IMEU | Institute for Middle East Understanding IMEU Institute for Middle East Understanding

Resources Fact Sheets

50 Days of Death & Destruction: Israel’s “Operation Protective Edge” (2014)

September 10, 2014 IMEU

Palestinians killed & injured

Palestinians displaced

  • 108,000 people were made homeless, out of a population of 1.8 million. 
  • 500,000 people were displaced at the peak of Israel’s assault, totaling about 28% of the population. 

Palestinian homes & other buildings damaged or destroyed


War crimes committed by Israel

  • The United Nations and human rights organization documented widespread violations of the laws of war committed by the Israeli military, including the use of indiscriminate and disproportionate force, the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure, and attacks on medical facilities and UN schools sheltering displaced people.

Use of indiscriminate & disproportionate force

  • Israel’s military repeatedly used disproportionate force - a war crime - and imprecise weaponry, especially artillery, firing indiscriminately into densely populated areas, inflicting mass civilian casualties. On July 28, UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon warned that Israeli attacks raised "serious questions about proportionality.”
  • The Israeli military twice invoked the so-called “Hannibal Directive,” which calls for heavy, indiscriminate fire in the immediate vicinity and surrounding areas when an Israeli soldier or civilian is believed to have been taken prisoner in order to prevent their capture, killing and injuring hundreds of Palestinian civilians, including:
    • On July 20, the Israeli military invoked the directive,  launching  a bloody assault on the residential neighborhood of Shejaiya in Gaza City following the apparent capture of a soldier by Palestinian fighters, killing 67 Palestinians, including at least 17 children, 14 women, and four elderly people. In less than an hour, the Israeli army fired 600 artillery shells into Shejaiya. Condemning the high number of civilians killed, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called Israel’s actions “atrocious.” 
    • On August 1, the Israeli military invoked the directive again, killing between 130 and 150 Palestinians, mostly civilians, in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza after a soldier was reportedly taken prisoner (he was later declared dead by Israel). During the assault, Israeli soldiers fired more than 1,000 artillery shells into Rafah in three hours.

Targeting of civilians

  • The UN and rights groups documented numerous cases of civilians being targeted by Israeli soldiers during Israel's assault. On August 4, Human Rights Watch released a report entitled "Israeli Soldiers Shoot and Kill Fleeing Civilians,” which read in part:

"Human Rights Watch investigated eight Israeli airstrikes that were apparent violations of the laws of war before the ground offensive that began on July 17, 2014…. The attacks Human Rights Watch investigated include a missile attack that killed four boys on a Gaza City pier and wounded three others, multiple strikes over several days on a hospital for paralyzed and elderly patients, attacks on an apparent civilian residence and media worker’s car, and four previously documented strikes. In many, if not all, of these cases, Human Rights Watch found no evidence of a military target. Israeli forces’ failure to direct attacks at a military target violates the laws of war. Israeli forces may also have knowingly or recklessly attacked people who were clearly civilians, such as young boys, and civilian structures, including a hospital – laws-of-war violations that are indicative of war crimes.”

  • On August 21, the UN noted:

"Human rights organizations have expressed serious concerns regarding incidents where civilians or civilian objects have been directly hit by Israeli airstrikes, in circumstances where there was allegedly no rocket fire or armed group activity in the close vicinity. Such cases raise concerns about the targeting of civilians, in violation of the principle of distinction.”

Attacks on UN schools sheltering displaced civilians

  • The Israeli military attacked UN schools sheltering displaced civilians on seven separate occasions, killing at least 42 Palestinians, including 16 children, and wounding more than two hundred others. The attacks included:
    • On August 3, an Israeli missile strike outside of a UN school in Rafah in southern Gaza killed at least 10 people, including at least one child, and wounded dozens of others. Condemning the attack, UN officials said that they had informed Israel of the GPS coordinates of the school, where approximately 3,000 Palestinians were sheltering, 33 times in an attempt to prevent it from being bombed, the final time just an hour before the attack. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the Israeli attack a “moral outrage” and “criminal act,” while a State Department spokesperson declared “the United States is appalled by today’s disgraceful shelling,” adding, "The suspicion that militants are operating nearby does not justify strikes that put at risk the lives of so many innocent civilians.”
    • On July 30, the Israeli military shelled a UN school in Jabalia in northern Gaza where 3,300 displaced Palestinians were sheltering, killing at least 20 people, mostly women and children. Condemning the attack, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon declared: “Nothing is more shameful than attacking sleeping children.” According to UN officials, they gave the Israeli military GPS coordinates for the school 17 times over the previous two weeks in an attempt to ensure it wasn’t attacked.
    • On July 24,  the Israeli military attacked a  UN school in Beit Hanoun where 1,500 displaced Palestinians were sheltering, killing at least 12 people, including six children, and injuring nearly 100 others. As noted by the UN Secretary-General’s 2015 report on children and armed conflict:

"In May, the United Nations shared a list of its facilities with the Government of Israel, which was further discussed with government entities in July. During hostilities in July and August, UNRWA provided the Israeli authorities with real-time information identifying installations that were being used as designated emergency shelters and places of temporary refuge. Despite such information, on 24 July, the UNRWA Beit Hanoun Elementary Coed A and D school… was hit by IDF mortar fire, resulting in the death of at least 12 persons, including 6 children, and in the injury of more than 90 others. The location of the school had been provided to Israeli authorities by United Nations staff on 12 separate occasions over the seven days leading up to the incident, including the day of the incident itself.”

Attacks on healthcare workers & medical facilities 

(See here for a more extensive list of attacks on medical facilities and workers)

"An immediate investigation is needed into mounting evidence that the Israel Defense Forces launched apparently deliberate attacks against hospitals and health professionals in Gaza, which have left six medics dead.

"Even more alarming is the mounting evidence that the Israeli army has targeted health facilities or professionals. Such attacks are absolutely prohibited by international law and would amount to war crimes. They only add to the already compelling argument that the situation should be referred to the International Criminal Court.” 

Attacks on civilian infrastructure

  • The Israeli military systematically attacked Gaza's civilian infrastructure and private industry, including destroying Gaza's only power plant.
  • Amnesty International condemned Israel’s destruction of the power plant as an act of "collective punishment” against the entire population, while Human Rights Watch issued a statement which noted: “Damaging or destroying a power plant, even if it also served a military purpose, would be an unlawful disproportionate attack under the laws of war, causing far greater civilian harm than military gain.”
  • Israel’s destruction of the power plant caused the shutdown of water treatment plants, while Israeli attacks also knocked Gaza's largest sewage treatment plant out of commission. The Israeli military did extensive damage to Gaza's water and sewage systems, already in critical condition due to seven years of Israel’s crippling siege and naval blockade and previous Israeli assaults, causing the release of raw sewage into open pools, farmland, and the Mediterranean Sea, prompting health concerns and affecting fishermen. On August 5, Oxfam warned that Israeli attacks on wells, pipelines, and reservoirs had contaminated fresh water supplies, already heavily contaminated before the assault, and that 15,000 tons of solid waste had leaked into the streets of Gaza.

Damage to industry & agriculture

  • Israel's assault inflicted $1.4 billion in damages on Gaza, and $1.7 billion in direct losses to Gaza's economy.
  • 419 businesses and workshops were damaged, and 128 completely destroyed.
  • Israeli attacks caused more than $500 million in damages to Gaza’s agricultural sector, particularly in areas near Gaza’s boundary with Israel, which were subjected to intense bombardment. According to the UN: 

"farmers were forced to abandon their crops and animals, and fishermen were prohibited access to the sea, paralyzing related economic activities. Open fields, greenhouses, gardens and orchards were severely damaged and contaminated with unexploded ordnance. Families who lost animals or fishing assets also lost their daily sources of income and nutrition: eggs, meat, dairy and fish… A sizable proportion of Gaza’s agricultural animals perished, including roughly 40 per cent of poultry and 20 per cent of total productive livestock. The entire agricultural value chain was affected – from farm and sea to market.”


Go deeper

Institute for Middle East Understanding 

​Amnesty International

Human Rights Watch 

Defense for Children International - Palestine

B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories