The following is a timeline of the 2014 Gaza War. Over 2014, Palestinians suffered the highest number of civilian casualties since the Six-Day War in 1967, according to a United Nations report, given the July–August conflict, and rising tolls in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. A spike in Israeli casualties also occurred. 2,256 Palestinians and 85 Israelis died, while 17,125 Palestinians, and 2,639 Israelis suffered injuries.'UN says Palestinian death toll highest since 1967,' Ma'an News Agency 26 March 2015.Fragmented Lives: Humanitarian Overview,2014 OCHA March 2015:'2014 witnessed the highest civilian death toll since 1967 due to the July–August hostilities in Gaza, and a significant increase in Palestinian fatalities in the West Bank. There was also a marked increase in Israeli casualties, as a result of Gaza hostilities and from tension in East Jerusalem.'.
For events pertaining to the conflict which occurred before 8 July 2014, see Background of the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict and Operation Brother's Keeper.
Overview
Beginning of the conflict On the evening of 12 June 2014, three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped in the West Bank. Israeli leadership has placed the responsibility for their abduction on Hamas. On 30 June, corpses of the teenagers were found. Other commentators, such as Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, and NBC reporter Ayman Mohyeldin, queried the abduction and murder of the Israeli teenagers as being the real start of the chain of events leading to the major conflict. They saw parallels in the earlier killing of two Palestinian teenagers in the Beitunia killings. The autopsy report confirming that live IDF fire had been the cause of death of one of the Palestinian teenagers had become public knowledge the day before the kidnapping of the Israeli teenagers.
The operation was also preceded by the jailing of hundreds of Palestinians, by air strikes on Gaza in which 3 Palestinians were killed and more than a dozen injured, by the killing of at least 6 Palestinians, injuring of dozens, house demolitions and lootings in the West Bank, by the kidnapping and killing of a Palestinian youth, and by massive rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip to southern Israel. In June 2014, 66 rockets were fired in 30 attacks, wounding three people. In the eight first days of July, 250 missiles were fired in 104 attacks, injuring seven people. On 7 July, 80 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip. On 7 July 2014, the Security Cabinet of Israel decided to begin a "counter-terrorist operation". After an airstrike killed seven Hamas militants in Khan Yunis, Hamas itself assumed responsibility on 7 July for missiles fired from Gaza and launched 40 rockets towards Israel.
Phase 1: Air strikes As the Israeli operation began, and the IDF bombarded targets in the Gaza Strip with artillery and airstrikes, Hamas continued to fire rockets and mortar shells into Israel in response. A cease-fire proposal was announced by the Egyptian government on 14 July, backed by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas; the Israeli government accepted it and temporarily stopped hostilities on the morning of 15 July, but Hamas rejected it in "its current form", citing the fact Hamas has not been consulted in the formation of the ceasefire and it omitted many of their demands. By 16 July, the death toll within Gaza had surpassed 200 people.
Phase 2: Ground invasion On 16 July, Hamas and Islamic Jihad offered the Israeli government a 10-year truce with ten conditions centred on the lifting of the blockade and the release of prisoners who were released in the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap and were re-arrested; it was not accepted. On 17 July, a five-hour humanitarian ceasefire, proposed by the UN, took place. Approximately five and a half hours prior to the ceasefire's effect, the IDF sighted 13 armed Hamas militants emerging from a Gazan tunnel on the Israeli side of the Gaza border. IDF destroyed the tunnel's exit, ending the incursion. After the ceasefire, IDF began a ground offensive on the Gaza Strip focused on destroying tunnels crossing the Israel border. On 20 July, the Israeli military entered Shuja'iyya, a populous neighborhood of Gaza City, resulting in heavy fighting.
On 24 July, over 10,000 Palestinians in the West Bank protested against the Israeli operation; 2 Palestinian protesters were killed. 150 Hamas militants who surrendered to the IDF were being questioned about Hamas operations. On 25 July, an Israeli airstrike killed Salah Abu Hassanein, the leader of Islamic Jihad's military wing. On 26 July, another humanitarian ceasefire took place for twelve hours, followed by a unilateral extension by Israel for another twenty-four hours, which was rejected by Hamas. The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip topped 1,000.
On 1 August, the US and UN announced that Israel and Hamas had agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire starting at 08:00. There was dispute about the terms of the ceasefire: Israel and the US stated that they allowed Israel to "continue to do operations to destroy tunnels that pose a threat to Israeli territory that lead from the Gaza Strip into Israel proper as long as those tunnels exist on the Israel side of their lines"; Hamas said that it would not accept such a condition. The ceasefire broke down almost immediately after it started. Israel blamed Hamas for violating the ceasefire, saying a group of Israeli soldiers were attacked by Palestinian militants emerging from a tunnel. Palestinians said the IDF was the first to breach the ceasefire when at 08:30 it destroyed 19 buildings while undertaking work to demolish tunnels. According to the PLO, the Palestinian Authority and Gazan sources, Hamas attacked an Israeli unit, killing an Israeli officer (Hadar Goldin, who was initially thought to have been captured) while Israeli forces were still engaged in military activities in Rafah on Gaza's territory before the truce came into effect. Tweets reported the battle in Rafah before the deadline for the cease-fire.Max Blumenthal and Allison Deger, 'Who broke the ceasefire? Obama blames Hamas against the evidence,' Mondoweiss 2 August 2014. Hamas also killed two soldiers in a suicide bombing attack. Senior Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk accused Israel of creating pretexts to undermine the Gaza ceasefire and said that Palestinian fighters abducted the officer and killed the two soldiers before the start of the humanitarian truce, which a Hamas witness has stated began at 7:30 and lasted five minutes,'Hamas reveals first image of Shalit in captivity,' Ynet 28 August 2015. while Israel said the event took place at 09:20, after the 08:00 start of the ceasefire.Gaza Fighting Intensifies as Cease-Fire Falls Apart, Jodi Rudoren, and Isabel Kershneraug, 1 August 2014: "Israel said the attack, from under a house near the southern border town of Rafah, took place at 9:20 a.m., soon after the 8 a.m. onset of the temporary truce ..."Captured, killed or missing? Fate of Israeli soldier remains unknown, by Mariano Castillo, Chelsea J. Carter and Salma Abdelaziz of CNN, 1 August 2014
Phase 3: Withdrawal of Israeli troops
On 3 August, IDF pulled most of its ground forces out of the Gaza Strip after completing the destruction of 32 tunnels built by Hamas and other militants.Israel withdraws most troops from Gaza Associated Press On 5 August, Israel announced that it had arrested Hossam Kawasmeh on 11 July, and suspected him of having organized the killing of the three teenagers. According to court documents, Kawasmeh stated that Hamas members in Gaza financed the recruitment and arming of the killers.
On 10 August, another Egyptian proposal for a 72-hour ceasefire was negotiated and agreed upon Israeli and Palestinian officials, and on 13 August it was extended for another 120 hours to allow both sides to continue negotiations for a long-term solution to end the month-long fighting. On 19 August, a 24-hour ceasefire extension renewal was violated just hours after agreement with 29 Hamas rockets fired in 20 minutes, with IAF airstrikes in response, killing 9 Gazans. The Israeli delegation was ordered home from Cairo.On 20 August, a Hamas official in exile in Turkey,Orlando Crowcroft, 'Hamas official: we were behind the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers', The Guardian, 21 August 2014. Saleh al-Arouri, claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and the murder in an address he delivered on behalf of Khaled Mashal at the conference of the International Union of Muslim Scholars in Istanbul, a move that might reflect a desire by Hamas to gain leverage.Jack Khoury, Hamas claims responsibility for three Israeli teens' kidnapping and murder', Haaretz 21 August 2014. In the address, he said: "Our goal was to ignite an intifada in the West Bank and Jerusalem, as well as within the 1948 borders... Your brothers in the Al-Qassam Brigades carried out this operation to support their imprisoned brothers, who were on a hunger strike... The mujahideen captured these settlers in order to have a swap deal." Hamas leader Khaled Mashal accepted that members of Hamas were responsible, stating that he knew nothing of it in advance and that what the leadership knew of the details came from reading Israeli reports.'Mashal: Hamas was behind murder of three Israeli teens', Ynet, 22 August 2014. Meshaal, who has headed Hamas' exiled political wing since 2004, has denied being involved in the "details" of Hamas "military issues", but "justified the killings as a legitimate action against Israelis on "occupied" lands."
On 21 August, an Israeli airstrike in Rafah killed three of Hamas's top commanders: Mohammed Abu Shammala, Raed al Atar and Mohammed Barhoum. During the period from 22 to 26 August, over 700 rockets and mortar shells fired into Israel, killing 3 Israelis. On 26 August, Israel and Hamas accepted another cease-fire at 19:00.
Result and post-conflict events On 16 September, a mortar shell was fired to Israel for the first time since the cease-fire commenced. Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon reassured border town populations that fighting would not resume with the Gaza Strip at the end of this month, the same time of year as the Jewish new year.
According to Palestinians on 1 October, Israeli forces entered the Gaza Strip and fired upon Palestinian farmers and farms. No injuries were reported.
IDF reported that on 31 October a rocket or a mortar shell was launched from Gaza into southern Israel without causing harm.
On 23 November, a Palestinian farmer was shot dead in Gaza, marking the first time a Palestinian from Gaza had been killed by Israeli fire since the seven-week war between Israel and Hamas militants ended with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire on 26 August. The Israeli army said two Palestinians had approached the border fence and had ignored calls to halt, prompting troops to fire warning shots in the air. "Once they didn't comply, they fired towards their lower extremities. There was one hit," a spokeswoman said.
Timeline, weeks 1–4 (7 July – 4 August)
Week 1
7 July After an Israeli Air Force strike killed 7 Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip the day before, Hamas responded by launching rockets and assumed responsibility for all rockets fired from Gaza.Scott McConnell, Israel Runs Up the Score, The American Conservative 16 July 2014.Mouin Rabbani Israel Mows the Lawn, London Review of Books, Vol. 36 No 15 • 31 July 2014 page 8John Kerry's First Peace Effort in Israel and Palestine Failed, But Now He Needs to Try Again, The New Republic 9 July 2014David C. Hendrickson