The 2006 Gaza–Israel conflict, known in Israel as Operation Summer Rains (Hebrew: מבצע גשמי קיץ, romanized: Mivtza Gishmey Kayitz), was a series of battles between Palestinian militants and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during summer 2006, prompted by the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Palestinian militants on 25 June 2006. Large-scale conventional warfare occurred in the Gaza Strip, starting on 28 June 2006, which was the first major ground operation in the Gaza Strip since Israel's unilateral disengagement plan was implemented between August and September 2005.

Israel's stated objectives in Operation Summer Rains were to suppress the firing of Qassam rockets from Gaza into the western Negev, and to secure the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit, who had been captured by Palestinian militants. Shalit was captured amid a background of violence between the IDF and Palestinian militant groups since the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. According to statistics published by the Israeli government, 757 missiles from Gaza hit Israel between the withdrawal and the end of June 2006. The IDF had responded with artillery fire and air raids. During the operation, the pace of both rocket fire and shelling increased dramatically, and the IDF mounted numerous ground incursions into the Gaza Strip targeting militant groups and their infrastructure, including smuggling tunnels in the Philadelphi Corridor. On the first day of the conflict, Israel also bombed the only electrical power plant in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas sought the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel in exchange for Shalit. Publicly, Israel categorically rejected any such offers, but in August it was reported that negotiations were held with Egypt acting as mediator. However, the negotiations broke down as Israel was nοt willing to release as many prisoners as Hamas wanted.

Operation Summer Rains was followed by Operation "Autumn Clouds", launched on November 1. When Operation Autumn Clouds ended on 26 November with ceasefire between Hamas and Israel and an Israeli withdrawal, no deal for the release of Shalit had been reached. The ceasefire broke down completely amid escalating conflict between Hamas and Fatah in 2007.

In 2005, Israel's unilateral disengagement plan saw it pulling forces out of Gaza and dismantling Jewish settlements that had been built in the territory in the years of the occupation. Israel remained in control of Gaza's borders, coastline and airspace, with the exception of the southern border which continues to be supervised by Egypt and European Union monitors. Following disengagement in 2005, Qassam rockets continued to be fired out of Gaza into Israel, and the pace of the attacks quickened in 2006 following the victory of the Islamist group Hamas in the Palestinian legislative elections of early 2006. 757 missiles hit Israel between disengagement and the end of June 2006 and Israel responded with artillery fire and airstrikes.

Between the end of March 2006 – when the Hamas government assumed power – and the end of May 2006, Israel fired at least 5,100 artillery shells into the Gaza Strip Qassam launching areas in an attempt to stop them being fired.^{[disputed – discuss]} Hamas had announced a ceasefire in February 2005 and until 10 June 2006, Hamas did not take responsibility itself for the firing of ordnance into Israel, and Israel admitted that Hamas is "largely" sticking to the ceasefire. However, after Israel killed several members of other Palestinian groups (PIJ and Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades) in targeted airstrikes in Gaza, the leader of Hamas said in February 2006 that it wouldn't impede other groups from carrying out "armed resistance" against Israel. This was a significant statement because Israel had often pressured the Palestinian government to stop such attacks in the past, and Palestinian willingness to do so had been seen as a key indicator of intent by Israel. However, Hamas was implicated in rocket attacks and attacks carried out by other groups, as well as engaging in its own attacks, despite the ceasefire.

In late January and early February 2006, there were fears that an internal struggle in the Palestinian territories between Hamas and the previously dominant party, Fatah, will lead to a civil war (Fatah members and supporters predominated in the Palestinian security forces and the civil service and Hamas complained that they were hampering the new government's capability to function). This did not happen at the time, and after a few days marked by at least one shooting, by what appeared to be an attempted assassination of a Fatah official, and by temporary occupation of the legislature building in Gaza by Fatah-affiliated police, both Hamas and Fatah refrained from escalating. Meanwhile, because Hamas refused to recognize Israel's right to exist or reaffirm its commitment to previous agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, the Israeli government and the Quartet (the EU, the UK, the US and Russia) imposed an economic embargo on the Hamas government. Additionally, Israel blocked the Palestinian government's own tax revenue, leaving Palestinian government employees in Gaza (37% of Gaza's workforce) without pay.

March 2006 brought the surprising launch of a Grad-type rocket (different from previous Palestinian homemade rockets) on Israel by PIJ. May 2006 brought protests by government employees in Gaza, who were deprived of salaries (these protests continued in the following months and overlapped with the Fatah-Hamas friction as many protesters were loyal to Fatah). It also brought ambushes on Hamas members, a series of ambushes on Fatah members claimed inexplicably by a branch of Al-Qaeda, and the death of a bystander, a diplomat, during clashes between those security services sent by President Abbas (Fatah) and those loyal to the Hamas government.