title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: The Gaza–Israel conflict is a part of the localized Israeli–Palestinian conflict, but is also a scene of power struggle between regional powers including Egypt, Iran and Turkey together with Qatar, supporting different sides of the conflict in light of the regional standoff between Iran and Saudi Arabia on one hand and between Qatar and Saudi Arabia on the other, as well as crisis in Egyptian-Turkish relations.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: The conflict originated with the election of the Islamist political party Hamas in 2005 and 2006 in the Gaza Strip and escalated with the split of the Palestinian Authority Palestinian government into the Fatah government in the West Bank and the Hamas government in Gaza and the following violent ousting of Fatah after Fatah lost the election to Hamas. Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, and the joint Egyptian-Israeli blockade of Gaza have exacerbated the conflict. The international community considers indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian structures that do not discriminate between civilians and military targets illegal under international law.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: As part of its 2005 disengagement plan, Israel retained exclusive control over Gaza's airspace and territorial waters, continued to patrol and monitor the external land perimeter of the Gaza Strip, with the exception of its southernmost border (where Egypt retained control of the border and border crossings were supervised by European monitors) and continued to monitor and blockade Gaza's coastline. Israel largely provides and controls Gaza's water supply, electricity and communications infrastructure. According to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, Israel remains an occupying power under international law. The United Nations has stated that under resolutions of both the General Assembly and the Security Council, it regards Gaza to be part of the "Occupied Palestinian Territories". Meanwhile, the Fatah government in the West Bank, internationally recognized as the sole representative of the State of Palestine, refers to the Gaza Strip as part of the Palestinian state and does not recognize the Hamas government.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: The Israel–Gaza barrier, completed in 1996, has helped reduce infiltration from Gaza Strip into Israel. Since the beginning of the Second Intifada, Gazans have not been permitted to enter Israel for work purposes. Special permits to enter Israel for medical purposes were also greatly reduced, which has made travel for Palestinians difficult.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: Daniel Schueftan, in his 1999 book, "Disengagement: Israel and the Palestinian Entity" ("The Need for Separation: Israel and the Palestinian Authority") reviews new and existing arguments underlying different separation stances, in order to make the case for separation from the Palestinians, beginning with those in the West Bank and Gaza. Schueftan favors the "hard separation" stances of politicians like Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: Yitzhak Rabin was the first to propose the creation of a physical barrier between the Israeli and Palestinian populations in 1992, and by 1994, construction on the first barrier – the Israel–Gaza barrier – had begun; it is actually a wire fence equipped with sensors. Following an attack on Bet Lid, near the city of Netanya, Rabin specified the objectives behind the undertaking, stating that:


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: The Second Intifada, also known as the "al-Aqsa Intifada", began in September 2000. Many Palestinians consider the Intifada to be a struggle of national liberation against Israeli occupation imposed on them following the 1967 War, whereas many Israelis consider it to be a terrorist campaign.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: Palestinian tactics have ranged from carrying out mass protests and general strikes, as in the First Intifada, to mounting suicide bombing attacks and firing Qassam rockets into east southern Israeli residential areas. Israeli tactics range from conducting mass arrests and locking up Palestinians in administrative detention through setting up checkpoints and building the Israeli Gaza Strip barrier and West Bank barrier to carrying out assassinations targeting militants and leaders of Palestinian organizations.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: Since the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, Israel has been negotiating with Mahmoud Abbas and the PLO, but has been simultaneously targeting and bombing Hamas activists and militants and arresting Hamas's elected legislative counsel politicians.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: The death toll, both military and civilian, over the entire period in question (2000–2007) is estimated to be over 4,300 Palestinians and over 1,000 Israelis. To date, 64 foreign citizens have also been killed (54 by Palestinians, and 10 by Israeli security forces).


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: Israel implemented its Disengagement Plan in August–September 2005, withdrawing its civilian and military presence from the Gaza Strip, and retaining control over the Gaza airspace, maritime access and borders even with Egypt according to the 2005 agreement with Palestinian authority. Qassam rockets were fired regularly prior to the Israeli disengagement and the frequency of Qassam attacks increased after the Disengagement from Gaza. Palestinian militants have targeted a number of military bases and civilian towns in Southern Israel.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: Since 2001, Palestinian militants have launched thousands of rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip. Thirteen Israelis have been killed and hundreds injured as a result of Qassam rocket fire at Israeli targets. Additionally, Qassam rocket attacks have resulted in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in both children and adults, with 33% of children living in Sderot suffering from PTSD.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: When the Islamic party Hamas won the January 2006 Palestinian legislative election, gaining a majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council, the conflict between Israel and Gaza intensified. Israel sealed its border with the Gaza Strip, largely preventing free flow of people and many imports and exports. Palestinians have been shooting Qassam rockets at Israeli settlements located near the Gaza borders, and have staged cross-border raids aimed at killing or capturing Israeli soldiers. In one such raid, on 25 June 2006, Palestinians captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, leading to massive retaliation by the Israeli army which included air strikes against Hamas targets.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: In June 2007, internal fighting broke out between Hamas and Fatah and Hamas fully consolidated its power by staging an armed coup d'état and taking control of the Gaza Strip. Following the internecine fighting that occurred between 7 and 15 June 2007, also known as the Battle of Gaza 2007 in which 118 Palestinians were killed and over 550 were wounded, the entire Gaza Strip came under full control of a Hamas government.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: As a response to the Hamas takeover, Israel sharply restricted the flow of people and goods into and out of Gaza. About 70% of Gaza's workforce have become unemployed or without pay, and about 80% of its residents live in poverty.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: Since Hamas' takeover, Palestinian armed groups in Gaza and Israel continued to clash. Palestinian armed groups have fired rockets into Israel, killing Israeli civilians, including children, and wounding others, as well as causing damage to infrastructure; and Israel have launched attacks, and shelled Gaza with artillery, killing Palestinian combatants as well as civilians, including children, and causing devastating damage to infrastructure. According to Human Rights Watch, the Palestinian deliberate attacks against civilians violate international humanitarian law. Because Hamas exercises power inside Gaza, it is responsible for stopping unlawful attacks even when carried out by other groups.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: 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.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: 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 the Gaza Strip. The incident received considerable attention from news media worldwide, with blame for the explosion hotly disputed in the following weeks.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: Israel maintains that it mobilized thousands of troops in order to suppress Qassam rocket fire against its civilian population and to secure the release of Gilad Shalit. It is estimated that between 7,000 and 9,000 Israeli artillery shells were fired into Gaza between September 2005 and June 2006, killing 80 Palestinians in 6 months. On the Palestinian side, over 1,300 Qassam rockets have been fired into Israel from September 2000 to 21 December 2006. Israeli forces also continued to search for tunnels, used by militants to smuggle weapons, as well as monitor operations at checkpoints (with some assistance from the European Union at Rafah) for security reasons, specifically possible weapons transfers and uninhibited return of exiled extremist leaders and terrorists. As of 18 October 2006, Israel has discovered 20 tunnels used for illegal arms smuggling under the border of the Gaza Strip and Egypt.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: Israel had said it would withdraw from the Strip and end the operation as soon as Shalit was released. The Palestinians had said that they were willing to return Shalit in exchange for the release of some of the Palestinians held in Israeli jails. The Palestinians and others have also said the assault was aimed at toppling the democratically elected Hamas-led government and at destabilizing the Palestinian National Authority, citing the targeting of civilian infrastructure such as a power station and the captures of government and parliament members. Some 300 Palestinians had been targeted by the IDF in the Gaza Strip since the kidnapping of Corporal Gilad Shalit.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: In July 2006, first reports emerged about mystery injuries after Israeli attacks. Previously unseen injuries included severely damaged internal organs, severe internal burning and deep internal wounds often resulting in amputations or death. Bodies arrived severely fragmented, melted and disfigured. There were speculations about a new experimental weapon, particularly Dense inert metal explosives (DIMEs).


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: Attempting to curb Qassam rocket attacks fired at Southern Israel by Palestinian militants from the northern Gaza Strip,


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: On 8 November 2006, a day after Israel's withdrawal following Operation "Autumn Clouds," Israel Defense Forces shells missed their target—possibly due to a "technical malfunction"—and hit a row of houses in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, killing 19 Palestinians and wounding more than 40. Israeli Defense Forces launched an investigation into the Beit Hanoun November 2006 incident (and later apologized for the incident), and the then Israeli President Ehud Olmert offered humanitarian assistance to those affected.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: The 2006 Franco–Italian–Spanish Middle East Peace Plan was proposed after Israel invaded the Gaza Strip in Operation "Autumn Clouds" by Spanish Premier José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero during talks with French president Jacques Chirac. Italy's prime minister Romano Prodi gave his full support to the plan.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: On 26 November, a ceasefire was signed by Palestinian organisations and Israel, and Israel withdrew its troops while the Palestinian Authority forces deployed to stop Qassam rocket launchings. Following the truce over 60 Qassam rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel, and 1 Palestinian (armed with guns and grenades) was killed by the IDF. On 19 December, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad began taking open responsibility for the Qassam rocket firing, because they said Israel killed two of their members in Jenin.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: A series of battles between Palestinian militants in Hamas-governed Gaza and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that began in mid-May 2007, with the inter-Palestinian violence flaring in the meantime. Palestinians fired more than 220 Qassam rocket attacks on Israel (Sderot and the western Negev) in more than a week. The Israeli Air Force fired missiles and bombs at the launching sites. The fighting came amid serious Palestinian factional violence and reports of growing level of humanitarian crisis in the region. Hamas said they will continue to retaliate against Israeli strikes.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: In September 2007, citing an intensification of Qassam rocket attacks, Israel declared Gaza "hostile territory." The declaration allowed Israel to prevent the transfer of electricity, fuel, and other supplies into Gaza. The stated purpose of this blockade was to pressure Hamas into ending the rocket attacks and to deprive them of the supplies necessary for the continuation of rocket attacks. Israel's decision to cut fuel supplies to Gaza were widely condemned as "collective punishment."


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: Israel has also arrested Hamas officials in the West Bank, including two cabinet members. Such arrests have been strongly condemned by international organizations and politicians.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: By January 2008, according to a United Nations study, the economic effects of Israel's blockade on Gaza reached a critical threshold. Finally, on 17 January 2008, Israel sealed the border completely following a rise in rocket attacks. The breach of the Gaza-Egypt border began on 23 January 2008, after gunmen in the Gaza Strip set off an explosion near the Rafah Border Crossing, destroying part of the former Israeli Gaza Strip barrier. The United Nations estimates that as many as half the 1.5 million population of the Gaza Strip crossed the border into Egypt seeking food and supplies.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: On 27 February 2008, Palestinian militants fired more than 40 Qassam rockets into southern Israel and the Israeli army fired three missiles at the Palestinian Interior Ministry in Gaza destroying the building. On 28 February 2008 Israeli aircraft bombed a police station near the Gaza City home of Hamas leader Ismail Haniya, killing several children. The Israeli military says its air and ground operations against militants firing rockets from northern Gaza have hit at least 23 armed Palestinians, while Palestinian sources have reported higher death tolls and say many civilians have also been killed.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: Israel began its air and ground operations on 29 February. The IDF's offensive in Gaza has killed more than 100 Palestinians in less than a week. Palestinians fired 150 rockets at Israel which killed three Israelis. The United States called for an end to clashes between Israel and the Palestinians. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has accused Israel of "international terrorism", saying its assault on Gaza constitutes "more than a holocaust." On 3 March Abbas suspended all contact with Israel over its assault on Gaza as the Israeli government sent warplanes to hit more targets early on Monday and vowed to continue its offensive. The European Union condemned what it called "disproportionate use of force" by the Israeli military in Gaza after 54 Palestinians were killed in the highest casualty toll for a single day since fighting erupted in 2000. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also issued a condemnation of what he termed Israel's "excessive and disproportionate" response, and called on Israel "to cease such attacks", while denouncing the ongoing rocket attacks on Sderot and Ashkelon. In the Muslim world, demonstrators took to the streets to protest the IDF attacks. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Muslims to rise up and their leaders to hit Israel "in the face with their nations' anger." In Lebanon, hundreds of Hezbollah supporters gathered at the Fatima Gate at the border between Lebanon and Israel, shouting "Death to Israel" and waving Lebanese and Palestinian flags. In Egypt, thousands of students held protests at universities across the country calling on Arab leaders to stop Israeli aggression and support the Palestinians. Some protesters burned Israeli and American flags. About 10,000 protesters, mainly from Jordan's mainstream Muslim Brotherhood and smaller opposition groups, took to the streets in one of the country's most vocal and largest anti-Israeli demonstrations in recent years. Saudi Arabia meanwhile compared the IDF offensive to "Nazi war crimes" and called on the international community to stop what it called the "mass killings" of Palestinians. Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the IDF attacks can have "no humanitarian justification" and added that Israel was rejecting a "diplomatic solution" to the dispute. Most Israeli tanks and troops pulled out of northern Gaza 3 March 2008, and an Israel Defense Forces spokesman confirmed that the Israeli military was ending offensive operations there after five days.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: On 29 February 2008, the Israeli military launched Operation "Hot Winter" (also called Operation "Warm Winter") in response to Qassam rockets fired from the Strip by Hamas. The Israeli army killed 112 Palestinians, and Palestinian militants killed three Israelis. More than 150 Palestinians and seven Israelis have been injured.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: There was widespread international alarm at the scale of the operation, with the US state department encouraging Israel to exercise caution to avoid the loss of innocent life, and the European Union and the United Nations criticising Israel's "disproportionate use of force". The European Union also demanded an immediate end to Palestinian militant rocket attacks on Israel and urged Israel to halt activities that endanger civilians, saying they were "in violation of international law."


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: The 2008 Israel–Hamas ceasefire was an Egyptian-brokered six-month Tahdia (an Arabic term for a lull) "for the Gaza area", which went into effect between Hamas and Israel on 19 June 2008. Hamas' obligation was to stop the rocket attacks on Israel. During the initial 5-months of the ceasefire, and after a shaky start during the initial week, these attacks from Gaza decreased significantly for a total of 19 rocket and 18 mortar shell launchings, compared to 1199 rockets and 1072 mortar shells in 2008 up to 19 June, a reduction of 98%. Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister acknowledged that "there were no Hamas rockets during the ceasefire before November the 4th". Israel's obligation was to cease attacks on Gaza and once the ceasefire held, to gradually begin to ease its punishing blockade of Gaza. The agreement called on Israel to increase the level of goods entering Gaza by 30 percent over the pre-lull period within 72 hours and to open all border crossings and "allow the transfer of all goods that were banned and restricted to go into Gaza" within 13 days after the beginning of the ceasefire. The increase in supplies of food, water, medicine and fuel did improve, but the increase was only to an average of about 20 percent of normal levels, compared to the Hamas compliance in reducing rocket fire by 98%. Two months later the volume of goods arriving was too low to significantly improved living conditions, preventing UNRWA from replenishing its stores. Israel told U.S. officials in 2008 it would keep Gaza's economy "on the brink of collapse".


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: On 4 November 2008 Israel broke the ceasefire with an attack on Gaza. The Israeli military claimed the target of the raid was a tunnel that they said Hamas was planning to use to capture Israeli soldiers positioned on the border fence 250m away. Hamas officials differed, however, claiming that the tunnel was being dug for defensive purposes, not to capture IDF personnel, according to Dr Robert Pastor (of the Carter Institute), and an IDF official confirmed that fact to him. Hamas replied to the Israeli attack with a barrage of rocket fire. With this incursion into Gaza territory and its non-compliance with the easing of the embargo, Israel had failed to comply with two aspects of the June 2008 ceasefire.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: When the six-month truce officially expired on 19 December, Hamas launched 50 to more than 70 rockets and mortars into Israel over the next three days, though no Israelis were injured. On 21 December, Hamas said it was ready to stop the attacks and renew the truce if Israel stopped its "aggression" in Gaza and opened up its border crossings. On 27 and 28 December, Israel implemented Operation Cast Lead against Hamas. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said "We warned Hamas repeatedly that rejecting the truce would push Israel to aggression against Gaza."


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: The Gaza War started when Israel launched a large military campaign in the Gaza Strip on 27 December 2008, codenamed Operation "Cast Lead" (), with the stated aim of stopping Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel and arms smuggling into Gaza. The conflict has also been called the Gaza massacre in the Arab world (). A fragile six-month truce between Hamas and Israel expired on 19 December 2008. The Israeli operation began with an intense bombardment of the Gaza Strip, targeting Hamas bases, police training camps, police headquarters and offices. Civilian infrastructure, including mosques, houses, medical facilities and schools, were also attacked, as Israel stated that many of them were used by combatants, and as storage spaces for weapons and rockets. Hamas intensified its rocket and mortar attacks against targets in Israel throughout the conflict, hitting previously untargeted cities such as Beersheba and Ashdod. On 3 January 2009, the Israeli ground invasion began. Human rights groups and aid organisations have accused Hamas and Israel of war crimes. An estimated 1,166-1,417 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died in the conflict. The conflict came to an end on 18 January after first Israel and then Hamas announced unilateral ceasefires. On 21 January, Israel completed its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. On 2 March, it was reported that international donors had pledged $4.5 billion in aid for the Palestinians, mainly for rebuilding Gaza after Israel's offensive. This war is considered to be the largest, devastating and deadliest military operation in Gaza since the Six-day war in 1967.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: On 26 March 2010, two Israeli soldiers and two Hamas militants were killed during clashes on the Gaza Strip's southern border. Two other soldiers were wounded during the fighting which broke out east of the town of Khan Younis. They are the first Israeli soldiers to have been killed in hostile fire in or around Gaza since Israel's major offensive there in January 2009, according to the BBC.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: On 18 August 2011, a series of cross-border attacks was carried out in southern Israel near the Egyptian border, by a squad of militants. The militants first opened fire at civilian bus. Several minutes later, a bomb was detonated next to an Israeli army patrol along Israel's border with Egypt. In a third attack, an anti-tank missile hit a private vehicle, killing four civilians.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: During the second week of March 2012, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) initiated Operation "Returning Echo". It was the worst outbreak of violence covered by the media in the region since the 2008–09 Operation "Cast Lead" (the Gaza War).


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: Attacks by Israel and Gazans grew intense late in October 2012. An Israeli air strike killed Ahmed Jabari, chief of the Hamas military wing in Gaza. During the operation, four Israeli civilians and one soldier were killed by Palestinian rocket fire, according to Palestinian Centre for Human Rights 158 Palestinians had been killed, of which: 102 were civilians, 55 militants and one was policeman. 30 children and 13 women were among the killed, while the Israel Defense Forces presented statistics showing that out of 177 Palestinians killed, 120 were militants. Most of the fighting was by bombs, aerial attacks, artillery, and rockets; the rockets being primarily used by the Palestinians and air strikes primarily by the Israelis. Attacked locations include Beersheva, Tel Aviv, Ashdod, Ofakim, Gaza, the rest of the Gaza Strip, the Shaar Hanegev, and Eshkol Regional Council. The United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and other Western countries expressed support for Israel's right to defend itself, and/or condemned the Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel. Iran, Egypt, Turkey, North Korea and several other Arab and Muslim countries condemned the Israeli operation.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: In 2014, fighting intensified between Israel and Hamas, leading to another full-scale Gaza War, this one far deadlier than the previous in 2008–2009. The IDF launched Operation Protective Edge on 8 July 2014, in response to Hamas rocket attacks, which were launched following an earlier Israeli air strike against Gaza and on 17 July 2014, Israel troops entered the Gaza Strip. UN OCHA says 2,205 Palestinians (including at least 1,483 civilians) and 71 Israelis (including 66 soldiers) and one foreign national in Israel were killed in the conflict. The war came to an end after 50 days of conflict when a ceasefire was agreed upon on 26 August 2014.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: During the 2018 Land Day protests, 168 Palestinians have been killed and thousands were injured during clashes with Israeli troops at the Gaza-Israel border.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: Violence flared up again on 11 November 2018 when seven Palestinian militants were killed during a botched raid by the Israel Defense Forces in the southeastern Gaza Strip. One IDF officer was killed and another was injured. Over a dozen rockets were subsequently fired from Gaza, three of which were shot down. After a series of intense fire exchanges, ceasefire was agreed upon on 13 November 2018.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: On 25 March, seven people were injured in Israel after a rocket attack destroyed a home in Mishmeret. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that Hamas was responsible for the attack.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: The Israeli Air Force sent jets to strike multiple targets in the Gaza Strip, including the office of senior Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh, and Hamas' military intelligence headquarters in Gaza City.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: On 3 May, two Israeli soldiers were injured by a Palestinian Islamic Jihad sniper from in the Gaza Strip during the weekly protests at the Gaza–Israel border. In response, the Israeli Air Force carried out an airstrike, killing four Palestinians. In addition, two other Palestinians were killed and 60 wounded, 36 of them by Israeli gunfire.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: Following this, Gazan militants launched hundreds of rockets at Israel. In response, the Israeli Air Force struck numerous targets within the Gaza Strip. In addition, Israel increased its troop presence near the Gaza–Israel border.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: On 15 April, Israeli military conducted military strikes targets in Gaza after a rocket was fired at southern Israel. Targets included an armaments production facility, a tunnel for smuggling weaponry and a Hamas military post.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: Hamas demanded Israel remove its forces from Al-Aqsa Mosque by May 10, 6pm. Minutes after the deadline passed, Hamas fired more than 150 rockets into Israel from Gaza. In response, Israel launched air strikes in the Gaza strip on the same day.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: On 5 August 2022, Israel launched airstrikes on Gaza after a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant had been arrested in the West Bank 4 days earlier, due to fears of retaliation.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: On 31 July 2014 on the 23rd day of the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, Ireland's Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan said he shared "the horror and revulsion of senators and very many of our citizens at the horrendous scenes we have witnessed since the start of the Israeli military operation." The Irish government, he said, condemned "both the unacceptably high civilian casualty rate resulting from disproportionate military action on Israel's part as well as the firing of rockets by Hamas and other militants into Israel." On 5 August 2014 a member of the British cabinet resigned over the UK government's approach to the 2014 conflict.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: During the U.S. Presidential campaigns of 2016, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders criticized Israel for its treatment of Gaza, and in particular criticized Netanyahu for "overreacting" and causing unnecessary civilian deaths. In April 2016 the Anti-Defamation League called on Sanders to withdraw remarks he made to the New York Daily News, which the ADL said exaggerated the death toll of the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict. Sanders said "over 10,000 innocent people were killed", a number far in excess of Palestinian or Israel sources' estimates. In response, Sanders said that he accepted a corrected number of the death toll as 2,300 in the course of the interview and that he would make every effort to set the record straight. The transcript of the interview failed to note that Sanders said "Okay" to the corrected number presented by the interviewer during the course of the interview.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: According to NGOs and the UN, the recent wars and the blockade have led to worsening living conditions in Gaza, and it could become unlivable by 2020.


title: Gaza–Israel conflict

text: Due to the conflict, Israel has stepped up its defense measures in the southern communities and cities of Israel. This includes building fortifications on existing structures and bomb shelters, developing an alarm system (Red Color) and building an air-defense system (Iron Dome)


title: Ya ba

text: Ya ba (, , literally 'crazy medicine'), formerly known as "yama" (; literally 'horse drug'), also known as "bikers' coffee" and "kamikaze", are tablets containing a mixture of methamphetamine and caffeine. The illicit use of this drug combination has been widespread, particularly in South and Southeast Asian countries.


title: Ya ba

text: From "ya khayan" ('hard-working pill') in its early days to "ya maa" ('horse medicine'), the drug was named "ya ba" ('crazy pill') in 1996. It was given to horses when pulling carts up steep hills and for other strenuous work in Shan State in Myanmar (formerly Burma). The slang terms for "ya ba" in Burma are "kyethi" (literally, 'button'), "athi", and "palarkar".


title: Ya ba

text: In Malaysia, "ya ba" is known in Malay as "pil kuda" (literally, 'horse pill'). It is commonly found in the state of Kelantan, on the border with Thailand. The name commonly used for it in the Philippines and Indonesia is "shabú". In north Thailand it is often referred to as "chocalee" due to the somewhat sweet taste "ya ba" leaves in the mouth and its strong chocolate smell. The name commonly used for it in China is "ma-goo" or "ma-guo". In Bangladesh, it is colloquially known as "baba", "guti", "laal", "khawon", ‘jinish ’, "stuff" or "maal". "Ya ba" is sometimes called "bhul bhuliya" in India.


title: Ya ba

text: "Ya ba" is typically produced in a round pill form. There are many different versions of "ya ba", and the most common are red, pink, orange, or lime green in color and carry logos such as "R" or "WY". They are small and round, roughly in diameter, which means they can be packed inside a plastic soda straw for easy transportation or in a reusable "mint" container.


title: Ya ba

text: "Ya ba" tablets typically are consumed orally. Users also place the "ya ba" tablet on aluminum foil and heat it from below. As the tablet melts, vapors rise and are inhaled ("chasing the dragon"). The drug also may be administered by crushing the tablets into powder, which is then snorted or mixed with a solvent and injected. When swallowed in pill form the duration of the drug's effect is 8–16 hours, as compared to 1–3 hours when smoked, while the intensity is considerably reduced. The peak of the drug's effect is followed by a comedown period lasting 6–10 hours, during which the user may have difficulty sleeping or eating. Many users report that it takes them up to 24 hours after consumption to be able to fall asleep.


title: Ya ba

text: "Ya ba" is not commonly injected as many intravenous users prefer the pure product instead (methamphetamine, called "ice" in Southeast Asia). This illegal drug is especially popular in Thailand, where it is imported from Burma or Laos even though it is sometimes manufactured locally in Thailand.


title: Ya ba

text: Typical "ya ba" users are working males, aged 16–40 years old. Its use is also not uncommon among both female and male sex workers in Thailand and Cambodia.


title: Ya ba

text: Burma (Myanmar) is the largest producer of methamphetamine in the world, with the majority of ya ba found in Thailand being produced in Burma, particularly in the Golden Triangle and northeastern Shan State, which borders Thailand, Laos, and China. In 2010, Burma trafficked 1 billion tablets to neighbouring Thailand. Ethnic militias and rebel groups (in particular the United Wa State Army) are responsible for much of this production; however, the Burmese military units are believed to be heavily involved in the trafficking of the drugs.


title: Ya ba

text: "Ya ba" tablets were formerly sold legally at gas stations and used by long-haul drivers to stay awake. The drug was outlawed by the Thai government in 1970.


title: Ya ba

text: Law enforcement officials said that as of 2002, most of the drug was produced by the United Wa State Army in Myanmar. It was smuggled from Myanmar across the porous border into Thailand. In 2014, it was reported that Thailand's northeast provinces have seen a 700 percent increase in the number of people arrested for meth since 2008, according to data from the Narcotics Suppression Bureau. In 2013, authorities counted more than 33,000 meth-related arrests in the northeast. The rapid growth of "ya ba" use in Isan mirrors that which occurred across Asia, which by 2014 accounted for more than 50 percent of global amphetamine-type stimulant users.


title: Ya ba

text: On 16 June 2016, the National Council for Peace and Order, the military junta ruling Thailand, stated that it was planning to decriminalise "ya ba".


title: Ya ba

text: In 2006, "ya ba" consumption became common for the poor. Although the extent of "ya ba" abuse in Bangladesh is not precisely known, seizures of the drug by authorities are frequent. It is also believed those who use it on a regular basis are frequently involved in the distribution of the drug, either directly or indirectly.


title: Ya ba

text: Some Burmese Rohingya refugees are hired by drug dealers to smuggle "ya ba" from Myanmar into Bangladesh. In 2016, 359 illegal Burmese were arrested on "ya ba"-smuggling charges, and up to US$29 million worth of "ya ba" was seized by the Bangladeshi authorities.


title: Ya ba

text: In October 2018 Bangladesh government drafted a law which punishes a person up to capital punishment who carries a minimum 200 grams (7 oz) of "ya ba".


title: Ya ba

text: In February 2010 it was reported that increasingly large quantities of "ya ba" were being smuggled into Israel by Thai migrant workers, leading to fears that its use would spread to the Israeli club scene, where ecstasy use is already common. In the United States, it is occasionally also used as a club drug.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The 1912 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the V Olympiad () and commonly known as Stockholm 1912, were an international multi-sport event held in Stockholm, Sweden, between 5 May and 22 July 1912.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: Twenty-eight nations and 2,408 competitors, including 48 women, competed in 102 events in 14 sports. With the exception of tennis (starting on 5 May) and football and shooting (both starting on 29 June), the games were held within a month with an official opening on 6 July. It was the last Olympics to issue solid gold medals and, with Japan's debut, the first time an Asian nation participated. Stockholm was the only bid for the games, and was selected in 1909.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The games were the first to have art competitions, women's diving, women's swimming, and the first to feature both the decathlon and the new pentathlon, both won by Jim Thorpe. Electric timing was introduced in athletics, while the host country disallowed boxing. Figure skating was rejected by the organizers because they wanted to promote the Nordic Games.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The United States won the most gold medals (25), while Sweden won the most medals overall (65). These were the final Olympic Games for 8 years due to the disruption of the First World War. The next Olympic Games were held in 1920 in Antwerp.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: Following the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, authorities in Sweden immediately sought to ensure that the next games would be held there. There were two Swedish members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the time, Viktor Balck and Clarence von Rosen. The pair proposed the idea to the Swedish governing bodies of athletics and gymnastics in order to ensure that they backed any potential bid. Support was given by the national associations on 18 April 1909 for a bid to host the Olympics in Stockholm on the basis that suitable financial arrangements could be made. King Gustaf V was petitioned on 6 May 1909 following the publication of preliminary plans for the Stockholm bid that the expected cost of hosting the Games would be 415,000 kronor (£23,050 or $115,250). The Government accepted the petition on behalf of the King and supported the bid.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: On 28 May, at the meeting of the IOC in Berlin, the Swedish representatives declared that they had full financial support for hosting the next Games in Stockholm. A deal was made with the German IOC representative on the basis that Berlin would host the 1916 Summer Olympics. Pierre de Coubertin spoke at the meeting about his concerns that Sweden should ensure that the Games take place, as he did not want a repeat of the problems with Italy hosting the 1908 Games. He also expressed a desire that "the Games must be kept more purely athletic; they must be more dignified, more discreet; more in accordance with classic and artistic requirements; more intimate, and, above all, less expensive." The Games were duly awarded to Sweden to host in Stockholm as the only nominated host city for the 1912 Summer Olympics.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The news that Stockholm was to host the 1912 Olympics was received with enthusiasm by the Swedish public. The organizing committee took de Coubertin's words to heart, and aimed to achieve an Olympic Games which removed those elements which detracted from earlier Games. The committee was elected in the autumn of 1909, with Balck voted as the President of the committee, and Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf selected as Honorary President. The committee's first meeting took place on 7 October, and on 11 October they delegated the arrangements for the individual branches of sports to the relevant governing bodies in Sweden. There were four exceptions to this, with the game shooting, modern pentathlon and mountain ascents retained by the Olympic committee, and the horse riding competitions being organized by Prince Carl, Duke of Västergötland, who was the inspector of the Swedish cavalry. Altogether there were 187 members of these committees.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The official invitation to compete in the Games was issued on 18 November 1910 to 27 countries, either directly or through their representative on the IOC. A further 15 countries were to have been invited, but as they had no IOC representatives, the Swedish authorities were unsure how to proceed. Once the organizing committee for the Games received confirmation of the athletic associations in each of the 15 countries, they too were sent invitations. Some 61,800 entry forms were printed for the use of the various nations.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: Free transport was arranged for the invited nations' equipment, and a discount of 50 percent was arranged for competitors and delegates on the state run railway. A daily newspaper which only covered the Olympics was arranged to be published during the Games, in both English and Swedish. Further arrangements were made for the general arrival of visitors in order to entertain them whilst they were not at the Games; a pleasure garden was opened north of the Olympic Stadium, and a series of indoor tennis courts were converted into a restaurant.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: Twelve sports venues were used in the 1912 Summer Olympics. This marked the first time that more than one venue would be used for the football tournament, which has been the case ever since. Stockholm Olympic Stadium served as one of the equestrian venues for the 1956 Summer Olympics. Råsunda Stadium served as a venue for the 1958 FIFA World Cup and the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup. In the initial bid document it was identified that a new stadium would be needed, initially envisaged as being located in the Östermalm Athletic Grounds. In order to save funds, it was expected that only one of the stadium's stands would be permanent, with the other three made of wood and dismantled following the Games. The cost of that stadium was estimated at 235,000 Kronor. Arrangements were made with the individual national committees to provide the use of Östermalm Athletic Grounds and Traneberg.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The cycling road race was held around Mälaren, the third largest lake in Sweden. The water events, including the swimming and the rowing, were held at Djurgårdsbrunnsviken, where a stadium was built. Kaknäs was already used as a shooting range, but alterations were needed to accommodate shooting events. Although it was not used as the Olympic stadium as originally intended, Östermalm hosted the lawn tennis and fencing competitions after a tennis pavilion was moved there from another location.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: Five other locations were considered in addition to the Östermalm Athletic Grounds to locate the Olympic Stadium. The Stockholm Olympic Stadium was built on the site of the former Stockholm Athletic Grounds in order to retain the other locations for other uses during the Games. By placing it to the north of the city, the Olympic Stadium was within the immediate vicinity of other pre-existing sporting venues. Initial funding was given to the sum of 400,000 Kr for a timber stadium but Torben Grut, the architect, also drew up alternative plans for a stone stadium. Following discussions with the Swedish Central Association for the Application of Athletics, it was decided that the stone version should be built, and further funds were made available through a national lottery once guarantees were made that no further funding was to be asked for in order to build the stadium. However it was found that the original estimate for the stone stadium would still be too expensive, and the plans were once more modified in order to simplify the design and reduce costs. An agreement was entered into with a contractor on 2 November 1910 that it would be transferred complete by 25 May 1912.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The Games of the V Olympiad were opened on 6 July 1912. The Swedish Royal Family left Stockholm Palace at 10:40am, and were received at the Olympic Stadium by members of the IOC. Three thousand competing athletes had already assembled in the nearby Östermalm Athletic Grounds, and began to enter the stadium in alphabetical order by nation according to the Swedish spelling. The Swedish team entered last, but unlike the later tradition, the Greek team did not enter first.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: A hymn was sung, a traditional Swedish chant was conducted and prayers were read first in Swedish and then in English. Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf addressed the King on behalf of the Swedish Olympic Association. King Gustav V then declared the Games officially open by a long speech:


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: Afterwards a trumpet fanfare was played and the Crown Prince called for cheers for the King. The athletes in their national groups marching out of the stadium in order ended the ceremony.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The Swedish delegation at the IOC meeting in Berlin on 28 May 1909 had proposed a simple Olympic schedule containing only "pure" athletics, swimming, gymnastics and wrestling. However other countries requested that the schedule be more comprehensive, and with that in mind they put forward a further programme at the IOC meeting in 1911 which was met with approval. The sports which were added were the tug of war, cycling, fencing, football, horse riding, lawn tennis, rowing, shooting, skating and yacht racing. The question of adding skating to the programme was discussed once more on 7 February 1910, with the decision being made to drop it from the schedule. It was felt to be unsuitable because it was a winter sport, and it was to be part of the Nordic Games the following year. Boxing was removed from the programme as it was unappealing to the Swedes. Art competitions were considered at a further meeting on 14 February 1910, and were subsequently added to the programme, but now art competitions are no longer regarded as official Olympic events by the International Olympic Committee.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: As a result, now the 1912 Summer Olympics programme considered composed of 14 sports encompassing 18 disciplines and 102 events. The number of events in each discipline is noted in parentheses.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The athletic events saw the introduction of a fully automatic timing system developed by R. Carlstedt. It involved attaching electromagnets to chronometers in a system which attached a control lamp to the starting gun for each race. This resulted in the firing of the gun starting a timer which was then stopped by one of the judges at the finishing line. The final of the men's 100 metres was expected to be a mostly American affair, and it ended up with six athletes, only one of whom was not from the United States. It suffered from seven false starts before the athletes finally got away, with Ralph Craig winning the gold medal by in front of second place Alvah Meyer. Donald Lippincott won bronze, 15 cm behind second man.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: Kanakuri Shizō, a Japanese marathon runner, went missing during the race. He lost consciousness by heatstroke and a farming family helped him to stop at a party taking place in a villa on the marathon route in order to quench his thirst, then caught a train to Stockholm and left the country the next day. He returned to Japan without notifying race officials. 50 years later, after being invited back by the Swedish authorities, he completed the race with an (unofficial) time of 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 8 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds. Portuguese Francisco Lázaro died from heat exhaustion while running the marathon, the only athlete to die during the running of an Olympic marathon.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: American Jim Thorpe won the pentathlon and the newly created decathlon. Thorpe's gold medals were stripped by the International Olympic Committee in 1913, after the IOC learned that Thorpe had taken expense money for playing baseball, violating Olympic amateurism rules, before the 1912 Games. This moved everyone else up in the rankings. In 1982, the IOC was convinced that the disqualification had been improper, as no protest against Thorpe's eligibility had been brought within the required 30 days, and reinstated Thorpe's medals. The replicas were presented to his children in 1983, 30 years after Thorpe's death. Finally, in 2022, the IOC posthumously declared Thorpe the sole winner of the pentathlon and decathlon.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: New Olympic records were set in the majority of track and field events, with only the men's 200 metres, 10 km walk, standing high jump, standing broad jump, hop, step and jump, and the hurdle competitions failing to have new records set. Tell Berna captured a gold for the 3000m and Henry S. "Harry" Babcock took gold for the pole vault, setting an Olympic Record at 3.95m. Hannes Kolehmainen was the most successful in setting records at the games, with new Olympic Records set in the 5,000, 10,000 metre and cross country races.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The cycling events at the 1912 Games were limited to a road race around Lake Mälaren, which had already been a successful route for a yearly cycling race. Although not originally in the schedule, several countries requested that track cycling be added; however, the organizing committee stuck by their plans not to build a new track cycling stadium as the only one in Stockholm had been destroyed in order for the Olympic Stadium to be built. In addition, Germany had specifically requested Cycle-Polo and Figure-Cycling to be added to the programme, both of which requests were turned down by the committee.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: It was decided to hold the road race as a time trial, and to outlaw any non-competitive cyclists acting as pacemakers. Nineteen nations entered 151 athletes into the competition, which was a greater number than expected by the committee. The largest group was from Great Britain, who had entered twelve competitors from England, another twelve from Scotland, and a further nine from Ireland. The race began on 7 July, with the athletes leaving in groups. The first group left at 2am, with the remaining groups leaving at intervals of two minutes. The distance raced was , with South African Rudolph Lewis winning the gold medal in the individual race. Frederick Grubb of Great Britain won the silver medal, and Carl Schutte of the United States won the bronze. However, the average positions of the Swedish team were better than their competitors', and so the Swedish team won the gold medal for the team competition. The silver and bronze medals followed the individual victories, going to Great Britain and the United States respectively – giving Grubb and Schutte a second medal each of the same varieties.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: All of the medals in the men's competitions were split between the diving teams of the Swedish and German teams. The men's high dive was a Swedish white out, with Swedish divers taking all three medal positions. Erik Adlerz took the gold medal, and proceeded to take the gold medal for Sweden in the 10 metre platform too. Albert Zürner took the silver for Germany, and Gustaf Blomgren won the bronze medal for Sweden. Another white out occurred in the 3 metre springboard with all three medals going to the German team, with Paul Günther taking gold, Hans Luber in the silver medal position and Kurt Behrens in bronze. A 10-metre platform event also took place for women, with Sweden taking two more medals, Greta Johansson in gold and Lisa Regnell in silver. Great Britain's Isabelle White won the bronze medal. The remaining finalists were all from Sweden.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: Equestrian made its first appearance at a modern Olympics in the 1912 Games. Although competitions involving horse riding had been included in the programme of 1900, this was the first appearance of modern Olympic staples such as dressage, eventing and show jumping. It was expected that the competitors would be military personnel as they would have had the cavalry experience to compete. The competition was split between the military competitions, prize riding and prize jumping.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: In the military competition, seven countries put forward competitors for the individual and team eventing. Each nation put forward four athletes with the exception of Denmark, which only put forward three. Some of the countries also nominated reserves in addition to their main athletes. The total length of the course was with the start and finish both in the grounds of the Field Riding Club. The heat was such on the day of the event that competitors lost as much as in weight. Swede Axel Nordlander won the individual competition, and led the Swedish eventing team to victory as well, earning himself two gold medals. In second place in the individual competition was German Friedrich von Rochow, who also earned a second silver medal as the team from Germany placed second overall. Only the bronze medals were split up between nationalities, with the American team taking the bronze for the team event while Frenchman Jacques Cariou won the individual medal.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: Two additional countries entered for the dressage, although only Sweden entered the maximum number of competitors. The event resulted in Sweden taking all three medals, with the gold going to Carl Bonde, the silver to Gustaf Adolf Boltenstern and the bronze to Hans von Blixen-Finecke. The individual show jumping competition was the only individual equestrian event at the 1912 Olympics in which Sweden won no medals, with the gold medal instead going to Cariou of the French to add to his bronze medal from the dressage, Rabod von Kröcher taking the silver for Germany, and Emmanuel de Blommaert winning the bronze for Belgium. The team event saw Sweden take another gold medal, with the French team second and the German team, featuring Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia, in the bronze medal position.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The foil competition became a full Olympic event, having appeared at the 1908 Games as a demonstration sport. Nedo Nadi and Pietro Speciale of Italy took the gold and silver medals respectively, and Richard Verderber of Austria placed third. There were individual and team events in both épée and sabre. The épée team event saw Belgium take the gold medal and Great Britain and the Netherlands in second and third place respectively. A member of the Belgian team went on to take the individual title as well, with Paul Anspach taking the gold medal. Ivan Joseph Martin Osiier of Denmark took the silver medal, and another Belgian who was not in the team event, Philippe le Hardy de Beaulieu, won the bronze medal.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The sabre competition was dominated by the competitors from Hungary, with their team taking the gold medal over Austria and the Netherlands. The individual competition saw a shut out by Hungarian athletes with Jenő Fuchs winning the overall competition, Béla Békessy in second and Ervin Mészáros in third.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: Thirteen countries signalled their intention to enter football teams for the 1912 Olympics. A standard cup tie system was implemented, with the final deciding the gold and silver medallists and a third/fourth position playoff deciding the bronze medal winner. Only FIFA affiliated teams were allowed to take part, with the public draw for the tournament taking place on 18 June 1911. The tournament itself started on 29 June. In the first round Finland defeated Italy 3–2, Austria beat Germany 5–1 and the Netherlands emerged victorious over Sweden 4–3. The team from Great Britain, who had won the gold medal at the 1908 Summer Games, were given a bye to the second round, where they faced Hungary and won 7–0. Finland also won their match, defeating Russia 2–1. Denmark matched the British scoreline, winning 7–0 against Norway, and the Netherlands won against Austria 3–1.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The semi final matches pitted Great Britain against Finland, where they won 4–0, and Denmark against the Netherlands, ending in a 4–1 victory for Denmark. The Netherlands won the third/fourth place playoff by the biggest scoreline of the tournament, beating Finland 9–0. Later on the same day the final was played in the Olympic Stadium, where Great Britain retained its gold medal against Denmark in front of 25,000 spectators. Goals from Harold Walden, Arthur Berry and two from Gordon Hoare helped Britain to win by a margin of 4–2.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The gymnastic competition at the 1912 Games featured a single individual competition and three team events in addition to a variety of displays by the various teams. The Swedish team naturally won the Gymnastics event of the Swedish system, referred to in the programme as "Team Competition I", with fellow Scandinavian teams Denmark and Norway taking the second and third positions. The all around team competition came second, with Italy taking the gold. In addition, one of the Italian team members, Alberto Braglia, won the individual gold for the same event. Louis Ségura of the French team won the individual silver, while another member of the Italian team, Adolfo Tunesi, won the individual bronze. The all around team competition saw Hungary take the silver medal and the team from Great Britain in third place. The final team competition allowed for a free choice of movements and apparatus. This was another all Scandinavian affair, with the Norwegian team emerging victorious, Finland in second and Denmark in the bronze medal position.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: Modern pentathlon was competed for at the 1912 Games, marking its first appearance in the Olympics. It was for these games that the five events of shooting, swimming, equestrian, fencing and cross country running were decided to make up the pentathlon. The competition was spread out across five days from 7 through to 12 July, ending with the cross country race. Only men participated in the event, although a woman named Helen Preece was briefly enrolled to compete until the organizing committee ultimately denied her entry.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: For the shooting element, each competitor was allowed to bring their own pistol. The American competitor George S. Patton (later better known as the Second World War US Army General) used a Colt revolver, while the Danish competitors preferred the Danish Army service pistol, the Germans and Norwegians used the Luger P08 pistol and the Swedes used a target practice pistol by Smith & Wesson. The shooting part of the competition was won by Gösta Åsbrink, with Georg de Laval and Gösta Lilliehöök in second and third place respectively, all three representing Sweden.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The swimming event was three lengths, each of , with the athletes split into eight heats and times going forward to calculate positions. Ralph Clilverd of Great Britain won this event, with Edmond Bernhardt of Austria in second and de Laval in third. The fencing competition saw each competitor face off against each other. Several opponents were noted for their particular skill in the event with Åke Grönhagen of Sweden coming first with 24 wins, Jean de Mas Latrie of France second with 23, Sidney Stranne of Sweden in third with 21 and Patton of the United States close behind with 20. Thirteen of the competitors cleared the equestrian course without any penalties, with Grönhagen winning the event, Bror Mannström of Sweden in second and de Laval third.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The cross country run was over 4,000 metres and started in the Olympic Stadium itself. The event was run as a time trial with competitors leaving one minute apart. As this was the final event, the winning competitors were announced after the race, with Lilliehöök winning the gold medal, Åsbrink taking silver and de Laval, bronze. The highest placed non-Swedish competitor was Patton, who finished fifth.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The rowing events at the 1912 Olympics did not prove popular with the public. This was put down to the "fatigue" of the public due to the volume of sporting events. The eight competition was split into heats, with two teams in each heat. The two British crews were lucky not to be drawn against each other, with the team from Leander Club facing New College, Oxford in the final. Leander won by a length with a time of 6:15. The coxed four followed a similar format to the eights, with the German team from Ludwigshafener Ruderverein defeating Britain's Thames Rowing Club in the final.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The competition for the coxed four, inriggers was much smaller, with only four nations competing. The Danish team defeated Sweden in the final. The single sculls heats proved controversial with the first round race between Mart Kuusik and Alfred Heinrich being re-run after a protest by Heinrich. In addition, Cecil McVilly was disqualified in the first round after colliding with the boat of Martin Stahnke. Wally Kinnear of Great Britain defeated Polydore Veirman of Belgium in the final, with Kinnear winning the matchup easily.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The yachts for the sailing competition assembled at Nynäshamn on 19 July, along with the other vessels that were to take part in an Olympic regatta. The racing itself started the following day with the 12 metre class. There were only three nations and yachts competing in this event, the hosts Sweden, as well as Norway and Finland. Norway won the gold medal, Sweden the silver and Finland came in last place, winning bronze. The 10 metre class had the same number of countries entering it, although this time Sweden entered two yachts and Russia competed instead of Norway. The Swedish yacht "Kitty" was the winning vessel, with the Finnish boat in second and the Russians coming third.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: A slightly improved field was featured in the 8 metre class, with four countries entering two yachts each. The medals were awarded to exactly the same nations as the 12 metre class, another all Scandinavian affair. The 6 metre class saw the most diverse field of any of the sailing events at the 1912 Olympics: six countries entered a total of nine yachts. France and Denmark competed in their only sailing event, along with Sweden, sending two yachts each. Those three nations were the successful in the event, with the French yacht "Mac Miche" taking the gold, the Danish "Nurdug II" taking silver and the Swedish "Kerstin" placing third.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: There were eighteen shooting events at the 1912 Olympics, of which eight were team events. The competition was split predominantly into three sections: military rifle shooting, shooting with miniature rifles, pistols and revolvers, and clay bird and running deer shooting. The Swedish and American competitors were the most successful at the competition, with seven gold medals each, although Sweden won a total of seventeen medals while the United States team won fourteen. 64-year-old Oscar Swahn, part of the Swedish single shot running deer team, is still the oldest gold medal winner in Olympic history.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: In swimming, Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku won the 100 metre freestyle for the United States, who also saw Harry Hebner win gold in the 100 metre backstroke. The Canadian team also took two gold medals, both by George Hodgson in the 400 and 1,500 metre events. The German swimming team won all three medals in the 200 metre breaststroke, with the gold going to Walter Bathe, who won a further gold in the 400 metre breaststroke. The Australasian team was victorious in the men's relay, with the United States finishing in the silver medal position and Great Britain placing third.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The 1912 Games saw the implementation of swimming events for women, with the 100 metre freestyle and 400 metre team relay taking place. Fanny Durack won the individual contest, breaking the world record for the distance in the fourth heat. Her fellow Australian Mina Wylie won the silver medal, and Jennie Fletcher of Great Britain came third to take the bronze medal. The British team had further success in the women's relay, winning the team relay with the German team in second place and the Austrian team in third. Because only four countries entered the relay there were no heats; only a final was held. The United States did not field a women's team. Eight years later in Antwerp the American women would compete for the first time and sweep 7 out of 7 available medals. In 1924, the United States would enter the largest women's team of any nation. New Olympic Records were set in all swimming events at the 1912 Games.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: Tennis on covered courts was agreed initially for the 1912 Games, with competitions run for gentlemen's singles and doubles, ladies' singles, and mixed doubles. The outdoor tournament was confirmed once the Östermalm Athletic Grounds were completed in late 1911, with the plans modified to have both indoor and outdoor tournaments.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: Six countries sent players for the covered court competitions, with representatives from Sweden, Great Britain, Denmark, France, Australasia, and Bohemia appearing. Included in this lineup was Australasia's only competitor, Anthony Wilding from New Zealand, who was also the reigning Wimbledon gentlemen's champion. The indoor knockout competition started on 5 May, and continued as expected until the semi-final round where Wilding was beaten by Britain's Charles P. Dixon. The British player met Frenchman André Gobert in the final, but Gobert was victorious over the Englishman in straight sets. Wilding took the bronze medal in a playoff against another British player, Arthur Lowe.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The outdoors tennis competition saw 70 players enter from 12 nations. However, Great Britain did not enter any competitors as the dates of the outdoor competition clashed with the 1912 Wimbledon Championships, despite attempts by the British authorities to convince the Olympic organizing committee to change the dates. Other noted tennis players refused to compete at the Olympics and instead attended Wimbledon. The gold and silver medals in the gentlemen's singles ended up being decided between two South Africans, with Charles Winslow and Harold Kitson playing each other. Winslow won the match and the gold medal, 7–5, 4–6, 10–8, 8–6. The duo also competed as a pair in the gentlemen's doubles and took the gold medal, beating the Austrians Felix Pipes and Arthur Zborzil. Marguerite Broquedis of France defeated Dorothea Koring of Germany in the ladies' singles for the gold medal. In the mixed doubles Koring teamed up with Heinrich Schomburgk to win the gold, the duo defeating Sigrid Fick and Gunnar Setterwall of Sweden in the final.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The tug of war competition was scheduled to take place between 7 and 12 July, with two matches taking place each day. However, out of the five countries which elected to enter the competition, only two actually appeared. Great Britain arrived for its match against Bohemia, but the opposition team was nowhere to be found. Britain was duly declared the winner. The same thing happened once more for the second match, with the Swedish team, made up of policemen from Stockholm, arriving to find that the Austrian team had not arrived. Sweden was announced as the winners of the match in the Austrians' absence.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: On the second day of the competition, Great Britain took on Sweden, the only occasion where both teams actually turned up for the bout. The British team were made up of the winners of the gold medal in the same event at the 1908 Games, with the exception of John Sewell and Mathias Hynes. As the British team also consisted of policemen, the bout ended up effectively being between the City of London Police and the Stockholm Police, with the Swedish team winning 2–0. Due to the non-appearance of the team from Luxembourg, that one match ended up being the entire tug of war event at the 1912 Olympics. Sweden was awarded the gold medal and Great Britain the silver.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The water polo tournament was set up on a modified elimination system as there were six teams entered. The first round saw the British team defeating the Belgian team, Sweden defeating the French team and Austria defeating Hungary. Lots were drawn to determine which match would take place in the second round as there were three teams left in the competition. Great Britain were drawn to face Sweden, who they defeated. Austria automatically qualified for the final against the winner of the Britain-Sweden matchup. Great Britain won the gold medal in the event, defeating Austria 8–0. Playoff matches were then played between each pair of defeated teams in order to decide the second and third places. Sweden and Belgium played off after a further three matches to decide the silver and bronze medal positions, with Sweden emerging victorious 4–2.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The nations at the 1912 Games entered a total of 267 wrestlers, although the actual competitors who appeared in Sweden were fewer, with 171 actually turning up to compete. Greco-Roman wrestling was the only style of wrestling competed for at the Games. The bouts took place in the open air in an area of the Olympic stadium, with the wrestlers split according to weight into five divisions: featherweight, lightweight, middleweight A (later referred to as middleweight), middleweight B (later referred to as light heavyweight) and heavyweight.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The skills of the competitors from Finland were noted in the featherweight competition, with Kaarlo Koskelo taking the gold medal, while German Georg Gerstäcker took silver and a further medal went to Finland with Otto Lasanen taking bronze. The lightweight class drew the most attention from the public, with Emil Väre winning gold after beating all of his opponents by pin rather than by points. Swedish wrestlers Gustaf Malmström and Edvin Mattiasson took the silver and bronze medals respectively. Claes Johanson won Sweden's only gold medal in the light heavyweight competition, with his fellow finalist from Russia, Martin Klein, retiring before fighting Johanson in the final. This was due to the semi final match between Klein and Alfred Asikainen of Finland lasting 11 hours and forty minutes, although they took breaks for refreshments every half-hour. Klein was awarded the silver medal and Asikainen the bronze.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The light heavyweight competition saw another marathon length match, with the bout between Anders Ahlgren of Sweden and Ivar Böhling of Finland for the gold medal lasting more than nine hours. The match was then declared a draw with both athletes being awarded the silver medal as neither won the match. The bronze medal went to Hungary's Béla Varga, who was defeated by Ahlgren in the semi final match. Yrjö Saarela of Finland was victorious in the heavyweight competition after having placed second in the light heavyweight event at the 1908 Games. Johan Olin took another medal for Finland with the silver and Søren Marinus Jensen repeated his bronze medal at the 1908 Olympics with another for Denmark.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: The 1912 Summer Olympics saw the introduction of art competitions at the Summer Olympics. Events were implemented for literature, sculpture, painting, architecture and music. Walter Winans won the gold medal for his sculpture, "An American Trotter", which added to his previous gold medal for the running deer (double shot) competition at the 1908 Olympics and the silver medal in the running deer competition in 1912.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: Baron Pierre de Coubertin, President of the IOC and founder of the modern Olympic movement, won the gold medal for literature. He actually entered the competition under the pseudonyms of Georges Hohrod and Martin Eschbach from Germany. With the exception of the sculpture competition, only gold medals were issued. Italian Riccardo Barthelemy won the medal for music with his "Olympic Triumphal March", and fellow countryman Giovanni Pellegrini won the gold for painting. The Swiss architects Eugène-Edouard Monod and Alphonse Laverrière shared the gold for their stadium design. The sole silver medal, for sculpture, went to Frenchman Georges Dubois for his "Model of the entrance to a modern stadium".


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: In the evening of 7 July, demonstrations took place in the Olympic Stadium of sports from the Swedish island of Gotland. These began at 7:30pm with a demonstration of Pärk, a type of tennis with seven players a side. At the same time, at the other end of the stadium, a type of Icelandic wrestling called Glima was demonstrated. Once those displays had concluded, further demonstrations were made of the Swedish sport varpa, similar to quoits, and "stångstörtning", a version of the caber toss.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: Baseball was also demonstrated at the Games. A game was played between the United States, the nation where the game was developed, and Sweden, the host nation. The game was held on Monday, 15 July 1912 and started at 10 a.m. on the Ostermalm Athletic Grounds in Stockholm. The Americans were represented by various members of the American Olympic track and field athletics delegation, while the Swedish team was the Vesterås Baseball Club, which had been formed in 1910 as the first baseball club in Sweden. Four of the Americans played for Sweden, as the Swedish pitchers and catchers were inexperienced. One Swede eventually relieved Adams and Nelson, the American pitchers.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: Six innings were played, with the Americans not batting in the sixth and allowing the Swedes to have six outs in their half of the inning. The game was umpired by George Wright, a retired American National League baseball player.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: Twenty-eight nations competed at the 1912 Games. Egypt participated for the first time, as did Iceland, Portugal, and Serbia. Japan also made their Olympic debut, marking the first appearance of an Asian country at an Olympic Games. Chile made its first appearance as a national team, with fourteen athletes attending the Games, although it had previously entered one individual at the 1896 Games. This was also the first time that athletes from Armenia had competed in the Olympics, as part of the team from Turkey (the officially recognised name for the Ottoman Empire). Serbia's appearance was the only time it attended an Olympic Games as an independent nation until the 2008 Summer Olympics, almost one hundred years later.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: This was the last Olympics that allowed "private entries", i.e. individual athletes that were not part of a country's officially selected team. Arnold Jackson was one such private entry; he won the 1500 metres by 0.1 seconds, ahead of an American trio, in what was acclaimed at the time to be "the greatest race ever run". His medal is still credited to the United Kingdom, however.


title: 1912 Summer Olympics

text: These are the top 10 nations that won medals at the 1912 Games. The medals themselves included solid gold medals, the last time these were given out.


title: The Dark and the Wicked

text: The Dark and the Wicked is a 2020 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Bryan Bertino, starring Marin Ireland, Michael Abbott Jr., and Xander Berkeley. It follows two siblings who encounter a demonic entity at their familial farm after the suicide of their mother, who had long been caring for their infirm father.


title: The Dark and the Wicked

text: The film had its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival on August 28, 2020. It was released on November 6, 2020, by RLJE Films.


title: The Dark and the Wicked

text: Louise and Michael are siblings who are brought back to their family farm in Texas when their father's illness, which keeps him bedridden and uncommunicative, cared for by his wife and a nurse, worsens. Their mother seems disturbed and expresses a desire for the children to leave. At night, she hangs herself in the barn after cutting off her own fingers in the kitchen.


title: The Dark and the Wicked

text: As time goes on, Louise and Michael start to understand what happened to their mother. The nurse confides in them that she heard her whispering to the father, but it seemed as if she was speaking not to him, but some other presence. Michael finds their mother's diary, which describes her fears of an unnamed and possibly demonic presence preying on her husband.


title: The Dark and the Wicked

text: At their mother's burial, Louise and Michael meet Father Thorne, a priest who claims to have known their mother. Later that night, Father Thorne appears at the farm, beckoning them from outside, before vanishing before their eyes. Meanwhile, Charlie, a ranch hand who lives on a nearby plot of land in his RV, witnesses a vision of what appears to be Louise, speaking indistinctly and cutting herself repeatedly with a kitchen knife. The entity drives a distraught Charlie to shoot himself in the head with his shotgun.


title: The Dark and the Wicked

text: Louise is subsequently unable to reach Charlie by phone, unaware that he is dead. Louise calls the phone number that Father Thorne gave her to ask why he visited the farm the night prior. The man who answers claims to have never met her, and says that he lives in Chicago and has never been to Texas. Worried for their father's safety, the siblings summon a doctor for a house call and request that he be moved to a hospital. The doctor determines that their father's health is grave, and that he is on his deathbed. He tells the siblings he cannot relocate him to a hospital, as moving him could result in him dying en route.


title: The Dark and the Wicked

text: On the farm, Louise and Michael find that their large herd of goats have all been brutally killed. The two start a bonfire to dispose of the numerous animal carcasses. That night, Michael is approached in the barn by an apparition of his nude mother, who disappears as she approaches him. Later, while Louise lies in bed beside her father, she has a nightmare in which the entity attempts to possess her, but she manages to resist it, before witnessing her father levitating against the ceiling.


title: The Dark and the Wicked

text: In the morning, Charlie's granddaughter arrives at the farm and informs Louise that he killed himself two days prior. The girl's forlorn demeanor soon turns malevolent, and Louise realizes it is in fact the entity taking the shape of Charlie's granddaughter. She too disappears before Louise's eyes. The nurse arrives moments later to care for Louise and Michael's father. Meanwhile, Louise finds that Michael has fled the farm to return to his wife and daughters, leaving her behind. Michael calls Louise from his cell phone, and tells her she too should leave. Moments later, the nurse, possessed by the entity, begins stabbing herself with a pair of sewing needles, attacking Louise in the process, before stabbing herself in the eyes, killing herself.


title: The Dark and the Wicked

text: Michael arrives at his home and finds the dead bodies of his daughters and wife in the kitchen, in what appears to have been a murder–suicide. A distraught Michael cuts his own throat, and moments after, observes that the bodies of his wife and daughters have disappeared. He realizes the entity has tricked him when his wife and daughters enter the house moments later, and find him bleeding to death.


title: The Dark and the Wicked

text: Back at the farm, Louise regains consciousness at nightfall and finds that her father is dying. Moments after he dies, the demon in turn attacks and claims her.


title: The Dark and the Wicked

text: Filming of "The Dark and the Wicked" took place in Texas at the actual farm owned by writer-director Bryan Bertino's parents.


title: The Dark and the Wicked

text: The film had its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival on August 28, 2020. RLJE Films had acquired distribution rights to the film and set it for a November 6, 2020 theatrical release. It was originally scheduled to have its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2020, however, the festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: The Dark and the Wicked

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on critic reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads: ""The Dark and the Wicked" delivers on its title with an unsettling horror story whose deep dread and bleak outlook further compound its effective jolts." Metacritic reports a score of 72 out of 100 based on 14 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: The Dark and the Wicked

text: Cath Clarke of "The Guardian" gave the film a score of 3 out of 5 stars, describing it as "a nastily effective, lo-fi, psychological haunted house horror", and added: "There is possibly not a single scary moment here that will be new to horror fans, but Bertino directs with such technical flair that I yelped at most of them – and half-missed the others, eyes squeezed tight shut." Matt Zoller Seitz of "RogerEbert.com" gave the film a score of 3 out of 4 stars, writing that it "has enough jump scares to satisfy the "Yes, but it is scary?" contingent of horror fans. But for the most part, this film ... focuses on atmosphere and creeping dread, channeling 20th century classics like "Don't Look Now", "The Tenant", the original "Alien" and "The Sixth Sense"."


title: The Dark and the Wicked

text: Kate Erbland of "IndieWire" was more critical of the film, giving it a grade of C. She praised Ireland's performance, but wrote that the film "despite a strong start ... never coalesces into anything more than a collection of chilling images and a paper-thin logic."


title: Michael Waltrip

text: Michael Curtis Waltrip (born April 30, 1963) is an American former professional stock car racing driver, racing commentator, and published author. He competes full time in the Camping World Superstar Racing Experience. He is the younger brother of three-time NASCAR champion and racing commentator Darrell Waltrip. Waltrip is a two-time winner of the Daytona 500, having won the race in 2001 and 2003. He is also a pre-race analyst for the NASCAR Cup Series and color commentator for the Xfinity Series and the Camping World Truck Series broadcasts for Fox Sports. He last raced in the 2017 Daytona 500, driving the No. 15 Toyota Camry for Premium Motorsports. All 4 of his NASCAR Cup Series wins came on superspeedways.


title: Michael Waltrip

text: According to his autobiography "Blink of An Eye", Waltrip's career started at age 12 when he phoned his older brother Darrell Waltrip, who was racing in the 1978 Daytona 500. Michael asked Darrell to help him build a career in NASCAR, but Darrell advised him to stay focused on school. Michael then obtained assistance from his older brother Bobby Waltrip, who was very close to him in childhood. Michael began building a career by racing go-karts at carnivals and various racing clubs around his hometown. He won many races and, thanks to Bobby's help, was noticed by Dale Earnhardt. When Waltrip moved out of his house, he moved in with Kyle Petty and then ultimately lived with Richard Petty as a roommate. When Michael explained to Petty that he was going to try the Busch Series (now the Xfinity Series) to build his NASCAR career, Petty told Michael he was "wasting his time" and advised that Michael should immediately go for the Cup Series ride.


title: Michael Waltrip

text: Waltrip's stock car career got off the ground in 1981, when he captured the Mini-Modified division track championship at Kentucky Motor Speedway. A year later, Waltrip entered the Goody's Dash Series, where he won the series championship in 1983 and was voted the circuit's most popular driver in 1983 and 1984.


title: Michael Waltrip

text: Waltrip made his Cup debut in 1985 in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte driving for Dick Bahre. He finished 28th in that race and finished 57th in the series standings after just 5 starts. His brother Darrell won the race. At the same time, Waltrip got confronted by Earnhardt, who questioned a previous move early in the race in which Waltrip nudged him out of the way and Dale responded by flipping the bird.


title: Michael Waltrip

text: In 1986, driving the No. 23 car for Bahari Racing, Waltrip finished second in the Rookie of the Year standings to Alan Kulwicki on the strength of a pair of 11th-place finishes at Martinsville and Pocono. The following season, he posted his first career Top 10 finish when he ended up 10th in Martinsville's spring race. In 1988, Waltrip began running Busch Series events, making 5 starts for his brother's team. He took the checkered flag for the first time at Dover in his 4th start. In 1989, he had his first top-five finish in the No. 30 Country Time Lemonade/Kool-Aid-sponsored Pontiac.


title: Michael Waltrip

text: For Waltrip, 1990 was memorable for a horrific crash at Bristol in the spring on the 170th lap of the Budweiser 250, where he destroyed his Busch Series Pontiac Grand Prix. After making contact with Robert Pressley in the No. 59, he hit a gate that was in the outside wall at the exit of turn two. The gate was used to allow vehicles in and out of the infield because the track did not have a tunnel. The impact broke the gate, and Michael went head-on into the end of the wall, disintegrating the car on impact and collapsing the car into itself. Onlookers were sure that Waltrip was severely injured, perhaps fatally, because of how massive the impact was and his brother Darrell rushed to the wreck fearing the worst. Amazingly, Waltrip survived the accident and he only suffered cuts, soreness, and bruises in the wreck. After Mike Harmon had an almost identical impact several years later (and also amazingly walked away), the gate was moved down to just before the entrance of Turn 3, thus lessening the chance of a car hitting it because cars are diving away from the wall at that point. Later, when asked about the crash by Ken Squier, he replied saying he had "some contusions and a little bit of confusion" and ended with "Hope we did a good job for Kool-Aid." Years later, Waltrip said that at first, he thought that Pressley wrecked him on purpose, and thought about fighting him after the incident before thinking better of it.


title: Michael Waltrip

text: In early race lineups, Waltrip was referred to by broadcasters as "Mike Waltrip" or Darrell's little brother. It wasn't until 1991 that he began being referred to in racing lineups as Michael (Waltrip).


title: Michael Waltrip

text: In 1991, he gained new sponsorship from Pennzoil and won the Winston Open, as well as his first two career pole positions. He came close to winning the 1991 TranSouth 500 at Darlington, but a jammed air hose on his final visit to the pits caused his stop to last 37.4 seconds, costing him the victory. He stayed with the Bahari team until the end of 1995 when he was replaced by rookie Johnny Benson. He joined Wood Brothers Racing to drive their No. 21 Citgo-sponsored Ford. He won the 1996 edition of The Winston after capturing the last transfer spot in The Winston Open. After posting one top-five finish over three years, and missing his first race since 1986 at the 1998 Dura Lube/Kmart 500, Waltrip departed the Wood Brothers at the end of 1998 to drive the No. 7 Philips-sponsored Chevrolet for Mattei Motorsports, posting three Top 10 finishes and ending that season 29th in points. However, mid-season the ownership of the team transferred from Mattei to Ultra Motorsports and Jim Smith. The next season, Nations Rent replaced Philips as the sponsor & Waltrip moved up to 27th in points but only finished in the Top 5 once, causing him and the team to part ways at the end of the season. Waltrip would later say in his 2011 book, "In the Blink of an Eye", that 1999 and 2000 were the most disappointing years of his racing career and he began to lose hope that he would ever win a Cup Series race.


title: Michael Waltrip

text: Waltrip was hired by Dale Earnhardt to drive his team's new No. 15 NAPA Auto Parts-sponsored Chevrolet Monte Carlo entry, Waltrip drove for Earnhardt in the Busch Series in 1989 and 1994. In his first race with the team, the 2001 Daytona 500, Waltrip broke his streak of 462 consecutive Cup races without a victory and won his first career points-paying Cup race. His teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished in 2nd. However, the win itself was largely overshadowed by Earnhardt, Sr.'s fatal crash on the last lap. In the movie "The Day: Remembering Dale Earnhardt", Waltrip said that Earnhardt let him in line late in the race, which allowed him to take the lead, noting that Earnhardt "never let anyone in line". This presumably is because Earnhardt wanted Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr. to finish in the Top 2 spots, as both were members of his team. Waltrip was not aware of the severity of Earnhardt's crash until over 30 minutes after the end of the race when he was celebrating in victory lane. Ken Schrader, after having been treated and released from the infield care center following the crash (his car hit Earnhardt's car during the crash), informed Waltrip that Earnhardt had been taken to Halifax Medical Center, from the speedway, where Earnhardt was pronounced dead at 5:16 PM EST.


title: Michael Waltrip

text: Waltrip would later say in his book, and a 2019 podcast episode with Earnhardt Jr., that in the aftermath of the tragedy, he and the No. 15 team pushed forward to continue Earnhardt's legacy, "Because we knew we had to." However, his results slumped in the aftermath of the disaster, and he realized after 6 races that he was "not in a good place." By June 2001, his crew chief, Scott Eggleston, departed the team and was replaced by longtime DEI director Steve Hmiel.


title: Michael Waltrip

text: Waltrip did not have another Top 10 finish that season until returning to Daytona in July in the Pepsi 400, where he finished 2nd while holding off the field as teammate Earnhardt Jr. won his first plate race. Earnhardt Jr.'s Pepsi 400 finish was emotional to the entire DEI team and when Earnhardt Jr. did his burnout on the infield grass, Waltrip pulled up alongside him. Waltrip would later say to Kenny Wallace on his podcast in 2021, that the moment with Earnhardt Jr. in the infield was "even bigger than any races I've won, and I didn't even win." Waltrip would also have a second-place finish at Homestead with Bill Elliott winning and finished 24th in the standings.


title: Michael Waltrip

text: The next season, Waltrip won the second Gatorade Duel. His next top ten finish would be a second-place finish at Talladega, where he and Earnhardt Jr. combined to lead more than two-thirds of the race, with Earnhardt Jr. taking home his second of four straight wins at Talladega. The following week, Waltrip finished tenth at Auto Club. He had eighth-place finishes in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte and the first Pocono race, and fourth place in the first Michigan race. He picked up his second career win at the Pepsi 400 at Daytona. After a ninth-place finish at Watkins Glen, and eighth-place finishes at New Hampshire and Talladega, Waltrip finished 14th in the points standings.


title: Michael Waltrip

text: In 2003, Waltrip won a rain-shortened Daytona 500 and also took victory at the EA Sports 500 at Talladega (his only non-Daytona win), while running in the top-five for most of the season before falling back to 15th in points. Of trivial note, Waltrip won the first three NASCAR on Fox races at Daytona (2001 and 2003 Daytona 500s, and the 2002 Pepsi 400) with Michael's brother Darrell in the broadcast booth. His Talladega win was also his only win at a NASCAR on NBC race.


title: Michael Waltrip

text: In 2004, Waltrip went winless and dropped five spots in the standings. In 2005 Waltrip only had seven top tens and one pole. It included a runner-up at Phoenix despite hitting the wall on the next to last lap. He had an incident with Robby Gordon at New Hampshire. After Waltrip intentionally wrecked Robby Gordon and spun as a result, Gordon furiously tried to back his damaged racecar into Waltrip's. When Gordon failed to hit Waltrip's car with his own, he climbed out of his racecar and threw his helmet at Waltrip's driver-side door. Waltrip repeated the words Gordon said the previous year in another helmet-tossing incident: "He just threw a helmet at my car." Waltrip was fined $10,000 () after he gestured at Gordon for the damage on his car from the helmet, but he and Teresa Earnhardt appealed and the fine was overturned after a short investigation proved the charge false. Gordon however was fined $50,000 () and put on probation for the rest of the year after he was discovered to have said "You know everybody thinks Michael is this good guy. He's not the guy he acts he is. The caution was out, and he wrecked me, and he's a piece of shit." Waltrip and Gordon conferred later on, apologized, and continued their careers. After the 2005 season, Waltrip left DEI for Bill Davis Racing.


title: Michael Waltrip

text: On January 20, 2006, Waltrip and Doug Bawel, who owned Penske Racing's No. 77 car in 2005, announced the forming of Waltrip-Jasper Racing. Because Waltrip was under contract with Bill Davis Racing, they reached a deal with BDR to oversee and supply the new team. Waltrip-Jasper fielded the No. 55 NAPA Auto Parts Dodge in the 2006 Nextel Cup Series, driven by Waltrip, with Bawel as listed owner, and Davis as a team executive. Bawel had a guaranteed starting spot in the first five races of 2006 by the No. 77 finishing 34th in the 2005 owner points, although Bawel was shutting down his team and needed a driver to pick up his team's owner points. This arrangement enabled Waltrip to make the first five races in 2006 without qualifying on time. After the first five races, this was unnecessary. Waltrip failed to qualify for the first time since 1998 at the Coca-Cola 600. He bought a slot from the No. 74 McGlynn Racing Dodge from Derrike Cope to drive in the race and to keep his streak of 262 consecutive races. Waltrip ended up missing three races total in 2006 and did not have a top-ten finish. This was attributable to BDR's lawsuit with Dodge, which meant the team did not receive manufacturer support for Waltrip or teammate Dave Blaney.


title: Michael Waltrip

text: Waltrip moved his Busch Series team, Michael Waltrip Racing, to the Cup Series full-time for the 2007 season. He hired Dale Jarrett and David Reutimann to race in the three-car operation. Reutimann in the No. 00, Jarrett in the No. 44, and Waltrip in the No. 55. Waltrip was listed as the owner of the No. 44 and No. 55, while his wife Buffy was listed as the owner of the No. 00.


title: Michael Waltrip

text: After the first round of qualifying for the 2007 Daytona 500, NASCAR inspectors found evidence in the engine intake manifold that Waltrip, Reutimann, and Jarrett's teams had used an illegal unspecified oxygenate fuel additive to increase performance. NASCAR confiscated the cars, forcing Waltrip, Reutimann, and Jarrett to move to back-up cars for the Daytona 500. On February 14, 2007, NASCAR officials announced at a press conference the penalties that would be levied: Bobby Kennedy (Director of Competition for Michael Waltrip Racing) and David Hyder (Waltrip's crew chief) were removed from Daytona International Speedway, and suspended indefinitely. David Hyder was also fined $100,000 () and was placed on a leave of absence, eventually to be released by the team in April. Waltrip, Reutimann, and Jarrett were docked 100 driver points and Waltrip and Buffy were docked 100 owner points each. Waltrip, Reutimann, and Jarrett's initial qualifying times were disallowed, but Waltrip and Reutimann were permitted to attempt to qualify by racing a backup car in their Gatorade Duel's qualifying race for the Daytona 500. Jarrett would qualify using his Past Champions provisional from his 1999 title, but was also permitted to race a backup car in his Gatorade Duel. Waltrip's interim crew chief was announced as Scott Eggleston, who was Waltrip's former crew chief in 2001. After a 30th-place finish in the Daytona 500, Waltrip became the first driver in series history to go into the second race of the season with a negative number of points (−27). Waltrip failed to qualify for the next eleven races following the Daytona 500, so he maintained his negative point total for almost 4 months. He qualified for the thirteenth race of the season at Dover and finished 28th, moving his point total above zero to 52 points.


title: Michael Waltrip

text: On Saturday, April 7, 2007, he fell asleep behind the wheel of his Toyota Land Cruiser which overturned and hit a utility pole. Waltrip crawled out from the car suffering only minor cuts. There was no Nextel Cup race held that weekend. He was charged with reckless driving and failing to report an accident.


title: Michael Waltrip

text: After failing to qualify for the Pocono 500 in June, Waltrip bounced back the following week by finishing 10th at the Citizens Bank 400 in Michigan.


title: Michael Waltrip

text: During the summer, Waltrip decided to make changes to the No. 00 and No. 55, which both sat outside the top 35 in owners points. He hired Terry Labonte, who held an automatic qualifying spot with his Past Champions provisional from titles in 1984 and 1996, to take over Waltrip's No. 55 at Infineon Raceway, Watkins Glen International, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Waltrip also hired P. J. Jones, a road course ringer, to take over David Reutimann's No. 00 at Infineon and Watkins Glen.


title: Michael Waltrip

text: In October 2007, before the 2007 Bank of America 500. Dale Jarrett announced his retirement from points racing after the 2008 Food City 500, Waltrip decided to put David Reutimann (No. 00 driver) to take over the No. 44. Jarrett's final race was the All-Star race in May 2008.