In 2008, Israel sought to halt the rocket and mortar fire from Gaza that killed four Israeli civilians that year. In addition, Israel insisted that any deal include an end to Hamas's military buildup in Gaza, and movement toward the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit. Hamas wanted an end to the frequent Israeli military strikes and incursions into Gaza, and an easing of the economic blockade that Israel has imposed since Hamas took over the area in 2007.
January
January 2 Six Palestinians belonging to three militants factions were killed Wednesday morning in a joint Israeli air and ground action in the Gaza Strip near Gaza City. The five Palestinians, four from Hamas and one belonging to the Popular Resistance Committees, died when Israeli ground forces called in air support after the Palestinians fired anti-tank rockets at the soldiers. The sixth, a member of Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, died in a gun battle with Israeli troops. and Israeli forces kill six Palestinian militants in Gaza Strip, USA Today
January 3 Israel sends aircraft and tanks to hit buildings used by extremists. Most were in Khan Yunis. In one clash, the IDF shelled a house in the city, killing an Islamic Jihad militant along with his mother, sister, and daughter. His brother was also killed and possibly affiliated with IJ. Israeli army spokeswoman Capt. Noa Meir said militants were intentionally using civilian areas to fire at troops and blamed them for the deaths. Twelve Palestinians were killed, two to four of them civilians. The Palestinians responded to Israel's airstrikes with a barrage of seven Qassam rockets, one of which hit the yard of a house in the town of Sderot. 25 other rockets were also fired by Palestinians at Israeli towns and forces in the Western Negev. In Nablus, Israel Defense Forces troops discovered two rockets-in-process, in an arms cache belonging to Hamas.;; and
February
February 4 Dimona attack one suicide bomber detonates his bomb, killing an elderly woman. An accomplice is killed by police. Hamas claims responsibility. Meanwhile, a Qassam rocket hit a western Negev open field Friday morning. No damage or injuries were reported.
February 5 An 8-year-old boy and his older brother were seriously wounded Saturday when a rocket from Gaza slammed into the Israeli border town of Sderot. Their mother and a third brother were brought to the hospital suffering shock.
February 7 A 38-year-old teacher was killed and three 16-year-old pupils were injured when Israeli forces opened fire on an agricultural school in Beit Hanoun. In a separate incident, Israeli forces exchanged fire with Hamas, killing six Palestinian militants.Teacher killed and pupils hurt in Israeli missile attack, The Guardian
February 25 Palestinian militants fire five Qassam rockets at Israeli towns, one of which fell near a school in Shderot; 10-year-old Yossi Chymov was critically injured in the attack. Two armed Palestinian militants are killed and three others injured by an Israeli aircraft attack in Khan Yunis. Shortly after, one armed militant was killed and two others injured in another attack, this time in North Gaza.
February 27 Over 46 Qassam rockets are fired by Palestinian militants at the Western Negev, many of them hit the City of Ashkelon and the Town of Sderot among other towns and villages in the area. One of the rockets that landed in a parking lot at the Sapir College killed 47-year-old student Ronni Yechia. Another rocket had a direct hit at a factory lunch-room, the room was destroyed. The factory owner, Yossi Chugi, said: "A lot of damage has been done here. It is a miracale that tens of people weren't killed here today, if it would have hit during lunch time it would have been a disaster." After a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ahud Olmert in Tokyo, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that "We were all sorry about the death of the Israeli university student and affirmed to him (Olmert) that we will continue to state clearly that the rocket attacks against Israel need to stop,"
February 29 In response to longer-range rocket attacks, Israeli forces launched Operation Hot Winter. It run from February 29 through March 3. At least 112 Palestinians and three Israelis were killed, and more than 150 Palestinians and seven Israelis were injured.
March
March 6 Mercaz HaRav massacre: Eight Israeli civilians were killed and nine wounded when a Palestinian Arab attacker opened fire at a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem.
March 18 An Islamic Jihad fugitive was killed at Kafr Saida, north of Tulkarm, in an operation by the anti-terrorist squad. Israeli commandos kill four armed militants in a car on the West Bank, three are from Islamic Jihad.
March 27 Israeli soldiers on a raid in the West Bank arrested the Hamas mastermind of the bloodiest suicide bombing of the Palestinian uprising, a 2002 attack that killed 30 people and wounded 143 others during a Passover celebration. The military said Omar Jabar planned the attack at the Park Hotel in the coastal city of Netanya. The attack was a turning point in the conflict, spurring Israel's military to launch a broad offensive and retake control of West Bank cities. Also Wednesday, Gaza militants shot and lightly wounded an Israeli farmer in his kibbutz's fields near the border fence, according to the Israeli military. Militants also launched more than 10 rockets into Israel, but there were no casualties, the military said.
April
April 1
Israeli forces killed two Hamas militant in a pre-dawn raid and gunfight in Gaza. On Monday, an Israeli shot dead a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank whom the army said tried to stab Jewish settlers at a bus stop. A Palestinian security source said the man killed was a civilian not affiliated with any militant group and denied he attempted to attack Israelis.
April 2
Earlier in the day (Wednesday), a Hamas militant and an Israeli soldier also were killed in clashes in southern Gaza. Militants from the Gaza Strip slipped across the border and opened fire at a fuel depot in southern Israel on Wednesday, killing two Israeli civilians in a brazen daylight raid. Two attackers were subsequently killed and two escaped back into Gaza. The Israeli government held Gaza's Hamas rulers responsible for the attack and sent tanks, troops and aircraft into the Palestinian territory. At least seven additional Palestinians died during the day.
April 16
Three Israeli soldiers were killed in an ambush when troops exchanged gunfire with Palestinian gunmen who were making their way toward the border between Gaza and Israel, just south of the Nahal Oz crossing, an army spokesman said. Reuters cameraman as Fadel Shana, 23 and two bystanders were killed near El Bureij in Gaza during fighting Ten other Palestinians – five militants and five civilians – were killed near El Bureij in Gaza during fighting according to Hamas security forces. Four Hamas members were killed when soldiers entered northern Gaza in a routine operation against militants, an Israeli military spokeswoman said. Hamas security sources said an earlier airstrike killed a Palestinian farmer in northern Gaza near Beit Lahiya. The Israeli military said its aircraft fired at armed men entering a car, hitting one of them.
April 18
A member of Hamas's military wing was killed in an IDF strike in northern Gaza on Friday night, according to Palestinian security officials. The man has been identified as 22-year-old Imad Abu-Amar.
April 19
Hamas used two suicide jeeps to attack an at the Kerem Shalom crossing point with Gaza. Thirteen soldiers were wounded and four Hamas militants were killed. A subsequent airstrike killed one Hamas militant. Later Saturday evening, another missile strike killed four Hamas militants east of Gaza City, Palestinian medics and security officials said. The Israeli military confirmed the strike, and said it targeted a group trying to launch rockets
April 24 A Palestinian gunman killed two 50 year old plus security guards yesterday at an Israeli industrial park near the West Bank border that employs Palestinian workers and whose name means "buds of peace."
April 25 Israeli forces entered a northern Gaza of Beit Lahiya early Saturday and seized a local Hamas leader (Talat Hassan Marouf) from his home amid heavy fighting with Palestinian gunmen, Hamas militants and a Palestinian health official said. The wanted man's 14-year-old daughter was killed in the clashes and his wife wounded. Another nine fighters were injured.
April 28 Several Israeli armored personnel carriers had entered the area of Beit Hanoun in what was described as a routine search for rocket launchers, and snipers . Two heavily armed men approached the Israelis, leading an Israeli aircraft to shoot a missile at them, killing them. The Israelis believe that rucksacks carried by these two fighter apparently had large amounts of explosives, which detonated causing a nearby house to collapse, killing a mother and her four young children. Palestinian witnesses said they believed an Israeli tank shell or a missile from an unmanned drone flew into the small house, killing the four as they were eating breakfast. Two other children from the same family were badly wounded and hospitalized. However, video of the incident photographed by UAV showed that the family was killed from secondary explosions of the militants' weapons and not from the airstrike.
April 30 Hours after Palestinian factions announced their acceptance of an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire proposal on Wednesday, the Israel Air Force bombed a rocket-manufacturing plant in the Gaza Strip. Gazans said one person was killed and three were wounded in the strike on a metal workshop in the southern town of Rafah. The Islamic Jihad militant group identified the dead man as one of its local commanders. One Palestinian witness said three helicopters hovered over the town and were fired at by Palestinians on the ground before the air strike took place. The military said no aircraft were hit. Also on Wednesday, the IDF imposed a full closure on the West Bank that will last through Holocaust Remembrance Day and end late Thursday evening. The IDF said it would allow Palestinians to enter Israel but only on a humanitarian basis and with approval from the civil administration. Close to 20 Kassam rockets pounded the western Negev on Wednesday, with one scored a direct hit on the yard of a home south of Ashkelon, causing light damage and sending a woman into shock. She was taken to Barzilai Hospital. Earlier, a rocket struck near a school in Sderot, the second such incident in two days. On Monday, a Kassam slammed into a schoolyard in the city. No one was wounded in either attack.
May
May 1 An Israeli air strike in the southern Gaza Strip (Rafah) killed a Hamas leader (Nafiz Mansur) who was involved in the capture of a soldier (Corporal Gilad Shalit) two years ago and numerous other attacks, the army said. Palestinian security officials confirmed Mansur's identity as a commander in Hamas, the Islamic movement that controls Gaza.
May 6 An Israeli air strike aimed at armed militants in the Gaza Strip killed one Palestinian gunman and wounded three others on Tuesday, hospital officials and the Israeli army said. The strike on the group near the town of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip was aimed at a mortar launching squad close to the border fence with Israel, Gaza medics said.
May 9 Gaza attackers sent mortar shells crashing into a border community late Friday, killing an Israeli in his garden and wounding three others, officials said. Israel retaliated with missile strikes that left five Hamas militants dead. The surge in violence added pressure on Egyptian-led attempts to halt clashes between Gaza militants and the Israeli military. Gaza's ruling Hamas movement claimed responsibility for the deadly mortar fire on Kfar Aza, a communal farm in southern Israel.