Briefing: Israel-Gaza Conflict 2008-09
January 2009
On the 27 December 2008, Israel launched a three-week military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The conflict was, and continues to be, a controversial issue amongst many in the trade union movement and this briefing seeks to lay out the background and facts.
Operation Cast Lead
- The operation’s stated aim was defensive: to bring an end to the daily rocket attacks and protect innocent Israeli civilians who had endured eight years of violence. It began with an intense bombardment of the Gaza Strip, targeting Hamas bases, police training camps, and police headquarters. Civilian infrastructure, including mosques, houses, medical facilities and schools were also attacked with Israel claiming many of these buildings were being used by militants. The conflict came to an end on January 18 after first Israel and then Hamas announced unilateral ceasefires.
- The number of causalities (combatant and non-combatant) is a subject of ongoing contention, and figures have been difficult to verify, but it is clear that hundreds of Palestinians were killed, and thousands injured. The Al Mazen Centre for Human Rights says that 1,268 people were killed, among them 288 children and 103 women. Israel states that 700 Hamas fighters were among the dead.
- In both its air and ground strikes, Israel says that it only targeted Hamas militants, paramilitary training camps and weapons smuggling tunnels and took precautions to protect civilian life. It also accuses Hamas of continuing to fire rockets indiscriminately into Israel, using Israel’s warnings to organise civilians into forming human shields, and urging people to situate themselves on the rooftops of targeted buildings in order to prevent Israeli strikes.
Background – Hamas in Gaza
- Israel withdrew its remaining settlements from Gaza in August 2005 and the Palestinian Authority took complete control. In January 2006, Hamas won elections to the Palestinian legislature and formed a government in Gaza and the Palestinian territories on the West Bank. A unity government between Hamas and Fatah was then formed in March 2007, but Hamas Islamic militants seized power in a violent coup four months later leaving over 100 dead and Palestinian territory divided; moderate Fatah in the West Bank, and Hamas in Gaza, running a strict Taliban-style totalitarian regime.
- After Hamas’s bloody take over in Gaza, the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree outlawing the militia and, along with Egypt, Israel immediately imposed an economic blockade and partially closed its borders. At the same time Hamas exponentially increased the number of rockets it fired into Israel, as well as significantly increasing the size of its paramilitaries, sending hundreds to train in Iran and acquiring stock piles of advanced weapons from Iran, Syria and Hezbollah (smuggled from Egypt through tunnels into Gaza).
- In June 2008 Hamas agreed to a six-month ceasefire with Israel (19 June -19 December), however throughout this period Hamas continued to fire hundreds of rockets, and Israel, on the most part, maintained its blockade due to its policy of linking the gradual easing of the blockade to the reduction of rocket fire.
- Israel expressed a desire to continue the ceasefire, but Hamas refused the offer saying that Israel had breached the truce by not lifting its blockade. Hamas then increased its rocket fire during the eight days between the end of the ceasefire and the start of Israel’s military operation.
The Humanitarian Crisis
- The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that the Gaza strip humanitarian crisis was "a massive destruction of livelihoods and a significant deterioration of infrastructure and basic services". The International Red Cross said the situation was "intolerable" and a "full blown humanitarian crisis," with more than 4,000 homes destroyed and 50,800 Gazans left homeless.
- International aid agencies battled to meet the urgent needs of the displaced, homeless and injured, as well as to get damaged water, power and sewage infrastructure working again. After significant international pressure, Israel started a daily three-hour ceasefire to allow Palestinians access to the hundreds of truckloads of aid and also coordinated the delivery of fuel for Gaza’s hospitals to ensure that it was being distributed. There were a number of reports that Hamas stole aid and fuel transferred into Gaza to sell to civilians.
- Extensive destruction was caused to businesses and public infrastructure so soon after the conflict a total of £3.2 billion was pledged by the US, EU and many Gulf Arab states to help with reconstruction.
- Israel was accused of a disproportionate military response as well as using collective punishment by United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Israel's response was that its military action in Gaza constituted acts of self-defense rather than reprisals or punishment, meaning that it would be impossible to combine an effective operation to defend its citizens with a “proportional” response to Hamas’ indiscriminate rocket fire.
White Phosphorus
- The Israeli military used white phosphorus munitions in Gaza. It denied using them at first, but acknowledged use after the conflict. The weapon has a potential to cause particularly severe and painful burns or death and its use against civilians or in civilian areas is banned under international law. However, it is legal to use the substance in other conditions such as to illuminate areas during night or as a smoke screen and Israel claims its use was within international law.
Continued Negotiations
- Immediately after the conflict, Egyptian mediators held discussions with Israel and Hamas about extending the cease-fire by a year or more and Hamas and Fatah met in an effort to create a mechanism that would allow both to play a role in rebuilding Gaza. Israel and the international community also put pressure on Egypt to do more to stop weapons smuggling into Gaza and Israel, along with many Western and some Arab countries, asked for assurances that donations given via international aid groups would not be given directly to Hamas.
- During negotiations, Israel said it would not agree to a long term truce or lift the blockade on Gaza without the freeing of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held captive in Gaza since June 2006. But Hamas has insisted that Shalit's release be dependent on the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and be kept separate from the ongoing ceasefire negotiations.
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