2012 Gaza War

Operation Pillar of Defense (Template:Lang-he-n, ʿAmúd ʿAnán, literally: "Pillar of Cloud") was an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operation in the Gaza Strip from 14 to 21 November 2012. It started with the killing of Ahmed Jabari, chief of the Gaza military wing of Hamas. The stated aims of the operation were to halt the indiscriminate rocket attacks originating from the Gaza Strip and to disrupt the capabilities of militant organizations.

Operation Pillar of Defense
Part of Gaza–Israel conflict
Date 14 – 21 November 2012 (2012-11-21) Location Palestinian territories and Israel 30°40′N 34°50′E Result Ceasefire, both sides claim victory According to Israel, the operation "severely impaired Hamas's launching capabilities." According to Hamas, their rocket strikes led to the ceasefire deal Gaza fishermen allowed 6 nautical miles out to sea for fishing
Belligerents
Israel	Gaza Strip Hamas – Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades PIJ PFLP PRC Al-Aqsa Martyrs'
Commanders and leaders
Benjamin Netanyahu Prime Minister Ehud Barak Minister of Defense Benny Gantz Chief of General Staff Amir Eshel Air Force Commander Yoram Cohen Director of Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet)	Ismail Haniyeh (Prime Minister of the Hamas Authority) Mohammed Deif (Commander of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades) Ahmed Jabari (KIA) (Deputy commander of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades) Ramadan Shallah (Secretary-General of Palestinian Islamic Jihad) Abu Jamal (spokesperson of the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades)
Strength
Israeli Southern Command and up to 75,000 reservists	10,000 Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades 8,000 Islamic Jihad Unkown for the rest 10,000 Security forces.
Casualties and losses
2 soldiers killed. 20 soldiers wounded.	Palestinian figures: 55 militants killed 29 militants wounded Israeli figures: 120 combatants killed
Palestinian civilian losses: 105 killed, 971 wounded (Palestinian claim) 57 killed (Israeli claim) 103 killed (UN preliminary estimate) 8 Palestinians executed by the al-Qassam Brigades (alleged collaborators) Israeli civilian losses: 4 killed, 219 injured

The Israeli government said the operation began in response to Gaza militants rocket fire, and attacks against Israeli soldiers on the Israel–Gaza border. Officials of Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, denied that Hamas was the aggressor, and stated that they did not want to see the violence escalate. Hamas's Deputy Foreign Minister Ghazi Hamad said "We still say that we are the victims of the occupation and we are the target," but also argued that Hamas had a right to defend its people and would thus respond to Israeli attacks, stating additionally "If Gaza is not safe, your towns will not be safe also."

During the course of the operation, the IDF struck more than 1,500 sites in the Gaza Strip, including rocket launchpads and cache sites, Hamas command posts, the Hamas run interior ministry and other government buildings, as well as dozens of houses and apartment blocks. Between 158 and 177 Palestinians died in the operation, with between 55 and 120 of them being combatants. An additional 1,200-1,300 Palestinians were injured, and between 350 and 700 Palestinian families displaced. Not all Palestinian casualties were as a result of Israeli fire, some were due to misfired Palestinian rockets landing inside the Gaza Strip. Additionally, eight Palestinians were summarily executed by members of Hamas' military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, for alleged collaboration with Israel.

Declaring that Jabari's assassination had "opened the gates of hell", 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 (Template:Lang-ar, ḥijārat sajīl) by the al-Qassam Brigades and Operation Blue Sky (Template:Lang-ar, as-samā' az-zarqā' ) by members of the PIJ.

Palestinian militant groups fired over 1,456 rockets in to Israel (An additional 142 fell inside Gaza itself.) Palestinian militant groups used weapons including Iranian-made Fajr-5, Russian-made Grad rockets, Qassams and mortars. 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 aimed at Jerusalem. The rockets killed four Israeli civilians – three of them in a direct hit on a home in Kiryat Malachi – two Israeli soldiers, and a number of Palestinian civilians. By 19 November, three Israelis had been killed, 21 injured by shrapnel, 28 injured during alarms, and more than 200 had been treated for anxiety by Magen David Adom. Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted about 421 rockets, another 142 rockets fell on Gaza itself, 875 rockets fell in open areas, and 58 rockets hit urban areas in Israel. A bus in Tel Aviv was bombed by an Arab-Israeli, physically injuring ten civilians and causing an additional eighteen to seek treatment for anxiety. Hamas' political leader, Khaled Meshaal, denied that Hamas was responsible for the bombing, while stating that he believed the bombing was in direct response to the violence in Gaza.The BBC reported that Hamas "praised" the attack.

The United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and other Western countries expressed support for Israel's right to defend itself, and/or condemned the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel. Iran, 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. On 21 November a ceasefire was announced after days of negotiations between Hamas and Israel mediated by Egypt. Both sides claimed victory. Israel said that it had achieved its aim of crippling Hamas's rocket-launching ability, while Hamas stated that "The option of invading Gaza after this victory is gone and will never return" and thanked Iran and Egypt for their help.

Etymology

Further information: Pillar of Cloud

Although the official English name of the operation is Pillar of Defense, the Hebrew name translates as Pillar of Cloud. Eytan Buchman, head of the IDF's North American media desk clarified that this refers to the Pillar of Cloud in the Bible that guided the Israelites' Exodus to the Promised Land (Exodus 13:21–22). A midrash elaborates that the Pillar of Cloud shielded the Israelites from the Egyptians' arrows and catapults. The name is thus an analogy to the Israel Defense Forces shielding Israeli citizens from rocket attacks. Some commentators have criticized the Hebrew name, claiming the IDF was calling itself God. Hamas labelled their actions as "Operation Stones of Shale" (Qur'an 105:4).

Background

Main article: Gaza–Israel conflict

Further information: List of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, 2012 and March 2012 Gaza–Israel clashes

The conflict in its current form is ongoing since the Islamic party Hamas won the January 2006 Palestinian legislative election. In June 2007, internal fighting broke out between Hamas and rival Palestinian group Fatah, and Hamas fully consolidated its power with a coup it argued was preemptive and taking control of the Gaza Strip. In response, Israel and Egypt closed Gaza's land borders in June of that year, making Gaza's economic and humanitarian position precarious. While the Red Cross believes Israel's blockade is illegal under international humanitarian law and FAO report on Gaza Agriculture stated the blockade was illegal, a UN panel on the Mavi Marmara raid described the navy blockade as both legal and appropriate. Although Israel withdrew its civilians and military personnel in 2005, the United States, United Nations and Arab League consider Israel to be an occupying power in the territory. Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist armed group designated by the United States, the European Union, Canada and Japan as a terrorist organization, has called for the destruction of Israel since 1988. Russia, Turkey and Norway do not designate Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Tensions between Israel and the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip continued, as the two sides experienced periodic fighting. In late 2008 and early 2009 a three-week armed conflict broke out. Israel's stated aim was to stop rocket fire into Israel, after 2378 rockets and mortars were launched from Gaza into Israel over an eleven month period. In the aftermath of Israel's operation, rocket attacks in 2009 plummeted to 190 in all. Tensions between Israel and the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip continued, as the two sides experienced periodic fighting, and rocket fire on southern Israel has been on a steady rise: 680 rocket attacks in 2011 and 797 attacks in 2012 (up to 13 November), forcing many of the estimated one million civilians in southern Israel to repeatedly head into bomb shelters and close their schools. 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 have 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, with aid from Iranian technical experts and the Sudanese government, smuggled in to Gaza Iranian-made Fajr-5 rockets with increased range and lethality, placing the highly populated Israeli central district, and other metropolitan areas in range. 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." Meanwhile, Ali Larijani said Iran was "honored" to help Gaza's Hamas with "material and military aspects". There are roughly 35,000 Palestinian fighters in Gaza. Israel has a conscript army of 175,000.

Pre-operation events

According to a summary by the Israel Security Agency, 92 separate attacks occurred in October, with a total 171 rockets and mortar shells fired against Israel. Gazan groups alleged retaliation against Israeli attacks that killed or wounded civilians and militants alike. On 8 November, residents of the town of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip said an Israeli tank wounded four children and damaged a mosque minaret and a water tower. Israel has arrested, attacked, and also confiscated the boats of Gazan fishermen. Some of them have died under Israeli fire. Fishery provides Gaza with a large share of its food production, and Israel has imposed limits on Gazan fishermen's work. Palestinian farmers said that Israeli forces opened fire on them while they harvested olives near the border in the northern Gaza Strip. Israel replied it had no record of the incident. Palestinian groups planted bombs alongside the border and attacked Israeli farmers with rockets.

On 24 October, an arms factory exploded in Khartoum, Sudan. The weapons were allegedly smuggled to Hamas in Gaza. It was widely believed to have been a long-range attack by the Israeli Air Force. Sudanese authorities blamed Israel, while the Israeli government refused to either confirm or deny its involvement.

After a week in which dozens of rockets struck Israel and Israel conducted strikes against militant targets in Gaza in a major escalation on 24 October, 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 were killed by airstrikes and Israeli tanks 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. 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 have said that he approached the border before, and when that happened, Israeli soldiers used to take him back to Gazan authorities. On 5 November a Palestinian road side bomb exploded and Israeli soldiers were injured. 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 according to Palestinians "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' 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 in 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, wounding four soldiers, one of whom is in critical condition. 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 air-strike in a sports stadium while they played soccer. Gaza militants then fired at least 30 rockets and several mortar shells into southern Israel, causing the Color Red siren to sound 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 will 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 are three factors designed to foster a laissez-faire atmosphere for Gaza's Palestinian leaders.

On 12 November, Hamas and PIJ 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 was hit, and three civilians were wounded. Israel asked the UN Security Council to condemn the rocket attacks, with Barak saying that Israel "would not accept the harm to daily life of our civilians."

An Israeli peace activist, Gershon Baskin, 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, the latter had received a draft of a permanent truce agreement between Israel and Hamas, and it was expected that he would respond to it positively. 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 this was denied.

Operation timeline

Main article: Timeline of Operation Pillar of Defense

Ceasefire

The two main parties Israel and Hamas, refused to deal with each other directly and negotiations were conducted thorough intermediaries. The principal players in negotiating the ceasefire were officials from the U.S. and Egypt acting as the facilitator.

Attempts at ceasefire

Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas are being mediated by Egypt. Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi predicted the negotiations would lead to positive results very soon. By contrast, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, after meeting with Netanyahu, said that the process will take place in "days ahead." UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon also met with Netanyahu to attempt to end the violence. Turkish foreign ministers and Arab League diplomats were sent to Gaza to promote a truce between the warring parties.

According to reports in Cairo, Israel has made 6 demands for a ceasefire:

1. No violence for a period of more than 15 years.
2. No smuggling or transfer of arms to Gaza.
3. End of all rocket fire and attacks on Israeli soldiers.
4. Israel reserves the right to attack terrorists in case of an attack or of a potential attack.
5. Israeli-Gaza crossings will remain closed (although Gaza-Egypt crossings may remain open)
6. Egypt's politicians must guarantee the above demands.

In exchange for a ceasefire, demands for a ceasefire include the lifting of the naval blockade of Gaza, international community guarantees for the cessation of targeted killings, an end to IDF cross-border raids and the cessation of attack. Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal additionally wanted "international guarantees" for the lifting of the blockade.

Ceasefire of 21 November

On 21 November, Mohamed Kamel Amr, the Egyptian Foreign Minister, and Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, announced a ceasefire that would take effect on 21:00 GMT+2. The agreement distributed by the Egyptian presidency reads:

Understanding Regarding Ceasefire in Gaza Strip

1.a. Israel shall stop all hostilities in the Gaza Strip land, sea and air including incursions and targeting of individuals.
  b. All Palestinian factions shall stop all hostilities from the Gaza Strip against Israel including rocket attacks, and all attacks along the border.
  c. Opening the crossings and facilitating the movements of people and transfer of goods, and refraining from restricting residents' free movements, and targeting residents in border areas and procedures of implementation shall be dealt with after 24 hours from the start of the ceasefire.
  d. Other matters as may be requested shall be addressed.

2. Implementation Mechanism:
  a. Setting up the zero hour for the Ceasefire Understanding to enter into effect.
  b. Egypt shall receive assurances from each party that the party commits to what was agreed upon.
  c. Each party shall commit itself not to perform any acts that would breach this understanding. In case of any observations, Egypt – as the sponsor of this understanding – shall be informed to follow up.

Authored and distributed by: Office of the Egyptian president. "Understanding Regarding Ceasefire in Gaza Strip". As published by Ha'aretz on 21 Nov 2012.

Khaled Meshal, the exiled leader of Hamas, thanked Egypt for mediating the ceasefire and claimed that Israel had been defeated. He also praised Iran for providing militants with financing and arms. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Operation Pillar of Defense had been successful and thanked US President Obama for his "unwavering support for Israel's right to defend itself."

Post-ceasefire incidents

An explosion took place in Gaza in unclear circumstances after the ceasefire; no casualties were reported. A Palestinian man was killed and three others wounded by stray gunfire as gunmen in Gaza fired in the air to celebrate the ceasefire deal. The day after the ceasefire Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian farmer and wounded another 19. The survivors, who thought the terms of the truce allowed them access to their land, said they ventured into the Israeli-established "buffer zone" inside Gaza's border to pray (while climbing on the Israeli Defense Wall). According to the UN, the "buffer zone" eats up 30% of Gaza's arable lands. (Some accounts state the percentage is even higher.) The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, complained to the organization that the attack was a violation of the ceasefire. On November 28, Israel opened fire at two fishing boats off the coast of Gaza, and detained nine Gazan fishermen. According to the head of Gaza's fishing association, Mahfouth al-Kabriti, the fishermen were six miles off the coast — the limit within which, as Israel agreed in the ceasefire deal, Gazan fishermen could sail. On November 30, another young Gazan man, 21-year-old Mahmoud Jaroun, was shot dead by Israeli forces in Rafah. According to Ma'an News Agency, Israeli forces have already violated the ceasefire several times by firing at Palestinian farmers. On December 1, Islamic Jihad warned that more "Israeli violations of a ceasefire deal" would move the group to respond.

Twelve rockets were launched from Gaza into Israel after the ceasefire was declared, all of them landed in open areas. Air raid sirens sounded in Eshkol, Sderot, Hof Ashkelon, Ashdod, Kiryat Malachi and Sha'ar Hanegev. One rocket over Ashdod was intercepted by the Iron Dome.

Spillover

West Bank

The conflict sparked widespread protests in the West Bank leading to an upsurge clashes between Palestinians and the IDF. On 14 November, two Israelis were lightly injured when their vehicle was stoned near Gush Etzion. The road from Jerusalem to Gush Etzion was closed as a result of fierce protests.

On 18 November, a 31-year-old Palestinian man participating in a demonstration in Nabi Saleh was killed by Israeli fire. The IDF, which described the protest as "illegal and violent," launched an investigation into the incident. By 19 November, over 50 Palestinians were reported injured during solidarity protests held in East Jerusalem, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Beit Ummar and Qalandia.

On 19 November, thousands marched in response to the killing of a protester the previous day. An Israeli civilian vehicle was firebombed on Highway 60 in the West Bank; The passengers managed to flee before the vehicle incinerated. According to Israel Hayom a protester in Halhul who attempted to attack an Israeli soldier was shot and killed. AFP stated that the circumstances around the killing were unclear, with the Palestinian police and ambulance service stating that no clashes had taken place where the man was killed. The IDF have launched an investigation into the incident. Five firebombs were thrown at an Israeli Border Police base in Atarot. Assailants opened fire on Israeli soldiers at a military base near Jenin. Palestinians tried to infiltrate Nahliel by cutting through the security fence surrounding the Israeli town. Palestinians stoned Israeli vehicles on Route 443, a main highway connecting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. A 22-year old Palestinian in Hebron attempting to throw a firebomb at a soldier was shot and wounded. And a Border Police officer was injured during a demonstration in Qalandiya.

On 20 November, an Israeli soldier was lightly wounded in clashes with Palestinian protesters near Gush Etzion, and an Israeli civilian woman was moderately injured in a stoning attack on a vehicle near Husan. Palestinian demonstrations throughout the West Bank that day praised the rocket strikes and called for a new uprising and the abandonment of diplomacy with Israel. According to the Christian Science Monitor, they signaled a blow to the prestige of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has supported talks with Israel.

Further protests and clashes occurred throughout the West Bank on 21–22 November. Thousands of Palestinians protested the death of Rushdi al-Tamimi, whose process passed through Ramallah and Birzeit University before ending in Tamimi's hometown of Nabi Salih. Several protesters attending the funeral lobbed stones at Israeli troops manning the entrance of the village who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral of the Palestinian man killed in Hebron on 20 November. Following his burial many young protesters approached an Israeli settlement near Bab al-Zawiya Square, sparking clashes with Israeli forces who fired rubber bullets and tear gas. About 40 Palestinians were injured. In the city of Nablus, hundreds of protesters waved Hamas flags. The entrance to Bani Naim was closed by the IDF after clashes between them and the town's residents. Meanwhile the northern West Bank village of al-Jalama was declared "a closed military zone" after hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators protested at the village checkpoint. Five Palestinians were arrested in house raids by the Israeli military in Ya'bad and Tubas with Israel alleging that the detained men had previously thrown stones at Israeli troops.

Lebanon

Also on 20 November, a Lebanese army patrol discovered two ready-to-launch 107mm Grad rockets between the villages of Halta and Mari, about 2 miles from the Israeli border. The forces defused the rockets. IDF official Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai said Palestinian factions in Lebanon were probably behind the plot. (See: List of Lebanese rocket attacks on Israel.)

On 21 November, two rockets fired from Lebanon at Israel landed within Lebanon, according to Beirut officials.

On 22 November, the day after the ceasefire, The Lebanese army disarmed an additional rocket aimed at Israel, in Marjayoun, about 10 kilometers from the border.

Casualties

Palestinian casualties

A damaged building in Gaza after Israeli strikes

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said that 158 Palestinians were killed during the operation, of which: 102 were civilians, 55 were militants and one was a policeman; 30 were children and 13 were women. The UN has given a figure of 103 dead civilians. B'Tselem stated that according to its initial findings, which covered only the period between 14 and 19 November, 102 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip, 40 of them civilians.

The Israel Defense Forces have stated that out of 177 Palestinians killed, 120 were militants and that the IDF never deliberately targets civilians. The Israeli air force says that it takes all possible measures to avoid harming Palestinian civilians, utilizing precision strikes and issuing preemptive warnings to Palestinian residents. The IDF alleges that it disseminated warning leaflets instructing civilians to avoid areas used by Hamas for firing rockets, and also phoned residents in warnings. It says targets were deliberately missed on the first strike to allow the non-combatants to vacate the area and missions were aborted because of a civilian presence. This policy has been criticized on the grounds that few areas in Gaza, considering its many densely populated areas, can safely function as a refuge to civilians and critics have claimed that the criteria the IDF uses to determine what areas should be struck is arbitrary.

Debris in Gaza after the ceasefire

Palestinian casualties have also occurred in areas where no fighting is reported to have happened and allegations that warnings had been given by the IDF to civilians so as to allow them to flee before shelling have been challenged. BBC Arabic photojournalist Jihad Masharawi lost his baby son and sister-in-law to an Israeli airstrike, even though, according to him, his residential neighborhood in the Sabra district saw no fighting before Israel's attack. On 19 November 2012, an Israeli airstrike killed ten members of the Dalu family, including four children as well as two neighbors. The family had no known connections to Gazan militants. A surviving family member denied that a warning had been given to his family to flee the home: "They didn’t give us a warning. They just hit the house with the children in it. My daughters were in their youth. What did they do to them?". The IDF policy of targeting family homes of alleged militants has been criticized due to the high potential of civilian casualties that it can produce. Competing theories for the attack were offered. One Israeli paper stated the IDF believed a militant was inside while two others said the wrong house was targeted. IDF spokeswoman Avital Leibovich at first stated that the event was an accident and the target was a man, Yihia Abayah, supposedly responsible for launching 200—300 rockets into Israel. A relative of the family said that man is not known and rejected his existence. Later on, the IDF changed justification for the attack to say that it was intentional and aimed at Mohamed al-Dalu, a Gazan police officer who died in the strike.

The most notable fatality of a Palestinian militant was that of Ahmed Jabari, a high-level commander in Hamas. The PCHR stated that the number of injured people had reached 1,000.

Killings of alleged informants by al-Qassam Brigades

Seven Palestinians have been publicly executed by militants for alleged collaboration with Israel. One man, Ashraf Ouaida, was killed on 16 November near a Mosque in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City. An eyewitness said he saw two masked men emerge from a Jeep, drag the victim underneath a Hamas billboard and shoot him multiple times in the head, before hanging a poster citing his alleged crimes.

Militants shot six other Palestinians in the street on 20 November. According to witnesses, the men were pulled out of a van, forced to lie face down on the street and then shot dead. Five of the bodies were left in a pile while a mob stomped and spit on them. A sixth body was tied to a motorcycle and dragged through the main streets of Gaza City as onlookers screamed, "Spy! Spy!" Militants posted a sign naming the six victims. Hamas's radio station, Voice of al-Aqsa quoted security sources, alleging that they "possessed hi-tech equipment and filming equipment to take footage of positions". One witness compared the gruesomeness of the murder to grisly scenes from the time of the Crusades.

The man whose body was tied to a motorcycle, Ribhi Badawi, was a member of Jaljalat, an Islamist group that maintains a rivalry with Hamas. Badawi's family, neighbors and friends maintained that the allegations of his having spied for Israel were "absurd", noting that he had spent the previous four years in a Hamas prison under armed guard. His widow stated that he confessed to aiding Israel after being tortured by Hamas for seven months with methods that included being burned, having his jaw and teeth broken, and being hung for 45 days by his arms and legs.

On 21 November, Hamas deputy leader Moussa Abu Marzouk condemned the killings as "unlawful", adding that any punishments or executions must follow the legal process. He further added that those behind the killings must be punished.

Palestinian casualties from Palestinian fire

At least two Palestinian civilian deaths are believed to have been caused by a Palestinian rocket that fell short of its target, not by Israel. According to Israeli officials, more than 100 Palestinian rockets have fallen within the Gaza Strip, causing multiple injuries and deaths.

When Mohammed Sadallah, a four-year-old Gazan boy, was killed after an explosion in Annazla, it was first stated by Hamas to have been caused by an Israeli bomb. However, experts from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights examined the site and opined the explosion was caused by a Palestinian rocket. According to the New York Times, "the damage was nowhere near severe enough to have come from an Israeli F-16, raising the possibility that an errant missile fired by Palestinian militants was responsible for the deaths." Israel denied that it carried out any attacks in the area at the time. The Associated Press reported that "no one appeared to have witnessed the strike" and that "local security officials quickly took what remained of the projectile, making it impossible to verify who fired it."

Israeli casualties

Israeli apartment building in Kiryat Malakhi hit by Gaza rockets

Four Israeli civilians and two soldier have been killed in Palestinian rocket attacks. Three of the civilians died in a direct hit on an apartment building in Kiryat Malachi, while the fourth Israeli civilian death was an Israeli-Arab who died in a rocket strike in the Eshkol Region. By 20 November, almost 250 Israelis had been injured in rocket attacks, including at least 10 soldiers. Another 21 people were injured in a bus bombing in Tel Aviv.

The IDF credited the low Israeli casualty rate to a number of factors, both offensive and defensive: its preemptive targeting of launching pads and rocket arsenals; its ability to strike militants in the act of launching rockets; the 80%+ success rate of Israel's Iron Dome missile interception system; the existence of bomb-proof rooms in every Israeli house; the implementation of the Red Color alarm system; and public outreach efforts by its Home Front Command.

Alleged war crimes

Hamas

Both U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay condemned the continuing indiscriminate attacks and targeting of civilians in Israel by militants from Gaza.

Col. Richard Kemp, former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, said: "The use of the civilian population by Hamas is undoubtedly a war crime because not only are they hiding themselves under a civilian population, [but] they are also putting the civilian population at risk. In my view, if there are civilian casualties, the responsibility does not lie with the IDF, but with Hamas, who deliberately placed them there." Richard Landes criticised Hamas for firing from the midst of civilians leading to casualties that were then blamed on Israeli counter-strikes to garner Western sympathy. Danny Ayalon said that Hamas's firing of rockets from built-up civilian areas was a "double war crime" noting that 10% of them did not reach Israel.

IDF stated that Hamas make use of "human shield" tactics. "By operating from densely populated areas, Hamas willingly endangers it own people, turning their houses and schools into terror sites and weapon depots." The Jerusalem Post and Fox News said Palestinian rocket launch-sites were put next to hospitals, schools, mosques and playgrounds. On Nov.21 a long-range Qassam rocket, of the type Israel has accused Iran of supplying to Hamas, was fired from within 500 yards of the hospital and hit Gush Etzion, south-east of Jerusalem. The IDF spokesman stated they had released footage of "rocket fire from a mosque courtyard, prayer houses, public places and homes".

Israel often accuses enemy forces of hiding themselves or their weaponry among civilians, though such accusations are rarely substantiated by independent investigators. The Goldstone Report, for example, found only Israeli instances of use of Gazan civilians as human shields. Gaza Youth Breaks Out, a youth empowerment organization opposed to all main parties of Palestinian politics, also rejected allegations of human shield use leveled against Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

IDF accused Gaza militants of abusing the protection afforded to journalists. On Nov. 20 Muhammed Shamalah, commander of Hamas forces in southern Gaza and head of its militant training programs, was targeted by an Israeli air strike while driving a car which, according to the IDF, was clearly labeled "TV," indicating it to be a press vehicle.

Israel

According to the The New York Times, "political leaders and human rights advocates have called the [Dalu family] deaths a massacre and a war crime." The event, which has become the "face of the Palestinian cause", was at first referred to as an accident by IDF spokeswoman Avital Beibovich, though later she said the strike was intentional. As noticed above, the PCHR condemned it as "an example of blatant targeting of civilians." Human Rights Watch has stated that the attack has yet to be justified by Israel, and has called it "disproportionate" use of force and a war crime. It has caled for the perpetrators of the strike to be punished and the surviving members of victims' families to be compensated.

British MP Gerald Kaufman criticized the Israeli offensive, and its broader context — of occupation of the West Bank and the siege of Gaza — as war crimes. In an emergency meeting of the Arab League, Foreign Ministers of member-states also accused Israel of perpetrating war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Turkey and Iran refused to accept that Israel was acting in self-defense, and held it as solely responsible for the escalation in the hostilities. Both accused Israel of perpetrating war crimes. Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Israel a terrorist state and condemned its "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians.

Writing for Al Jazeera, author and Jacobin editor Belen Fernandez criticized Israel's targeting of media buildings. Alluding to the Al-Dalu family killing and other instances of civilian deaths by Israeli strikes, she said of Israel's bombing campaigns that they are "conscientious" and that the country "casts mass murder as self-defence". Journalist Charlotte Silver said that Israel's strikes on homes, police stations, media centres, banks, a football stadium, as well as the buildings of the ministry of culture and education, indicated it was applying the Dahiya doctrine, an Israeli military strategy that justifies the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure in warfare. Prashad stated that "[t]o bomb civilian areas, then, is part of the Israeli government’s plan", speculating that the high civilian casualty toll could be indication that Israel was applying that doctrine.

Israeli missile attacks against two media centers that injured at least nine Palestinian journalists, causing one to lose his leg, and damaged the offices of both local and international media organizations, were condemned by Reporters without Borders. (The strikes also killed militants, including a senior Islamic Jihad commander.) Christophe Deloire, secretary-general of RWB, said "Even if the targeted media support Hamas, this does not in any way legitimize the attacks ... Attacks on civilian targets are war crimes and serious violations of the Geneva Conventions. Those responsible must be identified." Israel warned the foreigners to leave the building before the strike.

On November 20, Israeli strikes on cars carrying Gazan journalists killed three of them. Writing for the New York Times, David Carr noted that IDF spokeswoman Avital Leibovich, who said that the journalists were "people who have relevance to terror activity", did not identify the strike as a mistake. Carr accused Israel of deliberately targeting journalists under the cover of war, using "amorphous" phrases such as "relevance to terror activity" to justify the attacks Following the strike, Human Rights Watch remarked that "civilian broadcasting facilities are not rendered legitimate military targets simply because they broadcast pro-Hamas or anti-Israel propaganda."

Abdal Nasser Najjar, chairman of the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate, has asked for an international investigation of Israel's targeting of Palestinian journalists, saying: "We want to put an end to this [Israeli] policy of killing and injuring journalists. There is no difference between a journalist: Israeli, Palestinian, or international. We want to do our jobs only, as journalists." Reporters Without Borders said of Israel's attacks on Gazan journalists that they were intentional.

Social media and Internet

The military wing of Hamas and the Israeli military both made use of Twitter.

The IDF made widespread use of Twitter and a liveblog to give an up-to-date account of its operations. The military wing of Hamas also made use of Twitter, publicising its rocket and mortar attacks and tweeting when Israeli casualties were reported. Foreign Policy magazine labeled this effort a "milestone in military communications." Twitter had previously been used to present information regarding military engagements by both the Kenya Defence Forces and Al Shabaab during the KDF's operation against Al Shabaab in Somalia in 2011. The IDF's Twitter account gained more than 50,000 new followers in 24 hours.

An app was developed, the idea provided by a 13-year-old, that supplied up-to-date reports of imminent missile attacks and sent information of the location and timing of the public "Color Red" alerts, allowing users extra time to run to bomb shelters.

Hamas produced a video that threatened the lives of Israeli citizens and warned "Wait soon for us in the bus stops and cafes" which become a popular parody because of its technical problems and the broken Hebrew, both written and spoken.

Hamas warned Gazan civilians against spreading unsourced information, claiming that such behavior harmed national security and aided Israel's "psychological war". The Interior Ministry said that it would convey any "needed information" in order to "safeguard the truth."

Anonymous attacked many Israeli websites in response to the IDF offensive in Gaza in #OpIsrael and claims to have taken down at least 700 sites as of the 18th of November. The Israeli Defense Forces claim that they have deflected 44 million attacks. Many of the websites were replaced with messages condemning the Israeli campaign and expressing support for the citizens of Gaza. Hackers from Kuwait disrupted the website of Likud MK Danny Danon, who had posted an online petition urging the government of Israel to cease providing the Gaza Strip with electricity. Israeli Vice Prime Minister and Likud MK Silvan Shalom's Facebook and Twitter accounts were hacked by a pro-Palestinian group called ZCompanyHackingCrew.

Criticism of IDF media campaign

Pro-Israel "What Would You Do" IDF graphic.

The IDF's blog incorporates gamification features where visitors are awarded points and given badges for doing certain things such as visiting the blog or sharing its contents on their social networks. Although the blog had had these features for some time, they had been disabled before Operation Pillar of Defense due to 'high traffic.' They were re-enabled shortly after the operation began; multiple commentators have described the timing of their re-enablement vis-a-vis the launch of Operation Pillar of Defense as offensive, with ReadWrite's Jon Mitchell describing it as "absolutely horrendous" and The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg describing it as "disgraceful."

Israel's social media campaign around Operation Pillar of Defense has been perceived by some parties as overly aggressive or otherwise inappropriate. Wired described Israel's efforts as "hyper-pugnacious," and Foreign Policy's Michael Koplow expressed fears that Israel's social media campaign may contribute to some people's "fear of Israel run amok with no regard for the collateral damage being caused."

UNRWA criticized as false allegations made on an IDF video posted on YouTube that Palestinian militants were firing rockets at Israel from its schools. It expressed "concern" for the use of footage which wrongly suggested the agency's complicity in "terrorist activities" targeting Israel. UNRWA stressed the neutrality of its facilities and said such allegations as those of the footage during a period of conflict could have grave repercussions. Following UNRWA's statement, the IDF's YouTube account removed the video from public access.

Electronic Intifada's Ali Abunimah has accused the IDF of producing and spreading through social media "a fake hospital sign that purports to show that Hamas leaders hide under hospitals and stockpile weapons there." Recalling Israel's attacks on hospitals during Operation Cast Lead, Abunimah wrote that the sign "appears intended to justify in advance the bombing of Gaza hospitals and health facilities".

On the Mondoweiss website, writer Phan Nguyen said that the infographics the IDF spread via social media on Israeli casualties of Gazan rockets showed severely inflated figures.

Allegations of Hamas disinformation

Hamas attempted to conduct "psychological warfare" consisting primarily of fake emails and Facebook postings. Many Israelis received a false announcement from an "IDF Spokesman" warning that "terrorists in Gaza can track you and direct their Katyushas to your location!" if they opened their text messages. Thousands received emails in broken Hebrew that "the military censorship of military intelligence" was concealing information about attacks on soldiers and urged them to view the "picture of the field of death in which our soldiers are falling in Gaza." The attached YouTube videos, though claiming to show an IDF jeep struck by a missile, was in fact a vehicle of the Reuters news agency that had been hit on the border.

American Associate Professor of history at Boston University and blogger Richard Landes, accused Hamas of "brazen hypocrisy" and exploiting a death, which according to Landes, they had caused in order to garner Western sympathy.

Hamas fabricated achievements and used pictures of children that have been injured or killed in Syria, presenting them in the social media as Palestinian dead. One of its tweets about the Israeli strikes contained a picture of a dead girl that previously been posted on the Syrians & Friends Facebook page in October. Another photo of explosions that was uploaded to the Facebook page affiliated with Hamas appeared to be digitally altered. Hamas staged several fake deaths and scenes of injury in front of TV crews.

Some argued that Hamas' manipulation was effectively undermining their own cause as readers could not be certain of the authenticity of what they were seeing.

Media coverage

See also: Media coverage of the Arab–Israeli conflict

Noam Chomsky, Seumas Milne, Glenn Greenwald, John Mearsheimer, Paul Pillar and several other writers have challenged the predominant media narrative that Hamas started the conflict and that Israel was but defending itself. Former British commander, Richard Kemp, by contrast, said there was a "very effective anti-Israel propaganda machine" that misunderstands the reality that Hamas is a terrorist organization.

British journalist and long-time Middle East observer, Robert Fisk, mocked the media's description of Israel's strikes on Gaza as being "surgical", adducing the heavy civilian casualties that Israel's shelling campaigns have extracted in all of its conflicts from the 1982 Lebanon War to the present one.

Sharine Tadros, Al Jazeera correspondent to the Middle East, who covered the conflict from Gaza, criticized several aspects of the media approach to the conflict, including what, according to her, was the uncritical and repetitive use by journalists of Israel's justifications for targeting homes and other civilian structures, as well as the media's use of terms such as "Hamas school". According to her, "there is no such thing as a Hamas school, or a Hamas police station or a Hamas ministry. These are adjectives [that] are used by Israel to justify the targeting of these sites. Many if not most who work in these institutions are not members of the Hamas organization."

Images

The Arab news site Alarab Net released a photo on 18 November which depicted three bloodied children and their mother lying on a floor, who were allegedly "massacred" in Gaza. Inciting a flurry of comments on Facebook, it turned out to be Syrian massacre photos from 19 October recycled as a Gaza Tragedy.

Greg Mitchell criticized the caption the New York Times wrote to a photograph which showed young Palestinian girls in school uniforms looking disconcerted to an object not shown in the picture. The caption read, "Girls at a Gaza school were stunned to find it closed." Calling the caption "Orwellian", Mitchell argued that the look of surprise on the girls' face was not because the school was closed but because it had been reduced to rubble by an Israeli air-strike.

On 19 November, BBC Gaza correspondent Jon Donnison retweeted a photograph of a dead or injured child titled "Pain in Gaza", with his own comment "heartbreaking". It was soon shown that the photo was apparently taken in Syria and is dated to 28 October 2012, before the beginning of the events in Gaza. Donnison apologized for the incident.

The Angry Arab News Service blog unveiled the use by the IDF's International Military Cooperation Department of pictures from the Iraq War to support allegations against Gazan groups that they had used homes to store weapons during Operation Cast Lead on an Powerpoint presentation summarizing Operation Pillar of Cloud. Indicating that the picture pertains to events that took place in Iraq, is the presence of a British FV432 Mk3 'Bulldog' APC in the background of the image.

Pro-Palestinian activists co-opted another photograph on Twitter identifying an injured infant held by a rescue worker as a "young injured Palestinian child". However, Facebook and Twitter users recognized it as that of an Israeli baby wounded by a Hamas rocket attack, the rescue worker's vest saying "Kiryat Malachi" on it.

Television

Electronic Intifada (a Palestinian activist website) accused the BBC of downplaying the deaths, caused by Israeli airstrikes, of the family members of one of its cameramen residing in Gaza, Jihad Misharawi, and failing to mention it on its TV news coverage, of which the group said was pro-Israel.

Text

The article that Jodi Rudoren, New York Times envoy to Israel, wrote on the killing of the al-Dalu family, as well as her Facebook posts about Gazan society, were subject to controversy and criticism. The disputes centered around her description of the funeral's tone as "far more fundamentalist than funereal", of mourners not close to the victims as unsentimental, and of Gazan culture as aspiring to "martyrdom". She further said of other Gazans she interviewed, who had either just lost a relative or had their homes bombed-out by Israel, that they were "a bit ho-hum", contending that Gazans "have such limited lives tha[t] in many ways they have less to lose [than Israelis]."

Criticism came first from Mondoweiss, where writer Philip Weiss said of Rudoren's comments that they were "reminiscent of the assertion by Israel supporters that Palestinians love their children less than Israelis do". Her comments on Palestinian journalism as working differently "from the Western media ethic", made after quoting an al-Quds journalist who said his group's work was a branch of the Palestinian national struggle, was also criticized by Weiss, who noted the New York Times' own record of distorted coverage of war issues and added that her comments seemed intended to justify Israel's attacks on Gazan journalists. The progressive media watchdog FAIR said that her comments echoed those of "warmakers [who] dehumanize an enemy by making their cultural values seem bizarre" and noted similar observations were made by US military persons about the "Oriental" during the Vietnam War.

As a result of the criticism, Margaret Sullivan, New York Times public editor, announced Rudoren's posts on social media would be subject to editor supervision.

Writing on The Guardian, Glenn Greenwald echoed Mondoweiss' and FAIR's criticism, but he also commended Rudoren, who, as the controversy unfolded, engaged her critics on social media. He added that he didn't believe Rudoren's comments were informed by maliciousness. Greenwald instead criticized most strongly the NYT's decision to "curtail[]" Rudoren's activity on social media, saying that it seemed to be moved by the desire of "establishment media outlets" to pretend "their journalists are 'objective' and, therefore, expressing any subjective view or opinion is some sort of breach of journalistic propriety."

Video

A pro-Israeli website, HonestReporting.com, accused BBC News of broadcasting footage of an injured man who later, the website claimed, walked on his own. BBC News responded to the claims and maintained that, to the best of their knowledge, the events were not staged, and that the footage had been cut from a longer reel that showed the man laying on the sidewalk, being lifted and receiving treatment, and then later on walking around having apparently recovered.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) criticized as false an IDF video pertaining to Operation Cast Lead, but uploaded during the present conflict, which suggested Hamas was launching rockets at Israel from UN schools in the Gaza Strip. It stressed the neutrality of its facilities in the war. The UNRWA also noted, in a statement made more than two weeks before the hostilities flared up, that "Israel's highest-rating news programme, Channel Two News, has published a statement correcting false claims that rockets were fired from schools operated by the UNRWA during the Gaza war in 2008–2009. The statement makes clear that Israeli officials themselves acknowledged that such claims were false and that there was no evidence to support them." After the UNRWA's latest statement, the IDF's YouTube account hid the video from open public access.

Reactions

Main article: Reactions to Operation Pillar of Defense

From Israel's perspective, the operation was successful as it reestablished deterrence.

North American and European government issued statements at the time of the operation that Israel had the right to defend itself against Palestinian attacks originating in the Gaza Strip on its civilian population.

Egypt's new Islamist government condemned the operation and recalled its ambassador.

See also

• Timeline of the Israel–Gaza conflict

External links

• Operation Pillar of Defense: Summary of Events, Israel Defense Forces
• Operation Pillar of Defense – Selected statements at the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Q&A: Israel-Gaza violence at BBC News Online
• Gaza Crisis at Al Jazeera English