Gaza War (2008–2009) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Gaza War |
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 Map of Gaza and Israel border |
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The Gaza War, also known as Operation Cast Lead (Hebrew: מִבְצָע עוֹפֶרֶת יְצוּקָה), also known in the Muslim world as the Gaza Massacre (Arabic: مجزرة غزة), and referred to as the Battle of al-Furqan (معركة الفرقان) by Hamas, was a three-week armed conflict between Gaza Strip Palestinian paramilitary groups and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that began on 27 December 2008 and ended on 18 January 2009 with a unilateral ceasefire. The conflict resulted in 1,166–1,417 Palestinian and 13 Israeli deaths (including 4 from friendly fire).
Background
The Gaza Strip is a coastal strip of land on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea bordering Egypt and Israel. Following the death of Yassar Arafat in November 2004, his successor to the Palestinian Authority, President Mahmoud Abbas, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon signed a ceasefire agreement on 8 February 2005, essentially bringing an end to the Second Intifada. On 17 March 2005 the 13 main Palestinian factions including Hamas and Islamic Jihad agreed to be bound by the February agreement, conditional on cessation of Israeli attacks. Israel maintains that its occupation of Gaza ended following the completion of its unilateral disengagement plan in September 2005. Because in the post-disengagement period (after 2005) Israel has continued to control and occupy Gaza's airspace and territorial waters, and continues to restrict or prohibit the movement of people or goods in or out of Gaza and to unilaterally dictate what Gazans may do in a border strip of variable and undefined width in their own territory, the UN, the International Criminal Court Human Rights Watch, and many other NGOs consider Israel still to be the occupying power.
Hamas refrained from firing rockets toward Israel for 14 months in accordance with the February ceasefire agreement, until IDF naval shelling hit a Gaza beach, killing seven civilians, on 10 June 2006.
Israel and the Quartet failed to anticipate Hamas's electoral victory in the January 2006 legislative elections, which the U.S. had pushed for. The victory permitted the formation of a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government in March 2006. The Quartet (the United States, Russia, United Nations, and European Union) conditioned future foreign assistance to the Hamas-led PA on the future government's commitment to nonviolence, recognition of the state of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements. Hamas rejected the demands, calling the conditions unfair and endangering the well-being of Palestinians, leading to Quartet suspension of its foreign assistance program and to Israel imposing economic sanctions.
In June 2007, following Hamas's takeover of Gaza from Fatah, Israel imposed a ground, air, and maritime blockade, and announced it would allow only humanitarian supplies into the Strip. Palestinian groups were partially able to bypass the blockade through tunnels, some of which are said to have been used for weapons smuggling.
Between 2005 and 2007, Palestinian groups in Gaza fired about 2,700 locally made Qassam rockets into Israel, killing four Israeli civilians and injuring 75 others. During the same period, Israel fired more than 14,600 155 mm artillery shells into the Gaza Strip, killing 59 Palestinians and injuring 270.
Timeline of the war
A six month long ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended on Nov 4, when the IDF made a raid into Deir al-Balah, central Gaza to destroy a tunnel, killing several Hamas militants. Israel said the raid was a preemptive strike and Hamas intended to abduct Israeli soldiers, while Hamas characterized it as a ceasefire violation, and responded with rocket fire into Israel. Attempts to renew a truce between Israel and Hamas were unsuccessful. On December 27, Israel began Operation Cast Lead with the stated aim of stopping rocket fire. In the initial air assault, Israel attacked police stations, military targets including weapons caches and suspected rocket firing teams, as well as political and administrative institutions, striking in the densely populated cities of Gaza, Khan Yunis and Rafah. After hostilities broke out, Palestinian groups fired rockets in retaliation for the aerial bombardments and attacks. The international community considers indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian structures that do not discriminate between civilians and military targets as illegal under international law.
An Israeli ground invasion began on 3 January. On 5 January, the IDF began operating in the densely populated urban centers of Gaza. During the last week of the offensive (from 12 January), Israel mostly hit targets it had damaged before and struck Palestinian rocket-launching units. Hamas intensified its rocket and mortar attacks against mostly civilian targets in southern Israel, reaching the major cities of Beersheba and Ashdod for the first time during the conflict. Israeli politicians ultimately decided against striking deeper within Gaza amid concerns of higher casualties on both sides and rising international criticism. The conflict ended on 18 January, when the IDF first declared a unilateral ceasefire, followed by Hamas' announcing a one-week ceasefire twelve hours later. The IDF completed its withdrawal on 21 January.
In September 2009, a UN special mission, headed by the South African Justice Richard Goldstone, produced a report accusing both Palestinian militants and the IDF of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, and recommended bringing those responsible to justice. In 2011, Goldstone wrote that he no longer believed that Israel intentionally targeted civilians in Gaza. The other authors of the report, Hina Jilani, Christine Chinkin, and Desmond Travers, rejected Goldstone's re-assessment. The United Nations Human Rights Council ordered Israel to conduct various repairs of the damages. On 21 September 2012, the United Nations Human Rights Council concluded that 75% of civilian homes destroyed in the attack were not rebuilt.
Aftermath
The war was an Israeli tactical victory and a significant tactical defeat for Hamas.
Along with a high casualty rate, there were multiple economic, industrial and medical effects of the Gaza War. The United Nations Development Programme warned that there will be long-term consequences of the attacks on Gaza because the livelihoods and assets of tens of thousands of Gaza civilians have been affected.
Early estimates by independent contractors in Gaza say that Gaza lost nearly $2 billion in assets, including 4,000 homes destroyed. The IDF destroyed 600–700 factories, small industries, workshops and business enterprises throughout the Gaza Strip, 24 mosques, 31 security compounds, and 10 water or sewage lines. The World Health Organization said that 34 health facilities (8 hospitals and 26 primary health care clinics) were damaged over the course of the offensive and the UNOCHA said that over 50 United Nations facilities sustained damage, of which 28 reported damage in the first three days of the operation. On 22 January 2010, Israel paid $10.5 million in compensation to the United Nations for damages to UN property incurred during the Israeli offensive.
A satellite-based damage assessment of the Gaza Strip by the United Nations revealed 2,692 destroyed and severely damaged buildings, 220 impact craters on roads and bridges with an estimated length of 167 km (104 mi) of paved and unpaved roads damaged, 714 impact craters on open ground or cultivated land with an estimated land area of 2,100 hectares (21 km2), 187 greenhouses completely destroyed or severely damaged with an estimated area of 28 hectares (0.28 km2), and 2,232 hectares (22.32 km2) of demolished zones targeted by IDF bulldozers, tanks and phosphorus shelling.
Following the war, Gaza has witnessed increasing epidemics of health problems. During the war, Norwegian medics said that they had found traces of depleted uranium, a radioactive and genotoxic material used in some types of munition, in some Gaza residents who were wounded. Lawyers who brought back soil samples from Gaza said that areas where these samples were taken contained up to 75 tons of depleted uranium. The Israeli government denied it used Depleted Uranium, and the United Nations opened an investigation. Israel had also initially denied the use of white phosphorus during the war, but later acknowledged that indeed it had used white phosphorus to cover troop movements.
According to the World Food Programme, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and Palestinian officials, between 35% and 60% of Gaza's agriculture industry was wrecked. With extensive damage occurring to water sources, greenhouses, and farmland. It is estimated that 60% of the agricultural land in the north of the Strip may no longer be arable. More than 50,800 Gazans were left homeless. Extensive destruction was caused to commercial enterprises and to public infrastructure. According to Palestinian industrialists, 219 factories were destroyed or severely damaged during the Israeli military operation. They accounted as part of the 3% of industrial capacity that was operating after the Israeli blockade was imposed, which was mostly destroyed during the operation.
As a result of the conflict, the European Union, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and over 50 nations donated humanitarian aid to Gaza, including the United States, which donated over $20 million.
In a damage assessment by the World Health Organization, 48% of the 122 health facilities assessed were found to be damaged or destroyed, 15 of Gaza's 27 hospitals and 41 primary health care centers suffered damage, and 29 ambulances were partially damaged or destroyed. Injured patients needing referral outside Gaza for specialized care were evacuated exclusively through the Egyptian Rafah border crossing. One year after the ceasefire approximately 20,000 people remained displaced.
