March 2 (Reuters) - Israel has pledged to continue its offensive in the Gaza Strip, with the declared aim of curbing rocket attacks by militants in the Hamas-controlled territory.

Here are some key facts about the Gaza Strip:

* About 1.5 million Palestinians live in Gaza, more than half of them refugees from past wars with Israel and their descendants. Gaza has one of the world's highest population densities and demographic growth rates.

* Israel pulled troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, 38 years after capturing the territory in the 1967 Middle East war. It still controls the Gaza Strip's borders, airspace and coastal waters.

* Hamas Islamists, who won a 2006 election and formed a unity government with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, seized control of the territory from his secular Fatah faction in fighting last June.

* Israel tightened its blockade of the Gaza Strip, deepening economic hardship and raising international concerns over a possible humanitarian crisis, after Hamas took over the territory.

* Islamist militants have frequently launched rockets and mortar bombs into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, a territory about 45 km (25 miles) long and 10 km (six miles) wide.

* Israel has carried out numerous troop raids and ground and air strikes against militants as part of what it terms efforts to halt the cross-border rocket salvoes. (Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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