Chronology: July 16, 2014 – October 15, 2014

ABBREVIATIONS

• AFP, Agence France-Presse

• AJE, Al Jazeera English

• Al Arabiya

• AP, The Associated Press

• BBC

• Bloomberg

• CNN

• The Daily Beast

• DS, Daily Star (Lebanon)

• France24

• The Guardian

• Haaretz

• Hurriyet

• JP, The Jerusalem Post

• JT, The Jordan Times

• LA Times

• The National

• NYT, The New York Times

• RFE/RL, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

• Reuters

• Time Magazine

• VOA, Voice of America

• WP, The Washington Post

• WSJ, The Wall Street Journal

Arab-Israeli Conflict

See also Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestinian Territories

July 17: Israel began a ground operation in the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas’s continued rocket attacks and rejection of cease-fire proposals. The Israel Defense Force (IDF) stated that the objective of the operation was to severely impair Hamas’s infrastructure in order to protect Israeli lives. The ground operation began the day after four Palestinian boys were killed on a beach in Gaza City by shelling from an Israeli gunboat off the coast. [AFP, 7/17]

July 20: Israeli artillery and tank fire landed in the Shuja‘iyya neighborhood of Gaza City, killing approximately 65 Palestinians in the deadliest incident since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge. Thirteen Israeli soldiers were also killed during the fighting in Gaza, and about 37 Palestinians were killed in other areas of the Gaza Strip. [AFP, 7/20]

July 24: Israeli forces shelled a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school in Gaza City, killing 15 and wounding more than 250 who were seeking shelter from aerial bombardment. Israeli officials claimed that Israeli soldiers returned fire after Hamas militants fired at them from a location near the school. [Reuters, 7/24]

July 25: Israel rejected a cease-fire proposal drafted by members of the international community due to its prohibition of the destruction of Hamas’s network of tunnels. US secretary of state John Kerry stated that current negotiations were seeking a seven-day humanitarian truce. [Reuters, 7/25]

July 26: Israel and Hamas agreed upon a 12-hour humanitarian cease-fire that began at 8 AM. Israel had proposed a four-hour extension of the truce, but rocket fire from Hamas militants at the original end time of 8 PM provoked retaliatory strikes from Israeli forces. [AJE, 7/26]

July 28: An unofficial truce on the ‘Id al-Fitr holiday that was agreed upon by Israeli and Hamas officials was broken when five Israeli soldiers were killed in two separate attacks by Palestinian militants, including a mortar shelling. Israeli and Hamas spokesmen blamed each other for an explosion in a northern Gaza park that killed ten Palestinians and wounded 40. Approximately 1,054 Palestinians and 43 Israelis had been killed since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge. [Reuters, 7/28]

July 30: A total of 76 Palestinians died in Israeli air-strikes in the Gaza Strip, including 16 people who were killed when Israeli forces bombed a UN-run school. The IDF stated that significant advances had been made into Gaza and that 53 soldiers had been killed since the beginning of the conflict. [AFP, 7/30]

Aug. 1: Less than two hours into a 72-hour cease-fire agreed upon by Hamas and Israel, Hamas militants attacked an Israeli unit that was destroying a tunnel in Gaza. Three Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting and, amid reports that the militants had captured one of the soldiers, Israel declared the truce to be void and resumed shelling immediately following the attack. [WP, 8/1]

Aug. 3: A UN school sheltering 3,000 Palestinians in Gaza was bombed by Israeli forces, killing ten people and injuring 35 others, days after two other UN schools were shelled. The international community criticized Israel for its indiscriminate attacks against civilians, as Israel declined to send an envoy to Cairo in an effort to restart negotiations for a cease-fire. [Guardian, 8/3]

Aug. 4: Israel and Hamas agreed upon a 72-hour cease-fire, during which officials from both sides would meet in Cairo for another round of negotiations. The first minutes of the truce saw extensive fire from both Israeli and Hamas forces, but neither side declared the cease-fire...