Operation Protective Edge: What's Happening In Gaza? Live Updates From Israeli-Palestinian Clash [TIMELINE]

Israeli firefighters extinguish blaze — Israeli firefighters extinguish a fire that broke out after a rocket hit a petrol station in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod July 11, 2014. REUTERS/Avi Roccah

Missiles and mortar rounds between Israel and Hamas continued to crumple buildings and kill civilians on both sides, as Israel’s Operation Protective Edge offensive entered its eighth day this morning. The conflict between Israel and Palestine stretches back decades, rooted in a history of tension and violence starting with the initial division of Israel in 1948 and continuing to the blockade of the Gaza Strip in 2007. But the latest chapter began after the last round of peace talks crumbled in April, when three Israeli teenagers vanished last month.

Since then, the conflict has escalated unrelentingly. The Israeli Defense Forces killed a 15-year-old Palestinian teenager as they searched house to house. Another was brutally beaten. After the bodies of the missing teens were found in a field near Hebron in the West Bank, three Israelis forced a Palestinian teen into a car, lit him on fire and left him in the forest to die. Thousands of rockets and airstrikes have been exchanged between Hamas and the IDF, resulting in more than 200 deaths as of Wednesday

Check out the timeline to explore IBT’s coverage of the conflict and see how it has unfolded.

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Credits: Produced by Hanna Sender and Ross Keith, Primary reporting by Erin Banco, Howard Koplowitz and Alessandria Masi. Hat tip to Balance Media and WNYC for their Super Awesome Vertical Timeline.