Hamas became the government of the Gaza Strip as of 2007.
Israel placed a blockade on the Gaza Strip after the takeover of Hamas.
Israel carried out Operation Cast Lead in December of 2008.
First Hamas–Fatah reconciliation (2011)
Influenced by the Arab Spring, Abbas was willing to travel to Gaza to sign an agreement.
The gap between Hamas and Fatah was bridged in 2011.
November 2012 ceasefire and its violations
On November 14th, 2012, Israel launched Operation Pillar of Defense in the Gaza Strip.
Israel claimed this was in response to over 100 rockets being fired from the Gaza strip.
On November 21st, Egypt brokered a ceasefire containing the following agreements.
Israel should stop all hostilities in the Gaza Strip land, sea and air, including incursions and targeting of individuals.
All Palestinian factions shall stop all hostilities from the Gaza Strip against Israel, including rocket attacks and all attacks along the border.
The crossings should be opened, facilitating the movement of people and goods; Israel should refrain from restricting residents’ movements and from targeting residents in border areas; procedures of implementation should be dealt with 24 hours after the start of the ceasefire.
Violations
Both Israel and Hamas argue that the other violated the ceasefre.
From December 2012 to early July of 2014, the rocket attacks into Israel severely decreased.
Israel maintained its blockade of Gaza.
Israel claimed to find a third tunnel only 300m from a kibbutz, two of the others were packed with explosives.
Second Hamas–Fatah reconciliation
After the failure of the 2013-2014 Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Mahmoud Abas created a unity government with Hamas.
The Palestinian unity government was sworn in on June 2nd, 2014.
Netanyahu announced that Israel would not negotiate any peace deal with the new government.
Why didn’t Netanyahu negotiate with this government?
On June 4th, the Israeli Housing and Construction Ministry published tenders for 1,500 settlement units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Immediate events
3 teenagers were kidnapped from Israel, with an exiled leader, Hussam Qawasmeh later claiming responsibility for Hamas for the kidnappings, though he stated Hamas leadership did not know.
Israel stated that the IDF and Shin Bet had foiled between 54 and 64 kidnapping plots since 2013, and the PA claimed to have foiled 43 of them.
Israel arrested between 350 and 600 Palestinians in the West Bank, including all of Hamas’ leadership, claiming they’d uncovered a Hamas plot to launch a massive wave of violence throughout the West Bank to overthrow the PA.
Did this happen???
Lots of rocket attacks came from the Gaza strip, with Israel responding with airstrikes.
Netanyahu warned that if the rocket attacks did not stop, a major military offensive would be undertaken.
Hamas said it would increase rocket attacks until the arrested Palestinians were released, the blockade was lifted, and the cease-fire was resumed.
Operation timeline
Phase 1: Air strikes
The IDF began Operation Protective Edge by bombing targets.
A cease-fire proposal was announced by the Egyptian government on July 14th, backed by Abbas, but Hamas rejected due to a failure to meet their prior demands.
Phase 2: Ground invasion
On July 16th, Hamas and Islamic Jihad offered a 10-year truce with ten conditions centered on the lifting of the blockade and a prisoner release.
The IDF cleared out tunnel crossings into the Israeli border after 13 Hamas militants invaded the Israeli side of the Gaza border from them.
Hamas rejected a 24 hour extension of a humanitarian cease-fire on July 26th.
On August 1st, the US and UN announced a 72-hour ceasefire, though the terms were disputed and both sides claimed the other violated the ceasefire.
Phase 3: Withdrawal of Israeli troops
On August 3rd, the IDF pulled most of its ground forces out of the Gaza Strip after destroying 32 tunnels built by Hamas and other militants.
On August 5th, Israel announced the arrest of Hossam Kawasmeh on July 11th. According to court documents, he stated that Hamas members in Gaza financed the recruitment and arming of the killers of the 3 abducted teenagers.
Impact
On Gaza residents
Israel set up an IDF field hospital for Gazans at the Erez Crossing
Egypt temporarily reopened the Rafah crossing to allow medical supplies to enter.
Fatah officials accused Hamas of mishandling humanitarian aid meant for civilians, claiming the took the aid and either distributed it to Hamas members or sold it on the black market.
Almost 300,000 Palestinians were displaced, with many lacking access to good food, water, or shelter.
Many churches and mosques were destroyed.
The IDF claimed ammunition was stored in these mosques, though in on AP report residents denied that certain mosques damaged by the IDF had been used for military purposes.
On Israeli residents
Rockets were fired into Israel and damaged civilian infrastructure, causing the Tel-Aviv airport to be closed or reroute flights for some days.
Casualties and losses
Palestinian
About 2,200 Palestinians were killed.
Hamas reported that about 75% of these were civilians.
The IDF claims that about 49% were militants.
It’s worth nothing that it’s difficult to know exactly how many civilians vs militants were killed, though it would appear that the large number of fighting-aged men that were killed heavily implies a large number of them were militants.
Israeli
67 soldiers were killed.
Reactions
Gaza
After the 26 August ceasefire, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research conducted a poll in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip: 79% of respondents said that Hamas had won the war and 61% said that they would pick Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as the Palestinian president, up from 41% before the war.
The Washington Post claims a percentage of Gazans held Hamas accountable for the humanitarian crisis.
Some claim that Hamas routinely accuses protestors of being Israeli spies and has killed more than 50 such protestors.
Israel and the West Bank
Towards the end of the war, after Israel announced the withdrawal of ground forces from Gaza, a poll found 92% support for the war among the Jewish public, and that 48% believed that the IDF had used the appropriate amount of firepower in the operation, while 45% believed it had used too little and 6% believed it had used too much.
The poll also found that 62% of Israeli-Arabs believed the operation was unjustified while 24% believed it was justified, and that 62% believed too much firepower was used, 10% believed too little firepower was used, and 3% thought the appropriate amount of firepower was used.
Alleged violations of international humanitarian law
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh urged the PA to sign the Rome Statues of the ICC.
Them not doing so has prevented the ICC from launching formal investigations.
Israel continued to block independent organizations from investigations into the Gaza strip.
Alleged violations by Hamas
Killing and shooting of Gazan civilians
In a rush to launch rockets into Israel, many Hamas launches failed with rockets landing in the Gaza strip.
Bombs dropping on Al-Shifa Hospital were claimed by both sides to be by the other.
Amnesty International concluded that the explosion at the Shati refugee camp on July 28th (13 civilians dead) were caused by a Palestinian rocket, despite Palestinian claims that it was an Israeli missile.
Killing of suspected collaborators
Hamas executed suspected collaborators in Gaza, then brought victims to hospitals to be added to the number of civilian casualties of Israeli operations.
This was condemned by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Palestinian human rights groups.
On May 26th, 2015, Amnesty International released a report saying that Hamas carried out extrajudicial killings, abductions and arrests of Palestinians and used the Al-Shifa Hospital to detain, interrogate and torture suspects. It details the executions of at least 23 Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel and torture of dozens of others, many victims of torture were members of the rival Palestinian movement, Fatah.
Endangerment of Civilians
Human shields
The EU condemned Hamas and calls for the civilian population to provide themselves as human shields.
France24, The Financial Times, and RT, all filmed a rocket launch pad placed in a civilian area next to a hotel where international journalists were staying.
In September of 2014, a Hamas official acknowledged to an AP reporter that the group had fired rockets from civilian areas.
Use of civilian structures for military purposes
Claim that training manuals were found on urban warfare that states essentially how to utilize co-location of military and civilian objects and human shields.
Source for this claim is the New York Post, is there any other corroborating source?
Medical facilities and personnel
Mohammed Al Falahi, Secretary General of Red Crescent, UAE said that Hamas militants fired on Israeli planes from Red Crescent’s field hospital in order to provoke retaliation, attacked Red Crescent team on their way back and planted land mines on their path.
Intimidation of journalists
Isra al-Modallal, head of foreign relations for the Hamas Information Ministry, said Hamas did deport foreign journalists who filmed Hamas rocket launches, stating that by filming the launch sites the journalists were collaborating with Israel.
Haaretz interviewed many foreign journalists and found “all but a few of the journalists deny any such pressure”. They said Hamas’s intimidation was no worse than what they got from the IDF, and said no armed forces would permit reporters to broadcast militarily sensitive information; and that, furthermore, most reporters seldom saw Hamas fighters, because they fought from concealed locations and in places that were too dangerous to approach.
Alleged violations by Israel
Civilian deaths
Warnings prior to attacks
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch asserted that Israel was not providing effective warning according to international humanitarian law.
Attacks on journalists
17 journalists were killed in the conflict.
The IDF stated that in one case it had precise information that a vehicle marked “TV” that was hit killing one alleged journalist was in military use.
Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, who in August 2014 condemned the killing of Al Aqsa TV journalist Abdullah Murtaja, withdrew her comments after it was revealed that Murtaja was also a combatant in Hamas’s Al Qassam Brigade, and said she “deplored attempts to instrumentalize the profession of journalists by combatants”
Military operations, weaponry and techniques
Gaza
Rockets
According to the IDF, of all the 4,564 projectiles fired at Israel, 224 hit built-up areas, 735 were intercepted by the Iron Dome, 875 fell inside Gaza and the rest fell in open territory or failed to launch.
Efforts to reconstruct Gaza
As of February 1st, 2015, only 125milofthe2.7bil for reconstruction had been paid out, leaving tens of thousands of Gazans homeless.
Only one percent of the needed building material had been delivered.
On September 15th, 2014, a Fatah spokesperson accused Hamas of misappropriating $700 mil of funds intended to rebuild Gaza.
On January 6th, a Hamas spokesperson said the PNA redirected rebuilding funds to the PNA budget.