Scales back forces
Israel begins scaling back forces in Gaza, with eyewitnesses reporting tanks pulling back from urban areas towards the border. The drawdown is aimed at allowing Israel to regroup and plan its next course of action, with troops set to soon pull back from densely populated urban areas once tunnel destruction is completed, and decide over the next three days how to proceed with its goals. Netanyahu makes a televised speech:
We promised to return quiet to Israel and that is what we will do. We will continue to act until that goal is reached, however long it will take and with as much force as needed
‘Leave Gaza or destroy it’
The brother of an Israel Defense Forces soldier killed in Gaza says Netanyahu must decide whether to leave Gaza and pursue diplomacy, or destroy the territory. Omar Gotlib’s Facebook account:
I ask you to take the children out of Gaza and turn to diplomacy — or just stop being afraid of the world and turn Gaza into rubble. I’m not afraid of the boycott to come. My countrymen are more important than a few opinions in the faraway, distant world
The left-wing Meretz voter, who does not support Netanyahu’s Likud, says Gaza should be taken…
…if not pleasantly, then with full force — without soldiers, only bombs weighing ton upon ton. Just don’t let the erosion and attrition continue. Stop being a politician, and be a leader. Make a decision free of outside interests, just out of concern for the pure souls that are in that accursed place, which rivals the Dead Sea as ‘The Lowest Place in the World.’
Residents can return
The Israel Defense Forces says the 70,000 residents of the northern town of Beit Lahiya can return, signaling its offensive in the area is winding down. All-clear statement:
The residents are advised to beware of explosive devices Hamas has spread across the area
‘Very close’ to completing tunnel mission
Israel Defense Forces are poised to complete their mission to deal with cross-border offensive tunnels and will push on with the mission after ceasefire negotiations break down. A senior official:
We are very close to completing the mission of dealing with the tunnels […] There’s no point in promoting an agreement. We’re not talking about cease-fires anymore. Israel will act in its own interest. We will take action against attacks from Gaza, and will finish dealing with the tunnels
Calls for unconditional release
Obama calls on Hamas to demonstrate that it can meet ceasefire commitments by releasing Israel Defense Forces 2nd. Lt. Hadar Goldin who has been dragged into a tunnel by militants 90 minutes into the 72-hour truce agreement:
If they are serious about resolving the situation, that soldier needs to be unconditionally released as soon as possible. I think it’s going to be very hard to put a ceasefire back together again if Israel and the international community can’t feel confident that Hamas can follow through on a ceasefire commitment.
Hamas: shelling killed soldier
Hamas says it has no clear indication of the whereabouts of Israel Defense Forces Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin or of militants that the IDF says kidnapped him, and assesses that he has been killed by his own side. In a statement:
We have lost contact with the group of fighters that took part in the ambush and we believe they were all killed in the (Israeli) bombardment. Assuming that they managed to seize the soldier during combat, we assess that he was also killed in the incident.
The IDF’s Hannibal Procedure rule states that no soldier of any rank is to be captured, and includes standing orders to bombard possible escape routes in the event of an abduction.
17 Gazans killed ahead of ceasefire
Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra says 17 Gaza residents are killed in Israeli strikes ahead of the 72-hour ceasefire agreed to by both sides. He says the dead include 10 members of one family killed in an airstrike in Khan Younis, while Gaza police report heavy Israeli tank shelling in northern and eastern Gaza.
Rockets three hours into ceasefire
Israeli artillery starts a heavy bombardment of targets in the Gaza Strip around three hours into the 72-hour ceasefire period, said to be in response to rocket fire during the preceding hour. The Kerem Shalom crossing is closed after coming under rocket fire, with the Israel Defense Forces focusing its strikes on the southern town of Rafah.
Strikes launched ahead of ceasefire
Hamas reports that the Israel Air Force has struck along the Philadelphi corridor on the territory’s border with Egypt minutes after the 72-hour ceasefire begins, while the Iron Dome missile defense system intercepts six incoming rockets aimed at Ashdod, and another three explode outside the town. The truce holds despite the exchanges of fire.
Nine killed in West Bank
As many as nine people are reported killed in the West Bank in two days following the breakdown of the 72-hour ceasefire agreement. The Israel Defense Forces resorts to firing live rounds during rioting in Tulkarem city, the villages of Saffa, Beit Fajar and Beit Umar and the Arroub refugee camp while witnesses say a person in a car, believed to be a settler, shoots dead 18-year-old Khaled Azmi Odeh and wounds three others near Nablus. An IDF spokeswoman comments on Tulkarem:
1,200 rioters [throwing] rocks and Molotov cocktails at troops and at an industrial center in the vicinity, endangering workers and passers-by […] The forces used riot dispersal means and once these means were exhausted, they fired at the main instigators
Passes $225 million Iron Dome bill
The U.S. Congress passes a $225 million funding bill for Iron Dome ahead of the five-week summer break for lawmakers. The House of Representatives 395-8 vote in favor follows unanimous Senate approval and the bill now goes to President Barack Obama, who requested the money and is expected to sign it into law. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) on the Senate floor:
We will stand with you on the battlefield; we will stand with you in the court of public opinion, and we’re going to push back against the United Nations.
1,374 Palestinian, 59 Israeli deaths
The Palestinian death toll reaches 1,374 on day 24 of the 2014 Gaza conflict as at least 10 people are killed in Israeli strikes and three more die of existing injuries, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra says. Fifty-six Israeli soldiers have died in fighting and rocket fire has killed two Israeli civilians and a Thai migrant worker inside Israel.
86,000 reservists
An Israel Defense Forces official says the military has called up an additional 16,000 reservists on day 24 of Operation Protective Edge, in order ‘to give the army the time needed to complete the mission.’ This brings the total number called up during the campaign to 86,000.
We’ll decide today where to place them and in which commands
Access to U.S. arsenal
The Pentagon confirms that Israel has been allowed to draw tank shells and illumination rounds from a cache of U.S. arms and equipment stored on Israeli soil. Known as the War Reserves Stock Allies-Israel program or WRSA-1, the billion-dollar reserve was established as part of expanded mutual cooperation during the 1980s and can be accessed with U.S. approval, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service the last time Israel was allowed to tap the stockpile was during the 2006 Lebanon war against Hezbollah.
95% of Israelis support Protective Edge
The Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University find in a poll that 95% of Israelis support Operation Protective Edge as “just” and only 4% or less say that the Israel Defense Forces has used excessive force in the 2014 Gaza conflict:
Over the course of the surveys, Israeli Jewish public opinion has been consistently almost unanimous in its definition of Operation Protective Edge as justified – an average of 95% (96%, 92%, and 97% over the course of the three surveys).
The Home Front Command is given an average grade of 9.1, 8.6, and 9.1 on a scale of 1-10, with one being very poor and 10 being very good, while the performance of the government was rated as 8.0, 6.3, and 8.0.
Missiles ‘strike Hamas leader’s home’
Two missiles fired by the Israel Defense Forces are said to strike the home of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, which is empty at the time. No casualties are reported. His son, Abdel Salam:
The Israeli enemy struck our house twice.
Two killed in West Bank protest
Two people are killed and at least 90 injured as a protest involving an estimated 10,000 people breaks out in violent clashes with soldiers and border police at a checkpoint in Qalandiya, between Jerusalem and Ramallah. Israeli forces go to heightened alert and mobilize different units in and around Jerusalem to ‘deal with disturbances.’ Army spokeswoman:
There are thousands of rioters there. They are rolling burning tyres and throwing Molotov cocktails and fireworks at soldiers and border police.
30,000 at lone soldier funeral
More than 30,000 people pay their respects as Israel Defense Forces lone soldier Max Steinberg is laid to rest on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, with Israelis lining streets in Jerusalem in response to online drives to attend the 24-year-old California native’s funeral. 29-year-old Lod resident Eli Stern:
I came to support the family after hearing on the social networks that most of his family were not in the country. I do not know him, but I felt I had to be here, for his parents who come from abroad to feel all the people standing behind them, and that Max did not fall for nothing
John Kerry:
That’s a remarkable statement – we’re very grateful
Gaza tunnel network attack possible
An Israeli military official and politician say the Gaza tunnel network is ‘immense’ and creates a threat of a ‘mega-attack.’ Israel Defense Forces Capt. Eytan Buchman:
All of Gaza is an underground city, and the amount of infrastructure Hamas built up over the years is immense. There are tunnels, extended bunkers, weapons storage facilities, even within urban areas
Economy Minister Naftali Bennett:
There is a world of weapons tunnels penetrating into Israel, creating the possibility of a mega-attack
Will return
Commander Col. Rasan Alian says he will return to complete the elite Golani Brigade’s mission in the 2014 Gaza conflict after he is moderately wounded in an exchange of fire.
I want to go back to Gaza, and get to as many terrorists as possible
On heavy losses sustained by the unit:
I’d like to send a big hug to the bereaved families. I did not have a chance to meet them. We stand with them. They are strengthening us