 A city which would become present @-@ day Gaza began to develop on the site of Tell al @-@ Ajjul . This city served as Egypt ’ s administrative capital in Canaan , and was the residence of the Egyptian governor of the region . A caravan point of strategic importance from the earliest times , it was constantly involved in the wars between Egypt and Syria and the Mesopotamian powers , and appeared frequently in Egyptian and Assyrian records . Under Tuthmosis III , it is mentioned on the Syrian @-@ Egyptian caravan route and in the Amarna letters as " <unk> " . Gaza was in Egyptian hands for 350 years , until it was settled by the Philistines , a seafaring people with cultural links to the Aegean , in the 12th century BCE . It then became a part of the pentapolis ; a league of the Philistines ' five most important city @-@ states . 
