Since the establishment of the State of Israel, deterrence has played a significant role in country's security doctrine. Israel has been simultaneously deterring both state and non-state actors. Given the focus on the deterrence of the non-state actors, the previous research shows that the concept of deterrence was a visible goal line of military operations undertaken as a counterterrorism response. Furthermore, the Israeli deterrence strategy in the Gaza Strip comes hand by hand with several counterproductive elements such as unintended targeted killings, which make the strategy the object of the debates of the international community, most visible in the United Nations Headquarters. Based on the initial analysis of the position of the deterrence in Israeli counterterrorism strategy, the main goal of the MA thesis is to discern its real impact on the shaping of counterterrorism responses. Following that, the thesis analyzes the response of the Palestinian terrorist organizations active in the Gaza Strip, the counterproductive elements of the deterrence and their impact on the perception of Israel by the international community represented by the United Nations. These goals will be achieved with the help of the following research questions: 1. What is the impact of deterrence in shaping Israeli counterterrorism strategy and responses? 2. How do Palestinian terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip respond to Israeli deterrence? Is their response insinuating the deterrence is credible? 3. What are the counterproductive elements of the deterrence and how these elements affect the view of the international community on Israel? 4. How should be the role of the deterrence in the counterterrorism strategy addressed in the future? Based on the answering to the first three research questions of the thesis, the additional goal is to provide the recommendations concerning the future role of the deterrence in Israeli counterterrorism strategy. The thesis covers the period between June 2007 (the military takeover of Gaza by Hamas) and January 2018 (the end of last major trackable clashes which were response to the US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel). Sources: SILKE, Andrew. The psychology of counter-terrorism. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis group, 2011. Cass series on political violence. ISBN 978-0-415-55840-2. WENGER, Andreas and Alex WILNER. Deterring terrorism: theory and practice. Stanford, California: Stanford Security Studies, an imprint of Stanford University Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-8047-8248-7. ZAGARE, Frank C. and D. Marc KILGOUR. Perfect deterrence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Cambridge studies in international relations. ISBN 0-521-78174-4. STERN, Paul C. Perspectives on deterrence. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. ISBN 0-19-505763-5.