Operation Protective Edge

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At the end of the war, the extensive civilian casualties and destruction of residential areas came to light; it became clear that Operation Protective Edge would prove to be one of the most devastating and controversial campaigns carried out by the IDF in recent years. All in all, over 2,251 Palestinians, including 1,462 civilians, were killed and of the Palestinian fatalities, 551 were children and 299 were women. The war left 11,231 Palestinians injured and more than 1,500 children orphaned. On the Israeli side, six civilians and 67 soldiers were killed (). Although Israel did not suffer as much in terms of damage and casualties, it suffered a different way; the war prompted an evidently bitter response from the international community and …show more content…

The strongest criticism came from the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who described the act as “unjustifiable” and accused the IDF of attacking the school, despite knowing that it is a shelter. He states, "I want to make it clear that the exact location of this elementary school has been communicated to the Israeli military authorities 17 times, as recently as last night, just a few hours before this attack” (Sengupta). Additionally, there was an unprecedented amount of condemnation of Israel from public figures such as Robert De Niro, Mark Ruffalo, Penelope Cruz, and Rihanna to sanctions by foreign governments against Israel. Many Latin American countries, such as Brazil, Chile, and Bolivia recalled their envoys from Israel and suspended Free Trade Agreement talks indefinitely and even Great Britain threatened to suspend arms sales to Israel (Spangler …show more content…

Therefore, had Netanyahu not jumped to put the responsibility on Hamas before the investigation was completed, the war could have been prevented. In an attempt to repair its image and to justify its actions, Israel was forced to play defense for the following months. Attempts were made by Israeli officials to draw comparisons between Hamas and other terrorist organizations such as ISIS. For example, Israel's minister of the economy, Naftali Bennett states, "For the free world to win, we need to start by realizing one simple thing, no matter what the name of the organization, the enemy is the same. It might be called Hezbollah in Lebanon, ISIS in Iraq, and Hamas in the Gaza strip. All have the same goal-to attack the western democratic way of life wherever it might be" (Salaita 14). Netanyahu used this same line of argument in front of an UN general assembly in September. He rebuked leaders who condemned Operation Protective Edge and argued that these people “evidently don’t understand that ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree” (Rodgers

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