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2006 Gaza cross-border raid | |
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Part of Gaza–Israel conflict | |
Type | Cross-border raid |
Location | 31°14′00″N 34°17′08″E / 31.23333°N 34.28556°E |
Commanded by | Ahmed Jabari (reportedly)[1] |
Target | IDF army post near the Kerem Shalom border crossing |
Date | 25 June 2006 Around 5:30 am[2] – (GMT+2) |
Executed by | 7 or 8 Palestinian militants[3] from Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Popular Resistance Committees, and Army of Islam |
Outcome | Capture of Gilad Shalit |
Casualties | 2 Palestinian militants and 2 IDF soldiers killed 4 IDF soldiers injured |
The 2006 Gaza cross-border raid, known by Palestinian militants as Operation Dispersive Illusion (Arabic: عملية الوهم المتبدد, romanized: ʿAmaliyyat al-Wahm Al-mutabadid) was an armed incursion carried out by seven or eight[3] Gazan Palestinian militants on 25 June 2006 who attacked Israel Defense Forces (IDF) positions near the Kerem Shalom Crossing through an attack tunnel. In the attack, two IDF soldiers[4] and two Palestinian militants[5] were killed, four IDF soldiers were wounded, one of whom was Gilad Shalit, who was captured and taken to the Gaza Strip.[6]
Hamas's military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility, together with the Popular Resistance Committees (which includes members of Fatah, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas), and a previously unknown group calling itself the Army of Islam. They stated the raid was in retaliation to an Israeli shelling and a series of air raids that had killed 22 Palestinians earlier that month.[7]
The abduction of Shalit caused Israel to launch Operation "Summer Rains" which consisted of a series of incursions into Gaza. The operation failed to retrieve Shalit who was eventually released on 18 October 2011 as part of a prisoner swap. It was the first time since the capture of Nachshon Wachsman in 1994, that Palestinian fighters had captured an Israeli soldier.[8]