 Gaza enjoyed demographic and economic growth again when the local Canaanite population began to resettle Tell as @-@ Sakan around 2500 , but in 2250 , the area experienced a total collapse of civilization and all of the cities in the Gaza region were abandoned by the 23rd century BCE . In its place emerged semi @-@ nomadic cultures with pastoral camps made up of rustic family dwellings which continued to exist throughout the Early Bronze Age IV . An urban center known as Tell al @-@ Ajjul began to arise inland along the Wadi Ghazza riverbed . During the Middle Bronze Age , Tell as @-@ Sakan was the southernmost locality in Canaanite territory , serving as a fort , and by 1650 BCE , while Egypt was occupied by the Canaanite Hyksos , a second city developed on the ruins of the first Tell as @-@ Sakan . This city was destroyed about a century later , when the Hyksos were routed from Egypt . Egypt settled Gaza once again and Tell al @-@ Ajjul rose for the third time in the 15th century BCE . The city finally ceased to exist in the 14th century , at the end of the Bronze Age . 
