Operation Pillar of Defense

Operation Pillar of Defense (, Amúd Anán, literally: "Pillar of Cloud") is an Israel Defense Forces operation in the Gaza Strip, officially launched on 14 November 2012 with the killing of Ahmed Jabari, chief of the Gaza military wing of Hamas. The stated aims of the operation are to halt the rocket attacks originating from the Gaza Strip and to disrupt the capabilities of militant organizations. According to the Israeli government, the operation began in response to three events : Palestinian groups launching over 100 rockets at Israeli civilians over a 24-hour period, an attack on an Israeli military patrol jeep within Israeli borders by Gaza militants, and a tunnel explosion caused by IEDs near Israeli soldiers on the Israeli side of the fence.

During the operation, the IDF has launched more than 950 airstrikes against targets in the Gaza Strip, including dozens of rocket launching pads, weapons depots, and facilities of the Hamas authority in Gaza. They also hit a building hosting several regional and western media offices. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, 102 Palestinians have been killed, of which 57 were civilians, 44 militants and one policeman. While, the IDF has claimed that out of the 102 fatalities only a third were civilians. Additionally, one man was publicly executed by Hamas for alleged collaboration with Israel. The Hamas-run Health Ministry estimates that 720 Palestinians have been wounded.

During the operation, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad further intensified their rocket attacks on Israel in an offensive code named by Hamas Operation Stones of Baked Clay (حجارة سجيل, ḥijārat sajīl) in reference to a verse from the Quran (Surah 105:4). It is known as Operation Blue Sky (السماء الزرقاء, as-samā' az-zarqā' ) by members of the PIJ. The militant groups fired over 1,147 Iranian Fajr-5, Russian Grad rockets, Qassams and mortars into Beersheba, Ashdod, Ashkelon and other population centers. Three Israeli civilians were killed in a direct hit on a home in Kiryat Malachi, and rockets hit Tel Aviv for the first time since the 1991 Gulf War. By 19 November, over 252 Israelis had been physically injured in rocket attacks, and thirty more had been treated for acute stress reaction. Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system has intercepted at least 342 of rockets fired into Israel, 664 rockets have landed in Israeli territory.

The European Union, United States, United Kingdom, France and other Western countries expressed support for Israel's right to defend itself, and/or condemned the Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel. Iran, Egypt, Turkey and several other Arab and Muslim countries condemned the Israeli operation. The United Nations Security Council held an emergency session on the situation but did not reach a decision. According to the CNN/ORC International poll, conducted between 16th and 18th of November, 57% of American public think " Israel is justified in taking military action in Gaza" and almost 60% of American public sympathize with Israel, while 13% sympathize with the Palestinians.

There have been ongoing negotiations between Hamas and Israel toward a ceasefire brokered by Egypt.

Background
After winning the Palestinian legislative elections of 2006, Hamas eventually assumed complete power over the Gaza Strip in June 2007. The intervening period had been riven with inter-factional conflict, which culminated in a complete seizure of military control from its rival Fatah, which, though defeated at the polls was reportedly working, with U.S. logistical and technical assistance, to overthrow the democratically elected government. In response, Israel closed Gaza's land borders in June of that year, making Gaza's economic and humanitarian position precarious. Red Cross believes Israel's blockade is illegal under international humanitarian law, one UN report stated the blockade was illegal, while another UN report stated that the blockade was both legal and appropriate. Although Israel withdrew its civilians and military personnel in 2005, the United States, United Nations and Arab League consider Israel to be an occupying power in the territory. Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist armed group designated by the United States, the European Union, Canada and Japan as a terrorist organization, has called for the destruction of Israel since 1988, when it included this goal as a principle in its founding charter. Norway, Russia and Turkey do not include Hamas in their lists of terrorist organizations.

In late 2008 and early 2009 a three-week armed conflict (the "Gaza War") took place, after a truce broke down which had largely held since June that year when six Hamas fighters were killed in an Israeli incursion into the Gaza strip. At least 1,100 Gazans and 13 Israelis were killed in the conflict. Israel's stated aim was to stop rocket fire into Israel, after 2378 rockets and mortars were launched from Gaza into Israel over an eleven month period. In the aftermath of Israel's operation, rocket attacks in 2009 plummeted to 190 in all. Tensions between Israel and the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip continued, as the two sides experienced periodic fighting, and rocket fire on southern Israel has been on a steady rise: 375 rocket attacks in 2011 and 797 attacks in 2012 (up to 13 November). Forcing many of the estimated one million civilians in southern Israel to repeatedly head into bomb shelters and close their schools. According to Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem, the Israeli security forces have killed 271 Palestinians in the Gaza strip between the end of Operation Cast Lead and 30 October 2012.

Hamas, with aid from Iranian technical experts and the Sudanese government, smuggled in to Gaza Iranian-made Fajr-5 rockets with increased range and lethality, placing the highly populated Israeli central district, and other metropolitan areas in range. Iran has denied that they have been supplying Hamas with rockets.

Pre-operation events
After a week in which dozens of rockets struck Israel and Israel conducted strikes against militant targets in Gaza in a major escalation on 24 October, Gazans fired 80 rockets and mortars into southern Israel in a 24-hour period. Thirty-two missiles struck the Lachish region and 28 the western Negev. A rocket strike on the agricultural area of the Eshkol region severely wounded two Thai workers. Earlier that day three members of a Palestinian rocket-launching squad were killed by airstrikes and Israeli tanks returned fire at launching sites in Gaza. Hamas promised to "continue carrying the rifle...until the liberation of Palestine and the defeat of the occupation." On 25 October, a ceasefire was allegedly negotiated by Egypt, but the existence of any truce was disputed both by Israeli and Palestinian officials. . Although aggression continued in the following days, there were no more casualties on either side until 2 November.

On 2 November a 22-year-old Palestinian, who according to IDF was suspected of attempting to place an explosive device on the Gaza-Israel border, was seriously wounded on Friday morning by Israeli tank fire. On 5 November, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 20-year-old Palestinian man who approached a fence near Gaza's side of the border with Israel, reportedly ignoring warning shots and instructions to leave the area. Palestinians said that the man was unarmed. On 5 November a Palestinian road side bomb exploded and Israeli soldiers were injured. On 8 November, the IDF made a short-range incursion into Gaza after finding more bombs along the border, leading to a gunfight with the Popular Resistance Committees. During the clash, a 13-year-old Palestinian boy was killed according to Palestinians "by machine-gun fire, either from IDF helicopters or tanks that took part in the incident." Later that day, Palestinian militants detonated an explosives-packed tunnel they had dug on the border, wounding four Israeli soldiers. Hamas' military wing claimed responsibility for the blast, stating that it was in response to the killing of the boy.

According to Arutz Sheva, 2 Qassam rockets were fired into Israel on 9 November, exploding in open ground.



On 10 November, militants fired an anti-tank missile at an IDF Jeep on routine patrol near Israel's side of the border, wounding four soldiers, one of whom is in critical condition. The IDF shelled the source of the fire and pre-chosen targets in the Sa'ajiya area. Hamas spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said that four teenagers were killed. Gaza militants then fired at least 30 rockets and several mortar shells into southern Israel, causing the Color Red siren to sound in Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gan Yavne and surrounding areas causing Israelis within seven kilometers of the Gaza Strip to remain near protected areas. The Gan Yavne regional council canceled school because of the rocket barrage.

The sides continued to exchange fire for several days after the incident. Palestinian militants fired more than 100 rockets, striking homes in Israeli cities, one landing near a school. Several Israelis were wounded by shrapnel in a barrage designed to coincide with the morning commute to work. Two people were injured when their car sustained a direct hit. Schools across southern Israel were closed. The mayor of Beersheba, Ruvik Danilovich, explained, "we have experienced hits on our education institutions in the past ... 40,000 children will remain at home today because of the attack that hit us out of the blue." Israel carried out further airstrikes in Gaza. Six Palestinian militants were killed, including one militant belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

In the days before the operation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that "Israel's reaction will come at the appropriate time." However, following a cabinet meeting in the morning before the operation, Minister Benny Begin said that "the current exchange of hostilities seems to be over". According to one Israeli analyst, these mixed messages, the expected diplomatic repercussions from Egypt and the risks of a war on the eve of the Israeli elections are three factors designed to foster a laissez-faire atmosphere for Gaza's Palestinian leaders.

On 12 November, Hamas and PIJ officials indicated a willingness to discuss a ceasefire. A PIJ spokesman said, "The ball is in Israel's court. The resistance factions will observe Israel's behavior on the ground and will act accordingly." However, Palestinians fired 12 rockets at Israel throughout the day. A factory and a house was hit, and three civilians were wounded. Israel asked the UN Security Council to condemn the rocket attacks, with Barak saying that Israel "would not accept the harm to daily life of our civilians".

An Israeli peace activist, Gershon Baskin, who was a mediator between Israel and Hamas in the negotiations that resulted in the release of Gilad Shalit, reported that hours before the strike that killed Ahmed Jabari, he received a draft of a permanent truce agreement between Israel and Hamas.

14 November
The operation began about 16h (Israel time) with an airstrike targeting Ahmed Jabari, chief of Hamas’s military wing. Osama Hamdan, a Hamas representative in Lebanon, claimed that the airstrike also killed Jabari’s son. Hamdan’s claim was quickly shown to be false. The IDF released a video of this airstrike. The IDF also struck against 20 Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, including underground rocket launchers and an ammunition warehouse stocking Iranian-made, long-range Fajr-5 missiles. The IDF said that many of the targeted weapon stashes were in residential areas and evidenced “the pattern of Hamas to use the population in Gaza as human shields.” Israel claims to have destroyed most of this long-range capability. An IDF spokesman said that the goal of the operation is to “bring back quiet to southern Israel, and... to strike at terror organizations.” At the same time, Israeli spokespersons said that it would try “to avoid civilian casualties.” On the same day, 11-month-old Omar Misharawi, son of Jihad Misharawi, a BBC Arabic video editor residing in Gaza, was reportedly killed. A colleague said Misharawi told him that his son was killed by an Israeli shell and that there had been no fighting in his neighborhood at the time.

Gazan militants continued to fire rockets towards the Israeli cities of Beersheba, Ashdod, Ofakim and the Shaar Hanegev and Eshkol Regional Council. The Iron Dome missile defense system made 130 interceptions. About 55 rockets were launched on the evening of 14 November, including a Grad rocket fired in the direction of the Negev Nuclear Research Center near Dimona. On the night of 14 November, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the Israeli cabinet had authorized a partial call-up of reservists in case they were needed for a large ground-based operation.

Egyptian military confirmed, 3 rockets fired from Sinai toward Israel, by militants Jihadist group in an area that over the last 18 months was used several cross-border shooting attacks and rocket launches.

15 November
Israel continued its offensive through the night, carrying out over 100 strikes on targets in Gaza. An IDF spokesperson stated that seven militants had been killed in the overnight attacks.

On 15 November, 13 Israelis were treated for injuries suffered during the morning. Three Israelis, a man and two women, were killed when a rocket struck a four-storey building in Kiryat Malachi. Magen David Adom paramedics treated five wounded people at the scene, including a 11-month-old child who was critically injured. A further five missiles were fired at the town as emergency services attempted to rescue those trapped inside the debris. A residence in Ashdod and a school in Ofakim were struck by rockets. During the morning the Israeli air force continued flying sorties to both to identify and destroy targets in the Gaza strip. The attacks included an airstrike on Khan Younis, in the Southern Gaza Strip, that led to the injury of four people including a woman and two children, according to Palestinian sources.

Israel put all of its communities with less than 15 seconds of warning from mortar/rocket attack in lockdown and closed all schools in less than 60-second warning radius. The Israeli air force distributed leaflets over Gaza telling residents to keep a distance from away from Hamas facilities and their forces.

Two Fajr rockets landed in the suburbs of Tel Aviv metropolis. No injuries were reported. This was the first time that Gush Dan has been targeted by missiles since the Persian Gulf War, when Saddam Hussein launched a number of Scud missiles at Israel. On the night of 15 November, the Israeli Air Force launched a series of 70 bombing runs to destroy what it said were underground medium-range rocket launchers. Palestinian sources said that 15 people were killed in Gaza as a result of the IAF strikes, including five militants and two children during the airstrikes.

16 November


The prime minister of Egypt, Hisham Qandil, paid a visit to the Gaza Strip on 16 November. His official purpose of the visit was to "show solidarity with the Palestinian people." He arranged for a 3-hour ceasefire to accommodate his visit. About 50 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip during this window hitting sites in southern Israel. Hamas argued that the IDF bombed a Hamas commander's house in Gaza during the ceasefire, something the IDF strongly denied, and accused Hamas of violating the cease fire.

A four-year-old Gazan boy, Mahmoud Sadallah, was killed after an explosion in Annazla. Experts from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights examined the site and opined the explosion was caused by a Palestinian rocket, and the boy's mother acknowledged that Palestinian militants may have been responsible. According to the New York Times, "the damage was nowhere near severe enough to have come from an Israeli F-16, raising the possibility that an errant missile fired by Palestinian militants was responsible for the deaths." A ballistics expert confirmed that "it is reasonable to say that this damage is from a relatively small explosion at close range." Hamas officials and other relatives said that he was killed in an Israeli airstrike. Israel denied that it carried out any attacks in the area at the time. The Associated Press reported that "no one appeared to have witnessed the strike" and that "local security officials quickly took what remained of the projectile, making it impossible to verify who fired it."

Through the evening of 16 November, around 500 rockets were fired from Gaza. Iron Dome intercepted 184 of these. Israel at this point had bombed about 500 targets in Gaza. Palestinan militants fired a rocket aimed at Gush Etzion setting off air raid sirens in nearby Jerusalem. A rocket struck a home in Ashdod wounding five Israeli civilians.

Also that evening, the Israeli cabinet approved expanding the cap on reservist call-ups from 30,000 to 75,000. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that the government was not considering an overthrow of the Hamas-led government in Gaza.

17 November
The IDF broadened its targets in the offensive from military targets to include Hamas government sites, with an Israeli air strike destroying the office building of the Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza. 30 people were rescued from the rubble of the building. The World Health Organization reported that "Gaza hospitals are overwhelmed with casualties from Israel's bombings and face critical shortages of drugs and medical supplies." According to the Health Ministry officials in Gaza "382 people have been injured - 245 adults and 137 children." Israel's Defense Ministry announced it will open the Kerem Shalom border crossing to allow civilian supplies to reach Gaza.

Over 70 rockets were launched at Southern Israel. According to Magen David Adom, Palestinian rocket attacks injured sixteen Israelis and twenty Israelis were treated for shock. Two Fajr-5 missiles aimed at Tel Aviv were intercepted by the Iron Dome. Two rockets also landed outside Jerusalem. A home in Ashdod was directly hit, wounding five Israeli civilians. Two rockets were fired at Rishon Lezion and houses were damaged in Eshkol and Be'er Tuviya by missiles; one rocket fell near a Palestinian village in the West Bank damaging properties.

According to CNN, the Israeli government is moving tanks and soldiers in preparation for what could be a ground invasion of Gaza. In the West Bank, several demonstrations in support of Gaza led to dozens of protesters injured and several arrested by Israeli forces.

18 November
Israel continued to bombard the Gaza Strip, and, for the first time, Israeli ships fired shells too. The IDF killed the head of Hamas' rocket program, Yahyia Byya, who according to IDF sources, had been responsible for most of the rocket attacks. Two buildings housing journalists were hit by IDF. The first housed Sky News and other international journalists. No one was injured. Another media tower was hit, with reports of 7 injured Palestinian journalists. The tower contained the offices of Al-Quds TV, Sky News, Press TV, ARD, Kuwait TV, RAI, Rusiya Al-Yaum and ITN, and had previously also been used by BBC. The IDF said that it targeted Hamas communications devices located on the roofs of two media buildings. It condemned Hamas for using journalists as human shields, while Reporters Without Borders condemned the attack as a violation of the Geneva Convention. In the Nasser neighborhood, an IDF missile intended to target Yehiya Rabiah, a senior commander of rocket operations, instead destroyed the neighboring house of policeman Mohammed Dalou, killing the entire family consisting of 12 people; 14 more people were killed in total in the other attacks of that day. According to Hamas television, the rockets were launched by the Qassam Brigades. Several rockets were fired at the south of Israel, one struck a building in Ashkelon injuring two people. The Iron Dome intercepted another two rockets fired at the city. A rescue service worker in his 20s from the Sha'ar Hanegev was seriously wounded by a rocket that struck the area. Three rockets struck the city of Beersheba and a home in Sderot. Two rockets hit Ashdod after coming under fire from a large rocket salvo. In Ofakim, a rocket struck a car wounding five people including couple and their two-year-old daughter. An elderly woman was injured by shrapnel from a rocket that struck a building in the city. Three rockets fell in the Eshkol area.

Israel facilitated the passage of eighty trucks loaded with medical supplies and food into the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing. The Israeli Foreign Ministry reported that Hamas refused to allow 22 foreign nationals to leave the Gaza Strip including nine Italian citizens, one Canadian, one South Korean, a French national and six journalists from Japan. Two Turkish Red Crescent members were also prevented from leaving. The MFA criticised "Hamas’ attempts to manipulate and pressure the press."

Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet that the Israel Defence Forces were prepared for a "significant expansion of the operation." British Foreign Secretary William Hague told Sky News that a ground offensive would lose Israel much international support, but blamed Hamas for instigating the conflict and urged them to cease their rocket fire.

19 November
IDF stated that that since the beginning of Operation Pillar of Defense, over 540 rockets were fired from Gaza have hit and 290 were intercepted in-flight over populated areas in Israel.

Over 135 rockets were fired from Gaza at areas of Southern Israel. Sirens were again sounded as multiple rockets were fired into Ashkelon; most were intercepted but two rockets struck a house and a yard. Another struck a school parking lot. Three people were treated for shock. Seven rockets launched at Ashkelon and Ashdod, and another towards Beersheba, were intercepted. A 63-year-old man was wounded by shrapnel in the Bnei Shimon Regiona. The Sderot and Eshkol regions come under heavy fire, rockets struck near Sha'ar Hanegev. A woman was injured from a mortar in the Eshkol area. It was aired live on Al Jazeera English as a correspondent was reporting. A salvo of rockets struck the cities of Ashdod and Gan Yavne. Later during the day, a second school was struck by a rocket destroying the building after a barrage of rockets targeted Ashkelon during the evening. Mayor Benny Vaknin said that the rocket, after destroying the roof, "tore apart an entire classroom. Hundreds of shards of metal were scattered in the school's yard. Had the schools here been open we would have seen disasters." Israeli paramedics treated sixteen casualties taking the number of wounded treated by Magen David Adom to over 252. Rockets also exploded near Ofakim.

At 2 am local time, a building housing the second largest police facility in Gaza was hit by an Israeli airstrike. The airstrike was aired live on CNN and Al Jazeera English as their correspondents were reporting.

PIJ reported by text message that one of their senior militant operatives, Ramez Harb, was killed in an airstrike in Gaza City.

20 November
Palestinian militants fired 16 rockets at Beersheba. At least 9 were intercepted by the Iron Dome, while 3 landed in the city. One landed near a bus, which suffered shrapnel damage, another damaged a vehicle, and the third landed in a soccer field. Two rockets were also fired at Ashkelon; one was intercepted and another landed in an open area. There was also rocket fire at Ofakim.

In the West Bank, Palestinians protested the Israeli attacks at multiple locations. In some instances, protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at IDF troops and Israel Border Police gendarmes, who responded with crowd-dispersal means. One Palestinian man was shot dead in Halhul after attacking a soldier, and another Palestinian was shot while throwing a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli neighborhood in Hebron. In addition, Palestinians pelted Israeli civilian vehicles, attempted to block a road, and laid stones which caused damage to civilian vehicles.

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will arive in Tel Aviv for a surprise visit to Israel to try to promote a ceasefire.

Approximately 10:30 local time, eighteen rockets were fired at Beersheba, twelve of them being intercepted by the Iron Dome. Three rockets landed in populated areas, the rest landed in open space. A building suffered a direct hit by one rocket, a second rocket caused a bus to be damaged, and a third hit a car, causing damage to other cars and buildings in the area. Thirteen rockets fired at the Eshkol Regional Council moderately injured one Israeli man.

A man stabbed a guard at the United States embassy in Tel Aviv. The guard opened warning shots during the attack. The guard was injured in the leg.

Casualties
According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, 102 Palestinians have been killed, of which 57 were civilians, 44 militants and one policeman. 23 children were also among the dead. The most notable Palestinian fatality has been Ahmed Jabari, a high-level commander in Hamas. Palestinian officials have stated that the number of injured people has reached 720. One Palestinian casualty is believed to have died from a Palestinian rocket, although this is disputed. An IDF spokesman said that many of the Hamas rockets were falling inside the Gaza Strip.

In contrast, the Israel Defense Forces have stated that out of the 102 fatalities only a third of them were civilians. The Israeli airforce says that it avoids harming Palestinian civilians, utilizing precision strikes and issuing preemptive warnings to Palestinian residents. The IDF states that since the beginning of Operation, at least 99 rockets fired from within the Gaza Strip have landed in Gaza.

According to Amnesty International, 66 of the dead Palestinians have been civilians.

Three Israeli civilians have been killed in a direct hit by a Palestinian rocket on an apartment building in Kiryat Malachi. By 18 November, 79 Israelis had been injured in rocket attacks.

Human shield
Some rocket launch-sites were next to hospitals, schools and playgrounds. and the Jerusalem Post said that Hamas often uses civilians as human shields. The IDF spokesman stated that "Hamas is using the Palestinian population as a human shield. We have released footage of rocket fire from a mosque courtyard, prayer houses, public places and homes" Egypt's prime minister's visit to the Gaza strip was described as effectively providing a human shield to the Hamas leadership. Richard Landes criticised Hamas for firing from the midst of civilians leading to casualties that were then blamed on Israeli counter-strikes to garner Western sympathy. Danny Ayalon said that Hamas's firing or rockets from built-up civilian areas was a "double war crime" noting that %10 of them did not reach Israel.

Social media and Internet
The IDF made widespread use of Twitter and a liveblog to give an up-to-date account of its operations. The military wing of Hamas also made use of Twitter, publicising its rocket and mortar attacks and tweeting when Israeli casualties were reported. Foreign Policy magazine labeled this effort a "milestone in military communications." Twitter had previously been used to present information regarding military engagements by both the Kenya Defence Forces and Al Shabaab during the KDF's operation against Al Shabaab in Somalia in 2011. The IDF's Twitter account gained more than 50,000 new followers in 24 hours. Hamas produced a video that threatened the lives of Israeli citizens and warned "Wait soon for us in the bus stops and cafes" which become a popular parody because of its technical problems and the broken Hebrew, both written and spoken.

Anonymous attacked many Israeli websites in response to the IDF offensive in Gaza in and claims to have taken down at least 700 sites as of the 18th of November. The Israeli defense forces claim that they have deflected 44 million attacks. Many of the websites were replaced with messages condemning the Israeli campaign and expressing support for the citizens of Gaza. Hackers from Kuwait disrupted the website of Likud MK Danny Danon, who had posted an online petition urging the government of Israel to cease providing the Gaza Strip with electricity.

Criticism of IDF media campaign
Israel's social media campaign around Operation Pillar of Defense has been perceived by some parties as overly aggressive or otherwise inappropriate. Wired described Israel's efforts as "hyper-pugnacious," and Foreign Policy's Michael Koplow expressed fears that Israel's social media campaign may contribute to some people's "fear of Israel run amok with no regard for the collateral damage being caused."

The IDF's blog incorporates gamification features where visitors are awarded points and given badges for doing certain things such as visiting the blog or sharing its contents on their social networks. Although the blog had had these features for some time, they had been disabled before Operation Pillar of Defense due to 'high traffic.' They were re-enabled shortly after the operation began; multiple commentators have described the timing of their re-enablement vis-a-vis the launch of Operation Pillar of Defense as offensive, with ReadWrite's Jon Mitchell describing it as "absolutely horrendous" and The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg describing it as "disgraceful."

Allegations of Hamas disinformation
Hamas attempted to conduct "psychological warfare" consisting primarily of fake emails and facebook postings. Many Israelis received a false announcement from an "IDF Spokesman" warning that "terrorists in Gaza can track you and direct their Katyushas to your location!" if they opened their text messages. Thousands received emails in broken Hebrew that "the military censorship of military intelligence" was concealing information about attacks on soldiers and urged them to view the "picture of the field of death in which our soldiers are falling in Gaza." The attached YouTube videos, though claiming to show an IDF jeep struck by a missile, was in fact a vehicle of the Reuters news agency that had been hit on the border.

Hamas warned Gazans civilians from spreading information without a source, claiming that such behavior harmed national security and aided Israel's "psychological war". The Interior Ministry said that it would convey any "needed information" in order to "safeguard the truth." This came after Hamas gunmen publicly shot a Gaza resident multiple times in the head for allegedly collaborating with Israeli authorities. Richard Landes strongly criticised Hamas's "brazen hypocrisy" and exploitation of death that they had caused in order to garner Western sympathy.

Hamas were accused of fabricating achievements and using pictures of children that have been injured or killed in Syria and presenting them in the social media as Palestinian dead. One of its tweets about the Israeli strikes contained a picture of a dead girl that previously been posted on the Syrians & Friends Facebook page in October. Another photo of explosions that was uploaded to the Facebook page affiliated with Hamas appeared to be digitally altered.

On 16th, "Al-Qassam Brigades," a division of Hamas, claims to have shot down an Israeli F-16 fighter jet over the Gaza Strip yesterday, but the IDF dismissed the report as false and Hamas never provided evidence.

Images
The Arab news site Alarab Net released a photo on Nov. 18 which depicted three bloodied children and their mother lying on a floor, who were allegedly "massacred" in Gaza. Inciting a flurry of comments on Facebook, it turned out to be Syrian massacre photos from Oct 19 recycled as a Gaza Tragedy. On 19 November, BBC Gaza correspondent Jon Donnison retweeted a photograph of a dead or injured child titled "Pain in Gaza", with his own comment "heartbreaking". It was soon shown that the photo was apparently taken in Syria and is dated to 28 October 2012, before the beginning of the events in Gaza. Donnison apologized for the incident.

Pro-Palestinian activists co-opted another photograph on Twitter identifying an injured infant held by a rescue worker as a "young injured Palestinian child". However, Facebook and Twitter users recognized it as that of a Israeli baby wounded by a Hamas rocket attack, the rescue worker’s vest saying "Kiryat Malachi" on it.

Video
A pro-Israeli website, “HonestReporting.com", accused BBC News of broadcasting footage of an injured man who later, the website claimed, walked on his own. BBC News responded to the claims and maintained that, to the best of their knowledge, the events were not staged.

Mohammed Sadallah
The highly publicized death of four-year-old Mohammed Sadallah appeared to have been the result of a misfiring home-made rocket, not a bomb dropped by Israel. The child’s death on Friday figured prominently in media coverage after Hisham Kandil, the Egyptian prime minister, was filmed lifting his dead body out of an ambulance, saying "the boy, the martyr, whose blood is still on my hands and clothes, is something that we cannot keep silent about," before promising to defend the Palestinian people. Hamas officials and relatives said that four-year-old Gazan boy Mahmoud Sadallah, who died on 16 November, was killed in an Israeli airstrike. Israel flatly denied that it carried out any attacks in the area at the time. According to the New York Times, "the damage was nowhere near severe enough to have come from an Israeli F-16, raising the possibility that an errant missile fired by Palestinian militants was responsible for the deaths." The Associated Press reported that "no one appeared to have witnessed the strike" and that "local security officials quickly took what remained of the projectile, making it impossible to verify who fired it." Experts from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights examined the site and opined the explosion was caused by a Palestinian rocket, and the boy's mother acknowledged that Palestinian militants may have been responsible. A ballistics expert confirmed that "it is reasonable to say that this damage is from a relatively small explosion at close range."

Non-governmental organizations

 * Amnesty International said that both sides should stop the violence, and Ann Harrison, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme, said "The Israeli military must not carry out further indiscriminate attacks, or attacks in densely populated residential areas that will inevitably harm civilians." and "Palestinian armed groups in Gaza meanwhile must not fire indiscriminate rockets into Israel. The international community must put pressure on both sides to fully respect the laws of war and protect civilian lives and property."
 * Human Rights Watch said that "Israeli and Palestinian forces alike need to make all feasible efforts to avoid harming civilians,” and "there is no justification for Palestinian armed groups unlawfully launching rockets at Israeli population centers.”
 * The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem warned both sides about causing civilian deaths and stated: "Protection of civilians stands at the heart of international humanitarian law. They must never be targeted; all measures must be taken to protect them. B'Tselem demands that the Israeli government respect these principles at all times and under all circumstances."
 * The J Street organization said it "stands with Israel and its right to defend itself from all threats to its people and territory. Our sympathies go out to the Israeli victims and families caught in the violence. We reiterate our call on Hamas to immediately cease rocket attacks on Israel and to ensure that other groups in Gaza desist as well." It also urged Israel to avoid civilian casualties and hoped for President Obama to "mobilize international partners to broker a ceasefire quickly."

Protests
In the West Bank, solidarity protests with the people of Gaza have been held in numerous cities and villages. Two Palestinian demonstrators have been killed by Israeli fire during protests in Hebron and Nabi Salih. A further 50 Palestinians have been injured during solidarity protests held in East Jerusalem, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Beit Ummar and Qalandia.

Countries in which rallies and protests in support of the Palestinians took place included Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Yemen, Italy, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Poland, South Africa, Germany, Belgium, Israel, China and Japan. Countries in which rallies and protests in support of Israel included: the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Israel, Poland.

Etymology
Although the official English name of the operation is Pillar of Defense, the Hebrew name translates as Pillar of Cloud. This refers to the Pillar of Cloud in the Bible that guided the Israelites to the Promised Land. A midrash elaborates that the Pillar of Cloud shielded the Israelites from the Egyptians' arrows and catapults. The name is thus an analogy to the Iron Dome system shielding Israeli citizens from rocket attacks. Hamas labelled their actions as "Operation Stones of Shale" (Qur'an 105:4).

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