Task 3E) The 2014 Israel-Gaza Conflict

The 2014 IsraelGaza conflict, also known as

Operation Protective Edge and the 2014 Gaza
massacre, was a military operation launched by Israel on
8 July 2014 in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Thereafter,
seven weeks of Israeli bombardment, Palestinian rocket
attacks, and ground fighting resulted in the deaths of over
2,200 people, the vast majority of them Gazans.

The stated aim of the Israeli operation was to stop rocket

fire from Gaza into Israel, which increased after an Israeli
crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank was launched
following the 12 June kidnapping and murder of three
Israeli teenagers by two Hamas members. Conversely,
Hamas's goal was to bring international pressure to bear
to lift Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, end Israel's
offensive, release Palestinian prisoners and overcome its
political isolation.

The operation officially began the following day, and on 17

July, the operation was expanded to an Israeli ground
invasion of Gaza with the stated aim of destroying Gaza's
tunnel system; Israeli ground forces withdrew on 5 August.
On 26 August, an open-ended ceasefire was announced.
By that date, the IDF reported that Hamas, Islamic Jihad
and other militant groups had fired 4,564 rockets and
mortars from Gaza into Israel, with over 735 intercepted in
flight and shot down by Iron Dome. Most Gazan mortar
and rocket fire hit open land, more than 280 fell on areas
in Gaza, and 224 struck residential areas. Militant rocketry
also killed 13 Gazan civilians, 11 of them children. The
Israeli Defense Forces attacked 5,263 targets in Gaza; at
least 34 known tunnels were destroyed and two-thirds of
Hamas's 10,000-rocket arsenal was used up or destroyed.

Between 2,142 and 2,310 Gazans were killed and between

10,626 and 10,895 were wounded (including 3,374
children, of whom over 1,000 were left permanently
disabled. 66 Israeli soldiers, 5 Israeli civilians (including
one child) and one Thai civilian were killed and 261 Israeli
civilians were injured. The Gaza Health Ministry, UN and
some human rights groups reported that 6975% of the
Palestinian casualties were civilians, Israeli officials
estimated that around 50% of those killed were civilians.