In November 2012, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched Operation Pillar of Defense (, ʿAmúd ʿAnán, literally: "Pillar of Cloud"), which was an eight-day campaign in the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip, beginning on 14 November 2012 with the killing of Ahmed Jabari, chief of the Gaza military wing of Hamas, by an Israeli airstrike.
The operation was preceded by a period with a number of mutual Israeli–Palestinian responsive attacks. According to the Israeli government, the operation began in response to the launch of over 100 rockets at Israel during a 24-hour period, an attack by Gaza militants on an Israeli military patrol jeep within Israeli borders, and an explosion caused by improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which occurred near Israeli soldiers, on the Israeli side of a tunnel passing under the Israeli West Bank barrier. The Israeli government stated that the aims of the operation were to halt rocket attacks against civilian targets originating from the Gaza Strip and to disrupt the capabilities of militant organizations. The Palestinians blamed the Israeli government for the upsurge in violence, accusing the IDF of attacks on Gazan civilians in the days leading up to the operation. They cited the blockade of the Gaza Strip and the occupation of West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as the reason for rocket attacks.
During the operation, the IDF claimed to have struck more than 1,500 sites in the Gaza Strip. According to a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) report, 174 Palestinians were killed and hundreds were wounded. Approximately 350–700 families were displaced.Initial Findings: 40 of the Palestinians killed by the Israeli military up to the night of 19 Nov. were civilians, among them 19 minors., B'Tselem 21 November 2012 One airstrike killed ten members of the al-Dalu family. Some Palestinian casualties were caused by misfired Palestinian rockets landing inside the Gaza Strip. Eight Palestinians were executed by members of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades for alleged collaboration with Israel.Mistaken Lull, Simple Errand, Death in Gaza , The New York Times, 16 November 2012JODI RUDOREN. "Collaborators fall prey to both sides in Gaza; Price of being suspected, much less convicted, can be fatal – and gruesome." International Herald Tribune. 2012
During the operation, Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) further intensified their rocket attacks on Israeli cities and towns, in an operation code named Operation Stones of Baked Clay (, ḥijārat sijīl) by the al-Qassam Brigades, firing over 1,456 rockets into Israel, and an additional 142 which fell inside Gaza itself. Some of these weapons were fired into Rishon LeZion, Beersheba, Ashdod, Ashkelon, and other population centers. Tel Aviv was hit for the first time since the 1991 Gulf War, and rockets were fired at Jerusalem. The rockets killed three Israeli civilians in a direct hit on a home in Kiryat Malachi. By the end of the operation, six Israelis had been killed, two hundred forty were injured, and more than two hundred had been treated for anxiety by Magen David Adom, an Israeli medical organization. About 421 rockets were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system, another 142 fell on Gaza itself, 875 fell in open areas, and 58 hit urban areas in Israel. A bus in Tel Aviv was bombed by an Arab-Israeli, injuring 28 civilians.
Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other Western countries expressed support for what they considered Israel's right to defend itself, or condemned the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel. China, Iran, Russia, Egypt, Turkey, and several other Arab and Muslim countries condemned the Israeli operation. The United Nations Security Council held an emergency session on the situation, but did not reach a decision. After days of negotiations, a ceasefire mediated by Egypt was announced on 21 November.Iron Dome protects Tel Aviv as army warns of long fight ahead , Times of Israel 17 November 2012 Both sides claimed victory. Israel said that it had achieved its aim of crippling Hamas's rocket-launching ability,Israel dealt Hamas 'a heavy blow' and is prepared to resume offensive if need be, Netanyahu says , Times of Israel 22 November 2012 while Hamas stated that Israel's option of invading Gaza had ended.Gaza leader Haniyeh thanks Iran for helping make Israel ‘scream with pain' , Times of Israel 22 November 2012 According to Human Rights Watch, both sides violated the laws of war during the fighting.
Etymology
Although the official English name of the operation is Pillar of Defense, the Hebrew name translates as Pillar of Cloud. This usage refers to the Pillar of Cloud in the Bible that protected the Israelites during the Exodus. The analogy is thus to the Israel Defense Forces, which shielded Israeli citizens from rocket attacks.
Hamas labelled its actions as "Operation Stones of Shale" (Qur'an 105:4).
Background
In late December 2008, a series of escalations culminated in Israel launching aerial and naval attacks on Gaza and a few days later, a ground invasion. The conflict resulted in between 1,166 and 1,417 Palestinian and 13 Israeli deaths (4 from friendly fire), with significant damage to infrastructure in Gaza. It ended with a unilateral ceasefire by Israel, followed by Hamas declaring a one-week ceasefire.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict in its current form dates to the split in the Palestinian Authority in 2006, which precipitated an armed conflict between Hamas and Fatah. By June 2007, Hamas] had taken over the Government in Gaza and ousted its rival Fatah.Hamas coup in Gaza, in International Institute for Strategic Studies Volume 13, Issue 5, June 2007: 'While there was truth in Fatah's charge that the Hamas offensive in Gaza was tantamount to a coup, Hamas's counter-claim that it was defending a democratically elected government against a campaign to remove it from power was also not unfounded. Over the previous year, Fatah gunmen had repeatedly assaulted parliamentary premises and Hamas-run ministries. Fatah commanders of the PSF openly refused to take orders from the government, while the Fatah-dominated civil service conducted a debilitating strike from September 2006 to January 2007. The PA's preventive security apparatus in Gaza conducted a small-scale campaign of assassinations and abductions against Hamas, to which it responded in kind; by early June it had effectively decapitated the preventive security and smaller, Fatah-dominated general intelligence frameworks.' Following the takeover, Israel and Egypt largely sealed their border crossings with Gaza, making Gaza's economic and humanitarian position precarious.Raji Sourani, in Chantal Meloni, Gianni Tognoni (eds.) Is There a Court for Gaza?: A Test Bench for International Justice, T.M.c. Asser Press, 2012 p. 17. The International Committee of the Red Cross declared that Israel's blockade of Gaza constituted "collective punishment" and was a violation of international humanitarian law, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization report on Gaza also concluded that the blockade was illegal. A UN Report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Inquiry described Israel's naval enforcement of the blockade as legal and appropriate. Israel withdrew its civilian and military personnel in 2005.
Tensions between Israel and the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip continued as the two sides experienced periodic fighting, which saw a major escalation in late 2008. Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in three weeks of air and ground assaults. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the action was a response to repeated rocket and mortars fire into Israel starting in December 2008, rising to 2,378 attacks over an eleven-month period leading to the operation.The Hamas terror war against Israel . Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs . 1 January 2009. See Statistics of Kassam rocket and mortar fire from the Gaza Strip subsection. Update: subsection has been removed. Cached website can be found here In the aftermath of the operation, there was a significant reduction in rocket and mortar fire from Gaza into Israel.
After the 2008–2009 escalation the two sides observed an informal and uneasy cease-fire, although rocket fire from Gaza never completely stopped and Israel conducted raids in Gaza. The IDF noted a steady increase in the number of rockets fired into southern Israel by militant groups in Gaza. By 2011, there were 680, and in 2012, 797 (through 13 November). Hamas demanded that Israel end the naval blockade of Gaza's coastline as a condition to end rocket fire. According to Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem, the Israeli security forces killed 273 Palestinians in the Gaza strip between the end of Operation Cast Lead and 30 October 2012, 113 of whom were civilians not taking part in hostilities.
According to Israeli security officials, Hamas, aided by Iranian technical experts and the Sudanese government, smuggled into Gaza Iranian-made Fajr-5 rockets with increased range and lethality. This move placed the highly populated Israeli central district and other metropolitan areas in range of rocket attacks. However, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari stated, "We haven't sent any weapons to Gaza because it is under blockade, but we are honoured to announce that we gave them the technology of how to make Fajr-5 missiles."Iran supplied Hamas with Fajr-5 missile technology The Guardian 21 November 2012 Ali Larijani said Iran was "honored" to help Gaza's Hamas with "material and military aspects". According to Reuters, there were roughly 35,000 Palestinian militants in Gaza as of November 2012. Israel, which receives billions of dollars of military aid from the US, has a conscript army of 175,000, with 450,000 in reserve equipped with modern weapons systems including F-16 fighter-bombers, Apache helicopter gun ships, and Merkava tanks.
Pre-operation events
Several factors acted to increase tensions between Israel and Hamas.
Israel restricted Gazan fishing due to concerns the fishing boats could be used for smuggling arms and other contraband.Gaza Cease-Fire Helps Fishermen, but Risks Remain , NY Times, December 2012Navy prevents tobacco smugglers from reaching Gaza , YNET, September 2011 Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reported 92 Israeli attacks within the 3 miles zone against Palestinian fishermen in the first half of 2012 with 43 men arrested, 18 boats confiscated and 4 times equipment damaged and confiscated."Israeli Attacks on Palestinian Fishermen in the Gaza Sea" , Fact Sheet June 2012. PCHR, 2 July 2012 Israel has imposed a limited fishing zone, limiting Gazan fishermen to fishing within three nautical miles instead of the twenty stipulated in the Oslo Accords."Gaza Strip: Attacks and their Consequences" , Fact Sheet September 2012. PCHR, 2 October 2012 Fishery provides Gaza with a large share of its food production and provided more than 12,000 jobs. According to Amira Hass, the Israeli Navy routinely fire on Palestinian fishermen, sometimes detaining and transferring them for a minor interrogation at the Shin Bet security service's offices in Ashdod. "Why the mullet, not the Israel Navy, are to blame for the death of a Gaza fisherman" . Amira Hass, Haaretz, 29 October 2012 (premium article)