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2006 Gaza–Israel conflict

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Operation Summer Rains
Part of the Arab-Israeli conflict

IDF ground forces enter southern Gaza
DateJune 28, 2006 -
LocationGaza Strip
Result Conflict ongoing
Belligerents
Israel Defense Forces Hamas
Popular Resistance Committees,
al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades,
Jaish al-Islam,
Palestinian militants
Commanders and leaders
Dan Halutz (Chief of Staff)
Yoav Galant (Regional)
Strength
3,000 Unknown
Casualties and losses
None 1 militant killed
7 wounded
(source: IDF Spokesperson)

Operation Summer Rains (Template:Lang-he) is the codename for an Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip that began on June 28, 2006. It is the first ground entrance by a massive Israeli military presence in Gaza since Israel's unilateral disengagement plan.

Israel claims it has mobilized thousands of troops for the express purpose of rescuing or pressuring for the release of a single Israeli soldier, corporal Gilad Shalit, who was abducted by Palestinian militants in Israel. The Palestinians assert the assault is aimed to topple the democratically-elected Hamas-led government and to destabilize the Palestinian National Authority, citing the targeting of civilian infrastructure such as a power station and the arrests of government and parliament members. According to Amnesty International, the deliberate attacks against civilian property and infrastructure violate international humanitarian law and constitute war crimes.

Background

Tensions had been high for some time due to Qassam rocket attacks launched by Palestinians into Israeli cities and towns such as Ashkelon, reported to have exceeded 800 rockets in the past seven months, and the firing of Israeli artilery shells into Gaza, reportedly at a rate of several thousand in June alone. The crisis came to a head due to the deaths of several Palestinian civilians in incidents such as the Gaza beach blast on June 9. After the Gaza beach blast, Hamas formally withdrew from its 16-month ceasefire, which it was accused for having regularly violated by firing rockets at Israeli civilian targets, and began openly taking responsibility for Qassam rocket attacks.

Raids and abductions

On 24 June, in an overnight raid into the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli forces seized Osama and Mustafa Abu Muamar, sons of Hamas activist Ali Muamar. According to an Israeli army spokesman the two men taken were Hamas militants intending to carry out imminent attacks on Israel. This was denied by Hamas, which claimed that the men were not members of the organization.

On June 25, a joint military wing of Hamas - the Popular Resistance Committees and Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) - led a raid on an Israeli military post near Kerem Shalom in Israel. Two Israeli soldiers were killed, four more injured and an IDF corporal, Gilad Shalit, was abducted. Three of the Palestinian assailants were killed in the raid as well. The death of the IDF soldiers was exceptional, since the last time an Israeli soldier was killed in or around the Gaza Strip was in June 2005.

Demands

The militants who seized Shalit have demanded "the release of all female prisoners and all prisoners under the age of 18". The Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert said that "we do not negotiate with terrorists", implying that Israel will not negotiate the release of Shalit with his captors. Olmert also warned that if Shalit was not released unconditionally, the army would respond with military action. Once the operation began, Olmert stated that the invasion was intended "to apply pressure so that the abducted soldier will be freed. We want to create a new equation - freeing the abducted soldier in return for lessening the pressure on the Palestinians". On June 30, Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, mentioned in an interview to al-Ahram, that Israel rejected the conditions offered by Hamas for the release of Shalit. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded by saying that they are unaware of any such proposal.

Operation

IDF enters Southern Gaza

Israeli forces entered Khan Yunis on June 28, 2006 to search for Shalit. Four Israeli F-16s flew over the Latakia residence of Bashar Assad, President of Syria, in a symbolic move linked by the IDF Spokesperson's Office to Israel's view of the Syrian leadership as a sponsor of terrorism, and the presence in Syria of Hamas leader Khaled Mashal. In preparation for the Israeli operation, the government of Egypt announced it deployed 2,500 policemen to the border of Egypt and the Gaza Strip in order to prevent the possible transfer of Shalit into Egypt, as well as to prevent an influx of refugees out of the Palestinian territory.

In the early hours of the operation, several Palestinian civilian locations were targeted. Bridges were destroyed to effectively cut the Gaza Strip in half. Power was also cut to 65% of the Gaza Strip after Israeli planes fired at least nine missiles at Gaza's only power station. Israeli forces also occupied the Gaza International Airport. Airstrikes were carried out on Hamas training and munitions camps, though no casualties were reported.

In apparent response to this, the Popular Resistance Committees announced they had abducted a young settler, Eliyahu Asheri, and would kill him if the invasion continued. On June 29, IDF combat engineers and Shabak agents, acting on intelligence, found Asheri's body in an abandoned car in an open field outside of Ramallah. The youth appeared to have been shot to death, and initial findings indicated that he may have been killed as early as Sunday-which can possibly conclude that the PRC were bluffing when they claimed he was alive and kept in captivity.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades later announced that they had captured a third Israeli, Noach Moskovich from the central Israeli city of Rishon LeZion, but Moskovich was eventually discovered dead, apparently of natural causes, near the spot where he had last been seen. The Brigades also threatened that, should there be any Palestinian civilian casualties as a result of the incursion, they would attack Israel's overseas embassies.

As night fell, the Israel Defence Forces began shelling locations in Gaza with artillery, and hit two weapons warehouses.

Incursion into Northern Gaza

As night began to approach on June 28th, IDF troops and tanks massed on the Northern border of Gaza Strip, and prepared to take strategic positions in the second phase of the operation, which targeted the Qassam rocket sites. Qassam rockets were continually fired into Israel, and during the early hours of June 29th, several Israeli naval vessels shelled Qassam locations. Moreover, thousands of leaflets were dropped on inhabited areas in the northern Gaza Strip towns of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, advising civilians to leave their homes. This could indicate intentions by the IDF to occupy or heavily shell these areas, which were identified as frequent launch sites for Qassam rockets.

An explosion was reported in Gaza City, and eyewitnesses reported it was at the Islamic University. The university is believed to be a pro-Hamas institute. Witnesses report Israeli tanks, soldiers, and bulldozers have entered Northern Gaza, though since this the IDF announced it would put a hold on the second phase to give the militants a final chance to turn over Shalit following a plea from Egypt for more time for negotiations.

Arrest of Hamas government members

IDF soldiers performing arrests of Hamas officials in Ramallah

On June 29, Israel continued arresting high-ranking officials from the political wing of Hamas. Eight Hamas government members (five of whom in Ramallah) and up to twenty Legislative Council representatives were arrested in the operation. Reportedly, as many as 64 Hamas officials were placed under Israeli custody.

Among those captured are the Finance Minister Abed Razek; Labour Minister Mohammad Barghouti; Religious Affairs Minister Nayef Rajoub, brother of former West Bank strongman Jibril Rajoub of the rival Fatah party; parliamentary speaker Abdel Aziz Duaik; Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer; East Jerusalem legislative council member and number two on Hamas list, Muhammad Abu Tir; as well as heads of regional councils, and the mayor of Qalqilyah and his deputy. At least a third of the Hamas cabinet have been arrested and held by Israel. As a result, Hamas officials have gone into hiding.

The IDF stated that the captured Hamas officials "are not bargaining chips for the return of the soldier - it was simply an operation against a terrorist organisation". Israeli Minister of National Infrastructure, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, hinted that the Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority, Ismail Haniya, is not immune from being arrested or attacked by the Security Forces. The Israeli army and government officials said, the captured Hamas officials will be questioned and eventually indicted. "Their arrests were not arbitrary. They will be put to trial, and they will be able to defend themselves in accordance with a legal system which is internationally recognized," Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said, explaining the Hamas arrests.

The operation to arrest these Hamas officials was reportedly planned several weeks before and was met then with the approval of Israel's Attorney General, Menachem Mazuz. On June 28, Shabak Director, Yuval Diskin, brought a list of names to the approval of Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert. Mazuzs has decided that those arrested will be prosecuted for the criminal offences of failing to prevent acts of terror and membership in a terrorist organization (which carry a maximum sentence of twenty years) and tried by military judges before an open military tribunal, as would be the case for any other Gaza or West Bank resident.

June 30 bombardment

Israeli warplanes struck more than a dozen times in Gaza in the hours after midnight, hitting a Fatah office and a Hamas facility in Gaza City as well as roads and open fields.

Israel Air Force aircraft struck the Palestinian Interior Ministry in Gaza City. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed its planes hit the office of Interior Minister Said Siyam, which it called "a meeting place to plan and direct terror activity." Shortly after, several militants approached an IDF position in Southern Gaza carrying anti-tank weaponry. The Israeli forces opened fire, wounding two militants, and causing them to leave their position.

In a seperate Israeli airstrike, three missiles hit the office of Khaled Abu Ilal, a hardline Interior Ministry official, who also heads a pro-Hamas militia.

Impact on Strip residents

File:IDF-pamphlet.png
English translation of a pamphlet distributed to Gaza residents by the IDF (Hebrew)

Israeli jets hit the power plant, along with two key bridges, early Wednesday morning as the precursor to a slowly building invasion of the Gaza Strip intended to secure the release of Gilad Shalit, a French-Israeli soldier who was captured by Palestinian militants Sunday in a cross-border raid.

Israeli leaders said the strikes were designed to prevent the militants holding Shalit in southern Gaza from spiriting their hostage out of the area.

The impact of the strike in Gaza City: More than half of the 600,000 residents are without water, and at least two-thirds lack power. The power plant hit by Israeli forces does more than provide energy to more than half of the Gaza Strip's 1.3 million residents. It also fuels critical water and sewage pumps as Gaza heads into another Mediterranean coast summer.

All border crossings in and out of Gaza have been shut. Gas stations predict petrol supplies would run out by sundown Thursday as companies rely on generators.

Potential humanitarian crisis

Álvaro de Soto, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and the Secretary-General's Special Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, has said that fuel in Gaza will run out in two to three days, which will result in the collapse of the sewage system. Senior UN officials estimated that Gaza has two weeks of food supply left.

The UN's Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said, "No one can hide from us what they’re doing, neither the Palestinian nor the Israeli side. We are appalled by seeing how they’re playing with the future of defenceless civilians, including children" and warned that Gaza is three days away from a humanitarian crisis.

Reaction

  • David Siegel, spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. said that "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."
  • Amnesty International called for all hostages to be released and for “an end to the wanton destruction and collective punishment being carried out by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.” A statement said “destruction of three bridges and electricity networks ... have left half the population of the Gaza Strip without electricity and have reportedly also adversely affected the supply of water.”
  • Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attacks on the bridges and power plant saying that "attacking civil infrastructure a collective punishment against Palestinian people and a humanitarian crime".
  • White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said that "Israel has the right to defend itself and the lives of its citizens...in any actions the government of Israel may undertake, the United States urges that it ensures that innocent civilians are not harmed and also that it avoid the unnecessary destruction of property and infrastructure."
  • Arab League spokesman Alaa Rushdy said that the operations were "part of aggressive Israeli policies directed against the Palestinian people, whether it be through destruction or the killing of civilians".
  • A Syrian official stated "These aggressive operations form a provocation and are unjustified. If their goal is to place responsibility for the kidnapping of the Israeli soldier on the political leadership of Hamas – then Israel is making a scandalous mistake that is crossing the boundaries of logic."
  • The militant wing of Hamas urged Palestinians to rise up, and stated "fight your enemies, who came to their deaths. Grab your rifles and resist".
  • The Islamic Action Front, Jordan's largest political party, on Wednesday urged the governments of Jordan and Egypt to 'suspend' their peace treaties with Israel to retaliate for the ongoing offensive.

References

  1. "Shalit's kidnappers demand release of 1,000 prisoners", Jerusalem Post, 2006-06-30
  2. "Palestinian-Israeli Gaza Confrontation Simmers". NPR. 2006-06-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. "Palestinian PM: Israel aims to oust gov't". AP. 2006-06-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. "Israel/Occupied Territories: Deliberate attacks a war crime". Amnesty International. 2006-06-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. "IDF Enters Gaza to Find Abducted Soldier and Stop Qassam Attacks". Israel Hasbara Committee. 2006-06-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. "A week of Israeli restraint". Yediot Aharonoth. 2006-06-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. "Militants Fire Rockets Into South Israel". Associated Press. 2006-06-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. "Hamas Must End Attacks Against Civilians". Human Rights Watch. 2006-06-09. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. "Hamas behind Qassam attack on Sderot". Ynetnews. 2006-06-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. "Israel captures pair in Gaza raid". BBC News. 2006-06-24. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. "Terrorists sneaked in via tunnel; attacked 3 targets simultaneously". Haaretz. 2006-06-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. "Most Palestinians Urge Peace Deal with Israel". Ipsos-Reid. 2006-06-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. "Israelis Put Heat on Palestinians, Assad". Forbes. 2006-06-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. "Troops take control of airport, open areas east of Rafah". Ha'aretz. 2006-06-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. Template:He icon "Mubarak: Israel refused the conditions of Hamas". Haaretz. 2006-06-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. Greenberg, Hanan (2006-06-28). "IAF: Aerial flight over Assad's palace". Ynetnews. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ "Settler's body believed found". CNN. 2006-06-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. "Israel in Gaza show of force". Al Jazeera. 2006-06-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. Efrat Weiss (2006-06-28). "Abductors present Eliyahu Asheri's ID card". Ynetnews. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. "Seized Israeli settler found dead". BBC News. 2006-06-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. HaLevi, Ezra (2006-06-28). "Fatah Group Announces it Kidnapped 62-Year-Old Israeli". Arutz Sheva. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. "Israeli Police Find Body of Missing Man". Houston Chronicle. 2006-06-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. "Body of Noah Moscowitz, missing Rishon man found". Jerusalem Post. 2006-06-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  24. "IAF strikes targets in the southern Gaza strip". Haaretz. 2006-06-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  25. "IDF to launch anti-Qassam operation in northern Gaza". Haaretz. 2006-06-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  26. "Israeli navy fires shells on northern Gaza Strip". Ynetnews. 2006-06-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  27. ^ "Israelis Arrest Dozens of Hamas Officials". Guardian. 2006-06-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  28. "Israel bombs Islamic University in Gaza-witnesses". Reuters. 2006-06-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  29. "Israel Turns Up Heat On Palestinian Militants". WPXI. 2006-06-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  30. "Israel justifies Hamas MP arrests". BBC. 2006-06-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  31. "Israel hits Gaza as Hamas lawmakers held". CNN. 2006-06-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  32. ^ Template:He icon "IDF begins arrests of officials in the Strip". Haaretz. 2006-06-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  33. "IDF escalates Gaza operation, strikes PA Interior Min". Jerusalem Post. 2006-06-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  34. "Israeli forces press militants in Gaza, cut power". MSNBC. 2006-06-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  35. "Israeli jets pound Gaza targets". Guardian. 2006-06-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  36. "Damage to power plant to have lingering impact for Gaza residents". San Jose Mercury News. 2006-06-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  37. "Gazans fear worse to come as power, water dwindle". The Daily Star. 2006-06-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  38. "Israel steps up Gaza air strikes". Financial Times. 2006-06-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  39. Rosenberg, David (2006-06-28). "Israeli Army Enters Gaza to Find Kidnapped Soldier". Bloomberg.com. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  40. "Israel Invades Gaza Strip". Arab News. 2006-06-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  41. "Israeli attacks mass punishment, crime against humanity -- Abbas". KUNA. 2006-06-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  42. "White House: Israel has right to defend itself". Reuters. 2006-06-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  43. "EU: Crisis must be solved by diplomacy". Jerusalem Post. 2006-06-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  44. "US and EU at odds over Israel". The Daily Telegraph. 2006-06-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  45. "Syria: Israel made big mistake". Ynetnews. 2006-06-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  46. "Show of force as troops raid Gaza". Sydney Morning Herald. 2006-06-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  47. "Israel launches offensive in Gaza to free soldier (2nd Roundup)". Monsters and Critics. 2006-06-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

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