The IDF recognized 2014's Protective Edge operation in Gaza as a fully fledged campaign and has issued decorations for the soldiers who took part in it.

David Kahlon, whose son Eliav Eliyahu Haim hy"d was killed in the campaign, told Arutz Sheva that the recognition is a very meaningful one for the bereaved families. 

He also told of a short conversation with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the ceremony that was held for the fallen soldiers, in which he told Netanyahu that Israel is "surrounded by sharks.

Netanyahu responded that in such circumstances, Israel must not be like a shark, but rather, "like a whale."