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Israel, officially the State of Israel is a country in the Middle East, in Southwest Asia, located on the southeastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Israel was established in the territories of the Land of Israel, the national home and homeland of the Jewish people. The country declared its independence in May 14, 1948, and has a parliamentary democracy type of regime.

The country's area is 22,072 square kilometers (excluding the Judea and Samaria region and the Gaza Strip). Its population in 2023, according to the data of the Central Bureau of Statistics, was 9,716,600 inhabitants. Demographically, most Israelis are Jewish (74%), but there is an Arab minority large (about 20%, mostly Muslim) and other minority groups (6%). Israel borders the Mediterranean Sea and Egypt to the west, the Red Sea to the south, Jordan to the east, Syria to the northeast, and Lebanon to the north. Between Israel and Egypt, on the Mediterranean coast, is the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Hamas. In the central mountain area and the valley between Israel and Jordan are the territories of Judea and Samaria.

During the 19th century there was a national awakening among European Jews that led to the establishment of the Zionist movement and waves of immigration to the Land of Israel. In 1917, during the First World War, the British Empire conquered the Land of Israel from the Ottomans and the Balfour Declaration was published. During the period of the British Mandate, prolonged struggles between the Jewish community and the Arabs of the Land of Israel led Britain to submit the question of the mandate in the Land to the United Nations, which recommended in 1947 to divide the Land of Israel into two states, Jewish and Arab. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency, but rejected by the Arab leadership; A military conflict that sparked between the parties developed into the War of Israeli Independence, during which the establishment of the State of Israel was announced. At the end of the war and the armistice agreements, Israel controlled most of the territory of the former mandate, even beyond what was allocated to the Jewish state in the partition plan. Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip were occupied by Jordan and Egypt, respectively. The Arab state was not established, and hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs fled from their homes as part of the Nakba.At the same time, hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from Arab countries immigrated to Israel.

In 1967, in the Six Day War, Israel conquered Judea and Samaria, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. Apart from Sinai, which Israel returned to Egypt as part of the peace agreement between them, and the Gaza Strip, from which it unilaterally withdrew in 2005, Israel continued to control the rest of the said territories. The laws of the state were fully applied to East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, and partially to Judea and Samaria. Following the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority was granted partial autonomy in approximately 40% of the territories of Judea and Samaria and in the past also over most of the territory of the Gaza Strip. Efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have not matured into a final peace agreement; However, other peace and normalization agreements were signed between Israel and Arab countries.

History[]

Israel, also known as the Land of Israel (Hebrew: אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל‎), Canaan (Hebrew: כְּנָעַן‎), Holy Land (Hebrew: אֶרֶץ הַקּוֹדֵשׁ‎), or Palestina (Hebrew: פְּלֶשֶׁתְּיִנָּה‎), has a long and complex history that spans thousands of years. From the ancient era to the modern era, the region has been inhabited by various groups, each leaving their mark on the land and its people.

Historical roots

Israel was built on a territory that was part of the Land of Israel, the historical seat of the kingdoms of Israel (also known as Samaria; existed until the 8th century BC) and Judah (existed until the 6th century BC). According to the Hebrew Bible, this is the land that was promised to the fathers and tribes of Israel after the exodus from Egypt, and in which the united kingdom of Israel resided during the reigns of Saul, David and Solomon. After the return of Zion, and during most of the Second Temple period, Jewish autonomy existed there under the rule of foreign empires, Until the establishment of the independent Hasmonean kingdom in the 2nd century BC.

In 63 BC, Hasmonean Judah lost its independence, when Jerusalem was conquered by Pompey and became a Roman protectorate. The great revolt, which broke out in 66 AD, was suppressed by the Romans, during which Titus destroyed Jerusalem and the Second Temple, and many other Jewish settlements were destroyed environment. During the revolt, many Jews were killed or sold into slavery, and many were displaced from their land. In 132 AD, the Bar Kochba revolt broke out. This revolt was brutally suppressed by the Romans, and as a result Judah was devastated and remained desolate. In the following centuries, the settlement The Jews in the land dwindled due to religious and economic divisions, and in the 4th century the Jews became a minority in the Land of Israel. A significant Jewish settlement with its center in the Galilee existed until the 9th century and even later, and for about a thousand years there were very small Jewish communities in the land.

From the 4th century AD until the 20th century, the Land of Israel, which was known in Israel as Palestine, changed hands many times between conquerors of different nationalities and religions. Jewish immigration from the Diaspora to the Land of Israel, in periods when this was possible, increased the number of Jews who lived in the land from the end of the Middle Ages onwards. The largest immigrations began in the 19th century, on the eve of the founding of the Zionist movement.

The Zionist movement to the establishment of Israel

In the 19th century the Zionist movement was established and at the end of the century its institutions were established. The World Zionist Organization defined the goal of the Zionist movement in the Basel Plan to establish a "homeland for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel." Benjamin Ze'ev Herzl was the founder of the Zionist Organization and its leader from its founding in 1897 until his death in 1904. Working alongside Herzl was the Zionist leader and scientist Haim Weizmann, who contributed to the publication of the Balfour Declaration by the British government in 1917. At the same time as the establishment of the Zionist movement, practical Zionist activity took place, which was reflected in a large increase relative to Israel. After the establishment of the British Mandate on the Land of Israel on the basis of the Balfour Declaration, after the First World War, the Jewish settlement in the Land began to develop and prosper, despite the opposition of the Arabs of the Land of Israel, and despite later attempts by the British government to renounce the Balfour Declaration, such as the establishment of the White Book regulations of 1939.

David Ben-Gurion was one of the leaders of the labor movement in the Yishuv, and in the years 1935-1948 he served as the chairman of the Jewish Agency, which was the "government" of the Jewish Yishuv in Israel, or the government of the "State on the Road" (the government of the State of Israel that had not yet been established and had not yet been named).

Ben-Gurion led the demand for the establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, even at the cost of dividing the land between the Jews and the Arabs. The Zionist movement accepted Ben-Gurion's plan at the Biltmore Conference in 1942. After the Second World War, following the Holocaust and the problem of refugees who failed to reach Israel, the Jewish cause gained worldwide sympathy, and the recognition of the need to give the Jews a national home and sovereignty in parts of the Land of Israel, after the breakup of Great Britain from its protectorate countries, increased.

The 40s

Following the UN decision regarding the division of the Land of Israel into two states - Jewish and Arab - riots broke out throughout the country from the Arab side who refused the plan, which quickly turned into the War of Independence. On May 14, 1948, on the eve of the end of the British Mandate), David Ben-Gurion read the Declaration of Independence and announced the establishment of the State of Israel.

Then the second part of the War of Independence began: the armies of Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon and Iraq joined the fighting. At the beginning of June, the United Nations declared a cease-fire ("the first cease-fire") for a month. At the end of May, the Israel Defense Forces was formed, and after the cease-fire, it had the upper hand and went on the offensive.

After many months of fighting, a cease-fire was declared in 1949 and the "armistice lines" - the Green Line (which was never defined as the official border of the country) were established. The Green Line served as the de facto border of the State of Israel until June 1967. Most of the world's countries and international organizations today refer to the Green Line as the border of Israel's sovereignty.

During the Israeli advance, about 700,000 Arabs fled from the land, and a military government was imposed on those who remained within the borders of the state or were in the territories and were transferred to it following the armistice agreements, which was abolished only in 1966.

On May 11, 1949, Israel joined the United Nations.

Prime Minister Ben-Gurion sought to establish statehood as a guiding principle in the leadership of the country. In the first year of its establishment, he disbanded the Palmach and acted against the Jewish undergrounds Etzel and Lehi, in operations the main and well-known of which was the sinking of the weapons ship Altlana. Actions against underground organizations were also carried out after the murder of the Swedish diplomat Polka Brandot, following which the provisional government issued severe regulations for the prevention of terrorism. Lehi and an organization called the "Homeland Front", which claimed responsibility for the murder, were declared terrorist organizations.

Immediately after the announcement of the establishment of the state, waves of immigration from many countries began, and within a few years the number of Jews in the country doubled. The largest wave of immigration was in 1949, at the end of the War of Independence, and was called the mass immigration. Many special operations were carried out to evacuate Jews, especially from Arab countries, one of the most famous of which was the Magic Carpet Operation, in order to evacuate the Jews of Yemen.

The 50s

In 1952, the reparations agreement between Israel and West Germany was signed. In 1954-55, the Levon Affair took place in Israel, which for the first time raised doubts about the government and the security institutions. In 1956, following Egypt's announcement of the nationalization of the Suez Canal and a series of terrorist acts by the Fedayeen organization, Israel, in secret cooperation with Britain and France, launched the Sinai War - to occupy the Sinai Peninsula and gain control over the Suez Canal. In the war, the IDF displayed careful maneuvers of the Armored Corps that defeated the Egyptian army, and occupied most of Sinai. After the desired results were achieved, Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip, under pressure from the United States and the Soviet Union.

The 60s

In 1961, the Mossad captured the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, and he was brought to trial in Israel. During his trial, many difficult details about the Holocaust were revealed to the Israeli public, and society began to show more interest in this topic. Eichmann was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was executed by hanging in 1962.

During the month of May 1967, the tension between Israel and its neighbors renewed. Following threats from Egypt, Syria and Jordan, the expulsion of UN forces from the Sinai Peninsula and the closing of the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, which was a cause of war (casus belli), on June 5 Israel launched a pre-emptive attack against the armies of the Arab countries, which developed into the Six Day War. The war ended in victory to Israel, which defeated three large Arab armies, and occupied the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria, and East Jerusalem. The new cease-fire line in the Golan Heights was called the "Purple Line." Following the war, the "Green Line" became an administrative border Among the territories subject to Israel. Israeli law was applied to the territories inside the Green Line, as well as to the eastern part of Jerusalem (which was united with the western part) and the Golan Heights (since 1981). Most of the territories outside the "Green Line" were subjected to a special administration.

The 70s

In the years 1968-1972, battles took place between Israel and Syria and Egypt along the "Purple Line". This period is known as the war of attrition. In the early 1970s, the Palestinian terrorist organizations, led by the PLO, began a wave of terror against Israel and against Jewish targets outside of Israel. The peak of the wave of terror was the massacre of athletes in Munich during the 1972 Munich Olympics.

On Yom Kippur 1973, October 6, 1973, the armies of Egypt and Syria surprised Israel with an attack, which developed into the Yom Kippur War, with the aim of reclaiming the territories lost in the Six Day War or at least some of them.

Despite the surprise and the blow that the IDF suffered at the beginning of the war, it came out of it with the upper hand, and on October 24, 1973, with the UN declaration of a cease-fire, Damascus was within the range of Israeli artillery. This war is considered a difficult event in the country's history, due to the high number of casualties in the campaign and as a result the Agrant Committee was appointed. The war had many policy and political effects; She was among the main factors in the upheaval in the Israeli political system and paved the way for the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt.

The elections held in May 1977, which took place on the eve of the discovery of many corruption scandals under Yitzhak Rabin's first administration, brought about a change in Israel. For the first time since the establishment of the state, PAI (on its derivatives: the first formation, the Labor Party, the second formation) ceased to be the ruling party. The Likud party, led by Menachem Begin, obtained a majority in the Knesset together with the MPDL and formed a government. Later, the DS party also joined it.

In November 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat visited Israel and addressed the Knesset. This was the first recognition Israel received from one of its neighbors. Following the visit, negotiations began between Israel and Egypt that ended with the signing of the Camp David Accords. In March 1979, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed a peace agreement between the two countries, under which Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, and evacuated a number of Israeli settlements established there during the 1970s.

The 80s

On June 7, 1981, in Operation Opera, Israel attacked and destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor under construction, thereby preventing Saddam Hussein from obtaining nuclear weapons. The attack was carried out by the Israeli Air Force using F-16 Hawk fighter jets covered by F-15 Falcon jets.

In 1982, Israel attacked Lebanon and launched Operation Peace of the Galilee (and later: the Lebanon War). The stated purpose of the attack was to protect the settlements in the north of the country from terrorist attacks on behalf of Palestinian organizations that were concentrated in southern Lebanon, in an area known in Israel as "Fathland". The goal set by the government at the beginning of the war was the occupation of a 40 km long strip, but the IDF eventually reached northern Lebanon and captured Lebanon's capital, Beirut. The IDF expelled the PLO members from Lebanon, and the center of the organization moved to Tunisia. The war exacted a high price in blood from the IDF. In 1986, the army withdrew from most of Lebanon, and established a buffer zone in southern Lebanon in order to protect the settlements in the north.

In 1983, Prime Minister Menachem Begin resigned from the Prime Ministership, when he declared at the Cabinet meeting "I can't do it anymore", and was replaced by Yitzhak Shamir.

The 80s of the 20th century were characterized by a political tie between the bloc of right-wing parties led by Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir and the bloc of left-wing parties led by Shimon Peres. The First Lebanon War, the three-digit inflation and the political deadlock necessitated the establishment of a national unity government in 1984 that included a rotation of the prime ministership. In the 1988 elections, the Likud defeated the array by a margin of thousands of votes. Shamir, chairman of the Likud, established a national unity government without rotation. On March 15, 1990, the Shas and the formation overthrew the unity government, in an attempt to establish a religious left-wing government, in a move that later became known as the "stinking exercise". The attempt failed, and Shamir formed a narrow religious right-wing government.

In 1987, the first intifada broke out, which manifested itself mainly in riots, disturbances, stone throwing, knife attacks and shooting attacks.

The 90s

In the Gulf War (January-February 1991) Israel was attacked with Iraqi Scud missiles, in a move designed to drag it into war and thereby undermine the coalition between the United States and its Arab allies against Iraq. The Israeli government led by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir refrained from responding, at the request of the United States. At the end of 1991, the Madrid Conference was held, which paved the way for further direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

In the elections held in May 1992, the left-wing parties succeeded in obtaining a blocking bloc in the Knesset, for the first time since 1977, and Yitzhak Rabin was re-appointed Prime Minister. The government led by Rabin led a number of political moves for peace with its neighbors. As part of these efforts, the peace agreement with Jordan was signed, the Oslo Accords were signed, during which the PLO recognized the existence of Israel, and the Palestinian Authority was established, under which autonomy was granted to the Palestinians in Areas A and B (40% of Judea and Samaria). After that, peace talks with Syria were also carried out throughout the decade.

The Oslo Accords, and the wave of Palestinian terrorism that followed, caused a severe dispute in the nation, which led to many demonstrations and sometimes turned violent. On February 25, 1994, Baruch Goldstein murdered 29 Arabs in the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre.

On November 4, 1995, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir, who opposed the compromises with the Palestinians led by Rabin. After his death, Shimon Peres replaced him as Prime Minister for a short period, during which the IDF launched Operation Grapes of Wrath. Peres lost to Benjamin Netanyahu in the 1996 elections, following a wave of suicide attacks by Hamas in 1996. In these elections, for the first time, voting was conducted with two ballots, one for choosing a list for the Knesset, and the second for the election of the Prime Minister.

During the Netanyahu period, there was a decrease in the scope of Palestinian terrorism. Netanyahu conditioned political progress on the Palestinian Authority's fight against terrorism and in particular the Hamas movement. In September 1996, the Wall Tunnel riots broke out against the background of the opening of the Wall Tunnel in Jerusalem. In 1997, Netanyahu handed over most of Hebron to the Palestinians as part of the Hebron Agreement, and in October 1998, an agreement was signed in Maryland, which was another step in the implementation of the Oslo Accords. At the same time as the political process, Netanyahu pushed for a capitalist economy and began privatizing companies and government bodies. In 1997, the helicopter disaster and the boat disaster occurred on the Lebanese front.

In 1999, Netanyahu lost to Ehud Barak in the 1999 elections, which were mostly based on the socio-economic background and the personal characters of the two contestants, against the background of the security-economic calm that prevailed at that time. Netanyahu retired after the loss and in Likud he was replaced by Ariel Sharon.

The 2000s

The Barak government led a unilateral withdrawal from the security strip in southern Lebanon, with the support of the Israeli public, and on May 24, 2000, the last IDF soldiers left Lebanon. Contrary to Israel's hopes and demands, the Lebanese army did not deploy in the area and Hezbollah forces controlled it. On October 7, 2000, Hezbollah kidnapped three soldiers on Mount Dov and later also Elhanan Tanenbaum. Tanenbaum and the bodies of the three soldiers were returned in 2004 in exchange for the release of hundreds of Arab prisoners.

In 2000, after the failure of the talks at the Camp David Conference (2000) and near the ascension of the head of the opposition, Ariel Sharon, to the Temple Mount, a wave of Palestinian terrorism and a violent and ongoing struggle between Israel and the Palestinians began as part of the second intifada. The events of October 2000, in which 13 Arab citizens and one Jewish citizen were killed, led to the establishment of the Or Committee and began the deterioration of Jewish-Arab relations in Israel.

In 2001, a special election for Prime Minister was held, following the resignation of Prime Minister Barak, in which Sharon won. In the years 2001-2004, there were many terrorist attacks in Israel, the peak of which was in the month called "Black March" (2002), which led to Operation Protective Wall. The military activity produced results and the wave of terrorism subsided. Following the Intifada, it was decided to build the separation fence along the length of the State of Israel, mostly near the Green Line. In the elections for the 16th Knesset, in January 2003, the Likud won significantly and Sharon continued to serve as Prime Minister. The most significant move by the Israeli government under the leadership of Sharon was the disengagement plan in 2005, during which, unilaterally, the Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria were evacuated. Before the 2006 elections, Sharon left the Likud and founded the Center Kadima party. Even before the elections, Sharon was hospitalized and replaced by Ehud Olmert, who led Kadima to victory in the elections and formed the government after the elections.

In addition to the security-political events, there have also been changes in Israel in the fields of economy and society. The finance ministers during this period were Sylvan Shalom (until 2003) and Benjamin Netanyahu (until August 2005). Following the intifada, the economy went into recession in the years 2002-2004, but then recovered and returned to growth, while deepening the gaps between the deciles and harming the relief allowances. Several large government companies were privatized, including El Al, the TAS light weapons factory, Bezeq and Discount Bank.

In July 2006, the kidnapping of two IDF soldiers by Hezbollah and the killing of additional soldiers led Israel to start fighting Hezbollah over the entire territory of Lebanon. The fighting developed into the Second Lebanon War, and at the end of it, large international forces (UNIFIL) and the Lebanese Army were deployed in southern Lebanon instead of Hezbollah. About a year after the war, on September 6, 2007, Israel destroyed a nuclear reactor under construction in Syria in an operation outside the box that included the obtaining of military intelligence by the Iman and the Mossad, and the bombing by the Israeli Air Force using F-15I Ream and F-16I Supa aircraft.

The 2010s

In the sector of the Gaza Strip after the disengagement, the fighting continued between Israel and the terrorist organizations, led by Hamas, which even militarily took control of the strip. On June 25, 2006, the soldier Gilad Shalit was kidnapped, which led to the opening of Operation Summer Rains. As a response to the firing of rockets from the Gaza Strip, Israel launched a number of operations that resulted in temporary cease-fires: from December 27, 2008 to January 18, 2009, Operation Cast Lead was conducted, from November 14 to November 21, 2012, Operation Pillar and from July 8, 2014 to August 26, 2014 Operation Protective Edge was conducted. In each operation, between hundreds and thousands of Palestinians were killed, most of them terrorists but also civilians, and great damage was caused to the infrastructure in Gaza, and at the same time the terrorists launched thousands of rockets at the Israeli rear. Following the operations, Israel was severely criticized and accused of war crimes, and commissions were established to examine the matter on behalf of the United Nations: the UN investigation team on the conflict in Gaza headed by Richard Goldstone (following Cast Lead) and the Shaves Commission (following Protective Edge).

In the summer of 2011, the "social protest" (also known as the tent protest) broke out, at the peak of which hundreds of thousands of citizens demonstrated in the streets, mainly against housing prices and the cost of living.

In 2015-2016 (2015-2016), following clashes on the Temple Mount, a wave of terrorism began characterized by attacks with hot and cold weapons (mainly stabbing attacks but also trampling attacks and shooting attacks) by individuals, mostly young people and even teenagers and children. The "Knife Intifada" Declined at the end of 2016.

On December 6, 2017, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced the United States' official recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. On May 14, 2018, the United States Embassy in Israel moved to Jerusalem.

In 2018, there was an escalation both on the northern front, against Iran and Syria, and against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In the north, Israel continued to attack strategic weapons that had been transferred to Hezbollah. In April, the military confrontation between it and Iran became direct. Israel bombed Iranian targets in Syria, killing dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps soldiers. The climax of the conflict came in the House of Cards operation and the disclosure of Iran's nuclear weapons program in the Mossad operation.

Following the withdrawal of Avigdor Lieberman's "Israel Beitno" party from the 34th government of Israel, the coalition was left with a tiny majority in the Knesset. In light of this, the twentieth Knesset was dissolved and the elections for the twenty-first Knesset were brought forward. The election results failed to provide a majority for Netanyahu or his opponent from Benny Gantz's "Cahol-Lavan" list, and the twenty-first Knesset was dissolved. At this point, a political crisis began that accompanied the country to two more election systems in less than a year, in an attempt to establish the next Israeli government. The elections for the twenty-second Knesset and the elections for the twenty-third Knesset did not end with a clear decision. On May 17, 2020, Netanyahu established the thirty-fifth Israeli government, as part of exchanges with Benny Gantz. In February 2020, the outbreak of the corona virus began in Israel. In December, the "Lend a Shoulder" operation began to provide the residents with a vaccine against COVID-19.

The 2020s

On September 15, 2020, the United Arab Emirates - Israel Agreement and the Bahrain - Israel Agreement were signed at the White House, peace agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain as part of the Abraham Accords, and on October 23, 2020, the Israel - Sudan Agreement was announced. On December 10, 2020, the Israel-Morocco agreement was announced.

On March 23, 2021, the elections for the twenty-fourth Knesset were held. On April 30, 2021, the disaster occurred at Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai's party, the greatest civil disaster since the establishment of the state. On May 10, 2021, Israel embarked on Operation Guardian of the Walls, which was paralleled by violent riots on the part of Israeli Arabs.

On June 13, 2021, the thirty-sixth Israeli government was established, as part of exchanges between Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid. This government continued to deal with the corona epidemic. At the beginning of this government's tenure, there was relative calm in the Gaza Envelope, but the terrorist attacks increased. In March 2022, a wave of terrorism broke out, following which the security establishment launched a wave-breaking operation that relatively stopped the wave of terrorism. On June 30, 2022, the Knesset was dissolved, and it was decided to advance the elections for the twenty-fifth Knesset to November 1, 2022. The next day, July 1, Lapid began to serve as the 14th Prime Minister, and Naftali Bennett as the alternate Prime Minister.

On December 29, 2022, the thirty-seventh Israeli government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu came in.

In recent years, various IDF operations have been conducted against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria, including Operation Dawn (August 2022), Operation Shield and Arrow (May 2023) and Operation Beit Vagan (July 3, 2023). On October 7, 2023, they launched The Palestinian terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip led by Hamas in a surprise attack on Israel in which they murdered over 1,144 people and kidnapped over two hundred civilians and soldiers to the Gaza Strip. According to the evidence, the terrorists committed acts of rape, abuse, torture and mutilation of the victims' bodies (including the elderly, mothers, children and babies). In response, the security forces (elite units of the IDF, the Israel Police, the Border Guard and the IDF) entered the Gaza envelope and in fierce battles killed over 1,550 terrorists. Then, Israel declared a war against the Palestinian terrorist organizations, which was called the "Iron Swords war" that included intense attacks from the air, from the sea and ground maneuver at a certain point in the war.

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