hospital. June 25: Palestinian militants infiltrate Israel through a secret tunnel and start a gunbattle at a military checkpoint – 2 Israeli soldiers and 3 Hamas militants are killed and an Israeli soldier is reported as missing and is later found out to have been captured by the militants. Israeli PM vows a fierce military response to the attack once the soldier, Gilad Shalit, is returned. Two infantry brigades and supporting armoured regiments are deployed along the Gaza Strip border, in preparation for a major offensive. June 28: Israel starts a military operation in the Gaza strip, deploying a large number of tanks, APCs and troops in order to rescue the soldier captured in the attack three days before that. June 29: Israeli troops detain one third of the Palestinian government and altogether 64 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, who are Hamas members. July July summary: 177 Palestinians killed by Israel security forces (1–15 July: 97 in the Palestinian Authority territories); 12 July: An Israeli air strike destroys the Palestinian Foreign Ministry Building in Gaza City. An Israeli brigade enters the central Gaza Strip via Kissufim crossing, aiming at temporarily bisecting it. Simultaneously, the Israel Air Force targets a meeting of Hamas operational wing commanders in an apartment building in Gaza City. One Hamas leader, seven members of his family and one neighbour are killed. Top Hamas leaders Mohammed Deif and Abu Anas al-Ghandour, who Israeli officials claim were heavily involved in the kidnapping of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, are moderately wounded. Fourteen additional Palestinian militants are killed in other incidents in the Gaza Strip. 14 July: Hamas militants launch 5 qassam rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot, causing local electrical malfunctions. Israeli ground forces pull out of the central Gaza Strip, after several days of fighting in which about 30 Hamas militants were killed. Israeli forces remain in Gaza airport near Rafah, to thwart the delivery of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit into Egypt. About 1,500 Palestinians cross the Gaza-Egypt border after Palestinian militants attack Egyptian policemen stationed at Rafah border terminal, blowing a hole in the wall near it. 15 July: Two Hamas militants killed in two Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip, one of them on a house in Gaza City. 16 July: Three Palestinian militants are killed in an Israeli airstrike, soon after Israeli forces re-entered the Gaza Strip. 17 July: Hamas militants launch ten