Gaza: Deadly Assaults

People & Power investigates two deadly attacks by the Israeli army during the 2014 war on Gaza.


The Israeli assault on Gaza in 2014 cost the lives of 72 Israelis and more than 2,100 Palestinians.

The attacks on the neighbourhoods of Shujayea and Rafah caused wide-scale killing and injuries to civilians and colossal structural damage. In both cases massive military force was applied in densely populated areas; so disproportionate that even many Israeli supporters of the conflict were aghast at the consequences and became fearful that the Israeli army could be held accountable for war crimes.



Many believe the assaults were not driven by military logic and could not even pretend to claim any real tactical or strategic merit, but were instead motivated by animus and a desire for revenge.

But at least in the attack on Rafah in southern Gaza on August 1, 2014, another important imperative was at play, the so-called Hannibal Directive.