At a Glance: Israel Strikes Gaza

Timeline of Events Surrounding Israeli Offensive to Free Captured Soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit

June 25: Hamas militants launch their first deadly raid into Israel from Gaza since the pullout in 2005. Palestinian gunmen sneak through a tunnel beneath the border and attack an Israeli army post, killing two soldiers and capturing 19-year-old Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

June 26: Palestinian gunmen holding Shalit demand the release of all Palestinian women and minors from Israeli prisons in exchange for information about the soldier's condition.

June 28: Aircraft strike bridges on main roads in the Gaza Strip to prevent militants from moving the captive. Helicopters knock out Gaza's main power plant, cutting off electricity for hundreds of thousands of residents.

Troops and tanks enter southern Gaza and take control of the disused international airport. It is the biggest raid into the territory since Israel left Gaza in 2005.

Warplanes buzz one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's palaces in a warning to him and the exiled Hamas leaders that he hosts.

Artillery pounds northern Gaza, an area used by Palestinian militants for firing rockets into Israel. The army warns residents to leave the area.

June 29: Israel detains dozens of Hamas cabinet ministers and lawmakers in the West Bank. The Islamist group says the move aimed to topple its government.

Popular Resistance Committees, one of the groups behind Shalit's capture, says it killed an 18-year old Jewish settler, Eliyahu Asheri, in the West Bank.

The Group of Eight calls on Israel to show restraint in Gaza and expresses concern at the arrests.

June 30: Israeli warplanes attack more than 20 targets in the Gaza Strip, setting ablaze the Interior Ministry offices of the Hamas-led government. Other targets include roads, open areas used for rocket firing and Hamas training camps. One Islamic Jihad militant is killed. Israel puts on hold a threatened extension of the ground offensive into northern Gaza to allow more time for Egyptian mediation to free Shalit.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh demands Israel halt the offensive if it wants to free the captured soldier.

Several thousand protesters at one of Cairo's main mosques call for holy war against Israel to help the Palestinians.

Thousands of angry Turks burn an Israeli flag in Istanbul to protest Israel's offensive.

July 2: An Israeli helicopter fires a missile at the empty Gaza office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh a few hours before dawn.

Israeli forces fire on three Palestinian gunmen in southern Gaza, killing at least one of them and wounding two.

July 3: Factions who captured Shalit demand Israel free 1,000 Palestinian prisoners and end Gaza assault in return for his release. Militants give Israel less than 24 hours to meet their demands.

Israeli tanks and armored bulldozers push into northern Gaza in what Israel's army called an operation to locate tunnels and explosives near the border fence.

July 4: Deadline set by militants expires with Israel rejecting any prisoner exchange and warning Hamas leaders the "sky will fall on them" if Shalit is harmed.

Hamas armed wing carries out deepest militant rocket strike yet against Israel, hitting a school yard in the coastal city of Ashkelon, causing no injuries. Israel says the attack will have "unprecedented, far-reaching consequences."

July 5: Israeli missiles tear through the Palestinian Interior Ministry in Gaza, causing extensive damage. At least five people are wounded.

Israeli leaders authorize troops to move into residential areas of Gaza in response to the rocket attack in Ashkelon. At least two Palestinians are killed.

A second rocket hits the Israeli city of Ashkelon, landing in a neighborhood but causing no injuries.

July 6: Israeli forces seize a section of former Jewish settlements in northern Gaza, an area militants often use to fire rockets.

In subsequent air strikes and ground fighting, Israeli forces kill at least 20 Palestinians. Gunmen kill one Israeli soldier. Dozens are injured, including many children.

Palestinians bury mines for Israeli tanks, and launch eight rockets, about half landing inside Israel.

July 7: Israeli aircraft and tanks kill five Palestinians in sporadic clashes with militants across northern Gaza.

July 8: Israeli tanks and bulldozers withdraw from northern Gaza before dawn, leaving behind a strip of churned fields, wrecked roads and a few heavily damaged homes.

The Israeli military steps up its activity in along Gaza's eastern border as more Israeli armor enter the strip.

In the evening, an explosion kills a woman and two of her children on the eastern edge of Gaza City.

July 10: Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal demands a prisoner swap, but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says that would be a "major mistake."

Four militants are killed in three Israeli air strikes, and later three others are killed in an Israeli attack in northern Gaza.

July 11: Israeli leaders order new incursions into Gaza, according to security officials. The officials said the new phase would include sending troops into areas of Gaza where they have not yet operated.

Israeli aircraft attack a bridge in northern Gaza to stop militants from transporting rockets, the military said.

A Palestinian militant group claims it fired a rocket from the northern West Bank into Israel, but the Israeli military said it had no evidence of a rocket being fired or landing in Israel.

July 12: An Israeli air strike kills 18 Palestinians in Gaza, including nine members of one family, and destroys a residential building where the army said Hamas militants were meeting. The Israeli military said Mohammed Deif, the leader of the Hamas military wing and top on Israel's wanted list was wounded, but Hamas denied he was wounded.

The Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah fires rockets at northern Israel, capturing two Israeli soldiers during cross-border fighting and killing up to seven Israelis.

Israeli aircraft strike roads and bridges in southern Lebanon, killing two Lebanese civilians and wounding five, security sources said.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says Hezbollah would pay a "heavy price" for its actions. Israel's military orders residents of Israeli towns along the northern border to seek cover in underground bomb shelters.