On August 5th, Israel launched a three day operation in the besieged Gaza Strip. They dubbed it “Operation Breaking Dawn”. Israel’s acting Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, promote the operation as a preemptive strike to quash what he said were concrete threats by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement in Gaza. Over the course of three days 49 Palestinians were killed, including 17 children. According to our documentation, while many PIJ members and affiliates were indeed targeted, the majority of those that were killed were civilian noncombatants. The operation was the second major Israeli offensive on Gaza since last year. It also happened to fall just a few months before Israel’s upcoming elections at a time when Israel’s current prime minister and his party are struggling in the polls. In the wake of the attack many Palestinians accused Israeli officials of using Gazans as sacrificial pawns in their political games, while Lapid, and others in his government, hailed it as a success. Amjad Iraqi joins Yumna Patel to discuss Israel’s political motivations behind the Gaza attack. Amjad is an editor and writer at 972 Magazine, based in Haifa. He’s also a policy analyst at the think tank Al-Shabaka and was previously an advocacy coordinator at the legal center Adalah. - - - - - Support our work Help us continue our critical independent coverage of events in Palestine, Israel, and related U.S. politics. Donate today at https://mondoweiss.net/donate Articles and Links mentioned in the show Follow Amjad Iraqi on Twitter Follow our coverage of Operation Breaking Dawn and its impacts on the region. Subscribe to the Palestine Letter email newsletter. Share this podcast Share The Mondoweiss Podcast with your followers on Twitter. Click here to post a tweet! If you enjoyed this episode, head over to Podchaser and leave us a review and follow the show! Follow The Mondoweiss Podcast wherever you listen Amazon Apple Podcasts Audible Deezer Gaana Google Podcasts Overcast Player.fm RadioPublic Spotify Stitcher TuneIn YouTube Our RSS feed We want your feedback! Email dave@mondoweiss.net Leave us an audio message at SparkPipe More from Mondoweiss Subscribe to our free email newsletters: Daily Headlines Weekly Briefing The Shift tracks U.S. politics Palestine Letter Follow us on social media Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube LinkedIn Tumblr