Anniversary of the 23-day Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip

On this day, dozens of Israeli fighter jets bombed various targets in Gaza, killing 200 people and wounding more than 700. The Israeli regime named this series of attacks “Cast Lead”. In response to the Israel attacks, the Palestinian resistance fired several rockets at the occupied territories, targeting the Zionists, calling the operation “Furqan.”

The Israeli army and the Egyptian government have banned foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip since the start of the war, which caused widespread protests by international journalists.
Accordingly, international reporters were forced to report from the heights overlooking the city of Gaza, which lies within the border strip of the two sides.

On January 3, 2009, eight days after the start of the war, the Israeli army continued to bomb Gaza, deploying hundreds of Israeli tanks, along with fighter jets and helicopters. But after Israel failed to achieve its main objectives, it used white phosphorus and uranium bombs, which were proven by international investigations. Special investigators sent to Gaza confirmed that Israel used white phosphorus in its January 15 attack on a UN aid center.

In this attack, 1,425 residents of the Gaza Strip were martyred, which most of themwere civilians, women and children. Also about 5,500 people were injured. According to UNICEF, in the bombings from the first to the third day of the attack killed 30 Palestinian children and injured more than 150. More than 500,000 Palestinians were also displaced.

The 2008 Israeli war against the Gaza Strip was one of the regime’s most brutal attacks, in which 83% of those killed were civilians, Palestinian women and children.

In this war, the goals of the Israeli regime were not achieved and their efforts to destroy Hamas and other resistance groups were unsuccessful.

The ex-commander of the Israeli army in the southern part of the country also said in a statement: “Recent events show that our belief that we have achieved significant success in the operation of molten lead was wrong.”