The New York Times
19 July, 2014
A rocket hits an apartment block in Rafah, on the border with Egypt. Rafah was the location of hundreds of the tunnels used to smuggle food and supplies into Gaza from Egypt.
After weeks of rising tension following the killing of three Israeli teenagers, Israel launched a major offensive against Hamas in Gaza. Hamas had fired rockets into Israel on 7 July, after a series of Israeli air strikes in which several Hamas members had been killed. On 8 July, Israel launched Operation Protective Edge, aimed at stopping the rocket attacks, and destroying Hamas capabilities, in particular the smuggling tunnels that had been built between Gaza and Egypt. The offensive lasted seven weeks, during which more than 2,100 people were killed in Gaza, 69 percent of which, according to the UN, were civilians. In Israel, six civilians and 67 soldiers were killed. Amnesty International published a report that criticized Israel’s ‘grossly disproportionate’ responses, but suggested violations of international law on both sides.
Sergey Ponomarev
Before becoming a freelancer in 2012, Sergey worked for the Associated Press starting in 2003. He has won many international and domestic photography awards. Most recently, he w...
