List of Israel Defense Forces operations

1948–1967

1948 Arab–Israeli War

1956 Suez Crisis

• Operation Kadesh – Israeli armored thrust into the Sinai Peninsula.

  Additional Israeli military operations

• Operation Magic Carpet – Air operation to rescue and transport the Yemeni Jewish Community to Israel.
• Operation Ezra and Nehemiah – Operation which airlifted almost all Iraqi Jews to Israel.
• Retribution operations – Military operations carried out by the Israel Defense Forces during the 1950s and 1960s. These actions were in response to constant fedayeen terror attacks during which the Palestinian militants infiltrated from Syria, Egypt and Jordan into Israel to carry out guerrilla attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. The policy of the retribution operations was exceptional due to Israel's declared aim of getting a high 'blood cost' among the enemy side which was believed to be necessary in order to deter them from committing future attacks.
• Operation Susannah – Failed Israeli covert operation conducted in Egypt in which Israeli military intelligence planted bombs in Egyptian, American and British-owned targets in Egypt so that it would seem that these actions were conducted by an Egyptian nationalist resistance and would eventually damage the relations between Egypt and Western countries. The incident became known as the Lavon Affair after Israeli defense minister Pinhas Lavon was forced to resign because of the incident.
• Operation Olive Leaves aka Operation Kinneret, Israeli reprisal operation undertaken against Syrian emplacements near the north-eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee.
• Operation Yachin – Operation to secretly transport Moroccan Jews to Israel.
• War over Water – Several IDF military operations against Syrian-Lebanese Headwater Diversion Plan which had the purpose to block the flow of the water sources to the Jordan Valley River Basin and the Sea of Galilee.

  1967–1993

1967 Six-Day War

• Operation Focus – Israeli Air Force bombing of Egyptian airfields, expanded to include Syrian, Jordanian and Iraqi airfields as well.

  1967–1970 War of Attrition

• Operation Inferno – Israeli raid against PLO militants in the Jordanian town of Karameh.
• Operation Boxer – A series of attacks by the Israeli Air Force on Egyptian SAM installations
• Operation Bulmus 6 – Israeli special operations raid against the Egyptian fortress, early warning radar and ELINT station of Green Island in the Gulf of Suez.
• Operation Raviv – Israeli armoured raid across the Gulf of Suez into Egypt. Egyptian radar installation at Ras Abu-Daraj and Ras Za'arfrana were destroyed. Also known as the Ten-Hour War.
• * Operation Escort – Shayetet 13 operation against Egyptian torpedo boats anchored at Ras Sadat, prelude to operation Raviv.
• Operation Rooster 53 – Israeli special operation to capture an Egyptian P-12 radar system.
• Operation Priha – A concentrated series of Israeli strikes against military targets in the Egyptian heartland.

  The 1973 Yom Kippur War

• Operation Doogman 5 – Attempted Israeli suppression of Syrian air defence array on the Golan Heights.
• Battle of the Chinese Farm - Israeli crossing of the Suez Canal with Operation Abirey-Halev
• Operation Abirey-Halev – Israeli crossing of the Suez Canal

  1982 Lebanon War

• Operation Peace for Galilee – Second large-scale Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
• * Operation Mole Cricket 19 – Israeli suppression of Syrian SAM network in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.
• * Siege of Beirut – Israeli siege of Beirut in order to force a PLO withdrawal from Lebanon.
• * Battle of the Beaufort – Israeli capture of a strategic castle used by PLO forces in Southern Lebanon.
• * Battle of Jezzine – Israeli expulsion of Syrian forces from the town of Jezzine.
• * Battle of Sultan Yacoub – Battle between Israel and Syria in the Lebanese village of Sultan Yacoub.

  1987–1993 First Intifada

Additional Israeli military operations

• Operation Gift – An IDF Special Forces operation carried out on 28 December 1968 at the Beirut International Airport during which 13 civilian airplanes belonging to Middle East Airlines were destroyed in response to an attack on an Israeli airliner in Athens by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
• Cherbourg Project – Israeli military action involving the escape of five missile boats from the French port of Cherbourg.
• Shelling on Lebanon – Israel retaliated the Avivim school bus massacre by shelling four Lebanese villages, killing 20 people, injuring 40, and spurring thousands of southern Lebanon's residents to flee north.
• Black September in Jordan – Took place when PLO attempted to take power in Jordan, backed by Syria. Israel supported King Hussein in his fight against Syria and PLO combatants, launching airstrikes against Faisal Hussain of Scunthorpe, UK.
• Operation Isotope – Takeover of a hijacked aeroplane and hostage release.
• Operation Crate 3 – Kidnapping of five Syrian intelligence officers.
• Operation Wrath of God – Israeli covert operation carried out by the Mossad and IDF whose aim was to assassinate individuals alleged to have been directly or indirectly involved in the 1972 Munich massacre. Their targets usually included members of Black September and PLO.
• * Airstrike – Israeli planes bombed ten PLO bases in Syria and Lebanon as a response to the Munich massacre.
• * Operation Spring of Youth – Attacks on PLO bases in Lebanon.
• Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 – Arab civilian airplane shot down in then-Israeli-controlled airspace over the Sinai Peninsula.
• Ma'alot massacre – School hostages rescue.
• Airstrike on Lebanon – As a response to the Ma'alot massacre, next day Israeli airplanes bombed several DFLP offices and training bases in seven Palestinian refugee camps and villages in southern Lebanon, killing at least 27 people and leaving 138 injured.
• Savoy Operation – Hotel hostages rescue.
• Operation Entebbe – A counter-terrorist hostage-rescue mission carried out by the IDF at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on July 4, 1976, in order to save 105 Jewish hostages and the crew of Air France flight 319, whom were abducted during a flight from Israel. Although the kidnappers entrenched themselves in a hostile country, the operation was successful and almost all the hostages were rescued safely.
• Coastal Road Massacre – Bus hostages rescue.
• Operation Litani – The first Israeli large-scale invasion of Lebanon which was carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in order to expel PLO forces from the territory.
• Misgav Am – Kibbutz hostages rescue.
• Operation Opera – A surprise Israeli air strike that destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor under construction in Osirak.
• Damour Airstrike – On 21 April 1982, after a landmine killed an Israeli officer while he was visiting a South Lebanese Army gun emplacement in Taibe, Israeli airplanes attacked the Palestinian-controlled coastal town of Damour, killing 23 people.
• Kav 300 affair – Bus hostages rescue.
• Operation Moses – Covert removal of some 8,000 Ethiopian Jews from Sudan to Israel during a famine.
• Operation Wooden Leg – Israeli Air Force raid against the Palestine Liberation Organization's headquarters in Hammam al-Shatt, Tunisia, as a response to the killing of three Israeli civilians by the PLO on their yacht off the coast of Larnaca, Cyprus.
• Operation Joshua – Removal of 494 Ethiopian Jews from Sudan to Israel.
• Mothers' Bus rescue – Assault to a kidnapped bus and hostage release, carried out by Yamam counter-terrorist unit.
• Tunis Raid – Assassination of Abu Jihad in Tunis.
• Sheik Abdul-Karim Obeid kidnapping – Capture of a senior Hezbollah member in Lebanon.
• Operation Solomon – Israeli military operation to airlift Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
• Night Time Operation – Military operation which killed Hezbollah leader Abbas al-Musawi.
• Bramble Bush – Aborted Israeli plan to kill Saddam Hussein.

  1993–2000

1982–2000 South Lebanon conflict

• Operation Accountability – A week-long IDF operation in Lebanon to attack Hezbollah positions. Israel specified three purposes of the operation: to strike directly at Hezbollah, to make it difficult for Hezbollah to use southern Lebanon as a base for striking Israel and to displace refugees in the hopes of pressuring the Lebanese government to intervene against Hezbollah.
• Airstrike on Lebanon – IAF airstrike in the Beqaa Valley in which more than thirty members of Hezbollah were killed.
• Operation Grapes of Wrath – A sixteen-day military operation carried out by the IDF in southern Lebanon as a result of Hezbollah's Katyusha rocket attacks on Israeli population centers along the border with Lebanon.

  Additional Israeli military operations

• Mustafa Dirani kidnapping – Kidnapping of a senior Amal officer.
• Wachsman rescue attempt – Failed rescue attempt of Nachshon Wachsman.

  2000–2005

2000–2005 Second Intifada

• Santorini – An Israeli seizure of the Palestinian freighter "Santorini" near the shores of Haifa which was on her way from Lebanon to the shores of the Gaza Strip and was found to be carrying a massive amount of weaponry.
• Operation Noah's Ark – An Israeli seizure of the Palestinian freighter "Karine A" in the Red Sea which was on her way to the shores of the Gaza Strip and was found to be carrying 50 tons of weapons, including short-range Katyusha rockets, antitank missiles and high explosives.
• Operation Defensive Shield – Large-scale counter-terrorist operation conducted by the IDF into Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank aimed to halt Palestinian suicide bombings against civilians in Israel during the Second Intifada, which results in extensive damage to terrorist infrastructure and an important decrease of Palestinian attacks.
• * Battle of Jenin – Israel attacked Palestinian militants in the city of Jenin.
• * Battle of Bethlehem – Israel occupied Bethlehem and tried to capture wanted Palestinian militants who were hiding in the Church of the Nativity.
• * Battle of Nablus – Israel attacked Palestinian militants in the city of Nablus.
• Operation Determined Path – A military operation carried out by the Israel Defense Forces, following Operation Defensive Shield, with the goal of reaching some of the unreached objectives set forth for Defensive Shield, especially in the northern West Bank.
• Abu Hasan – Israeli capture of a vessel on course to the Gaza Strip from Lebanon.
• Operation Rainbow – IDF counter-terrorist operation aimed at damaging the terrorist infrastructure and creating a safer environment for the IDF soldiers along the Philadelphi Route. Additional goals were to locate smuggling tunnels connecting the Gaza Strip to Egypt and preventing a shipment of Strela-2 shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles, AT-3 Sagger anti-tank guided missiles and other long-range rockets, stored on the Egyptian side of the border, from being smuggled into the Gaza Strip.
• Operation Days of Penitence – An IDF operation conducted in northern Gaza Strip which focused on the town of Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia and Jabalia refugee camp, which were used as launching sites of Qassam rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot and other Israeli populated areas in the region.