Operation Hot Winter

Hamas's military takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007 significantly altered the security environment along Israel's southern border. In the months that followed, Palestinian terrorist organizations substantially expanded their rocket capabilities: before 2006, they rarely launched 50 rockets in a month, but by early 2008 they could fire 50 in a day.[5] The breach of the Egypt-Gaza border fence in January 2008 further increased Hamas's access to materials and technical knowledge needed to build and import rockets.[5]

Sderot bore the brunt of the sustained campaign; one account estimates that the town absorbed roughly 45 percent of nearly 3,000 rocket attacks over the preceding seven years.[5] The campaign took on a new dimension in late February 2008 when Hamas began repeatedly firing 122 mm Grad rockets at Ashkelon, a city of approximately 120,000 residents, in the first intensive targeting of that city.[1][5] Public Security Minister Avi Dichter stated on March 2 that targeting Ashkelon expanded the number of Israeli civilians living under threat of Gaza rocket fire from 25,000 to 250,000.[5]

The late-February escalation began on February 27, when an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza destroyed a van carrying five senior Hamas terrorists, some of whom Israel said had trained in Syria and Iran.[3] Palestinian terrorist organizations responded with an intensive barrage, firing approximately 90 rockets into Israel on February 27–28, including longer-range Grad rockets.[3] Three people were injured in Ashkelon during that barrage.[3] Between January 9 and March 1, at least 231 rockets fell on Israeli kindergartens, schools, parks, and homes.[6]

Ground forces entered northern Gaza around the turn of February 29–March 1; sources differ on the ground phase's exact starting date. Infantry and armored forces operated in the area while Israeli airstrikes continued.[7][8] An Israeli government report described the objective as attacking rocket- and mortar-launching squads and identified the Jabaliya refugee camp and the Sajaiya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City as areas of operation.[9] A separate government report characterized Operation Hot Winter as geographically and temporally limited rather than an attempt to reconquer the Gaza Strip.[1]

Israeli infantry engaged Hamas terrorists in close urban combat. A Jewish Virtual Library account described soldiers attempting to disarm and arrest terrorists in Jabaliya while limiting civilian deaths.[6] A Ynet analysis described the campaign as a combined ground and aerial operation involving Givati Brigade and armored corps troops.[10]

The UN Fact-Finding Mission reported that the Israeli Air Force carried out at least 75 strikes on targets in Gaza during the operation.[2] Ynet reported strikes on weapons-manufacturing workshops and an office used by Hamas, while an Israeli government account said major sites were hit, disrupting production and transportation activities.[8][1] A March 3 Center report said one strike hit a truck carrying 160 rockets.[11]

Between February 28 and March 3, 207 rockets landed in Israeli territory, most launched by Hamas, averaging approximately 30 per day.[1] Sderot was the preferred target and was struck by approximately 100 rockets, while Hamas fired 18 standard 122 mm Grad rockets at Ashkelon and its immediate vicinity.[1] One Grad rocket landed in an open area near Netivot, close to the grave of Baba Sali, a site considered holy to many Jews.[11] After Israeli troops withdrew, three further Grad rockets struck Ashkelon, including one that hit an apartment building and another that hit a kindergarten playground.[6]

An Israeli government report said forces found weapons hidden in a mosque in Jabaliya and alleged that Hamas terrorists fought from residential dwellings while women and children were sent to patrol or retrieve weapons.[9] It also recounted an incident in which a child carried the weapon of a killed Hamas operative to nearby terrorists; the Israeli commander reportedly declined to fire because he believed the child had been forced to retrieve it.[9]

A friendly-fire incident also occurred during the night fighting. Then-deputy commander of the Givati reconnaissance unit Ivri Elbaz was wounded after a fellow Israeli soldier, moving through a nearby orchard, mistook him for a terrorist and fired from several dozen meters away.[12]

Two Givati Brigade soldiers were killed and several others wounded during the operation.[10] The dead were identified as Staff Sergeant Eran Dan-Gur and Staff Sergeant Doron Asulin.[4]

Palestinian casualty figures vary across sources and reflect different reporting periods and counting methods. Israeli airstrikes on February 28 killed 19 people in Gaza, including four children, with many of those killed identified as members of Hamas's military wing.[3] A Congressional Research Service report gives a total Palestinian death toll of 126 over five days of Israeli ground and air operations.[3] A Ynet analysis estimated that Hamas lost approximately 70 men.[10] An Israeli government report said some 70 terrorist operatives and associated infrastructure were hit during the ground operation, while another passage in the same report asserted that about 130 of those killed during the broader escalation were terrorist operatives.[1] A Globes opinion column put Palestinian deaths at approximately 140 and said most, but not all, were armed.[13]

Different versions of the UN Fact-Finding Mission report contain a notable numerical discrepancy. The final report dated September 25, 2009, says more than 100 Palestinians and two Israelis were killed as a result of the operation.[2] An advance edited version dated September 15, 2009, gives 202 Palestinian and two Israeli deaths.[14] Neither passage supplies an operation-specific civilian-combatant breakdown.

A Hamas-affiliated Palestinian website tally reproduced by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center listed 34 deaths for February 27–28: 11 Qassam Brigades members, eight members of other terrorist organizations, one policeman, one guard, and 13 civilians, including children.[11] The Center separately assessed that more than 80 Palestinians were killed over five days and that most were armed operatives, primarily from Hamas's Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, while acknowledging civilian deaths, including children.[11]

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center assessed that the operation disrupted Hamas's production and transportation activities in northern Gaza and exposed gaps in the organization's combat preparations.[1] A Ynet analysis said ground forces withdrew after exhausting immediate opportunities to strike Hamas terrorists or gather further intelligence, making continued deployment a risk without commensurate benefit.[10]

Hamas sought to exploit the operation politically by attacking the Palestinian Authority and Fatah. On March 1, Hamas issued a warning to those it accused of abandoning resistance, and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal accused Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of providing cover for what Mashaal called a genocide in Gaza.[15]

The operation drew international condemnation as well as American and British resistance to further condemnation at the UN Security Council. On March 1, the White House spokesman distinguished between "terrorist rocket attacks that target civilians" and "action in self-defense," while calling for an end to attacks on civilians generally.[3] UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned what he described as Israel's "disproportionate and excessive use of force," and the EU presidency used similar language regarding IDF actions in Gaza. The United States and Britain opposed efforts to adopt a draft Security Council resolution further condemning Israel.[5]

A Globes column later in 2008 framed Operation Hot Winter as one in a series of forceful retaliatory actions that produced only temporary relative quiet, while Ynet's analysis warned that Hamas was learning Israeli tactics and improving its deployment between operations.[13][10] The operation was subsequently discussed in the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict as part of its broader historical account of hostilities in Gaza.[2]

English-language sources use two renderings of the Hebrew operation name חורף חם. Israeli government documents and the UN Fact-Finding Mission use "Operation Hot Winter."[1][2] The U.S. Department of State and Jewish Virtual Library use "Operation Warm Winter,"[7][6] as did contemporaneous Ynet reporting.[8] These are different English renderings of the same Hebrew operation name, not separate operations.

Dates also differ across sources. The Israeli government dates Operation Hot Winter from February 27 to March 3, 2008, and the broader escalation from February 27 to March 4.[1] The U.S. State Department dates Operation Warm Winter from February 29 to March 1.[7] A Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs article describes a ground incursion beginning March 1 and completed by March 3, corresponding to the ground phase rather than the full air and ground campaign.[5] The Congressional Research Service describes five days of Israeli ground and air operations following the February 27 escalation.[3] These variations reflect differences in whether sources describe the ground incursion, the combined operation, or the wider period of escalation.