All-Palestine Government in the context of "Arab Higher Committee"

The occupation of the Gaza Strip by the United Arab Republic began in 1959 following the dissolution of the All-Palestine Protectorate, which had ruled the Gaza Strip as a client state of Egypt since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and its merger with the United Arab Republic.

The 1949 Armistice Agreements, which ended the Arab–Israeli War by delineating the Green Line as the armistice line between Israel and its four neighboring countries (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt), left the Kingdom of Egypt in control of a small swath of territory that was part of Mandatory Palestine prior to the war. That swath of territory became known as the Gaza Strip. In 1949 Egypt created the client state named the All-Palestine Government which lasted until 1959, the year after the Republic of Egypt and the Second Syrian Republic merged to form a single sovereign state known as the United Arab Republic. The Egyptian occupation of the Gaza Strip was interrupted for 4 months in late 1956 and early 1957 when Israel briefly occupied the strip as part of the 1956 Suez Crisis. The Egyptian occupation ended entirely during the 1967 Six-Day War, after which the territory became occupied by Israel with the establishment of the Israeli Military Governorate.

The All-Palestine Protectorate (Arabic: محمية عموم فلسطين; 22 September 1948–1959), also known as All-Palestine or the Gaza Protectorate, was a short-lived client state with limited recognition, corresponding to the area of the modern Gaza Strip, established in the areas of former Mandatory Palestine captured by the Kingdom of Egypt during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The Protectorate was declared on 22 September 1948 in Gaza City, and the All-Palestine Government was formed. The President of the Gaza-seated administration was Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the former chairman of the Arab Higher Committee, while the Prime Minister was Ahmed Hilmi Pasha. In December 1948, just three months after the declaration, the All-Palestine Government was relocated to Cairo and was never allowed to return to Gaza, making it a government in exile. With a further resolution of the Arab League to put the Gaza Strip under the official protection of Egypt in 1952, the All-Palestine Government was gradually stripped of its authority. In 1953, the government was nominally dissolved, though the Palestinian Prime Minister, Hilmi Pasha, continued to attend Arab League meetings on its behalf. In 1959, the protectorate was de jure merged into the United Arab Republic, while de facto turning Gaza into a military occupation area of Egypt.

While a de facto Egyptian puppet state since its inception, there are differences of opinion as to whether the All-Palestine Protectorate represented an abortive but genuine attempt at an independent Palestinian Arab state, or if it was simply a façade for an Egyptian occupation of part or all of former Mandatory Palestine right from the get-go. Though the All-Palestine Government claimed jurisdiction over the entire territories of the former British Mandatory Palestine, at no time did its effective jurisdiction extend beyond the Gaza Strip, with the West Bank annexed by Transjordan and Israel holding the rest. The All-Palestine Protectorate relied entirely on the Egyptian government for funding and on UNRWA to relieve the plight of the Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip. During most of its existence, the All-Palestine Protectorate was under de facto Egyptian administration, though Egypt never made any claim to or annexed any Palestinian territory. Egypt did not offer the Gazan Palestinians citizenship. Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and Egypt were issued All-Palestine passports, and those living in the Gaza Strip were not permitted to move freely into Egypt. However, these passports were only recognized by six Arab countries.

Ahmed Hilmi Abd al-Baqi Pasha (Arabic: أحمد حلمي عبد الباقي 1883 – 1963) was an Arab soldier, economist, and politician of Albanian descent, who served in various positions in post-Ottoman Levant, and later as Prime Minister of the short-lived All-Palestine Government in the Gaza Strip.