2008 and 2009 Hamas-controlled and Israel-blockaded Gaza was subjected to two major offensives following rocket attacks on southern Israel. The first, in February 2008, killed more than 120 Palestinians; the second, in December 2008 and January 2009, left more than 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead before a ceasefire was agreed. The next month Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud won the general election and went into coalition with extreme rightwinger Avigdor Lieberman and Ehud Barak of Labour. New US president Barack Obama and secretary of state Hillary Clinton made efforts to find an Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Pictured, an injured Palestinian is helped from the rubble following an Israeli missile strike on Rafah in December 2008
Photograph: Hatem Omar/AP
The Guardian
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