Military operations conducted by the Israeli Defense Forces

In addition to the wars in which the Israeli army was involved in, The Israeli Defense Forces conducted a big number of military operations, as real war and apart from war. Part of the operations were very specific, and part of them developed into a large scale war (for example, the 1982 Lebanon War).

This list centralizes the main and most notable military operations conducted by the Israeli Defense Forces and the Israeli security forces, in chronological order:

* Operations held during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War - See details here. (1947-1949)
* Operation Focus - A massive airstrike held by the Israeli Air Force which destroyed the majority of the Egyptian air force on the ground which started the Six-Day War (1967).
* Operation Rooster 53 - The capturing of an Egyptian P-12 radar system during the course of the War of Attrition (1969).
* Operation Wrath of God - a covert operation directed by Israel and the Mossad to assassinate individuals alleged to have been directly or indirectly involved in the 1972 Munich massacre (1972-1979)
* Operation Sabena - the takeover of a kidnapped airplane and hostage release (1972).
* Operation Spring of Youth - Israel Defense Forces special forces units attacked several Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) targets in Beirut and Sidon, Lebanon (April 1973).
* Operation Entebbe - a counter-terrorism hostage-rescue mission carried out by the Israel Defense Force (IDF) at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. (July 1976)
* Operation Litani - An Israel Defense Forces invasion to South Lebanon made in order to cease the firing of Katyushas on the settlements in northern Israel (1978, 1979).
* Operation Opera - a surprise Israeli air strike against the Iraqi Osirak nuclear reactor (June 1981)
* Operation Wooden Leg - an Israeli Air Force raid on the Palestine Liberation Organization's headquarters in Hammam al-Shatt, Tunisia (1985)
* Operation Accountability - an extensive operation held by the Israeli Air Force, Armor Corps and Artillery Corps in south Lebanon as a response to the escalation in the border. (July 1993)
* Operation Grapes of Wrath - A military blitz held by the Israeli Defense Forces in Lebanon in an attempt to end the shelling of Northern Israel by Hezbollah. (April 1996)

* Operations held during the Second Intifada:
** Operation Noah's Ark - an Israeli military action in which they seized Karine A, a Palestinian freighter in the Red Sea. (January 2002)
** Operation Defensive Shield - a large-scale counter-terrorist operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces in IDF troops were deplyed into Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank and order to eliminate the terror infrastructures (April 2002)
** Operation Determined Path - a military operation carried out by the Israel Defense Forces, following Operation Defensive Shield, with the goal of reaching some of the unreached objectives set forth for Defensive Shield, especially in the northern West Bank. (June 2002)
** Operation Rainbow - a military operation held in Rafah and the Philadelphi Route with the aim to clear terrorist infrastructure, to find smuggling tunnels connecting the Gaza Strip to Egypt, and to kill militants after the deaths of 13 Israeli soldiers in guerrilla attacks.
** Operation Days of Penitence - an extensive Israel Defense Forces operation in the northern Gaza Strip focused on the town of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia and Jabalia refugee camp, which were used as launching sites of Qassam rockets on the Israeli town of Sderot and Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip. (October 2004)
** Operation Summer Rains - an IDF military operation in the Gaza Strip which was the IDF's first major mobilization into the Gaza Strip since Israel's unilateral disengagement plan was implemented in September 2005. (June-November 2006)
** Operation Hot Winter - an Israel Defense Forces military campaign in the Gaza Strip launched in response to the constant firing of Qassam rockets from the Strip by the Hamas. (February - March 2008)

* Operations held during the 2006 Lebanon War - See details here. (July - August 2006)
* Operation Orchard - an Israeli airstrike on a target in the Deir ez-Zor region in Syria. (September 2007)

See also

* Wars of Israel
* History of the Israel Defense Forces