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Operation Summer Rains was an Israeli military operation that was undertaken by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in June-November 2006 in response to Hamas' kidnapping of the IDF soldier Gilad Shalit on 25 June 2006.

In 2005, Israel unilaterally disengaged from Gaza and dismantled Jewish settlements that had been built in the Gaza Strip in the years of the occupation. However, Hamas' Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades resumed the firing of rockets into Israel, and the pace of the attacks quickened in 2006 after Hamas swept the Palestinian Authority's legislative elections. 757 missiles hit Israel from 2005 to June 2006, and ISrael responded with artillery fire and airstrikes. On 8 June, the IDF assassinated Popular Resistance Committees leader Jamal Abu Samhadana, while a 9 June artillery strike accidentally killed 8 Palestinian civilians on a busy beach in Beit Lahia, Gaza. On 10 June, Hamas formally withdrew from its 16-month ceasefire and openly took responsibility for the ongoing Qassam rocket attacks. On 25 June, armed Palestinians crossed the Gaza-Israel border via a makeshift tunnel and ambushed an IDF post, killing two IDF soldiers, wounding four others, and kidnapping Corporal Gilad Shalit. On 26 June, Hamas demanded the release of all female Palestinian prisoners and all Palestinian prisoners under 18.

In response, the Israeli Navy blockaded the Gaza Strip on 26 June to prevent Shalit being smuggled out by sea. On 28 June, IDF forces entered Khan Yunis in search for Shalit. Egypt deployed 2,500 policemen to the Egypt-Gaza border to prevent Shalit or Palestinian refugees from being moved into the strip, while Israeli airstrikes destroyed Gazan bridges and cut the Gaza Strip's power in half. Israeli forces occupied the Gaza International Airport, bombed Hamas training and munitions camps, and launched a ground and armored incursion into Gaza. In response, the PRC and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades abducted and murdered the 18-year-old Israeli settler Eliyahu Asheri. Israel arrested 64 Hamas officials on 29 June, among them Omar Abd al-Razaq, Mohammad Barghouti, Nayef Rajoub, and Muhammad Abu Tir. The IDF mounted numerous ground incursions into the Gaza Strip over the next several months, and, in August, Israel negotiated Shalit's release with Egypt acting as mediator. Operation Summer Rains was followed by Operation Autumn Clouds in November.

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