On the 7th of July 2014 a third war on Gaza was launched by Israel within six years. The war led to more suffering for the Palestinian people who struggled to rebuild Gaza and end the siege.
The prelude to the aggression of 2014 began on 12 June 2014 with the announcement of the disappearance of three Israeli settlers in Hebron south of the West Bank after which the Israeli army launched a military campaign to find them.
On 30 June the bodies of the three settlers were found near Halhul a city in the Hebron governorate. Reports revealed that the Israeli police and intelligence services knew shortly after the incident that they were killed and were not held alive but the Israeli government sent the army and the Shin Bet security services to look for them launching a large-scale raid and arrest campaigns in the West Bank in search of them as if they were alive.
This resulted in Israeli calls for revenge which resulted in the abduction torture and burning alive of child Mohammed Abu Khudair from the Shu’fat refugee camp in occupied Jerusalem which was followed by large-scale protests especially in areas under Israeli control as well as the firing of home-made projectiles from the Gaza Strip on Israeli colonies and communities as well as Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip.
There have been several attempts to stabilize the ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip but the escalation of Israeli crimes after the burning of child Mohammed Abu Khudair and ramming up of two Palestinian workers by Israeli settlers led to the escalation of the shelling between Gaza and Israel as the Israeli warplanes launched a series of raids on Gaza airport south of the Gaza Strip.
At dawn Monday July 7 2014 Israeli warplanes launched a raid on one of the tunnels near the airport east of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip killing six members of Hamas. The Israeli army began a military aggression and the cabinet summoned 40000 reserve soldiers.
The war lasted for 51 days until a ceasefire was reached on Tuesday 26 August with the Palestinian people going out to the streets to celebrate their victory over the most brutal war machine in the region.
War in Numbers
* The number of Palestinian martyrs was 2139 of whom 579 were children 263 were women and 102 were elders. The number of wounded was 11128 of whom 3774 were children 2088 were women and 410 were elders. Khan Younis city had the lion’s share in the number of martyrs.
* The Israeli occupation committed 49 massacres against 90 Palestinian families killing 530 martyrs.
* The Israeli occupation forces destroyed 2358 houses completely and 13644 partially. They also destroyed 60 mosques completely and 109 others partially. Two residential towers and two commercial towers with offices for journalists were also destroyed.
* The number of internally displaced persons hit 466000 throughout the Gaza Strip distributed in various schools and some places that housed families.
* Preliminary estimates of economic losses amounted to more than three and a half billion dollars after the occupation army destroyed 134 factories completely which caused the termination of contracts of 30000 workers.
* Seventy Israelis were killed including 67 soldiers and three settlers according to various Israeli media reports after the declaration of the cease-fire on Tuesday night while the Palestinian resistance confirmed that the figures were much higher.
* Since the beginning of the aggression on July 7 the Palestinian resistance had launched 4564 home-made projectiles at Israeli colonies and cities while the occupation army attacked 5263 targets in the Gaza Strip most of which were civilian houses.
Achievements of resistance factions
While the end of this aggression and its declared objectives by Israel looked similar to the end of the 2008 and 2012 aggressions the scenario that led to the end of the 2014 aggression seemed different.
The Palestinian resistance managed to achieve a lot in terms of capturing Israeli soldiers. The Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades showed pictures of four Israeli soldiers believed to be captured confirming that they would not reveal any information about them without a price.
The election of US President Donald Trump one of the staunchest supporters of Israel in the world contributed to the continuing tension which brought the Palestinian issue into a dangerous stage after Washington declared Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and transferred the US embassy to the occupied city.
A new wave of popular resistance began with the launch of a mass march on Land Day March 30 which called for return to the homeland occupied in 1948 and protested the so-called deal of the century and the blockade of Gaza.
The deal is based on forcing the Palestinians to make unfair concessions including on the status of the city of Jerusalem in preparation for a regional alliance with Israel involving Arab countries most notably Saudi Arabia.
The Israeli army repressed the peaceful marches killing 136 Palestinians and injuring some 15000 others according to official statistics from the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
