Yes, Jewish communities lived in Gaza intermittently for over 2,000 years—from Hasmonean times (2nd century BCE), with Byzantine synagogues and later Ottoman-era rabbis and traders, until the 1920s (about 50 residents by then). In the August 1929 Palestine riots, Arab mobs attacked Jews across the country (133 killed total). Gaza’s Jews were besieged in a hotel, then evacuated under British protection with aid from some local Arabs, ending the community.