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Operation Pillar of Defense
Part of Gaza–Israel conflict
Date 14 – 21 November 2012 (2012-11-21) Location Palestinian territories and Israel30°40′N 34°50′E / 30.667°N 34.833°E / 30.667; 34.833 Result Ceasefire, both sides claim victory According to Israel, the operation "severely impaired Hamas's launching capabilities." According to Hamas, their rocket strikes led to the ceasefire deal Gaza fishermen allowed 6 nautical miles out to sea for fishing
Belligerents
Israel	Gaza Strip Hamas – Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades PIJ PFLP PRC Al-Aqsa Martyrs'
Commanders and leaders
Benjamin Netanyahu Prime Minister Ehud Barak Minister of Defense Benny Gantz Chief of General Staff Amir Eshel Air Force Commander Yoram Cohen Director of Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet)	Ismail Haniyeh (Prime Minister of the Hamas Authority) Mohammed Deif (Commander of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades) Ahmed Jabari (KIA) (Deputy commander of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades) Ramadan Shallah (Secretary-General of Palestinian Islamic Jihad) Abu Jamal (spokesperson of the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades)
Strength
Israeli Southern Command and up to 75,000 reservists	10,000 Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades 8,000 Islamic Jihad Unkown for the rest 10,000 Security forces.
Casualties and losses
2 soldiers killed. 20 soldiers wounded.	Palestinian figures: 55 militants killed 29 militants wounded Israeli figures: 120 combatants killed 101 combatants killed (ITIC claim)
Palestinian civilian losses: 105 killed, 971 wounded (Palestinian claim) 57 killed (Israeli claim) 103 killed (UN preliminary estimate) 68 killed (ITIC claim) 8 Palestinians executed by the al-Qassam Brigades (alleged collaborators) Israeli civilian losses: 4 killed, 219 injured

Operation Pillar of Defense (Template:Lang-he-n, ʿAmúd ʿAnán, literally: "Pillar of Cloud") was an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operation in the Gaza Strip, officially launched on 14 November 2012 with the killing of Ahmed Jabari, chief of the Gaza military wing of Hamas. According to Human Rights Watch, Palestinian militants' statements made it clear that "harming civilians was their aim”. The stated aims of the IDF operation were to halt the rocket attacks against civilian targets originating from the Gaza Strip and to disrupt the capabilities of militant organizations.

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. Palestinian militants blamed Israel 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 struck more than 1,500 sites in the Gaza Strip, including rocket launchpads, weapon depots, Hamas facilities and apartment blocks. Gaza officials said 133 Palestinians had been killed in the conflict of which 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 (Template:Lang-ar, 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. 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 four Israeli civilians in a direct hit on a home in Kiryat Malachi. By 19 November, three Israelis had been killed, 21 injured by shrapnel, 28 injured during alarms, and more than 200 had been treated for anxiety by Magen David Adom. Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted about 421 rockets, another 142 rockets fell on Gaza itself, 875 rockets fell in open areas, and 58 rockets hit urban areas in Israel. A bus in Tel Aviv was bombed by an Arab-Israeli, injuring ten 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 (and other terror groups from Hamas-controlled territory) rocket attacks on Israel. Iran, Egypt, Turkey and several other Arab and Muslim countries condemned the Israeli operation. The United Nations Security Council held an emergency session on the situation but did not reach a decision. On 21 November a ceasefire was announced after days of negotiations between Hamas and Israel mediated by Egypt. Both sides claimed victory. Israel said that it had achieved its aim of crippling Hamas's rocket-launching ability, while Hamas stated that Israel's option of invading Gaza had ended.

Etymology

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

Background

The conflict in its current form is ongoing since the Islamic party Hamas won the January 2006 Palestinian legislative election. In June 2007, internal fighting broke out between Hamas and rival Palestinian group Fatah, and Hamas fully consolidated its power with a coup it argued was preemptive and taking control of the Gaza Strip. Following the takeover, Israel and Egypt largely sealed their border crossings with Gaza, making Gaza's economic and humanitarian position precarious. While the Red Cross believes Israel's blockade is illegal under international humanitarian law and UN Food and Agriculture Organization report on Gaza stated the blockade was illegal, a later UN Report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Inquiry described the navy blockade as both legal and appropriate. Although Israel withdrew its civilians and military personnel in 2005, the United States, United Nations and Arab League consider Israel to be an occupying power in the territory 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, Norway and most other world countries do not designate Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Tensions between Israel and the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip continued, as the two sides experienced periodic fighting. In late 2008 and early 2009 a three-week armed conflict broke out. Israel's stated aim was to stop rocket and mortar fire into Israel. However, as reported by some observers—e.g. historian Avi Shlaim—rocket fire had already tumbled in mid-2008 after a ceasefire brokered by Egypt, and only increased again following Israel's attacks on Gaza ironically intended, according to Israel, to halt rocket fire. In the aftermath of Israel's operation, rocket attacks in 2009 plummeted to 190 in all. Hamas demanded that Israel end the naval blockade of Gaza's coastline as a condition to end rocket fire. Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem, has reported that the Israeli security forces have killed 273 Palestinians in the Gaza strip between the end of Operation Cast Lead and 30 October 2012, 113 of whom were civilians not taking part in hostilities.

According to Israeli security officials, Hamas, with aid from Iranian technical experts and the Sudanese government, smuggled in to Gaza Iranian-made Fajr-5 rockets with increased range and lethality, placing the highly populated Israeli central district, and other metropolitan areas in range. However, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari stated "We haven't sent any weapons to Gaza because it is under blockade, but we are honoured to announce that we gave them the technology of how to make Fajr-5 missiles." Meanwhile, Ali Larijani said Iran was "honored" to help Gaza's Hamas with "material and military aspects". There are roughly 35,000 Palestinian fighters in Gaza. Israel has a conscript army of 175,000.

Pre-operation events

According to a summary by the Israel Security Agency, 92 separate attacks occurred in October, with a total 171 rockets and mortar shells fired against Israel. Gazan groups alleged retaliation against Israeli attacks that killed or wounded civilians and militants alike. On 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. Fishery provides Gaza with a large share of its food production, and Israel has imposed limits on Gazan fishermen's work. 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.

On 23 October, an arms factory exploded in Khartoum, Sudan. The weapons were allegedly smuggled to Hamas in Gaza. It was widely believed to have been a long-range attack by the Israeli Air Force. Sudanese authorities blamed Israel, while the Israeli government refused to either confirm or deny its involvement.

After a week in which dozens of rockets struck Israel and Israel conducted strikes against militant targets in Gaza in a major escalation on 24 October, 80 rockets and mortars were fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel over a 24-hour period. Thirty-two missiles struck the Lachish region and 28 the western Negev. A rocket strike on the agricultural area of the Eshkol region severely wounded two Thai workers. Earlier that day three members of a Palestinian rocket-launching squad were killed by airstrikes and Israeli tanks returned fire at launching sites in Gaza. Hamas promised to "continue carrying the rifle...until the liberation of Palestine and the defeat of the occupation." On 25 October, a ceasefire was allegedly negotiated by Egypt, but the existence of any truce was disputed both by Israeli and Palestinian officials. Although aggression continued in the following days, there were no more casualties on either side until 2 November.

On 2 November, a 22-year-old Palestinian who, according to the IDF, was suspected of attempting to place an explosive device on the Gaza-Israel border, was seriously wounded on Friday morning by Israeli tank fire. On 5 November, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 20-year-old Palestinian man who approached a fence near Gaza's side of the border with Israel, reportedly ignoring warning shots and instructions to leave the area. Palestinians said that the man was unarmed, suffered from mental issues and was constantly on medication. His relatives have said that he approached the border before, and when that happened, Israeli soldiers used to take him back to Gazan authorities. On 5 November a Palestinian road side bomb exploded and Israeli soldiers were injured. On 8 November, the IDF made a short-range incursion into Gaza after finding more bombs along the border, leading to a gunfight with the Popular Resistance Committees. During the clash, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy was killed according to Palestinians "by machine-gun fire, either from IDF helicopters or tanks that took part in the incident." Later that day, Palestinian militants detonated an explosives-packed tunnel they had dug on the border, wounding four Israeli soldiers. Hamas' military wing claimed responsibility for the blast, stating that it was in response to the killing of the boy.

According to Arutz Sheva, 2 Qassam rockets were fired into Israel on 9 November, exploding in open ground.

On 10 November, militants fired an anti-tank missile at an IDF Jeep on routine patrol near Israel's side of the border, wounding four soldiers, one of whom is in critical condition. The IDF shelled the source of the fire and pre-chosen targets in the Sa'ajiya area. Four teenagers, aged 16 to 18, were killed by an Israeli air-strike in a sports stadium while they played soccer. Gaza militants then fired at least 30 rockets and several mortar shells into southern Israel, causing the Color Red siren to sound in Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gan Yavne and surrounding areas causing Israelis within seven kilometers of the Gaza Strip to remain near protected areas. The Gan Yavne regional council canceled school because of the rocket barrage.

The sides continued to exchange fire for several days after the incident. Palestinian militants fired more than 100 rockets, striking homes in Israeli cities, one landing near a school. Several Israelis were wounded by shrapnel in a barrage designed to coincide with the morning commute to work. Two people were injured when their car sustained a direct hit. Schools across southern Israel were closed. The mayor of Beersheba, Ruvik Danilovich, explained, "we have experienced hits on our education institutions in the past ... 40,000 children will remain at home today because of the attack that hit us out of the blue." Israel carried out further airstrikes in Gaza. Six Palestinian militants were killed, including one militant belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

In the days before the operation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that "Israel's reaction will come at the appropriate time." However, following a cabinet meeting in the morning before the operation, Minister Benny Begin said that "the current exchange of hostilities seems to be over." According to one Israeli analyst, these mixed messages, the expected diplomatic repercussions from Egypt and the risks of a war on the eve of the Israeli elections are three factors designed to foster a laissez-faire atmosphere for Gaza's Palestinian leaders.

On 12 November, Hamas and PIJ officials indicated a willingness to discuss a ceasefire. A PIJ spokesman said, "The ball is in Israel's court. The resistance factions will observe Israel's behavior on the ground and will act accordingly." However, Palestinians fired 12 rockets at Israel throughout the day. A factory and a house was hit, and three civilians were wounded. Israel asked the UN Security Council to condemn the rocket attacks, with Barak saying that Israel "would not accept the harm to daily life of our civilians."

An Israeli peace activist, Gershon Baskin, who was a mediator between Israel and Hamas in the negotiations that resulted in the release of Gilad Shalit, reported that hours before the strike that killed Ahmed Jabari, the latter had received a draft of a permanent truce agreement between Israel and Hamas, and it was expected that he would respond to it positively. According to Reuven Pedatzur, the negotiations had been conducted with the consent of Ehud Barak, and a week before the strike IDF officials had asked to be briefed on their progress, but permission for this was denied.

Operation timeline

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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:

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.

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 November 28, Israel opened fire at two fishing boats off the coast of Gaza, and detained nine Gazan fishermen. According to the head of Gaza's fishing association, Mahfouth al-Kabriti, the fishermen were six miles off the coast — the limit within which, as Israel agreed in the ceasefire deal, Gazan fishermen could sail. 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 November 30, another young Gazan man, 21-year-old Mahmoud Jaroun, was shot dead by Israeli forces in Rafah. According to Ma'an News Agency, Israeli forces have already violated the ceasefire several times by firing at Palestinian farmers. On December 1, Islamic Jihad warned that more "Israeli violations of a ceasefire deal" would move the group to respond.

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

Palestinian casualties

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said that 158 Palestinians were killed during the operation, of which: 102 were civilians, 55 were militants and one was a policeman; 30 were children and 13 were women. The UN has given a figure of 103 dead civilians. B'Tselem stated that according to its initial findings, which covered only the period between 14 and 19 November, 102 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip, 40 of them civilians. The Israel Defense Forces have stated that out of 177 Palestinians killed, 120 were militants and that the IDF never deliberately targets civilians.

The Israeli air force says that it takes all possible measures to avoid harming Palestinian civilians, utilizing precision strikes and issuing preemptive warnings to Palestinian residents. The IDF alleges that it disseminated warning leaflets instructing civilians to avoid areas used by Hamas for firing rockets, and also phoned residents in warnings. It says targets were deliberately missed on the first strike to allow the non-combatants to vacate the area and missions were aborted because of a civilian presence. This policy has been criticized on the grounds that few areas in Gaza, considering its many densely populated areas, can safely function as a refuge to civilians and critics have claimed that the criteria the IDF uses to determine what areas should be struck is arbitrary.

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

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

Killings of alleged informants by al-Qassam Brigades

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

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

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

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

Palestinian casualties from Palestinian fire

At least two Palestinian civilian deaths are believed to have been caused by a Palestinian rocket that fell short of its target, not by Israel.

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."

Israeli casualties

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

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

Alleged war crimes

Hamas

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.

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, 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 November 21 a long-range Qassam rocket, of the type Israel has accused Iran of supplying to Hamas, was fired from within 500 yards of the hospital and hit Gush Etzion, south-east of Jerusalem. The IDF spokesman stated they had released footage of "rocket fire from a mosque courtyard, prayer houses, public places and homes".

Regarding the possible provision of technical information by Iran to enable Hamas to build rockets, RRW stated that supplying weaponry "knowing that it is likely to be used to commit war crimes constitutes the aiding and abetting of war crimes".

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

Israel

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

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

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

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 broadcasted 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 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

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.

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

Criticism of IDF media campaign

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

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

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

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

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

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

Images

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

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.

Text

The article that Jodi Rudoren, New York Times envoy to Israel, wrote on the killing of the al-Dalu family, as well as her Facebook posts about Gazan society, were subject to controversy and criticism. The disputes centered around her description of the funeral's tone as "far more fundamentalist than funereal", of mourners not close to the victims as unsentimental, and of Gazan culture as aspiring to "martyrdom".

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

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

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

Reactions

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

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

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

See also

• Timeline of the Israel–Gaza conflict

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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

• Use dmy dates from November 2012
• Misplaced Pages neutral point of view disputes from November 2012
• Articles that may be too long from December 2012
• Misplaced Pages articles needing copy edit from December 2012
• 2012 Israel–Gaza conflict
• Aerial operations and battles involving Israel
• 2012 in the Gaza Strip