The operation was also preceded by the jailing of hundreds of Palestinians , by air strikes on Gaza in which 3 Palestinians were killed and more than a dozen injured , by the killing of at least 6 Palestinians , injuring of dozens , house demolitions and lootings in the West Bank , by the kidnapping and killing of a Palestinian youth , and by massive rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip to southern Israel . In June 2014 , 66 rockets were fired in 30 attacks , wounding three people . In the eight first days of July , 250 missiles were fired in 104 attacks , injuring seven people . On 7 July , 80 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip . On 7 July 2014 , the Security Cabinet of Israel decided to begin a " counter-terrorist operation " . After an airstrike killed seven Hamas militants in Khan Yunis , Hamas itself assumed responsibility on 7 July for missiles fired from Gaza and launched 40 rockets towards Israel . <!-- --> As the Israeli operation began , and the IDF bombarded targets in the Gaza Strip with artillery and airstrikes , Hamas continued to fire rockets and mortar shells into Israel in response . A cease-fire proposal was announced by the Egyptian government on 14 July , backed by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas ; the Israeli government accepted it and temporarily stopped hostilities on the morning of 15 July , but Hamas rejected it in " its current form " , citing the fact Hamas has not been consulted in the formation of the ceasefire and it omitted many of their demands . By 16 July , the death toll within Gaza had surpassed 200 people
kidnapping and killing of a Palestinian youth
Kidnapping and murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir
Timeline of the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict