites documenting its past.

It was therefore no surprise that Islamist militant group Hamas chose Gaza City as its de facto capital when it seized control of the strip in 2007.

Years of conflict, a crippling blockade and Hamas’ autocratic rule made life for Palestinians hard. But the institutions set up by the mili

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