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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 on June 28, 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 the Gaza Strip resulted in the deaths of three Palestinian militants and two Israeli soldiers, and the abduction of Israeli Defence Forces soldier Gilad Shalit.
Israeli forces entered Khan Yunis on June 28, 2006 to search for Shalit. 4 Israeli F-16's flew over Syrian President Bashar Assad's residence in Latakia, pressuring him to stay out of the conflict. 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.
In response to this, the Popular Resistance Committees announced they had abducted a settler, Eliyahu Asheri, and would kill him if the invasion continued. ]
As night fell, the Israel Defence Forces began shelling locations in Gaza with artillery.
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".
Further kidnappings of Israeli civilians followed, including that of Eliahu Asheri in Jerusalem and Noah Moskovich in Rishon Le-Zion.
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