Following an attack on Bet Lid, near the city of Netanya, Rabin specified the objectives behind the undertaking, stating that: This path must lead to a separation, though not according to the borders prior to 1967.

[42] Palestinian tactics ranged from carrying out mass protests and general strikes, as in the First Intifada, to mounting suicide bombing attacks and firing Qassam rockets into southeastern Israeli residential areas.

[44] Since 2001, Palestinian militants have launched thousands of rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip,[45] killing, injuring and traumatizing Israeli civilians.

[46][47] In July 2006, Israel briefly re-occupied parts of northern Gaza Strip and used the occupied areas as bases for raids into Jabalya and Beit Lahya.

Palestinian armed groups fired rockets into Israel, killing Israeli civilians, including children, and wounding others, as well as causing damage to infrastructure; and Israel launched attacks and shelled Gaza with artillery, killing Palestinian combatants as well as civilians, including children,[52][53][54] and causing devastating damage to infrastructure.

[56] Large-scale conventional warfare beyond the peripheries of the Gaza Strip began when Palestinian militants abducted Corporal Gilad Shalit, and Israel responded by launching Operation "Summer Rains" on 28 June 2006.

Israel maintains that it mobilized thousands of troops in order to suppress Qassam rocket fire against its civilian population and to secure the release of Gilad Shalit.

[72] The 2006 Franco–Italian–Spanish Middle East Peace Plan was proposed after Israel invaded the Gaza Strip in Operation "Autumn Clouds" by Spanish Premier José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero during talks with French president Jacques Chirac.

On 19 December, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad began taking open responsibility for the Qassam rocket firing, because they said Israel killed two of their members in Jenin.

[73][74][75] A series of battles between Palestinian militants in Hamas-governed Gaza and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that began in mid-May 2007, with the inter-Palestinian violence flaring in the meantime.

[84][85][86][87] By January 2008, according to a United Nations study, the economic effects of Israel's blockade on Gaza reached a critical threshold.

The United Nations estimates that as many as half the 1.5 million population of the Gaza Strip crossed the border into Egypt seeking food and supplies.

[88] On 28 February 2008, Israeli aircraft bombed a police station near the Gaza City home of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, killing several children.

"[94] On 3 March Abbas suspended all contact with Israel over its assault on Gaza as the Israeli government sent warplanes to hit more targets early on Monday and vowed to continue its offensive.

[95] The European Union condemned what it called "disproportionate use of force" by the Israeli military in Gaza after 54 Palestinians were killed in the highest casualty toll for a single day since fighting erupted in 2000.

In Egypt, thousands of students held protests at universities across the country calling on Arab leaders to stop Israeli aggression and support the Palestinians.

[93] About 10,000 protesters, mainly from Jordan's mainstream Muslim Brotherhood and smaller opposition groups, took to the streets in one of the country's most vocal and largest anti-Israeli demonstrations in recent years.

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the IDF attacks can have "no humanitarian justification" and added that Israel was rejecting a "diplomatic solution" to the dispute.

[104] Two months later the volume of goods arriving was too low to significantly improve living conditions,[108] preventing UNRWA from replenishing its stores.

[124][125] Civilian infrastructure, including mosques, houses, medical facilities and schools, were also attacked, as Israel stated that many of them were used by combatants, and as storage spaces for weapons and rockets.

[126] Hamas intensified its rocket and mortar attacks against targets in Israel throughout the conflict, hitting previously untargeted cities such as Beersheba and Ashdod.

[167] Violence flared up again on 11 November 2018 when seven Palestinian militants were killed during a botched raid by the Israel Defense Forces in the southeastern Gaza Strip.

In response to the rocket fire, Israel carried out airstrikes and artillery shelling in the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding several militants as well as civilians.

[179] On 5 August 2022, Israel launched airstrikes on Gaza after a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant had been arrested in the West Bank 4 days earlier, due to fears of retaliation.

In response, the government of Israel declared a state of emergency and war; The Israeli military retaliated by conducting a counteroffensive and an extensive aerial bombardment campaign on Gaza followed by an invasion.

[citation needed] On 31 July 2014 on the 23rd day of the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, Ireland's Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan said he shared "the horror and revulsion of senators and very many of our citizens at the horrendous scenes we have witnessed since the start of the Israeli military operation."

[205] In April 2016 the Anti-Defamation League called on Sanders to withdraw remarks he made to the New York Daily News, which the ADL said exaggerated the death toll of the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict.

[208] The Direct Polls survey published in December 2023 found that 83% of Israelis supported encouraging the voluntary emigration of residents of the Gaza Strip.

[209] Public opinion poll conducted in December 2023 by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 87% of Jewish Israelis supported the war in Gaza.

[210] 75% of Jewish Israelis rejected the Biden administration's calls to change the IDF's strategy to one that "reduces the heavy bombing of densely populated areas.