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| Operation Summer Rain | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Arab-Israeli conflict | |||||||
| File:Operationsummerain.jpg Israeli soldiers run to reload an Israeli mobile artillery piece at a position near Kibbutz Nahal Oz. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Israel Defense Forces | Popular Resistance Committees, Palestinian Militants | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 3,000 | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
Operation Summer Rain is the codename for an Israeli military operation into the Gaza Strip that began June 28th, 2006. Tensions had been high for some time due to Qassam rocket attacks, reported to have been over 800, . The operation was precipitated when a raid by the military wing of Hamas on an Israeli military post outside of Strip resulted in the deaths of three Palestinian militants and two Israeli soldiers, and the abduction of Israeli Defence Force soldier Gilad Shalit. Tensions had been high for some time due to Qassam rocket attacks, reported to have been over 800, and
Israeli forces entered Khan Yunis on June 28, 2006 to search for Shalit. Several bridges were destroyed to effectively cut the Gaza Strip in half. Power was also cut to most of the Gaza Strip in an effort to make it more difficult for the militants to communicate. Airstrikes were carried out on Hamas training, and munitions camps, though no casualties were reported.
As night fell, the IDF began shelling locations in Gaza with artillery. 4 Israeli warplanes flew over Syrian President Bashar Assad's residence in Latakia, in an effort to pressure him to force the release of Shalit.
Reaction
Mahmoud Abbas condemned the operation, labelling it "a crime against humanity" and warning that it would "destroy the Palestinians' daily lives but serve no other purpose".
According to David Siegel, a spokesman at the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., "Israel did everything it could in exhausting all diplomatic options and gave Mahmoud Abbas the opportunity to return the kidnapped Israeli... This operation can be terminated immediately, conditioned on the release of Gilad Shalit."
References
- Israeli attacks mass punishment, crime against humanity -- Abbas, KUNA, 28 June, 2006
- David Rosenberg, Israeli Army Enters Gaza to Find Kidnapped Soldier, Bloomberg.com, 28 June, 2006