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2014 Gaza War

Coordinates: 30°40′N 34°50′E / 30.667°N 34.833°E / 30.667; 34.833
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{{Infobox military conflict |conflict = 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict |partof = the Gaza–Israel conflict |date = 8 July 2014 (2014-07-08)present
(10 years, 3 months, 2 weeks and 6 days) |place = State of Palestine Gaza Strip
Israel Israel |coordinates = 30°40′N 34°50′E / 30.667°N 34.833°E / 30.667; 34.833 |image = |caption = (left) Iron Dome shooting down a rocket from Gaza
(right) A bombed Palestinian home |status = Ongoing |combatant1 = Israel Israel |combatant2 = State of Palestine Gaza Strip

|commander1 = Benjamin Netanyahu
Prime Minister
Moshe Ya'alon
Defense Minister
Benny Gantz
Chief of General Staff
Amir Eshel
Air Force Commander
Sami Turgeman
Southern Commander
Yoram Cohen
Chief of Shin Bet
Ghassan Alian (WIA)
Golani Brigade commander |commander2 = Khaled Mashal
Leader of Hamas
Ismail Haniyeh
Deputy chief of Hamas
Mohammed Deif
Head of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
Ramadan Shalah
Leader of PIJ |units1 = Israel Defense Forces
Shin Bet |units2 = Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades
Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades
Al-Quds Brigades
Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades |strength1 = Southern Command (Israel) Up to 74,000 reservists[2][3] |strength2 = n/a |casualties1 = 40 soldiers,[4] 2 civilians and 1 Thai worker killed;[5] 185 soldiers[6][4] and 32 civilians wounded[7]

Hamas claim:
80 soldiers killed[8][9] and 1 captured[10]

|casualties2 = Gaza Health Ministry: 1,000 killed[4] and 5,730 wounded[11]

PCHR: 808 killed (666 civilians)[12]

UN OCHA: 857 killed (649 civilians, 122 militants, 86 unknown)[5]

ITIC: 674 killed (241 civilians, 204 militants, 229 unknown)[13]

IDF: 330 militants killed[14][15] and 108 suspected militant captured [16]

An escalation of the Gaza-Israel conflict occurred mid-May 2014 following a series of events. On 8 July 2014 the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched Operation Protective Edge against militants in the Gaza Strip[17] following an increase in rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas' militants.[18]

Following the kidnapping and murders of three Israeli teenagers in mid-June 2014, the IDF initiated Operation Brother's Keeper in search of the three teenagers.[19] As part of the operation, in the following 11 days Israel's military killed five to ten[20] Palestinians[21][22] and arrested between 350 and 600 Palestinians,[20][23][24][25] including nearly all of Hamas' West Bank leaders.[26][27][28]

On the night of 6 July, an Israeli strike killed seven Hamas militants.[29] In response, Hamas' militants increased rocket attacks on Israel.[30] By 7 July, Hamas militants had fired 100 rockets from Gaza at Israeli territory and the Israeli Air Force had bombed several sites in Gaza.[31][32][33] Early on 8 July Israeli Air Force bombed 50 targets in the Gaza Strip.[34] Israel's military thwarted a militant infiltration from the sea.[35] That same day, Hamas declared that "all Israelis" had become "legitimate targets"[36][37] and insisted that Israel end all attacks on Gaza, release those re-arrested during the crackdown in the West Bank, lift the blockade on Gaza and return to the cease-fire conditions of 2012 as conditions for a ceasefire.[38]

On 13 July the Israeli military reported that more than 1,300 Israeli attacks had taken place, while more than 800 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel.[39]

On 14 July, Egypt announced a cease-fire initiative. The Israeli government declared acceptance for the proposal, and temporarily stopped hostilities in the morning of 15 July. However, all Palestinian factions announced they had not been consulted on the reported Egyptian initiative and were informed of the supposed proposal via the media, including Palestinian President Abbas.[40] Hamas rejected it in "its current form", as did other Palestinian factions.[40][41] On 16 July, Hamas and Islamic Jihad offered Israel a 10-year truce, with ten conditions.[42]

On 21 July US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Egypt and on 22 July UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon visited Israel and pressed the warring parties to agree to a ceasefire.[43] On July 23, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal announced that the group was ready to accept a "humanitarian" truce and laid out terms for a full ceasefire with Israel.[44] The Palestinian Authority backed Hamas's ceasefire demands.[45]

The Israeli name for the military action is Operation Protective Edge, and is the deadliest military operation to have taken place in Gaza since the Gaza War of 2008–09.[46] According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 1,000 Palestinians were killed[4] and 5,730 were injured[11] Among the dead were 182 children, 92 women, and 45 elderly.[47] The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that, as of 25 July, 857 of those killed were civilians, of whom 295 were women or children.[5] OCHA's spokesman said "There is literally no safe place for civilians" in Gaza.[48] 40 IDF soldiers have been killed,[4] as well as 2 Israeli civilians and a Thai worker.[5] The Israel Defense Forces has accused Hamas of using civilians as "human shields";[14] an allegation denied by Hamas.[49]

According to OCHA, as of 22 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, at least 117,000 Palestinians have been displaced and are taking shelter in UNRWA schools, 1.2 million people have no access or very limited access to water or sanitation, 90 schools and 18 health facilities have been damaged, 2,655 housing units have been destroyed or severely damaged rendering them uninhabitable, 3,175 housing units have been damaged but are still inhabitable and 80% of people only receive 4 hours of electricity per day.[50]

Human rights groups have argued that both Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli targeted destruction of homes of Hamas and other militia members violate international humanitarian law and might constitute war crimes.[51][52][53]

Name of Israel's operation

A literal translation of the operation's name (Template:Lang-he-n, Mivtza' Tzuk Eitan) is "Operation Steadfast Cliff" or "Firm Cliff"; more loosely translated, "Operation Solid Rock" of "Operation Mighty Cliff";[54] or "Resolute Cliff" in the form of the IDF's official Arabic translation.[55] According to the Turkish Anadolu Agency, an Israeli military spokesman for Arab Media, Avichay Adraee, explained that the change of the operation's name in English was done to more heavily convey the idea that the operation was defensive in nature.[55]

Background

Range of rockets launched from Gaza Strip
Street in Ramallah after IDF raid during Operation Brother's Keeper June 2014
Factory bursts in flames after rocket attack in Sderot, Israel, 28 June 2014

In the view of The Guardian, the roots of the conflict go back to Ariel Sharon's unilateral withdrawal of Israeli settlements from Gaza in 2005, which, it is argued, was a tactical measure to both gain concessions on the West Bank and postpone a final peace settlement with the Palestinian National Authority, thereby weakening it. Exercising a form of 'occupation by remote control, ' Israel retained control of Gaza's borders, its coastal waters, and the movement of Gazans, leaving them without any freedom, and thereby strengthened the hand of radicals like Hamas while weakening Palestinian moderates. The effect has been, in their view, to produce an intractable situation.[56]

According to Al Jazeera, Israel hopes to disenfranchise the Palestinian national unity government between Fatah and Hamas by this assault.[57] On 23 April 2014, Hamas agreed to a reconciliation deal with the other main Palestinian faction, Fatah[29][58] following seven years of division. The Palestinian unity government was sworn in by 2 June 2014[59][60] and Israel announced it would not negotiate any peace deal with the new government and would push punitive measures.[61] Declaring this unity will "strengthen terrorism" a day before the agreement, Benjamin Netanyahu said: "The international community must not embrace it."[62] The European Union, the United Nations, the United States, China, India, Russia and Turkey all agreed to work with the Palestinian unity government.[63][64][65][66] The agreement was likely to have a significant impact on the current round of peace talks between Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority and Israel, and shortly after the announcement of the agreement, Israel launched an airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip that injured four people, according to medical officials.[60][67] Netanyahu had warned before the deal it would be incompatible with Israeli–Palestinian peace and that Abbas has to choose between peace with Hamas and peace with Israel. When a reconciliation deal was signed opening the way to the appointment of the new government, Netanyahu chaired a security cabinet in which they voted to authorise Netanyahu to impose unspecified sanctions against the Palestinian Authority.[60] According to The Forward, Brigadier General Moti Almoz, the chief spokesman of the Israeli military, said: "We have been instructed by the political echelon to hit Hamas hard."[68]

The Israeli State Security (Shabak) data show that 2013 had been one of the quietest years since 2000, and that rocket attacks from Gaza continued to be at a background level until April 2014.[69] Following the Israeli threats regarding Fatah-Hamas reconciliation efforts during April 2014[70][71] there was an abrupt change to the relative calm that had existed prior to this development, since late-2012. On May 15 two unarmed Palestinian teenagers were killed by the IDF and eight civilians wounded during commemorations of Nakba day. On May 20 video evidence became available showing that the tenagers were posing no threat at the time.[72] The US called for an inquiry. The IDF reported that “live fire” had not been used, a claim refuted by B’Tselem based on bullets obtained from one of the victims’ backpacks. On May 22, as Michael Oren (former Israeli ambassador to the US) suggested on CNN that the boys may not be dead, the UN released a report of a sharp increase in Palestinian casualties over recent periods.[73] On June 9 the body of one of the teens, Nadim Numara, was exhumed and an autopsy performed which found that a live bullet had killed the teenager.[74] This chain of events, peaking with these revelations regarding the cause of death of the two Palestinian teenagers, was followed three days later by the abduction of three Israeli teenagers. In its report for early June 2014 the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reported continuing deaths and injuries of Palestinians[75]

A different view is that the conflict period started instead with the abduction of three Israeli teenagers Naftali Fraenkel (16; who held dual US-Israeli citizenship), Gilad Shaer (16) and Eyal Yifrah (19) in the West Bank on 12 June, for which Israel blamed Hamas. The IDF stated that the two men Israel suspects of having kidnapped the teenagers were known members of Hamas,[76][77] No evidence of Hamas involvement has been offered by the Israeli authorities[78] and high-ranking members of Hamas have denied the group had any involvement in the incident;[25] The alleged murderers come from the Qawasameh clan which is notorious for acting against Hamas's policies and any attempts to reach an entente with Israel.[79] Hamas political chief Khaled Meshal said he can neither confirm nor deny the kidnapping of the three Israelis, but congratulated the abductors.[80] Israeli forces killed ten Palestinians in clashes, including two under 18[81] and arrested several hundred more in the West Bank in the subsequent widespread search for the missing teenagers and suppression of Hamas cells and infrastructure dubbed Operation Brother's Keeper.[82][83]

During the search for the three missing Israeli teenagers, the IDF arrested many of the people who had been released during the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange. On 30 June, search teams found the bodies of the three missing teenagers in a field north-west of Hebron.[84][85] They had apparently been killed shortly after their abduction.[86]

Hours after the funeral of the three murdered Israelis, a 16-year-old Palestinian teenager named Mohammed Abu Khdeir of Beit Hanina was kidnapped and burned alive in a retaliatory attack by Jewish extremists.[87] Six Jewish suspects in the murder have been arrested by the Israeli police.[87][88] The discovery of Khdeir's body led to protests and rioting in East Jerusalem which spread to Arab villages across the country,[89] and an official apology and condolence from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.[90] Hamas, which had been credited by Israel as reining in militant rocket fire from the Gaza Strip since a ceasefire agreement in November 2012, at the conclusion of Operation Pillar of Defense, took direct responsibility for a barrage of rockets fired into Israel on 7 July 2014[91] and insisted on the release of those rearrested as a condition of a ceasefire.[92][93] At the same time, exchanges of Gaza-based rocket fire into Israel and Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip flared.

Yet a third view does not consider the three events in which teenagers were killed in the West Bank. Instead, Israel has argued that its actions are in response to hundreds of rockets and mortar shell launched from Gaza by Hamas and other groups over the 19 months from November 2012 to June 2014. The Israeli administration has upheld their campaign as a defensive matter that they say is meant to defend its population.[94] Data from the Israel Security Agency fails to show evidence for such a claimed rocket barrage. From its 2013 Annual summary either 0 or 1 Israeli died from rocket attacks from Gaza, with annual rocket and mortar attachs reaching their lowest incidence of 30 since 2000[95], while monthly summaries until May 2014 showed 54 rocket attacks from Gaza with zero Israeli injuries or deaths. During 2013 Israeli attacks on Gaza caused 8 Palestinian deaths and 66 injuries [96] while for the same five months in 2014 there were 7 Palestinian deaths and 128 injuries[97].

Statements by the Palestinan Authority and representatives of Hamas have stated that fighting against Israel is a resistance movement aimed at changing Israeli government policies, with PLO official Yasser Abed Rabbo remarking that "The Gaza demands of stopping the aggression and lifting the blockade in all its forms are the demands of the entire Palestinian people and they represent the goal that the Palestinian leadership has dedicated all its power to achieve".[45]

Violations of the truce

Both sides have claimed that the other side violated the ceasefire agreement from November 2012.

In the first three months after the IDF Operation Pillar of Defense, according to Ben White, two mortar shells struck Israeli territory, while 4 Gazans were shot dead and 91 wounded by Israeli forces, which fired inside Gazan territory on 63 occasions, made 13 incursions into the Strip, and attacked the Gazan fishing fleet 30 times.[98] According to the Middle East Monitor, in the year following the truce, Israel violated the cease-fire nearly 120 times.[99]

Operation timeline

House in Beersheba, Israel, after a direct hit by a rocket during the fourth day of the operation, 11 July 2014

From 8 to 16 July, the IDF bombarded targets in the Gaza Strip with artillery and airstrikes. Meanwhile, Hamas continued to fire rockets and mortar shells into Israel, many of which were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome air defense system. By 16 July, the death toll within Gaza had surpassed 200 people.[100] A five-hour humanitarian ceasefire, proposed by the UN, took place on 17 July. On the same day, after the ceasefire, IDF began a ground offensive on the Gaza Strip. Initially, the focus of the ground operation was on destroying tunnels near the edge of the enclave. These tunnels were used by militants to illegally transport people and materials. On 20 July, the Israeli military entered Shuja'iyya, a neighborhood of Gaza City. This was followed by heavy fighting in the neighborhood. On 24 July, over 10,000 Palestinians in the West Bank protested against the operation, resulting in at least 2 Palestinian deaths.[101] On 25 July, an Israeli airstrike killed Salah Abu Hassanein, the leader of Islamic Jihad’s military wing.[102]

Impact

Impact on residents

As of 20 July 2014 hospitals in Gaza were ill-equipped and facing severe shortage of various categories of medicine, medical supplies, and fuel.[103] Egypt temporarily reopened the Rafah crossing with Gaza to allow medical supplies to enter, and injured Palestinians to receive treatment in Egypt.[104] Additionally, due to the operation prices of food, including fish and produce, rose dramatically.[105] A 21 July news report stated that over 83,000 Palestinians had taken shelter in U.N. facilities.[106]

A young Palestinian man who was wounded in an Israeli air strike, 8 July 2014

At the onset of the operation, the Israeli government canceled all programs within 40 km (24 miles) of Gaza, and requested all people stay at home or near shelter. All summer camps were closed and universities canceled their final exams.[107] Additionally, all gatherings of 300 or more people were banned.[108] Due to the trajectory of rocket fire from Gaza, many flights in and out of Ben-Gurion Airport were delayed or rerouted.[109] Hamas said: "This is a great victory for us."[110]

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as of 22 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, at least 117,000 Palestinians have been displaced and are taking shelter in UNRWA schools, 1.2 million people have no access or very limited access to water or sanitation, 90 schools and 18 health facilities have been damaged, 2,655 housing units have been destroyed or severely damaged rendering them uninhabitable, 3,175 housing units have been damaged but are still inhabitable and 80% of people only receive 4 hours of electricity per day.[50] OCHA estimated that at least 125,000 children from families who have "experienced death, injury or loss of home over the past thirteen days" require psychosocial support.[111]

Casualties and losses

File:Massacre in Shuja'iyya 20.07.2014.mp4 snapshot 04.32.jpg
Shuja'iyya Incident (2014), 20 July 2014

Number of Palestinians killed in Gaza, per various sources:

Source Total Killed Civilians Killed Combatants Killed Unidentified Killed Last Updated
Gaza Health Ministry 1,000 - - - 26 July[4]
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights 808 666 142 - 25 July[12]
United Nations 857 649 122 86 25 July[5]
Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Center 674 241 204 229 23 July[13]
Israel Defense Forces - - 330 - 25 July[14][15]

According to Gaza's Health Ministry, thus far 1,000 Palestinians have been killed.[4] According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 76% of those killed were civilians.[5] Over 5,730 have been wounded as of 24 July 2014 according to Gazan medical officials.[11] Over 167,000 people have been displaced who have taken refugee in UNRWA schools. 123 schools and 18 medical facilities were damaged.[5] In addition, over 3,000 homes have been partially destroyed by the air strikes.[112]

According to the Israeli Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Center, as of 20 July 2014, 130 "terrorist operatives", 138 civilians, and 134 unidentified Palestinians have been killed in Gaza.[113]

Many of those killed have been civilians, prompting concern from many humanitarian organisations. Nine people were killed while watching the World Cup in a cafe,[114] and 8 members of a family which Israel says were inadvertently killed.[115] In response, Israel stated that many civilian casualties were the result of Hamas using the Gazan population as 'human shields' at alleged rocket launch targets,[116] an allegation denied by Hamas,[49] and disputed by Middle East and North Africa Director at Human Rights Watch who said "in most of the sites we investigated so far (in this conflict) we found no valid military targets".[117] Israel condemned Hamas for the group's encouragement of Palestinians to remain in their homes despite warnings in advance of airstrikes, with Hamas arguing that people would be equally or more unsafe in the rest of Gaza.[106] Many Gazans, when asked, say that they remain in their houses simply because they have nowhere else to go.[118] OCHA's spokesman said "There is literally no safe place for civilians" in Gaza.[48] As evidence of Israel's allegations that Hamas is using human shields, they have pointed to the storage of weapons in schools, videos and photographs showing civilians on rooftops of buildings, and a video of Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri saying "The fact that people are willing to sacrifice themselves against Israeli warplanes in order to protect their homes, I believe this strategy is proving itself".[117][119][120][121][122][123][124] In addition to the above statements, BBC’s Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen, wrote "I saw no evidence during my week in Gaza of Israel’s accusation that Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields".[125]

Rocket attacks from Gaza have caused damage to Israeli civilian infrastructure, including factories, gas stations, and homes.[126] There has been one Israeli civilian death, occurring at the Erez border crossing with Gaza: a Chabad rabbi who was delivering food and drinks on the frontline[127] and was hit by mortar fire.[128] According to Magen David Adom there have been injuries to 123 people: 1 seriously, 21 moderately to lightly and 101 from shock.[129] An elderly woman in Wadi Nisnas collapsed and died of heart failure during an air-raid siren.[130] The second Israeli civilian killed was a 32 year old Bedouin Ouda Lafi al-Waj, who was hit by a rocket in the Negev Desert.[131] The IDF has stated as of 21 July that over 2,000 rockets have been fired at Israel since the start of the operation.[106]

Hamas' leader Khaled Mashaal defended the firing of rockets into Israel, and said that "our victims are civilians and theirs are soldiers".[132]

Cost

Israel's Minister of Finance estimated that the operation would cost NIS 8.5 billion (approximately 2.5 billion USD), which is similar to Operation Cast Lead in 2009 and higher than Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012. The forecast included military and non-military costs, including military expenditure and property damage. The calculation indicates that if the operation lasts 20 days, the loss in GDP will be 0.4%.[133]

Airlines stop flights

The United States State Department on the 21st of July advised U.S. citizens to "consider the deferral of non-essential travel to Israel" in consideration of the firing of rockets into different parts of Israel including cities.[134][135] On the 22th of July, after a rocket landed about a mile from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told U.S. airlines that they are prohibited from flying to or from the airport for up to 24 hours.[136] The FAA cited "the potentially hazardous situation created by the armed conflict in Israel and Gaza."[137] The European Aviation Safety Agency stated that it "strongly recommends" that airlines do not fly into or out of the Tel Aviv airport. On the 23rd of July the FAA extended its prohibition another 24 hours.[138]

Shortly after the FAA announcement, Israeli Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz stated that "Ben-Gurion airport was safe from for take-offs and landings, and that there was no security concern for passenger planes."[139] Israel previously stated that the Iron Dome has successfully intercepted "about 90% of rockets headed toward populated or strategic areas".[139] Israel's Civil Aviation Authority wrote a document which said that Israel is taking efforts to avoid commercial airline cancellations of flights going into Ben-Gurion Airport. It submitted the document to Transportation Minister Katz, indicating that the airport was safe for landings and departures.[140]

In response to the cancellations, Israel offered to open up Ovda airport (in the south, near Eilat) to international flights, due to its distance from Gaza.[141][142] There was crowding and chaos at the airport after it opened; 5,000 people were expected to pass through the airport on 24 July. Among the airlines flying to the airport are Air Europa, Air Méditerranée, and Neos.[143]

Some airlines which cancelled flights included Aegean Airlines, Aeroflot,[144] Air Baltic,[145] Air Berlin,[146] Air Canada,[147][148] Air France,[149] Air Serbia, Air Sinai,[150] Alitalia,[146] American Airlines,[151] Austrian Airlines,[152] Brussels Airlines,[152] Croatia Airlines, Cyprus Airways, Delta Airlines,[153] easyJet,[154] Finnair,[155] Germanwings,[152] Iberia, KLM,[149] Korean Air, LOT Polish Airlines,[146] Lufthansa,[149][156] Meridiana, NIKI, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Pegasus Airlines, Royal Jordanian,[157][158] Scandinavian Airlines,[146] Swiss International Air Lines,[152] Tailwind Airlines, TAROM,[159] TUIfly, Transaero,[144] Turkish Airlines,[160] United Airlines,[161] US Airways, Wizzair,[162] and Vueling.[148][163][164][165][166][167][168][169][170][171][172][173][174]

Meanwhile, Arkia, Azerbaijan Airlines,[175] Belavia, Bluebird Airways, British Airways,[176] Bulgaria Air, Czech Airlines, El Al, Ethiopian Airlines, Israir, Rossiya Airlines,[177] Thai Airways, Siberia Airlines, Yakutia Airlines and Ukraine International Airlines continued flying.[178][179][149][180][142][181][182]

El Al followed these announcements by stating under no circumstances are they canceling any flights.[183] Arkia, Azerbaijan Airlines,[175] Belavia, Bluebird Airways, British Airways,[176] Bulgaria Air, Czech Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Israir, Rossiya Airlines,[177] Thai Airways, Siberia Airlines, Yakutia Airlines and Ukraine International Airlines also continued flights.[178][179][149][180][142][181][182]

El Al sent four planes to Istanbul to retrieve those stranded there.[184]

Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg flew to Tel Aviv on El Al on the 23rd of July in order to prove that Israel's airports are safe and to show his solidarity with Israel.[185][186]

Over the 23-24 of July period, both the FAA[187] and the EASA[188] lifted the ban on the flights to Israel, with some carriers such as Air France choosing not to renew coverage, carriers such as Aeroflot, Air Berlin, Air Canada, Air Méditerranée, Alitalia, American Airlines,[189] Delta Airlines,[190] easyJet, FedEx Express, Iberia, Scandinavian Airlines, TAROM,[191] Transaero, and US Airways renewing usual service on 24 July,[192][193][194] and carriers such as Turkish Airlines, United Airlines,[195] Vueling Airlines, and Wizz Air[196] renewing regular service on 25 July.[194][197][198][199]

On 24 July the Iron Dome intercepted a rocket over Eilat (farther south than the Ovda airport).[200]

Reactions

Pro Israel demonstration in Helsinki, Finland.
Pro-Palestinian demonstration in Paris, France

War crimes accusations

On 21 July, Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, criticized Israel's military operation stating that there was "a strong possibility that international law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes". She also criticized Hamas for "indiscriminate attacks" on Israel.[201]

UN involvement

The United Nations has an established presence in Gaza and has intervened or otherwise been involved in the conflict on multiple occasions.

UNRWA school incident

Some 117,000 Palestinians are taking shelter in more than 170 schools across the Gaza Strip.[202] The UN agency UNRWA has a number of institutions and schools in the Gaza region, and as of 24 July, 23 had been closed, 77 damaged in the fighting and three Palestinian UNWRA employees killed, two at home and a third while walking home from his work place.[203] Hamas took advantage of the closures to employ some of these vacant UNRWA buildings as weapon storage sites.[203] UNRWA officials, on discovering that two [204][205] such vacated schools had been employed for storing rockets, condemned Hamas's actions.[206] UN Secretary Ban Ki Moon ordered an investigation after Israel alleged that UNWRA transferred the arsenals to Hamas.[207] UNRWA denied the claim, stating that the armouries had been transferred to local police authorities under the Ramallah national unity government's authority, in accordance with "longstanding UN practice in UN humanitarian operations worldwide".[203][208][209]

Bombing of UNRWA school/shelter

A number of UNRWA run schools being used as temporary shelters have been damaged or destroyed during the conflict. In at least one instance the source of the bombing is disputed.

July 24 Beit Hanoun shelter bombing

On July 24, a UN-run school in Beit Hanoun used to shelter civilians was bombed; 13[210]-15[211] civilians were reported dead and 150 injured. Multiple news outlets reported Israel as responsible for the attack,[211][212][213] while the Israeli military said it has not determined who was responsible for shelling the shelter, stating that it is possible that Hamas rockets were the cause of the bombing.[214][215][216] However, a senior Israel military officer has admitted that the school shelling may have been caused by Israeli forces.[217] The Israeli military said the area surrounding the school in Beit Hanoun had turned into a battlefield, and it had asked that the facility be evacuated even before the school was hit. The military said that a four-hour window was given for evacuations. UNRWA disputed that, saying that Israeli military never responded to the agency's urgent requests for a cease-fire.[218][219]

Media coverage

Portrayals of the conflict have varied in different media outlets. In the English-speaking world, U.S. news sources were often more sympathetic to Israel, while British news sources had more savage criticism towards Israel.[220] Commentators on both sides have claimed that the media is biased either for or against Israel.[221] According to The Times of Israel, British sources were more often critical of Israel.[220] As the conflict progressed and Palestinian deaths increased, media became somewhat more critical of Israel.[222]

ABC News received criticism when Diane Sawyer misidentified photos of rubble in Gaza as being in Israel. The progressive[223] media criticism organization FAIR said that the mistake reflected a worldview in American media and a "false balance" between the two sides of the conflict, when in fact many more Palestinians have suffered than Israelis.[224] Sawyer later apologized on-air for the error.[225]

NBC News was criticized for ordering its correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin out of Gaza after witnessing the killing of four Palestinian children. He was later sent back into the region after NBC News reassessed his deployment.[226]

Investigative reporter Judith Miller criticized US media, and her former employer The New York Times in particular, for being unsympathetic to Israel and downplaying the context of the kidnapping and murder of Israeli teenagers.[227]

British MP George Galloway stated that "300 Palestinians are completely ignored by the same newspapers, by the same television stations and by the same political leaders who are threatening sanctions and war against Russia. ... Why the double standard? Why is the blood in Ukraine so much more noteworthy than the blood in Gaza?"[228]

Within Israel, the newspaper Haaretz issued an editorial that the "soft Gaza sand... could turn into quicksand" for the Israeli military and warning about the "wholesale killing" of Palestinian civilians. The article declared, "There can be no victory here".[229] The campaign in the Palestinian territories has received much coverage in the nation.

Criticism of the BBC's coverage

In The Guardian, Owen Jones called the BBC's headline "Israel under renewed Hamas attack" [as] "perverse as Mike Tyson punching a toddler, followed by a headline claiming that the child spat at him", and that "the macabre truth is that Israeli life is deemed by the Western media to be worth more than a Palestinian life".[230]

In London, Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow, protesting demonstrators accused the BBC of "pro-Israeli bias" in its coverage of the ongoing conflict. It claimed that news coverage was "entirely devoid of context or background". An open letter to BBC director signed by 45,000 people including Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Ken Loach, Brian Eno and Jeremy Hardy said it would "like to remind the BBC that Gaza is under Israeli occupation and siege [and] that Israel is bombing a refugee population". The BBC has defended its coverage.[231][232]

Building on research by the Glasgow University Media Group that examined the media coverage of recent Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Gaza, Greg Philo, research director of the university's media unit, described how senior BBC journalists have spoken to him about being unable to get the Palestinian viewpoint across. The organization, through a spokesperson, has said in response to criticism, "We cover stories based on how newsworthy they are, and what else is happening."[231]

Social media

In the eight days leading up to Operation Protective Edge, the social media site Twitter hashtag #GazaUnderAttack was used over 375,000 times. Often the hashtag was used on tweets using photos that claimed to show how the people are suffering due to Israeli attacks. A BBC study showed that in some cases these photos were from previous Israeli attacks, or from wars in Syria and Iraq.[233][234]

A false report circulated on social media and via SMS that a rocket from Gaza had hit a petrochemical plant in Haifa. These reports cited Haaretz as their source but turned out to be false. Haaretz denied issuing such warnings.[235]

A photograph published by Danish journalist Allan Sørensen on Twitter caused uproar online, gathering more than 8,500 retweets. It allegedly shows Israelis in Sderot gathered on top of a hill to celebrate and cheer as they watched Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. People reportedly brought chairs, sofas, popcorn, and hookahs with them.[236] The scene was described as "something resembling a party".[237] Similarly, according to The Jerusalem Post, Palestinians in Hebron cheered as Gazan rockets were fired at Tel Aviv. People reportedly stood at rooftops chanting "Allah Akbar" at the sight.[238] When four Palestinian children were killed by Israeli fire while playing on a beach in Gaza, the Israeli newssite Walla!'s talkback received many positive assessments, ranging from “There isn’t a more beautiful picture than those of dead Arab children,” and “Really, these are great pictures. They make me so happy, I want to look at them again and again,” to “As many children as possible should die.” [239] After 13 soldiers were killed in Gaza on 20 July, many families found out about their family member's death via WhatsApp hours before officially being told by the IDF,[240] which eventually led to the arrest of three soldiers for leaking the news.[241]

Many foreign journalists inside Gaza have Tweeted that they are witnessing Hamas using human shields by launching rockets from within civilian areas including hospitals and the hotels the journalists are staying, as well as Hamas members dressing up as civilians while hiding weapons. Pro-Palestinian Tweeters responded by making threats and calling the journalists Israeli spies.[242]

The Israel Broadcasting Authority banned a 1 minute, 25-second radio advert, produced by the Israeli human rights' group B’Tselem, which listed the names and ages of some Palestinian children killed in the conflict in Hebrew; the grounds given were that the advert was "politically controversial".[243][244] B'Tselem appealed the decision, which it said was a "far-reaching statement" that amounted to censorship, and the organization asked: "Is it controversial that the children [aren’t] alive? That they're children? That those are their names? These are facts that we wish to bring to the public’s knowledge." Their appeal was declined. They plan to petition the Supreme Court of Israel.[244]

See also

References

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