(CNN) — The current violence between the Israeli military and militants in Gaza is the latest in a long history of fighting in the region. Here’s a look at some events along the way.

Gaza’s earliest references include Samson and Delilah. (Image from the Art History Museum, Vienne.)

Biblical references

Early mentions of the area in Scripture date back to the 15th century B.C. It was an early Egyptian base, a royal city of the Philistines and “the place where the Hebrew hero Samson, betrayed by Delilah, met his death,” according to World News Digest.

Map: Israel

From empire to empire

Across the centuries, various empires conquered the region, including the Assyrians, Persians and Hasmonean kings of Judea known as the Maccabees. Rome overtook it. In the year 632, it was conquered by Arabs. “Crusaders found Gaza almost deserted in the 12th century,” World News Digest says. It later fell to Napoleon and the Ottoman Empire. It fell to Britain during World War I, becoming part of the British Mandate of Palestine, the CIA World Factbook explains. In the following decades, bloody battles broke out at times between Jewish and Arab populations in Gaza. Read More.