According to the Hebrew Bible, during the mid-8th century BCE, Rezin, king of Aram-Damascus - a significant buffer state separating the Middle East from the Neo-Assyrian Empire, began forming powerful alliances with its neighboring nations, including the Kingdom of Israel.
In the ensuing war, Aram-Damascus was annexed, many cities in Israel were captured, reducing the kingdom to a rump state, and Judah became a tributary to Assyria.
In 734 BC, as Tiglath-Pileser III marched through the Philistine pentapolis, Hanunu realized Gaza would not hold against the Assyrian armies, and he fled to Egypt.
[6] Under Assyrian rule, Gaza remained a lucrative trading station, and brought Assyria's borders against Egypt's.
Tiglath-Pileser's successor, Shalmaneser V, continued to spread the Empire's borders through the Middle East, eventually destroying Israel in 720 BC.