page_title: 2012 Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip
section_title: Israeli casualties
hierarchical_section_title: 2012 Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip / Casualties / Israeli casualties
caption_attribution_description: עברית: הפיגוע באוטובוס בתל אביב ביום האחרון למבצע עמוד ענן
context_page_description: In November 2012, the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Pillar of Defense which was an eight-day campaign in the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip, which began on 14 November 2012 with the killing of Ahmed Jabari, chief of the Gaza military wing of Hamas by an Israeli airstrike.
  The operation was preceded by a period with a number of mutual Israeli–Palestinian responsive attacks. According to the Israeli government, the operation began in response to the launch of over 100 rockets at Israel during a 24-hour period, an attack by Gaza militants on an Israeli military patrol jeep within Israeli borders, and an explosion caused by IEDs, which occurred near Israeli soldiers, on the Israeli side of a tunnel passing under the Israeli West Bank barrier. The Israeli government stated that the aims of the military operation were to halt rocket attacks against civilian targets originating from the Gaza Strip and to disrupt the capabilities of militant organizations. The Palestinians blamed the Israeli government for the upsurge in violence, accusing the IDF of attacks on Gazan civilians in the days leading up to the operation.
context_section_description: Four Israeli civilians and two soldiers were killed in Palestinian rocket attacks. Three of the civilians died in a direct hit on an apartment building in Kiryat Malakhi. The fourth Israeli civilian death was an Israeli-Arab contractor for the Israeli Defense Ministry who was killed in a rocket attack in the Eshkol Region. Both of the Israeli military fatalities were killed in rocket and mortar barrages on the Eshkol Regional Council. One of them was wounded on the last day of the conflict and died of his injuries on 22 November. By 20 November, almost 250 Israelis had been injured in rocket attacks, including at least 10 soldiers. Another 28 people were injured in a bus bombing in Tel Aviv.
  The IDF credited the low Israeli casualty rate to a number of factors, both offensive and defensive: its preemptive targeting of launching pads and rocket arsenals, its ability to strike militants in the act of launching rockets, the 80%+ success rate of Israel's Iron Dome missile interception system, the existence of bomb-proof rooms in every Israeli house, the implementation of the Red Color alarm system, and public outreach efforts by its Home Front Command.
caption: Aftermath of the Tel aviv bus bombing incident on 21 November.
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