Gaza War (2008–2009)

Background

On February 8, 2005, Mahmoud Abbas, and Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon signed a ceasefire agreement to bring an end to the Second Intifada. On 17 March 2005, the 13 main Palestinian factions including Hamas and Islamic Jihad agreed to the February agreement, conditional on cessation of Israeli attacks. Israel maintained that its occupation of Gaza ended following the completion of its unilateral disengagement plan in September 2005. Because Israel continued to control Gaza's airspace and territorial waters, and restrict the movement of people or goods in or out of Gaza, overseeing the actions of the population in the Gaza Strip, the UN, the International Criminal Court Human Rights Watch, and other NGOs consider Israel the occupying power.

Hamas abided by the ceasefire agreement for 14 months, until IDF naval shelling hit a Gaza beach, killing seven civilians, on 10 June 2006.

After the political victory of a Hamas-led government in March 2006, The Quartet (the United States, Russia, United Nations, and European Union) conditioned future foreign assistance on the future government's commitment to nonviolence, recognition of the state of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements. Hamas rejected the demands, calling the conditions unfair and endangering the well-being of Palestinians, leading to Quartet suspension of its foreign assistance program and to Israel imposing economic sanctions. In a widely cited article, David Rose outlined material suggesting that the United States and Israel then attempted to have the Palestinian National Authority stage a coup to overturn the election results, a manoeuvre Hamas is said to have preempted in Gaza with its takeover from Fatah.

In June 2007, following Hamas's takeover of Gaza from Fatah, Israel imposed a ground, air, and maritime blockade, and announced it would allow only humanitarian supplies into the Strip. Palestinian groups were partially able to bypass the blockade through tunnels, some of which are said to have been used for weapons smuggling. According to a US diplomatic cable that quoted Israeli diplomats, Israel's policy was to "keep Gaza's economy on the brink of collapse". After a three-and-a-half-year legal battle waged by the Gisha human rights organization, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) finally released a 2008 document that detailed its "red lines" for "food consumption in the Gaza Strip", in which a calculation was made of the number of calories needed to be provided to Gaza by external sources to avoid malnutrition. COGAT said that the document was a draft, and never discussed nor implemented. An Israeli appeal court disagreed.

2008 six-month ceasefire

Israel had been preparing to intervene militarily in the Gaza Strip since March 2007. In June as talks for a negotiated agreement between the two parties were underway, the defense minister Ehud Barak ordered the IDF to prepare operational plans for action within the Strip. On 19 June 2008, an Egyptian-brokered six-month "lull" or pause in hostilities between Israel and Hamas went into effect. The agreement had no mutually agreed text or enforcement mechanism and eventually collapsed. The lull agreed to was thought necessary to allow time for the IDF to prepare its operation.

The agreement required Hamas to end rocket and mortar attacks on Israel, while that country would cease attacks on and military incursions into Gaza, plus progressively ease the blockade of Gaza over a thirteen-day period.

Points on which there was not mutual agreement included an end to Hamas' military buildup in Gaza and movement toward the release of Corporal Shalit.

Hamas called on all of Gaza's militant groups to abide by the truce, and was confident they would do so. Defense Ministry Official Amos Gilad, the Israeli envoy to the talks, stressed that Israel demanded a ceasefire, meaning that even one single rocket fired will be seen as a violation of the agreement. He added that Egypt, on its side, was committed to preventing the smuggling activity from Gaza. Gilad also said that Israel would hold Hamas responsible for attacks from Gaza. In a British Foreign Affairs Committee investigation, Dr Albasoos said that "Unfortunately, on 4 November 2008, the Israeli army killed six Palestinians. I was leaving the Gaza Strip to come to the UK that same night. I remember when the Israeli army invaded the middle area of the Gaza Strip, killing six Palestinians. It was outrageous from their side to come and breach that ceasefire. I believe that Palestinian political factions, including Hamas, committed to that ceasefire and still have the intention to renew it in the near future, as soon as possible." In rebuttal, Ms Bar-Yaacov said that "The Israelis had added a condition to the tahdia (truce), being concerned that Hamas was building tunnels to go under the Israeli border and kidnap more Israeli soldiers. The condition stated that if Hamas came within 500 metres of the border, they (the IDF) would attack and that is exactly what happened (on 4 November 2008)." British barrister and professor Geoffrey Nice, and General Nick Parker, opined during a lecture that "Building a tunnel was not a breach of the ceasefire but the armed incursion into Gaza definitely was."

Pre-war escalations

4 November IDF raid and aftermath

On 4 November 2008, Israel launched a cross-border military raid (variously also referred to as an attack / invasion / incident / military event / incursion) code named Operation Double Challenge into a residential area of Dayr al-Balah in central Gaza to destroy the opening of a tunnel concealed within a building 300 meters from the fence on the Gaza Strip border. Professor Sir Geoffrey Nice QC and General Sir Nick Parker observed that "[b]uilding a tunnel was not a breach of the ceasefire but the (IDF) armed incursion into Gaza definitely was." Various outlets and authors reported this Israeli action as breaking the June truce. According to The Telegraph, writing as Cast Lead began, the 4 November operation "sealed the fate of the ceasefire". Author Avi Shlaim wrote in 2015 that the "...ceasefire had a dramatic effect in de-escalating the conflict.....It was Israel that violated the ceasefire. On 4 November 2008 the (IDF) launched a raid into Gaza and killed 6 Hamas fighters. That was the end of the ceasefire." and that Hamas had set a "good example" in respecting the ceasefire. The raid, according to Mark LeVine was unprovoked. Israel stated its aim was to destroy what it said was a tunnel on the Gaza-Israel border dug by militants to infiltrate into Israel and abduct soldiers. While accusing Hamas of plotting to dig a tunnel under the border, Israeli defense official was quoted in The Washington Times as separately acknowledging that Israel wanted to "send Hamas a message". According to Israel, the raid was not a violation of the ceasefire, but a legitimate step to remove an immediate threat. The 2009 Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict noted that "the ceasefire began to founder on 4 November 2008 following an incursion by Israeli soldiers into the Gaza Strip".

Dr. Ido Hart, an Israeli defence analyst specialising in underground warfare, defined three types of Gaza tunnels, namely those intended for smuggling from Egypt, those which are defensive in nature, designed for storage and protection, and those that are offensive, permitting cross-border penetrations into Israel by Gaza militants. "Once you find the entrance, you have to climb inside to know whether it is a defensive or offensive tunnel". Defensive tunnels have served as an 'escape hatch' for senior Hamas officials during Israeli invasions. "The purpose of the defensive tunnels is to enable the Hamas command structure to reside safely underground while their armed forces conduct a mobile defence against Israeli forces. Robert Pastor, who was intimately involved in the indirect 2008 Hamas-Israel negotiations, stated "There is some dispute as to whether that tunnel was intended to capture an Israeli soldier or whether it was a defensive tunnel to protect against an Israeli incursion. Later, once a new ceasefire had been negotiated, Pastor was quoted as saying that "Hamas officials asserted, however, that the tunnel was being dug for defensive purposes, not to capture IDF personnel" and furthermore that an IDF official had confirmed that fact to him.

December repercussions

On 13 December, Israel announced that it favored extending the cease-fire, provided Hamas adhered to the conditions. On 14 December, a Hamas delegation in Cairo proposed that Hamas was prepared to stop all rocket attacks against Israel if the Israelis would open up the Gaza border crossings and pledge not to launch attacks in Gaza, as per the original June 2008 truce terms, to that date not complied with by Israel. On the same day, Hamas officials said that earlier reports, quoting Khaled Meshaal as saying there would be no renewal of the truce, were inaccurate. A Hamas spokesman said that the lull would not be renewed, "as long as there is no real Israeli commitment to all of its conditions". A spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister replied that Israel was committed to the truce but "it's clear there cannot be a one-sided ceasefire, ... where rockets are everyday coming from the Gaza Strip targeting Israeli civilians."

On 15 December, Israel assassinated a senior Palestinian commander in Jenin, sparking a round of attacks between Israel and Hamas.

On 17 December, a 40-year-old Palestinian was killed by IDF fire in Northern Gaza. The following day, 18 December, Hamas declared the end of the cease-fire, a day before the truce officially expired. More than 20 rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel on that day.

On 19 December, Hamas refused to enter talks to renew the six-month truce and a Hamas spokesman announced that it would not extend the cease-fire. The spokesman, Ayman Taha, specified that Hamas's refusal was "because the enemy did not abide by its obligations" to ease a crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip, and had not halted all attacks. Palestinian sources said that Hamas wanted to renew the truce, but only on improved terms – a complete opening of the border crossings with Israel, the opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, a complete ban on Israeli military activity in Gaza and an extension of the truce to the West Bank as well. Israel was not ready to accept these terms. This was confirmed by Yuval Diskin, head of Shin Bet (Israel's internal security agency), at an Israeli cabinet meeting on 21 December. Diskin said he thought Hamas was "interested in continuing the truce, but wants to improve its terms ... it wants us to lift the siege of Gaza, stop attacks, and extend the truce to include the West Bank". Three Qassam rockets fired from the northern Gaza Strip landed in Israel.

Timeline of the war

Israeli offensive

Israel began planning for a military operation as early as six months before the conflict by collecting intelligence on potential targets. The IDF also engaged in a disinformation campaign to give Hamas a false sense of security and to take them by surprise. Defense minister Ehud Barak stated that the offensive was the result of Israel's "patience running out" over the rocket attacks, which had been restarted by Hamas after Israel destroyed a tunnel on 4 November. According to Israeli officials, its subsequent 27 December offensive took Hamas by surprise, thereby increasing militant casualties.

At 11:30 am on 27 December 2008, Israel launched the campaign titled Operation Cast Lead. It began with an opening wave of airstrikes in which F-16 fighter jets and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters simultaneously struck 100 preplanned targets within a span of 220 seconds. There was a 95% success rate with zero misses in the opening attack according to the Israeli Air Force. Thirty minutes later, a second wave of 64 jets and helicopters struck at an additional 60 targets. The air strikes hit Hamas headquarters, government offices and 24 police stations. An Israeli UAV airstrike on the police headquarters of Gaza City killed 40 people, including several dozen police cadets at their graduation ceremony. Approximately 140 members of Hamas were killed, including Tawfik Jaber, head of Gaza's police force. Another estimate puts the death toll of the police academy strike at 225 Hamas militants killed and 750 injured. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told reporters that Israel would strike all targets associated with what she called the "illegitimate, terrorist government of Hamas".

At least 225–230 Palestinians were killed and more than 700 injured on the first day of air strikes. Civilians, including children, were among the casualties. Although media reported that most of the dead were "Hamas security forces" or "Hamas operatives", police officers are, according to B'Tselem, presumed to be civilians and likely not legitimate objects of attack under international humanitarian law. Human rights groups critically note that the attacks began around the time children were leaving school. The Israeli attack was the deadliest one-day death toll in 60 years of conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, a day that was called the "Massacre of Black Saturday" by Palestinians in Gaza. Hamas responded with a rocket barrage on Southern Israel, and Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip kept Southern Israel under constant rocket fire during the entire war. Beersheba suffered two rocket attacks, the farthest Palestinian rockets had ever reached. Palestinian rocket fire killed three Israeli civilians and one soldier in the early days of the conflict.

Palestinian paramilitary activity

According to Abu Ahmed, the official media spokesman of the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, Palestinian paramilitary factions in Gaza worked together, operationally and otherwise, to repel the Israeli attack on Gaza. Abu Ahmed told Asharq al-Awsat during the war that, "everybody helps everybody else with regards to food, weapons, and first aid; there is no difference between a member 'Al Quds Brigade' or 'Al Qassam Brigade [military wing of Hamas]' or 'Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade' or 'Abu Ali Mustafa Brigade [military wing of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine or PFLP]'. For everybody's goal is the same and their compass is pointing in the same direction, and that is to drive out the occupation and defeat them, and disrupt their plan to dissolve the Palestinian Cause." Hamas said that "rockets fired from Gaza were meant to hit military targets, but because they are unguided, they hit civilians by mistake."

Political representatives for Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PFLP, Saiqa, the Popular Struggle Front, the Revolutionary Communist Party, Palestinian Liberation Organization, Fatah's 'Intifada' faction, and a number of other Palestinian factions in Syria formed a temporary alliance during the offensive as well. They issued a joint statement refusing "any security arrangements that affect the resistance and its legitimate right to struggle against the occupation", and refusing proposals suggesting international forces be sent to Gaza. The coalition also affirmed that any peace initiatives must include an end to the blockade, and an opening of all of Gaza's crossings, including the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

Hamas used the months leading to the war to prepare for urban warfare, which was to give them a chance to inflict casualties on the Israeli military. Militants booby-trapped houses and buildings and built an extensive system of tunnels in preparation for combat. A Hamas fighter reported that the group had prepared a tunnel network in Gaza city that would allow Hamas to engage the IDF in urban warfare. IDF commanders said that many Hamas members have dug tunnels for themselves under their homes and hid weapon caches in them. Some houses were booby-trapped with mannequins, explosives and adjacent tunnels: Israeli officers said that houses were set up this way so that "Israeli soldiers would shoot the mannequin, mistaking it for a man; an explosion would occur; and the soldiers would be driven or pulled into the hole, where they could be taken prisoner." A colonel estimated that one-third of all houses encountered were booby-trapped. IDF Brigadier-General Eyal Eisenberg said that roadside bombs were planted in TV satellite dishes, adding that Hamas booby-trapping of homes and schools was "monstrous" and "inhumane". Ron Ben-Yishai, an Israeli military correspondent embedded with invading ground forces, stated that entire blocks of houses were booby-trapped and wired in preparation for urban confrontation with the IDF. Israel said a map showing the deployment of explosives and Hamas forces in the al-Atatra neighborhood in northern Gaza was found. The map reportedly showed that Hamas placed many explosives and firing positions in residential areas, several mosques, and next to a gas station. Israel deployed the elite Sayeret Yahalom combat engineering unit throughout the brigades with new equipment including miniature robots and improved wall-breaching munitions to counter the booby-traps.

Unilateral ceasefires

On 17 January, Israeli officials announced a unilateral ceasefire. Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert declared the ceasefire effective that night, at 00:00 GMT on 18 January. The ceasefire consisted of two phases: "First a ceasefire is declared. If Hamas stops firing rockets then Israel pulls its forces out of the Gaza Strip. If rocket fire resumes then the IDF goes back in, this time with the international backing gained by having tried a truce." Olmert declared that the military objectives had been met. Hamas initially "vowed to fight on", and responded that any continued Israeli presence in Gaza would be regarded as an act of war. Farzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said before the ceasefire began, "The occupier must halt his fire immediately and withdraw from our land and lift his blockade and open all crossings and we will not accept any one Zionist soldier on our land, regardless of the price that it costs." Palestinian militants resumed rocket fire into southern Israel the following Sunday morning, four of the six fired landed in or near Sderot. The Israeli military returned fire and launched an air strike against the rocket launching site in northern Gaza.

On 18 January Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other paramilitias said they would stop launching rockets into Israel for one week and demanded "the withdrawal of the enemy forces from the Gaza Strip within a week, along with the opening of all the crossings for the entry of humanitarian aid, food and other necessities for our people in the Gaza Strip". Three days later, the last Israeli troops left Gaza.

Since the unilateral ceasefires were declared on 17 January, militants have fired rockets and mortar shells from Gaza, and the IDF has launched airstrikes against Gaza.

Continued negotiations

Egyptian mediators held discussions with Israel and Hamas about extending the cease-fire by a year or more. Hamas and Fatah met to allow both to play a role in rebuilding. Israel began pressuring Egypt to do more to stop weapons smuggling into Gaza, the halting of which is one of Israel's central demands in extending a cease-fire. On 27 January 2009, Foreign Minister of Egypt Ahmed Aboul Gheit discouraged Britain, France and Germany from sending warships to patrol the waters off Gaza, which the three European nations felt could help halt seaborne smuggling. Gheit said such efforts would harm Europe's relations with the Arab world. Egypt also opposed proposals for European troops to be stationed on the border between Gaza and Egypt to monitor smuggling tunnels.

Israel, along with many Western and some Arab countries, wanted international aid groups to control aid from donations around the world, so that Hamas would not receive credit for the rebuilding. To speed up reconstruction, Hamas agreed that it would not insist on collecting reconstruction money itself and would allow donated money to flow through different avenues based on the various alliances, although Hamas ultimately expected to administer the aid. But advisors to senior Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh said Israel's willingness to open the border for humanitarian aid only was unacceptable, as Hamas would need much more to rebuild its economy and provide relief for citizens. Haniyeh aides said the cease-fire is contingent on a full border opening.

Shortly after becoming President of the United States, Barack Obama directed newly appointed special envoy to the Middle East George J. Mitchell to visit Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia for peace talks. Mitchell began his meetings in Cairo on 27 January 2009, and Obama said his visit was part of the President's campaign promise to listen to both sides of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and work toward a Middle East peace deal. Mitchell did not plan to talk to Hamas, but instead focus on talks with the more moderate Palestinian Authority. A spokesman for Haniyeh said he respected Mitchell, but was disappointed with the envoy's decision not to hold discussions with Hamas.

Ehud Olmert stated that Israel would not agree to a long term truce or lift the blockade on Gaza without the freeing of Gilad Shalit, an IDF soldier held captive in Gaza since June 2006. Hamas demanded that Israel release 1,400 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit and such negotiations be kept separate from ceasefire negotiations.

Casualties

Human rights organizations and the United States Department of State estimated Palestinian casualties of the Gaza War (2008–2009) as "1,400 Palestinians killed, including more than 1,000 civilians", though Israel disagreed. The total Israeli casualties were 13, including three non-combatants and 10 combatants (four Israeli soldiers were killed in friendly fire incidents).

Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights said in January 2009, that 1,268 people were killed, among them 288 children and 103 women, and 85% of those killed were not combatants. The United States Department of State estimated "1,400 Palestinians killed, including more than 1,000 civilians."

Hamas initially claimed only 48 of its fighters had been killed. This led to domestic criticism from Palestinians who lamented that ordinary civilians had suffered instead of armed fighters, leading Hamas to then later state that it too had suffered losses. Gazan Interior Minister Fathi Hamad stated that between 200 and 300 Hamas fighters had been killed. Both Richard Goldstone and Norman Finkelstein argued that Hamas "may have reason to inflate" the number of militants killed.

During the war, three Israeli civilians were killed by rocket attacks. A total of 10 Israeli soldiers were killed in the war, of whom six were killed by enemy action and four were killed by friendly fire.

Civilians versus combatants

In any conflict, the ratio of combatant and civilian deaths is a highly sensitive topic. During the fighting in the Gaza War, one source for the number of Palestinian casualties was Ministry of Health in Gaza (GHM), which is run by Hamas. After the war, the GHM, PCHR, and Al-Mezan all provided a list of casualties for every single person killed, including their name, age, gender, address, occupation and the place and date of death. PCHR and Mezan found less than 17% of those killed were combatants. The Israeli organization B'Tselem also published detailed casualty lists on its website, including the names, age, gender of every single victim and the circumstances in which they were killed (where known), and found 25% of those killed were combatants. The Israeli government, who claimed 61% of those killed were combatants, did not publish a list of victims.

The ICRC used Gaza Health Ministry's figures, but at a later stage it made its own assessment. Because Israel allowed very few international workers and journalists in Gaza during much of the conflict, it has been difficult to verify the figures independently.

In The Jerusalem Post, Israeli-Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh suggested that killed fighters in civilian clothes led to the over-counting of civilian casualties and under-counting Hamas military casualties, as Palestinian casualties arrived at hospitals without weapons or any other signs revealing they were fighters.

Al-Mezan defined "combatant" as anyone belonging to either or both of the two categories:

anyone actively participating in minor or major hostilities

anyone affiliated with an armed group that participates in hostilities in continuous combat function, even if not engaged in hostilities at the time in which they were targeted

Al-Mezan did not regard as "combatants" those who were members of civilian organizations (such as Hamas-affiliated political parties) and were not known to be involved in armed hostilities. In some cases, Al-Mezan found members of civilian organization who took part in hositilities and included them in the "combatant" count.

IDF casualty figures

On 25 March 2009 the IDF announced that 1,370 Palestinians had been killed, but on 26 March, it abruptly changed the total casualties to 1,166. Israeli organization PCATI said this was evidence of the IDF manipulating data.

The Israeli Orient Research Group reported that 78 of the 89 killed during this first IAF strike were terror operatives, many of them belonging to the militant group, al-Qassam Brigades. The Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs further reported that 286 of the 343 police officers killed during the offensive were members of terror organizations and that another 27 fighters belonged to units undergoing infantry training. It noted that the security apparatuses participated in terror activity and that the Hamas leadership presented these organizations as at the forefront of the jihad for liberating all of Palestine.

The IDF made clear that it regards police under the control of Hamas in Gaza to be equivalent to the enemies armed fighters, including them in the militant's count. A government paper published pictures of four men that were killed during the military operations that they claim were downloaded from Palestinian websites. The men are identified in the different pictures as both policemen and members of al-Qassam Brigades. Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) alleged that the distinction between the internal security forces and Hamas military wing is not sharply defined and cites Gaza police officials who said that police were instructed to fight the enemy in case of an invasion into the Gaza Strip. Many security force members were reported to "moonlight" with the militant group, Izzidin al-Qassam Brigades.

Israeli casualties

During the conflict, rockets fired by Palestinian groups killed 3 Israelis and wounded 182 people, with another 584 suffering from shock and anxiety. The UN fact finding mission stated that this constituted a deliberate attack against the civilian population and was unjustifiable in international law.

Aftermath

Israel declared it was victorious militarily, although some expressed concern at the mounting war crime investigations. The international community continued to isolate Hamas (except for Iran and Syria), because it rejected the Quartet demands to recognize Israel, accept the Oslo accords peace initiative and abandon violence in exchange for international recognition as representatives of the Palestinian people. Hamas faced significant criticism in Gaza Strip for its poor military performance. A satirical theatrical play called "The Women of Gaza and the Patience of Job" was performed nightly in Gaza city; the play parodied Hamas militants as making far-fetched claims like the ability to hit Tel Aviv with crude rockets. In the months following the war, Hamas suspended its use of rockets and shifted focus to winning support at home and abroad through cultural initiatives and public relations, with the aim to build a "cultural resistance". Hamas officials stated that "The current situation required a stoppage of rockets. After the war, the fighters needed a break and the people needed a break."

The war was an Israeli tactical victory and a significant tactical defeat for Hamas. Al-Qassam Brigades reported in "The outcome of al-Qassam operations during the Battle of al-Furqan" they killed 102 Israeli soldiers. On 19 January 2009, a spokesperson for the group said on al-Arabiya "Israel lost 'at least 80 soldiers' in the fighting" and said about Hamas losses "only 48 fighters slain in Israel war". The Gazan Interior Minister revised Hamas' loss number up to between 200 and 300 and stated the non-Hamas security forces to be 150, bringing the total Gazan loss number to be between 350 and 450, a number similar to the United States Department of State which estimated less than 400 combatants, as well as mentioning 250 police officers "from [itself] and other factions", but not identifying them as fighters. The strictest methodology for determining "combatant" from Al-Mezan estimated 237. These numbers fell short of the IDF's 709 "terror operatives", counting the 250 police officers as under the control of Hamas and thus to be equivalent to its armed fighters. According to United Nations report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission of Human Rights Council, which was on General Assembly's agenda on 29 October 2009: "The large discrepancy in the data confirms the Mission's observations below in the report about the reliability of the information about the Gaza military operations posted on websites of al-Qassam and other Palestinian armed groups."

Several senior Hamas military commanders and politburo members were killed, as well as approximately 50 explosives experts. Hamas experienced "widespread desertion" in the face of the Israeli advance. Hamas also lost a very large amount of weaponry and equipment; key storage facilities were discovered under mosques and public buildings. A former Shin Bet deputy director who co-authored a report on the war noted, "Hamas had planned to stand and fight, but the Iz al-Qassam Brigades proved unequal to the task ... and consequently they failed to match the public image Hamas has tried so hard to present of stalwart, proficient Islamic warriors."

Propaganda and psychological warfare

Hamas

Before and during the conflict, Hamas' senior representatives released a number of statements designed to avert Israeli decision-makers from launching any military operation in Gaza and to cause demoralization among Israelis. Before the end of the pre-conflict ceasefire, Hamas boasted that it had countless surprises awaiting Israeli troops, should they advance. Hamas representatives threatened on several occasions to abduct Israeli soldiers, and during the ground invasion tried to spread rumors that it actually had captured or killed more Israeli soldiers.

On a video broadcast on Al-Aqsa TV on 10 January showing the names of Israeli towns hit by rockets, it was implied Tel-Aviv is the next target and that 'all options are open'. Also, Hamas sent messages in Hebrew to Israeli citizens' mobile phones warning: "Rockets on all cities, shelters will not protect you."

Hamas instrumentalized the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit as a form of psychological weapon, declaring that he had been wounded by Israeli fire, later announcing that his condition was no longer of interest to them.

According to IDF spokesman, Hamas' ruses in the battlefield included booby traps throughout Gaza's neighborhoods, such as mannequins placed at apartment entrances and rigged to explode when the soldiers approach.

Arab television stations reported Hamas-provided statistics for Israeli casualties on the assumption that Israel is distorting its own figures of soldiers killed and wounded.

A study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies notes that Hamas propaganda both rejected Hamas responsibility for the fighting and used it to attack the Palestinian Authority.

Dr. Tal Pavel from Israeli think-tank International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) said that Hamas uses its Web sites to make comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany, portraying Israel as a destructive, oppressive regime afraid of Hamas rockets raining on Tel Aviv.

Israel

The day before the beginning of the offensive on 27 December the IDF pulled troops back from the border and used its radio channels to broadcast talk of a "lull" to achieve a disinformation coup to lure Hamas fighters out of hiding.

A broadcaster in Islamic Jihad's Voice of Jerusalem radio station in Gaza City reported that IDF have been breaking into his station signal "least once an hour" during conflict intensification to broadcast messages to Gaza's population that their problems were due to Hamas. The Israelis also dropped leaflets with similar messages and contact info to report about the whereabouts of militant leaders and weapons caches. The leaflets also said, "The Israeli army will respond if the rocket fire continues." In war zones, leaflets warned local residents that they had to flee. It also warned residents that their homes would be targeted if they were located in an area of possible target. Dr. Yaniv Levitan of the University of Haifa said that the aim of the flyers was not to demoralize the civil population, but to implant recognition in hearts and minds that Hamas has failed, that there is an option of choosing another path.

IDF spokespersons often reported that scores of demoralized Hamas fighters had been observed deserting. According to Ephraim Kam, deputy head of the Institute of National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, the claim could not be confirmed but it strengthened the Israeli population's will to continue and undermined the confidence of Hamas in Gaza.

There was a mistrust of phone calls warning messages to people that they have "just minutes to evacuate before they bomb the house". According to a human rights lawyer at the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), despite the hundreds of phone calls to families warning their house is about to be blown up, only 37 were destroyed, presumably as of 3 January date.

War crimes by Israel

Collective punishment

The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict found that Israel, at least in part, targeted the people of Gaza as a whole. The Mission gave its opinion that "the operations were in furtherance of an overall policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population for its resilience and for its apparent support for Hamas, and possibly with the intent of forcing a change in such support." Judge Goldstone later at least partially resiled from this conclusion. Historian Avi Shlaim wrote that "The indifference to the fate of the civilian population is difficult to understand unless it was motivated by a punitive streak."

Disproportionate force

Israel was widely criticized by human rights groups for using heavy firepower and causing hundreds of civilian casualties. A group of soldiers who took part in the conflict echoed the criticism through both the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence and a special report by Israeli filmmaker Nurit Kedar that was shown on Britain's Channel 4 in January 2011. Israel was accused of having a deliberate policy of disproportionate force aimed at the civilian population. Israel has said that operational orders emphasized proportionality and humanity while the importance of minimising harm to civilians was made clear to soldiers. Historian Avi Shlaim wrote that "Operation Cast Lead was not a war in the usual sense of the word but a one-sided massacre. For twenty-two days the IDF shot, shelled, and bombed Hamas targets and at the same time rained death and destruction on the defenseless population of Gaza. Statistics tell only part of the grim story. Israel had 13 dead; the Gazans had 1,417 dead, including 313 children, and more than 5,500 wounded. According to one estimate, 83 percent of the casualties were civilians."

IDF use of human shields

On 24 March, a report from the UN team responsible for the protection of children in war zones was released: it found "hundreds" of violations of the rights of children and accused Israeli soldiers of using children as human shields, bulldozing a home with a woman and child still inside, and shelling a building they had ordered civilians into a day earlier. One case involved using an 11-year-old boy as a human shield, by forcing him to enter suspected buildings first and also inspect bags. The report also mentioned the boy was used as a shield when Israeli soldiers came under fire. The Guardian has also received testimony from three Palestinian brothers aged 14, 15, and 16, who all claimed to have been used as human shields.

The UK newspaper The Guardian conducted an investigation of its own, which, according to the paper, uncovered evidence of war crimes including the use of Palestinian children as human shields. An Israeli military court later convicted two Israeli soldiers of using human shields, which was outlawed by the Israeli Supreme court in 2005.

The UN fact-finding mission investigated four incidents in which Palestinian civilians were coerced, blindfolded, handcuffed and at gunpoint to enter houses ahead of Israeli soldiers during military operations. The mission confirmed the continued use of this practice with published testimonies of Israeli soldiers who had taken part in the military operations. The mission concluded that these practices amounted to using civilians as human shields in breach of international law. Some civilians were also questioned under threat of death or injury to extract information about Palestinian combatants and tunnels, constituting a further violation of international humanitarian law.

White phosphorus

From 5 January, reports emerged of use by Israel of white phosphorus during the offensive, which was initially denied by Israel. There were numerous reports of its use by the IDF during the conflict. On 12 January, it was reported that more than 50 phosphorus burns victims were in Nasser Hospital. On 16 January the UNRWA headquarters was hit with phosphorus munitions. As a result of the hit, the compound was set ablaze. On completion of the three-day Israeli withdrawal (21 January) an Israeli military spokeswoman said that shells containing phosphorus had been used in Gaza but said that they were used legally as a method to provide a smokescreen. The IDF reiterated their position on 13 January saying that it used weapons "in compliance with international law, while strictly observing that they be used according to the type of combat and its characteristics". On 25 March 2009, the United States-based human rights organization Human Rights Watch published a 71-page report titled "Rain of Fire, Israel's Unlawful Use of White Phosphorus in Gaza" and said that Israel's usage of the weapon was illegal. Donatella Rovera, Amnesty's researcher on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories said that such extensive use of this weapon in Gaza's densely populated residential neighbourhoods is inherently indiscriminate. "Its repeated use in this manner, despite evidence of its indiscriminate effects and its toll on civilians, is a war crime", she said. The Goldstone report accepted that white phosphorus is not illegal under international law but did find that the Israelis were "systematically reckless in determining its use in built-up areas". It also called for serious consideration to be given to the banning of its use as an obscurant.

After watching footage of Israeli troop deployments on television, a British soldier who completed numerous combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Intelligence Corps defended the Israeli Army's use of white phosphorus. The soldier noted, "White phosphorus is used because it provides an instant smokescreen, other munitions can provide a smokescreen but the effect is not instant. Faced with overwhelming enemy fire and wounded comrades, every commander would choose to screen his men instantly, to do otherwise would be negligent."

Colonel Lane, a military expert testifying in front of the fact-finding mission in July 2009, told that white phosphorus is used for smoke generation to hide from the enemy. He stated, "The quality of smoke produced by white phosphorus is superb; if you want real smoke for real coverage, white phosphorus will give it to you."

Dense inert metal explosives (DIME)

Dense inert metal explosive (DIME) is a type of bomb developed to minimize collateral damage. Casualties show unusual injuries. A military expert working for Human Rights Watch said judging by the nature of the wounds and descriptions given by Gazans made it seem likely that Israel used DIME weapons. A Norwegian doctor who worked at Gaza's Shifa Hospital said that pressure waves generated by missile hits are likely the cause and produced by DIME weapons. Another Norwegian doctor said they had "clear evidence that the Israelis are using a new type of very high explosive weapons which are called Dense Inert Metal Explosive".

Colonel Lane, military expert testifying in front of the fact-finding mission in July 2009, told the committee that through his studies, no actual proof was found that DIME rounds were used, but tungsten, iron, and sulfur were found in samples analyzed in a forensic lab. He is of the view that some weapons systems used in the conflict had some sort of DIME component to reduce the effect on the ground. Colonel Lane explained that the idea behind a Focused Lethality Munition (FLM), which is an example of a DIME munition, is that the fragments produced stay within a safety radius of about 6 meters, so anybody outside that radius is safe, while those within the area of dispersal will be affected severely. He commented on the documentations where medics described unusual amputations saying that he was no medical expert, but the use of a metal like tungsten and cobalt at short distances would likely have that effect.

The Goldstone Report wrote that the Mission found that the allegations that DIME weapons were used by Israeli armed forces required further clarification and they were unable to ascertain their usage, though it received reports from Palestinian and foreign doctors who had operated in Gaza during the military operations of a high percentage of patients with injuries compatible with their impact. It stated that the "focused lethality" reportedly pursued in DIME weapons could be seen as enhancing compliance with the principle of distinction between civilian and military objects. The report added that as it currently stands, DIME weapons and weapons armed with heavy metal are not prohibited under international law, but do raise specific health concerns.

An Amnesty International report called on Israel to confirm or deny its use of DIME in order to facilitate the treatment of those injured in the conflict. After reports of similar cases in 2006, the IDF had denied the use of DIME weapons.

Accusations of misconduct by IDF soldiers

Testimonies from Israeli soldiers allegedly admitting indiscriminate killings of civilians, as well as vandalizing homes, were reported in March 2009. Soon after the publication of the testimonies, reports implying that the testimonies were based on hearsay and not on the firsthand experience started to circulate. At the same time, another kind of evidence was collected from several soldiers who took part in the fighting, that rebutted claims of immoral conduct on the military's part during Gaza War. Following investigations, the IDF issued an official report, concluding that alleged cases of deliberate shooting at civilians did not take place. Nine Israeli rights groups reacting to the closure of the investigation issued a joint statement calling for an "independent nonpartisan investigative body to be established to look into all Israeli army activity" in Gaza.

In July 2009, the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence published testimony from 26 soldiers (two junior officers and the rest enlisted personnel) who took part in the Gaza assault, claiming that the IDF used Gazans as human shields, improperly fired incendiary white phosphorus shells over civilian areas and used overwhelming firepower that caused needless deaths and destruction. The report did not represent a cross-section of the army, but rather they were troops who had approached the group or were reached through acquaintances of NGO members. The accusations were made by anonymous people who claimed that they were reserves soldiers and whose faces had been blurred in the filmed talks. An Israeli military spokesperson dismissed the testimonies as anonymous hearsay and questioned why Breaking the Silence had not handed over its findings before the media had been informed. The Israeli military said some allegations of misconduct had turned out to be second or third-hand accounts and the result of recycled rumours. Breaking the Silence state that their methodology includes the verification of all information by cross-referencing the testimonies it collects and that published material has been confirmed by a number of testimonies, from several different points of view. A representative stated "the personal details of the soldiers quoted in the collection, and the exact location of the incidents described in the testimonies, would readily be made available to any official and independent investigation of the events, as long as the identity of the testifiers did not become public." A soldier who described using Gazans as human shields told in an interview to Haaretz that he had not seen Palestinians being used as human shields but had been told by his commanders that this occurred.

Intent to commit war crimes

Professor Jerome Slater argues that in the months preceding the war, several top Israeli officials had made statements that can be construed as intentions to violate the laws of war. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had said "if there is shooting at the residents of the south, there will be a harsh Israeli response that is disproportionate." This remark was criticized by Richard Falk as a "blatant repudiation of" proportionality in International Humanitarian Law. In October 2008, Israeli general Gadi Eisenkot had said that Israel "will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction. ... From our perspective, these are military bases."

War crimes by Palestinians

Civilians as human shields

The Israel-based Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center charged Hamas with methodically building its military infrastructure in the heart of population centers. According to the study, Hamas not only hides among the population, but has made a main component of its combat strategy "channeling" the army into the densely populated areas to fight. ITIC also alleged that Israeli Air Force videos showed terrorists using groups of children as cover to escape from combat areas and joining groups of children.

Amnesty International's investigation of these claims found no evidence that Hamas or any other Palestinian militant group had 'directed the movement of civilians to shield military objectives from attacks.' Rather, their investigation did find that Israeli soldiers had, on multiple occasions, forced Palestinian civilians, including children, to serve as human shields. Amnesty International made multiple requests for Israeli authorities to provide information to substantiate their allegations about the use of Gaza’s civilians by Hamas, but received no response.

On 6 January 2009, Israeli forces fired shells near a UN school in the Jebaliya refugee camp in Northern Gaza, killing at least 30 people. At the time, the school was sheltering hundreds of Palestinians who had been displaced by the conflict. Israel's military said the shelling was in response to mortar fire from within the school and asserted that Hamas were using civilians as cover. They stated that the dead near the school included Hamas members of a rocket launching cell. Two residents of the area told reporters that they had seen a group of about four militants firing mortar shells from a street near the school and confirmed that two of them who had been killed in the bombing were known to be low-level Hamas militants.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) recounted an incident that occurred on 29 December in the Rafah refugee camp. A group of armed Palestinian fighters had gathered near the home of Ziad al-Absi and his family at around 10:30pm and began firing machine guns at Israeli helicopters flying over the area. al-Absi told HRW, "I and the neighbors argued with the militants, told them this is a populated area and this will put us into peril". The fighters initially refused to leave, but eventually did after their commander ordered them to do so. Two hours after the fighters had left, at around 1:00am, Israeli helicopters returned and fired two missiles, one of which stuck the al-Absi home, killing their three sons, ages 3–13, and injuring their two daughters. The children's mother was also injured and sent to intensive care. According to al-Absi, in the two hours before the strike on his house, there had been no other armed activity in the area.

Combatant use of civilian clothes

A New York Times journalist asserted that Hamas militants were fighting in civilian clothes. Some NGO reports suggested that in general members of Palestinian armed groups did not wear military uniforms and mixed with the civilian population.

The UN Fact Finding Mission (Goldstone Mission), however, concluded in its report: "While reports reviewed by the Mission credibly indicate that members of Palestinian armed groups were not always dressed in a way that distinguished them from civilians, the Mission found no evidence that Palestinian combatants mingled with the civilian population with the intention of shielding themselves from attack."

Military use of medical facilities and uniforms

An IDF investigation concluded that Hamas forced the Red Crescent to hand over medic and nurse uniforms for its operatives and commandeered ambulances for fighters transportation during the War. Palestinian civilians living in Gaza detailed Hamas' attempts to hijack ambulances and the wearing of paramedic uniforms by Hamas fighters. An ambulance driver registered with and trained by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society spoke of Hamas' efforts to "lure the ambulances into the heart of a battle to transport fighters to safety" and the hijacking of the al-Quds Hospital's fleet of ambulances.

The IDF claimed that Hamas operated a command and control center inside Shifa Hospital in Gaza City throughout the War, and that Hamas field commanders exploited the daily cessation in fighting that the IDF established for humanitarian purposes to receive instructions from senior Hamas officials. Addressing the Israeli cabinet, an intelligence official claimed that senior members of Hamas sought refuge in the sub-level floors believing that Israel would not target them for fear that such a strike would invariably lead to heavy collateral damage to the hospital patients in the upper floors.

Next to the hospital, Militants set up posts that were used for the firing of mortars. Underneath a mosque that was located alongside the hospital was discovered a tunnel leading to the maternity ward, which was used by Hamas operatives to move undetected. After an Israeli airstrike on the central prison, which resulted in prisoners being released into the streets, several of the 115 prisoners accused of collaboration with Israel who had not yet been tried were executed by Hamas militants wearing civilian clothes in the Shifa hospital compound.

The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, an Israel-based group with close ties to the Israeli military establishment, reported that Hamas made extensive use of the Al-Fahoura Medical Centre and that they established a military camp and training base next to it. The ITIC released aerial pictures showing tunnels dug around the building and the medical centre and that the area surrounding the hospital was heavily mined. Rockets were launched in close proximity of the centre. The ITIC report stated that Hamas used 10 Gazan hospitals for launching rockets at Israeli towns and for attacking IDF troops.

Effects

Along with a high casualty rate, there were multiple economic, industrial and medical effects of the Gaza War. The United Nations Development Programme warned that there will be long-term consequences of the attacks on Gaza because the livelihoods and assets of tens of thousands of Gaza civilians have been affected.

Early estimates by independent contractors in Gaza say that Gaza lost nearly $2 billion in assets, including 4,000 homes destroyed. The IDF destroyed 600–700 factories, small industries, workshops and business enterprises throughout the Gaza Strip, 24 mosques, 31 security compounds, and 10 water or sewage lines. The World Health Organization said that 34 health facilities (8 hospitals and 26 primary health care clinics) were damaged over the course of the offensive and the UNOCHA said that over 50 United Nations facilities sustained damage, of which 28 reported damage in the first three days of the operation. On 22 January 2010, Israel paid $10.5 million in compensation to the United Nations for damage to UN property incurred during the Israeli offensive.

A satellite-based damage assessment of the Gaza Strip by the United Nations revealed 2,692 destroyed and severely damaged buildings, 220 impact craters on roads and bridges with an estimated length of 167 km (104 mi) of paved and unpaved roads damaged, 714 impact craters on open ground or cultivated land with an estimated land area of 2,100 hectares (21 km2), 187 greenhouses completely destroyed or severely damaged with an estimated area of 28 hectares (0.28 km2), and 2,232 hectares (22.32 km2) of demolished zones targeted by IDF bulldozers, tanks and phosphorus shelling.

Health problems in Gaza

Following the war, Gaza has witnessed increasing epidemics of health problems.

At the Al Shifa hospital a constant increase in the percentage of children born with birth defects of about 60% was witnessed when the period of July to September 2008 was compared to the same period in 2009. Dr. Mohammed Abu Shaban, director of the Blood Tumors Department in Al-Rantisy Hospital in Gaza has witnessed an increase in the number of cases of blood cancer. In March 2010 the department had seen 55 cases so far for that year, compared to the 20 to 25 cases normally seen in an entire year.

During the war, Norwegian medics said that they had found traces of depleted uranium, a radioactive and genotoxic material used in some types of munition, in some Gaza residents who were wounded. Lawyers who brought back soil samples from Gaza said that areas where these samples were taken contained up to 75 tons of depleted uranium. The Israeli government denied it used Depleted Uranium, and the United Nations opened an investigation. Israel had also initially denied the use of white phosphorus during the war, but later acknowledged that indeed it had used white phosphorus to cover troop movements.

The policy of the Government of Israel is to condition the access of Palestinians who live in the Palestinian territories to healthcare in Israel upon financial coverage from the Palestinian Authority. In January 2009, following the war, the Palestinian Authority cancelled financial coverage for all medical care for Palestinians in Israeli hospitals, including coverage for chronically ill Palestinian patients, and those in need of complex care that is not available in other tertiary medical centers in the region. This decision was protested by human rights organizations.

Gaza humanitarian crisis

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that the Gaza humanitarian crisis is significant and should not be understated. It also states that the situation is a "human dignity crisis" in the Gaza strip, entailing "a massive destruction of livelihoods and a significant deterioration of infrastructure and basic services". Fear and panic are widespread; 80% of the population could not support themselves and were dependent on humanitarian assistance. The International Red Cross said the situation was "intolerable" and a "full blown humanitarian crisis". The importation of necessary food and supplies continues to be blocked even after the respective ceasefires. According to the World Food Programme, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and Palestinian officials, between 35% and 60% of the agriculture industry was wrecked. With extensive damage occurring to water sources, greenhouses, and farmland. It is estimated that 60% of the agricultural land in the north of the Strip may no longer be arable. More than 50,800 Gazans were left homeless. Extensive destruction was caused to commercial enterprises and to public infrastructure. According to Palestinian industrialists, 219 factories were destroyed or severely damaged during the Israeli military operation. They accounted as part of the 3% of industrial capacity that was operating after the Israeli blockade was imposed, which was mostly destroyed during the operation.

On 3 January before the IDF ground operation, Israel's foreign minister Tzipi Livni said that Israel had taken care to protect the civilian population of Gaza, and that it had kept the humanitarian situation "completely as it should be", maintaining Israel's earlier stance. The secretary-general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, criticized Livni's statement and further criticized the Security Council for not responding faster to the crisis. On subsequent reports, the UN stated that "only an immediate cease-fire will be able to address the large-scale humanitarian and protection crisis that faces the people of Gaza."

The Emergency Relief Coordinator of the United Nations has stated that after the end of the Israeli operation, at best, only 120 truckloads get into Gaza, instead of the normal daily requirement, including commercial traffic, of 500 trucks at minimum. It is also reported in his statement and other UN humanitarian office reports that essential items such as construction materials, water pipes, electrical wires, and transformers continue to be effectively banned, or only allowed infrequently. He also stated that commercial goods must be allowed in and out, since Gaza Palestinians "do not want or deserve to be dependent on humanitarian aid" and that the "limited trickle" of items into Gaza continue the effective collective punishment of the civilian population and force the counter-productive reliance on tunnels for daily essentials.

Effects on Israel

During the conflict, life in much of southern Israel was largely paralyzed by more than 30 Hamas rocket and mortar strikes. The Israeli Home Front Command issued detailed emergency instructions to Israeli citizens for preparing for and dealing with rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip. The instructions included orders to stay within a certain distance of bomb shelters based on proximity to the source of the rockets. Hamas' Grad rockets' increased range of 40 km put more than 700,000 Israelis within strike range, prompting 40% of the residents of the southern city of Ashkelon to flee the city, despite official calls to stay. Throughout the war, Palestinian rocket attacks into Israel damaged or destroyed more than 1,500 homes and buildings and 327 vehicles. Numerous agricultural fields near Gaza also sustained damage. Twenty-eight Israeli families lost their homes to rocket attacks, and had to temporarily live in hotels. Among the buildings hit were nine educational facilities and three synagogues.

Schools and universities in southern Israel began to close due to rocket threats on 27 December. Studies officially resumed on 11 January. Only schools with fortified classrooms and bomb shelters were allowed to bring students in, and IDF Home Front Command representatives were stationed in the schools; attendance was low. Palestinian rocket attacks that hit educational facilities caused no casualties.

The largest hospital on Israel's southern coast, Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center, moved its critical treatment facilities into an underground shelter after a rocket struck beside its helicopter pad on 28 December.

Most business in Southern Israel stopped upon orders of the Home Front Command, with retailers losing an estimated $7 million in the first week. Numerous small businesses suffered in decreased sales, and were unable to pay employee salaries due to low revenues. Major industries remained open, but had high absence rates. The Manufacturers Association of Israel estimated the direct cost to business and industry to be 88 million NIS, and indirect financial losses at several tens of millions of shekels.

The Israel Tax Authority received 1,728 compensation claims for damage related to the conflict, mostly from Ashkelon and Ashdod.

According to Israeli economist Ron Eichel, the war effort cost the Israeli military about 5 billion NIS in military expenditure, or 250 million NIS per day. An anonymous political source told Ynetnews that the aerial assaults were costing $27 million to $39 million a day in munitions and fuel, totaling the first six days of the operation at nearly $265 million for air-strikes alone. Both the IDF and Treasury refused to disclose the exact amount, and the Treasury adamantly denied these figures.

International law

Accusations of violations regarding international humanitarian law, which governs the actions by belligerents during an armed conflict, have been directed at both Israel and Hamas for their actions during the Gaza War. The accusations covered violating laws governing distinction and proportionality by Israel, the indiscriminate firing of rockets at civilian locations and extrajudicial violence within the Gaza Strip by Hamas. As of September 2009, some 360 complaints had been filed by individuals and NGOs at the prosecutor's office in the Hague calling for investigations into alleged crimes committed by Israel during the Gaza War.

On 15 September 2009, a 574-page report by UN inquiry team was released, officially titled "Human Rights in Palestine and Other Occupied Arab Territories: Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict". It concluded that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity. On 16 October 2009, the UN Human Rights Council endorsed the report. Israel's defense minister said that the report was distorted, falsified and not balanced.

Human rights organizations have urged both Israel and Hamas to implement an independent investigation into the alleged violations of international law as stipulated by the Goldstone report.

On 1 April 2011, Goldstone wrote an op-ed that appeared in The Washington Post in which he stated that he no longer believes the report's finding that Israel targeted Palestinian civilians as a matter of policy, the most serious accusation the report made against Israel. The three other signatories to the UNHRC report, Hina Jilani, Christine Chinkin and Desmond Travers, co-authored an op-ed that appeared in The Guardian in which they replied that there was no evidence that refutes any of the report's findings.

In April 2012, the International Criminal Court (ICC) rejected the Palestinian Authority's (PA) request that Israel be investigated for claimed war crimes in Gaza in 2009, holding that since the PA is recognized by the UN General Assembly as an "observer" rather than a "state", the ICC lacked jurisdiction to hear its request. The decision was heavily criticized by human rights groups.

Right to resist and the right to self-defence

Legal professor Jerome Slater writes, in the context of Operation Cast Lead, that Palestinians in principle have the right to resist Israeli occupation (thought this right does not allow for attacks on civilians). And while Israel has the right of self-defense, it forfeited this right when it occupied and repressed Palestinians. Just war theory allows war only if every effort to a political solution has failed. Slater argues that in the lead up to the war, Israel frequently refused to negotiate ceasefires with Hamas, or it violated the very ceasefire it had agreed to.

Media

International news networks named the conflict "War in Gaza" and focused on the assault. Israeli media called it the "War in the South" (Hebrew: מלחמה בדרום Milẖama BaDarom) and dispatched reporters to Israeli towns hit by rockets. Al Jazeera suggested that it was a war against Palestinian civilians with the title "War on Gaza".

Denied media access

Reporter access to the war zone was limited. During the Gaza raids against Hamas, the Israeli army denied international media access to the conflict zone, against a decision by the Israeli Supreme Court to lift the embargo. The Foreign Press Association of Israel released a statement saying, "The unprecedented denial of access to Gaza for the world's media amounts to a severe violation of press freedom and puts the state of Israel in the company of a handful of regimes around the world which regularly keep journalists from doing their jobs."

Attacks on the media

Media facilities in Gaza, both foreign and domestic, came under Israeli fire in the military campaign. On one occasion a Grad rocket may have been launched from a location near the television studios in the Al-Shuruk tower in Gaza City. Although the Israeli recording of a reporter describing a rocket launch was during the initial aerial bombardment phase the tower was only bombed in the final few days. On 29 December the IDF destroyed the facilities and headquarters of Al-Aqsa TV (though broadcasts continue from elsewhere), and a week later, IDF soldiers entered the building and seized the equipment. The Israelis also hacked into the station's signal and broadcast an animated clip of Hamas' leadership being gunned down. On 5 January the IDF bombed the offices of the Hamas-affiliated Al-Risala newsweekly. On 9 January the IDF hit the Johara tower of Gaza City, which houses more than 20 international news organizations, including Turkish, French, and Iranian outlets. The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said that the building had not been targeted, though it may have sustained damage from a nearby Israeli strike.

On 12 January two Arab journalists from Jerusalem working for an Iranian television station were arrested by Israeli Police and indicted in the Jerusalem District Court for violating military censorship protocols. They had reported on the IDF ground offensive hours before they were cleared to do so. The journalists maintained that they merely stated what was already being said in the international media.

New media

Media relations also played an important role, with the use of new media (up to and including cyber warfare) on the part of both Israel and Hamas. Haaretz reported that Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni "instructed senior ministry officials to open an aggressive and diplomatic international public relations campaign to gain support for Israel Defense Forces operations in the Gaza Strip". Israeli officials at embassies and consulates worldwide have mounted campaigns in local media, and to that end have recruited people who speak the native language. Israel has also opened an international media centre in Sderot. To improve Israeli public relations, the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption has recruited 1,000 volunteers with the objective of flooding news websites and blogs that the ministry term as anti-Israeli with pro-Israeli opinions. Volunteers proficient in languages other than Hebrew were particularly sought after.

Foreign Press Branch head Avital Leibovich believes the "new media" is another war zone, stating, "We have to be relevant there." As part of its public-relations campaign, the Israeli army opened a YouTube channel "through which it will disseminate footage of precision bombing operations in the Gaza Strip, as well as aid distribution and other footage of interest to the international community".

Reactions

While Israel defined its operation as a war against Hamas, Palestinian representatives and individuals, among others, viewed it as a "war on the Palestinian people".

The United Nations Security Council issued a statement on 28 December 2008, calling "for an immediate halt to all violence". The Arab League, the European Union and many nations made similar calls. On 9 January 2009, following an earlier, failed attempt at a ceasefire resolution, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1860 calling for "an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire" leading to a full Israeli withdrawal and an end to Gaza arms smuggling, by 14 votes to one abstention (the United States). The resolution was ignored by both Israel and Hamas. One week later, on 16 January 2009, the General Assembly passed United Nations General Assembly Resolution ES-10/18, which aimed to enforce the earlier passed UN Security Council Resolution 1860. The resolution called for an immediate ceasefire, withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and unimpeded humanitarian aid distribution, and was subsequently adopted with overwhelming support (142–3) and 9 abstentions.

Many governments expressed positions on the conflict, most condemning both belligerents, or neither of them. Thirty-four states, mostly members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, condemned Israel's attacks exclusively. Three of them expressed support for Hamas' operations or defined them as falling within its right of resistance. Nineteen states, mostly members of the European Union, condemned Hamas' attacks exclusively. Thirteen of them expressed support for Israel's operations or defined them as falling within Israel's right to self-defense.

Bolivia, Jordan, Mauritania and Venezuela significantly downscaled or severed their relations with Israel in protest of the offensive.

The conflict saw worldwide civilian demonstrations for and against both sides.

The conflict triggered a wave of reprisal attacks against Jewish targets in Europe and elsewhere. The worldwide number of recorded antisemitic incidents during the conflict more than tripled the number of such incidents in the same period of the previous year, marking a two-decade high.

Reactions in Israel

The war provoked mixed reactions inside Israel, with the Jewish majority largely supporting it, and the Arab minority mostly opposing it. A poll taken on 8 January 2009 showed that 91% of the Jewish public supported the war, and 4% opposed it, while a separate poll conducted 4–6 January showed a 94% approval of the war among Jews and 85% disapproval among Israeli Arabs. Most right-wing opposition parties including Likud, National Union, National Religious Party and Yisrael Beiteinu opposed the ceasefire and urged to continue the operation until Hamas is fully defeated.

During the war, Arab protests took place across the country. Within hours of the war's start, the Higher Follow-Up Committee for Arab citizens of Israel met in Nazareth, and declared a "day of wrath and mourning for the martyrs among our compatriots in the Gaza Strip", and a general strike for the following day. Arab demonstrations took place across the country almost every day during the offensive, and were described as the "largest Arab demonstrations in Israel's history". Arab parties and parliamentarians in the Knesset also opposed the offensive. In Jerusalem, Arabs held violent demonstrations, which included rock-throwing, arson, and the vandalization of Jewish graves. Police arrested dozens of rioters. At the University of Haifa, Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jewish leftist and Arab students staged anti-war demonstrations, which were met with pro-war counter-demonstrations. Some confrontations occurred despite police keeping protesters apart.

The legal rights agency Adalah produced a report highly critical of the Israeli police and court system's response to the opposition to Operation Cast Lead. The report said that the Israeli authorities had shown a lack of tolerance for protests, and had damaged the freedom of expression of those opposing the attacks on Gaza. The report said that the actions showed the lessons of the Or Commission had not been learned. The Israeli Ministry of Justice responded that the risk to human life and public welfare had justified their actions.

The term Sderot cinema has been coined for the tradition of residents in Sderot sitting to view the bombardment of the Gaza Strip.