In this special issue of "Military Medicine" we publish leading medical articles based on the study of the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict (“Tzuk Eitan”). The issue covers a variety of practices that characterize the medical forces, from the Southern Command’s preparations, during and before the operation, through a deep analysis of the types of injuries, their characteristics and the treatments provided.

Additional articles in this issue describe medical work from other perspectives, including methods for rescuing entangled or subterranean casualties (Major Nirit Yavnai et al.). The articles "Challenges of Organizing Pre-Hospital Emergency Medicine for a Missile Attack on a Civilian Population" (Magen A. Yaffa et al., MDA); "Treatment of Complex Vascular Injuries" (Orly Weinstein et al., Soroka Medical Center); and "the Medical activity within the Home Front Command" (Col. Eyal Furman et al., Home Front Command) describe the preparation of civilian bodies for the military campaign, and their contribution to organized cooperation between the army and the civilian system, as has characterized emergency preparation in Israel through the years.