✈️ The attack
On 27 December 2008 Israel began air strikes on Gaza, called Operation Cast Lead. On 3 January 2009 its ground forces entered. Israel's aims were to stop the rockets and to weaken Hamas.
The Attempts to Find a Lasting Peace, 1987-2012 » The Gaza War, 2008-09
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Paper 2 Section B, Breadth study B7, Key topic 5
- What led up to the Gaza War: the blockade and the rocket fire
- What happened in the three-week war and what it cost
- The state of the peace process by 2012
- How the five themes of the option run from 1917 to 2012
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Unlock This CourseThe road to the Gaza War
In 2007 Hamas, the Islamist group that had won the 2006 Palestinian election, took full control of Gaza from its rival Fatah. Israel and Egypt then tightened a blockade of Gaza. Israel declared Gaza a hostile territory and limited the goods, fuel and electricity that could enter, and Egypt kept its own border crossing at Rafah mostly closed. Israel said the blockade was needed to stop weapons reaching Hamas. Palestinians said it punished ordinary people, and Gaza's economy and daily life suffered badly.
At the same time, Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza fired thousands of rockets at Israeli towns such as Sderot and Ashkelon. They did little damage compared with the army's weapons, but they killed some people and left families living in fear. Israel's governments, led by Ehud Olmert, felt that they had to stop the rocket fire.
In June 2008 Egypt helped to arrange a six-month truce. It was never fully kept, and violence rose again in November. When the truce ran out on 19 December 2008, rocket fire grew.
The war, December 2008 to January 2009
🏳️ The ceasefires
Israel declared a ceasefire on 18 January 2009 and Hamas soon announced its own. Israel's troops left by 21 January, after about three weeks.
Hamas said it was fighting the blockade. Israel said it was defending its people. Many other countries called for a ceasefire, and the USA, which backed Israel, was in the last days of President Bush's term.
The effects of the war
- Casualties. The numbers are disputed. Palestinian groups counted about 1,400 dead, and Israel's army gave a lower figure of about 1,200. Hundreds of them were civilians, including many children. Thirteen Israelis died, three of them civilians killed by rockets.
- Destruction. Thousands of homes in Gaza were damaged or destroyed, as well as roads, schools and water and power systems. Rebuilding was slow because the blockade limited building materials.
- Judgement abroad. A United Nations mission led by Richard Goldstone reported in September 2009 that both Israel and Hamas might have committed war crimes. Israel rejected the report.
- No lasting gain for either side. Rocket fire fell sharply afterwards, but Hamas stayed in power in Gaza and the blockade continued, though Israel eased it in 2010.
The peace process by 2012
Israel's new prime minister from March 2009 was Benjamin Netanyahu, who had opposed Oslo. US President Barack Obama pressed for talks and for a halt to settlement building. Direct talks began in Washington in September 2010 but broke down within weeks when Israel's partial freeze on settlement building ended. In November 2012 there were another eight days of fighting between Israel and Hamas. Later that month the UN General Assembly voted to make Palestine a non-member observer state, but no peace talks were under way.
So by 2012 the Palestinians were still split between Abbas's Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza, settlements had grown, and the hardest questions of Jerusalem, borders and refugees were still unsettled.
Drawing the option together, 1917-2012
- International involvement: Britain's Balfour Declaration (1917) and its rule in Palestine, then the UN partition plan (1947), then the superpowers in the Cold War, then the USA as the main peace broker from Kissinger to Obama.
- Disputed territorial claims: the same land claimed by Jews and Palestinians, with the borders changing in 1948-49, 1967 and 1982, and the questions of Jerusalem, settlements and refugees never solved.
- Military conflicts: the wars of 1948-49, 1956, 1967 and 1973, the invasion of Lebanon in 1982, and Israel's fighting in Gaza in 2008-09.
- Attempts at lasting peace: Camp David (1978) brought peace with Egypt, and Oslo (1993) brought mutual recognition. Neither solved the Palestinian question.
- The role of terrorism: from the armed bands of the 1930s, through aircraft hijacks and the Munich attack, to suicide bombings and rockets. It made each side distrust the other and often wrecked talks.
Change and continuity. What changed was the kind of fighting, from wars between states to a conflict with armed groups, and the peace talks, from Egypt and Israel to Israel and the Palestinians. What stayed the same was the central dispute over land and the lack of a lasting peace.
Common mistakes
- Saying the Gaza War began without a cause. Rockets, the blockade and the end of the truce all came before it.
- Giving one casualty figure as certain. Say that the numbers are disputed.
- Taking a side. Explain what each side said and did.
- Writing about the Gaza War alone in a 16-mark answer. It needs other aspects, such as Oslo, the second Intifada and the Roadmap.
Exam-style question
How significant was the Gaza War (2008-09) in preventing a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians in the years 1993-2012? [16 marks]
You may use the following in your answer:
- the assassination of Rabin (1995)
- Israel's blockade of Gaza
You must also use information of your own.
Remember: in 1993 the Oslo Accords brought mutual recognition. Rabin, who signed them, was killed in 1995 by an Israeli opposed to them. Hamas took Gaza in 2007.
Model answer
The Gaza War was significant, but it was as much a result of earlier failures as a cause of them, so I think it was important rather than the main reason for the failure of peace.
The war damaged trust. Around 1,400 Palestinians died by Palestinian counts, many of them civilians, 13 Israelis died, and thousands of homes in Gaza were destroyed. A UN mission said that both sides might have committed war crimes, which Israel rejected. Afterwards the blockade stayed, Hamas kept power in Gaza, and the Palestinians remained divided from Fatah in the West Bank. Talks did not restart until September 2010 and broke down within weeks.
However, peace had been weakened long before 2008. Rabin's assassination in November 1995 removed the Israeli leader who had signed Oslo, and Netanyahu, who opposed it, was elected in 1996. The blockade, put in place after Hamas took Gaza in 2007, also helped to cause the war: the blockade, the rocket fire and the end of the truce in December 2008 fed one another. So the war was partly a symptom of a peace that had already failed.
From my own knowledge, other factors mattered as much. The second Intifada from 2000, with its suicide bombings, tank attacks and the building of the West Bank barrier, destroyed the trust that Oslo had built. The 2003 Roadmap failed because neither side carried out its first-phase tasks, and Hamas's win in the 2006 election split the Palestinians, so that Israel and the USA refused to deal with a Hamas-led government until it recognised Israel and gave up violence, which Hamas would not do. Settlements kept growing throughout, which Palestinians said made a state impossible, and Israel said it needed security first. Each side therefore blamed the other, and trust never recovered.
Judged by how far each event ended a real chance of agreement, the Gaza War was less important than the second Intifada, which had already wrecked the Oslo process by 2002, and than Hamas's rise, which left the Palestinians with no single partner for talks. The war made distrust worse and showed how far apart the sides were, so it was significant, but it was not the main cause of the failure.
This reaches the top level because it covers several aspects, weighs the war against other factors using a stated criterion, and reaches a justified judgement.
Exam tip
In a "how significant" question, say what the event changed and then compare it with at least two other factors before you judge. Use your own knowledge as well as the two bullets.