One of the multiple bombing operations used for collective punishment of the people in Gaza.
On the evening of 12 June 2014, three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped in the West Bank. Israeli leadership has placed the responsibility for their abduction on Hamas. On 30 June, corpses of the teenagers were found. Other commentators, such as Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe, and NBC reporter Ayman Mohyeldin, queried the abduction and murder of the Israeli teenagers as being the real start of the chain of events leading to the major conflict. They saw parallels in the earlier killing of two Palestinian teenagers in the Beitunia killings. The autopsy report confirming that live IDF fire had been the cause of death of one of the Palestinian teenagers had become public knowledge the day before the kidnapping of the Israeli teenagers. The operation was also preceded by the jailing of hundreds of Palestinians, by air strikes on Gaza in which 3 Palestinians were killed and more than a dozen injured, by the killing of at least 6 Palestinians, injuring of dozens, house demolitions and lootings in the West Bank, by the kidnapping and killing of a Palestinian youth, and by massive rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip to southern Israel.
During the previous 50 days of armed conflict 2,104 Palestinians were killed, including 253 women (12 per cent) and 495 children (24 per cent). During the same period, 69 Israelis were killed including four civilians (6 per cent). According to the UN, at least 69 per cent of Palestinians killed were civilians. It is relevant to note that during Israel’s last major ground operation into Gaza in 2008 (“Operation Cast Lead”), the proportion of Palestinian civilians killed was 55 per cent.
It is estimated that 10,224 Palestinians, including 3,106 children (30 per cent) and 1,970 women (19 per cent) were injured. Preliminary estimates indicate that up to 1,000 of the children injured will have a permanent disability and up to 1,500 orphaned children will need sustained support from the child protection and welfare sectors.
