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Operation Defensive Shield

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Israel apprehended West Bank and Gaza after the Six-Day war in 1967. Since then, over a phase of 20 years of vocation, drastic modifications in the Palestinian economy had been introduced by the occupation. Those changes were made for the demolition of the Palestinian parsimony and the exploitation of assets for the occupation economy. Over this time, Palestinians were considered a minority due to the major economic issue brought on by the Israeli’s settlement. “More than one billion dollars’ worth of Palestinian infrastructure has been destroyed by Israeli forces and more than 200 million dollars of this has been donor financed. Since the start of the Intifada the Palestinian GDP has decreased by 50% and agricultural losses have amounted to …show more content…

Ultimately, Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield and took over the West Bank as of April 2002. This operation, according to ‘YNET news’, is “A large-scale military campaign conducted by the Israeli Defence Forces, after a series of terrorist attacks launched against Israel. The operation, which was held in the midst of the al-Aqsa Intifada, was meant to give the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) renewed control over the West Bank, thereby enabling it to thwart terror attack on Israel. The months following the eruption of the al-Aqsa Intifada saw the Palestinian terror organizations carry out numerous suicide attacks in Israel. The government's reaction to the murderous onslaught escalated over time and ranged from financial sanctions, through prohibiting Palestinians from entering Israel and bombing Palestinian government buildings, to the targeted assassinations of terrorist – none of which seemed to dent the terror groups' relentless attacks.” As of March 2004, one of the most devastating terrorist attacks in Israeli history occurred when ‘Two terrorists disguised as Israeli soldiers intruded the Ashdod Port and detonated massive explosives. Both blasts took place mere yards of the port's ammonia tanks, which were spared by pure luck. Ten people were killed and 16 were injured. Had the ammonia tanks been compromised, Israel would have been facing a catastrophe of national proportions.‘ (YNET news, 2009) Post-attack in the Ashdod Port, Israeli Authorities endorsed directed assassinations of the terrorist group; Hamas leaders: Ahmed Yassin, and Abdul Aziz Rantisi. Soon after Yasser Arafat’s sickly demise in mid-November, a mass amount of the violence began

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