Blockade of the Gaza Strip June 2008, Israel agreed to lift its blockade of Gaza Strip. At Egypt's request, Israel did not always respond to Palestinian cease fire violations by closing the border. Israel accused Hamas of transporting weapons into Gaza via tunnels to Egypt, failing to stop rocket attacks, and noted that Hamas would not continue negotiating the release of Israeli hostage Gilad Shalit, who had been held by Hamas since 2006. Hamas' decision alienated it from the government of Egypt, which had linked the opening of the Gaza-Egypt border crossing with Shalit's release. In the early stage of the cease-fire, Israeli officials had
Gaza–Israel conflict by other groups. Large-scale conventional warfare beyond the peripheries of the Gaza Strip began when Palestinian militants abducted Corporal Gilad Shalit, and Israel responded by launching Operation "Summer Rains" on 28 June 2006. The operation became the first major mobilization within the Gaza Strip since Israel unilaterally disengaged from the region between August and September 2005. The Gaza beach blast was an event on 9 June 2006 in which eight Palestinians were killedincluding nearly the entire family of seven-year-old Huda Ghaliyaand at least thirty others were injured in an explosion on a beach near the municipality of Beit Lahia in