Operation Hot Winter - Casualties

Casualties

See also: Israeli casualties of war and Palestinian casualties of war

As of March 4, 2008, 110 Palestinian fatalities have been reported. While Israel claims that most casualties were militants, Palestinians say more than half of the killed were civilians. March 1 has been noted as "the bloodiest day for Palestinians" since the Second intifada began in 2000, when almost half the dead were civilians including children. Israeli human rights movement B'Tselem expressed its grave concern at "the large number of children and other uninvolved (Palestinian) civilians among those killed and wounded in the Gaza Strip".

According to B'Tselem, there were 54 civilian casualties. Civilian casualties included children, women and even infants. A 13-year-old Palestinian youth was also killed in the West Bank in the demonstrations staged by West Bank Palestinians in support of Hamas in Gaza. Militant deaths were mostly Hamas members, as well as some Islamic Jihad members, and one member of the PRC. The Associated Press and other news outlets did not report that civilians accounted for the majority of Palestinian casualties, but that they accounted for "dozens". Israel's attacks in Gaza aired prominently on Arab TV news channels.

While expressing regret for civilian casualties, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak blamed "Hamas and those firing rockets at Israel," his office said in a statement, pledging to continue the offensive to protect Israeli towns and cities. The Israeli army said it was targeting rocket squads, and blamed militants for operating in populated areas. Associated Press photos showed rockets being launched from densely populated areas in northern Gaza. On 5 March 2008, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office announced that Israel would maintain its pressure on Hamas. Olmert did leave the door open to an unofficial truce with Hamas. "If there is no rocket fire at Israel, there won't be Israeli attacks on Gaza," he told reporters. Israeli government spokesman David Baker said Israel was "compelled to continue to take these defensive measures" to protect more than 200,000 Israelis living under the threat of Palestinian rocket barrages.Militants "hide behind their own civilians, using them as human shields, while actively targeting Israeli population centers," Baker said. "They bear the responsibility for the results." Israeli military spokeswoman Maj. Avital Leibovich called Saturday's action a "pinpoint operation" provoked by the rocket attack on Ashkelon earlier in the week. She blamed the high civilian toll on Hamas' practice of using homes to store and produce projectiles. "We are not targeting homes and we have no intentions of targeting uninvolved civilians," she said. "We will target launchers and Hamas militants, and bunkers." In Washington, National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe expressed regret for loss of civilian life on both sides but put most of the blame on the Palestinians. "There is a clear distinction between terrorist rocket attacks that target civilians and action in self-defense," he said in a statement.

One Israeli 8 year-old had his leg amputated in a rocket attack. One Israeli civilian was killed in a rocket attack in Sderot. Two Israeli soldiers were also killed by Hamas forces during an incursion into the Gaza Strip. Soldiers from the Givati infantry brigade were wounded. A much larger number of civilians have been wounded or treated for shock. The rocket attacks have caused widespread fear and hardship in Israeli border towns and have damaged millions of dollars worth of property, including schools.