2012 Gaza War
In November 2012, the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Pillar of Defense, which was an eight-day campaign in the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip, beginning on 14 November 2012 with the killing of Ahmed Jabari, chief of the Gaza military wing of Hamas, by an Israeli airstrike.
The operation was preceded by a period with a number of mutual Israeli–Palestinian responsive attacks. According to the Israeli government, the operation began in response to the launch of over 100 rockets at Israel during a 24-hour period, an attack by Gaza militants on an Israeli military patrol jeep within Israeli borders, and an explosion caused by improvised explosive devices, which occurred near Israeli soldiers, on the Israeli side of a tunnel passing under the Israeli West Bank barrier. The Israeli government stated that the aims of the operation were to halt rocket attacks against civilian targets originating from the Gaza Strip and to disrupt the capabilities of militant organizations. The Palestinians blamed the Israeli government for the upsurge in violence, accusing the IDF of attacks on Gazan civilians in the days leading up to the operation. They cited the blockade of the Gaza Strip and the occupation of West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as the reason for rocket attacks.
During the operation, the IDF claimed to have struck more than 1,500 sites in the Gaza Strip. According to a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees report, 174 Palestinians were killed and hundreds were wounded. Approximately 350-700 families were displaced. One airstrike killed ten members of the al-Dalu family. Some Palestinian casualties were caused by misfired Palestinian rockets landing inside the Gaza Strip. Eight Palestinians were executed by members of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades for alleged collaboration with Israel.
During the operation, Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad further intensified their rocket attacks on Israeli cities and towns, in an operation code named Operation Stones of Baked Clay by the al-Qassam Brigades, firing over 1,456 rockets into Israel, and an additional 142 which fell inside Gaza itself. Some of these weapons were fired into Rishon LeZion, Beersheba, Ashdod, Ashkelon, and other population centers. Tel Aviv was hit for the first time since the 1991 Gulf War, and rockets were fired at Jerusalem. The rockets killed three Israeli civilians in a direct hit on a home in Kiryat Malachi. By the end of the operation, six Israelis had been killed, two hundred forty were injured, and more than two hundred had been treated for anxiety by Magen David Adom, an Israeli medical organization. About 421 rockets were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system, another 142 fell on Gaza itself, 875 fell in open areas, and 58 hit urban areas in Israel. A bus in Tel Aviv was bombed by an Arab-Israeli, injuring 28 civilians.
Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other Western countries expressed support for what they considered Israel's right to defend itself, or condemned the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel. China, Iran, Russia, Egypt, Turkey, and several other Arab and Muslim countries condemned the Israeli operation. The United Nations Security Council held an emergency session on the situation, but did not reach a decision. After days of negotiations, a ceasefire mediated by Egypt was announced on 21 November. Both sides claimed victory. Israel said that it had achieved its aim of crippling Hamas's rocket-launching ability, while Hamas stated that Israel's option of invading Gaza had ended. According to Human Rights Watch, both sides violated the laws of war during the fighting.
Etymology
Although the official English name of the operation is Pillar of Defense, the Hebrew name translates as Pillar of Cloud. This usage refers to the Pillar of Cloud in the Bible that protected the Israelites during the Exodus. The analogy is thus to the Israel Defense Forces, which shielded Israeli citizens from rocket attacks.Hamas labelled its actions as "Operation Stones of Shale".
Background
In late December 2008, a series of escalations culminated in Israel launching aerial and naval attacks on Gaza and a few days later, a ground invasion. The conflict resulted in between 1,166 and 1,417 Palestinian and 13 Israeli deaths, with significant damage to infrastructure in Gaza. It ended with a unilateral ceasefire by Israel, followed by Hamas declaring a one-week ceasefire.The Palestinian-Israeli conflict in its current form dates to the split in the Palestinian Authority in 2006, which precipitated an armed conflict between Hamas and Fatah. By June 2007, Hamas] had taken over the Government in Gaza and ousted its rival Fatah. Following the takeover, Israel and Egypt largely sealed their border crossings with Gaza, making Gaza's economic and humanitarian position precarious. The International Committee of the Red Cross declared that Israel's blockade of Gaza constituted "collective punishment" and was a violation of international humanitarian law, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization report on Gaza also concluded that the blockade was illegal. A UN Report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Inquiry described Israel's naval enforcement of the blockade as legal and appropriate. Israel withdrew its civilian and military personnel in 2005.
Tensions between Israel and the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip continued as the two sides experienced periodic fighting, which saw a major escalation in late 2008. Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in three weeks of air and ground assaults. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the action was a response to repeated rocket and mortars fire into Israel starting in December 2008, rising to 2,378 attacks over an eleven-month period leading to the operation. In the aftermath of the operation, there was a significant reduction in rocket and mortar fire from Gaza into Israel.
After the 2008–2009 escalation the two sides observed an informal and uneasy cease-fire, although rocket fire from Gaza never completely stopped and Israel conducted raids in Gaza. The IDF noted a steady increase in the number of rockets fired into southern Israel by militant groups in Gaza. By 2011, there were 680, and in 2012, 797. Hamas demanded that Israel end the naval blockade of Gaza's coastline as a condition to end rocket fire. According to Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem, the Israeli security forces killed 273 Palestinians in the Gaza strip between the end of Operation Cast Lead and 30 October 2012, 113 of whom were civilians not taking part in hostilities.
According to Israeli security officials, Hamas, aided by Iranian technical experts and the Sudanese government, smuggled into Gaza Iranian-made Fajr-5 rockets with increased range and lethality. This move placed the highly populated Israeli central district and other metropolitan areas in range of rocket attacks. However, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari stated, "We haven't sent any weapons to Gaza because it is under blockade, but we are honoured to announce that we gave them the technology of how to make Fajr-5 missiles." Ali Larijani said Iran was "honored" to help Gaza's Hamas with "material and military aspects". According to Reuters, there were roughly 35,000 Palestinian militants in Gaza as of November 2012. Israel, which receives billions of dollars of military aid from the US, has a conscript army of 175,000, with 450,000 in reserve equipped with modern weapons systems including F-16 fighter-bombers, Apache helicopter gun ships, and Merkava tanks.
Pre-operation events
Several factors acted to increase tensions between Israel and Hamas.Israel restricted Gazan fishing due to concerns the fishing boats could be used for smuggling arms and other contraband. Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reported 92 Israeli attacks within the 3 miles zone against Palestinian fishermen in the first half of 2012 with 43 men arrested, 18 boats confiscated and 4 times equipment damaged and confiscated. Israel has imposed a limited fishing zone, limiting Gazan fishermen to fishing within three nautical miles instead of the twenty stipulated in the Oslo Accords. Fishery provides Gaza with a large share of its food production and provided more than 12,000 jobs. According to Amira Hass, the Israeli Navy routinely fire on Palestinian fishermen, sometimes detaining and transferring them for a minor interrogation at the Shin Bet security service's offices in Ashdod.
According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, in July and August, 11 Israeli attacks took place and 2 fishermen were detained. One boat was confiscated. On 28 September 2012, Israeli soldiers entered the Gaza Strip and attacked a group of Palestinian fishermen who were fishing at the beach near the border, wounding one of them and mortally wounding his brother. The Israeli army said they had fired on two Palestinians who had entered a restricted zone near the security barrier. The family of the killed fisherman said that the fishers used to fish there and that the soldiers knew who they were and used to watch the Palestinian fishermen. In one of 11 other attacks in September, the Israeli Navy reportedly tried to drown two fishing boats. In October, PCHR documented 11 Israeli attacks against fishermen in which 8 fishermen were arrested while fishing approximately 2 miles off the shore. Two fishing boats and equipment were confiscated.
Also in October 2012, there were several mutual Israeli–Palestinian attacks, each a response to a previous response/attack by the other side. Palestinian farmers accused Israeli forces of opening fire on them and on local and international activists while they harvested olives near the border in the northern Gaza Strip. Israel said the army had no record of an attack in that area. Palestinian groups planted bombs alongside the border and attacked Israeli farmers with rockets. According to a summary by Shin Bet, 92 separate attacks occurred in October 2012, with 171 rockets and mortar shells fired against Israel. Gazan groups alleged retaliation against Israeli attacks that had killed or wounded civilians and militants alike.
An arms factory in Khartoum, Sudan, alleged to have participated in arms-smuggling to Hamas, exploded on 23 October 2012. The Israeli government refused to either confirm or deny its involvement, though the explosion was widely believed to be a long-range attack by the Israeli Air Force.
On 24 October, after a week in which dozens of rockets struck Israel and Israel conducted strikes against militant targets in Gaza, 80 rockets and mortars were fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel over a 24-hour period. Thirty-two missiles struck the Lachish region and 28 the western Negev. A rocket strike on the agricultural area of the Eshkol region severely wounded two Thai workers. Earlier that day three members of a Palestinian rocket-launching squad had been killed by airstrikes, and Israeli tanks had returned fire at launching sites in Gaza. Hamas promised to "continue carrying the rifle...until the liberation of Palestine and the defeat of the occupation." On 25 October, a ceasefire was allegedly negotiated by Egypt, but the existence of any truce was disputed both by Israeli and Palestinian officials. Although aggression continued in the following days, there were no more casualties on either side until 2 November.
On 2 November, a 22-year-old Palestinian who, according to the IDF, was suspected of attempting to place an explosive device on the Gaza-Israel border, was seriously wounded on Friday morning by Israeli tank fire. According to the IDF, he had been suspected of attempting to place an explosive device on the Gaza-Israel border. On 5 November, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 20-year-old Palestinian man who approached a fence near Gaza's side of the border with Israel, reportedly ignoring warning shots and instructions to leave the area. Palestinians said that the man was unarmed, suffered from mental issues, and was constantly on medication. His relatives later said that he had approached the border before, and that at those times, Israeli soldiers used to take him back to Gazan authorities.
On 5 November, a Palestinian roadside bomb exploded and Israeli soldiers were injured. On 7 November, the armed wing of the Hamas movement and the Islamic Jihad group fired a volley of rockets at Israel, a day after an Israeli strike against targets in the Gaza Strip. In the Israeli strike, one Islamic Jihad fighter had been wounded, as well as four children at a suspected rocket launch area. It also damaged a mosque and a water tower. On 8 November, the IDF made a short-range incursion into Gaza after finding more bombs along the border, leading to a gunfight with the Popular Resistance Committees. During the clash, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy was killed. Palestinians claimed that his death occurred "by machine-gun fire, either from IDF helicopters or tanks that took part in the incident." Later that day, Palestinian militants detonated an explosives-packed tunnel they had dug on the border, wounding four Israeli soldiers. Hamas's military wing claimed responsibility for the blast, stating that it was in response to the killing of the boy.
According to Arutz Sheva, 2 Qassam rockets were fired into Israel on 9 November, exploding on open ground.
On 10 November, militants fired an anti-tank missile at an IDF Jeep on routine patrol near Israel's side of the border. Four soldiers were wounded, one of whom was in critical condition following the attack. The IDF shelled the source of the fire and pre-chosen targets in the Sa'ajiya area. Four teenagers, aged 16 to 18, were killed by an Israeli airstrike in a sports stadium while they played soccer. Gaza militants then fired at least 30 rockets and several mortar shells into southern Israel, The Color Red siren was sounded in Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gan Yavne, and surrounding areas causing Israelis within seven kilometers of the Gaza Strip to remain near protected areas. The Gan Yavne regional council canceled school because of the rocket barrage.
The sides continued to exchange fire for several days after the incident. Palestinian militants fired more than 100 rockets, striking homes in Israeli cities, one landing near a school. Several Israelis were wounded by shrapnel in a barrage designed to coincide with the morning commute to work. Two people were injured when their car sustained a direct hit. Schools across southern Israel were closed. The mayor of Beersheba, Ruvik Danilovich, explained, "We have experienced hits on our education institutions in the past... 40,000 children will remain at home today because of the attack that hit us out of the blue." Israel carried out further airstrikes in Gaza. Six Palestinian militants were killed, including one militant belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
In the days before the operation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that Israel's reaction would come "at the appropriate time." However, following a cabinet meeting in the morning before the operation, Minister Benny Begin said that "the current exchange of hostilities seems to be over." According to one Israeli analyst, these mixed messages, the expected diplomatic repercussions from Egypt and the risks of a war on the eve of the Israeli elections were three factors designed to foster a laissez-faire atmosphere for Gaza's Palestinian leaders.
On 12 November, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad officials indicated a willingness to discuss a ceasefire. A PIJ spokesman said, "The ball is in Israel's court. The resistance factions will observe Israel's behavior on the ground and will act accordingly." However, Palestinians fired 12 rockets at Israel throughout the day. A factory and a house were hit, and three civilians were wounded. Israel asked the UN Security Council to condemn the rocket attacks, with Minister Barak saying that Israel "would not accept the harm to daily life of our civilians."
Gershon Baskin, an Israeli peace activist who was a mediator between Israel and Hamas in the negotiations that resulted in the release of Gilad Shalit, reported that hours before the strike that killed Ahmed Jabari, Jabari had received a draft of a long-term ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. According to Reuven Pedatzur, the negotiations had been conducted with the consent of Ehud Barak, and a week before the strike IDF officials had asked to be briefed on their progress, but permission for the briefing was denied.