page_title: 2011 in Israel
section_title: Israeli–Palestinian conflict
hierarchical_section_title: 2011 in Israel / Events / Israeli–Palestinian conflict
caption_attribution_description: Gilad Shalit salutes Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after landing in IDF airbase in the center of Israel. Gilad Shalit was released today (18-10-11) form hamas captivity, after 5 and a half years. Sergeant First Class Gilad Shalit was released today after more than five years in Hamas captivity. While holding Sgt. 1st Class Shalit in captivity, the Hamas organization denied repeated requests by the Red Cross in Gaza to monitor his condition and limited contact with him to only letters and video tapes. On October 18, 2011, the Shalit family was reunited with Sgt. 1st Class Shalit. Sgt. 1st Class Shalit was 19 years old at the time of his abduction. He is the son of Aviva and Noam Shalit and the brother of Yoel and Hadas. Sgt. 1st Class Shalit excels in math, graduating with distinction from the science class of Manor Kabri High School. He is also a major sports fan, with a passion for playing basketball. Gilad Shalit (rank at the time: Cpl.) was kidnapped early on Sunday June 25, 2006. A militiant group attacked Shalit’s tank that was defending the security fence near the southern Gaza Strip. The militiants crossed the border using an underground tunnel dug near the Kerem Shalom crossing. During the attack, the tank commander, First Lt. Hanan Barak, and another soldier in the tank, Staff Sgt. Pavel Slotzker were killed. Four of the soldiers in the post were injured and militiants kidnapped Shalit into the Gaza Strip, using the tunnel they dug. In response to the kidnapping, the IDF began Operation Summer Rains in the Gaza Strip on June 28, 2006 and lasted through November 26, 2006. Ground forces entered the Gaza Strip for the first time since the unilateral disengagement was executed.
context_page_description: Events in the year 2011 in Israel.
context_section_description: The most prominent events related to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict that occurred during 2011 include:
  January 23 – The Palestine Papers: thousands of confidential documents relating to diplomatic correspondence detailing the inner workings of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, are exposed by the Al-Jazeera news network. Following this, the Palestinian Authority condemns Al-Jazeera for releasing the documents and denies that the Palestinian Authority had agreed to make far-reaching concessions on Jerusalem as the documents purportedly reveal.
  February 19 – The U.S. vetoes a draft of a UN Security Council resolution critical of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
  April 4 – Dirar Abu Seesi, a Palestinian engineer from Gaza, is indicted at Beersheba's District Court, accused of developing missiles and upgrading rockets for attacks on Israel; he claims that the Mossad kidnapped him.
  April 7 – The Iron Dome mobile air defense system successfully intercepts a Grad rocket launched from the Gaza Strip at the Israeli city Ashkelon, marking the first time in history a short-range rocket was ever intercepted.
  April 24 – A group of 15 Israeli Jewish worshipers entered the Palestinian city of Nablus to pray in the Jewish holy site Joseph's Tomb, without coordinating their visit with the IDF as required by law. After finishing praying, as the Jewish worshipers were leaving Nablus, their cars came under fire from a Palestinian Authority police jeep. Five Israelis were injured in the attack and the nephew of Israeli Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat was killed.
  May 15 – The 2011 Israeli border demonstrations took place to commemorate what the Palestinians observe as Nakba Day. Various groups of people attempted to approach or breach Israel's borders from the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan. At least a dozen people were killed.
  June 5 – Israeli forces fire on pro-Palestinian protesters attempting to breach the Syria-Israeli ceasefire-line in the Golan Heights on Naksa Day, marking the anniversary of the 1967 Six-Day War; Syria claims that close to 20 people were killed and over 325 injured, while Israeli officials confirmed at least 12 injures.
  July – Freedom Flotilla II
  July 19 – The French-flagged yacht Dignité Al Karama, which was to have been part of the Freedom Flotilla II, is intercepted and boarded without incident by Israeli commandos, off the coast of Gaza, and escorted to the Port of Ashdod.
  July – Flightilla
  September 2 – A UN report investigating the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid is published, which finds that the IDF acted 'legitimately' in trying to enforce Israel's blockade of the Gaza strip, except for the lack of a final warning to the activists and the use of "excessive" force.
  September 23 – During the opening of the General Assembly of the United Nations, the President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas makes a bid for a UN recognition in a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state, which would exist in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and have the East Jerusalem as its capital.
  September 23 – The quartet of Middle East negotiators – the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations call on both Israel and Palestine to resume negotiations.
  October 11 – The Cabinet of Israel approves the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange.
  October 18 – Israel and Hamas begin a major prisoner swap in which the Israeli Army soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held in captivity for over five years, is released in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian and Israeli Arab prisoners held in Israel, of whom 477 prisoners are released immediately, including 280 serving life sentences for planning and perpetrating terror attacks, and 550 prisoners are to be released in December 2011.
  Notable Palestinian militant operations against Israeli targets
  The most prominent Palestinian militant acts and operations committed against Israeli targets during 2011 include:
  March 12 – Itamar attack: Two Palestinian teens armed with knives infiltrated the West Bank settlement of Itamar and stabbed to death f
caption: After more than five years in Hamas captivity IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was released and returned to Israel, while over a thousand Palestinian and Arab-Israeli prisoners are being released in exchange, October 18, 2011
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