Operation Pillar of Defense

Operation Pillar of Defense
Part of Gaza–Israel conflict
Date 14 – 21 November 2012 (2012-11-21) Location Gaza Strip 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 Cessation of rocket fire from Gaza into Israel. Gaza fishermen allowed 6 nautical miles out to sea for fishing, reduced back to 3 nautical miles after 22 March 2013
Belligerents
Israel	Gaza Strip Hamas – Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades PIJ PFLP-GC 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 Unknown 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 101 combatants killed (ITIC claim) 62 combatants killed (B'Tselem claim)
Palestinian civilian losses: 105 killed , 971 wounded (Palestinian claim) 57 killed (Israeli claim) 103 killed (UN preliminary estimate) 68 killed (ITIC claim) 87 killed (B'Tselem claim) 8 Palestinians executed by the al-Qassam Brigades (alleged collaborators) Israeli civilian losses: 4 killed, 219 injured

Operation Pillar of Defense (Hebrew: עַמּוּד עָנָן </noinclude>, ʿAmúd ʿAnán, literally: "Pillar of Cloud") was an eight-day Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operation in the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip, officially launched on 14 November 2012 with the killing of Ahmed Jabari, chief of the Gaza military wing of Hamas.

According to the Israeli government, the operation began in response to Palestinian groups launching over 100 rockets at Israel over a 24-hour period, an attack on an Israeli military patrol jeep within Israeli borders by Gaza militants, and a tunnel explosion caused by IEDs near Israeli soldiers on the Israeli side of the fence. The Israeli government stated that the aims of the military operation were to halt rocket attacks against civilian targets originating from the Gaza Strip and to disrupt the capabilities of militant organizations. The Palestinians blamed the Israeli government for the upsurge in violence, accusing the IDF of attacks on Gazan civilians in the days leading up to the operation, and citing the blockade of the Gaza Strip, and occupation of West Bank and East Jerusalem, as the reason for rocket attacks.

During the course of the operation, the IDF said that it had struck more than 1,500 sites in the Gaza Strip, including rocket launchpads, weapon depots, government facilities and apartment blocks. Gaza officials said 133 Palestinians had been killed in the conflict of whom 79 were militants, 53 civilians and 1 was a policeman, and estimated that 840 Palestinians were wounded. Many families were displaced. One airstrike killed ten members of the al-Dalu family. Some Palestinian casualties were caused by misfired Palestinian rockets landing inside the Gaza Strip. Eight Palestinians were executed by members of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades for alleged collaboration with Israel.

During the operation, Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad further intensified their rocket attacks on Israeli cities and towns, in an operation code named Operation Stones of Baked Clay (Arabic language: حجارة سجيل‎, ḥijārat sajīl) by the al-Qassam Brigades, firing over 1,456 rockets into Israel, and an additional 142 which fell inside Gaza itself. Palestinian militant groups used weapons including Iranian-made Fajr-5, Russian-made Grad rockets, Qassams and mortars.^{[citation needed]} Some of these weapons were fired into Rishon LeZion, Beersheba, Ashdod, Ashkelon and other population centers; Tel Aviv was hit for the first time since the 1991 Gulf War, and rockets were fired at Jerusalem. The rockets killed three Israeli civilians in a direct hit on a home in Kiryat Malachi. By the end of the operation, six Israelis had been killed, 240 were injured, 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, injuring 28 civilians.

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, Russia, Egypt, Turkey and several other Arab and Muslim countries condemned the Israeli operation. The United Nations Security Council held an emergency session on the situation but did not reach a decision. 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 Israel's option of invading Gaza had ended. According to Human Rights Watch both sides violated the laws of war during the fighting.

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 and protected the Israelites' Exodus to the Promised Land (Exodus 13:21–22). The Hebrew Bible and New Testament 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. Hamas labelled their actions as "Operation Stones of Shale" (Qur'an 105:4).

Background

Main article: Gaza–Israel conflict

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

The conflict in its current form is ongoing since the split in the Palestinian Authority in 2006, resulting in armed conflict that resulted in Hamas taking over the Government in Gaza and ousting of its rival Fatah In June 2007. Following the takeover, Israel and Egypt largely sealed their border crossings with Gaza making Gaza's economic and humanitarian position precarious. The International Committee of the Red Cross declared that Israel's blockade of Gaza constitutes "collective punishment" and is a violation of international humanitarian law, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization report on Gaza also concluded that the blockade was illegal. A UN Report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Inquiry described Israel's naval enforcement of the blockade as legal and appropriate. 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 as it controls the Strip's air and sea borders, as well as its contact with the West Bank. 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, which saw a major escalation in late 2008. Israel lunched Operation Cast Lead in three weeks of air and ground assaults, stating it was in response to repeated rocket and mortars fire into Israel starting in December 2008, rising to 2378 attacks over an eleven-month period leading to the operation. In the aftermath of the operation there was a significant reduction in Rocket and mortar fire from Gaza into Israel.

Since 2008-2009 escalation, the two sides had observed an informal and uneasy cease-fire, with Rocket fire from Gaza never completelly stopping and Israel conducting raids in gaza. Israel IDF noted a steady increase in number of rockets fired into southern Israel by militant groups in Gaza to 680 in 2011 and 797 in 2012 (up to 13 November),^{[citation needed]} 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 into 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 militants in Gaza. Israel, which receives billions of dollars of military aid from the US, has a conscript army of 175,000, with 450,000 in reserve equipped with modern weapons systems including F-16 fighter-bombers, Apache helicopter gun ships and Merkava tanks.

Pre-operation events

According to a summary by Shin Bet, 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 7 November, The armed wing of the Hamas movement and the Islamic Jihad group fired a volley of rockets at Israel, a day after an Israel has struck targets in the Gaza Strip one Islamic Jihad fighter had been wounded, as well as four children at a suspected rocket launch area. The Israeli strike damaged a mosque and a water tower. Fishery provides Gaza with a large share of its food production, and Israel has imposed limits on Gazan fishermen's work, limiting Gazan fisherman to fish within three nautical miles instead of the twenty stipulated to in the Oslo Accords. On 29 September, a Palestinian fisherman was killed and another paralyzed by Israeli troops who said they had entered a restricted zone. In October 2012, Palestinian farmers accused Israeli forces of opening fire on them and on local and international activists while they harvested olives near the border in the northern Gaza Strip, though Israel said the army had no record of an attack in that area. Palestinian groups planted bombs alongside the border and attacked Israeli farmers with rockets.

In what was widely believed to be a long-range attack by the Israeli Air Force, an arms factory in Khartoum, Sudan, that was alleged to have participated in arms-smuggling to Hamas, exploded on 23 October. 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 long-term ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. According to Reuven Pedatzur, the negotiations had been conducted with the consent of Ehud Barak, and a week before the strike IDF officials had asked to be briefed on their progress, but permission for this was denied.^{[citation needed]}

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

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. In the hour after the ceasefire was declared twelve rockets were launched from Gaza into Israel, 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.

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). The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, complained to the organization that the attack was a violation of the ceasefire. On 28 November, 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. According to the Israeli Navy, the fishermen had ventured beyond the are designated as allowable for fishing, and did not heed requests to return to the area before being detained. On 30 November, 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 1 December, Islamic Jihad warned that more "Israeli violations of a ceasefire deal" would move the group to respond.

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.

Other

On 14 November, The Egyptian military confirmed that four rockets were fired from Sinai toward Israel by militant groups in an area with a history in the prior eighteen months of cross-border shootings and rocket launches.

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, the day of the ceasefire, two rockets fired from Lebanon at Israel landed within Lebanon, according to Beirut officials. The day after, The Lebanese army disarmed an additional rocket aimed at Israel, in Marjayoun, about 10 kilometers from the border.

Casualties

Israeli casualties

Israeli apartment building in Kiryat Malakhi hit by Gaza rockets

Four Israeli civilians and two soldiers were 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 28 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.

Palestinian casualties

The damaged floor of a 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 preliminary investigation found that 103 civilians had been killed, including 30 children. 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. In March 2013 the United Nations Human Rights Council issued a report stating 174 Palestinians in total died, 107 of them 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.

Debris in Gaza

On 19 November 2012, an Israeli airstrike killed ten members of the Dalu family, including five children as well as two neighbors, in the deadliest single strike of the entire operation. According to the UN, a relative said to be a member of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades was the target. Human Rights Watch stated it had found evidence on the ground in Gaza that supported the Israeli's claim that the suspected target, Mohammad Al-Dalou, was a member of Hamas' armed wing. 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.

Public execution of alleged informants by Hamas

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

Some Palestinian civilian deaths are believed to have been caused by a Palestinian rocket that fell short of its target, not by Israel, and two were "high-profile" incidents. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights report into the events found that of the 174 Palestinians killed, at 168 were killed by Israeli military action while 6 civilians may have been killed by Palestinian armed groups firing rockets from Gaza.

BBC Arabic photojournalist Jihad Masharawi lost his 11-month old son and sister-in-law to what appeared to be an Israeli airstrike, following their deaths many international organizations condemned Israel for their deaths. Human Rights Watch reported that Israel was responsible for the Deaths based on "news reports and witnesses". The Palestinian Center for Human Rights stated that "an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a house belonging to Ali Nemer al-Mishrawi in the al-Zaytoun neighborhood in the east of Gaza City. Two members of the family (a woman and a toddler) were killed: Hiba Aadel Fadel al-Mishrawi, 19; and Omar Jihad al-Mishrawi, 11 months." The latest investigation by the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights suggested that the incident was most likely the result of an errant Palestinian rocket launched towards Israel, but fell back into Gaza. Two members of the family (a woman and a toddler) were initially killed: Hiba Aadel Fadel al-Mishrawi, 19; and Omar Jihad al-Mishrawi, 11 months." Ahmed al-Mishrawi, 18, later died from his injuries. According to Jihad al-Mishrawi, his residential neighborhood in the Sabra district saw no fighting before this incident.

The death of four-year-old Mohammed Sadallah, after an explosion in Annazla, appeared to have been the result of a misfiring home-made rocket, not a bomb dropped by Israel as originally alleged by Hamas. Hamas officials and relatives said that four-year-old Gazan boy was killed in an Israeli airstrike on 16 November. Israel denied that it carried out any attacks in the area at the time. 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." Experts from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights examined the site and opined the explosion was caused by a Palestinian rocket, and the boy's mother acknowledged that Palestinian militants may have been responsible. 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." A United Nations Report released in March 2013 concluded that Sadallah "[was] killed by what appeared to be a Palestinian rocket that fell short of Israel" and not by an Israeli Airstrike.

The UN reported that at least one other child and adult had also been killed by Hamas fire.

Alleged war crimes

Hamas

Targeting of civilians

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.

Human Rights Watch stated that armed Palestinian groups fired hundreds of rockets at Israeli cities, violating international humanitarian law, and that statements by Palestinian groups that they deliberately targeted Israeli civilians demonstrated an "intent to commit war crimes." HRW's Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson said that Palestinian groups made clear that "harming civilians was their aim" and said that the launching rockets at populated areas had no legal justification. International humanitarian law prohibits deliberate attacks on civilians and intentional violations can be war crimes.

A report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that "Palestinian armed groups continuously violated international humanitarian law, by launching indiscriminate attacks on Israel and by attacking civilians". The report further stated, "While some projectiles were directed at military objectives, many, if not the vast majority of the Palestinian attacks on Israel constituted indiscriminate attacks. Such attacks violate international humanitarian law...Most rockets fired by the armed groups did not seem to be directed at a specific military objective. Furthermore, many Palestinian armed groups directly and indirectly indicated their determination to – and took responsibility for – attacks on Israeli civilians or large population centres in Israel. Such acts clearly violate international humanitarian law."

Firing rockets from populated areas

Human Rights Watch stated that Palestinian groups endangered civilians by "repeatedly fired rockets from densely populated areas, near homes, businesses, and a hotel". Under international law, parties to a conflict may not to place military targets in or near densely populated areas. One rocket was launched close to the Shawa and Housari Building, where various Palestinian and international media have offices; another was fired from the yard of a house near the Deira Hotel. Human Rights Watch said it had not been able to identify any instance where civilians had been warned to evacuate an area before a rocket launch by Palestinian militants.

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.

The IDF stated that Hamas makes use of "human shield" tactics and "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 21 November 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".

In March 2013, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a report criticizing Palestinian groups for launching rocket attacks from densely populated areas. The report stated that "The [Palestinian] armed groups failed to take all feasible precautions in attacks, in particular by launching rockets from populated areas, which put the population at grave risk."

Allegations that Islamic Jihad members were disguised as journalists

The IDF accused Gaza militants of abusing the protection afforded to journalists. On 20 November 2012 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.

The PCHR reported that an Israeli strike had killed al-Quds Radio journalist Muhammed Abu Eisha. The UN, the New York Times, Reporters without Borders, and HRW condemned Israel for the attack. Frankfurter Allgemeine reported that PCHR failed to mention that Eisha was also a member of the Islamic Jihad and had participated in rocket attacks against Israel. Eisha’s name and photo appeared on the Islamic Jihad’s website at the time of his death.

Killing of alleged collaborators

The March 2013 report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) criticized Palestinian militant groups for "summarily executing alleged Israeli spies in breach of humanitarian law".

Israel

Disproportionate force/Targeting of civilians

A report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights was harshly critical of the conduct of the Israeli army. The report stated that the IDF had "failed in many instances to respect international law", and that it did not "consistently uphold the basic principles of conduct of hostilities, namely, the principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions".

The Israeli airstrike that killed 12 civilians, including 10 members of the Al-Dalu family, has been called a "disproportionate" use of force and a war crime by Human Rights Watch, stating that the attack has yet to be justified by Israel, and called for the perpetrators of the strike to be punished and the surviving members of victims' families to be compensated. Palestinian Center for Human Rights condemned it as "an example of blatant targeting of civilians." and 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."

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 accused Israel of committing war crimes after denying to consider the Israeli airstrike to be used for self-defense. Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of committing "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians.

Bombing of media facilities

The Israel Air Force hit four Islamic Jihad militants hiding out in a media center in Gaza, the Al-Sharouk compound. PIJ reported by text message that one of their senior militant operatives, Ramez Harb, was killed in that airstrike in Gaza City. Human Rights Watch said this attack was on a military target, and that if Palestinians conducting military operations were meeting in the Shoruq Tower, they were violating international law by placing civilians at unnecessary risk.

Ths Israeli army stated that foreign journalists were used as human shields by Hamas, after attacks on two media centres in Gaza containing Hamas communications devices. The strikes killed Palestinian militants, including a senior Islamic Jihad commander hiding out in the media building, Palestinian cameramen, wounding ten media workers, and killing a two-year-old. The Israeli government stated that each of the four attacks targeted a military target. The HRW report said that blurring the distinction between civilians that support military attacks and those that participate in attacks opened the door to war crimes. HRW stated that journalists and civilian broadcasting facilities were not legitimate military targets simply because they broadcast pro-Hamas or anti-Israel propaganda.

Israel warned people to leave the building before the strike and one foreign journalists that worked there spoke of his anger that the building was being used as a hideout by Palestinian militants and endangered many people. NGO Monitor stated that Hamas in Gaza "terrorizes the international press" because Hamas puts its own operational communication antennas on top of buildings whose lower floors house foreign media outlets.

The Israeli military's alleged targeting of journalists was also condemned by Reporters without Borders. 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. 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

Social media and Internet

File:Hamas Al Qassam Brigades Twitter Feed 2012.jpg

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.

During the campaign, pro-Palestinian hackers launched a concerted effort to cripple Israeli websites. Israeli websites faced over 60 million hacking attempts, which failed to cause any significant damage. In April 2013 Anonymous attacked many Israeli websites in response to the IDF offensive in Gaza in #OpIsrael and claimed to have taken down at least 700 sites as of 18 November. The Israeli Defense Forces claim that they to 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

"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 magazine 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."

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.

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." This came after Hamas gunmen publicly shot a Gaza resident multiple times in the head for allegedly collaborating with Israeli authorities. 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

Commentators such as Noam Chomsky, Seumas Milne, Glenn Greenwald, John Mearsheimer, Paul Pillar and several other writers have blamed Israel for the conflict. 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.

Sharine Tadros, an Al Jazeera correspondent to the Middle East who covers the conflict from Gaza, criticized several aspects of the media approach to the conflict. Tadros criticized what she said was an uncritical and repetitive use by journalists of Israel's justifications for targeting homes and other civilian structures. Tadros further criticized the use of terms such as "Hamas school" as, according to her, Hamas is used as an adjective by Israel as justification for targeting civilian infrastructure.

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.

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.

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.

Photographs of a distraught Palestinian man, Jihad al-Masharawi, a BBC journalist, carrying the body of his 11-month-old son, Omar, wrapped in a white shroud were printed in newspapers worldwide and widely distributed on social media. Masharawi, the BBC Middle East bureau chief, and at least two human rights organizations initially blamed Israel for the incident, and the infant's death quickly became a powerful symbol of the conflict. However, in March 2013, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the eight-day conflict stated that Omar was most likely the victim of "what appeared to be a Palestinian rocket that fell short of Israel."

Text

The article that Jodi Rudoren, New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief, 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".

Writing on The Guardian, Glenn Greenwald criticized the article, echoing criticism by a Mondoweiss writer and by the progressive watchdog FAIR that it dehumanized Gazans and that the mindset behind Rudoren's comment was similar to that of colonists and warmakers who seek to justify their aggression against besieged peoples. 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

BBC News and CNN broadcast Reuters footage of an apparently injured Palestinian man being carried away by a group of people. But the BBC's footage later showed the man walking around on his own. CNN said that Reuters did not know the source of that film, while the BBC News responded 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 walking away having recovered. The BBC said that it had taken steps to ensure that any re-broadcast would make this sequence of events clear to its audience.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) expressed concern for the use of footage by the IDF which suggested the agency’s complicity in "terrorist activities" targeting Israel.

Reactions

Main article: Reactions to Operation Pillar of Defense

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