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The following is a partial list of Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks on Israel between 2002 and 2006. These attacks commenced in April 2001, although the first rocket to hit an Israeli city was on 5 March 2002, and the first Israeli fatality was 28 June 2004.
17 rockets and 455 mortar shells were fired at Israel in 2002 and there were a total of 10 injuries caused.[1]
At least 123 rockets and 514 mortars were fired at Israel in 2003. This caused 44 injuries.[1]
882 mortar shells and 276 Qassam rockets were fired at Israel in 2004. These caused 8 deaths and 99 were injured.[1]
574 mortar shells and 286 Qassam rockets were fired at Israel in 2005. These caused 6 deaths and 68 were injured.[1]
1,247 rockets and 28 mortars were fired at Israel in 2006.[1]
During 2006, the main concentration of qassam rocket attacks occurred during June, July and early August.[33]
On 25 January Hamas won the Palestinian elections. On 25 March President Abbas endorsed the cabinet consisting largely of Hamas members.[34] The Quartet on the Middle East, which included the US, required Hamas to forsake violence, recognize Israel and respect all previous agreements. When Hamas refused, they imposed the 2006-2007 economic sanctions against the Palestinian National Authority (Hamas-led). Israel placed restrictions on Palestinian's freedom of movement, especially entering and Leaving Gaza. The US and Fatah collaborated on a plan to collapse the Hamas government. Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades continued to fire rockets into Israel from Gaza, where it refused to obey orders from Hamas government officials.[35][36] In May and April Hamas leaders repeatedly threatened a new Intifada.[37][38] Although Israel acknowledged that Hamas was largely sticking to the February 2005 cease-fire, it recommenced assassinations of Hamas leaders with the killing of Jamal Abu Samhadana on 8 June.[39] He was a commander of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), and on 23 April had been appointed Director General of the police forces in the Hamas government's Interior Ministry. He was considered a wanted militant by Israel,[40] being suspected of an attack on a US diplomatic convoy, three years previously.[39] The PRC denied involvement in the 2003 attack. Contradictory reasons were given by Israeli sources as to the objective for the strike on the PRC camp, the Israeli military claiming that the strike was an attack on the camp, while an Israeli security source said that it was prompted by Samhadana's presence.[41][42]
Samhadana was killed along with at least three other PRC members, by four missiles fired by Israeli Apache helicopters, guided by Israeli reconnaissance drones, at a PRC camp in Rafah.[43][44] Palestinian human rights sources called the killings extrajudicial executions and assassinations. They reported that Israeli media sources stated that Defense Minister Amir Peretz had personally approved the operation.[45][46] Al Mezan Center for Human Rights condemned the assassinations, particularly the fact that they had been adopted as official Israeli policy. It said that assassinations were war crimes according to international humanitarian law, mainly the Fourth Geneva Convention, which bans all types of extrajudicial capital punishment.[46]
Samhadna's supporters threatened to revenge his death.[42] The next day, in response, Islamic Jihad fired rockets at Israel from Fatah-controlled Gaza, and a few hours later the IDF retaliated in turn with a bombardment of alleged launch sites on a Gaza beach near Beit Lahia. During the time span of the IDF bombardment, a civilian Gaza family, the Ghalias, was all but wiped out in an explosion.[47] On 15 June Hamas offered to reinstate the ceasefire, but Israel refused, requiring Hamas to stop the fire first. This led to more Israeli counter-measures and Hamas, PRC and Army of Islam rocket and other attacks. On 24 June 2006 an IDF commando unit abducted two suspected Hamas members in "the first arrest raid in the territory since Israel pulled out of the area a year ago".[48][49] The abduction of IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit occurred the next day (25 June 2006).[39][50][51] On 28 June Israel launched Operation Summer Rains with the stated objectives of securing the release of Shalit and preventing the launching of Qassam rockets,[52] which had escalated markedly since the 8 June assassination by the IDF.[39] On the night of 29 June Israel detained 64 Hamas officials, including some in the Legislative council.[53] By 27 August the IAF had conducted 247 aerial assaults into Gaza, damaging Gaza's electricity network and killing over 200 Gazans (including 44 children), for the loss of one Israeli life.[54]
During November, the second most intense flurry of rocket attacks from Gaza into southern Israel took place.[33]
On 12 October 2006, after a month during which Hamas had refrained from rocket launches but other fractions continued to fire about one rocket per day, the IDF failed in an attempted assassination on a senior Hamas commander.[39] Later on the same day, IAF strikes killed 8 armed Palestinians and wounded 20.[55] In response to the Israeli assassination attempt, Hamas resumed its rocket fire from Gaza, lightly injuring 4 Israelis over the next 2 weeks. In turn Israel responded on 1 November 2006 with Operation Autumn Clouds.[56]
On November 8, the IDF killed or mortally wounded 23 and injured at least 40 Palestinians, all civilians.[57] A volley of tank shells hit a built-up civilian area. Israel apologized and attributed the Beit Hanoun shelling to a technical malfunction. Israel said the shells were fired in response to the firing of qassam rockets, probably from a car, the previous day (7 November).[58] By 8 November, the 240 airstrikes in 8 days, ground clashes and destruction of land and buildings of the IDF's Operation Autumn Clouds, had left 68 Palestinians (at least 50 of them militants [59]) dead, including two Palestinian ambulance workers from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, and over 150 injured, compared to 1 IDF soldier killed and 1 injured.[60][61]
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