Spot News, 1st prize
Gaza
Bernat Armangue
The Associated Press
The Associated Press
18 November, 2012
Israel launched a military offensive against targets in Hamas-ruled Gaza, on 14 November. Israeli authorities said that Operation Pillar of Defense was aimed at protecting citizens from the hundreds of missiles fired into Israel by militants in Gaza.
Bernat Armangue
Bernat Armangue was born in Barcelona in 1978. He became an Associated Press photographer in 2005. As an international news agency photographer, he has covered a variety of news...
Gaza City, Palestinian Territories
Smoke rises in Gaza City after an Israeli airstrike.
Israel launched a military offensive against targets in Hamas-ruled Gaza, on 14 November. Israeli authorities said that Operation Pillar of Defense was aimed at protecting citizens from the hundreds of missiles fired into Israel by militants in Gaza.
Initially, Israeli airstrikes were directed at rocket-storage sites, and Hamas security facilities, as well as at smuggling tunnels and electricity sources. On the first day of the attack, Ahmed al-Jabari, the commander of Hamas’s military wing, was killed in a pinpoint airstrike as he was riding in a car on a Gaza street.
Attacks soon escalated to include the police headquarters in Gaza City, and homes of suspected Hamas activists. Civilian casualties began to rise. A ceasefire was reached on 21 November.
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