Operation Pillar of Cloud
Map of the Gaza Strip
| date | November 14-22, 2012 |
|---|---|
| place | Gaza Strip |
| output | Truce , both sides claim victory for themselves |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
|
|
| Troop strength | |
| Southern Command of the IDF , up to 75,000 reservists | * 20,000 Hamas ** 10,000 Qassam Brigades ** 10,000 security forces * 8,000 Islamic Jihad * unknown number of other fighters |
| losses | |
|
2 dead, |
55 dead, 29 wounded (Palestinian information) |
|
Palestinian civilians: 90 dead (United Nations), 105 dead, 971 injured (Palestinian data), 57 dead (Israeli information), |
|
The Israeli military operation Pillar of Cloud ( Hebrew עַמּוּד עָנָן Amúd Anán ) in November 2012 was directed against Hamas institutions and members in the Gaza Strip . It began with air strikes by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) on the 14th and ended with a ceasefire on the evening of November 21st.
The name is based on the Torah . In the biblical tradition, when God left Egypt , God walked before the Israelites in the form of a pillar of cloud to show them the way and to protect them ( Ex 13.21 LUT ) and ( Ex 14.19-20 LUT ). Hamas called the operation against Israel "slate stones" after sura 105 , verse 4 of the Koran . In the German media, the expression "Operation Pillar of Defense" was predominantly used, based on the official English language used by the Israeli government ("Operation Pillar of Defense").
The Israeli government justified the military offensive with the sharp increase in rocket fire in the previous days, which meant a total restriction of daily life for more than a million people. During the operation, rockets from Gaza also reached the major Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for the first time .
procedure
prehistory
Since Operation Cast Lead in 2008/2009, Hamas and other Palestinian groups, such as the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades of the PFLP , have repeatedly fired rockets at Israel. In 2010, 20 rockets and grenades were fired on Israel in March alone, to which the Israeli army responded with air strikes and brief ground operations. Since December 2010 in particular, there have been various exchanges of fire at the border. Throughout 2010, 55 Palestinians were killed in the clashes, including 22 civilians, according to the UN.
The Palestinian rocket attacks increased particularly in the second half of 2012. According to Israeli authorities, 116 rockets and 55 grenades were fired into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip in October alone. On November 4, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a man who was reportedly unarmed and mentally disabled when he approached the border fence and did not react to warning shots. Four days later, on November 8, Palestinian extremists opened fire on a routine Israeli patrol in the border area. As a result, Israeli armored vehicles and a helicopter entered the buffer zone between Gaza and Israel and returned fire. According to Palestinian sources, a 12-year-old boy was hit by a bullet and killed in the exchange of fire. On the same day, an Israeli soldier was injured at the border by an explosives detonation claimed by Hamas.
On November 10, an armored Israeli jeep was targeted with an anti-tank missile in the border area. Two soldiers were seriously injured, one slightly injured. In response, Israel fired at several Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, first with tanks and then with fighter jets, killing four people. At the same time, Hamas fired about 30 rockets into southern Israel.
12-18 November
The conflict came to a head over the next few days. It was marked by several hundred rocket attacks on targets in Israel by Hamas and retaliatory attacks by the Israeli air force on military positions, government buildings and a police station in Gaza. In the first week of the fighting, around 40 Palestinians - including 13 civilians according to the AP - and three civilians on the Israeli side were killed. In order to limit the number of civilian casualties, the Israeli military first fired a missile without a warhead at a target area to warn the population and only then fired a missile with explosives.
More rockets were launched into Israel in the following days. Sderot was hit . Several people in Israel were slightly injured and houses damaged. On November 14, 2012, the Israeli Air Force targeted the car of Hamas leader Ahmed al-Jabari , who was killed as a result. Israel decided to call up to 30,000 reservists.
On November 15, a rocket from the Gaza Strip hit a residential building in Kirjat Mal'achi , killing a man and two women and seriously injuring five other civilians. In the evening, rockets struck near Tel Aviv . For the first time since the Second Gulf War , an aerial alarm was raised in Tel Aviv. By 12:45 a.m. the next day, the Israeli anti- missile defense system Iron Dome was able to repel 130 missiles from the Gaza Strip.
On the morning of November 16, the Egyptian Prime Minister Hescham Kandil paid a visit to the Gaza Strip, who expressly promised Hamas his support. The Israeli military wanted to grant a cease-fire during the visit if Hamas refrained from another rocket fire on Israel. However, Hamas continued the bombardment, and in response, Israel also continued the air strikes. Around noon there was an air alarm both in Tel Aviv and, for the first time, in Jerusalem, a missile missed its target and exploded in the sea. Israel was also preparing a possible ground offensive, for which numerous buses with soldiers were brought to the Gaza Strip and tanks were brought from Haifa to the Gaza Strip with heavy trucks . On the night of November 16-17, the Israeli air force carried out around 180 attacks, which also hit the Hamas government building. Hamas said that 41 Palestinians had been killed in the Israeli attacks so far. The Hamas police headquarters, the internal security headquarters and the home of a representative of the Interior Ministry were also bombed. According to Palestinian sources, Hamas commander Ahmed Abu Dschalal was killed by an Israeli missile along with two of his brothers and a neighbor in the Al-Mughazi refugee camp east of Dair al-Balah .
On Saturday, November 17, Hamas again fired 133 rockets at Israel, 82 of which were intercepted by Iron Dome. According to the Israeli military, a unit with the Iron Dome missile defense system was set up for the first time in front of the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa . The commissioning of this unit was not planned until January 2013. A total of four Iron Dome weapon systems were stationed around the Gaza Strip and by that time had destroyed 211 missiles in the air. Tel Aviv was again attacked with a rocket from the Gaza Strip, which was intercepted by Iron Dome. Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdesslem made a demonstrative visit to Gaza City.
According to the Hamas government's Ministry of Health, an Israeli air strike on November 18 killed eleven members of a family and injured around thirty other people. According to the Israeli media, the attack was aimed at a Hamas commander who was involved in the launching of rockets and was among those killed. According to Al Jazeera , the Hamas commander lived in the destroyed house, and according to other reports in the house next to it. The Israeli Defense Ministry wants to investigate the attack.
19. – 22. November 2012
On November 19, 2012, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to extend the operation in Gaza in the event of further rockets targeting Israel by Hamas. The Israeli cabinet had approved the drafting of up to 75,000 reservists. Netanyahu also called for the end of the rocket fire from Gaza as a prerequisite for the end of IDF activities. On the same day, Hamas fired 135 projectiles at Israel, 42 of which Iron Dome was able to intercept. On November 20, 2012, the USA moved three warships to the eastern Mediterranean in order to be able to evacuate their citizens from the crisis region if necessary. The role of the Iron Dome missile defense system, financed and developed with the help of the USA, was assigned increasing importance; most of the rockets fired from the Gaza Strip towards inhabited Israeli territory were also intercepted. US security experts suspected that it was thanks to Iron Dome that Israel did not invade the Gaza Strip with a ground offensive. On the evening of November 20, it became apparent that a midnight ceasefire might apply. The ceasefire was supposed to be the result of negotiations in Cairo mediated by Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and in which US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle took part. The International Legal Commission asked the Palestinians to cease rocket attacks. At the same time, the lawyers criticized the Israeli approach as disproportionately harsh and called on Israel to refrain from military action.
On November 21, a bomb exploded in a public bus in Tel Aviv. Numerous people were injured in the explosion. Hamas did not confess directly to the attack, but welcomed it. It was the first terrorist attack in Tel Aviv since 2006. It was expected that this attack would push the hoped-for ceasefire from the previous day into the distance.
On the afternoon of November 21st, Israel and Hamas finally agreed on a ceasefire. Israel stressed that it wanted to give the ceasefire a chance, but reserved a ground offensive. US President Obama praised Israel's decision and at the same time pledged further support for the expansion of Iron Dome. The ceasefire lasted on the night of November 22nd, but Hamas still fired about a dozen rockets for up to an hour after the ceasefire began.
Effects
On November 26, 2012, the Palestinian Ministry of Religious Affairs issued a fatwa criminalizing violations of the peace accord with Israel.
This peace lasted exactly three months. On February 26, 2013, the first post-op Pillar of Clouds rocket was launched from Gaza into Israel in the Ashkelon area .
Warfare and representation on the Internet
Hamas and the IDF both used Twitter to represent their positions.
The IDF used Twitter and a live blog during Operation . The IDF Twitter account gained 50,000 followers in less than a day. Hamas used Twitter to announce rockets and mortar attacks and to spread reports of Israeli casualties. Foreign Policy spoke of a milestone in military communications.
Based on the suggestion of a teenager, a mobile app was developed in Israel that gave an alarm in the event of imminent impacts in the vicinity of the user and announced the nearest shelter.
A threatening video from Hamas with statements such as “Wait for us at the next bus stop” was used as a real satire in Israel due to technical inadequacies and the broken Hebrew.
Hamas sent a series of spam mails alleged to have IDF addresses and identified pictures of mutilated or killed children from the Syrian civil war as victims of the IDF.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ceasefire between Israel and Hamas maintains , Tagesschau (SF) , November 22, 2012
- ^ The main armed groups in Gaza , gulfnews.com, November 19, 2012
- ^ A b c Israel under fire - November 2012 , Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, November 22, 2012
- ↑ a b The total numbers of victims of the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip ( Memento of December 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), Palestinian Center for Human Rights, November 24, 2012
- ^ A b After eight days of fighting, ceasefire is put to the test , The Times of Israel, November 21, 2012
- ↑ Gaza: Build on Ceasefire to Address Rights Abuses , Human Rights Watch , November 23, 2012
- ^ Hamas executes six suspected informants for Israel on Gaza street , The Guardian , November 20, 2012
- ↑ http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=6423
- ↑ Explanation of the choice of wording cloud column
- ↑ Behind the Headlines: Operation Pillar of Defense, November 14, 2012
- ↑ PFLP says fighters will continue to strike Israel Ma'an News Agency, November 17, 2012
- ^ Gaza Strip
- ↑ August 20, 2011: Israel continues deadly air strikes on Gaza
- ↑ March 22, 2011: Israeli air strikes wound 19 in Gaza Strip
- ↑ April 6, 2011: Palestinians: Two civilians wounded in Israel air strike on Gaza
- ↑ November 4, 2012: Israel kills Palestinian man near Gaza border - medics
- ↑ November 8, 2012: Israeli gunfire kills Palestinian boy clash in Gaza
- ^ Gaza: Palestinians killed and Israeli soldiers injured , BBC.com of November 11, 2012
- ↑ a b c Hundreds of rockets on Israel - welt.de
- ↑ Kershner Akram, Isabel Fares: Violence Surges on Israeli-Gaza Border. The New York Times , November 10, 2011. Retrieved November 18. [1]
- ↑ NZZ of November 11, 2012
- ↑ Spiegel online, November 17, 2012: Attacks on Gaza, Hamas swears revenge for Israel , The Guardian, November 17, 2012: Gaza rockets land near Jerusalem as fears of ground offensive grow
- ^ NYT - A Gaza War Full of Traps and Trickery
- ↑ Hamas military chief dies in air strike by Israelis - welt.de
- ↑ Israel has 30,000 reservists called up - zeit.de
- ^ A "solidarity visit" from Egypt - tagesschau.de ( Memento from November 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Israel brings tanks and reservists to the border area - welt.de
- ↑ tagesschau.de : Air alarm in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem , accessed on November 16, 2012
- ^ A "solidarity visit" from Egypt - tagesschau.de ( Memento from November 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Missile alarm in Tel Aviv - sueddeutsche.de
- ↑ Israel brings tanks and reservists to the border area - welt.de
- ↑ Israel bombs Hamas' seat of government ; SPON, Nov 17, 2012
- ↑ Israel bombs Hamas ' seat of government , T-Online, sighted November 17, 2012
- ↑ Air alarm in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem ( Memento from November 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), Stern from November 16, 2012
- ↑ Israel's air force destroys Hamas seat of government - tagesschau.de ( Memento from November 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Israel attacks again targets in the Gaza Strip. In: sueddeutsche.de. November 18, 2012, accessed May 10, 2018 .
- ↑ http://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/israel-gaza112.html ( Memento from November 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Defense system intercepts missile in front of Tel Aviv - tagesschau.de
- ↑ http://de.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idDEBEE8AG00120121117
- ^ SpiegelOnline: The Hostages of Gaza
- ↑ rp-online: Israel wants to investigate attack on residential building
- ^ Negotiations in Cairo, bombs on Gaza . In: tagesschau.de , ARD, November 19, 2012. Archived from the original on November 24, 2012. Retrieved on November 24, 2012.
- ↑ a b Netanyahu sets conditions . In: stern.de , Gruner + Jahr, November 20, 2012. Accessed November 24, 2012.
- ↑ Further attacks, further diplomatic efforts . In: tagesschau.de , ARD, November 20, 2012. Archived from the original on November 24, 2012. Retrieved on November 24, 2012.
- ↑ Ralph Sina: “Iron Dome” instead of an invasion? . In: tagesschau.de , ARD. Archived from the original on November 24, 2012. Retrieved on November 24, 2012.
- ↑ Ralf Schuler: Spectacular turning point in the Gaza conflict , on: BILD.de of November 20, 2012
- ↑ Lawyers criticize attacks on civilians in the Gaza conflict ( Memento from February 6, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ ceasefire yes - but with reservation . In: heute.de , ZDF, November 21, 2012. Archived from the original on November 24, 2012. Retrieved on November 24, 2012.
- ↑ Michael Borgstede: Israel reserves the right to use the ground in Gaza , in: Die Welt, November 21, 2012
- ↑ The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas holds , in: Die Welt, November 22, 2012; Retrieved November 22, 2012
- ↑ Clemens Verenkotte: Fatwa strengthens ceasefire ( Memento from November 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), on: tagesschau.de from November 25, 2012
- ↑ http://embassies.gov.il/berlin/NewsAndEvents/Pages/Rakete-auf-Ashkelon-13-02-26.aspx#p
- ^ Israel, Twitter, and the Line Between Free Speech and Violence - Businessweek
- ↑ Lauren E Bohn: Israel and Hamas battle on social media as well . In: Boston Globe , November 15, 2012.
- ↑ a b Alex Spillius: Israelis and Palestinians in first Twitter was . In: The Telegraph . 2012-11-15. Retrieved November 16, 2012.
- ^ Uri Friedman: Israel Defense Forces live blogs Gaza offensive ( World Wide Web log) In: Foreign Policy . November 15, 2012. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
- ↑ Gaza conflict: app alerts Israelis when rocket is fired . Telegraph. Retrieved November 21, 2012.
- ↑ Hamas video threatening Israelis draws more parody than fear . Haaretz. Retrieved November 18, 2012.
- ^ Psychological warfare on the digital battlefield . Haaretz. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
- ↑ Hamas launches email assault . Times of Israel. Retrieved November 20, 2012.
- ↑ Brazen faking of images Reveals Hamas' desperation . Fox News. Retrieved November 21, 2012.
- ↑ Robert Johnson: Busted: Hamas Tweeted Months-Old Picture From Rebel Attack In Syria . Business Insider. November 15, 2012. Retrieved November 16, 2012.
- ^ Adam Chandler: Hamas Recycles Pictures of Syrian Dead, and claims them as Palestinian dead . In: Tablet Magazine . Retrieved November 16, 2012.
- ↑ 'Surprise' rocket fire at Jerusalem shows Hamas flailing but still seeking to escalate the conflict . Times of Israel. Retrieved November 17, 2012.