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Israel Defense Forces

combined military forces of Israel

27 dated entries naming Israel Defense Forces, drawn from 21 separate years between 1951 CE and 2024 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

Also written as IDF, Israel Defence Forces, Israel Defense Force, Israel's military, Israeli Defence Force, Israeli Defence Forces, Israeli Defense Force, Israeli forces in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.

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20th century

  • 19514 April – El-Hamma Incident: Israel attempts to enforce its sovereignty over the demilitarized zone along the Syrian border, which included the site of Hamat Gader, by sending a force of IDF soldiers dressed in police uniforms to the site. Syrian soldiers guarding the entrance to Hamat Gader order the Israeli force to turn back immediately, but it refuses and continues on its way. Once the Israeli force had passed, the Syrians open fire on it from the rear, killing seven Israeli soldiers and wounding three. One IDF soldier who survived the attack is taken prisoner.source
  • 19536 December – Moshe Dayan is appointed as the fourth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces.source
  • 195528 February – 1 March – Operation Black Arrow: An IDF operation carried out in Gaza (then under Egyptian control) from 28 February through 1 March 1955. The operation is aimed at the Egyptian army. 38 Egyptian and eight Israeli soldiers are killed during the operation and 30 Egyptians and thirteen Israelis are wounded. According to the Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, this operation was the main motivation for Egypt's major arms deal with Czechoslovakia in 1955.source
  • 195527 April – The IMI Uzi submachine gun is introduced in the IDF parade on the Israel's Independence Day.source
  • 195625 September – Operation Lulav (מבצע לולב): Following the murder of the participants in an archaeological conference held in Ramat Rachel and the murder of two farmers from Moshav Aminadav and Kibbutz Maoz Haim, IDF forces raid the police fort at Husan, near Bethlehem, in the West Bank (then under the control of Jordan). Thirty-seven Legionnaires and National Guardsmen were killed as well as two civilians. Nine IDF members were also killed.source
  • 195714 May – Yitzhak Harel, CEO of Israel Railways and former major general in the IDF.source
  • 196031 January – Operation Tawfiq (פעולת תאופיק): The first Israeli retribution operation initiated after the Suez Crisis. The operation is carried out by Golani forces on the Syrian village of Tawfiq, in response to attacks on Israelis in Tel Katzir. Tawfiq was designated by the IDF as the center of many Syrian attacks and as a result it was decided that the destruction of the village was vital. During the operation, the village is conquered and destroyed while being attacked by Syrian artillery. Six Syrian and three Israeli soldiers are killed during the operation and seven Israeli soldiers are wounded.source
  • 19611 January – Tzvi Tzur is appointed as the 6th Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces.source
  • 196828 December – 1968 Israeli raid on Lebanon: Commandos from the IDF's elite Sayeret Matkal destroy 13 civilian airplanes in the Beirut International Airport belonging to Middle East Airlines (MEA) in response to the attack on the Israeli airliner in Athens. There are no casualties reported.source
  • 197030 December – The Neot HaKikar disaster (אסון נאות הכיכר): the worst natural disaster since the founding of the State of Israel. A rock detaches from a cliff due to heavy rains and crushes an IDF military base dining room. 20 Israelis are killed in the disaster (19 soldiers and a civilian) and ten soldiers were injured (three of them severely).source
  • 197627 June – Air France Flight 139, originating in Tel Aviv and carrying 248 passengers and a crew of 12 takes off from Athens, Greece, headed for Paris, France. The flight is hijacked by Palestinian Arab assailants with German Revolutionäre Zellen supporters and flown to Entebbe Airport (now known as Entebbe International Airport) in Uganda. Shortly after landing, all non-Jewish passengers were released. The hijacking of this flight leads to the IDF hostage-rescue mission "Operation Entebbe" carried out in the Entebbe Airport seven days later (see details above).source
  • 1979April – nearly nine years after the decision to produce it was taken, the Israeli developed and produced battle tank Merkava was first introduced to the IDF forces.source
  • 198319 April – Moshe Levi is appointed as the 12th Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces.source
  • 1992February 16 – In Lebanon, Israeli helicopter gunships assassinate Abbas al-Musawi, the leader of Hezbollah, and his son, in retaliation for a February 14 raid that killed three Israeli soldiers.source
  • 19974 February – 1997 Israeli helicopter disaster: Two IAF troop-transport CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters collide in darkness near the remote She'ar Yashuv kibbutz, in northern Israel, killing 77 IDF soldiers.source

21st century

  • 2002April 15 – Palestinian political figure Marwan Barghouti is captured by the Israel Defense Forces in Palestinian Authority administered city of Ramallah.source
  • 2003March 16 – Rachel Corrie, 23, American International Solidarity Movement activist, crushed by Israeli Defense Forces bulldozer.source
  • 2003October 6 – Hezbollah and the Israel Defense Forces engage in hostilities in the Shebaa Farms.source
  • 2011April 7 – The Israel Defense Forces use their Iron Dome missile system to successfully intercept a BM-21 Grad launched from Gaza, marking the first short-range missile intercept ever.source
  • 2019May 3–6 – May 2019 Gaza–Israel clashes: The Gaza–Israel conflict escalates after the Israeli military launches airstrikes into Gaza killing more than 20 Palestinians including a pregnant woman and a toddler following the injury of two soldiers from Gazan sniper fire.source
  • 2022May 11 – The Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is killed by the Israel Defence Forces while covering a raid in Jenin. Initially, Israel denied responsibility but later admitted to the killing and issued an apology.source
  • 2023January 27 – Widespread unrest erupts in Israel following an Israeli military raid in Jenin the previous day, which killed nine Palestinians. Incendiary air balloons are launched into Israeli-populated areas following it. Israel responds with targeted airstrikes. Later the same day, seven Jewish civilians are killed in a synagogue in Neve Yaakov in a terrorist attack.source
  • 2023July 3 – In the largest incursion by Israel into the West Bank since the Second Intifada, the Israeli military deploys ground forces and armed drones into the Jenin camp, killing 13 people and injuring more than 100. An attack claimed by Hamas as retaliation for the incursion, occurs in Tel Aviv the following day, injuring nine.source
  • 2023October 7 – Gaza war: Hamas launches an incursion into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing more than 1,100 Israelis and taking about 240 hostages, prompting a military response from the Israel Defense Forces. Israel launches numerous air strikes on Lebanon after rockets are fired by Hezbollah and further attempts are made to penetrate Israel.source
  • 2024February 29 – Gaza war: Soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces open fire on a crowd of civilians in Gaza City, killing more than 100 people, as the Palestinian casualties of the war exceed 30,000.source
  • 2024August 25 – The Israel Defense Forces begin a series of preemptive strikes against targets in the south of Lebanon.source
  • 2024October 1 – The Israel Defense Forces invade southern Lebanon, escalating its conflict against Hezbollah.source

Named in the same entries