Mass civilian casualties of Israeli bombing, shelling and rocket attacks on the Gaza Strip have occurred in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, in which Israeli bombing attacks on the Gaza Strip cause numerous civilian fatalities.[a] The reason for such operations is purportedly to carry out targeted assassinations of militants from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other groups seen to be a threat to Israel, whose Shin Bet data banks monitor thousands of Palestinians for targeting.[1] Israel regards such cases as either unfortunate errors,[b] the consequence of civilians being allegedly used to shield militants, or as acceptable collateral damage.[2]
As with the earlier Khan Yunis massacre, reporting of the circumstances and actions which resulted in the killing of 111 Palestinians in Rafah and the nearby refugee camp by the Israeli military are inconsistent and conflicting, with Israel neither denying nor acknowledging any wrongdoing,[6] while admitting that a number of refugees were killed. Refugees, it is also claimed, continued to resist the occupying army.[7]
The Palestinian version maintains that all resistance had ceased when the killings took place.[8] According to survivor testimonies, IDF soldiers rounded up male individuals over fifteen years of age throughout the Gaza Strip in an effort to root out members of the Palestinian fedayeen and the Palestinian Brigade of the Egyptian Army.[6] Israel proclaimed that the civilian population would be held collectively responsible for any attacks on Israeli soldiers during the occupation, which lasted from 1 November 1956 to 7 March 1957. Dozens of summary executions took place of Palestinians who had been taken prisoner, and hundreds of civilians were killed as Israeli forces combed through areas like Khan Yunis, and others died in several separate incidents. Calculations of the total number of Palestinians killed by the IDF in this four-month period of Israeli rule vary between 930 and 1,200 people, out of a population of 330,000.[9][10]
2002
On 22 July 2002 an Israeli F-16 dropped a one-ton bomb on the three-story apartment where Salah Shehade and his family, together with numerous other families, dwelt in the midst of the Daraj residential neighbourhood of Gaza City full of many other apartment blocks.[11] The death toll amounted to 17 people,[c] of whom 15 were civilians, 11 were children. In addition to Shehadeh and his bodyguard, and 15 residents killed, a further 150 were wounded by collateral damage. The then Israeli Minister for Defense, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, stated that their information was that no civilians were in the building at the time. Dan Halutz, a year later, admitted that when taking the decision, both the government and the IDF were fully aware Shehadeh's wife was with him, but went ahead with the operation nonetheless.[12]
Reactions
The then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called the bombing "one of our most successful operations".[13] Halutz in an interview where he called on NGOs like Gush Shalom to be incriminated for treason for exposing the realities, also stated no changes would be made in the decision-making and operational procedures that led to the bombing.[14] In protesting the operation, 27 Israeli pilots signed a letter expressing their refusal to continue to participate in bombing flights over Gaza.[15]
2006
In a 2006 opinion essay in The Guardian, Jamila Abdallah Taha al-Shanti, a prominent female political leader in the Hamas movement,[16] claimed that an Israeli air strike aimed at herself had instead killed her sister-in-law and over a dozen other people.[17] International media confirmed that there had been an air strike on al-Shanti's home and that it killed Nahla Shanti and Abdel Majid Ghirbawi.[18]
The Zeitoun Incident took place on 5 January 2009 during Operation Cast Lead, after members of the Samouni extended family[d] had been herded out of their homes and told to relocate to another building. In a dawn raid on the 4th, a raid into one Samouni house, using grenades and live fire, killed Ateya al-Samouni and severely wounded a four-year-old child, Ahmad, who was refused medical treatment.[e] One of the Samoiuni men was fluent in Hebrew from working as a mechanic in Israel for 35 years and introduced the gathered members of Samouni family to Givati soldiers.[19] The men were blindfolded and led away, and eventually 100 people, mostly women and children, were corralled into a cement block warehouse for storing fruit and vegetables.[19] The day after the latter was subject to artillery fire and missiles from either a drone or an Apache helicopter overhead,[20][21] killing 21 members of Wa'el al-Samouni's family[22][23] while wounding dozens of others.[24] The initial log at the al-Shifa hospital registered 39 al-Samouni members requiring emergency treatment.[20]
The airstrike was ordered by Colonel Ilan Malka, then commander of the Givati Brigade, who had called up the attack after interpreting drone photographs of a cache of wooden boards the family had stacked to light a fire and heat water as rocket-propelled grenades. The men had ventured out that morning through the front door to scrounge up some firewood, and an Israeli military outpost lay a mere 80metres away, troops were positioned on rooftops and patrols were regular with frequent interactions with local residents.[20] When Samouni men tried to pull the injured from the ruins they were turned back with slogans, such as one – "Go back into death!" - in classical Arabic.[21] Three days later, the IDF finally permitted Palestinian rescue teams to enter the area, and recovered 13 family members, several children, still alive. On their evacuation, the IDF bulldozed the house, and, after the conclusion of hostilities, family members came across hands and legs still poking out up from the rubble.[20]
Aftermath
Malka was reprimanded later for using tank fire on heavily populated areas[20] and was then appointed supervisor in the Israeli prison Service(Shabas), at least half of whose detainees are Palestinian.[22] Despite investigations both by an internal command unit and a Military Police Investigation Unit, according to B'Tselem, no reason has ever been forthcoming for the shelling.[25][26] In May 2012 Mag's Major Dorit Tuval stated that investigations excluded claims civilians were deliberately harmed or the victims of criminal negligence. For the period in question, they did indict a soldier for stealing a Palestinian civilian's credit card, another for using a 9-year-old boy as a human shield, and a third for the manslaughter of a Palestinian whose identity was not known.[27]
On 9 January 2014, at around 4pm, Israel launched at a minimum four mortar shells which caused 35 dead at two different sites, in Jabalia, within 100metres of each other, and an estimated 40 other casualties. One shell landing in the courtyard of the al-Deeb family home where, unable to purchase bread, the family had sat down to bake it, and killed 11 people gathered there, while the other three hit al-Fakhura street, killing another 24. Of the 11 members of the al-Deeb family, 4 were women and 4 children.[28]
The 3 other mortar shellings struck the outside of the UNWRA school.[f]
Aftermath
Brigadier general Ilan Tal stated that the mortar crews had shot back to save their own lives.[29]
The Goldstone Mission concluded that firing mortars into an area where 1,368 people were crowded, in a nearby UNWRA school, in order to kill a small number of militants - Israel later alleged a mortar had been fired at their forces from somewhere in that vicinity - cannot meet the terms of proportionality for warranting the military advantage gained thereby.[30][31]
2014
In what it called Operation Protective Edge launched on 8 July 2014, Israel announced it would strike houses of senior Palestinian activists in Gaza and residences which were deemed operative centres. To avoid casualties, it stated a roof knocking procedure and telephone warnings would be given in advance to alert civilians inside to evacuate within 5 minutes. In the first two days, 11 such homes were attacked with this method. According to the Israeli NGOB'Tselem this tactic contravenes International Humanitarian Law,[g] though some interpretations challenge that view.[h]
At about 1:30pm on 8 July 2014, the families in Ahmad Kaware's apartment block were informed of the imminent bombing of their 3-storey 7 apartment home, and were instructed to leave. One of the sons, 'Odeh Kaware,' was a member of Hamas's military wing. The family members, together with some neighbours waited outside. An hour and twenty minutes later, at 2:50pm, a drone-launched missile was observed to have struck the building's solar heated water tank on the roof. Several family members and neighbours, after waiting some minutes, then entered the residence, and four reached the roof. Within ten minutes, at 3:00pm., an F-16 fighter fired a missile which struck the building, causing it to collapse. In the IDF reconstruction, the pilot believed the building was empty when he fired. As the missile flew to its target, people were observed on the roof, but no technical means were available to avert the attack.[33]
8 civilians were killed in the strike, including six children. 28 other people were injured, 10 of whom severely.[34]
In its initial declaration the IDF stated that this and other homes bombed that day were attacked because they were the homes of militants. A later comuniqué, reportedly adjusting the justification in order to comply with international law distinctions, reframed the bombing as one aimed at operative military centres.[i] The Israeli army through its Military Advocate General's investigation was absolved of any malfeasance, writing that there was no fault in the actions of the IDF forces involved, and that despite the fact that the attack resulted in a regrettable outcome, it does not affect its legality post facto.'[33]
Hamad family home
The Hamad house in after bombing
At 11:40pm on the same day, 8 July 2014, just as the family had retired to bed,[j] the home of Hafez Hamad in Beit Hanoun was bombed without, according to B'Tselem, any prior warning.[34][k] Hamad was a member of Islamic Jihad's military wing, and the bombing was a targeted assassination. Six people, one militant and five civilians, were killed in the airstrike. In addition, three children were wounded.[35][36]
At 11.30pm on 9 July 2014, during the opening phase of Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip, 9 youths gathered at the Fun Time Beach café run by the al-Sawalli family on the beachfront at al-'Izbeh, near Khan Younis to watch a match between Argentina and the Netherlands in the 2014 FIFA World Cup knockout stage were killed when an Israeli missile destroyed the shack.[37]
Zoroub family
Around midnight on 1 August 2014, without prior warning, an Israeli airstrike struck the home of Rafat Oudeh Mohammed Zoroub in western Rafah killing 15 family members, 4 women and 11 children, A further 4 people in the building at the time were wounded.[38]
Rouzan al-Najjar was a Palestinian nurse/paramedic who lived in Khuzaa, a village near the Gaza Strip's border with Israel.[40] Her family lived in an apartment within eyeshot of Israeli soldiers stationed over the border. Their area had a four-metre-high (13ft) concrete wall installed to shield local residents from Israeli fire.[41]
She was killed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) while volunteering as a medic during the 2018 Gaza border protests. She was fatally hit by a bullet shot by an Israeli soldier as she tried to help evacuate the wounded near Israel's border fence with Gaza.[42][43] The IDF first denied that she was targeted, while not ruling out that she may have been hit by indirect fire.[44] Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said that al-Najjar was shot intentionally.[45]
After her death, the IDF released footage in which she purportedly admitted to participating in the protests as a human shield at the request of Hamas.[46][47] The video was later found to be a clip from an interview with a Lebanese television station that had been edited by the IDF to take al-Najjar's comments out of context.[46] In the unedited video, she didn't mention Hamas and called herself a "rescuing human shield to protect and save the wounded at the front lines", with everything following "human shield" trimmed out of the Israeli clip. The IDF was widely criticized for attempting posthumous character assassination by tampering with the video.[46][47]
2019
al-Madhun family
On late Sunday afternoon, 5 May 2019, a complex in the al-'Atatrah neighborhood comprising a grocery store and three residential units, owned and inhabited by the extended al-Madhun family in the western sector of Beit Lahiya were targeted for an airstrike. 3 members of the family, and a neighbour, were killed by the missile.
Another five children of the family were wounded, together with the neighbour's daughter. The purpose of the strike was to kill 'Abdallah al-Madhun the son, known to be a local operative for Islamic Jihad's armed wing, Saraya Al-Quds.[48] Amani's fetus was later identified by the husband as one of the dead.[49]
Zoroub Building strike
On 5 May 2019 at 5:40pm in succession three Israeli missiles, including a GBU-39 series guided bomb, struck the lower floors of the six floor Zoroub building in Rafah. The Israeli army's Twitter account related that they had struck "terrorist operatives" at that time. According to Human Rights Watch, the three victims appear to have been civilians.[50]
Local testimonies said that Islamic Jihad had had a media office in the building, until they moved to another location three months earlier. Human Rights Watch concluded from an investigation that there was no evidence for the building being a current military objective.[50]
The al-Ghazali/al-Jidyan families
Three hours after the al-Madhun strike, at 8pm on Sunday 5 May 2019 an Israeli airstrike on a building in the Sheikh Zayed residential complex of Beit Lahiya killed six civilians, including a police officer[49] or legal advisor to the Gazan Interior Ministry, from two families resident on the top fifth floor.[50]
9 other people were injured by the strike. According to testimony by the al-Jidyan couple's surviving son, Muhammad Abu al-Jidyan, no prior warning, either by telephone or roof knocking had been given.[49] According to local reports, no militants were present in the building,[48] while Human Rights Watch concluded that one militant was in the site at the time. He had just entered the building and was walking up the stairs when the strike was unleashed. He was not injured.[l]
Al-Sawarki family
After the Israeli targeted assassination of Baha Abu al-Ata triggered a round of fighting,[51][52][53] Gazan militants responded and the incidents escalated.[53] Over two days 34 Gazan militants were killed. Sources in Gaza claim 16 were civilians[52](Abuheweila & Halbfinger 2019) were killed, while 111 were injured and 63 Israelis required medical treatment.[52][54] Just before hostilities ended, 9 members of the Malhous family, including five children and two women, related to the Bedouin Al-Sawarka clan,[m] were killed when an IAF air raid deployed two fighters[22] armed with four JDAMs to target two flimsy tin sheds in Deir al-Balah, one of several in a complex of rundown shacks and greenhouses, where the family lived. The result was a crater measuring 50 feet wide and 20 feet deep.[55] The strike took place just hours before a ceasefire was due to take effect.[56] The high resolution aerial photography available for such targeting should have revealed that what the Israeli military called a compound, to be nothing more than two shacks.[22]
Israel defence officials later stated they were surprised by the casualties and admitted it had been a mistake.[55] According to local sources they were a simple sheep and goat-herding folk who had resided there, in a shack devoid of water and electricity, for a long time,[22] some claimed 20 years. It is no secret, Gazan sources say, that top commanders in the area do not live in squalor, as did the family of Abu Malhous.[22] Initially, the IDF's Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee falsely claimed[57] that the father Abu Malhous had been in command of Islamic Jihad's rocket squadrons in central Gaza. No such person is known to belong to the Islamic Jihad organization.[57] The report was declared to be false by Haaretz, and admitted to be so later by Israeli Defence officials who looked into the matter. It was reported that Avichay Adraee based his statement on a rumour circulating among civilian users of an Israeli Telegram group,[57] and that the army's original identification of the shack as terrorist infrastructure was based on rumours in social media. It emerged that Israeli intelligence hadn't reportedly[n] controlled the target for a year prior to the strike,[15] that no check had been conducted to ensure civilians were not present, and that the site had not been reexamined by Israeli intelligence agencies in the preceding months.[51][58] Islamic Jihad identified the photo of the assumed Jihad militant provided by the IDF spokesman as the victim of the strike as that of another person, a commander in Rafah, who is still alive.[59]
Military officials in Israel stated that "civilian casualties are unavoidable in Gaza's teeming neighborhoods"[59][60] The IDF, promising an investigation, stated that they were still trying to figure out what the family had been doing on the site,[15] but undertook to examine and review the case in detail.[52][53] In December 2019, the Israeli investigation admitted a mistake had been made from an error in its data base, that had failed to note that it was a civilian area with, in the IDF's view, had some military use', for which Palestinian factions were to blame. [61]
Had they been Israeli citizens, the state would have moved heaven and earth to avenge the blood of its famous little boy, and the world would have reeled in shock at the cruelty of Palestinian terror.[15]
The European Union urged Israel to ensure that the investigation it conducts is "transparent", saying it would "closely follow it". Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said that it would call on the International Criminal Court to look into the incident. Farhan Haq, speaking for the office of UN Secretary General António Guterres, urged Israel to move swiftly to investigate the incident.[62] The European Union, undertaking to monitor the case, also called on Israel to ensure its investigation would be "transparent". The governing power of the Gaza Strip, Hamas, broached the idea of asking the International Criminal Court to examine the incident.[62]
2021
According to the Gazan Ministry of Health, there were 243 deaths and over 1910 injuries, including both civilians and militants, over the course of the May 2021 conflict.[63] The death toll includes 65 children and 39 women. The injury count includes 560 children, 380 women, and 91 elderly. The U.N. claims 116 civilians were killed in IDF strikes. The IDF claims at least 225 militants were killed, but did not release a comprehensive civilian death toll. However, they did acknowledge 42 civilians were killed during their attacks on the underground tunnel network[64]
Al-Wehda Street Airstrikes
After midnight on Sunday, May 16, 2021, the Israeli Air Force launched a series of airstrikes on Al-Wehda Street in the middle of the Gaza Strip and the Israeli bombing continued into the early hours of dawn. 46 civilians were killed, including ten women and eight children, in addition to fifty injuries with various wounds.[65] The casualties were mostly women and children.[66] Based on the statements of the survivors and the Palestinian Ministry of Health, all members of the al-Kulak family and the Abu al-Auf family were killed.[67][68]
As of 8January2025[update], over 47,000 people – 45,936 Palestinian[71] and 1,706 Israeli[92] – have been reported killed in the Gaza war, as well as 166 journalists and media workers,[95] 120 academics,[96] and over 224 humanitarian aid workers, a number that includes 179 employees of UNRWA.[97] Scholars have estimated 80% of Palestinians killed are civilians,[73][72][74][98] while a study by OCHR, that verified fatalities from three independent sources, found that 70% of Palestinians killed were women and children.[99]
The majority of casualties have been in the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Health Ministry (GHM) total casualty count is the number of deaths directly caused by the war. The demographic breakdown is a subset of those individually identified.[100][101] On 17 September 2024, the GHM published the names, gender and birth date of 34,344 individual Palestinians whose identities were confirmed and continues to attempt to identify all casualties.[100] The GHM count does not include those who have died from "preventable disease, malnutrition and other consequences of the war".[102] An analysis by the Gaza Health Projections Working Group predicted thousands of excess deaths from disease and birth complications.[103] A January 2025 analysis in The Lancet estimated that the number of Gazans directly killed was 70% higher than that reported by the GHM.[104][105] A survey by PCPSR reported showed over 60% of Gazans have lost family members since the war began.[106][107] Indirect deaths[109][110] are likely to be multiple times higher.[111][112] Thousands of more dead bodies are thought to be under the rubble of destroyed buildings.[113][114] The number of injured is greater than 100,000;[115] Gaza has the most amputated children per capita in the world.[116]
↑ 'Firing missiles and bombs at residential buildings in densely populated areas such as the Gaza Strip inevitably involves serious risk of harm to civilians. The danger is not hypothetical: in recent years Israel has already killed thousands of civilians, including hundreds of children, in airstrikes on their homes. (B'Tselem 2019)
↑ Thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed in such operations, according to Amira Hass: 'Thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed or wounded by such "errors," not to mention the thousands of others who were killed or wounded intentionally after the IDF decided that it is proportionate to bomb homes with all of their residents inside because one of them was classified as a member of a Palestinian military organization, or that it's proportionate to fire at demonstrators with live ammunition.' (Hass 2019)
↑ The original count was 15 until, the day after, two other children's bodies were dug out of the rubble (Cramer 2012, p.38)
↑ Eventually five Samouni families were gathered in the warehouse that was targeted:16 members of Talal Hilmi al-Samouni's family; Ibrahim al-Samouni (12 members); Rashad al-Samouni (11 members) and Nafiz al-Samouni (10 members), the four being order to relocate to the site where the family of Wael al-Samouni (11 members) lived. (Humaid 2019)
↑ "The soldiers rejected entreaties to allow ambulances to approach to take Ahmad to the hospital. An ambulance dispatched from Al-Quds hospital was stopped just short of the house. The driver and a nurse were made to strip and lie on the ground, and then the ambulance was turned away. The boy died during the night." (Smith 2017, p.138)
↑ Three of the Askar victims had evacuated their home on being averted by a telephone call that the IDF intended to destroy it with a missile. After relocating near the UNWRA school, the three - two sons, Imad (13) and his brother Khaled Abu Askar (19), together with their uncle, Arafat, were killed. According to the IDF news release, Imad (Abu Askar) and Hassan Abu Askar were terrorist operatives. (Goldstone 2009, pp.150, 252)
↑ "Bombing the homes of senior activists in armed groups violates international humanitarian law, which provides a narrow definition of what constitutes a legitimate target and permits aiming attacks only at targets that effectively assist military efforts, when damaging them can provide a military advantage. Treating these homes as legitimate targets is an unlawful, distorted interpretation of the concept, resulting in harm to civilians, whom this body of law is intended to protect." (B'Tselem 2014)
↑ Dealing specifically with collateral damage from drones, Stuart Maslen writes:'With respect to armed drones, for the operator to have intended to target a civilian with a missile or bomb strike, it may be sufficient for jurisdiction under the ICC that the military action be conducted recklessly but not when it is the result only of negligence, much less when a civilian is hit by mere mistake.' (Casey-Maslen 2018, p.230)
↑ "An IDF Spokesperson's announcement from yesterday, after the first round of attacks, stated only that 'among the targets attacked were four homes of activists in the Hamas terror organization who are involved in terrorist activity and direct and carry out high-trajectory fire towards Israel…'. In other words, the military itself acknowledged that the attacks were illegally aimed at homes that were not military targets. Only later was a new announcement made, in an attempt to retroactively adapt the described activity to the requirements of international law, stating that the targets were 'the homes of senior activists that function as command and control headquarters'." (B'Tselem 2014)
↑ According to another source, the family were taking coffee. (al-Ghoul 2014)
↑ According to a Gazan writer, mobile phone networks are disactivated by Israel during drone operations because they cause electrical interference with Israeli operational communications. (Abu Saif 2015, p.16)
↑ "A local journalist told Human Rights Watch that a senior commander from Islamic Jihad said to him that he had just entered the residential building and was walking up the stairs when the strike took place. The commander was not injured, the journalist said." (HRW 2019)
↑ However, in the wake of the publication of Yaniv Kubovich's Haaretz investigation, the IDF Spokesman released another statement, "The building was confirmed as a target several days before the attack." (Levy 2019)
↑ "What 'no country in the world' should tolerate". +972 Magazine. 13 July 2014. Retrieved 15 August 2024. Israel says that 'no country in the world' would agree to live under the threat of Gaza's rockets, but ignores its own culpability in its 100-eyes-for-an eye spiral of violence.
1 2 Ayoub, H. H., Chemaitelly, H., & Abu-Raddad, L. J. (2024). Comparative analysis and evolution of civilian versus combatant mortality ratios in Israel–Gaza conflicts, 2008–2023. Frontiers in public health, 12, 1359189. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1359189
↑ "Data on casualties". United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – occupied Palestinian territory (OCHAoPt). Archived from the original on 12 October 2023. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
14 in the West Bank and Israel by 11 August 2024 (per OCHA oPt)[83] not including 1 mistakenly killed by Israeli forces in Jerusalem[84] and 3 killed by militants (2 near Ofra[85] and 1 near Kedumim),[86] bringing the total to 18 conflict-related deaths for the period
↑ Jamaluddine, Zeina; Abukmail, Hanan; Aly, Sarah; Campbell, Oona M. R.; Checchi, Francesco (9 January 2025). "Traumatic injury mortality in the Gaza Strip from Oct 7, 2023, to June 30, 2024: a capture–recapture analysis". The Lancet. Elsevier. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(24)02678-3.
↑ In addition to direct deaths, armed conflicts result in indirect deaths "attributable to the conflict". Mortality due to indirect deaths could be due to a variety of causes, such as infectious diseases.[108]
↑ Geneva Declaration Secretariat (2008). Global Burden of Armed Violence(PDF) (Report). Geneva Declaration Secretariat. p.4. The ratio of people killed in war to those dying indirectly because of a conflict is explored in the chapter on indirect deaths (INDIRECT CONFLICT DEATHS). Studies show that between three and 15 times as many people die indirectly for every person who dies violently.
↑ Khatib, Rasha; McKee, Martin; Yusuf, Salim (2024). "Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential". The Lancet. 404 (10449). Elsevier BV: 237–238. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(24)01169-3. ISSN0140-6736. PMID38976995. In recent conflicts, such indirect deaths range from three to 15 times the number of direct deaths. Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. Using the 2022 Gaza Strip population estimate of 2,375,259, this would translate to 7.9% of the total population in the Gaza Strip.
This page is a partial listing of incidents of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2004.
The Popular Resistance Committees is a coalition of a number of armed Palestinian groups opposed to what they regard as the conciliatory approach of the Palestinian Authority and Fatah towards Israel.
The 2004 Israeli operation in the northern Gaza Strip took place when the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation "Days of Penitence", otherwise known as Operation "Days of Repentance" in the northern Gaza Strip. The operation lasted between 29 September and 16 October 2004. About 130 Palestinians, and 1 Israeli were killed.
This page is a partial listing of incidents of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2005.
Al-Quds Brigades is a paramilitary organisation and the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), which is the second largest armed group in the Gaza Strip, after Hamas. AQB's leader is Ziyad al-Nakhalah, based in Damascus, Syria. The head of AQB in the Gaza Strip was Baha Abu al-Ata until he was killed in November 2019.
The 2006 Gaza–Israel conflict, known in Israel as Operation Summer Rains, was a series of battles between Palestinian militants and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during summer 2006, prompted by the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Palestinian militants on 25 June 2006. Large-scale conventional warfare occurred in the Gaza Strip, starting on 28 June 2006, which was the first major ground operation in the Gaza Strip since Israel's unilateral disengagement plan was implemented between August and September 2005.
This page is a partial listing of incidents of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2007.
In 2008, Israel sought to halt the rocket and mortar fire from Gaza that killed four Israeli civilians that year and caused widespread trauma and disruption of life in Israeli towns and villages close to the Gaza border. In addition, Israel insisted that any deal include an end to Hamas's military buildup in Gaza, and movement toward the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit. Hamas wanted an end to the frequent Israeli military strikes and incursions into Gaza, and an easing of the economic blockade that Israel has imposed since Hamas took over the area in 2007.
In 2008 the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Hot Winter, also called Operation Warm Winter, in the Gaza Strip, starting on February 29, 2008 in response to Qassam rockets fired from the Strip by Hamas onto Israeli civilians. At least 112 Palestinians, along with three Israelis, were killed, and more than 150 Palestinians and seven Israelis were injured.
The Gaza–Israel conflict is a localized part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict beginning in 1948, when about 200,000 of the more than 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes settled in the Gaza Strip as refugees. Since then, Israel has been involved in about 15 wars involving organizations in the Gaza Strip. The number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza war (47,000+) is higher than the death toll of all other wars in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict combined.
The Gaza War, also known as the First Gaza War, Operation Cast Lead, or the Gaza Massacre, and referred to as the Battle of al-Furqan by Hamas, was a three-week armed conflict between Gaza Strip Palestinian paramilitary groups and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that began on 27 December 2008 and ended on 18 January 2009 with a unilateral ceasefire. The conflict resulted in 1,166–1,417 Palestinian and 13 Israeli deaths. Over 46,000 homes were destroyed in Gaza, making more than 100,000 people homeless.
The Zeitoun killings refer to the Israeli military incursion, led by the Givati Brigade unit of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), into the Zeitoun district of Gaza as part of the three-week 2008–09 Gaza War. In the Arab world, it is referred to as the Zeitoun District Massacre. A total of 48 residents of Zeitoun were killed, most of them women, children, and the elderly; 27 homes, a mosque and a number of farms were destroyed by Israeli forces.
Events in the year 2006 in Palestine.
The 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge, and Battle of the Withered Grain, was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory that has been governed by Hamas since 2007. Following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank by Hamas-affiliated Palestinian militants, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) initiated Operation Brother's Keeper, in which it killed 10 Palestinians, injured 130 and imprisoned more than 600. Hamas reportedly did not retaliate but resumed rocket attacks on Israel more than two weeks later, following the killing of one of its militants by an Israeli airstrike on 29 June. This escalation triggered a seven-week-long conflict between the two sides, one of the deadliest outbreaks of open conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in decades. The war resulted in over two thousand deaths, the vast majority of which were Gazan Palestinians. This includes a total of six Israeli civilians who were killed as a result of the conflict.
The following is a timeline of the 2014 Gaza War. Over 2014, Palestinians suffered the highest number of civilian casualties since the Six-Day War in 1967, according to a United Nations report, given the July–August conflict, and rising tolls in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. A spike in Israeli casualties also occurred. 2,256 Palestinians and 85 Israelis died, while 17,125 Palestinians, and 2,639 Israelis suffered injuries.
The 2014 Israeli shelling of UNRWA Gaza shelters were seven shellings at UNRWA facilities in the Gaza Strip which took place between 21 July and 3 August 2014 during the Israeli-Gaza conflict. The incidents were the result of artillery, mortar or aerial missile fire which struck on or near the UNRWA facilities being used as shelters for Palestinians, and as a result at least 44 civilians, including 10 UN staff, died. During the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, many Palestinians fled their homes after warnings by Israel or due to air strikes or fighting in the area. An estimated 290,000 people took shelter in UNRWA schools.
The Gaza–Israel clashes code-named by Israel as Operation Black Belt, took place between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) following the targeted killing of senior PIJ commander Baha Abu al-Ata in Gaza, and the attempted killing of senior PIJ commander Akram al-Ajouri in Damascus, Syria by the IDF. PIJ responded with rocket fire into Israel, including long-range rockets fired towards Tel Aviv, leading to several civilians being wounded. In response to the rocket fire, Israel carried out airstrikes and artillery shelling in the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding several militants as well as civilians.
The Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip is a major part of the Gaza war. Starting on 7 October 2023, immediately after the Hamas-led attacks on Israel, it began bombing the Gaza Strip; on 13 October, Israel began ground operations in Gaza, and on 27 October, a full-scale invasion was launched. Israel's campaign has four stated goals: to destroy Hamas, to free the hostages, to ensure Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel, and to return displaced residents of Northern Israel. More than a year after the invasion, fighting in the Gaza Strip halted with the implementation of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on 19 January 2025.
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