Timeline Israel 2005-2012
Return to home
2005 Jan 1,
Israel was forecast for 3.8% annual GDP growth with a population at
7 million and GDP per head at $17,540.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.94)
2005 Jan 3, Jewish settlers
clashed with Israeli troops who came to tear down two structures at
an unauthorized West Bank outpost, and a soldier was arrested for
encouraging comrades to refuse to evacuate the settlement.
(AP, 1/3/05)
2005 Jan 4, Two Israeli tank
shells slammed into a field in response to Palestinian mortar fire,
killing seven Palestinians youths working in a strawberry field.
(AP, 1/4/05)(SFC, 1/4/05, p.A3)
2005 Jan 5, A group calling
itself "The Free People of the Galilee" claimed that it abducted
Dana Bennet, an Israeli-American woman, in Aug 2003, and demanded
that Israel release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for
information about her fate.
(AP, 1/5/05)
2005 Jan 5, Two homemade
Palestinian rockets fell into an army base in southern Israel,
wounding 12 people, one of them seriously.
(AP, 1/5/05)
2005 Jan 7, Palestinian
militants attacked a group of Israeli civilians outside the West
Bank city of Nablus, wounding four people, including one who was in
critical condition.
(AP, 1/7/05)
2005 Jan 9, Stanley Fischer,
Zambian-born vice-chairman of Citigroup, accepted the nomination to
be the next governor of the Bank of Israel.
(Econ, 1/15/05, p.69)
2005 Jan 9, A French officer
serving with U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon was killed by Israeli
shelling, shortly after a Hezbollah bomb attack killed an Israeli
soldier and wounded three others near the southern border.
(AP, 1/9/05)
2005 Jan 11, Palestinian
militants in the Gaza Strip launched a barrage of homemade rockets
and mortar rounds at Jewish towns and settlements, hours after newly
elected Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas extended his hand in peace
to Israel.
(AP, 1/11/05)
2005 Jan 12, Islamic militants
detonated a bomb near a Jewish settlement in the southern Gaza
Strip, killing an Israeli civilian and wounding three soldiers.
(AP, 1/12/05)
2005 Jan 13, Israel's foreign
minister said the planned sale of advanced Russian missiles to Syria
will disrupt regional stability and Moscow should call off the deal.
(AP, 1/13/05)
2005 Jan 13, Palestinian
militants killed six Israeli workers at a Gaza crossing. 3
Palestinian attackers were also killed.
(AP, 1/14/05)(SFC, 1/14/05, p.A3)
2005 Jan 14, Israel sealed off
the Gaza Strip but signaled it will hold off on harsh retaliation
for an attack by Palestinian militants.
(AP, 1/14/05)
2005 Jan 16, A top PLO
decision-making body called on Palestinian militants to halt attacks
against Israel, charging that the violence gives Israel an excuse to
carry out military operations.
(AP, 1/16/05)
2005 Jan 17, Israeli warplanes
attacked suspected Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon after the
guerrillas said they blew up an Israeli bulldozer in a disputed area
near the border, reportedly causing casualties.
(AP, 1/17/05)
2005 Jan 17, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas ordered his security forces to try to prevent attacks
against Israel and to investigate a shooting at a Gaza Strip
crossing that killed six Israeli civilians last week.
(AP, 1/17/05)
2005 Jan 20, Israeli officials
accepted a Palestinian plan to deploy hundreds of police officers
along the Gaza-Israel frontier Jan 21, in the first act of security
cooperation with Israel under Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 1/20/05)
2005 Jan 21, Hundreds of armed
Palestinian police deployed across the northern Gaza Strip on Friday
to prevent rocket fire on Israeli communities.
(AP, 1/21/05)
2005 Jan 23, Israeli leaders
said it willing to suspend military operations against Palestinian
militants if they call off attacks.
(AP, 1/23/05)
2005 Jan 24, Militant groups
have agreed to suspend attacks as they near a formal truce deal with
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and await Israel's response.
(AP, 1/24/05)
2005 Jan 25, The top Hamas
leader said his militant group is prepared to suspend attacks if
Israel stops targeting militants and agrees to release thousands of
Palestinian prisoners.
(AP, 1/25/05)
2005 Jan 26, Israel and the
Palestinian Authority resumed diplomatic contacts after a two-week
freeze, and Israel agreed to suspend targeted killings of
Palestinian militants.
(AP, 1/26/05)
2005 Jan 28, Israel's army
chief ordered troops to halt operations in the Gaza Strip and to
scale back raids in the West Bank, as hundreds of Palestinian police
deployed in the volatile central and southern parts of the
territory.
(AP, 1/28/05)
2005 Jan 30, More than 100,000
demonstrators gathered in Jerusalem to protest PM Ariel Sharon's
plan to evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements from Gaza and four from
the West Bank, demanding it be put to a national referendum.
(AP, 1/30/05)
2005 Jan 30, Israeli troops
killed a 65-year-old man who entered an unauthorized area near an
army post.
(AP, 1/31/05)
2005 Jan 31, Jewish settlers
and their supporters protested outside parliament for a 2nd day
against Israel's planned withdrawal from Palestinian territories.
Palestinian officials said a 10-year-old Palestinian girl was shot
and killed by Israeli tank fire at a UN school in the Rafah refugee
camp.
(AP, 1/31/05)
2009 Jan, The Tamar gas field
was discovered off the coast of Israel. It was the largest gas find
this year.
(Econ, 11/13/10,
p.54)(www.offshore-technology.com/projects/tamar-field/)
2005 Feb 3, Israeli Cabinet
ministers approved the release of 900 Palestinian prisoners and a
military pullout from the West Bank town of Jericho within days.
(AP, 2/3/05)
2005 Feb 3, Hamas leader Khaled
Mashaal said that fugitives in his Palestinian group would not sign
pledges to halt attacks because that would negate the legitimacy of
their right to fight the Israeli occupation.
(AP, 2/3/05)
2005 Feb 8, In Sharm El-Sheik,
Egypt, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas declared that their people would stop all military and
violent attacks against each other, pledging to get peace talks back
on track. The Palestinian militant group Hamas said it would not be
bound by the cease-fire declarations.
(AP, 2/8/05)
2005 Feb 9, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas said Israel will lift travel restrictions on
Palestinians in parts of the West Bank and abandon several major
checkpoints as part of its withdrawal from five towns in the coming
weeks.
(AP, 2/9/05)
2005 Feb 10, Palestinian
militants fired dozens of mortar shells and homemade rockets at
Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, prompting Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas to order his security forces to move quickly to
preserve a new cease-fire with Israel. Abbas fired his top security
commanders following the attacks.
(AP, 2/10/05)(WSJ, 2/11/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 11, A day after firing
his top security commanders, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas headed
to the Gaza Strip to demand that militant leaders stop attacking
Israelis, a strong sign of his determination to enforce a fragile
truce with Israel.
(AP, 2/11/05)
2005 Feb 13, Israel's Cabinet
approved a list of names of 500 Palestinian prisoners to be released
in coming days, and several hundred Palestinian workers returned to
jobs in Israel in line with agreements reached at a Mideast summit
last week.
(AP, 2/13/05)
2005 Feb 16, Israel's
parliament gave the final approval to PM Ariel Sharon's plan to
withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements.
(AP, 2/16/06)
2005 Feb 17, Hundreds of Jewish
settlers took first steps to eventually leave their homes in the
Gaza Strip, a day after Israel's parliament approved $871 million in
compensation for them.
(AP, 2/17/05)
2005 Feb 18, Israel let 16 of
about 55 Palestinians expelled from the West Bank return home, and
it has concluded that demolishing the homes of Palestinian suicide
bombers and gunmen does not deter attackers and should be stopped.
(AP, 2/18/05)
2005 Feb 20, Israel's Cabinet
gave final approval to the government's planned withdrawal from the
Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements.
(AP, 2/20/05)
2005 Feb 21, Israel freed 500
Palestinian prisoners in a goodwill gesture.
(AP, 2/21/05)
2005 Feb 25, A Palestinian
suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of young Israelis waiting
outside the Stage nightclub near Tel Aviv's beachfront promenade
just before midnight, killing at least four other people, wounding
dozens.
(AP, 2/25/05)(SFC, 2/26/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 26, Palestinian and
Israeli security forces arrested 7 suspected militants in connection
with a suicide bombing that killed four Israelis at a Tel Aviv
nightclub. The bomber was identified as Abdullah Badran (21), a
student from the West Bank village of Deir al-Ghusun.
(AP, 2/26/05)(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.A7)
2005 Feb 28, Israeli troops
discovered a vehicle packed with half a ton of explosives in the
West Bank, the largest bomb found in four years of fighting.
(AP, 3/1/05)
2005 Mar 6, Israeli
investigators said police had arrested 22 employees of a Tel Aviv
bank branch on suspicion they helped launder hundreds of millions of
dollars in one of the largest such rings in the country's history.
(AP, 3/6/05)
2005 Mar 6, Palestinian
militants shot and wounded two Israeli border policemen in an attack
on a military post near a West Bank shrine.
(AP, 3/7/05)
2005 Mar 9, An Israeli inquiry
into the establishment of unauthorized West Bank settlement outposts
found widespread complicity of successive Israeli governments and
recommended that prosecutors consider investigations some of those
involved.
(AP, 3/9/05)
2005 Mar 10, Israeli troops
killed an Islamic Jihad Palestinian militant in a raid on a village
near the West Bank town of Jenin.
(AP, 3/10/05)
2005 Mar 13, Israel's Cabinet
adopted a report on the state's complicity in setting up 105 illegal
West Bank settlement outposts and decided to dismantle 24 of them.
(AP, 3/13/05)
2005 Mar 14, UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the United Nations is establishing
a register of property damage caused by Israel's West Bank
separation barrier. Hundreds of Palestinians protested the barrier
outside the walled Palestinian government compound where he spoke.
(AP, 3/14/05)
2005 Mar 16, Israeli troops
handed Jericho to Palestinian security control, dismantling a
checkpoint and easing travel restrictions in what was seen as a
message to ordinary Palestinians that an informal truce is starting
to pay off.
(AP, 3/16/05)
2005 Mar 17, Palestinian
militants declared a halt to attacks on Israel for the rest of this
year, their longest cease-fire promise ever and a victory for
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 3/17/05)
2005 Mar 18, Israel welcomed a
temporary truce declared by Palestinian militants and promised to
hold its fire in return, but demanded that the Palestinian Authority
eventually dismantle the armed groups.
(AP, 3/18/05)
2005 Mar 18, King Abdullah II
of Jordan proposed a new peace strategy that drops traditional Arab
demands that Israel give up all land seized in the 1967 war and
offers the Jewish state normalized relations with Arab countries.
(AP, 3/19/05)
2005 Mar 21, Israeli and
Palestinian negotiators reached agreement on handing over control of
the West Bank town of Tulkarem to Palestinian security forces.
(AP, 3/21/05)
2005 Mar 22, Israel completed
its handover of the West Bank town of Tulkarem to Palestinian
security control.
(AP, 3/22/05)
2005 Mar 28, Israeli troops
raided the West Bank town of Jenin, carrying out house-to-house
searches and arresting eight Palestinians.
(AP, 3/28/05)
2005 Apr 4, A Palestinian
official immediately denounced Israeli plans to dispose of garbage
on Palestinian land in the West Bank, as violating international
law, saying, "We are not a dumping ground."
(AP, 4/4/05)
2005 Apr 9, Israeli border
troops shot and killed 3 Palestinian youths in a southern Gaza Strip
refugee camp in violence that ended weeks of calm.
(AP, 4/9/05)(SSFC, 4/10/05, p.A5)
2005 Apr 10, Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon arrived in Texas to meet with President Bush.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2005 Apr 10, Thousands of
Israeli police encircled Jerusalem's Old City to keep Israeli
ultranationalists out of a disputed holy site and prevent protests
by jittery Muslim worshippers.
(AP, 4/10/05)
2005 Apr 14, Israeli troops
shot and killed a Palestinian militant in the West Bank.
(AP, 4/14/05)
2005 Apr 14, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas on ordered reforms of his security services, a key
Israeli and U.S. condition for renewing peace negotiations.
(AP, 4/14/05)
2005 Apr 17, Israel's Cabinet
unanimously approved the release of nine Jordanian prisoners.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 17, Israeli defense
industry executives said the US has frozen Israel out of the
development of a prestigious jet fighter as punishment for its
military cooperation with China.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 May 22, First Lady Laura
Bush was heckled by protesters during a visit to holy sites in
Jerusalem.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2005 Apr 24, Ezer Weizman (80),
former Israeli president (1993-2000), died. He was a political
moderate who pioneered contacts with Palestinian leaders and helped
bring about the Jewish state's first peace treaty with an Arab
country. As defense minister in 1979, he was instrumental in
negotiating Israel's peace treaty with Egypt.
(AP, 4/25/05)(Econ, 5/7/05, p.81)
2005 Apr 27, Vladimir Putin
became the first Kremlin leader to visit Israel, capping a historic
rapprochement between two nations that once faced each other as
bitter enemies across the Cold War divide.
(AP, 4/27/05)
2005 Apr 30, Palestinian
security officials said Israeli special forces entered Tulkarem
before dawn and arrested 18-year-old Mohammed Shalhoub. Israeli
military officials said Shalhoub was an Islamic Jihad militant
preparing an imminent suicide attack against Israelis and had
already filmed the video testament often left by suicide bombers.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 1, Turkish PM Recep
Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Israel for a visit seeking to mend
relations with the Jewish state and join in a new wave of Middle
East peace efforts.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 2, Israeli cabinet
minister Natan Sharansky resigned to protest the planned Gaza
withdrawal, which he called a "tragic mistake" that will encourage
Palestinian violence and deepen the rift in Israeli society.
(AP, 5/2/05)
2005 May 2, An Israeli soldier
and a Palestinian fugitive were killed in a shootout at Seideh in
the West Bank.
(AP, 5/2/05)(SFC, 5/3/05, p.A5)
2005 May 3, Israeli officials
said Hamas must disarm before participating in Palestinian
parliament elections this summer, in a new twist to their standoff
with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas over his refusal to use force
against militants.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 4, Israeli Defense
Minister Shaul Mofaz said he is freezing the handover of West Bank
towns to Palestinian security control because the Palestinians have
failed to honor their promise to disarm militants.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 4, Israeli soldiers
shot and killed two Palestinian youths in a West Bank village near
the city of Ramallah.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 6, Alvaro de Soto was
appointed the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.
He resigned in May, 2007.
(www.un.org/unsco/coordinator.html)
2005 May 9, PM Ariel Sharon
told Israeli media that Israel's evacuation of the Gaza Strip will
be put off until mid-August.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 11, A Katyusha rocket
fired from Lebanon landed in the northern Israeli town of Shlomi
heavily damaging a factory and drawing an Israeli threat of
retaliation.
(AP, 5/11/05)
2005 May 13, Hezbollah shelled
Israeli positions in the disputed Chebaa Farms near the border, and
the Israeli army returned fire in the heaviest exchange in months
between Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla force.
(AP, 5/13/05)
2005 May 18, An Israeli
aircraft fired at a group of Hamas militants who were about to shoot
mortar shells at a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 20, Palestinian
militants fired six anti-tank missiles and a mortar round and opened
up with light arms at a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 21, The Palestinian
interior ministry said the Hamas militant group has agreed to halt
mortar and rocket fire on Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, a
deal meant to save a truce threatened by three consecutive days of
violence.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 22, In Palestine
protesters besieged Laura Bush during her visit to two of
Jerusalem's most sacred sites.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 22, Jordan, Israel and
the Palestinian Authority said they had agreed terms for a
feasibility study on transferring water from the Red Sea to the Dead
Sea, to save the world's lowest sea from vanishing.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 24, World Orthodox
leaders gathered in Istanbul, the ancient seat of Orthodoxy. They
decided to stop recognizing the beleaguered patriarch of Jerusalem,
Irineos I, for allegedly leasing sites in the Palestinian side of
the city to Jewish investors. They asserted a rare unified position
on the crisis facing the church in the Holy Land.
(AP, 5/24/05)(WSJ, 5/25/05, p.A1)
2005 May 29, Israel's Cabinet
approved the release of 400 Palestinian prisoners.
(AP, 5/29/05)
2005 May 30, The Israeli
military targeted rocket launchers just before an attack was to be
launched from northern Gaza, and two launchers were destroyed.
(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 May 31, Two-thirds of
Israel's Ein Gedi nature reserve was destroyed by fire, causing
considerable damage to animal and plant life in the lush oasis
sandwiched between the harsh Judean Desert and the Dead Sea.
(AP, 5/31/05)
2005 May 31, James Wolfensohn,
former World Bank chief, assumed the post of special envoy for Gaza
disengagement for the Quartet (USA, Russia, EU and UN). He was
assigned to co-ordinate Israel’s imminent withdrawal from the Gaza
Strip and to focus on economic ways to help Palestinians after the
Israeli exit. He left the post a year later.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Wolfensohn)(Econ, 6/30/07, p.55)
2005 Jun 1, Jerusalem city
engineer Uri Shetrit said 88 homes in an Arab neighborhood are
marked for demolition to make way for an archaeological park
documenting the disputed city's ancient Jewish origins.
(AP, 6/1/05)
2005 Jun 2, Israel released 398
Palestinian prisoners, completing a pledge made under a cease-fire
agreement, hours after Israel and the Palestinians announced their
leaders would soon meet for the first time since February.
(AP, 6/2/05)(WSJ, 6/3/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 7, Israeli soldiers
killed a top Islamic Jihad militant in a West Bank gunbattle, and a
Palestinian mortar attack on a Jewish settlement in Gaza killed two
non-Israeli workers.
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Jun 8, In Palestine 3
workers at a Jewish settlement in Gaza were killed in a Palestinian
mortar strike, two West Bank militants were shot dead by soldiers
and an infiltrator from Egypt to Gaza was gunned down by Israeli
forces.
(AP, 6/8/05)
2005 Jun 13, Israel was elected
one of 21 vice-presidents of the next UN General Assembly session.
(AP, 6/13/05)
2005 Jun 19, Israel publicly
apologized to the US over arms exports to China that have drawn
criticism from Washington and strained U.S.-Israeli security ties.
(AP, 6/19/05)
2005 Jun 20, Palestinian gunmen
ambushed an Israeli minivan driving through the northern West Bank,
riddling the vehicle with bullets, killing one passenger and
wounding a second.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005 Jun 21, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met for the
first time since declaring a February truce, but the summit was
clouded by Israel's arrest of 52 Islamic Jihad activists and a
missile strike in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 21, In southern Israel
a passenger train plowed into a coal truck and sent three cars
tumbling off the tracks in a sunflower field, killing seven people
and injuring nearly 200.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 22, The first
Palestinian-Israeli summit in four months failed to propel peace
prospects forward or solidify a shaky truce, leaving main issues
unresolved and both sides disappointed.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 23, Jerusalem
officials said they will ban the annual gay pride parade set for
next week, claiming the march would offend many of the holy city's
residents.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 26, Israeli Foreign
Minister Silvan Shalom released a letter saying Israel wished "to
express our regret for the activities which resulted in the arrest
and conviction of two Israeli citizens in New Zealand on criminal
charges and apologize for the involvement of Israeli citizens in
such activities." The two nations restored full diplomatic
relations.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 26, An Israeli court
ruled that Jerusalem's gay pride parade could proceed as planned and
ordered the city's mayor to pay $6,500 out of his own pocket for
trying to stop it.
(AP, 6/26/05)
2005 Jun 27, A military court
convicted Wahid Taysir, a former Israeli soldier, of manslaughter in
the killing of Tom Hurndall, a pro-Palestinian British activist on
Apr 11, 2003. Taysir, a member of Israel's Bedouin Arab minority,
charged the army with racism, saying he was prosecuted because he is
an Arab and his victim was a foreigner.
(AP, 6/27/05)
2005 Jun 29, Extremist
opponents of Israel's Gaza pullout plan scattered nails and oil
across a main highway during morning rush hour, bringing traffic to
a halt in the first of a wave of violent demonstrations planned
throughout the day.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 29, Hezbollah
guerrillas attacked Israeli forces in a disputed part of the south
Lebanon border, wounding six soldiers and triggering an Israeli
airstrike. The Israeli strike killed Hezbollah guerrilla Milhem
Hassan Salhab (35).
(AP, 6/30/05)(AP, 7/4/05)
2005 Jun 30, The Israeli
military isolated the Gaza Strip, declaring it a "closed military
zone" to prevent Jewish extremists from going in.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jun 30, An ultra-Orthodox
Jew stabbed and wounded two marchers in the annual Jerusalem Gay
Pride parade.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 Jul 1, Egypt and Israel
signed a commercial agreement committing Egypt to export natural gas
to Israel.
(Econ, 3/28/09,
p.56)(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/egisgas.html)
2005 Jul 8, An Israeli security
guard shot dead a Palestinian teenager during a protest against
Israel's West Bank separation barrier.
(AP, 7/9/05)
2005 Jul 11, Deputy PM Shimon
Peres said Israel is asking the US for $2.2 billion in additional
aid to help fund its upcoming withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and
parts of the West Bank.
(AP, 7/11/05)
2005 Jul 12, Sami Abu Khalil
(18), from the West Bank village of Atil, detonated 22 pounds of
explosives strapped to his body outside a shopping mall in Netanya.
He killed two 16-year-old girls and a 31-year-old woman. A
50-year-old woman died in the hospital the next day.
(AP, 7/13/05)
2005 Jul 13, Israeli troops
reoccupied the West Bank city of Tulkarem early, killing a
Palestinian policeman in a firefight and arresting five Islamic
Jihad activists after the militant group killed four Israelis in a
suicide bombing.
(AP, 7/13/05)
2005 Jul 15, The Israeli
military launched an airstrike at a van carrying a group of Hamas
militants and a cache of homemade rockets in a Gaza City street,
killing 4 people.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2005 Jul 16, Israeli troops
raided towns across the West Bank, arresting 26 suspected
Palestinian militants. Israeli aircraft launched a series of
airstrikes in Gaza City and the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.
(AP, 7/16/05)
2005 Jul 19, Israeli police
encircled thousands of Gaza withdrawal opponents, confining them to
a fenced-in farming village to prevent them from marching to the
nearby Gaza Strip. Israeli and Palestinian leaders announced a fresh
truce.
(AP, 7/19/05)(Econ, 7/23/05, p.41)
2005 Jul 24, Palestinian
militants killed two Israeli motorists in the Gaza Strip. Israeli
troops killed 2 of the gunmen. A suicide bomber was caught near an
Israeli communal farm with a belt packed with 11 pounds of
explosives.
(AP, 7/24/05)(WSJ, 7/25/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 25, Israel expressed
outrage that Pope Benedict XVI failed to condemn terrorist attacks
against Israelis. Pope Benedict urged dialogue with the best
elements of Islam.
(SFC, 7/26/05, p.A3)
2005 Jul 26, Officials said
Jerusalem planners have approved the construction of a new Jewish
neighborhood in the city's Muslim Quarter.
(AP, 7/26/05)
2005 Jul 27, Israeli troops
killed a Palestinian stone-thrower during an arrest raid that caught
a wanted Islamic Jihad militant in this West Bank town.
(AP, 7/27/05)
2005 Jul, Israel’s Knesset
passed capital market reforms.
(Econ, 7/30/05, p.68)
2005 Aug 3, Islamic Jihad, a
major Palestinian militant group, declared that it would fire no
more rockets at Israelis through Israel's planned Gaza Strip
withdrawal, after a deadly barrage inadvertently killed a 5-year-old
Palestinian boy.
(AP, 8/3/05)
2005 Aug 4, Israel announced
plans to expand a settlement near Jerusalem even as it prepares to
withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/4/05)
2005 Aug 4, Eden Natan Zada
(19), an Israeli soldier absent without leave, opened fire while
riding a bus in Shfaram, killing 4 Israeli Arabs and wounding 13. A
video released later shows him being beaten to death by the crowd
immediately after, while he was still on the bus.
(AP, 8/4/05)(SFC, 8/5/05,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eden_Natan-Zada)
2005 Aug 7, Israeli Finance
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resigned from his post to protest next
week's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank.
(AP, 8/7/05)
2005 Aug 11, An ex-soldier was
sentenced to eight years in prison for fatally shooting British
activist Tom Hurndall in April, 2003. It was the first case in which
an Israeli soldier was convicted of killing a foreigner during more
than four years of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
(AP, 8/11/05)
2005 Aug 13, For the first time
in a decade, the founders and top political leaders of Hamas
gathered on the same stage, vowing to go on fighting Israel and
claiming victory for its impending withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/13/05)
2005 Aug 14, Israel sealed the
Gaza Strip to Israeli civilians, signaling the start of the historic
withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2005 Aug 15, Israel began to
pull out from the Gaza Strip after 38 years of occupation. Asher
Weisgen (Weisgan), an Israeli settler, murdered four Palestinians
under his employ and wounded a fifth near Shilo in an effort to
prevent Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. On Sep 27, 2006,
Weisgan was sentenced to 4 consecutive life terms plus 12 years and
ordered to pay $53,000 to the families of those killed and $23,000
to Rauhi Kassab, who survived.
(AP,
8/15/05)(http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/135780/index.php)
2005 Aug 16, Israeli security
forces clashed with hundreds of opponents of Israel's withdrawal
from the Gaza Strip, arresting dozens of people in the roughest
confrontation between troops and settlers since the start of the
operation.
(AP, 8/16/05)
2005 Aug 17, Israeli troops
entered Gaza's largest synagogue to remove hundreds of worshippers,
who had formed long lines and swayed in prayer. A right-wing West
Bank settler opposed to Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip set
herself on fire in southern Israel, suffering life-threatening burns
on 70% of her body.
(AP, 8/17/05)
2005 Aug 18, Israeli forces
stormed the synagogue Neve Dekalim to remove about 1,500 protesters
inside. This was the main synagogue of the Gaza Strip Jewish
settlement and one of the last bastions of resistance to the Gaza
pullout.
(AP, 8/18/05)
2005 Aug 20, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas signed a decree appropriating Jewish settlement land
and scheduled elections for Jan 25. In a challenge to Abbas, dozens
of masked Hamas gunmen took over Gaza City's central square and
announced they would not stop attacks on Israel, despite Israel's
ongoing withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/20/05)(SSFC, 8/21/05, p.A13)
2005 Aug 21, Thousands of
troops poured into four Gaza settlements, the final phase of
removing settlers from the coastal strip.
(AP, 8/21/05)
2005 Aug 22, The last Jewish
settlers left Gaza, making way for the Palestinian government.
(AP, 8/22/06)
2005 Aug 22, The Greek Orthodox
Church in the Holy Land elected a new patriarch to succeed their
ousted leader, who fell from grace over a controversial east
Jerusalem land deal.
(AP, 8/22/05)
2005 Aug 23, Israeli soldiers
cleared 2 militant strongholds without major violence, completing
the country's historic evacuation of 25 settlements in the Gaza
Strip and West Bank.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 24, Israel and Egypt
reached an agreement to have 750 Egyptian troops take control of a
volatile Egypt-Gaza border area from Israeli forces.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 24, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas said that the Israeli Army is expected to
leave the Gaza Strip by Oct. 4 at the latest.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 25, An Israeli
military raid on the West Bank refugee camp of Tulkarem left five
militants dead. Palestinians said at least two of the dead were
unarmed teenagers who were neighbors of the wanted men but didn't
belong to any militant group. An Orthodox Jewish man was stabbed to
death in Jerusalem.
(AP, 8/25/05)
2005 Aug 28, In Israel Omri
Sharon, the oldest son of PM Ariel Sharon, was indicted on
corruption charges in connection with 1999 fund-raising activities
for one of his father's election campaigns.
(AP, 8/28/05)
2005 Aug 28, In Israel a
suicide bomber blew himself up outside the central bus station in
Beersheba during morning rush hour, critically wounding two security
guards.
(AP, 8/28/05)
2005 Aug, Samar Sabih (22),
Hamas' first female bomb maker, was arrested by Israeli security at
her home in the West Bank town of Tulkarem. The university graduate
was recruited in Gaza and sent to the West Bank to teach others to
assemble explosives. Security officials noted a sharp rise in the
use of women by militant groups in the past two years.
(AP, 10/11/05)
2005 Sep 1, The foreign
ministers of Israel and Pakistan, a Muslim country that has long
taken a hard line against the Jewish state, met publicly for the
first time, a diplomatic breakthrough that both ministers linked to
Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 9/1/05)
2005 Sep 2, Israel's vice
premier, Ehud Olmert, said Israel has frozen plans to expand its
largest West Bank settlement and will only revive the project with
US consent.
(AP, 9/2/05)
2005 Sep 20, Simon Wiesenthal
(96), the Holocaust survivor who helped track down Nazi war
criminals following World War II, then spent the later decades of
his life fighting anti-Semitism and prejudice against all people,
died in Austria. In 2010 Tom Segev authored “Simon Wiesenthal: The
Life and Legends.”
(AP, 9/20/05)(Econ, 9/24/05, p.102)(SSFC,
10/3/10, p.F5)
2005 Sep 6, Israel said it its
has authorized construction of 117 homes in one of the West Bank's
largest settlements and approved preliminary plans for another 3,000
housing units there, despite repeated US appeals to freeze
settlement expansion.
(AP, 9/6/05)
2005 Sep 11, Israel's Cabinet
voted unanimously to end its 38-year occupation of the Gaza Strip,
clearing the way to complete the country's withdrawal from the area
and turn it over to Palestinian control.
(AP, 9/11/05)
2005 Sep 15, Israel called for
wider meetings with Arab nations and said efforts were under way to
arrange summit talks with Qatar, a day after Qatar urged the Arab
world to open up to the Jewish state following its Gaza Strip
withdrawal.
(AP, 9/15/05)
2005 Sep 15, Israel's Supreme
Court upheld the legality of Israel's West Bank security barrier,
rejecting a ruling by the International Court of Justice that the
barrier violates Palestinian rights and should be torn down. It also
ruled that part of the barrier imposed major hardship on Palestinian
villagers and must be rerouted.
(AP, 9/15/05)(SFC, 9/16/05, p.A7)
2005 Sep 16, Israeli PM Ariel
Sharon met with Jordan's King Abdullah II, their first talks in
months and a further sign of warming relations between the Jewish
state and the Arab world after Israel's Gaza withdrawal.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 20, Hundreds of
Ethiopians who claim their ancestors were forced to convert from
Judaism began a three-day hunger strike at a prayer house to press
the Israeli government to let them migrate to the Jewish state.
(AP, 9/21/05)
2005 Sep 22, Israelis left a
West Bank base used as a staging area to remove settlers and
soldiers killed a Palestinian teenager who entered the base early.
(WSJ, 9/23/05, p.A1)
2005 Sep 23, In Gaza’s Jebaliya
refugee camp a truck filled with masked militants and homemade
weapons exploded at a Hamas rally, killing at least 15 Palestinians
and wounding 80, including children. Hamas blamed Israel and
unleashed a barrage of rocket fire that lasted through the night.
(AP, 9/24/05)(SSFC, 9/25/05, A3)
2005 Sep 24, Israel killed at
least two Hamas militants in a missile strike and moved artillery
cannons to the Gaza border, launching what it vowed would be a
"crushing" response to a Hamas rocket barrage on Israeli towns. An
air strike caused heavy damage to the Al-Arkam school run by Hamas.
(AP, 9/24/05)(SSFC, 9/25/05, A3)
2005 Sep 25, Israeli aircraft
blasted suspected Palestinian weapons facilities in Gaza and
authorities arrested hundreds of militants in the West Bank,
launching an offensive against the Islamic group Hamas after it
bombarded Israeli towns with rockets. Hamas announced it would no
longer use Gaza Strip as a staging ground for attacks against
Israel.
(AP, 9/25/05)(SFC, 9/26/05, A4)
2005 Sep 26, Israeli aircraft
attacked suspected weapons factories throughout the Gaza Strip,
pushing forward an offensive against Palestinian militants despite a
pledge by a top Hamas leader to halt rocket fire against Israel.
(AP, 9/26/05)
2005 Sep 27, Israel hit Gaza
with shells and airstrikes to suppress rocket fire and detained 379
West Bank militants in an overnight sweep against Hamas and Islamic
Jihad activists.
(AP, 9/27/05)(WSJ, 9/28/05, p.A1)
2005 Sep 28, Widening its
five-day campaign against Palestinian militants, Israel for the
first time fired live artillery shells into the Gaza Strip and shut
down 15 West Bank offices suspected of distributing money to
families of suicide bombers.
(AP, 9/28/05)
2005 Sep 29, Israeli soldiers
killed 3 Palestinian gunmen in arrest raids in the West Bank,
pressing on with a major offensive against militants even as
Palestinian officials said they have begun enforcing a ban on public
weapons displays.
(AP, 9/29/05)
2005 Sep 30, Israeli troops
killed two Palestinian militants in a shootout, while Palestinian
leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement made an unexpectedly strong
showing against rival Hamas in local elections in dozens of West
Bank towns and villages.
(AP, 9/30/05)
2005 Oct 2, Israel suspended
its offensive into the Gaza Strip following a lull in rocket fire by
Palestinian militants, but it is ready to restart the operation if
attacks resume.
(AP, 10/2/05)
2005 Oct 4, A Palestinian woman
brandishing a knife stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier at a
checkpoint outside the West Bank city of Nablus before other
soldiers shot and killed her.
(AP, 10/4/05)
2005 Oct 5, Lawrence Franklin
(58), a Pentagon employee, admitted in court he provided classified
defense information to an Israeli diplomat and two employees of
(AIPAC), a pro-Israel lobby group in 2003-2004. In 2006 Franklin was
sentenced to over 12 years in prison.
(AFP, 10/6/05)(SFC, 1/21/06, p.A4)
2005 Oct 9, Three Israeli Arabs
pleaded guilty to planning to plant bombs on a commuter train track
and discussing bombing Tel Aviv's Azrieli Towers, the tallest
buildings in Israel.
(AP, 10/9/05)
2005 Oct 10, Israeli forces
caught a 14-year-old boy whom militants tried to push into becoming
a suicide bomber.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 11, A Turkish company
signed an agreement to build a $360 million power station in
southern Israel. An Israeli Cabinet minister praised such deals as
examples of strengthening ties between the Muslim and Jewish
countries.
(AP, 10/11/05)
2005 Oct 11, Israeli forces
disguised as vegetable vendors in Tsurif captured Ibrahim Ighnimat
(47), a senior Hamas operative, who had been on the run for eight
years.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 15, Israeli painter
Efraim Reuytenberg (91), known for infusing Chinese influences and
bold colors into his work, died in Israel.
(AP, 10/20/05)
2005 Oct 16, Palestinian gunmen
killed three Israelis and wounded five in drive-by attacks near
Jewish settlements.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 17, Israel suspended
negotiations with the Palestinian Authority on issues such as
prisoner releases and slapped tough travel restrictions on the West
Bank after Palestinian gunmen killed three Israelis and wounded five
a day earlier.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 26, A Palestinian
suicide bomber struck a food stand in the Israeli town of Hadera,
killing 5 people, wounding at least 30 and leaving a path of
destruction at an open air market.
(AP, 10/26/05)
2005 Oct 26, Iran’s Pres.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared that Israel was a "disgraceful blot"
and should be "wiped off the map." He also said a new wave of
Palestinian attacks will destroy the Jewish state.
(AP, 10/26/05)(AP, 10/26/06)
2005 Oct 27, Israeli troops
entered the West Bank town of Jenin and witnesses said they arrested
a local leader of Islamic Jihad, pushing forward with an offensive
against the Palestinian militant group following a suicide bombing
that killed five Israelis.
(AP, 10/27/05)
2005 Oct 27, Israeli forces
fired missiles in a Gaza refugee camp after nightfall, killing two
people including a leading Islamic Jihad militant.
(AP, 10/27/05)
2005 Oct 29, Israeli aircraft
fired missiles at open areas in northern Gaza and ground troops set
up a second artillery battery near the coastal strip, part of an
intensifying campaign against Palestinian rocket fire.
(AP, 10/29/05)
2005 Oct 30, Palestinian
officials said they have agreed with Israel to halt nearly a week of
fighting after militant groups pledged to halt rocket fire on
southern Israeli towns.
(AP, 10/30/05)
2005 Oct 30, Israeli troops
killed 3 Palestinian militants, including the suspected mastermind
of a suicide attack, in a West Bank raid just hours after the two
sides had reached a tentative new truce deal.
(AP, 10/31/05)
2005 Nov 1, Israel's Yad Vashem
Holocaust Memorial opened a Holocaust film library with help from
Hollywood director Steven Spielberg.
(AP, 11/1/05)
2005 Nov 1, An Israeli missile
strike on a car killed two Palestinians in the Jebaliya refugee
camp, Hassan Madhoun (37), a leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades
and Fawzi Abu al-Karei (32), top man of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam
Brigades, the militant wing of Hamas.
(AP, 11/1/05)(SFC, 11/2/05, p.A12)(Econ, 11/5/05,
p.50)
2005 Nov 3, Israeli soldiers
shot and critically wounded a 13-year-old Palestinian boy who threw
stones at troops patrolling Jenin. The boy died Nov 5. The parents
of the Palestinian boy donated his organs to three Israeli children
waiting for transplants.
(AP, 11/3/05)(AP, 11/5/05)(AP, 11/7/05)
2005 Nov 5, Israeli
archaeologists said they have discovered what may be the oldest
Christian church in the Holy Land on the grounds of a prison near
the biblical site of Armageddon. The Israeli Antiquities Authority
said the ruins are believed to date back to the third or fourth
centuries and include references to Jesus and images of fish, an
ancient Christian symbol.
(AP, 11/5/05)
2005 Nov 8, Israel's rescue
service welcomed a proposal by the international Red Cross to
introduce a new emblem that will pave the way for Israel's inclusion
into the lifesaving organization.
(AP, 11/8/05)
2005 Nov 9, Archeologists
reported that 2 lines of an alphabet have been found inscribed in a
stone in Israel, offering what some scholars say is the most solid
evidence yet that the ancient Israelites were literate as early as
the 10th century B.C. The stone was found in July, on the final day
of a five-week dig at Tel Zayit, about 30 miles south of Tel Aviv.
(AP, 11/10/05)
2005 Nov 14, Israeli troops
killed Amjad Hanawi (34), a senior Hamas militant, during an early
raid and arrest attempt in Nablus.
(AP, 11/14/05)
2005 Nov 15, Prodded by US Sec.
of State Condoleezza Rice, Israel and the Palestinians agreed on
details for opening the borders of the Gaza Strip and allowing freer
movement for Palestinians elsewhere.
(AP, 11/15/05)
2005 Nov 15, Israeli PM Ariel
Sharon's eldest son pleaded guilty to illegal fund-raising charges
stemming from his father's 1999 election campaign.
(AP, 11/15/05)
2005 Nov 17, Israeli President
Moshe Katsav met with Pope Benedict XVI and other top Roman Catholic
officials to discuss a long-standing tax dispute that has irritated
relations between Israel and the Holy See.
(AP, 11/17/05)
2005 Nov 17, Israeli forces
killed two Palestinian militants during a West Bank arrest raid,
riddling their car with bullets when it tried to run a roadblock
outside the town of Jenin.
(AP, 11/17/05)
2005 Nov 20, Israel's dovish
Labor Party voted Sunday to pull out of PM Ariel Sharon's coalition
government, virtually assuring early general elections in March.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 21, PM Ariel Sharon
asked Israel's president to dissolve parliament, pushing for a quick
March election just hours after deciding to leave his hard-line
Likud Party and to form a new centrist party.
(AP, 11/21/05)
2005 Nov 21, Hezbollah
guerrillas in Lebanon fired mortars and rockets at Israeli troops in
a disputed border area, the first clash between the two sides in
five months. 4 Hezbollah guerrillas were killed in raids meant to
capture Israeli troops along the Lebanon border.
(AP, 11/21/05)(WSJ, 11/22/05, p.A1)
2005 Nov 22, Israeli warplanes
struck in Lebanon in what Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz
described as the largest-scale Israeli response to cross-border
attacks by Lebanese guerrillas since 2000.
(AP, 11/22/05)
2005 Nov 23, Hezbollah
guerrillas clashed with Israeli soldiers on the southern Lebanese
border.
(AP, 11/23/05)
2005 Nov 24, In Israel Ariel
Sharon's fledgling political party "Forward" officially registered
itself.
(AP, 11/24/05)
2005 Nov 24, The anti-terror
bureau of PM Ariel Sharon's office issued an unprecedented alert,
warning that Hezbollah has launched an effort to kidnap Israelis
anywhere in the world.
(AP, 11/26/05)
2005 Nov 24, Iyad Abu Rob, a
top Islamic Jihad militant, surrendered to Israeli soldiers in
Jenin. In a separate operation, 2 wanted men surrendered after
Israeli troops surrounded two houses in the village of Kfar Kalil
near Nablus. Another man was shot, but his condition was not known.
(AP, 11/24/05)
2005 Nov 25, Israel handed over
the remains of three Hezbollah guerrillas to Lebanon in a bid to
defuse tensions after fierce border clashes, but Hezbollah's leader
said his group will keep trying to kidnap Israeli soldiers.
(AP, 11/25/05)
2005 Nov 30, Shimon Peres quit
Israel's Labor Party, his political home of six decades, to campaign
for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new organization. Israel's
Supreme Court ruled that a suspected Israeli mob boss, described by
US prosecutors as one of the world's most wanted drug traffickers,
can be extradited to the US.
(AP, 11/30/05)(AP, 11/30/06)
2005 Dec 2, Israeli officials
said Palestinians have allowed up to 15 militants wanted by Israel
to return to the Gaza Strip, violating a U.S.-brokered agreement
that was to have let Israel monitor who enters the area from Egypt.
(AP, 12/02/05)
2005 Dec 4, Israeli aircraft
fired missiles at an abandoned building and a rocket launching
ground in the northern Gaza Strip in the first aerial attack on Gaza
in more than a month.
(AP, 12/04/05)
2005 Dec 5, A Palestinian
suicide bomber blew himself up among shoppers waiting to enter a
mall in the Israeli town of Netanya, killing at least 5 people and
wounding more than 30 others.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 6, Israel clamped an
open-ended closure on the West Bank and Gaza, banning virtually all
Palestinians from Israel, and arrested 15 Palestinian militants in a
first response to the suicide bombing that killed five Israelis
outside a shopping mall.
(AP, 12/06/05)
2005 Dec 7, An Israeli aircraft
fired a missile at a car carrying Palestinian militants, killing at
least one militant and wounding 10 others.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 8, An Israeli
airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip killed two Palestinian
militants and a Palestinian stabbing attack killed an Israeli in the
West Bank in a new spasm of violence.
(AP, 12/08/05)
2005 Dec 9, Israel rounded up
19 Islamic militants in the West Bank and pounded the Gaza Strip
with artillery fire, pressing forward with a crackdown in the wake
of a suicide bombing at a shopping mall this week.
(AP, 12/09/05)
2005 Dec 14, Israel’s the
Defense Ministry said it has approved construction of hundreds of
new homes in West Bank settlements, confirming what would be a
violation of the U.S.-backed peace plan.
(AP, 12/14/05)
2005 Dec 14, The Israeli
military fired a missile at a car in northern Gaza it said was
packed with militants about to carry out an attack. Four
Palestinians were killed and four were wounded.
(AP, 12/14/05)
2005 Dec 17, An explosion in
the southern Gaza Strip killed a militant who fired homemade rockets
at Israel and wounded three other people.
(AP, 12/18/05)
2005 Dec 18, Israeli PM Ariel
Sharon suffered a mild stroke.
(AP, 12/18/06)
2005 Dec 19, Israel's battered
Likud Party chose Benjamin Netanyahu to run against Ariel Sharon in
March elections, and the former Israeli prime minister pledged to
bring the party back to power.
(AP, 12/19/05)
2005 Dec 22, Tali Fahima (28),
an Israeli woman, was sentenced to three years in prison for aiding
a Palestinian gunman and relaying information to the enemy.
(AP, 12/22/05)
2005 Dec 22, Israeli troops
shot and killed three Palestinian militants, including Bashar Hanani
(29), the local leader of a small radical faction, during an arrest
raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 12/22/05)(SFC, 12/23/05, p.A15)
2005 Dec 26, Israel said it
will build more than 200 new homes in Jewish West Bank settlements,
a blow to peace efforts despite word that Ariel Sharon's new party
plans a major push for Palestinian statehood if it wins upcoming
elections.
(AP, 12/26/05)
2005 Dec 27, The Israeli
military fired a barrage of artillery and missiles at the Gaza
Strip, hitting two offices of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and a
bridge the army said was used by militants to reach areas where they
fire rockets.
(AP, 12/27/05)
2005 Dec 27, Three rockets
landed in a residential area of a northern Israeli town near the
Lebanese border, damaging some property but causing no injuries.
(AP, 12/27/05)
2005 Dec 28, Israeli jets
blasted a Palestinian militant group's base a few miles outside
Beirut, hours after rockets fired from Lebanon hit a northern
Israeli border town.
(AP, 12/28/05)
2005 Dec 29, A Palestinian
suicide bomber trying to enter Israel blew himself at a military
checkpoint set up to foil attackers, killing an Israeli soldier and
two other Palestinians.
(AP, 12/29/05)
2005 Dec 31, Two Palestinians
were killed in Israel's first deadly airstrike in a Gaza border area
it recently put off-limits, just as a truce that has drastically
reduced violence between the two sides formally ended.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2005 Dec 31, In Egypt several
Sudanese migrants injured when police violently cleared a ramshackle
camp died later from their wounds, raising the death toll from the
clash to 25. Sudanese refugees began trickling across the border to
Israel following the clashes.
(AP, 12/31/05)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.45)
2005 Yehezkel Dror, an Israeli
political scientist, authored “Epistle to an Israeli
Jewish-Zionist,” in which he set out two contrasting visions of how
his country might look in 2040.
(Econ, 4/5/08, SR p.3)
2005 Some 200 Sudanese fleeing
the bloodshed in Darfur made their way to Israel, where they were
placed under low-security lockup.
(SFC, 6/9/06, p.A14)
2006 Jan 2, An Israeli
intelligence report said Palestinians have smuggled anti-aircraft
missiles into the Gaza Strip along with tons of other military
hardware since Israel withdrew in September.
(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 2, A car exploded in
northern Gaza after nightfall, killing at least one Palestinian.
Witnesses said an Israeli aircraft was overhead.
(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 4, Israel’s PM Ariel
Sharon was rushed to an operating room to staunch a brain
hemorrhage; his official powers were transferred to his deputy, Ehud
Olmert.
(WSJ, 1/5/06, p.A1)(AP, 1/4/07)
2006 Jan 5, Israel’s PM Ariel
Sharon (77) fought for his life following seven hours of emergency
surgery to stop widespread bleeding in his brain. The massive stroke
made it unlikely that he would return to power. Vice Premier Ehud
Olmert was named acting PM and convened the Cabinet for a special
session.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 6, Israel’s PM Ariel
Sharon had emergency brain surgery for five hours after doctors
detected further bleeding and increasing pressure.
(AP, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 9, Israel permitted
Palestinian politicians to campaign in disputed Jerusalem, reversing
an initial ban and clearing an obstacle to holding Palestinian
parliament elections on Jan. 25.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 12, A Palestinian
militant blew himself up and two other Palestinians were killed in a
gunbattle with Israeli troops during an arrest raid in the West Bank
town of Jenin.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 15, Israel’s acting PM
Ehud Olmert faced his first major test when he led his Cabinet in a
unanimous decision to let Palestinians vote in Jerusalem later this
month.
(AP, 1/15/06)
2006 Jan 16, Israeli police
seized buildings and rooftops in a Jewish settler enclave in Hebron,
restoring order after three days of riots sparked by plans to evict
Israeli squatters from an abandoned Palestinian market.
(AP, 1/16/06)
2006 Jan 18, Former PM Shimon
Peres said Israel would be ready to open negotiations with the
Palestinians on a permanent peace accord after Israeli elections on
March 28.
(AP, 1/18/06)
2006 Jan 19, A Palestinian
suicide bomber blew himself up at a Tel Aviv fast-food stand,
killing himself and wounding 15 people.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 22, An Israeli
aircraft fired at three Palestinian gunmen trying to infiltrate
Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing one man and wounding the other
two.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 28, Rabbi Yitzhak
Kadouri (106), a leader of the Kabbalah school of Jewish mystical
thought who wielded great influence over Israeli politics, died in
Jerusalem.
(AP, 1/30/06)
2006 Jan 30, European Union
foreign ministers called on Hamas to recognize the state of Israel,
renounce violence and disarm. “It is the view of the Quartet (UN,
EU, American and Russia) that all members of a future Palestinian
government must be committed to nonviolence, recognition of Israel,
and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations, including the
Roadmap. We urge both parties to respect their existing agreements,
including on movement and access."
(AP, 1/30/06)(http://tinyurl.com/fut5w)
2006 Jan 31, Israeli troops
killed two Islamic Jihad militants, including Nidal Abu Saada, the
group's top leader in the West Bank, during a shootout that erupted
during an arrest raid.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Feb 1, Israeli forces
completed the evacuation of the Amona West Bank settlement outpost,
ending a violent operation in which dozens of people were injured in
clashes between police and Jewish settlers.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 1, Israel said it
froze this month's transfer of $45 million in tax rebates and
customs payments to the Palestinian Authority while it reviews its
options following the Hamas victory in last week's parliamentary
election. A senior Palestinian official said Saudi Arabia and Qatar
pledged Wednesday to transfer millions to ease the crisis.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 2, Lebanese officials
said the bullet-ridden body of a 15-year-old shepherd was found in
disputed territory occupied by Israel.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 3, Hezbollah
guerrillas attacked an Israeli military position in a disputed part
of the south Lebanon border, provoking a swift Israeli airstrike on
suspected Hezbollah sites.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 3, A study by the
Israeli Research Institute for Economic and Social Affairs
determined that more than $14 billion has been spent on West Bank
settlements since capturing the territory in 1967.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 4, A Palestinian man
stabbed five people on a minibus in central Israel, killing one
woman before passengers subdued him.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 5, Israeli aircraft
fired three missiles at a building used by militants in Gaza City,
killing three people and wounding five.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 5, Israel agreed to
make a crucial payment of $54 million in tax and customs revenues to
the Palestinians, but officials said future transfers will be halted
once Hamas militants form the next Palestinian government.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 6, Israeli forces
fired a missile at a car in the northern Gaza Strip after nightfall
killing two Palestinian militants, including a man described as a
senior commander.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 8, A dispute over the
fate of an ancient Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem threatened to ignite
tensions as workers removed skeletons from the site despite Muslim
pleas for the work to end. Israeli developers and archaeologists
were removing the tombs to make room for the Los Angeles-based Simon
Wiesenthal Center to build a multi-million-dollar Museum of
Tolerance, dedicated in part to promoting understanding among
different religions.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 14, An Israeli court
sentenced the eldest son of ailing PM Ariel Sharon to 9 months in
jail after he pleaded guilty to illegally raising funds for one of
his father's political campaigns.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, The NY Times
reported that the US and Israel are considering a campaign to starve
the Palestinian Authority of cash so Palestinians would grow
disillusioned with their incoming militant Hamas rulers and return
ousted Fatah moderates to power.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 19, Israel's Cabinet
approved an immediate freeze on the transfer of hundreds of millions
of dollars in tax money to the Palestinians in its first response to
the takeover of the Palestinian parliament by the militant group
Hamas.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, An Israeli
aircraft attacked two Palestinians laying a bomb near the
Gaza-Israel border fence. Palestinians said two militants were
killed.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 22, Iran offered to
help finance a Palestinian Authority run by the Hamas militant
group, state radio said in a report that brought a quick warning
from Israel that it would do all it could legally to stop the
Palestinians from receiving the money.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 23, Israeli troops
killed five Palestinians, including three fugitive gunmen, and
seriously wounded a sixth man during an arrest sweep in the Balata
refugee camp. The sweep, which began Feb 20, left a total of 8
Palestinians dead and over 50 injured.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 24, Israel's air force
fired a missile at a group of Palestinian militants firing rockets
at Israeli targets.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 27, Israel said it
will not hold peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
because he is powerless to enforce agreements while the Islamic
militant group Hamas controls his government.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Mar 1, An explosion in a
car in Gaza City killed rocket maker Khaled Dahdouh (45), Islamic
Jihad's top military commander in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli
military, which carries out pinpointed attacks against militants in
the coastal strip, said it was not involved. Palestinian militants
shot and killed a Jewish settler traveling on a road near the
settlement of Tapuah.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 2, South Africa joined
a growing list of countries inviting Hamas leaders for talks,
raising Israeli concerns that the international front against the
Islamic militants is crumbling.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 3, An Israeli couple
set off a series of firecrackers in the Basilica of the Annunciation
in Nazareth. The church was built on the site where Christians
believe the Angel Gabriel appeared before the Virgin Mary and
foretold the birth of Jesus.
(AP, 3/4/06)(WSJ, 3/4/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 3, Israeli troops shot
and killed a Palestinian teenager and wounded a second person during
an early morning raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 5, A top political
ally said Israel’s acting PM Ehud Olmert plans to withdraw from more
West Bank settlements immediately after forming the next government
and to set Israel's final borders within four years if it wins
upcoming elections.
(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 6, Zeev Rosenstein
(51), a suspected Israeli mob boss, was extradited to the US.
Rosenstein was suspected in the distribution of more than 1 million
Ecstasy pills in the US, mostly in NY and Miami.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 6, Israeli aircraft
blew up a truck carrying Islamic Jihad militants, killing two of
them and three bystanders, including two children. The Israeli
military confirmed it attacked the truck, saying the target was one
of the dead men, Islamic Jihad operative Moner Sukar, who had
carried out rocket attacks against Israel.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 7, Ehud Olmert, the
acting Israeli premier, pledged a drastic cut in spending on Jewish
settlements in the West Bank.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 10, Acting PM Ehud
Olmert presented a sweeping vision for Israel's future in published
interviews, saying he will dismantle most West Bank settlements,
fortify remaining settlement blocs and set the nation's borders by
2010.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 14, Israel’s acting PM
Ehud Olmert pledged to annex the Ariel Jewish settlement deep in the
West Bank, a message aimed at appeasing settlers alarmed by his
plans to withdraw from large parts of the West Bank over the next
four years.
(AP, 3/14/06)
2006 Mar 14, Israeli forces
driving bulldozers and firing tank shells and missiles burst into a
Palestinian prison and removed dozens of inmates in a raid targeting
prisoners convicted of killing an Israeli Cabinet minister.
Palestinian gunmen kidnapped an American teacher at a university in
the West Bank following the raid by Israeli forces. A UN aid agency
and the International Committee of the Red Cross said they were
temporarily pulling all foreign staff out of the West Bank and Gaza,
after gunmen kidnapped nine foreigners in just a few hours.
(AP, 3/14/06)(Econ, 3/18/06, p.49)
2006 Mar 15, Palestinian
militants released the last four foreigners they had seized a day
earlier to protest an Israeli military raid on a West Bank prison.
Meanwhile, Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas called the raid an
"unforgivable crime."
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 16, Israeli troops
surrounded two houses in the West Bank town of Jenin, setting off a
fierce gunbattle with Palestinian militants that left one Israeli
soldier dead and forced the surrender of five wanted men.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 17, Israel set up a
quarantine and destroyed flocks after bird flu was found at 2 turkey
farms.
(WSJ, 3/18/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 21, Israel reopened
the Gaza Strip's main cargo crossing to alleviate a food shortage in
the area.
(AP, 3/21/06)
2006 Mar 21, Israel indicted
two West Bank Palestinians on charges of belonging to al-Qaida and
plotting to carry out a double bombing for the group in Jerusalem,
the first time Palestinians have been formally linked to the terror
network.
(AP, 3/21/06)
2006 Mar 22, Israeli troops
raided the Aqwar Jaba West Bank refugee camp, killing a wanted
Palestinian militant and forcing two others to surrender.
(AP, 3/22/06)
2006 Mar 28, Israelis voted in
an election billed as a referendum on the future of the West Bank,
with the leading candidate, acting PM Ehud Olmert, promising to pull
back from most of the territory and draw Israel's final borders by
2010. The Kadima Party won the parliamentary elections. Two Israelis
were killed in an explosion in southern Israel near the Gaza Strip
border.
(AP, 3/28/06)(AP, 3/28/07)
2006 Mar 29, After declaring
victory in Israel's elections, acting PM Ehud Olmert's Kadima Party
said it would quickly form a broad ruling coalition that will carry
out its plan to pull out of much of the West Bank and draw Israel's
borders by 2010.
(AP, 3/29/06)
2006 Mar 30, A Palestinian
militant killed four Israelis in a suicide bombing in the West Bank,
weeks after being released from a Palestinian prison.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Mar, Rabbinical leaders
announced that some 6,000 members of the Bnei Menashe tribe in
India's northeast were descendants of ancient Israelites or one of
the Biblical 10 lost tribes. In November 200 members of the tribe
moved to Israel.
(AFP, 11/16/06)
2006 Apr 4, Israeli warplanes
fired three missiles into the presidential compound of Palestinian
leader Mahmoud Abbas, wounding 2 people and leaving deep craters in
the ground.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2006 Apr 6, Israeli President
Moshe Katsav formally chose acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to
form Israel's next government.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 7, Israeli troops shot
and killed a Palestinian man during an overnight arrest raid in the
West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 7, Israeli missiles
slammed into a car in Gaza City, killing two members of a
Palestinian rocket squad in the 2nd deadly airstrike since the
Islamic militant group Hamas assumed power last week. An Israeli
airstrike killed six Palestinian militants and wounded five at a
militant training camp in central Gaza.
(AP, 4/8/06)(SFC, 4/8/06, p.A7)
2006 Apr 9, Israel's security
Cabinet recommended that the government cut all ties with the
Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, including Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas, and declare it a "hostile entity." Israeli artillery
fire killed a Palestinian police officer and wounded 16 people in
Gaza, as Israel escalated its retaliation for militant rocket
strikes and put pressure on the new Hamas-led government that
refuses to stop the attacks.
(AP, 4/9/06)
2006 Apr 10, Israel suspended
formal security ties with the Palestinians in a bid to further
isolate the new Hamas government one day after declaring it a
hostile entity.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 10, Hadil Ghaben (8)
was killed when 2 Israeli shells blew huge holes in a concrete block
house in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip. The girl's mother
and seven siblings were hurt in the attack.
(AP, 4/11/06)
2006 Apr 11, Israel's Cabinet
declared PM Ariel Sharon permanently incapacitated, officially
ending his five-year tenure.
(AP, 4/11/07)
2006 Apr 12, The Israeli army
killed to Al Aqsa infiltrators trying to enter from Gaza.
(WSJ, 4/13/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 17, Israeli soldiers
holed up in a home in Nablus opened fire on stone-throwing
protesters outside the building, wounding two people, including a
13-year-old boy. Sami Hammad, a Palestinian suicide bomber, blew
himself up outside a fast-food restaurant in Tel Aviv during the
Passover holiday, killing 9 other people and wounding at least 49 in
the deadliest Palestinian attack in more than a year. Islamic Jihad
claimed responsibility.
(AP, 4/17/06)(SFC, 4/18/06, p.A1)(Econ, 4/22/06,
p.47)
2006 Apr 18, Israel decided to
revoke the Jerusalem residency rights of four Hamas lawmakers, a
response to a suicide bombing that killed nine civilians in a Tel
Aviv restaurant. Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a metal workshop
in Gaza City.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 21, A senior military
commander said Israel is actively preparing to reoccupy the Gaza
Strip and a powerful lawmaker said the entire Palestinian Cabinet
could be targeted for assassination after the appointment of a
wanted militant to head a new security force.
(AP, 4/21/06)
2006 Apr 21, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas blocked Hamas' plans to set up a shadow
security force, which was to be made up of militants and to be
headed by the No. 2 on Israel's wanted list.
(AP, 4/21/06)
2006 Apr 23, Israeli forces
fired on a car of alleged militants in Bethlehem killing 2 people.
(WSJ, 4/24/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 25, Russia launched a
satellite for Israel that the Israelis say will be used to spy on
Iran's nuclear program.
(AP, 4/25/06)
2006 Apr 27, Israel's military
intelligence chief said in a published interview that Iran has
received its first batch of North Korean-made surface-to-surface
missiles that put European countries within firing range.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 27, Israeli aircraft
fired missiles at two cars in Gaza packed with rockets, killing one
Islamic Jihad militant and critically wounding another.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 27, Iran's UN
ambassador denounced Israel's election as a vice-chair of the U.N.
Disarmament Commission, calling the Jewish state a threat to peace
in the Middle East.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 28, A senior Israeli
military official said Palestinian militants have smuggled dozens of
Katyusha rockets into the Gaza Strip, potentially threatening towns
well inside Israel.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Apr 30, Israel's Cabinet
voted to modify the route of its West Bank separation barrier to put
thousands of Palestinians on the "Palestinian" side of the
enclosure.
(AP, 4/30/06)
2006 May 1, In Israel interim
PM Ehud Olmert announced his Cabinet appointments, naming Tzipi
Livni as vice premier and foreign minister. Israeli soldiers shot
and killed a Palestinian woman and wounded her two daughters when
they fired on a West Bank house that an Islamic Jihad militant was
hiding in.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 5, An Israeli air
strike killed 5 members of a group with close ties to the ruling
Hamas movement in a Gaza City neighborhood training ground for
militants.
(AP, 5/6/06)
2006 May 7, Israeli police
armed with batons evicted dozens of Jewish squatters from a
Palestinian home in West Bank city of Hebron, in an important test
for Israel's new government and its plans to uproot tens of
thousands of settlers.
(AP, 5/7/06)
2006 May 10, Israel said it
will give the Palestinians until the end of the year to prove they
are willing to negotiate a final peace deal, and will unilaterally
set its final borders by 2008 if they don't. Israeli and Palestinian
officials said the Israeli company that provides fuel to the
Palestinian areas is cutting off supplies due to growing debts.
Israel said it was willing to release millions of dollars in funds
it has withheld from the Palestinians and was considering easing
restrictions on the transport of goods between Israel and the Gaza
Strip.
(AP, 5/10/06)(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 10, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas said senior members of the rival Hamas and
Fatah factions had forged a joint platform, including acceptance of
a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 12, A Palestinian was
killed in a large Israeli raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 14, Israeli troops
raided a village in the West Bank, killing 5 Palestinians, including
a militant Israel blamed for several suicide bombings that have
killed dozens of Israelis.
(AP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 17, Israel's new
defense minister reopened the main cargo crossing between Israel and
the Gaza Strip, signaling a policy shift aimed at easing some of
Israel's security restrictions on the Palestinians.
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 17, The US Food and
Drug Administration said it approved Azilect, also called
rasagiline, for use as an initial single-drug therapy for early
Parkinson's disease. The FDA said Azilect, made by Teva
Pharmaceutical Industries of Israel, also has the potential to cause
involuntary movements, hallucinations and lowered blood pressure.
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 20, In Gaza City an
Israeli missile killed Mohammed Dadouh, the top military commander
of the militant group Islamic Jihad. A 2nd missile killed civilians:
3 generations of the Amen family, a grandmother, mother and son were
killed, and a 4-year-old daughter and uncle were paralyzed. The
Israeli Defense Ministry later decided to pay the Amen family’s
medical expenses as "special humanitarian treatment."
(AP, 6/8/06)
2006 May 21, The Israeli
Cabinet approved the transfer of $11 million worth of medicine and
health supplies to the Palestinians to help ease the deteriorating
humanitarian conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Officials
said that Israel has approved plans to expand four Jewish
settlements in the West Bank, a practice the United States has
opposed in the past.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 23, Pres. Bush met
with Israel’s OM Olmert and urged him to reach out to Abbas as an
alternative to dealing with Hamas.
(WSJ, 5/24/06, p.A1)
2006 May 23, Ibrahim Hamed
(41), a top Hamas military commander, surrendered in Ramallah after
Israeli troops surrounded his hideout and threatened to demolish it
with him inside. He was linked by Israel to attacks that killed 78
people, including five Americans.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 24, Fierce gunbattles
broke out between Israeli troops and Palestinians in the heart of
the West Bank city of Ramallah, killing two Palestinians and
wounding 30.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 26, In Lebanon
security officials said a car bomb killed Mahmoud Majzoub (41), a
leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and his brother Nidal (39).
Islamic Jihad vowed retaliation. The Iran-backed militant group had
persisted in attacking Israel while other major factions adhered to
a cease-fire. Islamic Jihad is led by Ramadan Shallah, a Palestinian
from Gaza who now lives in exile in Syria. It considers the 1979
Iranian Revolution to be the beginning of a new era for the Muslim
world and wants to turn all of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza into
an Islamic state. It rejects compromise with Israel.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 May 28, Lebanese
guerrillas fired a barrage of rockets into northern Israel, wounding
an Israeli soldier at a military base. Israel destroyed most of the
military positions of Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas along its
northern border. Rocket and artillery exchanges killed two
guerrillas in Lebanon and wounded two Israeli soldiers, two Lebanese
civilians and six militants.
(AP, 5/28/06)(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 29, Israel announced
it would fully participate in a NATO naval exercise for the first
time, bolstering defense ties with the Western military alliance in
the face of arch-foe Iran's nuclear program.
(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 30, Israel launched
its first ground military operation inside the Gaza Strip since it
pulled out of the region nearly a year ago, killing three members of
a Palestinian rocket squad and a policeman in a fierce battle.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2006 May 31, Palestinian
militants fired homemade rockets at an Israeli town near the Gaza
Strip, and Israeli media reported that one landed near the home of
Israel's defense minister.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 Jun 2, Israel has begun
laying the foundations for Maskiot, a new Jewish settlement deep in
the West Bank, breaking a promise to Washington while strengthening
its hold on a stretch of desert it wants to keep as it draws its
final borders.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 2, Two Egyptian
security officers were killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli
troops after crossing the border into Israel.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 7, Palestine’s
Hamas-led government agreed to withdraw a controversial private
militia from public areas of Gaza in an agreement with the rival
Fatah movement aimed at halting weeks of bloody infighting. A border
clash with Israeli soldiers left 3 Palestinians dead.
(AP, 6/7/06)(WSJ, 6/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 8, The Israeli
military struck a PRC training camp in the southern Gaza town of
Rafah. Abu Samhadana (43), Hamas government's top security chief,
was killed when four missiles struck. 3 other militants were also
killed and 10 wounded. Palestinians fired 2 rockets into Israel
hitting a building in Sderot.
(AP, 6/9/06)
2006 Jun 9, Palestinians fired
rockets into Israel and vowed to avenge Israel's assassination of
Abu Samhadana, the Hamas government's top security chief. Israeli
artillery fired shells at targets in the northern Gaza Strip. 8
civilians, including 5 children, died and over 30 people were
wounded at a beachside picnic. The Israeli government issued a
statement of regret and launched an investigation [see June 13]. A
separate Israeli strike killed 3 people in the northern Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 6/10/06, p.A3)(AP, 6/11/06)
2006 Jun 10, The ruling Hamas
group fired a barrage of homemade rockets at Israel, hours after
calling off a truce with Israel in anger over an artillery attack
that killed seven civilians at a beachside picnic in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 6/10/06)
2006 Jun 11, Palestinian
militants fired about 10 rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip,
critically injuring an Israeli and nearly hitting a college in the
southern Israel town of Sderot. In return Israeli aircraft struck a
rocket-launching cell in the northern Gaza Strip, killing two
militants from the Palestinians' ruling Hamas party.
(AP, 6/11/06)
2006 Jun 12, In central Israel
a crowded, high-speed commuter train derailed after slamming into a
pickup truck at a crossing, killing five people and injuring 67.
(AP, 6/12/06)
2006 Jun 13, Israeli PM Ehud
Olmert said he had given the go ahead for a shipment of weapons to
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, whose loyalists are engaged in
bitter infighting with the militant Islamic Hamas. A failed Israeli
airstrike targeting a key figure in Palestinian rocket attacks
killed 9 people, including two children and three medical workers
who rushed to the scene of an initial blast. 2 of the dead were
members of the Islamic Jihad. An Israeli investigation into what
caused an explosion on a Gaza beach that killed eight Palestinians
said that the blast was most likely caused by a mine planted by
Hamas militants against Israeli naval commandos and not an Israeli
shell.
(AP, 6/13/06)(AP, 6/14/06)
2006 Jun 15, The Israeli
Supreme Court ruled that Israel must move part of its barrier meant
to keep Palestinian attackers out because it causes hardships to
nearby West Bank residents. Palestinian militants fired five rockets
at southern Israel, shortly after officials said Israeli threats had
cowered the Hamas-led government into stopping the attacks. A Hamas
government minister returned to the Gaza Strip with $2 million in
his luggage for his money-starved government.
(AP, 6/15/06)
2006 Jun 18, Lt. Col. Omar
el-Heib (43), a high-ranking Israeli Arab army officer, was
sentenced to 15 years in prison for passing military secrets to one
of Israel's most bitter enemies in exchange for money and drugs. He
denied spying for Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, and accused the
military court in Tel Aviv of racism after the sentence was handed
down. El-Heib was gravely wounded by a Hezbollah roadside bombing
while serving in Lebanon in 1996. Surgeons had to remove one of his
eyes. The injuries left him partially paralyzed and with shards of
metal still lodged in his head.
(AP, 6/18/06)
2006 Jun 19, Israel's defense
minister has ordered a review of the route of Israel's separation
barrier to better reflect Palestinian concerns, a decision that
could have significant implications for Israel's future borders.
(AP, 6/19/06)
2006 Jun 20, In Gaza City
Mohammed Roka (5), Samia el-Sharif (5), and Bilal Al-hassi (16) were
killed by an Israeli missile that hit a group of children, but
didn't kill the militants in the targeted car. After the air attack
went awry, Israel defended its pursuit of militants, but said it
would "continue to take every precaution to keep civilians out of
harm's way."
(AP, 6/21/06)
2006 Jun 22, Israeli PM Ehud
Olmert apologized for the deaths of Palestinian civilians in recent
Israeli army airstrikes after meeting with Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas at an informal breakfast in Jordan.
(AP, 6/22/06)
2006 Jun 22, The Red Cross
federation admitted Israel's Magen David Adom society simultaneously
with the Palestine Red Crescent. An optional new emblem, dubbed the
"red crystal," was adopted so that Israel could retain its red star
of David instead of having to adopt the red cross or crescent used
by the 184 other societies in the global movement.
(AP, 6/22/06)
2006 Jun 23, Palestinian
militants in the Gaza Strip fired three homemade rockets into
Israel, hours after the Israeli prime minister pledged to push
forward with airstrikes against the militants despite a recent
string of civilian casualties.
(AP, 6/23/06)
2006 Jun 24, Israeli troops
briefly entered the Gaza Strip before dawn and arrested two Hamas
militants, one of their first incursions into the
Palestinian-controlled area since last summer's withdrawal.
(AP, 6/24/06)
2006 Jun 25, Hamas militants
infiltrated southern Israel through a tunnel from the Gaza Strip and
attacked a tank with bombs and grenades, killing two crew members
and kidnapping a third. Gilad Shalit (19), an Israeli corporal, was
kidnapped. Israeli military officials said seven or eight militants
crossed under a border fence through a tunnel that extended 300
yards inside Israel. Soldiers shot dead three gunmen. 3 groups
claimed responsibility: the Islamic Army, the Popular Resistance
Committees (PRC) and the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military
wing of Hamas.
(AP, 6/25/06)(Econ, 7/1/06, p.41)
2006 Jun 26, Israel massed
troops along the Gaza Strip border in preparation for what PM Ehud
Olmert said would be a "broad and ongoing" operation against
Palestinian militants following the abduction of an Israeli soldier.
(AP, 6/26/06)
2006 Jun 27, The rival Hamas
and Fatah movements agreed on a plan implicitly recognizing Israel,
after weeks of acrimonious negotiations aiming to lift crippling
international aid sanctions. A Palestinian militant leader said a
captured Israeli soldier was being held in a "secure place," and he
claimed that his group also seized a Jewish settler in the West
Bank. A massive explosion demolished a car traveling near the
residence of President Mahmoud Abbas, killing an unknown number of
people inside. The blast scattered debris and body parts up to 200
yards away. The Israeli army said it was not involved in the blast.
(AP, 6/27/06)
2006 Jun 28, Israeli tanks and
troops entered southern Gaza in the early morning and planes
attacked three bridges and knocked out electricity and water
supplies for most of the 1.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip. An
Israeli Cabinet minister accused the Hamas leader in Syria of
ordering the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip and
said he is a target for assassination. A Palestinian militant group
threatened to kill an abducted Jewish settler if Israel doesn't stop
its raid on the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 6/28/06)
2006 Jun 29, Israeli troops
rounded up 27 Palestinian ministers and lawmakers from the ruling
Hamas party, including the deputy prime minister, while forging
ahead with a military campaign in Gaza meant to win the release of
an Israeli soldier held by Hamas gunmen. Palestinian militants
detonated a land mine near the border with Egypt, blowing open a
large hole in a wall near the border. Israeli aircraft fired on a
car carrying suspected Palestinian militants in Gaza City. One
person was wounded. A missing 62-year-old man that Palestinian
militants claimed to have kidnapped was found dead, apparently of
natural causes. A Palestinian militant group said it killed an
18-year-old Israeli settler kidnapped earlier in the West Bank.
Pro-Palestinian hackers shut down hundreds of Israeli Web sites as
Israeli troops invaded southern Gaza after the abduction of an
Israeli soldier.
(AP, 6/29/06)(SFC, 6/29/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 30, An Israeli
airstrike hit a car driving down a main road in Gaza City, and two
people were injured.
(AP, 6/30/06)
2006 Jul 1, Palestinian
militants holding an Israeli soldier issued a new set of demands,
calling for the release of 1,000 prisoners and a halt to Israel's
military offensive in Gaza. But Israel rejected them.
(AP, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 2, Israeli aircraft
sent missiles tearing through the office of Palestinian PM Ismail
Haniyeh in an unmistakable message to his ruling Hamas group to free
an Israeli soldier.
(AP, 7/2/06)
2006 Jul 4, PM Ehud Olmert
ignored a deadline to begin releasing Palestinian prisoners and
instead issued a veiled threat against Syria, vowing to strike
"those who sponsor" the militants in the Gaza Strip who seized a
young Israeli soldier.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, Palestinian
militants hit an Israeli city with a rocket from Gaza for the first
time, causing no casualties but drawing a pledge of harsh
retaliation from Israel while it was already in the midst of a
military offensive.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 5, Israeli leaders
authorized troops to move into residential areas of the Gaza Strip
as they increase pressure on militants holding an Israeli soldier
and look to create a security zone to prevent Palestinians from
firing rockets into Israel.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 6, Israeli forces took
over the remains of three abandoned Jewish settlements in the
northern Gaza Strip and entered a nearby Palestinian town, creating
a temporary buffer zone to prevent Palestinian militants from firing
rockets at Israel. At least 21 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier
were killed in the fighting.
(AP, 7/6/06)(SFC, 7/7/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 6, Israel signed a
contract with Germany for 2 new Dolphin submarines capable of
carrying nuclear warheads.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Jul 7, Israel launched an
airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip. Witnesses said three
Palestinians were killed. The Israeli military said the attack on
the town of Beit Lahiya targeted a group of militants. Palestinians
said 32 people had died in days of Gaza fighting.
(AP, 7/7/06)(WSJ, 7/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 8, The Hamas-led
Palestinian government called for a cease-fire in its violent
two-week standoff with Israel but stopped short of offering to
release an Israeli soldier held by Hamas militants. Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert rejected the proposal by Palestinian Prime
Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Olmert will not agree to a truce until
Hamas releases the soldier. Israeli tanks and troops clashed with
militants in eastern Gaza.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 9, Top officials said
Israel will push forward with its offensive in the Gaza Strip until
Palestinian militants release a captured Israeli soldier and halt
their rocket attacks.
(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 10, Israeli aircraft
fired missiles at a car in southern Gaza, killing two Islamic Jihad
militants. Israeli PM Olmert rebuffed criticism of Gaza tactics as 8
Palestinians died.
(AP, 7/10/06)(WSJ, 7/11/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 11, Israeli leaders
ordered new incursions into the Gaza Strip after the Hamas leader
said he would not free an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian
militants.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 12, Hezbollah
militants captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. 3
Israeli soldiers were killed in the raid along with one Hezbollah
militant. Dozens of Israeli troops crossed the Lebanese frontier
with warplanes, tanks and gunboats to hunt for the captives. 5 more
Israelis were killed in a tank that hit a mine. Two Lebanese
civilians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a coastal bridge
at Qasmiyeh.
(AP, 7/12/06)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.45)
2006 Jul 12, Israel killed 18
Palestinians in Gaza including nine members of one family in an air
strike that destroyed a residential building where the army said top
Hamas commanders were meeting.
(Reuters, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, Acting on behalf
of Arab nations, Qatar circulated a revised draft UN Security
Council resolution demanding Israel end its offensive in the Gaza
Strip and release the Palestinian officials it has arrested.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 13, Israel unleashed a
furious military campaign on Lebanon's main airport, highways,
military bases and other targets, retaliating for scores of
Hezbollah guerrilla rockets that rained down on Israel and reached
as far as Haifa, its third-largest city, for the first time. The
death toll in two days of fighting rose to 57 people. Lebanese
guerrillas fired three rockets at the northern Israeli town of
Safed, wounding seven people. Israel imposed a sea and air blockade
on Lebanon to cut off supply routes to Lebanese militants. Israel
hit hundreds of targets in Lebanon as part of its effort to force
the release of two soldiers captured by Hezbollah guerrillas.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar Television broadcast pictures of the Iranian
supplied 333mm Raad-1 rocket used in an attack on the Israeli army
base near Safed.
(AP, 7/13/06)(SFC, 7/14/06, p.A14)
2006 Jul 13, An Israeli
warplane bombed the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, collapsing part of
the structure and causing widespread damage in the area.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 13, The EU criticized
Israel for using "disproportionate" force in its attacks on Lebanon
following the cross-border raid by Hezbollah guerillas who captured
2 Israeli soldiers.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 14, Israel tightened
its seal on Lebanon, blasting its air and road links to the outside
world and bringing its offensive to the capital for the first time
to punish Hezbollah and with it, the country for the capture of 2
Israeli soldiers. Israel destroyed the home and office of
Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. Lebanese guerrillas
fired a barrage of at least 60 Katyusha rockets throughout the day,
hitting more than a dozen communities across northern Israel.
Israeli warplanes destroyed the building housing the headquarters of
Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Beirut. Hezbollah guerrillas
attacked an Israeli warship that had been firing missiles into
southern Beirut. A senior Israeli intelligence official said Iranian
troops helped Hezbollah fire a missile that damaged the warship off
the Lebanese coast. He also said about 100 Iranian soldiers are in
Lebanon and helped fire the Iranian-made, radar-guided C-102 at the
ship that killed one and left three missing. Deaths in 3 days of
fighting rose to 61 people in Lebanon and 10 in Israel.
(AP, 7/14/06)(AP, 7/14/07)
2006 Jul 15, Israeli warplanes
pounded Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold and roads around the
country killing at least 33 people. At least 12 Lebanese villagers,
including women and children, were killed in what appeared to be an
Israeli airstrike on a convoy of vehicles fleeing a village near the
border with Israel in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah expanded its
rocket fire, hitting another of Israel's main cities, and Israel
warned that the guerrillas could strike Tel Aviv. At least 88 people
have died in Lebanon, most of the them civilians, in the four-day
Israeli offensive, sparked by Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli
soldiers. On the Israeli side, at least 15 have been killed, four
civilians and 11 soldiers.
(AP, 7/15/06)(SSFC, 7/16/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 15, Israeli aircraft
fired at least one missile at a house in Gaza City. Palestinian
rescue workers said two Palestinians were killed and many others
wounded. Since the offensive began in Gaza, 86 Palestinians have
been killed, many of them gunmen.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, Arab foreign
ministers held an emergency summit in Cairo over Israel's expanding
assault on Lebanon, the worst Israeli attack on its neighbor in 24
years.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 16,
Lebanese guerrillas fired a relentless barrage of rockets into the
northern Israeli city of Haifa, killing eight people at a railway
depot and wounding seven in a dramatic escalation of a five-day-old
conflict that has shattered hopes for Mideast peace. Israeli
airstrikes reduced entire apartment buildings to rubble and knocked
out electricity in swaths of Beirut.
(AP, 7/16/06)
2006 Jul 16, Seven Canadians
from the same Montreal family, including four young children, were
killed in Lebanon when Israeli aircraft bombed a house in the
southern village of Aitaroun. 4 other relatives died soon thereafter
from wounds in the same attack.
(AP, 7/17/06)(Reuters, 7/18/06)
2006 Jul 17, Israeli warplanes
pummeled Lebanese infrastructure, killing at least 17 people.
Hezbollah patron Iran said a cease-fire and a prisoner swap were
possible, and the international community signaled willingness to
send peacekeepers to back a diplomatic solution. 3 rounds of rockets
fired by Hezbollah guerrillas struck Haifa, with one destroying a
three-story building and wounding three people. Hezbollah fired a
total of 50 rockets in to Israel. Total deaths in Lebanon reached
210 and 24 in Israel.
(AP, 7/17/06)(WSJ, 7/18/06, p.A1,7)
2006 Jul 17, Israel bombed the
Palestinian Foreign Ministry building in Gaza City, pushing ahead
with its 3-week offensive in Gaza.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 17, British PM Tony
Blair and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for the deployment
of international forces to stop Hezbollah from bombing Israel, a
proposal that Israel quickly rejected.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 18, Israel struck a
Lebanese army base outside Beirut and flattened a house near the
border, killing 31 people in a new wave of bombings. Hezbollah fired
more rockets at northern Israel, killing one Israeli and wounding
several others. Israel said its offensive in Lebanon could last
several more weeks and involve large numbers of ground forces.
(AP, 7/18/06)(WSJ, 7/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 18, Egypt and Israel
reopened the Rafah border crossing for the first time in three
weeks, triggering a rush to the border by thousands of Palestinians
who had been waiting in Egypt.
(AP, 7/18/06)
2006 Jul 19, Israeli troops
clashed with Hezbollah guerrillas on the Lebanese side of the
border, while warplanes flattened buildings and killed at least 56
people overnight as fighting entered its second week with the US
signaling it will not push Israel toward a fast cease-fire.
Lebanon's PM Fuad Saniora called for a cease-fire and said that 300
people have been killed, 1,000 have been wounded and a half-million
displaced in Israel's eight-day-old onslaught on Lebanon. Hezbollah
rockets slammed into the Arab-Israeli town of Nazareth killing two
young brothers as they played outside and wounding 18 other people.
(AP, 7/19/06)(Reuters, 7/19/06)(SFC, 7/20/06,
p.A10)
2006 Jul 19, Israeli forces
killed six Palestinians after tanks moved into a refugee camp in
central Gaza under cover of machine gun fire.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 20, Israeli troops met
fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas as they crossed into
Lebanon to seek tunnels and weapons for a second straight day, and
Israel hinted at a full-scale invasion.
(AP, 7/20/06)
2006 Jul 20, Israeli forces
killed 3 people and wounded six in the Gaza Strip. The army dropped
leaflets on towns and villages warning that homes hiding weapons
would be attacked.
(AP, 7/20/06)
2006 Jul 21, Israel called up
reserve troops and warned civilians to flee Hezbollah-controlled
southern Lebanon, as it prepared for a likely ground invasion to set
up a deep buffer zone. Hezbollah guerrillas fired two volleys of
rockets at Haifa, wounding five people and damaging shops and office
buildings. At least 335 people have been killed in Lebanon in the
Israeli campaign. 34 Israelis also have been killed, including 19
soldiers.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 21, A Hamas activist
and three relatives were killed in an explosion at his home in Gaza
City, hospital officials said. Palestinians said the house was hit
by an Israeli tank shell.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 22, Israeli tanks and
hundreds of troops moved in and out of Lebanon, taking over Maroun
al-Ras village, entering a UN observation post and engaging
Hezbollah militants by land, sea and air. Israeli warplanes blasted
communications and television transmission towers in central and
northern Lebanese mountains. Over 130 rockets struck northern
Israeli, hitting Karmiel, Kiriyat Shemona, Nahariya and smaller
communities such as Bet Hilel, Mayan Baruch and Mashov Am. Five
Israelis were wounded. The Lebanese health ministry reported 362
deaths in Lebanon so far in the onslaught. 34 Israelis also have
been killed.
(AP, 7/22/06)(SSFC, 7/23/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 23, Israeli warplanes
struck a minibus carrying people fleeing the fighting in southern
Lebanon, killing three people, Lebanese security officials said, and
Israel said it would accept a NATO-led international force to keep
the peace along the border. Hezbollah rockets killed two civilians
in northern Israel. Layal Nejim (23), a photographer working for a
Lebanese magazine, was killed when an Israeli missile exploded near
her taxi.
(AP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 23, Palestinian
militants in Gaza fired three rockets at Israel, despite reports
that they had agreed to halt such attacks.
(AP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 23, Syria, one of
Hezbollah's main backers, said it will press for a cease-fire to end
the fighting between Israel and the Islamic militant group but only
in the framework of a broader Middle East peace initiative.
(AP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 24, Israeli ground
forces pushed deeper into Lebanon in heavy fighting with Hezbollah
guerrillas. An Israeli Apache helicopter crashed near the Lebanese
border while attempting an emergency landing, and there were two
casualties.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Israeli artillery
shelled a town in the Gaza Strip used by Palestinian militants to
fire rockets, and hospital officials said three Palestinians were
killed and eight were wounded.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, Hezbollah's
representative in Iran struck a defiant tone, warning that his
Islamic militant group plans to widen its attacks on Israel until
"no place" is safe for Israelis.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 25, Israeli troops
sealed off the town of Bint Jbail, a Hezbollah stronghold in fierce
fighting in south Lebanon. Warplanes struck Nabatiyeh and destroyed
a house killing seven people, four from the same family. Guerrillas
fired rockets at northern Israel, killing a girl. An Israeli
airstrike killed 4 UN observers at a UNIFIL post in southern
Lebanon. The observers were from Austria, Canada, China and Finland.
Irish observers had warned that airstrikes were too close. UNIFIL
was created in 1978 after Israel's first major invasion of southern
Lebanon and has been there ever since.
(AP, 7/25/06)(Reuters, 7/25/06)(WSJ, 7/27/06,
p.A1)
2006 Jul 26, Israel suffered
its bloodiest day in Lebanon in its offensive against Hezbollah,
with militants killing at least nine soldiers in a battle for the
strategic town of Bint Jbail.
(AP, 7/26/06)
2006 Jul 26, Israeli strikes
killed 23 people in the Gaza Strip, including 16 militants and a
mother and her two young daughters, in the deadliest day of fighting
since Israel withdrew from the coastal strip last year.
(AP, 7/26/06)
2006 Jul 26, Germany, Israel
and the US signed an agreement opening to researchers an archive of
millions of Nazi files describing how the Holocaust was carried out.
(AP, 7/26/06)
2006 Jul 27, Ayman al-Zawahri,
Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, issued a worldwide call for Muslims to rise
up in a holy war against Israel and join the fighting in Lebanon and
Gaza until Islam reigns from "Spain to Iraq."
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 27, Top Israeli
Cabinet ministers decided not to expand the country's Lebanon
offensive but ordered the call up of thousands of additional reserve
soldiers to boost the campaign. The decision came as Israeli jets
pounded across Lebanon, extending their air campaign.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 27, The Israeli air
force fired missiles at a target in eastern Gaza City, wounding 15
people, at least one of them critically. 5 Palestinians were killed
including a woman (75) and a child. A Palestinian was shot and
killed in Jerusalem after he attacked a police patrol. The severely
burned body of man, thought to be Israeli, was found in the West
Bank.
(AP, 7/27/06)(SFC, 7/28/06, p.A14)
2006 Jul 28, Israeli warplanes
and artillery intensified strikes, hitting Hezbollah positions and
crushing houses and roads in towns in southern Lebanon, killing as
many as 12 people. Hezbollah announced it had fired a new rocket,
called the Khaibar-1, striking near the northern Israeli town of
Afula. Beirut said 600 people have been killed in Lebanon, with
confirmed fatalities at 445, since fighting broke out, most of them
Lebanese civilians. 33 Israeli soldiers have died in the fighting
and 19 civilians were killed in Hezbollah's unyielding rocket
attacks on Israel's northern towns.
(AP, 7/28/06)(WSJ, 7/28/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 28, The UN decided to
remove 50 unarmed observers (UNTSO and UNIFIL) from posts
along the Israeli-Lebanese border and relocate them with lightly
armed UN peacekeepers.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 28, Israeli troops
withdrew from northern Gaza after a bloody two-day sweep that killed
29 Palestinians.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 28, In Seattle, Wash.,
gunman Naveed Afzal Haq (30) killed Pam Waechter (58) of Seattle and
wounded five others at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. Haq
said he was "angry at Israel." On June 4, 2008, a jury found him not
guilty on one count of attempted murder (for victim Carol Goldman);
on the remaining counts, the jury declared itself to be hung. The
judge declared a mistrial.
(AFP, 7/29/06)(AP,
7/30/06)(http://tinyurl.com/6myx9k)
2006 Jul 29, Israel said it had
pulled forces out of Hezbollah's stronghold in south Lebanon after
completing its current operation there. Israeli planes targeted
bridges in southern and eastern Lebanon in new airstrikes,
destroying one in a resort area on the Syrian border. Israel
rejected a request by the UN for a three-day cease-fire in Lebanon
to deliver humanitarian supplies and allow civilians to leave the
war zone.
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, Israeli tanks
pushed back into the Gaza Strip before dawn, a day after ending a
bloody, 3-day sweep that killed 30 Palestinians. Israeli troops
killed 2 militants including Hani Awijan (29), a leader of the
radical Islamic Jihad’s militant wing in Nablus, in a West Bank
raid.
(AP, 7/29/06)(AP, 7/30/06)
2006 Jul 29, The Middle East
crisis dominated the first full day of PM Tony Blair's tour of
California, forcing his promotion of British business interests here
to take a back seat. Blair's former foreign secretary, Jack Straw,
condemned Israeli action against Lebanon as "disproportionate" in
the first such comment by a senior British government minister. PM
Blair said an international agreement, leading to a cease-fire in
the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, is possible sometime in the next few
days.
(AFP, 7/30/06)(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 30, Israeli missiles
hit several buildings in Qana, a southern Lebanon village, as people
slept, killing 29, mostly children, in the deadliest attack in 19
days of fighting. Israeli PM Ehud Olmert expressed "great sorrow"
for the airstrikes but blamed Hezbollah guerrillas for using the
area to launch rockets at Israel. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
called an emergency meeting of the Security Council. Israel
suspended air attacks on south Lebanon for 48 hours in the face of
widespread outrage over the airstrike.
(AP, 8/3/06)(AP, 7/30/07)
2006 Jul 31, Israeli warplanes
carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon, hours after agreeing to
temporarily halt raids while investigating a bombing that killed
nearly 60 Lebanese civilians. Israel accidentally killed a Lebanese
soldier when it hit a car that it believed was carrying a senior
Hezbollah official.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, The UN scrapped a
meeting of nations that might contribute troops to help stabilize
south Lebanon, a decision that reflected the deep divisions among
key nations on how to end the three-week war between Israel and
Hezbollah.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Aug 1, Israel's air force
fired missiles into northern Gaza, killing a 14-year-old boy and
wounding four others near Beit Hanoun.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 1, Heavy fighting
raged in the Lebanese border village of Aita al-Shaab, and Hezbollah
television said 35 Israeli soldiers had been killed or wounded in
the fighting. Israeli warplanes pounded Shiite Lebanese villages in
many areas along the border and struck Hezbollah strongholds deep
inside the country.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 2, Israel pressed the
first full day of a massive new ground attack, sending 8,000 troops
into southern Lebanon and seizing five people it said were Hezbollah
fighters in a dramatic airborne raid on a northeastern town.
Hezbollah retaliated with its deepest strikes yet into Israel,
firing a record number of more than 230 rockets. An Israeli-American
was killed as he fled for home by bicycle, and a stray rocket hit
the West Bank for the first time. People in the Lebanese village of
Al Jamaliyeh, outside the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek, used a
front-end loader to carry away some of the dead after a night of
Israeli airstrikes and a commando raid inside Baalbek that residents
said killed at least 15 civilians.
(AP, 8/2/06)(SFC, 8/3/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 3, A massive wave of
guerrilla rockets pounded northern Israel in a matter of minutes,
killing 8 people. Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader,
offered to stop the attacks if Israel ends its airstrikes. Israel
lost four soldiers in fighting. Israeli military said four Hezbollah
fighters were killed and two wounded. Lebanese security officials
said a missile crashed into a two-story house in the border village
of Taibeh, killing a couple and their daughter. Lebanese PM Fuad
Saniora said Lebanon's death toll in more than three weeks of
Israel-Hezbollah fighting has reached more than 900. France
circulated a revised UN resolution calling for an immediate halt to
Israeli-Hezbollah fighting and spelling out conditions for a
permanent cease-fire in Lebanon.
(AP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 3, Israeli troops
raided southern Gaza, killing at least eight Palestinians, including
four militants and an 8-year-old boy.
(AP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 4, Israel expanded its
assault on Lebanon, launching its first major attack on the
Christian heartland north of Beirut and severing the last
significant road link to Syria. Hezbollah renewed attacks on
northern Israel, killing two civilians in a barrage of 120 rockets.
An Israeli airstrike hit dozens of farm workers loading vegetables
near the Lebanon-Syria border, killing as many as 33. Five
Lebanese civilians were killed and 19 wounded in the Israeli
airstrikes north of Beirut in Christian areas where Hezbollah has
little support. Hezbollah's leader offered to stop attacking if
Israel ends its airstrikes. Israeli airstrikes flattened two
southern Lebanese houses and more than 50 people were buried in the
rubble, security officials and the state news agency said. Israel
denied attacking the villages.
(AP, 8/4/06)(SFC, 8/5/06, p.A11)
2006 Aug 4, Israel began
pulling tanks out of southern Gaza after a two-day incursion.
Israeli troops conducted house-to-house searches in the southern
Gaza Strip and killed three Palestinians with tanks and air strikes.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 5, Israeli naval
commandos battled with Hezbollah in the southern port city of Tyre,
while a guerrilla rocket killed a soldier in clashes on the border
and Israeli raids left at least eight people dead in multiple
strikes across the country. The Lebanese government's Higher Relief
Council said 907 Lebanese had been killed in the conflict. 75
Israelis have been killed, 45 soldiers and 30 civilians.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, Israel pressed
ahead with its incursion into the southern Gaza Strip as airstrikes
killed 5 Palestinians, including a mother and her 2 children. Tanks
rolled to the edge of Rafah.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, The US and France
reached agreement on a UN Security Council resolution aimed at
ending the fighting between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah
guerrillas.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 6, Israeli forces
arrested the speaker of the Palestinian parliament at his house in
the West Bank, and pressed their monthlong offensive in Gaza against
Hamas.
(AP, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 6, Hezbollah
guerrillas unleashed their deadliest barrage of rockets yet into
northern Israel, killing 12 reservists at a staging area. Israeli
bombardment killed at least 25 people in southern Lebanon as
fighting only intensified despite a draft UN cease-fire resolution.
Hezbollah rockets crashed into Haifa, killing at least three people
and wounding more than 40.
(AP, 8/6/06)(SFC, 8/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 7, The death toll in
an Israeli airstrike on a Shiite neighborhood in south Beirut
reached 41. Across the country 77 Lebanese were killed along with
three Israeli soldiers. The UN said an oil spill caused by Israeli
raids on a Lebanese power plant could rival the 1989 Exxon Valdez
disaster that despoiled the Alaskan coast if not urgently addressed.
the Jiyyeh plant, which was bombed by Israel on July 14 and July 15
a few days into its offensive against Hezbollah. 12,000 tons of
leaking oil had already polluted more than 140 kilometers (87 miles)
of the Lebanese coast and spread north into Syrian waters.
(AP, 8/8/06)(AP, 8/9/06)(AFP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 8, Israeli forces
battled Hezbollah guerrillas across southern Lebanon as diplomats at
the United Nations struggled to keep a peace plan from collapsing
over Arab demands for an immediate Israeli withdrawal. At least 19
Lebanese civilians were killed in Israeli airstrikes. Israel
reported five soldiers killed.
(AP, 8/8/06)(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, Israel's Security
Cabinet approved a wider ground offensive in south Lebanon that was
expected to take 30 days as part of a new push to badly damage
Hezbollah. Al-Jazeera reported that 11 Israeli soldiers were killed
in heavy fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas near the border in south
Lebanon. Israeli's military struck Lebanon's largest Palestinian
refugee camp, killing at least one person and wounding three others.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 10, Israel said it
will hold back on its new ground offensive in Lebanon until the
weekend to give cease-fire efforts another chance. In Jerusalem a
tourist (25) was stabbed to death by an Arab youth near one of the
gates to the walled Old City in what was believed to be a political
attack.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 11, Israeli airstrikes
pounded south Beirut and border crossings to Syria, killing at least
14 people across Lebanon as ground fighting picked up intensity in
the south. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accepted an emerging
Mideast cease-fire deal and informed the United States of his
decision. An Israeli drone fired at a convoy of refugees fleeing
southern Lebanon, killing at least six people and wounding 16.
(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 11, The UN Human
Rights Council condemned Israel for "massive bombardment of Lebanese
civilian populations" and other "systematic" human rights
violations, and decided to send a commission to investigate. UN
Resolution 1701 called for Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon and the
disarmament of Hezbollah.
(AP, 8/11/06)(Econ, 8/26/06,
p.11)(www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/sc8808.doc.htm)
2006 Aug 12, Israel staged
wide-ranging airstrikes and sent commandos into the Hezbollah
heartland as the UN raced to begin enforcing its new cease-fire
blueprint and stop the heavy fighting still raging in southern
Lebanon. Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said the militant
organization would abide by the UN cease-fire resolution but would
keep fighting as long as Israeli troops remained in southern
Lebanon. Israel lost 24 soldiers, including five on a helicopter
shot out of the air by guerrillas.
(AP, 8/12/06)(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 12, The UN Security
Council adopted a resolution seeking a "full cessation" of violence
between Israel and Hezbollah, offering the region its best chance
yet for peace after a month of fighting that has killed more than
800 people and inflamed Mideast tensions.
(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 12, Thousands of
people gathered across from the White House, even though President
Bush was out of town, to condemn US and Israeli policies in the
Middle East. In SF thousands of protesters decried US Mideast policy
and Israel’s military actions in Lebanon and Palestine. A smaller
group demonstrated on behalf of Israel.
(SSFC, 8/13/06, p.B1)(AP, 8/12/07)
2006 Aug 13, After a stormy
debate, Israel's Cabinet approved a Mideast cease-fire, agreeing to
silence the army's guns on Aug 14 at 8AM. The Israeli military
embarked on a last-minute push to devastate Hezbollah guerrillas,
rocketing south Beirut with at least 20 missiles. Israeli warplanes
fired missiles into gasoline stations in the southern port city of
Tyre, killing at least 12 people in those and other attacks.
Hezbollah fired more than 150 rockets at northern Israel, killing an
Israeli man. Two Israeli air raids on a village in Lebanon's eastern
Bekaa Valley killed at least seven people and wounded nearly two
dozen.
(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 14, Israeli soldiers
killed six Hezbollah fighters in three skirmishes in Lebanon after
the UN-imposed cease-fire took effect. The clashes came as Lebanese
civilians defied an Israeli travel ban and streamed back to their
homes in war-ravaged areas. Lebanese, Israeli and UN officers met on
the border to discuss the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern
Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese army in the region.
Lebanon said nearly 791 people were killed since the fighting began.
Israel said 116 soldiers and 39 civilians were killed in fighting or
from Hezbollah rockets in the 34-day war.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 15, Israel began
slowly withdrawing its forces from southern Lebanon and made plans
to hand over its captured territory as hopes were raised that a
UN-imposed cease-fire would stick, despite early tests on its first
day.
(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 18, Israeli soldiers
killed 3 Palestinian gunmen and wounded 2 others in confrontations
in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
(WSJ, 8/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 18, The Lebanese army
reached the country's southern border with Israel for the first time
in decades, sending a lone jeep on patrol through Kfar Kila, a
battered stronghold of support for Hezbollah militants. At least 845
Lebanese were killed in the 34-day war: 743 civilians, 34 soldiers
and 68 Hezbollah. Israel says it killed about 530 guerrillas. On the
Israeli side, 157 were killed, 118 soldiers and 39 civilians, many
from the 3,970 Hezbollah rockets. The Lebanese government estimated
infrastructure damages at $2.5 billion. The Lebanese death toll was
later raised to 1200 and economic costs put to some $12
billion.
(AP, 8/18/06)(SFC, 8/19/06, p.C1)(Econ, 11/11/06,
p.51)
2006 Aug 19, Israeli commandos
raided a Hezbollah stronghold deep inside Lebanon, sparking a fierce
clash with militants that left one Israeli soldier dead. Lebanon
called the raid a "flagrant violation" of the UN-brokered
cease-fire, while Israel said it was aimed at disrupting arms
smuggling from Iran and Syria. A Lebanese civilian was killed when
unexploded Israeli munitions from the offensive detonated in the
village of Ras al-Ein, outside Tyre.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 19, Israeli soldiers
in Ramallah arrested Nasser Shaer, the Palestinian deputy prime
minister. He was the highest-ranking Hamas official rounded up in a
seven-week-old crackdown against the ruling party.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 20, Israeli troops
detained Mahmoud al-Ramahi, secretary-general of the Hamas
parliament, pushing forward with a crackdown on the Islamic militant
group.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 20, Lebanese PM Fuad
Saniora called the Israeli bombing campaign "a crime against
humanity," and Lebanon's defense minister warned any group that
breaks the Middle East cease-fire will be dealt with harshly.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 21, Police raided the
official residence of Israeli President Moshe Katsav as part of a
sexual harassment investigation, seizing computers and documents.
Israeli troops shot two Hezbollah guerrillas during a clash in the
southern Lebanese village of Chamaa.
(AP, 8/21/06)(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 22, Israeli troops
shot and killed three militants from the Islamic Jihad group near
the Israel-Gaza border, as soldiers conducted house-to-house
searches and made arrests elsewhere in the coast strip.
(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 23, Syria opposed
deployment of an international force along its border to prevent
arms shipments to Hezbollah, and Israel called the situation in
Lebanon "explosive." In southern Lebanon 3 Lebanese soldiers were
killed while they dismantled an unexploded missile. An Israeli
soldier was killed and three others wounded in southern Lebanon when
their tank drove over a land mine.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 24, Israeli forces
crossed into the Gaza Strip in a raid that captured a local Hamas
militant leader and left his brother dead near a Gaza border town.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 25, Israeli aircraft
attacked two buildings in the Gaza Strip, wounding at least nine
people.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 26, In the West Bank,
Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen traded heavy fire during a
standoff at a fugitives' hideout and doctors said a 16-year-old
Palestinian was killed. Twenty Palestinians were wounded in the
clashes in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, Israeli aircraft
fired two missiles at an armored car belonging to the Reuters news
agency, wounding five people, including two cameramen. Two Hamas
militants were killed in separate airstrikes.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 28, An Israeli
airstrike on central Gaza killed 4 Palestinian militants.
(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 30, Israeli troops
launched airstrikes on the outskirts of Gaza City and exchanged
gunfire with Palestinian militants, killing six people.
(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Aug 30, Lebanese PM Fuad
Saniora said that he refused to have any direct contact with Israel
and that Lebanon would be the last Arab country to ever sign a peace
deal with the Jewish state. Jan Egeland, the UN humanitarian chief,
accused Israel of "shocking" and "completely immoral" behavior for
dropping large numbers of cluster bombs on Lebanon when a cease-fire
in its war with Hezbollah was in sight.
(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Aug 31, The Israeli army
said that it has transferred control over a portion of the
Israel-Lebanon border to Lebanese and international troops for the
first time in two decades.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 31, Israeli soldiers
searching for tunnels and explosives withdrew from the outskirts of
Gaza City, ending a five-day operation that Palestinians said left
20 people dead and heavily damaged houses, streets and farmlands.
Palestinian militants fired five homemade rockets into Israel,
defying the calls by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to halt the
attacks.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Sep 4, In Lebanon US civil
rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson met with Hezbollah officials and
called on them to show proof that two captured Israeli soldiers are
still alive. A UN spokesman said Secretary-General Kofi Annan has
agreed to requests by Hezbollah and Israel that he mediate in
negotiations over the release of two abducted Israeli soldiers.
Qatar announced that it would contribute 200 to 300 troops to the UN
peacekeeping force in Lebanon, making the Persian Gulf state the
first Arab country to commit soldiers to the peace effort in
Lebanon.
(AP, 9/4/06)
2006 Sep 5, Israeli forces left
five villages in southern Lebanon and were replaced by Lebanese
troops, who also moved into the center of a Hezbollah stronghold
devastated by weeks of fighting.
(AP, 9/5/06)
2006 Sep 5, Palestinian
security officers went on the rampage in Gaza City to demand back
pay from the cash-strapped Hamas-led government. Israel pressed
ahead with its offensive against Hamas militants, killing five with
airstrikes in the Rafah refugee camp.
(AP, 9/5/06)(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 7, Workers at
Lebanon's only airport prepared to receive a full flow of commercial
flights. Israel began lifting its air blockade of Lebanon, but the
naval blockade will remain in place until troops from the new UN
international force are in place.
(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 8, Israel lifted its
nearly two-month naval blockade of Lebanon after European warships
began patrolling to keep out weapons shipments for Hezbollah
guerrillas.
(AP, 9/8/06)
2006 Sep 9, The 10-week Israeli
military operation, code named Summer Rains, left 230 Gazans dead,
including over 60 children. It had no noticeable impact on militant
activities.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.47)
2006 Sep 9, British PM Tony
Blair arrived in Tel Aviv for talks with his Israeli counterpart
Ehud Olmert and other key players in the region on the stalled
Middle East peace process.
(AFP, 9/9/06)
2006 Sep 12, An Israeli
military court ordered the release of 18 imprisoned Hamas lawmakers,
including three Cabinet ministers, and raised questions about the
army's case. A spokesman for the outgoing Hamas-led administration
said the group is prepared to back peace efforts with Israel as part
of the new coalition government being formed by the Palestinians.
Hamas militants killed an Israeli soldier during a gunbattle in the
Gaza Strip.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 17, The Israeli
Cabinet authorized an inquiry into the government's handling of the
recent war in Lebanon, capping weeks of disagreements over the scope
of the investigation.
(AP, 9/17/06)
2006 Sep 18, Israel said it
will consider freeing Palestinian prisoners and releasing millions
of dollars in tax rebates to Palestinians if their government
moderates its hardline views. Israel charged three Hezbollah members
arrested in Lebanon during the recent war with murder for
involvement in deadly attacks on soldiers.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2006 Sep 20, Israeli forces
raided the West Bank cities of Nablus and Jenin, destroying five
foreign exchange depots and a bank and taking funds the army said
were earmarked for terrorism. Palestinian militants in the Gaza
Strip fired two rockets at an Israeli town, wounding a 15-year-old
boy and another person.
(AP, 9/20/06)
2006 Sep 21, Israeli forces
killed at least 5 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as gunmen fired
rockets into Israel.
(SFC, 9/22/06, p.A13)
2006 Sep 22, Israelis marked
the Jewish New Year shaken by the inconclusive war in Lebanon, angry
at their leaders and coping with growing gaps between rich and poor.
(AP, 9/22/06)
2006 Sep 26, Palestinian
militants fired at least two rockets from the Gaza Strip into
southern Israel, wounding at least one person.
(AP, 9/26/06)
2006 Sep 27, An Israeli court
released the Palestinian deputy prime minister, the highest ranking
Hamas official to be freed following a crackdown on the Islamic
militant group. But the court temporarily banned him from going to
his government office in the city of Ramallah. Israeli airstrikes on
a house in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah killed a
14-year-old girl and wounded seven other people.
(AP, 9/27/06)
2006 Sep 29, Israeli soldiers
killed two Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip. Tens of
thousands of Hamas supporters marched in the Gaza Strip to show
their backing for the militant group, even as its efforts to form a
national unity government appeared stalled.
(AP, 9/29/06)
2006 Oct 1, The Israeli army
abandoned positions in Lebanon, withdrawing the last of its troops
from its neighbor and fulfilling a key condition of the Aug. 14
cease-fire that ended a monthlong war against Hezbollah.
(AP, 10/1/06)
2006 Oct 8, Israeli troops shot
and killed Osama Talad (21), a Palestinian militant, during a fierce
gunbattle in the Balata West Bank refugee camp.
(AP, 10/8/06)
2006 Oct 10, Israeli soldiers
shot and killed a Palestinian militant who infiltrated from the Gaza
Strip into southern Israel wearing a bomb belt.
(AP, 10/11/06)
2006 Oct 11, Israeli forces
killed Abdullah Mansour (31), a militant in the Al Aqsa Martyrs'
Brigades, in the course of an overnight arrest raid.
(AP, 10/11/06)
2006 Oct 11, Israel inaugurated
its first horse racetrack.
(AP, 10/11/06)
2006 Oct 12, An Israeli drone
fired two missiles at a crowd of Palestinians in a pre-dawn in the
Gaza Strip, killing at least 3 Hamas militants and 3 bystanders
including a father and his 13-year-old son. An Israeli airstrike
targeting the home of Ashraf Farwana, a senior Hamas militant,
killed his brother and a 2-year-old girl.
(AP, 10/12/06)(SFC, 10/13/06, p.A17)
2006 Oct 13, Israeli forces
killed at least four people in a series of attacks throughout the
Gaza Strip. The deaths brought to 13 the number of Palestinians
killed by the military in Gaza since the army launched its latest
ground incursion early on Oct 12.
(AFP, 10/13/06)
2006 Oct 14, Israeli troops
killed six Palestinian gunmen in airstrikes in the Gaza Strip and
set up a makeshift detention center just outside the territory.
(AP, 10/14/06)
2006 Oct 17, Israeli troops
shot and killed three Palestinians, including a 16-year-old
stone-thrower, in the West Bank town of Qabatiyeh.
(AP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 18, Israeli tanks and
infantry took up positions on the Egypt-Gaza border, killing two
Palestinian gunmen as the army broadened its search for arms
smuggling tunnels.
(AP, 10/19/06)
2006 Oct 20, A Jewish settler
watchdog group said more than 40 percent of unauthorized West Bank
outposts are built on private Palestinian land, adding that there
are no signs the Israeli government is taking steps to tear them
down.
(AP, 10/20/06)
2006 Oct 22, An Israeli Cabinet
minister said the Israeli army used phosphorous artillery shells
against Hezbollah guerrilla targets during their war in Lebanon this
summer, confirming Lebanese allegations for the first time. Israel's
defense minister said that air force flights over Lebanon would
continue because arms smuggling to Lebanese guerrillas has not
stopped.
(AP, 10/22/06)
2006 Oct 23, Israeli troops
shot and killed seven Palestinians, including a militant who led a
rocket-launching operation.
(AP, 10/23/06)
2006 Oct 25, Robert Rosenberg
(54), Boston-born Israeli writer, died of cancer in Tel Aviv, the
Israeli daily Haaretz reported on its Web site. Rosenberg was a
senior staff editor at the paper. Rosenberg was author of the 1991
New York Times notable thriller, "Crimes of the City," which was
followed by 3 more books featuring the same protagonist, detective
Avram Cohen. Rosenberg founded the Ariga.com Web site in 1995 as a
source for information on Middle East peace efforts.
(AP, 10/25/06)
2006 Oct 26, Israeli forces
shot and killed two Palestinians in exchanges of gunfire in the Gaza
Strip.
(AP, 10/26/06)
2006 Oct 27, Israeli army raids
in the northern West Bank killed 3 Palestinians.
(AP, 10/27/06)
2006 Oct 30, The Israeli
Cabinet voted overwhelmingly to bring into the government a hawkish
party that opposes ceding territory to the Palestinians and wants to
redraw Israel's borders to exclude many Israeli Arabs.
(AP, 10/30/06)
2006 Nov 1, Israeli troops,
backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, killed at least six
Palestinian militants. The raid left 9 Palestinians and a soldier
dead.
(AP, 11/1/06)(WSJ, 11/2/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 2, Israeli helicopter
gunships, tanks and ground troops tightened their grip on Beit
Hanoun, a northern Gaza town they overran a day before. 9
Palestinians were killed in Israel's biggest push in months to stop
militant rocket fire.
(AP, 11/2/06)(SFC, 11/3/06, p.A22)(WSJ, 11/3/06,
p.A1)
2006 Nov 3, Hundreds of
Palestinian women in robes and headscarves streamed into a Gaza
combat zone to help free gunmen besieged by Israeli troops at a
mosque. Two women who came under fire were killed and at least 10
wounded, but some gunmen managed to escape. The 3-day Israeli
offensive killed 35 Palestinians.
(AP, 11/4/06)(WSJ, 11/4/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 5, Israel’s PM Ehud
Olmert pledged to press ahead with Israel's offensive in the Gaza
Strip until the army significantly decreases Palestinian rocket fire
on Israel.
(AP, 11/5/06)
2006 Nov 6, A female suicide
bomber approached Israeli troops in the northern Gaza Strip and blew
herself up. One soldier was lightly wounded in the blast.
(AP, 11/6/06)
2006 Nov 6, Hundreds of
Israelis of Ethiopian descent clashed with police and briefly
blocked a main road leading into Jerusalem in a protest of the
Health Ministry's wholesale discarding of donated Ethiopian blood.
(AP, 11/6/06)
2006 Nov 7, Israeli tanks fired
two shells at the home of the Hamas lawmaker who organized a women's
protest that allowed militants to escape from a northern Gaza mosque
under Israeli siege. Israeli forces ended a bloody weeklong
operation in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, leaving behind a swath of
destroyed homes, uprooted trees and streets muddied with sewage
water from pipes destroyed by tanks and bulldozers.
(AP, 11/7/06)
2006 Nov 8, Israeli tank shells
crashed into a residential neighborhood north of the town of Beit
Hanoun, killing at least 18 people including eight children in their
sleep. Israeli forces attacked a group of Palestinian militants near
the West Bank town of Jenin, killing four and a civilian. Hamas'
exiled leader, Khaled Mashaal, says a 2005 truce with Israel is
finished and appealed to all Palestinian factions to resume attacks.
(AP, 11/8/06)
2006 Nov 10, Israel's gay
community braved vehement opposition from religious fundamentalists
and held a large rally in Jerusalem, complete with live rock music,
dancing and declarations of pride. A group of gay Palestinian
Americans canceled a planned pride march in East Jerusalem after one
of them was beaten unconscious by a man from the Waqf Muslim
religious authority.
(AP, 11/10/06)(SFC, 11/11/06, p.A3)
2006 Nov 11, The US vetoed a UN
Security Council draft resolution that sought to condemn an Israeli
military offensive in the Gaza Strip and demand Israeli troops pull
out of the territory.
(AP, 11/12/06)
2006 Nov 12, Israeli PM Ehud
Olmert began a five-day trip to the United States. Israeli forces
killed a Palestinian teenager in northern Gaza.
(AP, 11/12/06)
2006 Nov 12, Palestinian
foreign minister Mahmud Zahar told fellow ministers at an Arab
League emergency meeting in Cairo that the costs of rebuilding the
north Gaza town of Beit Hanun after deadly Israeli shelling amounts
to 50 million dollars. Arab countries decided to lift the financial
blockade on Palestinians in response to a US veto on a UN Security
Council draft resolution condemning Israel's military offensive in
the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 11/12/06)
2006 Nov 13, UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that any effort to stop growing
violence between Islamic and Western societies must include an end
to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
(AP, 11/13/06)
2006 Nov 15, Two Palestinian
lawmakers from the Islamist group Hamas crossed the Egyptian border
into Gaza with more than $4 million in cash, bypassing a Western ban
on bank transfers to the Palestinian Authority. A Palestinian rocket
fired from Gaza exploded near the home of Israel's defense minister,
killing one woman and raising the prospect of a new Israeli military
offensive against militant rocket squads.
(Reuters, 11/15/06)(AP, 11/15/06)
2006 Nov 16, Spain, France and
Italy unveiled a five-point Middle East peace initiative, calling
Israeli-Palestinian violence intolerable and saying that Europe must
take a lead role in ending the conflict.
(AP, 11/16/06)
2006 Nov 17, An Israeli
newspaper reported that Israel is using nanotechnology to create a
robot no bigger than a hornet that would be able to chase,
photograph and kill its targets.
(Reuters, 11/17/06)
2006 Nov 17, The UN General
Assembly called for an end to Israeli military operations in the
Gaza Strip, overwhelmingly passing a resolution in an emergency
special session the Israeli ambassador blasted as a "farce" and a
"circus."
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 18, Avigdor Lieberman,
Israel's new deputy prime minister, said Israel should ignore
moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, wipe out the Hamas
leadership and walk away from the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 19, An Israeli
aircraft fired a missile at a car traveling in Gaza City, wounding 6
people, including two Hamas militants. Militants from the ruling
Islamic group Hamas fired two rockets from the Gaza Strip at the
Israeli town of Sderot. Israel canceled airstrikes on the houses of
Gaza militants after Palestinians formed human shields around them.
(AP, 11/19/06)(WSJ, 11/20/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 21, Israel's Supreme
Court ordered the government to recognize same-sex marriages
performed abroad.
(AP, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 21, The Israeli
military launched a three-pronged offensive in the northern Gaza
Strip, killing a top Hamas commander in its latest operation against
Palestinian rocket squads. An elderly Palestinian woman died in a
gunbattle between troops and militants. Two Italian aid workers were
kidnapped in the Gaza Strip. Both were released within 24 hours.
(AP, 11/21/06)(AP, 11/22/06)
2006 Nov 22, Israeli ground
troops, tanks and armored vehicles advanced on two northern Gaza
towns in pursuit of Palestinian rocket squads, besieging a
well-known Hamas lawmaker's house and engaging militants in
ferocious clashes.
(AP, 11/22/06)
2006 Nov 23, Israeli troops
went after Palestinian militants in Gaza as rockets slammed into
southern Israel, but a planned meeting between a Hamas leader and
Egyptian mediators raised hopes the violence could be contained. A
64-year-old Palestinian grandmother blew herself up near Israeli
troops sweeping through northern Gaza, and eight other Palestinians
were killed in a day of clashes and rocket fire.
(AP, 11/23/06)
2006 Nov 24, PM Ismail Haniyeh
of Hamas said that Palestinian factions had agreed to halt rocket
fire if Israel reciprocates by stopping its military offensives in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel rejected the offer, saying it
would respond positively only to a total truce.
(AP, 11/24/06)
2006 Nov 25, Israel and the
Palestinians agreed to a cease-fire to end a five-month Israeli
military offensive in the Gaza Strip and the firing of rockets by
Palestinian militants into the Jewish state. Hamas' leader,
Damascus-based supreme leader Khaled Mashaal, said his group was
willing to give peace negotiations with Israel six months to reach
an agreement for a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank, but
threatened a new uprising if the talks fail.
(AP, 11/25/06) (AP, 11/25/07)
2006 Nov 25, A UN agency said
that Israel laid mines in Lebanon during this summer's war between
the Jewish state and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group, the first
time Israel has been accused of planting mines during the latest
fighting.
(AP, 11/25/06)
2006 Nov 26, Israeli troops
withdrew from the Gaza Strip as an unexpected truce took hold, but
two major Palestinian militant groups, saying they had no intention
of stopping their attacks, fired volleys of homemade rockets into
Israel.
(AP, 11/26/06)
2006 Nov 27, Israeli PM Ehud
Olmert, seeking to build on a shaky cease-fire with the
Palestinians, offered to reduce checkpoints, release frozen funds,
and free prisoners in exchange for a serious push for peace by the
Palestinians.
(AP, 11/27/06)
2006 Nov 28, Jordan's King
Abdullah II called for renewed efforts to settle the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a speech, but he warned that his
country would not accept a deal that causes an influx of
Palestinians.
(AP, 11/28/06)
2006 Dec 4, The Israeli army
killed a Palestinian and arrested 17 militants in raids across the
West Bank, despite a decision by the military to scale back such
operations in order to bolster a shaky truce with the Palestinians
in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 7, Ali Reza Asgari, a
retired general who served in Iran's Revolutionary Guard, arrived in
Turkey on a private visit from Damascus, Syria. He had become
involved in the olive business after retirement. Iranian officials
later said that he disappeared on Dec 9. In March, 2009, a former
German Defense Ministry official said Asgari had defected and was
providing information to the West on Iran's nuclear program. Asgari
allegedly told the West that Iran was financing North Korean steps
to transform Syria into a nuclear weapons power, leading to an
Israeli airstrike that targeted a site in Syria on Sept. 6, 2007. In
November Iranian news Web sites reported that Asgari had been
abducted by Israeli agents and is now being held in Israel.
(AP, 11/16/09)
2006 Dec 8, Israeli police
captured Benny Sela (35), an escaped serial rapist in northern
Israel, ending a two-week saga that caused nationwide panic.
(AP, 12/8/06)
2006 Dec 8, Palestinian PM
Ismail Haniyeh told thousands of Iranians that his Hamas-led
government will never recognize Israel and will continue to fight
for the "liberation of Jerusalem."
(AP, 12/8/06)
2006 Dec 11, UN officials said
Israel has blocked a UN fact-finding mission to the Gaza Strip that
was to be led by Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu. Israeli Foreign
Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said that no final decision has been
made.
(AP, 12/11/06)
2006 Dec 13, Israel's Supreme
Court ruled that some Palestinians injured by the Israeli military
may sue the state for compensation, a decision hailed as
groundbreaking by an Arab civil rights group but condemned by
right-wing Israeli lawmakers as damaging to the country's security.
(AP, 12/12/06)
2006 Dec 14, Israel ordered the
Rafah crossing closed to keep PM Haniyeh from bringing in an
estimated $35 million he had collected abroad to help alleviate the
Palestinian financial crisis. Israeli officials said Haniyeh could
return to Gaza without the money, which it said was to be used for
terror attacks. Haniyeh left the funds in Egypt. When Haniyeh
finally crossed, unidentified men began firing toward him. One of
his bodyguards was killed and his son and 26 others were wounded.
Fatah-allied Palestinian security officers arrested a Hamas-linked
militant in connection with the killing of a security chief's young
children. Palestinian militants fired a rocket into Israel at dawn.
(AP, 12/14/06)(AP, 12/15/06)
2006 Dec 15, The UN General
Assembly voted overwhelmingly to establish an office to register
Palestinian damage claims stemming from Israel's construction of a
barrier in the West Bank.
(AP, 12/16/06)
2006 Dec 19, Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert made a surprise visit to Jordan for talks with
King Abdullah II on ways to revive Mideast peacemaking. A wanted
Palestinian militant was killed and two others were arrested by
Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Nablus. Gunbattles raged in
the streets of Gaza City between the Hamas and Fatah movements,
killing at least four people in factional fighting that shredded a
shaky truce. At least 18 people were wounded, including five
children caught in the crossfire.
(AP, 12/19/06)
2006 Dec 23, Israeli PM Ehud
Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held the first
Israeli-Palestinian summit in 22 months. Israel agreed to release
$100 million in frozen funds to Palestinian Pres. Mahmoud Abbas and
to ease West Bank travel restrictions.
(SSFC, 12/24/06, p.A21)(AP, 12/23/07)
2006 Dec 27, Israel decided to
resume pinpoint attacks against Palestinian rocket-launching cells
in Gaza, jeopardizing what is already a shaky, month-old truce with
Gaza militants.
(AP, 12/27/06)
2006 Dec 28, Israeli security
officials said Egypt has sent a large shipment of weapons through
Israeli territory to shore up forces loyal to the embattled
Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, an extraordinary show of
support by both countries for his efforts to renew peacemaking with
Israel.
(AP, 12/28/06)
2006 Gadi Bloom and Nir Hefez
authored “Ariel Sharon: A Life.”
(WSJ, 10/3/06, p.D5)
2006 Efraim Halevy authored
“Man in the Shadows: Inside the Middle East Crises with a Man Who
Led the Mossad.”
(Econ, 4/1/06, p.67)
2006 Meir Margalit authored
“Discrimination in the Heart of the Holy City,” an account of the
differences between the Israeli and Palestinian sides of Jerusalem.
(Econ, 4/15/06, p.27)
2006 During this year Israeli
forces killed 660 Palestinians, almost half of whom were innocent
bystanders including 141 children. Palestinians killed 17 Israeli
citizens and 6 soldiers.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.56)
2007 Jan 1, Bulgaria and
Romania joined the EU. Some 30,000 Israelis gained EU citizenship
due to their dual registration in Romania.
(WSJ, 10/4/06, p.A11)(AP, 1/1/07)
2007 Jan 2, Teddy Kollek
(b.1911), the legendary mayor of Jerusalem, died. He was born in
Hungary, but was brought up mostly in Vienna. Kollek arrived in
Palestine in 1934 and in 1965 was elected mayor of Jerusalem and
served to 1993. He presided over the reunification of the city after
the 1967 Mideast war and tried to balance the needs of its split
Jewish and Arab populations.
(AP, 1/2/07)(Econ, 1/13/07, p.78)
2007 Jan 4, Israeli troops and
Palestinian gunmen exchanged heavy fire in downtown Ramallah after
undercover Israeli forces tried to arrest fugitives in the city's
vegetable market. Four Palestinians were killed and 20 wounded.
Pres. Abbas demanded $5 million in compensation for the damage to
shops and cars in Ramallah. Fatah Col. Mohammed Ghayeb and six of
his bodyguards were killed in factional fighting in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 1/4/07)(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 4, Overshadowed by an
Israeli raid into the Palestinian territories, a summit between
Israel and Egypt achieved little in reviving the long-stalled
Mideast peace process, highlighting instead the disagreements
between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 4, Musir Salem Jawher
(28) from Bahrain won the 30th International Tiberias Marathon,
around the Sea of Galilee. The Kenyan runner (Leonard Mucheru),
adopted by Bahrain 4 years earlier, faced anger from Bahrain for
running in an Israeli marathon.
(WSJ, 4/16/07,
p.A1)(www.tiberias-marathon.co.il/en/)
2007 Jan 7, In Israel former PM
Ehud Barak announced his political comeback, saying he will run for
the leadership of the Labor Party in a first step toward a possible
bid at regaining the country's top office.
(AP, 1/7/07)
2007 Jan 8, Israeli police
arrested Yigal Saar, the US representative of the Israel Tax
Authority, as part of a bribery and influence-peddling probe that
has so far questioned the authority's top officials and an aide to
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
(AP, 1/9/07)
2007 Jan 9, Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert arrived in China for a visit centered around
boosting trade ties and discussions on Iran's nuclear program.
(AP, 1/9/07)
2007 Jan 10, Israeli PM Ehud
Olmert, midway through an official visit to Beijing, said he
received a candid assurance from China that it opposes Iran having a
nuclear arsenal.
(AP, 1/10/07)
2007 Jan 10, Khaled Meshaal,
the leader of Hamas, said Hamas acknowledges the existence of Israel
but formal recognition by the group will only be considered when a
Palestinian state has been created.
(AP, 1/10/07)
2007 Jan 11, Israeli PM Ehud
Olmert ended a visit to China after talks with Chinese leaders on
Iran's nuclear program and efforts to boost trade and economic ties.
(AP, 1/11/07)
2007 Jan 15, The Israeli
government published plans to build 44 homes in Israel's largest
West Bank settlement, violating a pledge to the US as Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice was in the region on a peace-seeking mission.
(AP, 1/15/07)
2007 Jan 15, An Israeli court
ruled that a dead soldier's family can have his sperm impregnated
into the body of a woman he never met.
(AP, 1/29/07)
2007 Jan 16, In Israel Abir
Aramin, a 10-year-old Palestinian girl, was hit by a rubber-coated
bullet as she stood some distance from a demonstration. She died two
days later in a Jerusalem hospital. In 2010 a Jerusalem court
decided in a ruling that the Israeli state was responsible for the
death of the girl. In 2011 an Israeli court ordered the government
to pay $432,000 to the family of Abir.
(AP,
8/18/10)(www.counterpunch.org/peled08082007.html)(AP, 9/26/11)
2007 Jan 19, Israel said it had
paid $100 million in frozen tax funds to the Palestinians and
rescinded a contentious decision for a new West Bank settlement,
strengthening the hand of moderate President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of
crucial weekend talks in Damascus with his Hamas rivals.
(AP, 1/19/07)
2007 Jan 21, Islamic Jihad
militants launched homemade rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip
in retaliation for Israel's continuing military operations against
their group in the West Bank.
(AP, 1/21/07)
2007 Jan 24, Israeli President
Moshe Katsav, facing charges of rape and abuse of power, asked
parliament to temporarily remove him from office in an effort to
blunt growing calls for his resignation. Israeli troops shot dead a
Palestinian and arrested two others, as the men tried to sneak into
Israel from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 1/24/07)
2007 Jan 25, Israel’s President
Moshe Katsav, who insists he is the victim of a conspiracy, stepped
aside after a parliamentary committee voted 13-11 to grant his
request to do so. He preserved his immunity by taking a leave rather
than resigning.
(AP, 1/25/07)
2007 Jan 28, The Israeli
government approved the appointment of Raleb Majadele, the country's
first Muslim Cabinet member.
(AP, 1/28/07)
2007 Jan 29, A Palestinian
suicide bomber attacked a bakery in Eilat, a southern Israeli resort
town, killing three people and himself. The Palestinian who blew
himself up was unemployed, despondent over the death of his baby
daughter and driven to avenge his best friend's killing by Israeli
troops. Hamas and Fatah gunmen battled each other across the Gaza
Strip, attacking security compounds, knocking out an electrical
transformer and kidnapping several local commanders in some of the
most extensive factional fighting in recent weeks.
(AP, 1/29/07)
2007 Feb 1, Israeli troops
killed two Palestinian gunmen in an exchange of fire in Nablus.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Feb 9, Israeli police
stormed the grounds of Islam's third-holiest shrine, firing stun
grenades and tear gas to disperse thousands of Muslim worshippers
who hurled stones, bottles and trash in an eruption of outrage over
Israeli renovation nearby.
(AP, 2/9/07)
2007 Feb 11, Israel
successfully conducted its first nighttime test of the Arrow
anti-missile system after sundown.
(AP, 2/11/07)
2007 Feb 18, Israel and the US
agreed ahead of a three-way meeting with the Palestinians to shun
any new Palestinian government that does not renounce violence,
recognize Israel and accept existing peace agreements.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 21, Israeli troops
fatally shot a West Bank leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group
who was involved in an attempted bombing near Tel Aviv. 93.6 RAM FM
began broadcasting 20 independent news bulletins a day from studios
in Jerusalem and the West Bank to a target audience of half a
million English-speakers on both sides of the divide in the Holy
Land.
(AFP, 2/20/07)(AP, 2/21/07)
2007 Feb 21, Lebanese
anti-aircraft guns fired at Israeli warplanes over southern Lebanon,
indicating that Lebanon's army is taking a new assertiveness toward
Israel.
(AP, 2/21/07)
2007 Feb 22, The Israeli daily
Haaretz reported that Syria has embarked on an "unprecedented"
effort to bolster its armed forces with Iranian and Russian help.
(AP, 2/22/07)
2007 Feb 24, Israel denied a
report in a British daily that it is seeking permission from the
United States to fly its bombers over Iraq to attack Iran's nuclear
facilities.
(AFP, 2/24/07)
2007 Feb 25, Dozens of Israeli
jeeps and armored vehicles poured into Nablus overnight, placing
large areas of the city under curfew and conducting house-to-house
arrest raids in one of the largest West Bank military operations in
months.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 26, Israeli troops
sealed off the center of Nablus' old city with cement blocks and
trash containers, and searched apartments for seven Palestinian
fugitives whose names the army broadcast over local TV and radio
stations.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 27, The Israeli army
pulled its troops and armored vehicles out of the West Bank city of
Nablus after a three-day operation targeting Palestinians militants.
(AP, 2/27/07)
2007 Feb 28, Israeli troops
shot and killed three Palestinian militants in the West Bank town of
Jenin and raided the nearby city of Nablus for the second time this
week, placing tens of thousands of people under curfew.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Mar 7, Israeli troops
raided the Palestinian military headquarters in Ramallah and
arrested 18 fugitives who had sought shelter there.
(AP, 3/7/07)
2007 Mar 7, The Israeli air
force unveiled its newest unmanned aircraft, saying the plane can
fly longer, faster and higher than any other surveillance aircraft.
(AP, 3/7/07)
2007 Mar 12, Israel confirmed
that it has recalled Tsuriel Raphael, its ambassador to El
Salvador, after he was found naked, bound and drunk two weeks
earlier.
(AP, 3/13/07)
2007 Mar 14, Israeli and
Palestinian envoys said that improving the economy can revive the
peace process as they got to work on a Japanese initiative to create
jobs in the West Bank.
(AP, 3/14/07)
2007 Mar 15, Interpol said it
plans to issue international requests for the arrest of five
prominent Iranians and a Lebanese militant in connection with the
1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Argentina.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 15, The rival Hamas
and Fatah movements formed a long-elusive unity government, hoping
to end bloody infighting and lead the Palestinians out of yearlong
international isolation. Israel immediately said that it would not
deal with the new government.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 16, Israeli leaders
criticized the new Palestinian unity government, charging that the
Hamas-Fatah coalition did not meet international conditions,
including recognizing the Jewish state's right to exist. Three
masked Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a vehicle carrying the
chief of the UN refugee mission in Gaza and tried to kidnap him. A
Fatah intelligence official was killed in a nearby ambush.
(AP, 3/16/07)(WSJ, 3/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 21, Tens of thousands
of Israeli workers launched an open-ended general strike that
crippled the country's airports, seaports, railways, government
offices, banks, the stock exchange and many other services. The
strike by public service workers ended after just eight hours, when
the Israeli government agreed to pay back wages.
(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 26, Israel welcomed
the idea of a regional peace summit and Saudi Arabia suggesting it
would consider changes in a dormant peace initiative to make it more
acceptable to Israel.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 27, US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice said Israeli and Palestinian leaders have
agreed to meet every two weeks to discuss day-to-day issues, in a
quickening diplomatic pace that eventually could spur talks on a
final peace settlement.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 28, Hundreds of
Israeli police in riot gear dragged squatters from the ruins of the
former Homesh settlement, ending a three-day showdown between the
government and settlers trying to re-establish the settlement.
Homesh was one of four settlements in the northern West Bank
dismantled in 2005.
(AP, 3/28/07)
2007 Mar 28, A small group of
Arab lesbians quietly defied Islamist protesters and a social taboo
to gather at a rare public conference in Haifa, Israeli. It was
organized by Aswat, an organization for Arab lesbians with members
in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/28/07)
2007 Mar 29, Arab leaders at
their summit in Riyadh agreed on a call for Israel to accept their
land-for-peace offer and open direct negotiations with the Arabs.
Unlike past summits that at times saw overt feuds break out, the
gathering of Arab kings, emirs and presidents showed unusual public
unity as it revived the peace offer, which they first made in 2002
only to meet rejection from Israel.
(AP, 3/29/07)
2007 Apr 1, Israeli PM Ehud
Olmert invited Arab leaders to attend a peace conference to discuss
their ideas for reaching Mideast peace. The Israeli army sealed off
the West Bank ahead of the weeklong Passover holiday, restricting
the movement of Palestinians into Israel. In her first Mideast trip
as EU president, German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered Europe's
help in bringing Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating
table, trying to build on a new burst of international efforts to
restart peace talks.
(AP, 4/1/07)(AP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 2, Saudi Arabia
signaled it is unlikely to accept an Israeli invitation to a
regional peace conference, saying that Israel must first stop
mistreating Palestinians and move to withdraw from Arab lands.
(AP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 3, Interpol issued an
international arrest warrant for three Israelis accused of training
private armies of Colombian drug cartels and right-wing death
squads. Yair Klein, Melnik Ferri and Tzedaka Abraham were being
sought on charges of criminal conspiracy and instruction in
terrorism.
(AP, 4/3/07)
2007 Apr 4, A Palestinian
gunman was killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli troops in an
area where militants frequently fire rockets toward Israel.
(AP, 4/4/07)
2007 Apr 7, An Israeli
helicopter launched an airstrike along the Gaza Strip's border with
Israel, killing a Palestinian militant and wounding two others.
(AP, 4/7/07)
2007 Apr 8, A Palestinian
attacker stabbed and wounded two Israeli police officers at a
checkpoint outside a Hebron shrine that has been a flashpoint for
violence in the past.
(AP, 4/8/07)
2007 Apr 10, Israeli
authorities said they had arrested 19 Palestinian militants in March
for planning to set off a huge car bomb in Tel Aviv over the Jewish
holiday of Passover.
(AP, 4/10/07)
2007 Apr 12, A Syrian-American
businessman with ties to the Damascus government made an
unprecedented appearance before an Israeli parliamentary panel,
telling lawmakers that Syrian President Bashar Assad is ready to
make peace with the Jewish state.
(AP, 4/13/07)
2007 Apr 15, Israeli and
Palestinian leaders discussed the outlines of Palestinian statehood
for the first time in six years, taking a modest step toward
breaking the long paralysis in peacemaking.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 17, Israel's Shin Bet
security agency said that it has broken up an Iranian plot to
recruit Israelis of Iranian origin as spies, part of what it says is
a burgeoning Iranian intelligence operation against the Jewish
state. Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian militant near
Jenin. Four Israelis were shot and wounded as they were driving near
the West Bank Jewish settlement of Naaleh.
(AP, 4/17/07)
2007 Apr 18, The British
Foreign Office expressed disappointment and disagreement with a
National Union of Journalists vote to call for a boycott on Israeli
goods.
(AP, 4/18/07)
2007 Apr 19, Israeli Knesset
speaker Dalia Yitzik arrived in Jordan, the second Israeli official
to visit the Arab kingdom this week for talks on ways to revive
Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 21, Israeli troops
killed four Palestinians in clashes in the West Bank, including
three militants who died when troops opened fire at their vehicle. A
Palestinian policeman was killed when he climbed on the roof of his
home during an Israeli arrest operation in the village of Kafr Dan.
Palestinian officials said a 17-year-old girl, identified as Bushra
Wahash, was shot by Israeli gunfire as she peered out the window of
her home in the Jenin refugee camp. Palestinian militants in Gaza
fired three homemade rockets into southern Israel. One of the
rockets scored a direct hit on a house in the Israeli border town of
Sderot, causing no injuries. Minutes later, an Israeli aircraft
fired a missile at a Palestinian car near the rocket launch site. A
37-year-old man in the car was killed and a second occupant was
wounded.
(AP, 4/21/07)
2007 Apr 21, In Cairo an
Egyptian-Canadian man was convicted of spying for Israel and
sentenced to 15 years in prison by a special security court.
(AP, 4/21/07)
2007 Apr 22, Israeli troops
killed two Palestinian militants, including a top bombmaker, during
an arrest raid. The Islamic militant group Hamas called for new
attacks on Israel after eight Palestinians were killed in a surge of
fighting over the weekend.
(AP, 4/22/07)
2007 Apr 24, The armed wing of
Hamas fired a barrage of rockets and mortar shells from Gaza toward
Israel on its independence day, and said they considered it the end
of a five-month truce with Israel.
(AP, 4/24/07)(WSJ, 4/25/07, p.A1)
2007 Apr 25, Israel’s PM Ehud
Olmert authorized the army to carry out limited operations against
militants in the Gaza Strip, but ruled out a large-scale ground
offensive in response to a new round of Hamas rocket attacks.
(AP, 4/25/07)
2007 Apr 28, Israeli troops
killed at least three Hamas militants who were en route to carrying
out an attack.
(AP, 4/28/07)
2007 Apr 30, An Israeli
government commission aimed harsh criticism at PM Ehud Olmert and
other officials for their handling of last summer's war in Lebanon.
(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 May 3, In Israel the
campaign to oust PM Ehud Olmert shifted to the streets, with a mass
rally in Tel Aviv expected to draw tens of thousands of people
calling for the embattled leader to step down.
(AP, 5/3/07)
2007 May 6, Two Israeli human
rights groups charged in a report that Israel's Shin Bet security
service uses torture in its interrogation of Palestinian prisoners,
violating a 1999 court ruling outlawing such practices.
(AP, 5/6/07)
2007 May 7, Israeli scientists
said they found King Herod’s tomb near Jerusalem.
(WSJ, 5/8/07, p.A1)
2007 May 10, In Cairo Israeli
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni held talks with Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak in the first high-level discussion between Israel and
the Arab world on an Arab initiative calling for an exchange of land
for peace.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 10, A Palestinian
woman in the seventh month of her pregnancy lost her unborn baby
when she was caught in crossfire between Israeli troops and
Palestinian militants.
(AP, 5/11/07)
2007 May 16, An Israeli
helicopter launched missiles at a Hamas command center in the
southern Gaza Strip, killing at least four people, after Hamas fired
rocket barrages into Israel in an apparent attempt to draw Israel
into increasingly violent Palestinian infighting. At least 19 people
were killed in factional fighting between Fatah and Hamas.
(AP, 5/16/07)(SFC, 5/17/07, p.A12)
2007 May 16, The Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Ministerial Council
Meeting in Paris approved a decision to open accession discussions
with Israel.
(Econ, 4/5/08, SR p.7)(http://tinyurl.com/2h2frt)
2007 May 16, Following a
six-decade wait, Estonia's 3,000-strong Jewish community inaugurated
its new and only synagogue in Tallinn in the presence of top Israeli
dignitaries.
(AP, 5/16/07)
2007 May 17, Israeli aircraft
struck a Hamas command center, a trailer housing bodyguards and two
vehicles, citing the firing by militants of more than 50 rockets at
the Israeli border town of Sderot over three days.
(AP, 5/17/07)
2007 May 18, Israel pounded
more Hamas targets with airstrikes for a 2nd day, killing four
Palestinians. 10 people have died with dozens wounded as it stepped
deeper into fighting between the Islamic militants and the rival
Fatah fighters of President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 5/18/07)
2007 May 20, Israeli Vice
Premier Shimon Peres said his government would offer a
counterproposal to an Arab peace initiative to resolve the conflict
with Palestinians. Israeli warplanes fired missiles into a car
carrying Hamas militants and a load of weapons, killing 3 people,
and also demolished arms factories of 2 Palestinian militant groups.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 21, Israel pushed
ahead with its campaign against Palestinian rocket squads, pounding
the Gaza Strip with new airstrikes that killed five militants. A
rocket from Gaza killed an Israeli woman.
(AP, 5/21/07)(WSJ, 5/22/07, p.A1)
2007 May 22, Israeli aircraft
struck two camps used by the Islamic militant group Hamas, a day
after a Palestinian rocket attack killed an Israeli woman. Officials
suggested even Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas
could be a target.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 24, Israeli troops in
the West Bank rounded up a Palestinian Cabinet minister and 32 other
Hamas leaders in the West Bank before dawn, pressing forward with an
offensive against the Islamic militant group.
(AP, 5/24/07)
2007 May 24, In Lebanon
sporadic gunfire erupted inside the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp where
Islamic militants are holed up after refusing an ultimatum by
Lebanon's defense minister to surrender or face a military
onslaught. Lebanon's leader vowed to uproot the fighters. The family
of Shaker Youssef al-Absi, the Palestinian who heads the shadowy
militant group blamed for this week's violence in Lebanon, said he
is not a terrorist but a nationalist who seeks an end to Israel's
occupation of Palestinian lands.
(AP, 5/24/07)
2007 May 26, Israel fired
missiles at five Hamas targets minutes apart, killing five people
just hours after Gaza militants floated the idea of halting rocket
fire on Israeli border towns if the 10-day-old air campaign ends. In
the West Bank, Israeli troops arrested Cabinet minister Wasfi
Kabaha, confiscating his computer and many of his documents. Also in
the West Bank, Palestinian police ambushed Adbel Razik (26), the
leader of the violent Fatah offshoot the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades,
as he emerged from his home. A grenade blew up in his hand, and he
later died of his wounds.
(AP, 5/26/07)
2007 May 27, PM Ehud Olmert
promised more attacks on the Hamas militant group after a
Palestinian rocket attack killed an Israeli man in southern Israel.
(AP, 5/27/07)
2007 May 30, A group of
internationally renowned Israeli authors and university presidents
demanded that Israel grant Palestinian students from the Gaza Strip
free movement to superior universities in the West Bank.
(AP, 5/31/07)
2007 Jun 1, Israeli troops shot
and killed two 13-year-old Palestinians near the Gaza-Israel border
fence, saying they were crawling toward the barrier in a "suspicious
manner." The boys had told their families they were going to the
beach.
(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 Jun 3, Hamas militants
wounded four Israeli soldiers in a mortar attack on a base near the
Gaza Strip, shortly after Israel's PM Ehud Olmert vowed to press
ahead with military operations against Palestinian gunmen.
(AP, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 9, Palestinian gunmen
from Gaza broke through Israel's border fortifications and battled
Israeli troops near an army post. Israeli Army Radio said troops
killed one of the raiders. Medics at a northern Gaza Strip hospital
walked off their jobs for a few hours to protest the kidnapping and
shooting of a doctor by Palestinian militants, the first physician
targeted in months of deadly infighting.
(AP, 6/9/07)
2007 Jun 10, Israeli aircraft
fired on militant targets in Gaza City in predawn airstrikes, hours
after Palestinian gunmen breached Israel's heavily fortified Gaza
border and tried to capture an Israeli soldier. Rival Palestinian
forces clashed in Gaza. 2 militants were killed after being thrown
out of high-rise buildings.
(AP, 6/10/07)(SFC, 6/11/07, p.A7)
2007 Jun 11, Israel's military
launched a spy satellite. A senior official suggested it could help
keep track of developments in Iran.
(AP, 6/11/07)
2007 Jun 13, Elder statesman
Shimon Peres (83) was elected Israel's ninth president, capping a
campaign to extend his six-decade political career in a race marred
by rape allegations against Moshe Katsav, the sitting president.
Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister tossed out of office
six years ago in a humiliating election defeat, won the leadership
of the dovish Labor Party.
(AP, 6/13/07)
2007 Jun 14, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas declared an emergency after the Hamas
militant group effectively took control of the Gaza Strip. Hamas
fighters overran one of the rival Fatah movement's most important
security installations in the Gaza Strip. Witnesses said the victors
dragged vanquished gunmen into the street and shot them to death
execution-style. 14 fighters and civilians were killed and 80
wounded in the battle for the Preventive Security complex, bringing
the day's death toll to 25 by mid-afternoon. Witnesses, Fatah
officials and a doctor reported gangland-style killings of the
defeated fighters. Palestinian security officials said an Israeli
tank shell killed six people, including five children, in the
southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. The clashes in Gaza left an
estimated 116 people dead and over 500 wounded.
(AP, 6/15/07)(WSJ, 6/19/07, p.A1)(AP, 6/14/08)
2007 Jun 18, Gunmen and Israeli
soldiers exchanged fire at the Erez crossing between Israel and
Gaza, killing at least one Palestinian and wounding 15.
(AP, 6/19/07)
2007 Jun 19, Former Israeli PM
Ehud Barak took over as defense minister. Hundreds of terrified
Gazans fleeing Hamas rule were trapped at a main crossing with
Israel, hoping to gain permission to pass through Israeli territory
to sanctuary in the West Bank. Israeli security officials said they
have arrested 12 members of a PLO cell that planned to kidnap
American citizens.
(AP, 6/19/07)(AP, 6/20/07)
2007 Jun 19, President Bush and
visiting Israeli PM Ehud Olmert sided emphatically with Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas in his standoff with the militant group
Hamas.
(AP, 6/19/08)
2007 Jun 20, Israeli tanks
entered southern Gaza, and four people, including at least two
militants, were killed in an exchange of fire. Israel fired missiles
at two rocket launchers in northern Gaza in the first attack since
Hamas militants took control. Israel also let in a few seriously ill
Palestinians who had been holed up for days at a fetid border
crossing. In the West Bank, two Palestinian militants were killed in
a shootout with Israeli troops during an arrest raid near Jenin.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007 Jun 23, Israeli troops
arrested the founder of the Hamas military wing in the West Bank.
Saleh Aruri, was taken from his West Bank home before dawn. Aruri
had served 15 years in an Israeli prison and was released in March.
(AP, 6/23/07)
2007 Jun 24, The Israeli
Cabinet approved the release of frozen tax funds to Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas, in a step to bolster the moderate leader in
his standoff against the Islamic militant group Hamas.
(AP, 6/24/07)
2007 Jun 25, Israel's PM Ehud
Olmert promised to free 250 Palestinian prisoners and to improve
life in the West Bank in an attempt to boost Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas after Hamas' takeover in Gaza. Olmert made the pledges
at a summit in this Egyptian Red Sea resort with Abbas and the
leaders of Egypt and Jordan. Hamas militants posted an audio message
from an Israeli soldier captured a year ago at an army base near the
Gaza Strip, the first sign of life from the young serviceman since
he was seized. In a new video kidnapped British journalist Alan
Johnston appeared with what he says are explosives strapped to his
body and warned that his captors intend to set them off if rescuers
attempt to free him by force.
(AP, 6/25/07)(AP, 6/26/07)
2007 Jun 25, Ayman al-Zawahri,
Al-Qaida's deputy leader, called on Muslims around the world to back
Hamas with weapons, money and attacks on US and Israeli interests in
a Web audiotape, urging the Palestinian militant group to unite with
al-Qaida's "holy warriors" after its takeover of Gaza.
(AP, 6/25/07)
2007 Jun 26, In Jerusalem
international Mideast negotiators searched for ways to revive peace
talks after Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip. US officials said
they were expected to name outgoing British PM Tony Blair as a
senior envoy.
(AP, 6/26/07)
2007 Jun 27, Israeli attacks in
the Gaza Strip killed 13 Palestinians, including a 12-year-old boy,
and wounded over 40 others.
(AP, 6/27/07)(SFC, 6/28/07, p.A12)
2007 Jun 28, Israeli President
Moshe Katzav agreed to resign under an unexpected plea bargain that
included no jail time for sex crimes, ending a year-long
investigation. Israeli troops imposed a curfew on downtown Nablus
and clashed with Fatah militants as the army's activities moved from
Gaza to the West Bank.
(AP, 6/28/07)
2007 Jun 29, Israeli President
Moshe Katsav resigned as part of a much-criticized plea bargain that
dropped planned rape charges and the threat of jail time.
(AP, 6/29/07)
2007 Jun 29, In Gaza City a
Mickey Mouse look-alike who preached Islamic domination on a
Hamas-affiliated children's television program was beaten to death
in the show's final episode by an actor posing as an Israeli
official trying to buy his land.
(AP, 6/29/07)(SFC, 6/30/07, p.A9)
2007 Jun 30, An Israeli air
strike killed 3 Palestinian militants in Gaza, including an Islamic
Jihad commander long sought by Israel for involvement in rocket
shootings at the Jewish state.
(AP, 6/30/07)
2007 Jun, The World Monuments
Fund added the Jordan River Valley to its list of 100 most
endangered sites. Israel, Jordan and Syria diverted over 90% of the
Jordan River water annually for drinking and irrigation, reducing
flow to the Dead Sea.
(SSFC, 8/12/07, p.A15)
2007 Jul 1, Israel transferred
millions of dollars worth of tax funds to the new Palestinian
government, allowing it to pay its workers in full for the first
time in a year, while skipping the ones who work for the Islamic
Hamas in Gaza.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 4, The foreign
ministers of Israel and Morocco held their first publicly disclosed
talks in years, with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the heart
of the discussion.
(AP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 5, Israeli troops
crossed into the Gaza Strip and engaged Hamas militants in a fierce
gunbattle that drew in Israeli aircraft, tanks and bulldozers. 11
militants were killed. A cameraman for Hamas TV, who lay wounded on
the ground, came under more fire during a clash with Israeli troops.
The shooting was captured on film and broadcast on al-Jazeera
satellite television. Imad Ghanem had to have both legs amputated as
a result of his injuries. Israel repatriated 4 Jordanian
infiltrators who were serving life sentences in Israeli prisons for
killing Israeli soldiers.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AP, 7/6/07)(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 6, Israeli forces
pulled out of the Gaza Strip. Their military incursion left 11
Palestinian militants dead and pushed Gaza's rival factions together
in urging their people to fight back.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 8, The Israeli Cabinet
approved the release of 250 Palestinian prisoners, in the
government's latest gesture of support for moderate Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas in his struggle against the Hamas militant
group.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 12, Israeli forces
moved into the Gaza Strip in a hunt for weapons and wanted
militants, sparking a fierce battle with Hamas militants that killed
one Israeli soldier.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 15, Mahmoud Darwish,
the world's most recognized Palestinian poet, delivered a stinging
tirade against Palestinian infighting in his first public appearance
in decades in the Israeli city of Haifa. Scores of Fatah militiamen
signed pledges to renounce violence against Israel and turned in
their weapons. Shimon Peres was inaugurated as Israel’s new
president.
(AP, 7/16/07)(SFC, 7/16/07, p.A14)
2007 Jul 16, Pres. Bush said he
would call Israel, the Palestinians and others in the region to a
peace conference and urged Arabs to send Cabinet-level officials to
a Fall meeting to be led by Sec. of State Condoleeza Rice.
(SFC, 7/17/07, p.A7)(AP, 7/16/08)
2007 Jul 20, Israel released
more than 250 Palestinian prisoners, aiming to bolster embattled
President Mahmoud Abbas in his power struggle with the Islamic
militants of Hamas.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 22, Israeli troops
operating in the northern Gaza Strip shot and killed two Hamas
gunmen. An Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinian militants in the
northern Gaza Strip after they fired rockets at a nearby Israeli
town.
(AP, 7/22/07)(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, Israeli police
said 9 Israelis suspected of trafficking in organs and humans have
been arrested and remain in custody. The case was opened when an
Israeli woman filed a police complaint charging that she was not
paid after her kidney was removed in Ukraine.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 25, The foreign
ministers of Egypt and Jordan, delegated by the 22-member Arab
League, began a historic visit to Israel to formally present an Arab
peace plan, saying they were extending "a hand of peace" on behalf
of the region.
(AP, 7/25/07)(Econ, 7/28/07, p.48)
2007 Jul 26, An Israeli
airstrike targeting a car south of Gaza City killed 3 Islamic Jihad
militants. Israeli forces also killed a Hamas militant during a
military operation in the southern Gaza Strip. In the West Bank
Israeli troops struck and seriously injured a Palestinian who tried
to stab a soldier. The man's family said he later died of his
wounds.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 27, The Israeli army
suspended an officer and five soldiers involved in wounding a
Palestinian man July 26 in the southern West Bank and put all of
their unit's operational duties on hold.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 28, Palestinian
officials said Israel has agreed to allow at least 627 Palestinians
who have been stranded in Egypt for weeks to pass into the Gaza
Strip.
(AP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 30, An Israeli
parliamentary committee voted unanimously to revoke the privileges
of disgraced former president Moshe Katsav, who signed a plea
bargain in June admitting he sexually harassed several female
employees. An Israeli aircraft attacked a car carrying Palestinian
militants, wounding two members of Islamic Jihad and the Gaza
commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Aug 4, Two Palestinians
were killed and six wounded in an Israeli air strike on two vehicles
near the southern Gaza Strip's border with Egypt.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 6, Ehud Olmert became
the first Israeli PM to visit a Palestinian town since the outbreak
of fighting seven years ago, meeting under heavy guard with
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to talk about the creation of a
Palestinian state.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 7, Israeli police,
using sledgehammers, chain saws and power clippers, stormed a
building in the biblical city of Hebron and dragged out hundreds of
Jewish settlers who had holed up there illegally.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 8, Israeli soldiers
shot and killed three Palestinian militants near Israel's border
with the Gaza Strip in two separate incidents.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 14, Benjamin Netanyahu
won elections as leader of Israel's hardline Likud Party. Israeli
troops and aircraft attacked Islamic militants in the southern Gaza
Strip. Four fighters and two civilians died in the clashes and 26
people were wounded. Separately, two security officers for Gaza's
Hamas rulers were reported killed in fierce fighting with the
powerful Palestinian Doghmush clan.
(AP, 8/14/07)(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 15, Japan's foreign
minister launched plans for a joint Israeli-Palestinian industrial
park in the West Bank that he said would promote peace in the region
through prosperity.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 16, The US offered
Israel an unprecedented $30 billion military aid package.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 19, The Israeli
government and Holocaust survivors struck a deal on a special
allowance for Israelis who lived through the Nazi genocide. It
guaranteed Israelis who survived the Nazi ghettos and concentration
camps a monthly stipend of $284.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, Israel said it
would expel refugees from Sudan's war torn Darfur region, touching
off hot debate over whether the Jewish state, founded after the Nazi
genocide, has a duty to take in people fleeing persecution.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 19, Israel opened a
crossing with the Gaza Strip to let in fuel shipments, but tens of
thousands of homes remained without electricity because fuel for a
major Gaza power company hadn't arrived. The EU cut off vital
funding to a Gaza power plant, forcing it to shut down the last of
its generators and darken tens of thousands of Palestinian homes.
Palestinian Information Minister Riad Maliki said the EU ceased
payment "because Hamas took over the electric company and started
collecting the revenues and taking them to its pocket."
(AP, 8/19/07)(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 21, The Israeli army
said ground forces fired at gunmen who approached the Israel-Gaza
border fence. The Islamic Jihad group said three militants on a
mission against Israel were killed. Palestinians fired three rockets
into Israel including one that hit an empty kindergarten in the town
of Sderot near Gaza. Israeli troops targeted two figures spotted
near a rocket launcher in an area of northern Gaza where a rocket
had been fired into Israel earlier. The fire killed a 10-year-old
and a 12-year-old who were members of the same extended family. The
army said Palestinian rocket teams have been known to send young
children to retrieve rocket launchers after firing.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 22, Israeli aircraft
killed one Hamas militant and wounded three others in an airstrike
in Gaza City.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 25, Two Palestinian
militants infiltrated Israel from the Gaza Strip, attacking an
Israeli military position before soldiers tracked them down and
killed them. Militants detonated a bomb near the border fence in
southern Gaza, lightly wounding four soldiers. Militants also fired
several mortars into southern Israel, causing no injuries.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 27, Israel’s Haaretz
newspaper reported that security officials fear Hamas' exiled
leadership in Syria is working to renew suicide attacks against
Israel in an effort to derail peace efforts by Israel and
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli intelligence assessed
that Islamic Hamas militants have smuggled 40 tons of weapons into
the Gaza Strip since the group wrested control of the territory in
June.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 28, Israeli PM Ehud
Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas tackled the major
issues dividing the two sides at their meeting, final borders,
Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.
(AP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 29, The three cousins,
10-year-old Mahmoud Ghazal, 10-year-old Sara Ghazal and 12-year-old
Yehiya Ghazal, were killed when Israeli troops combating Palestinian
rocket squads spotted figures moving near rocket launchers in
northern Gaza and ordered a strike.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Aug 30, A cargo ship,
anchored about 2 miles from Israel's coast near the port city of
Haifa, when it was hit by the Salamis Glory, a Cypriot passenger
ship. 11 crew escaped from the sinking cargo ship. The first mate
and engineer, both residents of Slovakia, were missing.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Aug 31, Israeli divers
found the bodies of two sailors missing in the Mediterranean Sea, 12
hours after their cargo ship sank in a collision with a passenger
liner.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Sep 2, Israeli police
recommended that former Finance Minister Avraham Hirchson be
indicted on charges of stealing millions from a union he headed in
2003.
(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 5, Interior Minister
Meir Sheetrit said Israel will grant citizenship to some of the
estimated 300 refugees from Sudan's violence-ridden Darfur region
who have already arrived.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 6, Israeli troops
backed by tanks and bulldozers crossed into southern Gaza to strike
at Palestinian militants and 10 militants were killed. Palestinian
militants said fighters in a pickup truck and jeep crashed through a
fence on the Gaza-Israel border and attacked an Israeli army post.
An Israeli airstrike hit in Syria where it was believed weapons,
being sent from Iran to the militant Islamic group in Lebanon, were
stored. It was later reported that the airstrike was aimed at a
partly constructed nuclear reactor.
(AP, 9/6/07)(AP, 9/12/07)(SSFC, 10/14/07, p.A19)
2007 Sep 6, Pope Benedict XVI
met with Israeli President Shimon Peres, as the elder statesman and
Nobel Peace Prize laureate continued his visit to Italy amid an
international push for peace in the Middle East.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 9, Israeli police said
they have cracked a cell of young Israeli neo-Nazis accused in a
string of attacks on foreign workers, religious Jews, drug addicts
and gays. Eight immigrants from the former Soviet Union were
arrested in recent days in connection with at least 15 attacks, and
a ninth fled the country.
(AP, 9/9/07)
2007 Sep 10, Israeli PM Ehud
Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met in Jerusalem to
discuss guidelines for resuming peace negotiations.
(AP, 9/10/07)
2007 Sep 11, A Palestinian
rocket exploded in an Israeli army base, wounding more than 40
soldiers as they slept in their tents and drawing calls for a major
military operation against militants launching rockets from the Gaza
Strip.
(AP, 9/11/07)
2007 Sep 11, Syria complained
to the UN about Israeli "aggression and violation of sovereignty"
after what a US official said was Sep 6 airstrike deep in Syria.
(AP, 9/11/07)(AP, 9/12/07)
2007 Sep 13, The Jewish New
Year of 5768 began and marked a year of agricultural sabbatical,
known in Hebrew as "shmita." The commandment requires Jewish farmers
in Israel to let their fields rest every seventh year, just as Jews
are required to rest every seventh day. Israeli aircraft fired a
missile at a car in a Gaza refugee camp, injuring two members of the
violent Islamic Jihad group.
(AP, 9/13/07)
2007 Sep 16, Israeli fire
killed two Palestinians in separate incidents in the West Bank,
including a militant.
(AFP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 19, Israel's Security
Cabinet declared the Gaza Strip an "enemy entity" in order to cut
off power and fuel supplies to the coastal strip.
(AP, 9/19/07)
2007 Sep 23, The Israeli
Cabinet voted overwhelmingly to release 90 Palestinian prisoners in
an effort to shore up the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud
Abbas, in his power struggle with Islamic Hamas militants.
(AP, 9/23/07)
2007 Sep 25, Israel's largest
bank said it was severing its last remaining ties with Palestinian
banks in Gaza, following the Israeli government's declaration of the
coastal strip as an "enemy entity."
(AP, 9/25/07)
2007 Sep 26, An Israeli missile
strike targeted a jeep carrying members of the Army of Islam. Five
passengers were killed, the Army of Islam said. The Israeli military
said the jeep was carrying rockets ready for use. In northern Gaza,
Israeli tanks and bulldozers briefly entered the town of Beit
Hanoun, following rocket fire from the area. At one point, a tank
shell was fired toward a group of people between two houses, killing
four and wounding 25.
(AP, 9/27/07)
2007 Sep 27, Israeli forces
killed two Gaza militants in a missile strike.
(AP, 9/27/07)
2007 Oct 1, Dozens of freed
Palestinian prisoners kissed the ground at this West Bank checkpoint
after Israel released them in a gesture to President Mahmoud Abbas
ahead of a US-sponsored Mideast peace conference. Israeli troops
killed two Hamas militants in Gaza in a gunbattle.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 2, Israel completed
the release of 86 Palestinian prisoners and soldiers briefly opened
fire as family members rushed toward the prisoners at the Erez
crossing in the Gaza Strip. 2 people were wounded. A blast in Gaza
killed four people, including three Fatah activists and a bystander.
Hamas accused Fatah of having tried to attack the security compound,
saying explosives in the car apparently blew up prematurely.
(SFC, 10/3/07, p.A12)(AP, 10/3/07)(WSJ, 10/3/07,
p.A1)
2007 Oct 4, Egypt sent a
high-level protest to dozens of European nations expressing
"astonishment and regret" at their refusal to endorse Cairo's call
for a Middle East nuclear free zone at a conference last month. At
last month's IAEA session, 25 of the 27 EU nations abstained as did
other countries hoping to join the union. In all, 47 nations
abstained. Israeli objections forced a vote in which 53 countries,
Muslim states and their supporters from the developing world, backed
the proposal.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17,
Israeli troops killed a Hamas gunman in a battle in southern
Gaza.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 18,
Israeli PM Ehud Olmert flew to Moscow in a surprise visit to
discuss Iran's nuclear program with President Vladimir Putin, who
just returned from talks with Iranian leaders in Tehran. Olmert
pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin to support new sanctions
against Iran over its nuclear activities and urged Russia not to
sell arms to Iran or Syria.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 19, A parliamentarian
said that 61 of 120 Israeli lawmakers have signed a petition against
any attempt by PM Ehud Olmert to transfer parts of Jerusalem to the
Palestinians.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 22,
About 1,000 Palestinian prisoners rioted at an Israeli desert
prison, attacking guards, torching the tents where they are housed
and leaving 30 people injured.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 22,
About 40 tons of oil spilled from a land pipeline carrying
crude from the port of Ashkelon in southern Israel to refineries in
the northern city of Haifa.
(AP, 10/23/07)
2007 Oct 23, Israel killed a
top Gaza militant with a missile strike on his car prompting threats
of more rocket attacks on Israeli border towns. A Palestinian
prisoner who was wounded in rioting at an Israeli desert prison
died, prompting Palestinian threats of revenge and accusations that
the man was abused by Israeli authorities.
(AP, 10/23/07)(WSJ, 10/24/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 24, Officials said
Israeli military experts have formulated a plan to gradually cut off
power to the Gaza Strip in response to ongoing rocket fire from the
Palestinian area.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 26, Israeli PM Ehud
Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas began talks in
Jerusalem as part of efforts to work out a joint statement ahead of
a US-sponsored Mideast peace conference this fall.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 28, Israel began
cutting vital fuel shipments to the Gaza Strip, following through on
a promise to step up pressure on the area's Hamas rulers in response
to months of Palestinian rocket attacks.
(AP, 10/28/07)
2007 Oct 29, Israel’s PM Ehud
Olmert announced that he has prostate cancer and would soon have
surgery, but said the disease is not life-threatening and he would
continue to perform his duties.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 29, In a special
Internet announcement in Arabic, picked up DEBKAfile’s
counter-terror sources, Osama bin Laden’s followers announced the
launching of Electronic Jihad. On Sunday, Nov. 11, al Qaeda’s
electronic experts will start attacking Western, Jewish, Israeli,
Muslim apostate and Shiite Web sites.
(http://debka.com/)
2007 Oct 30,
Israeli aircraft hit a Hamas-run police station in the
southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, killing at least four people.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Nov 1, The Israel’
military announced that its forces operating in the Gaza Strip this
week had uncovered and destroyed seven tunnels used by Palestinian
militants to smuggle arms and people.
(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 4, Israeli aircraft
fired at a rocket-launching site in the northern Gaza Strip, killing
three civilians sleeping in a nearby storage container.
(AP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 7, The watchdog group
Peace Now said Israel is enlarging 88 of its 122 West Bank
settlements despite an agreement to halt the spread of Jewish
communities in Palestinian territory.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.A11)
2007 Nov 7, Interpol put Ali
Fallahian, Iran’s former intelligence chief, Mohsen Rezai, a former
leader of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Ahmad Vahidi, a Revolutionary
Guards general, and 2 other Iranians and Imad Mugniyah, a Lebanese
militant on its most-wanted list for a 1994 bombing that killed 85
people at a Jewish center in Argentina.
(AP, 11/8/07)(WSJ, 1/15/08, p.A6)
2007 Nov 11, Israeli police
raided more than 20 government buildings and private offices,
searching for evidence in a series of criminal investigations of
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Nov 13, Shimon Peres
became the 1st Israeli president to address the parliament of a
Muslim government when he spoke to Turkish deputies.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.60)
2007 Nov 19, The Israeli
Cabinet approved the release of 441 Palestinian prisoners in a
gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but stopped short of
US demands to halt West Bank settlement construction before a
crucial Mideast conference.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 19, International
Mideast envoy Tony Blair announced four economic projects designed
to create thousands of jobs for Palestinians and bolster peace
efforts with Israel.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, Israel’s PM Olmert
met with Egypt’s Pres. Mubarek and said a peace deal with the
Palestinians can be signed within a year.
(WSJ, 11/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 20, Israel signed an
agreement with Liberia to extract diamonds from the African nation,
seven months after sanctions barring Liberia from exporting the gems
were lifted.
(AFP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 23, Saudi Arabia and
other Arab nations grudgingly agreed to attend an upcoming
US-sponsored Mideast peace conference, despite failing to get any
guarantee of Israeli concessions.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2007 Nov 25, An army spokesman
and Palestinian medics said Israeli troops killed two armed
Palestinians in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip overnight.
(AFP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 26, An Israeli
aircraft pounded a squad of militants and Israeli border guards shot
two Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 27, Pres. Bush
declared that the time is right to relaunch Mideast peace talks to
create a Palestinian state because "a battle is under way for the
future" of the troubled region, in remarks prepared for the start of
the US-arranged Annapolis Mideast peace conference. Delegations from
46 countries and int’l. organizations attended the conference.
Israeli PM Olmert and Palestine’s Pres. Abbas agreed to launch
formal talks on Dec 12 and committed to negotiating a peace treaty
by the end of 2008.
(AP, 11/27/07)(SFC, 11/27/07, p.A15)(WSJ,
11/28/07, p.A4)
2007 Nov 28, A day after an
international Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md., President
Bush told the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian territories he
was personally committed to their mission of peace.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2007 Dec 1, An Israeli
airstrike killed five Hamas members, prompting threats by Gaza
militants to fire longer-range rockets at Israeli border towns.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 3, Israel released 429
Palestinian prisoners in a gesture meant to strengthen moderate
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 4, Israel said it is
seeking bids to build more than 300 new homes in a disputed east
Jerusalem neighborhood, drawing Palestinian condemnations that the
move is undermining the newly revived peace talks.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 4, Iran's foreign
minister welcomed the US decision to "correct" its claim that Tehran
has an active nuclear weapons program, while Israel's defense
minister said Israeli intelligence believes Iran is still trying to
develop an atomic weapon.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 5, Two Palestinian
militants were killed by Israeli tank fire in northern Gaza. Lt.
Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said Israel's army has completed plans for a
large offensive in the Gaza Strip and is only waiting for government
approval for the action.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 11, Israeli tanks and
bulldozers backed by attack aircraft moved into the southern Gaza
Strip, killing four militants in the widest operation in the
territory since Islamic Hamas forces wrested control in June.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 12, The renewal of
peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians got off to a rocky
start, with the Palestinians criticizing Israel for a construction
project planned in disputed east Jerusalem, and Israel complaining
about continued rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 13, Israeli high
school teachers ended a two-month strike after receiving a pay raise
and government promises to redress some of the problems in the
Israeli school system, including class size.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 17, Defense officials
said Israel will allow the Palestinians to set up a new cell phone
network, part of warming relations between the sides. The world
rallied to the support of the embattled Palestinian government, and
the co-chairman of a donors' conference said he was confident they
could meet a $5.6 billion target in aid.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 18, Israeli aircraft
launched an assault on the radical Islamic Jihad organization in
Gaza, killing the group's overall commander and nine other militants
in three fiery strikes. A fourth attack on a security post in
southern Gaza killed two Hamas militants.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 19, A Hamas official
confirmed that Gaza's embattled Hamas leaders are seeking a
cease-fire after months of Israeli attacks and sanctions, going so
far as to make an unprecedented appeal through the Israeli media.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 20, Israeli troops
killed at least 6 Gaza militants, a day after rejecting an
unofficial truce offer from the besieged Hamas rulers of the coastal
territory.
(AP, 12/20/07)(SFC, 12/21/07, p.A18)(WSJ,
12/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 21, Israeli
Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said that PM Ehud
Olmert may consider talks with Hamas on a long-term cease-fire. A
Hamas militant was killed in a clash with Israeli troops near the
Israel-Gaza border.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 23, A Cabinet minister
said Israel has plans to build an additional 740 apartments in
disputed east Jerusalem and the West Bank in 2008, enraging
Palestinians who say such construction undermines nascent peace
talks.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 26, Israeli Defense
Minister Ehud Barak visited Egypt to discuss Israeli allegations
that Egypt was doing too little to prevent arms smuggling to the
Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Egypt rejected Israeli
complaints about weapons smuggling into Gaza.
(Reuters, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 27, Israeli PM Ehud
Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held their first
summit since they agreed last month to renew peace talks, seeking to
resolve a dispute over planned Israeli construction in east
Jerusalem.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 28, Unknown assailants
fatally shot two Israeli settlers hiking in the West Bank. The
attack followed an Israeli operation overnight in which troops
killed a bodyguard for the Palestinians' chief negotiator.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 31, The number of
people killed in Israeli-Palestinian violence dropped dramatically
this year. A report from an Israeli human rights group said Israeli
forces killed 373 Palestinians during 2007, a 45 percent drop from
the previous year. Palestinians killed 13 Israelis in the same
period.
(SFC, 12/31/07, p.A3)
2007 Israel built some 2,600
new housing units this year, most of them inside its security fence
on Palestinian land.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.58)
2008 Jan 2, Israeli forces
killed seven Palestinian militants in a clash before dawn, pressing
its war against armed groups in the Gaza Strip days before President
Bush arrives to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace.
(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 2, Egypt allowed more
than 2,000 Palestinian pilgrims to enter the Gaza Strip, drawing a
fierce rebuke from Israel, which had tried to prevent top members of
the militant Hamas from returning home.
(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 3, Israeli tanks and
warplanes attacked a series of targets throughout the Gaza Strip. 9
people were killed including 3 civilians with over 30 Palestinians
wounded. The attack had intensified following a Katyusha rocket
strike 10½ miles into Israel. The Israeli military uncovered
an arms cache in Nablus that contained explosives, military
equipment and material for manufacturing rockets.
(AP, 1/3/08)(SFC, 1/4/08, p.A16)(SSFC, 1/6/08,
p.A18)
2008 Jan 3, Israeli authorities
ordered fowl destroyed in an area of northern Israel after chickens
kept at a kindergarten were diagnosed with a deadly strain of bird
flu.
(AP, 1/3/08)
2008 Jan 4, Israeli troops on a
night mission in the Gaza Strip killed two Hamas gunmen in the early
hours as Israel responded to Palestinian rocket fire with strikes
against militants that left 11 dead in 24 hours.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 5, The Israeli army
wound up a large 3-day operation in Nablus saying they had
discovered another explosives laboratory there.
(SSFC, 1/6/08, p.A18)
2007 Akiva Eldar and Idith
Zertal authored “Lords of the Land: The War for Israel’s Settlements
in the Occupied Territories 1967-2007.”
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.97)
2008 Jan 6, The head of Gaza's
energy authority said Palestinians in Gaza will be forced to live
without electricity eight hours a day, beginning today, because
Israel has sharply reduced fuel supplies to the territory's only
electric plant.
(AP, 1/6/08)
2008 Jan 9, The Israeli
military fired at Palestinian militants in Gaza, killing three
people, after a rocket hit a house in a battered Israeli border town
just as President Bush, with an entourage of some 800 people, began
his Mideast peace mission. Bush, seeking to pull Israel and the
Palestinians toward serious negotiations, said that despite ongoing
land squabbles and fears of violence he has high hopes that a
Mideast peace pact can be achieved before he leaves office at the
end of the year.
(AP, 1/9/08)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.39)
2008 Jan 9, The Israeli
military fired at Palestinian militants in Gaza, killing three
people, after a rocket hit a house in a battered Israeli border town
just as President Bush began his Mideast peace mission. Bush,
seeking to pull Israel and the Palestinians toward serious
negotiations, said that despite ongoing land squabbles and fears of
violence he has high hopes that a Mideast peace pact can be achieved
before he leaves office at the end of the year.
(AP, 1/9/08)
2008 Jan 10, In the West Bank
President Bush predicted that a Mideast peace treaty would be
completed by the time he leaves office. Bush named Lt. Gen. William
Fraser III of the US Air Force to oversee compliance with a
US-backed peace plan.
(AP, 1/10/08)
2008 Jan 11, President Bush had
tears in his eyes during an hour-long tour of Israel's Holocaust
memorial and told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the US
should have bombed Auschwitz to halt the killing. Bush wrapped up
his 3-day visit to Israel and departed for Kuwait, where he sought
Arab support for the US-backed Mideast peace deal.
(AP, 1/11/08)
2008 Jan 14, PM Ehud Olmert
told a powerful parliamentary panel that Israel rejects "no options"
to block Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
(AP, 1/14/08)
2008 Jan 15, Israeli tanks and
helicopters raided Gaza, killing the son of the territory's most
powerful leader and 16 other Palestinians in the bloodiest day of
fighting since Hamas seized the coastal strip in June.
(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 16, In Israel a
hawkish faction in PM Ehud Olmert's coalition pulled out of the
government, weakening him at a time when he needs broad support to
reach a peace deal with the Palestinians by the end of the year.
Israeli forces evacuated two makeshift settlement outposts in the
West Bank. Israeli aircraft targeting Palestinian rocket squads hit
a wrong vehicle killing a boy (12), along with his father and uncle.
(AP, 1/16/08)(SFC, 1/17/08, p.A10)
2008 Jan 16, Pres. Bush visited
Egypt. Stalled reforms and bitterness over the jailing of hundreds
of dissidents haunted his visit. Bush promised to stay engaged in
pulling Israelis and Palestinians toward a peace pact by the end of
his term.
(AP, 1/16/08)
2008 Jan 17, An Israeli court
sentenced a major in Israel's army reserves to five years in prison
for offering secret information to Iran and the Islamic militant
group Hamas. David Shamir (45), a psychiatrist, was convicted of
contact with a foreign agent and possession of information with the
intent of endangering state security. He never managed to deliver
any secret information.
(AP, 1/17/08)
2008 Jan 17, Militants in
Hamas-ruled Gaza bombarded southern Israel with rockets and Israel
pounded back with air and ground fire pushing peace efforts to the
sidelines. Israeli rockets killed at least 5 Palestinians including
2 militants and 3 civilians.
(AP, 1/17/08)(SFC, 1/18/08, p.A10)
2008 Jan 18, Defense officials
said Israel has closed all border crossings into Gaza, cutting off
food and humanitarian supplies to the coastal strip in a bid to
pressure its Hamas rulers to stop a barrage of rocket attacks on
Israeli towns.
(AP, 1/18/08)
2008 Jan 19, Israeli air
strikes killed two Hamas militants in Gaza, a day after Israel
sealed the territory and bombed an empty Hamas government ministry
in an intensifying campaign to halt rocket fire on Israeli border
towns.
(AP, 1/19/08)
2008 Jan 19, In Lebanon Sheik
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's reclusive leader, claimed the militant
group had the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon during
the 2006 war, saying the dead were left behind "in our villages and
fields."
(AP, 1/19/08)
2008 Jan 20, Gaza's power plant
shut down late in the day after an Israeli border closure blocked
the entry of fuel that powers it. This plunged Gaza City into
darkness, and gas stations and many bakeries stopped operating.
Health officials warned that hospital generators were running out of
fuel. 5 rockets were fired into Israel, down from 53 in the two
previous days.
(AP, 1/20/08)(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 21, Israel launched an
advanced spy satellite that will be able to track events in Iran,
the country it considers its top foe, even at night and in cloudy
weather. India successfully launched the Israeli spy satellite into
orbit.
(AP, 1/21/08)(AFP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 22, Israel eased a
5-day blockade of Gaza for a day, allowing in shipments of fuel and
medicine. But tensions erupted over Egypt's closure of its Gaza
border, with Palestinian protesters breaking through the crossing
and clashing with Egyptian guards.
(AP, 1/22/08)(WSJ, 1/23/08, p.A1)
2008 Jan 24, A top Israeli
defense official said that Israel wants to relinquish all
responsibility for the Gaza Strip, including the supply of
electricity and water, now that the territory's southern border with
Egypt has been opened.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 24, Two Palestinians
infiltrated a religious seminary and attacked students in a West
Bank settlement before being shot dead. Palestinian gunmen killed an
Israeli police officer near Jerusalem.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 30, The final Winograd
Commission report was announced in Binyanei HaUma in Jerusalem. It
had been commissioned to inquire into Israel’s 2006 war in Lebanon.
(Econ, 2/2/08,
p.56)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winograd_Commission)
2008 Feb 1, In Mauritania at
least one gunman opened fire on the Israeli Embassy, setting off a
battle with guards that wounded one person. 8 people were soon
detained, but all were released for lack of evidence.
(AP, 2/1/08)(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb 3, Israeli forces
opened fire across the Lebanese border, killing one person and
wounding another. The Israeli military said it was responding to
fire apparently from drug smugglers on the Lebanese side.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 4, In Israel a suicide
bomber blew himself up in Dimona, the southern town that houses
Israel's secretive nuclear reactor. An Israeli woman (73) was killed
and 7 other people wounded. Police killed a 2nd attacker before he
had a chance to detonate his explosives belt. An Israeli response
killed 9 armed Hamas men.
(AP, 2/4/08)(Econ, 2/9/08, p.54)
2008 Feb 5, An Israeli
airstrike in response to Qassam rockets killed 7 Hamas police
officers near Khan Yunis. A barrage of rockets followed and battered
Sderot less than a half mile from the Gaza fence, seriously wounding
a woman just before the arrival of President Shimon Peres.
(AP, 2/5/08)(SFC, 2/6/08, p.A7)(SFC, 2/7/08,
p.A4)
2008 Feb 6, Israel launched
airstrikes against militants firing rockets from the Gaza Strip on
and vowed to maintain a war "on all fronts" until the territory's
Hamas rulers halt attacks. Hamas rockets wounded two young sisters
at Kibbutz Beeri.
(AP, 2/6/08)(SFC, 2/7/08, p.A4)
2008 Feb 7, Israeli ground
forces backed by warplanes exchanged fire with Hamas gunmen in the
northern Gaza Strip, killing a teacher and six militants in
escalating violence that is hobbling peace efforts. Israeli troops
entered the town of Qabatiya before dawn to arrest an Islamic Jihad
militant. Soldiers shot a mentally disabled man, Taysir Nazal (56),
as he emerged from his home, in his legs. Nazal died from his wounds
on Feb 14.
(AP, 2/7/08)(AP, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 8, Palestinian
militants launched nearly 20 rockets at Israel hours after Israel
began cutting electricity to the Gaza Strip in an attempt to halt
the barrages.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 9, An 8-year-old boy
lost his leg in a rocket attack on Sderot, one of the 11 rockets
fired at southern Israel. Four Israeli airstrikes after the attack
killed a Gaza gunman and targeted weapons-making operations of the
Islamic militant Hamas group.
(AP, 2/10/08)
2008 Feb 12, Israel said it
plans to build 1,000 homes in East Jerusalem, angering Palestinians
who said the move undermines efforts for a peace deal.
(WSJ, 2/13/08, p.A1)
2008 Feb 14, The chief of
Hezbollah vowed to retaliate against Israeli targets anywhere in the
world after accusing the Jewish state of killing the militant Imad
Mughniyeh in Syria.
(AP, 2/14/08)
2008 Feb 17, Israeli troops
backed by aircraft and tanks clashed with Palestinian militants
firing mortars and machine guns near Gaza's former international
airport, killing three gunmen and a civilian. Later a Palestinian
rocket struck a house in the southern Israeli town of Sderot,
shortly after the UN's humanitarian chief condemned the rocket fire
and urged Gaza's Hamas rulers to end the attacks.
(AP, 2/17/08)
2008 Feb 23, An Israeli army
missile strike killed 3 Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip.
Militants from Gaza had fired 4 mortar shells at Israel earlier in
the day.
(SSFC, 2/24/08, p.A8)
2008 Feb 26, Israel's highest
court upheld a much-criticized plea bargain that allowed former
President Moshe Katsav to avoid rape charges and a possible prison
term. Israeli troops seized the facilities of a Hamas-affiliated
charity in the West Bank city of Hebron, saying it funneled money to
the Islamic group's militant activities and recruited members to its
ranks.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 27, A Palestinian
rocket struck a college campus in southern Israel, killing one
person and injuring a second. The Hamas militant group said it had
fired more than 20 rockets into southern Israel, including eight at
Sderot, the town near Gaza where the deadly strike took place. The
rocket barrage came hours after an Israeli airstrike killed five
Hamas militants earlier in the day. Late in the day Israeli aircraft
attacked the empty office of Gaza's Hamas prime minister and the
nearby Interior Ministry building. Palestinians said the blasts
killed a baby and wounded two dozen people in the surrounding area.
(AP, 2/27/08)(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 27, Japan and Israel
shared their concerns about Iranian nuclear programs and agreed to
cooperate to prevent Tehran from going nuclear.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 28, Israeli aircraft
struck a series of targets throughout the Gaza Strip, killing 15
Palestinians, including 5 boys. Palestinian rocket fire continued
throughout the day, lightly wounding two people. Hamza al-Haya, the
son of hardline Hamas lawmaker Khalil al-Haya, was among those
killed. Hamas said he had commanded a rocket-launching squad in
northern Gaza.
(AP, 2/28/08)(SFC, 2/29/08, p.A10)
2008 Mar 1, Palestinians called
off peace talks with Israel after 33 Gazans, at least half of them
civilians, were killed in violence that escalated sharply during the
day. The death toll climbed as Israeli troops, backed by tanks and
aircraft, went after Palestinian militants who fired 40 rockets and
mortars at southern Israeli communities near Gaza. A total of 54
Palestinians, roughly half of them civilians, were killed in
fighting, the highest single-day death toll in more than seven years
of violence. Two Israeli soldiers also were killed.
(AP, 3/1/08)(AP, 3/2/08)
2008 Mar 2, Israeli aircraft
sent missiles slamming into the office of the prime minister of
Hamas-ruled Gaza before dawn, pressing forward with an offensive
that has killed nearly 70 Palestinians in two days of fighting. A
21-month-old girl was among the dead in new violence. The Israeli
onslaught failed to stop rockets from battering southern Israel. 9
were fired at southern Israel by midday, including one that struck a
house in Sderot.
(AP, 3/2/08)
2008 Mar 3, Israeli ground
troops pulled out of northern Gaza before daybreak, following the
first extended sweep in an offensive against Palestinian rocket
squads that has left more than 100 dead and led the Palestinian
president to call off peace talks.
(AP, 3/3/08)
2008 Mar 4, Israel said it
would return to Hamas-ruled Gaza if necessary as it mounted new
airstrikes on the Palestinian territory after militants fired more
rockets at a nearby Israeli town. Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas declared that peace is his first choice in the Mideast and
visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice exhorted Israel to
"spare innocent life" in the latest upsurge in fighting in
Hamas-ruled Gaza. Palestinians fired three rockets at Israel. About
25 Israeli armored vehicles rumbled into southern Gaza and clashed
with militants after nightfall. A 1-month-old baby was killed in the
crossfire. A local Islamic Jihad leader was killed and 8 militants
and 3 civilians were wounded.
(AP, 3/4/08)(AP, 3/5/08)
2008 Mar 4, Israel has said
Hezbollah is rearming and has an arsenal that includes 10,000
long-range rockets and 20,000 short-range rockets in southern
Lebanon, according to a report from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
(AP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 5, Visiting Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice persuaded Palestinians to return to peace
talks. President Mahmoud Abbas said he will resume peace talks with
Israel, backing off a threat to boycott negotiations until Israel
reaches a truce with Hamas militants in Gaza.
(AP, 3/5/08)
2008 Mar 6, Palestinian
militants ambushed an Israeli army jeep on the border with Gaza,
killing one soldier and wounding three. Deputies of Egypt's
intelligence chief Omar Suleiman met with officials from the Islamic
militant Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad in the Egyptian Sinai
city of el-Arish to persuade Hamas to accept a truce that would halt
rocket attacks.
(AP, 3/6/08)
2008 Mar 6, A gunman
infiltrated a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem and opened fire in a
library, killing 8 students and wounding dozens before an Israeli
army officer nearby shot the gunman dead. In Gaza, the Islamic
militant Hamas praised the attack.
(AP, 3/6/08)(AP, 3/7/08)
2008 Mar 9, An Israeli
Construction Ministry official said PM Ehud Olmert has approved new
construction in a West Bank settlement outside Jerusalem. An Israeli
soldier wounded by Gaza militants in a border ambush on Mar 6 died
of his wounds. The news immediately drew Palestinian condemnation.
(AP, 3/9/08)
2008 Mar 10, Israeli PM Ehud
Olmert has instructed the army to halt airstrikes and raids into the
Gaza Strip in response to a recent drop in rocket fire from the
territory.
(AP, 3/10/08)
2008 Mar 11, Palestinian
militants in Gaza launched a rocket at the Israeli city of Ashkelon,
causing no injuries but threatening to upset a recent period of
calm.
(AP, 3/11/08)
2008 Mar 12, Gaza's Hamas prime
minister publicly set his conditions for a cease-fire with Israel to
end the fighting that has killed dozens in recent weeks. Ismail
Haniyeh demanded an end to Israeli military activity in the
Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, a lifting of Israeli economic sanctions and
the opening of Gaza's borders. Hours later Israeli forces killed 4
Palestinian militants in the West Bank. Israeli troops riding in a
taxi van pulled up behind the militants' parked Daihatsu and began
shooting immediately.
(AP, 3/12/08)(WSJ, 3/13/08, p.A1)(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Mar 13, The militant
Islamic Jihad group in Gaza fired more than a dozen rockets at
southern Israel after Israeli undercover forces killed one of its
West Bank leaders, shattering a recent lull in Gaza fighting.
(AP, 3/13/08)
2008 Mar 14, The Bush
administration's Mideast envoy pushed Israel and the Palestinians to
speed up peace negotiations at the first meeting the US has attended
since talks resumed nearly four months ago.
(AP, 3/14/08)
2008 Mar 16, German Chancellor
Angela Merkel acknowledged her country's "historical responsibility"
to Israel as she opened a three-day visit marking the 60th
anniversary of the Jewish state.
(AP, 3/16/08)
2008 Mar 18, In Israel Angela
Merkel, chancellor of Germany, addressed Israel’s parliament and
condemned the rocket attacks from Gaza.
(Econ, 3/22/08, p.59)
2008 Mar 20, Israeli defense
officials announced they've worked out a tentative deal for Egypt to
become the main electricity supplier to the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 24, Al-Qaida deputy
leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on Muslims in a new audiotape to
strike Jewish and American targets in revenge for Israel's recent
offensive in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/24/08)
2008 Mar 26, The Israeli
military captured Omar Jabar, the mastermind of the March 2002
bombing in Netanya, the deadliest suicide bombing of the Palestinian
uprising.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 28, Palestinian medics
say a Palestinian man was killed by Israeli army fire as he
approached Gaza's border fence with Israel. The Israeli military
said the man was armed and hurled a grenade at forces close to the
fence.
(AP, 3/29/08)
2008 Mar 30, Israel pledged to
remove 50 West Bank roadblocks as part of a package to improve
everyday life for Palestinians after US Sec. of State Rice met with
Israel's defense minister, Ehud Barak, and Palestinian PM Salam
Fayyad.
(AP, 3/30/08)
2008 Mar 31, Jerusalem's city
hall has announced a plan to construct 600 new apartments in the
Pisgat Zeev neighborhood of east Jerusalem.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Apr 6, American evangelist
John Hagee announced donations of $6 million to Israeli causes and
said that Israel must remain in control of all of Jerusalem.
(AP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 7, Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas resumed
face-to-face negotiations, trying to push forward peace efforts
after nearly two months marred by heavy Gaza Strip violence and new
Israeli plans to expand settlements.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 8, In Palestine’s
Hamas threatened to burst across the Israeli border to end Israel's
blockade of Gaza if Egypt and Israel do not lift their blockade.
(AP, 4/9/08)(WSJ, 4/9/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 9, Palestinian
militants crossed into southern Israel and killed two Israeli
civilians in a surprise attack before fleeing back to the Gaza
Strip. At least one of the militants who attacked the Israeli
terminal delivering fuel to the Gaza Strip was killed. Israel sent
tanks, troops and aircraft into the Palestinian territory after the
raid, killing at least 8 Palestinians, including 3 civilians, and
warned that more reprisals could be coming.
(AP, 4/9/08)(AP, 4/10/08)
2008 Apr 10, Israel cut off all
fuel supplies to Gaza's 1.4 million residents, one day after
militants killed 2 civilians at a fuel terminal.
(AP, 4/10/08)
2008 Apr 11, Israeli forces
launched air strikes and a ground raid in the Gaza Strip, trading
fire with gunmen in clashes that killed 8 Palestinians including a
12-year-old boy.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 12, Investigators in
Turkey found the body of Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo (33), an
Italian artist known as Pippa Bacca. She was last seen on March 31
hitchhiking in a wedding gown. She was on her way to Israel in a
plea for peace. Police detained a man suspected of killing her. In
June, 2009, Murat Karatas was sentenced to life in prison for her
rape and murder.
(AP, 4/12/08)(SSFC, 6/28/09, p.A4)
2008 Apr 14, An Israeli
airstrike hit a vehicle in northern Gaza, fatally wounding Ibrahim
Abu Olba (42), a senior Palestinian militant. Former President Jimmy
Carter deplored Palestinian militant attacks on Israel as a
"despicable crime" as he toured Sderot, a rocket-battered town.
(AP, 4/14/08)(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 15, Israel said it
will resume some crucial fuel shipments to the Gaza Strip. Defense
officials confirmed that Israel will let Jewish settlers build new
houses in existing West Bank settlements if they remove unauthorized
settlement outposts. An Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a
motorcycle in northern Gaza, killing Mohammed Ghausain, an Islamic
Jihad commander.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 15, J Street, an
American pro-Israel and pro peace lobby was established under
director Jeremy Ben Ami. It argued for a 2-state solution based on
Israel’s pre-1967 borders. It is the first and only federal
Political Action Committee (PAC) established to explicitly promote
meaningful American leadership to end the Israeli-Palestinian and
Israeli-Arab conflicts peacefully and diplomatically.
(Econ, 10/31/09,
p.40)(www.jstreet.org/files/images/JStreet_MediaAdvisory_041507.pdf)
2008 Apr 16, Palestinian
militants ambushed an Israeli ground force in the northern Gaza
Strip, killing three soldiers during a day of fierce fighting. Five
Palestinians were killed in separate clashes.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 16, Palestinian
militants ambushed an Israeli ground force in northern Gaza, killing
three soldiers. The army responded with an airstrike and identified
hitting militants in the Bureij area. Fadel Shana (23) a cameraman
with the Reuters news agency, was struck, along with two bystanders,
as he filmed Israeli tank movements in the distance during the
bloodiest day in Gaza in more than a month. He had been in the area
to film the aftermath of a deadly Israeli airstrike that killed 12
Palestinians, including five children aged 12-15. Israeli airstrikes
left at least 19 Palestinians dead.
(AP, 4/17/08)(SFC, 4/17/08, p.A9)
2008 Apr 17, In Egypt former
President Carter met with a Hamas delegation from Gaza, part of a
series of talks with the Islamic militant group that has drawn sharp
criticism from US and Israeli officials. Carter said he urged Hamas
leaders from the Gaza Strip to stop militants from firing rockets
into southern Israel.
(AP, 4/17/08)(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 18,
The Israeli government revealed plans to build 100 homes in
two Jewish settlements, one of them deep in the West Bank, in
violation of its pledge to freeze settlement expansion. The Al Aqsa
Martyrs' Brigades said Hani Al-Kabi, a leader of the group in the
Balata refugee camp, was killed by Israeli troops during a raid in
Nablus.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 19,
Hamas militants drove two cars laden with explosives to an
Israeli border crossing with Gaza under the cover of morning fog and
detonated one. 4 militants were killed in the huge blasts and
exchanges of fire with at least 13 Israeli soldiers wounded. Israel
killed 5 Hamas militants in a series of airstrikes after the group
detonated the explosives.
(AFP, 4/19/08)(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 20,
Israeli airstrikes killed 2 more Hamas militants one day after
the group detonated two jeeps packed with hundreds of kilograms of
explosives on the Gaza border.
(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 21, Israeli military
forces killed three Palestinian militants who were trying to
infiltrate into Israel from Gaza. Former President Carter said that
Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has called for the
destruction of Israel, is prepared to accept the right of the Jewish
state to "live as a neighbor next door in peace." Hamas said it
would accept a Palestinian state with pre-1967 borders.
(AP, 4/21/08)(WSJ, 4/21/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 22,
Senior representatives said Hamas has softened its position
and is willing to accept a cease-fire in just the Gaza Strip,
dropping a demand that the truce immediately include the West Bank.
(AP, 4/22/08)
2008 Apr 23, A threatened
shutdown of the Gaza Strip's only power plant was averted after
Israel agreed to pump in about 260,000 gallons of diesel fuel,
enough to run the plant for at least 3 days. An Israeli airstrike
killed a Palestinian civilian near the town of Beit Hanoun.
(AP, 4/23/08)(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 24, An Israeli
airstrike in Gaza wounded three militants and tanks were moving
toward the area. Hamas proposed a six-month cease-fire with Israel,
saying it will stop firing rockets out of Gaza if the Jewish state
simultaneously lifts its blockade of the coastal strip.
(AP, 4/24/08)(AFP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 25, A Palestinian
militant shot and killed two Israeli security guards at a factory
along the divide between Israel and the West Bank. The attacker was
lightly wounded in an exchange of gunfire but managed to escape.
(AP, 4/25/08)
2008 Apr 26, Israeli forces
entered a northern Gaza town and seized a local Hamas leader from
his home amid heavy fighting with Palestinian gunmen. The wanted
man's 14-year-old daughter was killed in the clashes.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 26, Turkey's PM
Erdogan was in Syria in a bid to restart peace negotiations between
Damascus and its Mideast foe, Israel.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 28, An Israeli tank
shell slammed into a tiny Gaza Strip home during a skirmish with
gunmen, killing a Palestinian woman and four of her children as they
prepared to sit down for breakfast. A militant and an unidentified
man were also killed in fighting in Beit Hanoun, a northern border
town frequently used by militants to fire rockets and mortars at
southern Israel.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 30, In Egypt state
news agency MENA said Palestinian factions meeting in Cairo for
talks with Egyptian security officials have agreed to an Egyptian
proposal for a truce with Israel starting in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 4/30/08)
2008 May 6, Egyptian border
police fatally shot a Nigerian man who was trying to cross illegally
into Israel. Guards also shot three Sudanese men and one woman who
were also trying to sneak into Israel.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 9, Mortar shells fired
by militant Hamas killed an Israeli man in an Israeli communal farm
near Gaza. Israel fired missiles at two Hamas police station in
retaliation and killed five Hamas members.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 10, Hamas fired
rockets at southern Israel, hitting a house and a Jewish seminary
just hours after five Hamas policemen were killed in Israeli air
strikes.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 11, A member of the
militant group Hamas was killed in an explosion along Gaza's fence
with Israel.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 12, Israel’s police
raided Jerusalem’s city hall and seized documents as part of the
corruption probe of PM Ehud Olmert. A rocket fired by Palestinian
militants killed a 75-year-old Israeli woman, just as an Egyptian
mediator was winding up truce talks in Israel.
(AP, 5/12/08)(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 14, In Israel
President Bush said that 60 years of Israel's existence is cause for
optimism for democratic change throughout the Middle East, opening a
trip divided between ceremonial duties and a new push for
Israeli-Palestinian peace. A rocket fired from Gaza exploded in a
shopping center in Ashkelon, southern Israeli, wounding at least 14
people.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 16, Osama bin Laden
said in a new audio recording that al-Qaida will continue its holy
war against Israel and its allies until it liberates Palestine.
(AP, 5/16/08)
2008 May 18, Osama bin Laden
released a new message denouncing Arab leaders for sacrificing the
Palestinians and saying the head of the Shiite militant group
Hezbollah did not really have the strength to take on Israel.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, Al Gore received a
$1 million prize on Monday for his environmental work from an
Israeli fund. The Dan David Foundation awarded the former vice
president its annual "present" prize for alerting the world to the
crisis from the overuse of fossil fuels.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 20, Israeli aircraft
launched at least three strikes on Palestinians, killing a boy (13),
a Hamas fighter and an unidentified man. The first raid aircraft
fired on the northeastern Gaza Strip at a group of Palestinians
launching rockets. The 2nd aircraft fired at Palestinians who were
planting explosives along the fence in central Gaza.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 21, Israel and Syria
said they were holding indirect peace talks through Turkish
mediators on a dispute that centers on the Golan Heights.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 22, A Palestinian
suicide bomber detonated a truck loaded with explosives as he tried
to ram a crucial crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel. There
were no casualties besides the bomber.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 23, Clashes between
Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip left five
militants dead.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 24, Israeli forces
attacked two groups of Palestinian militants firing mortar shells in
the northern Gaza Strip, wounding 4 Hamas gunmen.
(SSFC, 5/25/08, p.A4)
2008 May 25, An Iranian-born
Israeli was charged with passing defense information to Tehran. The
man told interrogators he repeatedly visited the Iranian consulate
in Istanbul, Turkey, and gave the Iranians names of acquaintances he
said served in the Israeli security forces.
(AP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 26, David Mumford of
Brown University said he would donate his $33,333 portion of the
prestigious Israeli mathematics Wolf Prize, to a Palestinian
university and an Israeli group that tries to ease Israeli travel
restrictions on Palestinian students.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 27, Morris Talansky
(75), an American businessman who is key to a corruption probe of PM
Ehud Olmert, told prosecutors that over 14 years he had handed
Olmert cash-stuffed envelopes for $150,000. At least $40,000 was in
personal loans and never repaid.
(AP, 5/27/08)(Econ, 5/31/08, p.49)
2008 May 28, An Israeli
airstrike in southern Gaza Strip killed two Hamas gunmen during a
military operation. The airstrike also wounded four militants who
were firing mortars at Israeli forces.
(AP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 29, At a ceremony in
Jerusalem, Israel's President Shimon Peres announced that the hoopoe
is now the ornithological symbol of the country. Ornithologist Amir
Balaban, who runs the Jerusalem Bird Observatory, described the
hoopoe as a beautiful, native bird that is monogamous and takes good
care of its children.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 May 31, An Egyptian police
official said boxes of ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades and
anti-aircraft missiles have been found in a mountain in the northern
Sinai peninsula. He said the weapons were to be smuggled into the
neighboring Gaza Strip.
(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 Jun 1, Israel freed Nasim
Nisr (39), a convicted Hezbollah spy, and the militant group turned
over the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in the 2006 war in
Lebanon.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 4, The Israeli army
says it has closed the Gaza fuel crossing after an errant rocket
fired by militants wounded a Palestinian worker at the terminal.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 5, An Israeli missile
aimed at a group of Palestinian militants struck a house and killed
a girl (6), hours after an Israeli was killed by a Hamas mortar
barrage fired from the area.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 6, An Israeli
airstrike in Beit Lahiya targeted a Hamas base. One fighter was
killed during an Israeli army operation in the central Gaza Strip.
(AP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 7, An Israeli tank
killed a militant near Gaza City. Hamas confirmed the man was a
member of the group and said two of his comrades were wounded. The
Israeli military said the gunman was planting a bomb along the
border.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 9, Israeli officials
said they have transferred millions of dollars in delayed tax
revenue to the Palestinian authority, money that will help pay
thousands of workers who have not received their May wages.
(AP, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 10, Gaza militants
bombarded southern Israel with 20 mortar rounds in the space of an
hour midday, provoking Israeli ground strikes that killed 3
militants from the territory's ruling Hamas group.
(AP, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 11, The Israeli
military said soldiers opened fire at militants launching rockets
into Israel. Palestinian officials said a 6-year-old girl was killed
by Israeli tank fire in Gaza. A car bomb blast in central Tel Aviv
killed a prominent Israeli lawyer, in what they called a criminal
bombing and not an attack by Palestinian militants.
(AP, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 12, A blast flattened
the house of a militant commander in the Gaza Strip, killing four
people, wounding 40 and burying an unknown number of others. Israel
denied involvement. Hamas said the blast was caused by an Israeli
airstrike and responded with a heavy barrage of rockets and mortar
shells into southern Israel, wounding an Israeli woman. Earlier in
the day Israeli troops killed two Palestinian militants in a clash
in northern Gaza.
(AP, 6/12/08)
2008 Jun 13, Israel confirmed
plans to build 1,300 more apartments in east Jerusalem, immediately
drawing the ire of Palestinians who accused it of sabotaging already
rocky peace efforts. Hamas claimed responsibility for a house
explosion a day earlier in northern Gaza that killed seven
Palestinians, one of them an infant girl.
(AP, 6/13/08)
2008 Jun 15, Israeli officials
said that indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria have
resumed, with Turkish mediation.
(AP, 6/15/08)
2008 Jun 16, Israeli troops in
southern Gaza killed three Palestinian gunmen as they planted
explosives along the Gaza-Israel border. Separately an Israeli
airstrike injured three Hamas militants, one of them critically.
(AP, 6/16/08)
2008 Jun 16, Officials said 2
days of peace talks in Turkey involving Israel and Syria had
concluded and more talks were planned.
(AP, 6/16/08)
2008 Jun 17, Egypt's
state-owned news agency said Israel and Hamas have agreed on a truce
to begin June 19.
(AP, 6/17/08)
2008 Jun 18, Israel and Hamas
pledged to start a cease-fire June 19 in a bid to end a year of
fighting that has killed more than 400 Palestinians and seven
Israelis. The deal came as Israel also urged Lebanon to open peace
talks.
(AP, 6/18/08)
2008 Jun 19, Guns went quiet as
a six-month truce between Israel and Gaza Strip militants took
effect, but there was widespread skepticism about its ability to
hold.
(AP, 6/19/08)
2008 Jun 22, Israel increased
the trickle of badly needed goods flowing into the Gaza Strip, in
the latest stage of a four-day-old truce with Hamas militants.
(AP, 6/22/08)
2008 Jun 23, In Jerusalem
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said there could be no Mideast
peace unless Israel drops its refusal to cede sovereignty over parts
of Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinians, challenging one of
Israel's most emotionally held positions.
(AP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 24, Three Palestinian
rockets hit southern Israel and PM Ehud Olmert's office says the
cease-fire that took effect last week has been broken. Islamic Jihad
militants in the Gaza Strip said they carried out the attack to
avenge an Israeli military raid that killed one of their fighters in
the West Bank. Israeli troops killed two Palestinians in the West
Bank raid. The militant group Hamas said it remains committed to a
cease-fire with Israel, but will not act as Israel's "police force"
in confronting militants who breach the truce. An Israeli police
officer fatally shot himself in the head at an airport farewell
ceremony for French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The officer was
identified as Raed Ghanem, a member of the minority Druse community.
(AP, 6/24/08)(AP, 6/25/08)
2008 Jun 26, Gaza militants
fired a rocket into southern Israel, causing no injuries but
undermining a shaky, week-old truce meant to halt a violent cycle of
attacks and harsh Israeli reprisals. The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades,
a violent group linked to the rival Fatah movement, claimed
responsibility for the attack saying "the truce must include the
West Bank and all sorts of aggression must stop."
(AP, 6/26/08)
2008 Jun 27, Israel refused to
fully open crossings with the Gaza Strip and Palestinian militants
attacked Israel with mortars, further testing an already fragile
truce. Israeli soldiers shot dead Mohammed Alameh (17), a West Bank
teenager who threw Molotov cocktails at an army patrol.
(AP, 6/27/08)(AP, 6/28/08)
2008 Jun 29, Israel's Cabinet
overwhelmingly voted in favor of a deal with Hezbollah to swap a
notorious Lebanese prisoner for two captured soldiers who were
declared dead earlier in the day. Israel would release Samir Kantar,
imprisoned for a 1979 attack etched in the Israeli psyche as one of
the cruelest in the nation's history. Israel reopened its border
crossings with the Gaza Strip to allow a trickle of goods into the
territory.
(AP, 6/29/08)
2008 Jul 1, Israel closed its
cargo crossings with the Gaza Strip after accusing Palestinian
militants of firing a rocket at southern Israel in violation of a
shaky truce. The Israeli military said its radar detected a rocket
launched from Gaza the previous evening that struck near the
communal farm of Mefalsim.
(AP, 7/1/08)
2008 Jul 2, In Israel Hussam
Dwayat (30), a Palestinian man from Arab east Jerusalem plowed, an
enormous construction vehicle into cars, buses and pedestrians on a
busy street, killing at least 3 people and wounding at least 45
before he was shot dead by security officers. Palestinian witnesses
said an angry crowd in the Gaza Strip has stormed a border crossing
with Egypt throwing rocks at Egyptian troops.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 6, Israel re-opened
its border crossings with the Gaza Strip after closing them because
of Palestinian rocket fire.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 7, Israeli troops in
jeeps swooped down on the West Bank town of Nablus, shutting down a
girls' school, a medical center and two other facilities of a
Hamas-affiliated charity. Palestinian militants fired a mortar shell
at a border crossing with the Gaza Strip. Israel's military said it
had begun digging up the bodies of Lebanese fighters after the
government struck a deal with Hezbollah guerrillas to swap five
living prisoners and dozens of bodies for two Israeli soldiers
captured in 2006.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, Israeli Lt. Col.
Omri Borberg was caught on video holding the arm of Ashraf Abu
Rahmeh while he was shot in the foot with a rubber-coated bullet in
the West Bank village of Naalin. On Jan 27, 2011, an Israeli
military court sentenced two soldiers, convicted in the close-range
shooting of a bound and blindfolded Palestinian man, but spared them
jail time.
(AP, 1/27/11)(http://tinyurl.com/45ufwxq)
2008 Jul 8, The Israeli
military said Gaza militants fired a mortar shell into Israel in
another violation of a shaky truce.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 9, An Israel-Hamas
truce has boiled down to a simple trade-off: For a day of calm,
Israel adds five truckloads of cows and 200 tons of cement to the
barest basics it ships to Gaza, but rocket fire from the territory
reseals the border for a day.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 10, Israeli troops
shot and killed a teenage Palestinian militant along the country's
border with Gaza. Soldiers thought he was armed but, after
inspecting the body, found that he was not. In the fourth day of
operations in the city of Nablus, Israel closed a clinic and TV
station, and raided a mosque.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 11, Israeli troops
killed a Palestinian gunman who opened fire in the early morning on
an Israeli civilian driving in the West Bank.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 15, Israel's Cabinet
overwhelmingly approved an emotionally charged deal to trade a
Lebanese militant convicted of killing three people for two Israeli
soldiers captured by Hezbollah guerrillas and believed to be dead.
Israeli troops arrested three Hamas council members in a dawn raid
on the West Bank city of Nablus. Witnesses and residents said a
total of 12 Hamas members were arrested.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 16, Hezbollah handed
over two black coffins with the bodies of two Israeli soldiers and
Israel freed 5 Lebanese militants, including Samir Kantar, who
killed a 4-year-old girl and her father in 1979.
(AP, 7/16/08)(WSJ, 7/17/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 18, Israel’s Shin Bet
security service said investigators had arrested six men in June and
July suspected of trying to set up an al-Qaida-linked terror
network, including one who wanted to shoot down President Bush's
helicopter.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 20, In Israel British
PM Gordon Brown, on his first official visit as prime minister, said
that economic development was key to bringing peace to the Middle
East. Brown demanded that Israel cease settlement construction and
promised more money to jump-start the battered Palestinian economy.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 22, Palestinian rammed
a construction truck into three cars and a bus near the Jerusalem
hotel where Barack Obama is supposed to stay, injuring four people
before an Israeli civilian shot and killed the attacker.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 23, US Presidential
hopeful Barack Obama donned a Jewish skullcap at Israel's Holocaust
memorial and vowed to preserve America's close ties with Israel in a
dramatic visit to the Holy Land in which he also promised the
Palestinians to push vigorously to win them a state.
(AP, 7/23/08)
2008 Jul 24, An Israeli
official said a key committee has approved construction of the first
new Jewish settlement in the West Bank in a decade. The news
infuriated Palestinians, who said the decision could cripple peace
efforts.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 25, A bomb exploded
outside a Gaza City cafe and another went off outside the home of a
Hamas lawmaker. One person was killed.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 27, Israeli troops
killed a Hamas militant in the West Bank town of Hebron. Troops
exchanged gunfire with the man (25) for 12 hours before bulldozing
the structure.
(AP, 7/27/08)
2008 Jul 29, Israeli gunfire
killed a 10-year-old Palestinian boy during a confrontation between
troops and stone-throwers in a West Bank village.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 30, Israel’s PM Ehud
Olmert announced he would step down after his Kadima Party's
leadership race in September, called because of a series of
corruption allegations against him.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Aug 2, Hamas security
forces battled fighters in a tribal stronghold where they say
suspects in a deadly bombing last week were hiding. Two Hamas police
officers were killed and 35 people wounded. Some 180 Fatah
supporters fled into Israel from a deadly Hamas crackdown.
(AP, 8/2/08)(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 3, Israeli and
Palestinian officials said most of the 180 Fatah supporters, who had
fled into Israel, would be sent back into the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 4, Israel's defense
minister said a group of around 150 Fatah fighters who fled to
Israel from the Gaza Strip will be allowed to relocate to the West
Bank because they face "immediate danger" from Gaza's Hamas rulers.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 6, Israel released
five Palestinian teenagers from jail as part of a prisoner exchange
agreement made with Lebanon's Hezbollah militia last month.
(AP, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 17, Israel's Cabinet
approved the release of some 200 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill
gesture to the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 19, A Palestinian
rocket attack on southern Israel violated a truce and led Israel to
close its cargo crossings with the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 23, Two boats carrying
dozens of international activists sailed into the Gaza Strip in
defiance of an Israeli blockade, receiving a jubilant welcome from
thousands of Palestinians. Israel said it would permit the boats to
dock in Gaza after determining the activists did not pose a security
threat. The group delivered a symbolic shipment of hearing aids and
balloons.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 25, Israel freed
nearly 200 jailed Palestinians, including a militant mastermind from
the 1970s, in a goodwill gesture just hours before US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice was to begin her latest peace mission to the
region.
(AP, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 26, Israel ordered the
Gaza Strip's border crossings closed after militants violated a
cease-fire by launching two rockets the previous evening, bringing
to 46 the number of rockets launched by militants since the truce
began.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 27, Abie Nathan (81),
the peace activist who made a dramatic solo flight to Egypt in a
rattletrap single-engine plane (1966) and later founded the
groundbreaking "Voice of Peace" radio station, died in Tel Aviv.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 31, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Israel's idea of an interim peace
agreement at a summit, insisting on an all-or-nothing approach that
virtually ruled out an accord by a January target date.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Sep 3, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy encouraged Syria to pursue face-to-face peace talks
with Israel during his first trip to the Arab nation, a visit also
aimed at undercutting Iranian influence in Damascus.
(AP, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 4, Syrian President
Bashar Assad announced that his country has handed over proposals
for peace with Israel to Turkish mediators and would wait for
Israel's response before holding any face-to-face negotiations.
(AP, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 4, Middle East envoy
Tony Blair toured a Palestinian aluminum factory in Beit Iba and was
told it runs at one-third capacity because of Israeli import
restrictions. He promised he'll take it up with Israeli authorities.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 5, An Israeli defense
official said Israel has allowed Palestinian security forces in the
West Bank to receive a shipment of about 1,000 Kalashnikov rifles
and tens of thousands of bullets in a step aimed at bolstering the
moderate Palestinian government there. The weapons shipment reached
the Palestinians through Jordan about one week ago.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 5, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas pledged to try to reach a final status peace
agreement with Israel by the end of the year, but he admitted the
goal, set by US President George W. Bush, might not be achieved.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 10, Israeli defense
officials say the government has told all businessmen involved in
military sales to Georgia to immediately cease visits to the former
Soviet republic. The officials said the directive was decided upon
this week because Israel is concerned about damage to its relations
with Russia.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 10, In northern Israel
a military helicopter crashed at sundown and burst into flames
killing two crew members.
(AP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 11, Israeli divers
found a red suitcase containing a small skull, bones and clothes,
which police said may belong to Rose Pizem, a 4-year-old French girl
missing since May, whose grandfather is jailed in the slaying.
(AP, 9/11/08)
2008 Sep 13, A Palestinian
stabbed a 9-year-old Israeli boy in a West Bank settlement outpost,
setting off clashes that left injured six Palestinians. Israeli
troops fatally shot Hassan Hmeid (16), a Palestinian teenager
during a clash near Bethlehem. Witnesses said the troops opened fire
when a patrol entered Tekoa and were pelted with a hail of stones
thrown by local young people.
(AP, 9/13/08)
2008 Sep 18, Tzipi Livni (50),
Israel's foreign minister, eked out a victory in a surprisingly
tight race to replace PM Ehud Olmert as the head of the governing
party, putting her in a strong position to become the country's
first female leader in 34 years.
(AP, 9/18/08)
2008 Sep 20, A Palestinian was
shot and killed by Israeli soldiers who said they saw him light a
firebomb near a Jewish settlement. Suhayeb Saleh was later
identified by his parents, who said he was 14 years old. Egypt
opened its Gaza border terminal to allow passage of students and
medical patients for 2 days.
(AP, 9/20/08)
2008 Sep 21, Israel’s PM Ehud
Olmert, crippled by a series of corruption investigations, announced
he would resign, clearing the way for his foreign minister to try to
succeed him as Israel's next leader.
(AP, 9/21/08)
2008 Sep 22, A driver plowed a
BMW into a group of soldiers at a busy intersection near Jerusalem's
Old City, injuring 13 of them before he was shot to death. The
driver was a Palestinian resident of east Jerusalem who apparently
acted alone.
(AP, 9/22/08)
2008 Sep 25, A pipe bomb
exploded outside the home of a prominent Israeli scholar and
outspoken critic of Jewish West Bank settlements, lightly wounding
him in what police suspect was an attack by Jewish extremists.
(AP, 9/25/08)
2008 Sep 28, An Israeli
official said the US had installed an advanced American radar system
in the Negev Desert.
(SFC, 9/29/08, p.A3)
2008 Sep 29, Israel’s Central
Bureau of Statistics released its annual population figures to mark
the New Year. It said 7.34 million people live in Israel, including
5.54 million Jews, or 75 percent of the population. There are 1.48
million Arabs, about 20 percent, and 315,000 members of other
groups. This year the Jewish New Year, or Rosh Hashana, began at
sundown and coincided with Eid el-Fitr, one of the holiest days on
the Muslim calendar.
(AP, 9/29/08)
2008 Sep, Israel’s Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert offered to swap Israeli near the Gaza Strip and
West Bank in exchange for settlement blocs in the West Bank. The
Palestinians did not respond to the proposal, submitted at a time
when Olmert's ability to negotiate a peace deal was compromised by
corruption allegations that eventually forced him to step down.
Talks broke down after Israel's war against Gaza militants and never
resumed.
(AP, 12/17/09)
2008 Oct 5, In Israel PM
Olmert's Cabinet agreed to hand over to Russia a small tract known
as Sergei's Courtyard. The area, which once accommodated Russian
pilgrims visiting the Holy Land, now houses offices of Israel's
Agriculture Ministry and the Society for the Protection of Nature in
Israel.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 6, Israeli PM Ehud
Olmert visited Moscow, aiming to focus on Russian arms sales to
Israel's enemies. By contrast, Russia hoped the meeting will bolster
its image as a Middle East peacemaker.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 7, Israel's PM Olmert
said he received assurances that Russia would not allow Israel's
security to be threatened, but offered no indication he won the
concrete promises he sought on Russian arms sales or sanctions on
Iran.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 11, In Acre, Israel,
police said rioters torched two empty apartments owned by Arabs in a
predominantly Jewish neighborhood. 12 people were put into custody
for rioting and eight under house arrest.
(AP, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 13, Israel shut down
entry from the West Bank during the 7-day Sukkot holiday. The order
bars almost all West Bank Palestinians from entering Israel until
Oct. 21.
(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 14, The Israeli
military troops in the West Bank shot a Palestinian as he prepared
to lob a blazing Molotov cocktail into a Jewish settlement north of
Jerusalem. Troops found another 10 firebombs at the scene ready to
be ignited.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 16, Israeli troops
shot and killed a Palestinian man in Kufr Malek, a village near
Ramallah. An army patrol spotted three men carrying firebombs and
troops shot one man after the trio ignored warning shots. The other
two escaped. A Palestinian man died in a Ramallah hospital a day
after being shot by troops in the nearby Jelazoun refugee camp.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 19, An Israeli
businessman was kidnapped in Ghana. The kidnappers initially
demanded $500,000 ransom, then lowered it to $300,000.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 20, Palestinian Pres.
Abbas published remarks saying Israel has failed to protect
Palestinians against attacks by Israeli settlers during the olive
harvest.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 23, Mohammed Albaden,
a Palestinian assailant, stabbed two Israelis in an east Jerusalem
neighborhood, killing an 86-year-old man and wounding a police
officer in what authorities called a "terror incident."
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 25, Nearly 600 newly
trained Palestinian troops took up positions in Hebron. In the Gaza
Strip, three Palestinians were killed when a smuggling tunnel
linking Gaza to Egypt collapsed. In the West Bank, a 23-year-old
Palestinian was seriously wounded by Israeli army fire during a
clash in the refugee camp of Fara.
(AP, 10/25/08)
2008 Oct 26, Prime
Minister-designate Tzipi Livni abandoned efforts to form a
government Sunday, putting Israel on course for new elections and
endangering already fragile Middle East peace talks.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2008 Oct 29, A boat carrying 27
activists and humanitarian supplies sailed into the Gaza Strip,
defying an Israeli naval blockade to call attention to Israeli
sanctions on the Hamas-controlled territory. The passengers included
Mairead Corrigan Maguire, who won the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for her
work with Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 30, Palestinian
militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket into southern Israel in
violation of a 4-month-old truce, but the strike did not cause any
injuries or damage. The Israeli Defense Ministry responded by
snapping shut cargo crossings into Gaza until further notice.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 31, Israeli settlers
clashed with Israeli police and Palestinians in the West Bank town
of Hebron following the overnight demolition of an unauthorized
settler outpost. Israelis from across the political spectrum slammed
a decision to air the first-ever television interview with Yigal
Amir (43), the extremist Jew who assassinated PM Yitzhak Rabin in
1995.
(AP, 10/31/08)(AFP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct, Yemen’s President Ali
Abdullah Saleh disclosed that a "terrorist cell" linked to Israel's
intelligence services had been dismantled. Bassam al-Haidari was
later found guilty of contacts with Israeli premier Ehud Olmert on
the Internet to plot against Yemen and sentenced to death. 2 other
men received 3-year jail terms.
(AFP, 4/3/10)
2008 Nov 4, Human Rights Watch
reported that both Georgia and Russia used cluster bombs during
their brief summer war. Georgia’s bombs, purchased from Israel,
killed at least 3 Georgian civilians, including 2 who touched
unexploded bombs and died after the fighting ended. Many of the
bombs were said to have malfunctioned.
(WSJ, 11/4/08, p.A12)
2008 Nov 5, Hamas militants
pounded southern Israel with a barrage of rockets, hours after
Israeli forces killed six gunmen. The clashes began the previous
evening after Israeli forces burst into Gaza to destroy what the
army said was a tunnel being dug near the border to abduct Israeli
troops. The Israeli military said 35 rockets were fired. Late the
same day Israel launched another airstrike, killing a Palestinian
militant in northern Gaza. The army said it was targeting a rocket
launcher, whom the Islamic Jihad group identified as its own. The
group had fired two rockets at the Israeli border town of Sderot and
one of its leaders, Khader Habib, declared the truce over.
(AP, 11/5/08)(AP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 7, Palestinian
militants in the Gaza Strip fired at least 3 rockets at southern
Israel, fraying a five-month truce that has been tested sorely this
week. There were no injuries.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 8, A group of European
lawmakers sailed from Cyprus into Gaza, defying an internationally
backed blockade of the Hamas-run territory with activists promising
to send more visitors and goods to end the coastal strip's
isolation.
(AP, 11/8/08)
2008 Nov 9, Israel and the
Palestinians pledged to continue peace talks that President Bush
launched last year even though a possible deal won't be reached
until after he leaves office.
(AP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 11, Rabbi Meir Porush,
an ultra-Orthodox rabbi, faced off against Nir Barkat (49), a
secular businessman, in Jerusalem's mayoral race. Nir Barkat, a
former paratroops officer, won the election with 52% support.
(AP, 11/11/08)(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 12, Israeli troops and
Palestinian militants fought with missiles and mortars along the
Gaza-Israel border, raising new concerns that an increasingly shaky
five-month-old truce might collapse. Four Hamas militants were
killed in the exchange, and the Hamas military wing said it would
retaliate.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 13, Gaza militants
fired a new barrage of rockets and mortars at Israeli border areas,
prompting Israel to bar planned food and fuel shipments to
Palestinian civilians hurt by the unraveling of a five-month-old
truce.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 14, Palestinian
militants attacked Ashkelon in southern Israel with rocket fire.
They also unleashed rockets at nearby Sderot, where rescue services
said one person was lightly wounded by shrapnel. The barrages
followed an earlier strike by Israeli aircraft targeting militants
firing rockets in northern Gaza. Israel kept the crossings into Gaza
sealed for a tenth straight day, forcing the UN to suspend its food
aid distribution to 750,000 Gaza residents.
(AP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 15, Gazans seeking
food aid walked away empty-handed from locked United Nations
distribution centers after a strict Israeli border closure depleted
UN food reserves.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 16, Israeli leaders
made a secret journey to neighboring Jordan, listening to pleas from
King Abdullah II to avert a large-scale military operation in the
Gaza Strip. An Israeli airstrike killed 4 Palestinian militants as
they were firing mortars at Israel from the Gaza Strip, just hours
after another group of militants struck Israel in a separate rocket
attack.
(AP, 11/16/08)(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 17, A car carrying
Yaakov Alperon (51), one of Israel's top mafia kingpins, exploded as
it traveled in central Tel Aviv, killing him and threatening to
unleash an all-out war in Israel's increasingly violent underworld.
(AP, 11/17/08)(SFC, 11/18/08, p.A14)
2008 Nov 17, In Iran Ali
Ashtari (45), convicted of spying for Israel, was hanged after being
sentenced to death on June 30 by a revolutionary court in Tehran.
The electronics salesman worked in supplying military, security and
defense centers across the Iran.
(AP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 18, Israeli tanks
forged into the southern Gaza Strip, drawing mortar fire from
Palestinian militants and intensifying violence that has chipped
away at a tenuous cease-fire. Israeli seamen boarded a Palestinian
fishing boat and arrested one of Gaza's foreign supporters and five
Palestinian fishermen. The foreigner was identified as Andrew Muncie
of Scotland.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 20, Jewish settlers in
Hebron spray-painted graffiti on a mosque slurring the Prophet
Muhammad and defaced a Muslim cemetery, Israeli military officials
said, threatening to worsen tensions in this volatile West Bank
city.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 24, Gazans crowded
into banks to withdraw money amid a worsening currency shortage
resulting from Israeli sanctions.
(WSJ, 11/25/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 28, A Palestinian was
killed in a clash with Israeli forces in southern Gaza. A mortar
attack on an Israeli army base injured eight Israeli soldiers. The
next day the Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility.
(AP, 11/28/08)(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Dec 1, The Israeli navy
turned away a Libyan ship heading to Gaza with 3,000 tons of
humanitarian aid, ending the most high-profile effort yet to break a
blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 2, Dozens of Jewish
settlers rioted in the West Bank town of Hebron, clashing with the
Israeli troops who guard them but who may also soon evict them from
a disputed building they've occupied.
(AP, 12/2/08)
2008 Dec 4, Rioting by Jewish
settlers spread in the West Bank after Israeli soldiers forcibly
removed about 250 extremists from a disputed house in the center of
Hebron. Banks in the Gaza Strip shut down to count their dwindling
cash. Israel lifted a four-week-old ban on international journalists
entering the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 5, Israeli defense
officials reinstated a ban on international journalists entering the
Gaza Strip, despite protests from the heads of major news
organizations and an appeal to the country's Supreme Court.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 6, Palestinians packed
into cars to leave the West Bank city of Nablus after Israel eased
restrictions on residents leaving the town in vehicles for the first
time in six years.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 9, Israel reopened its
crossings with Gaza to shipments of humanitarian aid and fuel.
International journalists were also being allowed in.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 10, Israel agreed to
allow the delivery of cash to banks in the Gaza Strip to ease a cash
crunch that has badly hobbled the economy of the blockaded
Palestinian territory.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 12, The chief
Palestinian negotiators said Israel proposed to annex 6.8 percent of
the West Bank and to take in a few thousand refugees under a peace
deal, but it has not revealed its position on the most contentious
issue, the future of Jerusalem.
(AP, 12/13/08)
2008 Dec 14, In Gaza City an
estimated 300,000 supporters of Hamas gathered to mark 21 years
since the organization’s founding. Israel closed its crossing with
Gaza to journalist in response to rocket fire over the weekend.
(SFC, 12/15/08, p.A14)
2008 Dec 15, Israel released
224 Palestinian prisoners in a gesture to moderate Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas, and jubilant detainees waving Palestinian
flags jumped on the roof of one of the buses carrying them to
freedom.
(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 16, Israeli troops
killed Jihad Nawhda (23), a wanted Palestinian militant in the West
Bank, and the Islamic Jihad group retaliated with rocket fire from
the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/16/08)
2008 Dec 16, In Israel a bus
filled with Russian tourists plunged into a desert ravine near the
Red Sea resort town of Eilat, killing at least 26 people.
(AP, 12/16/08)(SFC, 12/17/08, p.A8)
2008 Dec 17, Gaza militants
fired nine rockets at Israel just two days before militants say a
truce along the Gaza border is to expire. The rockets were fired by
three small militant groups and caused no injuries. Israel says
there's no expiration date.
(AP, 12/17/08)
2008 Dec 18, Hamas declared a
formal end to a 6-month ceasefire with Israel.
(SFC, 12/19/08, p.A4)
2008 Dec 20, An Israeli air
strike against a Gaza rocket squad killed a Palestinian militant,
the first death since Hamas militants formally declared an end to a
six-month truce with Israel.
(AP, 12/20/08)
2008 Dec 21, Barrages of
rockets fired from Gaza hit Israeli towns and the Israeli air force
responded with a missile strike as violence surged following the
official expiration of a shaky truce with Hamas.
(AP, 12/21/08)
2008 Dec 23, Israeli forces
killed three Hamas militants on the Gaza border.
(AP, 12/24/08)
2008 Dec 25, Israel moved
closer to invading Gaza, saying it had wrapped up preparations for a
broad offensive after Palestinian militants fired about 100 rockets
and mortar shells across the border in two days.
(AP, 12/25/08)
2008 Dec 25, Lebanese army
officers discovered seven rockets set up with timers that were on
the verge of firing near the border with Israel.
(AP, 12/25/08)
2008 Dec 26, Israel reopened
its border with Gaza to allow deliveries of humanitarian aid,
despite continued rocket and mortar fire from the coastal strip and
growing expectations of a large-scale Israeli military campaign
against Palestinian militants. A rocket fired by Palestinian
militants fell short and killed 2 schoolgirls in the northern Gaza
Strip.
(AP, 12/26/08)(SFC, 12/27/08, p.A5)
2008 Dec 27, Israel began
“Operation Cast Lead” as its warplanes retaliating for rocket fire
from the Gaza Strip pounded dozens of security compounds across the
Hamas-ruled territory in waves of airstrikes, killing nearly 200
people and wounding 270 others in the single bloodiest day of
fighting in years. Gaza militants fired 30 rockets and mortars after
the air offensive began. A missile hit the town of Netivot, killing
an Israeli man and wounding four people.
(AP, 12/27/08)(Econ, 1/10/09, p.24)
2008 Dec 27-2009 Jan 21, In
Egypt security forces arrested at least 860 activists of the Muslim
Brotherhood as public demonstrations mounted during the Israeli
assault on Gaza.
(Econ, 1/17/09, p.48)
2008 Dec 28, Israeli warplanes
pressing one of Israel's deadliest assaults ever on Palestinian
militants dropped bombs and missiles on a top security installation,
smuggling tunnels and dozens of other targets across Hamas-ruled
Gaza. Some 280 Palestinians died in the first 24 hours of the
campaign against Gaza rocket squads. Prisoners fled Gaza's central
prison after it was damaged by an Israeli airstrike. 17 of them were
later numbered among 32 dead in extra-judicial killings by Hamas.
(AP, 12/28/08)(AP, 2/14/09)
2008 Dec 28, The UN Security
Council has issued a statement expressing serious concern at the
escalating violence in Gaza and is calling on Israel and the
Palestinians to immediately halt all military activities.
(AP, 12/28/08)
2008 Dec 29, Israel obliterated
symbols of Hamas power on the third day of what the defense minister
described as a "war to the bitter end," striking next to the Hamas
premier's home, and devastating a security compound and a university
building. The three-day death toll rose to at least 315, with some
1,400 wounded. One medium-range rocket fired at the Israeli city of
Ashkelon killed an Arab construction worker and wounded several
others. Egypt opened its borders to Gaza and allowed trucks loaded
with humanitarian aid to enter the Rafah terminal. A Palestinian
stabbed and wounded four Israelis in a West Bank settlement before
he was shot and wounded.
(AP, 12/29/08)
2008 Dec 29, UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanded an immediate cease-fire in
Gaza and urged Mideast and world leaders to do more to help end the
Israeli-Hamas conflict and promote political dialogue.
(AP, 12/30/08)
2008 Dec 30, Palestinian
militants, armed with deadlier missiles than ever before, kept up
rocket assaults against Israel, despite relentless air attacks
against Gaza's Hamas rulers and unwelcome word from Egypt that it
would not bail them out. More than 370 Palestinians have died since
the Israeli air onslaught against Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers began
on Dec 27.
(AP, 12/30/08)
2008 Dec 31, Israel rejected
international pressure for a two-day cease-fire with Hamas and sent
warplanes to demolish smuggling tunnels that are the lifeline of
Gaza's Islamic rulers. Gaza officials said the five days of
airstrikes have killed 390, including 200 uniformed members of Hamas
security forces.
(AP, 12/31/08)
2008 Dec 31, The UN Security
Council held an emergency meeting on an Arab request for a binding
and enforceable resolution condemning Israel and halting its
military attacks on Gaza. The US immediately called the draft
resolution circulated by Libya on behalf of the 22-member Arab
League "unacceptable" and "unbalanced" and because it makes no
mention of halting the Hamas rocket attacks that led to the Israeli
offensive.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2008 Dec-2009 Jan, In 2009
Human Rights Watch issued a report saying 6 missile strikes in Gaza
by Israeli drones killed 29 civilians, including 8 children, during
this period.
(SFC, 7/1/09, p.A3)
2008 Raja Shehadeh authored
“Palestinian Walks,” a “highly original consideration of the
Palestinian-Israeli issue structured around a series of vigorous,
attentive hikes through the occupied territories.”
(Econ, 8/14/10, p.69)(http://tinyurl.com/26lulh5)
2009 Jan 1, Israel
assassinated Nizar Rayan (52), a Hamas strongman, in its first
assault on the top leadership of Gaza's rulers, escalating a
crushing aerial offensive even as it declared it was ready to launch
a ground invasion. The aerial strike also killed 12 other people
including two of Rayan's four wives and four of his 12 children.
Officials said more than 400 Gazans have been killed and some 1,700
have been wounded. The UN said the death toll included more than 60
civilians, 34 of them children. Three Israeli civilians and one
soldier have also died in rocket attacks from Gaza.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2009 Jan 2, Israel bombed a
mosque it claimed was used to store weapons and destroyed homes of
more than a dozen Hamas operatives, but under international
pressure, the government allowed hundreds of Palestinians with
foreign passports to leave besieged Gaza. Thus far more than 400
Gazans have been killed and some 1,700 have been wounded. Three
Israeli civilians and one soldier have also died in the rocket
attacks.
(AP, 1/2/09)
2009 Jan 3, Israeli warplanes,
gunboats and artillery units bombarded more than 40 Hamas targets,
including weapons storage facilities, training centers and leaders'
homes. Palestinian medical officials said an Israeli airstrike on a
mosque in the Gaza Strip killed 10 people and wounded dozens in the
northern town of Beit Lahiya.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, The United States
blocked approval of a UN Security Council statement calling for an
immediate cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 4, Israeli ground
troops and tanks cut swaths through the Gaza Strip, cutting the
coastal territory into two and surrounding its biggest city as the
new phase of a devastating offensive against Hamas militants gained
momentum. Gaza officials said at least 31 civilians were killed in
the onslaught. Israel reported one soldier was killed by mortar
fire. The new deaths brought the death toll in the Gaza Strip to
more than 500 since Dec 27. At least 45 missiles fell on southern
Israel, wounding five people. 2 women waving white flags were killed
in the Juher a-Dik neighborhood in Gaza City. The incident occurred
when the Abu Hajaj family evacuated their home after it was hit by a
tank shell.
(AP, 1/4/09)(AP, 1/5/09)(AP, 6/16/10)
2009 Jan 5, Israel consolidated
its hold on parts of the Gaza Strip, seizing high-rise buildings on
the outskirts of the territory's biggest city as a stream of world
leaders headed for the region to press for a truce. About 12
Palestinian children were killed. The 10th day of fighting put the
Palestinian death toll at an estimated 550. 3 Israeli soldiers were
killed and 24 others wounded by friendly fire. Gaza health officials
said an Israeli airstrike outside a United Nations school in the
Gaza Strip killed 39 people, many of them children. An Israeli
missile struck a building in Zeitoun where Palestinians had been
herded. At least 30 people were killed. 4 members of the Haji
family, including their three-year-old daughter, were killed and
another nine people were injured when an Israeli tank opened fire on
them in the Zeitun area, despite the fact that they were holding a
white flag. In 2011 Israel's military advocate general closed an
investigation into the white flag incident due to lack of evidence.
(AP, 1/5/09)(SFC, 1/6/09, p.A3)(AP,
1/11/09)(Econ, 1/17/09, p.49)(AFP, 4/12/11)
2009 Jan 6, A cease-fire
initiative to halt the increasingly bloody Israeli offensive in
Hamas-ruled Gaza won support from Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on rival sides to
follow up on the proposal. A Hamas rocket hit Gedera, 20 miles from
Tel Aviv, the farthest one has reached to date.
(AP, 1/6/09)(AP, 1/7/09)(Econ, 1/10/09, p.24)
2009 Jan 6, Venezuela ordered
Israel's ambassador expelled from the country in protest over the
Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 7, Israel
ordered a three-hour pause in its Gaza offensive to allow food and
fuel to reach besieged Palestinians, and said it welcomed a
cease-fire proposal as long as Hamas halts rockets and weapons
smuggling. About 300 of the more than 670 Palestinians killed so far
were civilians. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that Israel
and the Palestinian Authority have accepted an Egyptian-French plan
for Gaza.
(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 8, Israeli
representatives arrived in Cairo for Egyptian-brokered talks on a
cease-fire proposal after the UN Security Council failed to agree on
action to end the crisis in Gaza.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 8, The UN halted aid
deliveries to the besieged Gaza Strip, citing Israeli attacks on a
UN truck that killed 2 Palestinian workers. For a 2nd straight day,
Israel suspended its Gaza military operation for three hours to
allow in humanitarian supplies. Israel killed at least 11 people,
including three who were fleeing their homes, raising the death toll
from its 13-day offensive to 699 Palestinians. 11 Israelis have died
since the offensive began. Militants in Lebanon fired at least three
rockets into Israel. UN figures said as many as 257 children have
been killed and 1,080 wounded, about a third of the total casualties
since Dec. 27.
(AP, 1/8/09)(SFC, 1/9/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 9, Israeli jets and
helicopters bombarded Gaza and Hamas responded with a barrage of
rockets on at least two cities as both sides defied a UN call for an
immediate cease-fire. By the afternoon 22 Palestinians had been
killed, pushing the death toll to 776 and in the two-week-old
conflict.
(AP, 1/9/09)
2009 Jan 9, The US House of
Representatives voted 390-5 for a bill declaring “unwavering
commitment” to Israel.”
(Econ, 1/17/09, p.48)
2009 Jan 10, Israeli forces
pounded rocket-launching sites and smuggling tunnels in Gaza and
planes dropped leaflets warning of an escalation in attacks, as
Palestinian militants fired at least 10 more rockets at Israel. The
Israeli military said more than 15 militants were killed in
overnight fighting. An Israeli tank shell killed nine people in a
garden outside a home in the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya. In
Cairo, Egypt, Palestinian Authority Pres. Mahmoud Abbas urged both
Israel and Hamas to agree to an Egypt-brokered truce. Syria-based
Palestinian militant groups including Hamas rejected the idea of
deploying international observers or troops in Gaza.
(AP, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 11, Israeli troops
made their deepest advance into the Gaza Strip's most heavily
populated area, encountering increasingly fierce resistance from
Islamic Hamas fighters as they warned civilians to stay clear of the
battle zone. Human Rights Watch said that Israel's military has
fired artillery shells with the incendiary agent white phosphorus
into Gaza and a doctor there said the chemical was suspected in the
case of 10 burn victims who had skin peeling off their faces and
bodies.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 11, An estimated 2,500
Lebanese and Palestinians protested peacefully in downtown Beirut
against Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, as hundreds of
demonstrators in neighboring Syria shouted insults at the both the
Jewish state and Arab leaders.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 12, Israeli warplanes
pounded the homes of Hamas leaders and ground troops edged closer to
the Gaza Strip's densely populated urban center, as Israel weighed a
decision to escalate its devastating offensive. Militants managed to
fire off at least four rockets. Gaza officials said the offensive
has killed some 870 Palestinians.
(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 13, Israeli ground
troops closed in on downtown Gaza City, battling Palestinian
militants in the streets of a densely populated neighborhood,
destroying dozens of homes and sending terrified residents running
for cover as gunfire and explosions echoed in the distance. Some 15
rockets and mortar shells were fired toward Israel, causing no
injuries. Egyptian mediators pushed the militant Palestinian Hamas
group to accept a truce proposal for the embattled Gaza Strip in
talks. The UN secretary-general headed to the region to join the
multitrack diplomatic efforts for a cease-fire in Israel’s 18-day
offensive, in which more than 900 Palestinians have been killed,
half of them civilians.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 14, Al-Qaida chief
Osama bin Laden urged Muslims to launch a jihad against Israel and
condemned Arab governments as allies of the Jewish state in a new
message aimed at harnessing anger in the Mideast over the Gaza
offensive.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, Guerrillas in
Lebanon rocketed northern Israel for the second time in a week,
drawing Israeli artillery fire and threatening to drag the Jewish
state into a second front as diplomatic efforts to broker a truce in
Gaza intensified. Gaza health ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain
said the offensive has killed 1,000 Palestinians, about half of them
civilians, including 300 children. The Israeli navy intercepted an
Iranian ship loaded with medicine, food and clothing destined for
Gaza and forced the vessel to Egypt instead. Palestinian surveyors
estimated that Israel's fierce assault on Gaza's Hamas rulers has
destroyed at least $1.4 billion worth of buildings, roads, pipes,
power lines and other infrastructure.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, Venezuela and
Bolivia broke off diplomatic relations with Israel to protest its
military offensive in Gaza.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 15, Israel shelled the
UN headquarters in the Gaza Strip, engulfing the compound and the
main warehouse in fire and destroying thousands of pounds of food
and humanitarian supplies intended for Palestinian refugees.
Fighting killed at least 70 people including 2 top Hamas leaders,
Said Siam (49), the minister of the interior, and deputy Salah Abu
Sharah. Gaza medical officials said 1,100 Palestinians have been
killed since Israel's offensive started Dec. 27. Israeli soldiers
used a Palestinian child, later identified as Majd R, as a human
shield by forcing him to check for booby traps. In 2010 two Israeli
soldiers were convicted of using the child as a human shield. They
received suspended sentences and demotions.
(AP, 1/15/09)(SFC, 1/16/09, p.A2)(AP,
10/3/10)(AP, 11/21/10)
2009 Jan 16, Israel said it was
close to winding up its offensive against Hamas, and diplomats in
Washington said the US will provide assurances on ending weapons
smuggling into Gaza as part of a cease-fire. More than 1,100
Palestinians have been killed since the war began on Dec. 27,
including 346 children. Khaled Mashaal, Hamas' political chief,
rejected Israeli conditions for a Gaza cease-fire and demanded an
immediate opening of the besieged territory's borders. Dr. Ezzeldeen
Abu al-Aish told Channel 10 that his house in the northern Gaza
strip town of Jebalia had been hit by Israeli shells and his
daughters, ages 22, 15 and 14, were killed.
(AP, 1/16/09)(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Jan 16, Mauritania and
Qatar suspended contacts with Israel to protest the Gaza bloodshed
at an Arab summit that deepened the divisions between pro-US Arab
nations and their rivals in the Middle East.
(AP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 17, Israel bombarded
dozens of Hamas targets hours before a government vote on an
Egyptian brokered cease-fire, prompting Egypt to demand an immediate
halt to the 3-week-old Gaza offensive.
(AP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 18, Militants in
Hamas-ruled Gaza agreed to a weeklong cease-fire with Israel, after
three weeks of violence that Palestinian medics say has killed more
than 1,200 people, about half of them civilians. The announcement
came about 12 hours after Israel declared its own unilateral
ceasefire. On March 19 a final tally of Palestinians killed in
Israel's recent war on Gaza's Hamas rulers was reported to be 1,417,
including 926 civilians. A Palestinian human rights groups published
the names, ages and other information about the dead on its Web
site.
(AP, 1/18/09)(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, Israeli officials
said they hope to pull all its troops out of the Gaza Strip by the
time Barack Obama is inaugurated as president of the United States
on Jan 20. This was the last full day of fighting as Hamas fired 19
rockets into Israel. About 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died
in the offensive, which started Dec. 27.
(AP, 1/19/09)(Econ, 1/24/09, p.53)(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 Jan 19, The Saudi king
said his country will donate $1 billion to help rebuild the Gaza
Strip after the devastating Israeli offensive and told Israel that
an Arab initiative offering peace will not remain on the table
forever. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency cut its benchmark lending
rate a half point to 2%, and its deposit rate by three-quarters
point to .75%.
(AP, 1/19/09)(WSJ, 1/20/08, p.A11)
2009 Jan 21, The last Israeli
troops left the Gaza Strip before dawn, as Israel dispatched its
foreign minister to Europe in a bid to rally international support
to end arms smuggling into the Hamas-ruled territory. The
Palestinian Center for Human Rights released a final tally, saying
1,284 Gazans were killed and 4,336 wounded, the vast majority
civilians. Israel's military said it will investigate charges that
its forces used phosphorous shells in a way that burned civilians
during the fighting in Gaza. Hamas officials conceded that they are
executing Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel during
the 3-week invasion. Fatah officials said at least 19 of its members
have been executed and more brutally tortured. On Sep 9, 2009, the
Israeli rights group B'Tselem published figures it said were
compiled in months of research, including visits to families of
victims. It said 1,387 Gazans were killed, including 773 civilians
(including 252 children younger than 16) and 330 combatants. 13
Israelis also died, including 4 civilians.
(AP, 1/21/09)(SFC, 1/22/09, p.A3)(AP, 9/9/09)
2009 Jan 22, Israel said it is
lifting restrictions on foreign journalists entering the Gaza Strip,
a ban that had drawn strong criticism from news media.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 22, Pres. Obama named
George Mitchell as envoy to the Mideast and Richard Holbrook as
envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(WSJ, 1/23/08, p.A1)
2009 Jan 27, Palestinian
militants detonated a bomb that killed an Israeli soldier patrolling
near Gaza and Israel responded with an airstrike. Not long after the
bombing, a 27-year-old Gaza farmer was killed by Israeli gunfire
along the border several miles away. An Israeli airstrike wounded 2
men, at least one of whom was a Hamas gunman. Israel closed its
crossings into Gaza to humanitarian aid traffic after briefly
opening them.
(AP, 1/27/09)(SFC, 1/28/09, p.A2)
2009 Jan 28, Israeli warplanes
struck Gaza smuggling tunnels and a weapons factory. There were no
reports of casualties. George Mitchell, Pres. Obama's new Mideast
envoy, said a long-term Gaza truce must be based on an end to
weapons smuggling to Hamas and the re-opening of the territory's
blockaded borders.
(AP, 1/28/09)(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 28, Israel’s chief
rabbinate cut ties with the Vatican to protest the reinstatement of
English-born Bishop Richard Williamson (b.1940), who has continued
to deny the Holocaust. Williamson was excommunicated by the Roman
Catholic Church in 1988 because of his unauthorized consecration by
French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, deemed by the Holy See to be
"unlawful" and "a schismatic act."
(WSJ, 1/29/08,
p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Williamson_(bishop))
2009 Jan 29, George Mitchell,
President Barack Obama's Mideast envoy, turned his attention to the
Western-backed Palestinian government in the West Bank. Palestinians
fired a rocket into Israel, and residents of the south Gaza town of
Khan Younis said an Israeli airstrike there wounded an unidentified
man on a motorcycle and five passers-by, among them children walking
home from school. Senior officials in the Islamic group Hamas
indicated a willingness to negotiate a deal for a long-term truce
with Israel as long as the borders of Gaza are opened to the rest of
the world.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 29, The UN launched an
emergency appeal for $613 million to help Palestinians recover from
Israel's three weeks of military operations in Gaza.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 29, At the economic
forum in Davos, Switzerland, Israel’s Pres. Peres (85) traded
accusations with Turkey’s PM Erdogan, who declared: “You kill
people,” and criticized Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Erdogan stalked
off stage after being cut short during the exchange.
(SFC, 1/30/09, p.A4)(WSJ, 1/30/08, p.A1)
2009 Jan 30, An Israeli rights
group said it to use a database detailing the complicity of Israel's
government in widespread illegal construction in West Bank
settlements to help Palestinians file lawsuits over their lost land.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 30, In Gaza City some
5,000 people rallied as Hamas lawmaker Khalil al-Hayeh emerged from
hiding and declared victory in the 23-day Israeli offensive in Gaza.
(SFC, 1/31/09, p.A5)
2009 Jan 31, Palestinian
militants fired a rocket from Gaza that exploded close to the
southern Israeli town of Ashkelon without causing any damages or
injuries.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan, In northeast Sudan
Israel carried out an attack in which at least 30 people were
killed, to stop weapons being transported to Gaza during its
offensive against Hamas. Reports from Sudan quoted a lone survivor
of the attack as saying two planes flew over the convoy then came
back and shot up the "four or five" trucks. Israeli aircraft or
drones destroyed 23 lorries carrying Iranian arms destined for
Hamas. On May 25 Sudan’s Defense Minister Gen. Abdul-Rahim Hussein
told parliament that the airstrikes killed 56 smugglers and 63
people they were trying to transport across the border to Egypt,
including Somali and Ethiopian migrants.
(Reuters, 3/27/09)(Econ, 4/4/09, p.50)(AP,
5/26/09)
2009 Feb 1, Gaza militants
launched at least 10 rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel,
drawing a threat of "disproportionate" retaliation from Israel's
prime minister and further straining a cease-fire that ended
Israel's Gaza offensive. Israeli warplanes bombed the area where
Hamas smuggles in weapons from Egypt.
(AP, 2/1/09)(WSJ, 2/2/08, p.A10)
2009 Feb 2, A missile from an
Israeli aircraft struck a car traveling in the southern Gaza Strip,
killing a Palestinian militant and further straining a truce with
the territory's Hamas rulers. Defense Minister Ehud Barak proposed
linking Gaza with the West Bank by digging a tunnel through Israeli
territory.
(AP, 2/2/09)(WSJ, 2/3/08, p.A1)
2009 Feb 3, A medium-range
rocket from Gaza landed in the Israeli city of Ashkelon. Hamas said
it is ready to commit to a yearlong cease-fire with Israel in
exchange for a full opening of Gaza's border crossings, ahead of a
new round of talks with Egyptian mediators in Cairo.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 4, Poland’s defense
minister stated plans to end military missions in Lebanon, the Golan
Heights and Chad in an effort to cut spending due to the global
economic crisis.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 5, The Israeli navy
intercepted a ship delivering 60 tons of supplies to the Gaza Strip
from Lebanon in the latest bid to defy Israel's blockade of the
militant-held territory.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 8, Two rockets fired
by Palestinian militants struck southern Israel, violating an
informal truce even as Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers appeared to
hurry closer to a long-term cease-fire deal two days before Israeli
elections.
(AP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 9, A Palestinian
fighter died in a clash with Israeli troops and Israeli aircraft
attacked two targets in Gaza as mediators tried to broker a
long-term cease-fire a day before Israel holds national elections.
(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 10, In Israel
front-runners moderate Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former PM
Benjamin Netanyahu made last-minute appeals to voters as polls
opened in a close general election whose outcome could determine the
course of Mideast peace negotiations.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 11, Inconclusive
election results sent Israel into political limbo with both Foreign
Minister Tzipi Livni and hard-line leader Benjamin Netanyahu
claiming victory and leaving the kingmaker role to a rising
political hawk with an anti-Arab platform.
(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 Feb 12, Hamas deputy
leader Moussa Abu Marzouk told Egypt's official MENA news agency
that the Islamic militant group has agreed to an 18-month truce with
Israel.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 13, Two rockets fired
by Gaza militants hit near a communal farm and the town of Sderot.
An Israeli airstrike on Gaza killed one man and critically wounded
another. The men were riding a motorcycle near the town of Khan
Younis when they were hit by fire from an Israeli drone.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 16, Officials said
Israel has taken control of a large chunk of land near a prominent
West Bank settlement, paving the way for the possible construction
of 2,500 settlement homes, in a new challenge to Mideast
peacemaking.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 18, Israel set a
series of tough conditions for accepting a proposed cease-fire with
Hamas, saying there would be no deal, and no open borders for Gaza,
until the Islamic militant group releases a captured Israeli
soldier. Israeli planes attacked smuggling tunnels around the
Gaza-Egypt border and a disused Hamas security base near the town of
Khan Younis.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 19, In Israel
far-right politician Avigdor Lieberman endorsed Benjamin Netanyahu
for Israeli prime minister, all but guaranteeing that Netanyahu will
be the country's next leader.
(AP, 2/19/09)
2009 Feb 20, In Israel Benjamin
Netanyahu appealed to his moderate rivals to join him after the
hard-liner was formally tapped to put together Israel's next ruling
coalition, an alliance that would dilute the power of nationalists
bent on derailing Mideast peace talks.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 21, Two rockets were
fired from south Lebanon at Israel, with one slamming into a mostly
Christian Arab village and causing minor injuries to at least one
Israeli.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 25, Militants in Gaza
launched rockets at southern Israel and Israeli planes attacked
smuggling tunnels as a stable truce between the two sides remained
elusive. Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad said he is seeking $2.8 billion
in foreign aid for rebuilding Gaza Strip. The rival Palestinian
groups Hamas and Fatah agreed to release each other's loyalists from
detention, seeking to lower tensions during reconciliation talks.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 27, In Israel Benjamin
Netanyahu failed to persuade his centrist rival, Tzipi Livni, to
join him in a broad coalition, increasing the likelihood that
Israel's next government will be an alliance of hawks and hard-line
religious parties opposed to substantial concessions for peace.
(AP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 28, Two rockets fired
from Gaza crashed into southern Israel, one into a school that was
closed for the weekend in the coastal city of Ashkelon and another
into an open field.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Mar 1, Israel's attorney
general notified PM Ehud Olmert that he planned to indict him on
suspicion of illicitly taking cash-stuffed envelopes from a
Jewish-American businessman, a sensational case that turned public
opinion so sharply against the Israeli leader that he was forced to
resign.
(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 1, Tony Blair paid his
first visit to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip as envoy of international
peace brokers and said reconstruction aid after Israel's offensive
would not have a lasting effect without peace. Israel’s PM Ehud
Olmert threatened painful retaliation against Gaza militants for
rockets still hitting Israel, six weeks after its military halted an
offensive that was supposed to have stopped them for good.
(Reuters, 3/1/09)(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 4, The Israeli
military aircraft fired upon three smuggling tunnels along the
Gaza-Egypt border. An Israeli missile strike in northern Gaza killed
Khaled Shalan, described as a senior Islamic Jihad commander.
(AP, 3/4/09)(SFC, 3/6/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 5, Israeli airstrikes
killed 3 gunmen close to the border after they fired an anti-tank
missile at Israeli forces. In Jerusalem Mari al-Radeideh (26), a
Palestinian driver, rammed a construction vehicle into a bus and
police car on a highway, wounding two officers before he was shot
dead, the latest in a string of attacks by militants using heavy
machinery against Israeli targets.
(AP, 3/5/09)(SFC, 3/6/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 5, The Israeli and
Turkish foreign ministers met secretly on the sidelines of a NATO
conference, the first high-level contact between the countries since
friction erupted over Israel's recent offensive in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 6, The Israeli foreign
ministry said it had closed its embassy after the government of
Mauritania asked the Israeli ambassador and his staff to leave.
(AP, 3/6/09)
2009 Mar 12, The Islamic
militant group Hamas made a rare criticism of Palestinian rocket
fire on Israel, saying now is the wrong time as truce talks
continue.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 13, Tristan Anderson
(38) of Oakland, Calif., was wounded in the West Bank village of
Naalin, during a protest against Israel's separation barrier. He
remained in serious condition after undergoing surgery.
(AP, 3/14/09)
2009 Mar 15, Two Israeli police
officers were shot and killed while traveling near the Jewish
settlement of Massua in the West Bank. A few days later the Martyrs
of Imad Mughniyeh said it was behind the shooting. The group is
named after an assassinated Hezbollah mastermind. Israeli and
Palestinian security officials said there is no such group. They
believe rogue militants have used the fake name as cover to evade
Israeli reprisals.
(SFC, 3/16/09, p.A2)(AP, 3/16/09)(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 19, Former Israeli
President Moshe Katsav was indicted on rape and other sexual offense
charges, after calling off a plea deal that would have allowed him
to escape jail time.
(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 25, Incoming Israeli
PM Benjamin Netanyahu said his government would be a "partner for
peace with the Palestinians," softening his rhetoric a day after the
centrist Labor Party joined his coalition in exchange for vaguely
worded promises to pursue negotiations.
(AP, 3/25/09)
2009 Mar 26, An Israeli
ministry statement said that in a series of tests this week the iron
Dome high-tech system faced rockets of the type fired by Palestinian
and Lebanese militants, and operated successfully.
(AP, 3/27/09)
2009 Mar 26, Israeli police
said they have seized 15 thousand marijuana water pipes in a raid on
a factory in Haifa. Pipes and other drug paraphernalia were banned a
few weeks ago and police are cracking down.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 29, A senior Israeli
defense official said Palestinian militants have smuggled nearly 70
tons of explosives and bomb-making materials and other weapons into
Gaza since Israel ended an offensive meant to choke off the arms
flow.
(AP, 3/29/09)
2009 Mar 31, Israel’s
parliament approved Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister. His
Cabinet of 29 ministers was a among the largest in Israel’s history.
Israeli forces attacked a group of Palestinian militants along the
Gaza-Israel border, killing two gunmen and wounding three others in
one of the worst flare-ups of violence since Israel ended its
offensive in the territory more than two months ago.
(SFC, 4/1/09, p.A5)(AP, 3/31/09)
2009 Apr 1, Avigdor Lieberman,
Israel’s new foreign minister, said Israel will not abide by
commitments made to pursue Palestinian statehood at the 2007
Annapolis Peace Summit.
(WSJ, 4/2/09, p.A1)
2009 Apr 2, A Palestinian
militant went on a rampage in the Bat Ayin Jewish settlement in the
West Bank, killing an Israeli boy (13) with a pickax and wounding
another boy (7) before fleeing the area. On April 14 Israeli
authorities detained suspect Moussa Tayet (26).
(AP, 4/2/09)(AP, 4/26/09)
2009 Apr 3, Israeli police
interrogated the country's new hard-line foreign minister for the
2nd straight day in an ongoing bribery investigation that could make
his tenure short-lived. Avigdor Lieberman was questioned for five
hours about an investigation involving suspicions of receiving
bribes, money laundering and breach of trust.
(AP, 4/3/09)
2009 Apr 3, The UN appointed
Richard Goldstone, former chief prosecutor for war crimes in
Yugoslavia and Rwanda, to lead a mission to investigate alleged war
crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 4/4/09, p.A2)
2009 Apr 4, In southern Israel
a woman opened fire on a police station Beersheba before officers
shot back and killed her, in an apparent Palestinian militant
attack. Israeli forces shot and killed two militants who were
approaching the Gaza border. Elsewhere in Gaza, militants fired at
least two mortar shells toward Israel. There were no reports of
damage.
(AP, 4/4/09)
2009 Apr 7, Israeli police
fatally shot a Palestinian motorist as he tried to run over officers
guarding the demolition of the home of a militant who killed three
Israelis with a construction vehicle in July.
(AP, 4/7/09)
2009 Apr 8, The Passover
holiday, which marks the Hebrews' exodus from slavery in Egypt as
recounted in the Bible, began this evening with a special meal known
as the seder.
(AP, 4/8/09)
2009 Apr 8, Stone-throwing
Israeli settlers and Palestinian villagers clashed near the site of
an ax attack last week that killed a Jewish teenager, leaving at
least 8 Palestinians wounded.
(AP, 4/8/09)
2009 Apr 12, Israel's new PM
Netanyahu spoke to the Palestinian Pres. Abbas on Easter for the
first time since taking office, telling him that he seeks close
cooperation to drive peace efforts forward.
(AP, 4/12/09)
2009 Apr 13, An unmanned
Palestinian fishing boat laden with hundreds of pounds of explosives
blew up off the coast of Gaza in what the Israeli military said was
an attempt to attack a naval patrol in the area.
(AP, 4/13/09)
2009 Apr 17, A Palestinian
wielding a knife was shot and killed by Jewish settlers after he
tried to attack residents of a West Bank settlement. Israeli troops
killed a Palestinian during a protest against Israel's separation
barrier. The military said protesters threw stones and other objects
at security forces during a West Bank demonstration in town of
Bilin. Abu Rahmeh (31) was killed when he was hit in the chest by a
tear gas canister. On March 31, 2010, the Israeli military said it
closed an investigation after determining the canister was not
intentionally aimed at Abu Rahmeh.
(AP, 4/17/09)(AP, 4/1/10)
2009 Apr 18, A Palestinian teen
(16) was fatally shot by Israeli troops after throwing firebombs at
the gate of the Beit El Jewish settlement in the West Bank. A
Palestinian man drove his Mercedes into two Israeli policemen
checking motorists at a checkpoint outside Jerusalem. The driver was
arrested after he told police he targeted the officers. Officials
announced that the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt would be
open over the weekend to let medical patients leave the blockaded
territory.
(AP, 4/18/09)
2009 Apr 22, A group of
Norwegian lawyers filed a complaint accusing 10 Israelis of war
crimes in Gaza under the country's new universal jurisdiction law.
(AP, 4/22/09)
2009 Apr 24, Jewish settlers,
Israeli troops and Palestinian villagers clashed with guns, rocks
and tear gas, leaving five Palestinians hospitalized.
(AP, 4/25/09)
2009 Apr 24, Jordan's king
recorded an interview urging President Barack Obama to take a more
forceful role in the peace process between Israelis and
Palestinians, warning of a new Mideast war if there is no
significant progress in the next 18 months.
(AP, 4/26/09)
2009 Apr 26, Chinese Foreign
Minister Yang Jiechi wrapped up a regional Middle East visit in
Damascus saying Israel should return the Golan Heights to Syria.
(AFP, 4/26/09)
2009 May 1, A UN agency urged
Israel to freeze demolitions of Arab homes in east Jerusalem, citing
a growing housing crisis in the part of the city the Palestinians
claim as their future capital.
(AP, 5/1/09)
2009 May 2, An Israeli
airstrike against smuggling tunnels on the Gaza-Egypt border killed
two people.
(AP, 5/3/09)
2009 May 5, Israeli authorities
arrested two Palestinians who tried to sell a looted 1,900-year-old
papyrus document in Hebrew worth millions of dollars.
(AP, 5/6/09)
2009 May 5, The UN chief
accused Israel of lying about attacks on United Nations schools and
other facilities during the Gaza military campaign, including one
reported to have killed more than 40 people, and formally demanded
compensation.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 8, In southern Lebanon
authorities arrested five people for allegedly spying for Israel as
part of the two countries' long-running espionage battle.
(AP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 11, Israeli PM
Benjamin Netanyahu was in Egypt for talks seen aimed at showing he
can be a true Middle East peace partner before he heads to the White
House on May 18. Progress in peace negotiations must come before
Arab recognition of Israel, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in
an interview with Israel TV.
(Reuters, 5/11/09)(AP, 5/12/09)
2009 May 11, Pope Benedict XVI
confronted the dark history of his native Germany on the first day
of his visit to Israel, shaking the hands of six Holocaust survivors
and saying victims of the genocide "lost their lives but they will
never lose their names." He also called for the establishment of an
independent Palestinian homeland, a stance that could put him at
odds with his hosts on a trip aimed at improving ties between the
Vatican and Jews.
(AP, 5/11/09)
2009 May 13, Standing in
Bethlehem, Pope Benedict XVI told Palestinians he understands their
suffering and offered the Vatican's strongest and most symbolic
public backing yet for an independent Palestinian homeland.
(AP, 5/13/09)
2009 May 14, Pope Benedict XVI
greeted tens of thousands of adoring followers in Nazareth with a
message of reconciliation, urging Christians and Muslims to overcome
recent strife and "reject the destructive power of hatred and
prejudice."
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 14, Jordan's king
pressed Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to immediately commit to the
establishment of a Palestinian state, as he pursues a sweeping
resolution of the Muslim world's conflicts with Israel.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 15, In Israel Pope
Benedict XVI ended his pilgrimage to the Holy Land with his
strongest call yet for the creation of a Palestinian state and
telling the faithful at the site of Jesus' crucifixion that peace is
possible.
(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 17, Israel's President
Shimon Peres urged Syria to open direct peace talks and said
indirect negotiations mediated by Turkey had not resumed.
(AP, 5/17/09)
2009 May 18, Two Lebanese men
suspected of spying for Israel fled across the heavily fortified
border to the Jewish state, the second such escape since Lebanon
stepped up a campaign of arrests against those thought to be working
for its archenemy.
(AP, 5/18/09)
2009 May 21, Israeli security
forces demolished a minor Jewish settlement outpost in the West
Bank, three days after President Barack Obama told visiting Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he must halt settlement activity.
(AP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 22, Israeli troops
crossed into Gaza and killed two Palestinian militants who were
planting a bomb along the border fence before dawn.
(AP, 5/22/09)
2009 May 24, Israel’s PM
Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will continue to build homes in
existing West Bank settlements, defying US calls to halt settlement
growth.
(AP, 5/24/09)
2009 May 25, It was reported
that a secret Israeli government report said Venezuela and Bolivia
are supplying Iran with uranium for its nuclear program.
(AP, 5/25/09)
2009 May 25, Israeli writer
Amos Elon (82), one of the country's leading chroniclers and
critics, died in his adopted home of Italy. His best-known book,
"The Israelis: Founders and Sons" (1971), stood out as one of the
first works by an Israeli to deal with the national aspirations of
the Palestinians.
(AP, 5/26/09)
2009 May 28, Israel defied a
surprisingly blunt US demand that it freeze all building in West
Bank Jewish settlements, saying it will press ahead with
construction. Since 1967, Israel has built 121 West Bank
settlements, now home to around 300,000 Israelis. An additional
180,000 live in Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, which, like
the West Bank, was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
(AP, 5/28/09)(AP, 6/23/09)
2009 May 30, Ephraim Katzir
(b.1916), Israel's 4th president (1973-1978), died. He was an
internationally recognized biophysicist and a founder of Israel's
renowned Weizmann Institute of Science, where he headed its
biophysics department. His work on synthetic protein models deepened
understanding of the genetic code and immune responses. Katzir was
awarded the Israel Prize, the country's highest honor, in 1959 for
his contribution to the natural sciences. He received the Japan
Prize in 1985 for his work on immobilized enzymes used in oral
antibiotics.
(AP, 5/30/09)
2009 May 30, Lebanon charged
four people with collaborating with Israel, raising to 23 the number
of suspected spies who have been charged in the last few months.
(AP, 5/31/09)
2009 May 31, Israel began the
biggest civil defense drill in its history, putting soldiers,
emergency crews and civilians through rehearsals for the possibility
of war at a time of rising tensions with Iran.
(AP, 5/31/09)
2009 Jun 1, Israel's PM
Netanyahu dismissed the US demand for a settlement freeze as
unreasonable, moving closer to a collision with the Obama
administration, while mobs of Jewish settlers attacked Palestinian
laborers and burned West Bank fields. Israeli settlers waged court
battles to evict dozens of Palestinians from homes in an East
Jerusalem neighborhood, a move threatening to widen Israel's rift
with US President Barack Obama over settlements.
(AP, 6/1/09)(Reuters, 6/1/09)
2009 Jun 2, In Israel detained
a Jewish man for shooting to death a Palestinian in Jerusalem and
wounding another Jewish man.
(AP, 6/2/09)
2009 Jun 3, Israel dismantled a
military checkpoint that had significantly impeded Palestinian
travel in the West Bank in an apparent goodwill gesture a day before
President Barack Obama's much-anticipated address to the Muslim and
Arab world.
(AP, 6/3/09)
2009 Jun 5, President
Barack Obama toured a World War II concentration camp in Germany
after prodding the international community to redouble efforts
toward separate Israeli and Palestinian states in hopes of resolving
a conflict fueled by the Jewish nation's post-Holocaust creation.
(AP, 6/5/09)
2009 Jun 5, Israeli officials
said they will not heed President Barack Obama's powerful appeal to
halt all settlement activity on lands the Palestinians claim for a
future state, a position that looks sure to cause a policy clash
with its most powerful ally. Israeli troops killed a Palestinian man
during a demonstration against the construction of the West Bank
separation barrier. Yussef Aqil Srour (35) died from a chest wound
that appeared to have been caused by live fire. Witnesses said
troops fired tear gas, rubber bullets and possibly live rounds at
rock-throwing demonstrators in the village of Naalin.
(AP, 6/5/09)
2009 Jun 8, Gaza militants
equipped with explosives-laden horses approached the Israeli border,
igniting a battle that left four gunmen dead.
(AP, 6/8/09)
2009 Jun 14, Israel’s PM
Netanyahu said that he would accept a Palestinian state, but
attached conditions such as having no army that the Palestinians
swiftly rejected.
(AP, 6/15/09)(SFC, 6/15/09, p.A3)
2009 Jun 16, A Palestinian
military tribunal in a security compound in the West Bank town of
Jenin sentenced Taghreed, her last name was not released, to a life
term of hard labor. The woman (22) said she became an informer for
Israel to earn money that would get her out of prostitution.
(AP, 6/17/09)
2009 Jun 23, Abdel Aziz Duaik,
the most senior Hamas leader being held by Israel, was freed after
serving the bulk of his three-year sentence.
(AP, 6/23/09)
2009 Jun 25, Israeli and
Palestinian defense officials said Israel has granted US-trained
Palestinian security forces greater autonomy in four major West Bank
cities. Bowing to pressure from Washington Israeli officials said
the army would now reduce its presence in Qalqilya, Bethlehem,
Jericho and Ramallah.
(AP, 6/25/09)
2009 Jun 26, The Quartet of
Mideast negotiators called on Israel to freeze all settlement
activity and to lift its blockade on the Gaza Strip. The US, Russia,
UN and EU met on the sidelines of a meeting of the Group of Eight
foreign ministers, who made a similar call for Mideast peace.
(AP, 6/26/09)
2009 Jun 29, Israeli court
documents indicated the government has approved construction of 50
new housing units in a West Bank settlement to absorb settlers who
are to be evicted from a nearby unauthorized outpost.
(AP, 6/29/09)
2009 Jun 30, The Israeli navy
ordered a small ferry carrying medical supplies and foreign peace
activists trying to break a blockade of Gaza to turn back. The
Israeli navy intercepted the ship and forced it to sail to the
Israeli port of Ashdod.
(AP, 6/30/09)
2009 Jul 2, Amnesty
International accused Israel and Palestinian militants of war crimes
in the most comprehensive report on the recent Gaza war. Both sides
rejected the findings.
(AP, 7/2/09)
2009 Jul 6, Israel deported
Cynthia McKinney, a former US congresswoman, Mairead Corrigan
Maguire, a Nobel peace prize laureate, and other activists who were
arrested and jailed after trying to break the naval blockade of the
Gaza Strip. The Israeli navy seized their boat last week as it tried
to sail with medical supplies from Cyprus to Gaza.
(AP, 7/6/09)
2009 Jul 11, In Israel 2
religious Jews were stabbed and another was beaten in a fight with
secular Jews in Jerusalem.
(AP, 7/11/09)
2009 Jul 13, British and
Israeli officials said Britain has revoked several licenses granted
to British companies to sell weapons parts to Israel because of
concerns over their use in Israel's recent war in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 16, In Israel
Ultra-Orthodox Jews clashed with police using horses and water
cannon in Jerusalem in the third day of rioting over the arrest of a
mentally ill Hasidic woman who authorities say was starving her
child.
(AP, 7/16/09)
2009 Jul 20, A Palestinian
official said more than 30 Israeli settlers, some of them on
horseback, set fire to fields and olive trees and stoned Palestinian
cars during a rampage in the West Bank. Two Palestinians were
lightly injured.
(AP, 7/20/09)
2009 Jul 22, Israel’s education
minister said the Israeli government will remove references to what
Palestinians call the "catastrophe" of Israel's creation from
textbooks for Arab schoolchildren. The reference to "al-naqba," the
Arabic word catastrophe as Palestinians call their defeat and exile
in the war over Israel's 1948 creation, was controversially inserted
by a dovish education minister for the first time in 2007.
(AP, 7/22/09)
2009 Jul 23, Israeli defense
officials said tests of a missile-defense system meant to shield
Israel from Iranian attack were aborted over the past week on three
occasions because of various malfunctions.
(AP, 7/23/09)
2009 Aug 1, In Tel Aviv,
Israel, a gunman shot and killed two people at a youth club in the
worst ever attack on homosexuals in Israel. The dead were identified
as a man (26) who was a counselor at the center and a girl (17).
Eleven people were wounded, four of them seriously.
(AP, 8/2/09)
2009 Aug 3, Israeli police said
that they had broken up an Israeli-American crime ring specializing
in tax fraud and money laundering in an operation codenamed
"American Pie." The chief suspect was Marvin Berkowitz (62) who
holds dual Israeli and US citizenship. Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's
ultranationalist foreign minister, promised to step down if he is
charged after police recommended that he be indicted for a string of
alleged corruption offenses.
(AP, 8/3/09)
2009 Aug 3, The Palestinian
Fatah movement published a new platform saying it will keep pursuing
peace talks but reserves the right to resist Israeli occupation.
(AP, 8/3/09)
2009 Aug 4, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas launched his Fatah movement's first
conference in two decades with a call for his people to limit their
resistance to Israel to marches and protests and not to abandon
peace talks despite years of setbacks.
(AP, 8/4/09)
2009 Aug 5, Amos Kenan
(b.1927), Israeli artist and writer, died in Tel Aviv. As a member
of Israel's founding generation his writing and art helped define
modern Israeli culture. Kenan was party to several efforts to create
an alliance with the Palestinians. He helped pen a 1957 manifesto
calling for the creation of a Palestinian state in federation with
Israel at a time when few Israelis acknowledged the Palestinians'
existence as a national group.
(AP, 8/5/09)
2009 Aug 9, Gaza militants
launched mortar shells at a border crossing between Gaza and Israel
just as Palestinian patients were being transferred into Israel for
medical treatment.
(AP, 8/10/09)
2009 Aug 10, Israeli warplanes
bombed a smuggling tunnel along the Gaza-Egypt border in response to
Palestinian rocket and mortar fire, in a brief flare-up of violence
at a time of relative quiet in the volatile Palestinian territory.
(AP, 8/10/09)
2009 Aug 17, Israeli soldiers
mistakenly shot and wounded an Egyptian policeman near Eilat along
the border between the two countries.
(AP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 17, In Sweden the
Aftonbladet tabloid published an incendiary article claiming that
Israeli soldiers had harvested the organs of some Palestinians whom
they had shot. Israel quickly denounced the article, while Sweden
defended its freedom of expression.
(Econ, 8/29/09, p.44)
2009 Aug 18, Israeli government
officials said Israel has quietly stopped approving new building
projects in the West Bank while publicly still refusing US demands
for an official settlement freeze.
(AP, 8/18/09)
2009 Aug 18, Russia's President
Dmitry Medvedev hosted Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres for talks
that were expected to focus on the Middle East and the Iranian
nuclear standoff.
(AP, 8/18/09)
2009 Aug 24, Israeli soldiers
fired on a group of suspicious Palestinians across the border in
northern Gaza. 3 Palestinians were wounded. 2 mortar shells were
later fired from Gaza slightly wounding one soldier.
(SFC, 8/25/09, p.A2)
2009 Aug 25, An Israeli air
strike on a smuggling tunnel between the Gaza Strip and Egypt killed
three Palestinians and wounded seven.
(AP, 8/25/09)
2009 Aug 30, Israeli legal
authorities indicted former PM Ehud Olmert on corruption charges,
the first criminal indictment ever filed against a current or past
Israeli prime minister. Olmert was accused of illegally accepting
funds from an American backer, double-billing for trips abroad and
concealing funds from a government watchdog.
(AP, 8/30/09)
2009 Sep 1, Mohammed Nayef (14)
one of three Palestinians who hurled Molotov cocktails at a guard
post near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, died of gunshot
shots from Israeli troops inflicted the previous evening. The Hamas
militant group said two of its fighters have been killed in the Gaza
Strip.
(AP, 9/1/09)
2009 Sep 4, Arab League chief
Amr Moussa, speaking in Italy, said any Israeli offer for a
settlement freeze that doesn't include east Jerusalem is
unacceptable and "will suspend the peace process." Aides of Israel’s
PM said Benjamin Netanyahu will approve hundreds of new housing
units in West Bank settlements before slowing settlement
construction, in an apparent snub of Washington's public demand for
a total settlement freeze.
(AP, 9/4/09)
2009 Sep 7, Israel officially
approved the construction of hundreds of new homes in the West Bank,
deepening an already unprecedented rift with the US over Israeli
settlement expansion. Israel PM Netanyahu vanished from public view
in Israel for most of the day. His office said he had visited a
secret security facility. It was later confirmed that he had made a
secret trip to Russia, which included a meeting with the
Russia’s Pres. Dmitry Medvedev.
(AP, 9/7/09)(AP, 9/20/09)
2009 Sep 8, A security official
said Egyptian border guards shot dead four sub-Saharan migrants as
they tried to illegally enter Israel.
(AFP, 9/8/09)
2009 Sep 11, A senior Lebanese
military official said two rockets were fired toward Israel from the
town of Qlaileh inside Lebanon. Israel responded with a barrage of
14 rockets. No injuries or damage were reported.
(AP, 9/11/09)(SFC, 9/12/09, p.A2)
2009 Sep 13, In Israel Capt.
Asaf Ramon (21), the son of Ilan Ramon, Israel's first and only
astronaut, was killed when his F-16 warplane crashed on a routine
training flight. Ilan Ramon was one of seven crew members killed
when the Columbia exploded as it re-entered the atmosphere in 2003.
(AP, 9/14/09)
2009 Sep 15, Israeli and
Palestinian activists presented the most detailed vision yet of what
a peace deal could look like. It included more than 400 pages
crammed with maps, timetables for troop withdrawals and even a list
of weapons a non-militarized Palestine would be barred from having.
The UN Goldstone Commission accused Israel of having deliberately
committed war crimes during its 3-week attack on Gaza in January.
(AP, 9/15/09)(Econ, 9/19/09, p.14)
2009 Sep 16, Israel rejected UN
calls to open an independent inquiry into its conduct in last
winter's Gaza Strip war and said it would launch a diplomatic
offensive to block any attempt to bring its soldiers before an
international war crimes tribunal. The Goldstone Commission report
had concluded that Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes
during its December incursion into Gaza. It also concluded that
there was evidence that Palestinian armed groups had committed war
crimes against humanity.
(AP, 9/16/09)(SSFC, 9/20/09, p.A20)
2009 Sep 16, Syrian President
Bashar Assad met with Turkey's PM Erdogan in Istanbul to discuss
ways to revive the stalled peace process between Syria and Israel, a
day after security talks with Iraq collapsed.
(AP, 9/16/09)
2009 Sep 18, Israelis welcomed
the Jewish New Year, grateful for the recent calm spell in the
region but skeptical that the coming year would see the achievement
of ever-elusive peace. It coincided this year with Eid al-Fitr, a
Muslim feast marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
(AP, 9/18/09)
2009 Sep 18, In Vienna,
Austria, a 150-nation IAEA nuclear conference passed a resolution
directly criticizing Israel and its atomic program for the first
time in 18 years. Iran hailed the vote as a "glorious moment." 49
voted for the resolution. 45 were against and 16 abstained from
endorsing or rejecting he document.
(AP, 9/18/09)
2009 Sep 20, An Israeli border
patrol fired at Palestinian militants planting a bomb at the Gaza
border fence. 2 men were killed and 3 wounded.
(SFC, 9/21/09, p.A2)
2009 Sep 23, Israel's foreign
minister said that the summit of Israeli, US and Palestinian leaders
proved Israel could successfully fend off international pressure to
freeze West Bank settlement construction.
(AP, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 24, Spain said it has
disqualified a group of Israeli academics from a solar power design
competition because their university is in the West Bank, the latest
in a series of low-level European sanctions against Israel over its
settlement policy.
(AP, 9/24/09)
2009 Sep 25, An Israeli
airstrike killed 3 members of the Palestinian Jihad movement who
were allegedly on their way to fire rockets into Israel.
(SFC, 9/26/09, p.A2)
2009 Sep 27, Israeli police
used stun grenades to disperse Palestinian rioters at a volatile
Jerusalem site holy to Jews and Muslims. The compound is home to the
gold-capped Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa mosque, and Muslims see
it as their religion's third-holiest site after the Saudi Arabian
holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The site has been under Israeli
control since 1967, but is administered by a Muslim religious body
known as the Waqf.
(AP, 9/27/09)
2009 Sep, In Israel Rabbi Yosef
Shalom Elyashiv (99) outlawed the use of elevators. Jewish law, or
halacha, forbids the use of electrical items on the Sabbath. He also
has proclaimed that Jews could not wear Crocs shoes on Yom Kippur,
the Day of Atonement, because they were deemed too comfortable for
the somber fasting holiday.
(AP, 10/27/09)
2009 Oct 1, Israeli authorities
charged an enigmatic Russian-born tycoon, who has fled the country,
with fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors said Arkady Gaydamak
conspired with senior Israeli banking executives to conceal
financial activities worth around $175 million.
(AP, 10/1/09)
2009 Oct 1, A Palestinian
decision to suspend the campaign for war crimes prosecutions was
first reported as the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva was
considering a vote on the Goldstone report. With the Palestinians
out of the picture, Arab and Muslim supporters followed suit, and
the vote was deferred to March. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
faced growing outrage at home over his decision to withdraw support
for the UN report.
(AP, 10/2/09)
2009 Oct 2, Hamas militants
traded a two-minute video showing an apparently unharmed Sgt. Gilad
Schalit, a captured Israeli soldier, for 19 Palestinian women held
in Israeli jails, the first tangible step toward defusing a key
flashpoint in Israeli-Palestinian hostilities.
(AP, 10/2/09)
2009 Oct 3, The Israeli army
carried out airstrikes on a weapons workshop east of Gaza City and
two weapons smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border. The
strikes were in response to one mortar shell and one rocket fired at
Israel from Gaza the day before.
(AP, 10/3/09)
2009 Oct 6, Israeli police
mobilized reinforcements from across the country to secure volatile
Jerusalem, deploying thousands of officers on city streets for fears
that two days of clashes with Palestinian protesters would escalate.
(AP, 10/6/09)
2009 Oct 13, A rocket fired by
Palestinian militants hit southern Israel.
(AP, 10/14/09)
2009 Oct 14, Israeli military
aircraft struck two smuggling tunnels along the Gaza Strip border in
response to a rocket fired by Palestinian militants the previous
day. Gaza health officials said four people were slightly injured in
the attack.
(AP, 10/14/09)
2009 Oct 14, Israel's foreign
minister has ordered ministry officials to summon Turkey's
ambassador in Israel and protest to him over a Turkish TV series
that reportedly portrays Israeli soldiers murdering children.
(AP, 10/14/09)
2009 Oct 16, The UN Human
Rights Council voted to endorse a Gaza war crimes report and send it
to the Security Council, possibly setting up international
prosecution of Israelis and Palestinians accused of war crimes.
(AP, 10/16/09)
2009 Oct 19, Israeli police
arrested Donald Edward Nelson (59), a convicted American pedophile,
in a hostel in the Old City of Jerusalem. Nelson was convicted last
year in a California court on 52 counts of sexual abuse of minors
and sentenced to 110 years in prison. He fled the US to avoid being
jailed and was hiding out in Jerusalem.
(AP, 10/21/09)
2009 Oct 19, American scientist
Stewart D. Nozette (52) of Chevy Chase, Md., was arrested for
attempted espionage after passing classified information to an
undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence operative. In
2011 Nozette pleaded guilty to espionage and agreed to a 13-year
prison term.
(SFC, 10/21/09, p.A5)(SFC, 9/8/11, p.A8)
2009 Oct 25, Israeli forces
stormed Jerusalem's holiest shrine, firing stun grenades to disperse
hundreds of stone-throwing Palestinian protesters in a fresh
eruption of violence at the most volatile spot in the country.
(AP, 10/25/09)
2009 Oct 27, Amnesty
International issued a report accusing Israel of pumping
disproportionate amounts of drinking water from the Mountain Aquifer
it controls in the West Bank, depriving local Palestinians of their
fair share.
(AP, 10/27/09)
2009 Oct 27, Lebanon-based
militants launched a rocket into northern Israel hitting near the
Israeli town of Kiryat Shemona. The attack drew a rapid response
from Israeli artillery, which shelled the launch area. No casualties
were reported on either side.
(AP, 10/28/09)
2009 Oct 31, US Secretary of
State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas and aides in the Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi before flying to
Israel, where she is expected to meet senior Israeli officials in a
push to restart peace negotiations. A senior Palestinian official
said the Palestinians are unlikely to resume negotiations if Israel
does not halt Jewish settlement building. After the talks Clinton
called for an unconditional resumption of peace talks and welcomed
Israel's offer for a slowdown in settlement activity.
(AP, 10/31/09)(AP, 11/1/09)
2009 Nov 1, The Palestinians
accused US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton of undermining
progress toward Mideast peace talks after she praised Israel for
offering to curb some Jewish settlement construction.
(AP, 11/1/09)
2009 Nov 1, Israeli security
officials said authorities have arrested Jack Teitel (37), a
Jewish-American extremist suspected of carrying out a series of
high-profile hate crimes.
(AP, 11/1/09)
2009 Nov 2, In Russia Shabattai
Kalmanovitch (60), a prominent businessman, was shot dead in Moscow.
He had been convicted in Israel in 1987 of being a KGB spy.
(SFC, 11/3/09, p.A2)
2009 Nov 3, Maj. Gen. Amos
Yadlin, Israel’s military intelligence chief, said Hamas militants
in Gaza have successfully test-fired an Iranian rocket able to reach
Israel's largest urban center. He said the rocket could fly 37 miles
(60km), and strike metropolitan Tel Aviv.
(AP, 11/3/09)
2009 Nov 4, Israeli commandos
seized a ship that defense officials said was carrying more than 60
tons of missiles, rockets and anti-tank weapons bound for Lebanon's
Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas. The vessel Francop was operated
by United Feeder Services, a Cyprus-based shipping company that said
it picked up the cargo in Damietta, Egypt.
(AP, 11/4/09)
2009 Nov 10, Israel's army
chief said Hezbollah guerrillas now possess tens of thousands of
rockets, some capable of reaching the country's major cities.
(AP, 11/10/09)
2009 Nov 11, The Israeli
military released a series of documents and photos it said proved
Iran was behind a massive shipment of weapons Israel's navy
commandos intercepted last week. Among the arms Israel says it found
aboard the vessel were 9,000 mortar bombs, 3,000 Katyusha rockets,
3,000 gun shells, 20,000 grenades and over a half million rounds of
small arms ammunition.
(AP, 11/11/09)
2009 Nov 13, Israeli troops
killed a Palestinian man along the Gaza Strip border, but the
circumstances of the incident were unclear.
(AP, 11/13/09)
2009 Nov 16, Some Israeli
troops refused to follow orders during the military's evacuation of
settlers at an unauthorized outpost and hoisted a sign opposing
settlement evacuations. Four soldiers were sent to a military prison
for up to a month, while two others were ordered confined to their
base for a month.
(AP, 11/17/09)
2009 Nov 17, Israel moved to
approve a plan to build 900 more housing units in a Jewish
neighborhood in the part of Jerusalem claimed by Palestinians,
drawing harsh criticism from the United States.
(AP, 11/18/09)
2009 Nov 18, The Gaza-based
Waad charity, headed by the interior minister of the militant Hamas
group, offered $1.4 million to any Arab citizen of Israel who
abducts an Israeli soldier.
(AP, 11/19/09)
2009 Nov 19, Israeli aircraft
struck a weapons-manufacturing facility and two smuggling tunnels in
the southern Gaza Strip, in response to recent rocket attacks on
Israel.
(AP, 11/19/09)
2009 Nov 21, Hamas announced
that it has reached an agreement with other militant groups in Gaza
to stop firing rockets at southern Israeli towns to prevent
retaliatory attacks.
(AP, 11/21/09)
2009 Nov 22, Israeli aircraft
attacked two suspected weapons-making factories and a smuggling
tunnel in the Gaza Strip in what the military said was retaliation
for Palestinian rocket fire into southern Israel.
(AP, 11/22/09)
2009 Nov 24, Israel carried out
three airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, targeting a
weapons-manufacturing facility and weapons smuggling tunnels. They
came in response to two rockets Palestinian militants fired at
southern Israel from Gaza a day earlier. Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers
reported that two of the group's militants were killed when a rocket
they were handling blew up prematurely.
(AP, 11/24/09)
2009 Nov 25, Israeli PM
Benjamin Netanyahu proposed a 10-month freeze on West Bank
settlement construction in what he says is an attempt to jumpstart
Mideast peace talks. The freeze would not include east Jerusalem,
the area of the holy city claimed by the Palestinians for a future
capital.
(AP, 11/25/09)
2009 Nov 27, The Israel air
force attacked a group of Palestinian militants in northern Gaza as
they were about to fire rockets at Israel. Palestinian medics said 4
militants were wounded. The Israeli military said one member of the
squad was killed.
(SFC, 11/28/09, p.A2)
2009 Dec 1, Israel sternly
warned the EU against recognizing east Jerusalem as the Palestinian
capital, saying such a move would damage Europe's credibility as a
Mideast mediator. Sweden, the current EU president, was floating an
initiative to recognize east Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 2, Israeli police
arrested the mayor of a West Bank Jewish settlement after protesters
blocked security forces from entering the community to enforce a
construction freeze. The Haaretz daily reported that Israel's
Interior Ministry revoked the residency of 4,577 east Jerusalemites
in 2008, more than 20 times the annual average of the previous 40
years.
(AP, 12/2/09)
2009 Dec 6, Israeli settlers
blocked roads, scuffled with police and pelted officers with eggs,
in the most aggressive display of resistance yet to the government's
ban on new housing construction in West Bank settlements.
(AP, 12/6/09)
2009 Dec 8, EU nations agreed
that Jerusalem should be the capital of both Israel and a future
Palestinian state, assuaging Israeli anger over earlier mention of
east Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital. An earlier proposal by
the Swedish EU presidency, to explicitly support the idea of east
Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state, was dropped
by the foreign ministers.
(AFP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 8, The Palestinians
announced a boycott of Israeli products made in the West Bank,
stepping up their campaign against Israeli settlements.
(AP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 9, Some 10,000 West
Bank settlers turned out to support resistance to a government ban
on most new housing.
(SFC, 12/10/09, p.A2)
2009 Dec 10, Abdullah Abu
Rahmeh (38), a teacher and leader of the most persistent Palestinian
protest movement against Israel's West Bank separation barrier, was
arrested by Israeli troops in a pre-dawn raid.
(AFP, 12/11/09)
2009 Dec 11, Assailants in the
West Bank vandalized a Palestinian mosque, burning prayer carpets
and holy books, and leaving behind Hebrew graffiti indicating the
rampage was the work of settlers angry over Israel's plans to curb
settlement construction.
(AP, 12/11/09)
2009 Dec 12, A Palestinian man
made homeless by last winter's Gaza war was the first to receive a
UN-funded mud brick home, with UN aid officials saying they're
reverting to ancient building techniques because Israel won't allow
concrete and other construction materials into blockaded Gaza. A
Palestinian farmer was killed when he was caught in the crossfire of
a shootout between militants and Israeli soldiers in the Hamas-run
Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/12/09)(AFP, 12/12/09)
2009 Dec 14, Tens of thousands
of Hamas supporters thronged downtown Gaza City to mark the 22nd
anniversary of the group's founding. Hamas PM Ismail Haniya told
tens of thousands of Hamas supporters his group remains committed to
the elimination of Israel.
(AP, 12/14/09)(AFP, 12/14/09)
2009 Dec 15, Israel’s PM
Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the issuing in Britain of an arrest
warrant against Israel's former foreign minister Tzipi Livni for
alleged war crimes. She was targeted by Palestinians for her role in
last winter's brutal offensive against Hamas in Gaza, when she was
foreign minister.
(AP, 12/15/09)
2009 Dec 19-2009 Dec 20, In
Israel parts of a 2000 interview were broadcast on Channel 2 TV over
the weekend describing how forensic pathologists in the 1990s
harvested organs from dead bodies, including Palestinians, without
permission of their families. The Israeli military confirmed that
the practice took place and said it had stopped in 2000.
(AP, 12/20/09)
2009 Dec 24, About 200 Israeli
teenagers soon to be drafted sent a letter to Israel's defense
minister, saying they won't enforce any military orders to dismantle
settlements in the West Bank because that violates Jewish law. An
Israeli settler was shot dead when Palestinian gunmen opened fire on
his vehicle in the West Bank.
(AP, 12/24/09)(AFP, 12/24/09)
2009 Dec 26, Israeli soldiers
stormed homes in the West Bank, killing three Palestinians suspected
in the fatal shooting of an Israeli and testing an uneasy security
arrangement with Palestinian authorities.
(AP, 12/26/09)
2009 Dec 28, Israel said that
it will build nearly 700 new apartments in east Jerusalem, drawing
tough criticism from both the Palestinians and the United States,
which denounced the plan as an obstacle to peacemaking.
(AP, 12/28/09)
2009 Dec 29, Egypt's top
diplomat said Israel's PM Netanyahu presented Egypt with ideas for
restarting Mideast peace talks, impressing his hosts with proposals
that go further than past Israeli positions.
(AP, 12/29/09)
2009 Dec 30, It was reported
that Israel's Supreme Court has ordered the military to let
Palestinians travel on the part of Route 443 that runs through the
West Bank, which was closed in 2002. The court gave the military
five months to implement the ruling.
(AP, 12/30/09)
2009 Dec 31, Hundreds of
demonstrators rallied on opposite sides of an Israeli-Gaza border
crossing to protest the blockade of the seaside territory imposed by
Egypt and Israel. Gaza's Hamas parliament approved a government
budget of $540 million for 2010, suggesting that a tight border
blockade isn't stopping the cash flow to the Islamic militants. The
Hamas government has about 32,000 people on its payroll, including
civil servants and members of the security forces. About $30 million
of the budget would go to Arab residents of Jerusalem and Islamic
sites in the city.
(AP, 12/31/09)(AP, 1/2/10)
2009 Israeli Rabbi Yosef
Elitzur-Hershkowitz co-authored “Teachings of the King,” a book that
discusses when it is permissible for Jews to kill non Jews. He was
detained in 2010 on charges that included incitement to
racism.
(SFC, 8/20/10, p.A2)
2009 Dan Senor and Saul Singer
authored “Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle.”
(Econ, 10/31/09, p.78)
2009 Avi Shlaim authored
“Israel and Palestine: Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations.”
(Econ, 9/26/09, p.98)
2010 Jan 2, Israeli warplanes
struck and destroyed two tunnels under Gaza's border with Israel.
The Israeli military says Gaza militants had planned to use the
tunnels to enter Israel and carry out attacks.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 4, Israel approved
construction of four new apartment buildings in disputed east
Jerusalem, fueling tensions with the Palestinians at a time when the
US is laboring to get peace talks moving again.
(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 6, Israel announced it
successfully tested a high-tech shield against future mortar and
rocket attacks from the Hamas-ruled territory. Once installed later
this year, the Iron Dome system could deprive Hamas of an important
means of threatening Israel.
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 7, Gaza militants
fired at least 10 mortar shells at Israel, causing no injuries or
damage. international activists delivered hundreds of tons of
medicine and humanitarian aid to Gaza. The convoy was led by
maverick British lawmaker George Galloway, who said the group "will
be back with more (aid) until this criminal siege imposed on the
people of Gaza, to punish them for how they voted in a free
election, is lifted."
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 8, Israeli airstrikes
against targets in Gaza killed three men in a smuggling tunnel along
the Gaza-Egypt border.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 8, Israeli cooks
doubled the previous record for the world's biggest serving of
hummus, set in October by cooks in Lebanon. An adjudicator sent from
London by Guinness World Records, Jack Brockbank, confirmed that
Israeli chefs now held the record for hummus. He put the exact
amount of hummus in a giant satellite dish at 9,017 pounds (4,090
kg).
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 10, Israel's
government approved a plan for the construction of two massive
fences along the long and porous southern border with Egypt. PM
Netanyahu said he wants to stem a growing flood of African asylum
seekers and to prevent Islamic militants from entering the country.
The project is expected to cost about $400 million.
(AP, 1/11/10)
2010 Jan 11, Israel's
parliament adopted legislation that bans the state from paying for
the funeral of any citizen who commits terror attacks against the
Jewish state.
(AFP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 12, Israeli police
broke up the harem of Goel Ratzon (60), who was suspected of
enslaving a cult-like harem of at least 17 women and 37 children.
Ratzon, who's lived this way for two decades, denied any wrongdoing.
He maintained the harem with 17 women in a state of near-total
obedience in apartments in the Tel Aviv area. On Feb 14 he was
charged in a Tel Aviv court with enslavement, rape, incest and other
sexual offenses.
(AP, 1/14/10)(AP, 2/8/10)(AP, 2/14/10)
2010 Jan 14, In Jordan there
was an attack on a convoy of Israeli diplomats heading home for the
weekend. It was the first roadside bombing in Jordan and exposed a
security gap for Israeli diplomats. On Jan 31 a Jordanian security
official said authorities have arrested dozens of Muslim militants
in connection with the failed bomb attack.
(AP, 1/31/10)
2010 Jan 16, In Israel the
Yediot Ahronot daily reported that Lillian Peretz, who worked as the
Netanyahu family housekeeper in their beachside home in the town of
Caesaria for six years, has filed a lawsuit accusing Sara Netanyahu,
the Israeli prime minister's 3rd wife, of abusing her in the first
scandal to hit Benjamin Netanyahu's year-old administration. Peretz
claims Sara Netanyahu verbally abused her and forced her to change
clothes and shower several times a day to keep a "sterile"
environment. It also alleges she was paid less than minimum wage and
forced to work on the Jewish Sabbath even though she is an observant
Jew.
(AP, 1/17/10)(Econ, 1/23/10, p.45)
2010 Jan 17, Israel's Defence
Minister Ehud Barak began a one-day visit to Turkey. Israel and
Turkey said they had smoothed over differences following a
diplomatic spat and were working to develop relations and further
military projects.
(AFP, 1/17/10)(AP, 1/17/10)
2010 Jan 18, Israel's Cabinet
convened for the first time in Berlin, the former heart of the Nazi
regime, for a special joint session with the German government
highlighting the two nations' strong bond six decades after the
Holocaust.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, Israeli police
arrested 9 people at a radical Jewish settlement in connection with
the Dec 11, 2009, torching of a West Bank mosque and other attacks
on Palestinian property.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 18, In Egypt and
Israel heavy rains and flash floods left seven people dead,
including a British tourist who was killed when a sailboat capsized
on the Nile River.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 20, Israel deported
Jared Malsin, the American editor of a Palestinian news agency, back
to NYC after he was questioned about his “anti-Israeli” views.
Malsin was the chief English editor of the Maan News Agency based in
Bethlehem.
(SFC, 1/21/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 20, In Jerusalem,
Israel, burglars broke into the Ashdod Museum where hundreds of
artifacts recovered from the black-market were on show and snatched
several valuable items, including a silver ring belonging to
Alexander the Great and gold earrings.
(Reuters, 1/21/10)
2010 Jan 20, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh
(b.1960), one of the founders of Hamas' military wing, was poisoned
and electrocuted overnight in his hotel room in Dubai. Al-Mabhouh
was involved in the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers
in 1989. On Jan 29 Hamas accused Israeli agents of assassinating the
veteran operative.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 24, Israel's PM
Netanyahu declared that his country would retain parts of the West
Bank forever, a statement that infuriated Palestinians and could
complicate the year-old peace mission of visiting US envoy George
Mitchell.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 25, Sara Netanyahu
sued the Maariv daily for libel and defamation of character,
claiming it is "maliciously trying to humiliate" her. A story on Jan
22 stated that Mrs. Netanyahu fired a 70-year-old gardener at the
prime minister's official residence. The gardener had lost a son in
one of Israel's wars.
(AP, 1/26/10)
2010 Jan 31, An Egyptian
security official said 25 Egyptians were arrested on suspicion of
planning a bombing attack against Jewish pilgrims in the country and
belonging to a militant Islamist group. The suspects, rounded up
over the past few weeks in the Nile Delta governorate of Daqahlia,
were found in possession of explosives and rudimentary rocket
warheads.
(AFP, 1/31/10)
2010 Feb 1, In Israel two
barrels, each containing 22 pounds (10kg) of explosives, washed up
on Israel's shores late in the day. No one was hurt. Palestinian
militants in the Gaza Strip said the failed attempt to send floating
bombs toward Israeli beaches was meant to avenge the mysterious
death of a Hamas commander in Dubai.
(AP, 2/2/10)
2010 Feb 1, Seven American and
European scientists were named winners of Israel's prestigious
$100,000 Wolf Prize. Its prize in medicine went to Axel Ullrich of
Germany for groundbreaking cancer research that has led to
development of new drugs. Sir David Baulcombe of Cambridge
University was awarded for agriculture research in defending plants
against viruses. The physics prize was shared by US professor John
F. Clauser, Alain Aspect of France and Anton Zeilinger of Austria
for their work in quantum physics. The mathematics prize was shared
by two US-based professors: Shing-Tung Yau for geometric analysis,
and Dennis Sullivan for contributions to algebraic topology and
conformal dynamics. The Wolf Foundation was founded by the late
German-born Dr. Ricardo Wolf, an inventor, philanthropist and former
Cuban ambassador to Israel.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 3, Israel announced
that British and American architects were named winners of its
prestigious Wolf Prize. British architect David Chipperfield was
recognized for overseeing the reconstruction of Berlin's Neues
Museum in a building that had been abandoned since World War II.
American architect Peter Eisenman designed the Holocaust Memorial in
Berlin, inaugurated in 2005.
(AP, 2/3/10)
2010 Feb 8, Israeli security
forces raided a Palestinian refugee camp in annexed east Jerusalem,
arresting 11 people in an operation police said was aimed at putting
"some order" in the area. Israel's Supreme Court ordered authorities
to release two foreign activists seized in a Palestinian-controlled
part of the West Bank. Ariadna Jove Marti of Spain and Bridgette
Chappell of Australia, had been in a pre-dawn raid on their
apartment in the heart of Ramallah.
(AFP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 10, An Israeli TV
station said it has uncovered evidence that Palestinian Authority
officials have stolen millions of dollars in public funds.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 11, Opponents of
Israel's contentious separation barrier in the West Bank scored a
long-awaited victory when the government began rerouting the
enclosure to eat up less of a Palestinian village that has become a
symbol of anti-wall protests and the site of frequent clashes. A
Palestinian militant was killed and two young girls wounded by
Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip in two separate incidents.
(AP, 2/11/10)(AFP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 15, Israel's PM
Netanyahu called for "crippling sanctions" against Iran over its
nuclear program after a meeting in Moscow with Russia's top
officials, whom he praised for showing "an understanding" over the
issue.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 18, Dubai police
directly accused Israel's Mossad spy agency of orchestrating the Jan
19 hit squad slaying of a Hamas commander as the number of suspects
rose to 18.
(AP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 20, Israeli forces
wounded at least four Palestinians in a firefight in the southern
Gaza Strip and two more in the West Bank as they tried to cross into
Israel. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and
the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade issued a joint statement saying their
men had "attacked four Israeli army jeeps with rocket-propelled
grenades, and they responded with machine-gun fire from an assault
helicopter and tank fire."
(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Feb 21, Israeli PM
Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet that the Cave of the Patriarchs
in Hebron and Rachel's Tomb near Bethlehem are additions to the list
of national heritage sites. Israel's air force introduced a fleet of
large unmanned planes that can fly as far as Iran. Air force
officials said the Heron TP drones can fly 20 consecutive hours, and
are primarily used for surveillance and carrying payloads. Israeli
shelling wounded five Palestinian day laborers along the northern
border of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
(AP, 2/21/10)(AFP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 22, A crowd of
Palestinian youths in Hebron pelted Israeli soldiers with stones and
empty bottles, drawing tear gas and stun grenades in the most
serious violence to rock this volatile West Bank city in months.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 24, Dubai police
linked at least 15 more suspects carrying foreign passports to the
Jan 19 hit squad slaying of a Hamas commander that the police chief
claimed was likely carried out by Israel's Mossad secret service.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, Israel's Haaretz
daily said Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of one of Hamas' founders, was
one of the Shin Bet security service's most valuable sources. Dubbed
as "the Green Prince" by his handlers he served as a top informant
for Israel for more than a decade. Yousef's memoir, "Son of Hamas,"
was to be published next week in the US by Tyndale House Publishers.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 24, A Nobel official
said Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu has asked the
Nobel Peace Prize committee to disregard his nomination for the
prestigious award.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Israel 16
people including two Israeli policemen were wounded in clashes at
Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, after police entered
to arrest Palestinians who had hurled rocks at visitors they
believed were Jewish extremists.
(AFP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, Dubai police said
forensic tests show a Hamas operative, who was killed on Jan 19 in
his hotel room by an alleged Israeli hit squad, was drugged with a
fast-acting muscle relaxant and then suffocated with a pillow.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Mar 3, Arab nations gave
the green light for Palestinians to enter indirect negotiations with
Israel for a preliminary four-month period, a decision likely to
break the months-long deadlock over resuming Mideast peace talks.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 4, Israel's Supreme
Court reprimanded Jerusalem police for not permitting groups to
protest the eviction of Palestinians from their homes in favor of
Jewish settlers.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Israel clashes
erupted between Muslim worshippers and Israeli riot police at a
sacred and disputed hilltop compound following a sermon on a recent
Israeli decision to include two West Bank shrines on a list of
national heritage sites.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 7, A skeptical
Palestinian leadership agreed to hold US-mediated peace talks with
Israel for four months, effectively ending a 14-month breakdown in
communications between the two sides.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 8, Israel said it has
given the green light for the building of 112 new homes in a Jewish
settlement in the occupied West Bank despite a partial moratorium on
such construction.
(AFP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 8, David Kimche, a
British-born Israeli spy-turned-diplomat, died in Israel. He played
a key role in the Iran-contra scandal that rocked President Ronald
Reagan's administration.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 9, US Vice President
Joe Biden visited Israel and pledged Washington's full commitment to
Israel's security while throwing his weight behind a renewal of
Middle East peace talks after a 14-month hiatus. Biden assured
Israel of Washington's commitment to its security and preventing
Iran from producing nuclear weapons.
(AP, 3/9/10)(Reuters, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 9, Israeli officials
said Israel wants to build a nuclear power plant, a move that could
bring new attention to the country's secretive nuclear activities.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 10, US Vice President
Joe Biden met Palestinian leaders, telling them Israel's decision to
expand settlement activity in east Jerusalem is undermining the
peace efforts he is promoting.
(AFP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 10, Qatar's PM Sheikh
Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani said Arab states will respond to Israel's
recent decision to expand an east Jerusalem settlement.
(AFP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 13, Several dozen
Palestinian women scuffled with Israeli troops on the outskirts of
Jerusalem amid rising religious and political tensions in the
disputed city.
(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 14, Israeli security
services overnight captured Maher Uda (47), a top Hamas commander,
in Ramallah. He had been on the run for more than a decade for his
implication in a series of suicide attacks in Israel which claimed
70 lives.
(AFP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 15, Israel’s Haaretz
newspaper said Egyptian security officials have arrested Yotam
Feldman, an Israeli journalist, as he tried to sneak across the
porous Israeli-Egyptian border with African migrants. Feldman told
his investigators he was reporting on African migrants sneaking into
Israel from Egypt. Feldman returned home on March 22, saying he had
been beaten in captivity and that some of his materials had been
confiscated.
(AP, 3/15/10)(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 16, Hundreds of
Palestinians clashed with security forces in east Jerusalem as
tension boiled over in the city and a senior Hamas leader called for
a new "intifada," or uprising.
(AFP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 17, Israel lifted its
tight restrictions on Palestinian access to Jerusalem's holiest
shrine and called off an extended West Bank closure after days of
clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, In Ramallah
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva placed a wreath on the
tomb of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and sharply
criticized Israeli policies, leading Israeli officials to suggest he
was not being evenhanded. The visit came a day after Israel's
hawkish foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said he boycotted
meetings with Silva because the Brazilian did not pay a similar
visit to the grave of Zionist founder Theodor Herzl.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 18, A rocket fired by
Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip killed a Thai worker
inside Israel, in the first death from such an attack since Israel's
Gaza offensive last year. Israeli missiles hit smuggling tunnels and
a metal workshop in Gaza.
(AP, 3/18/10)(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 18, Israeli copycat
drugs giant Teva made a major stride into Europe with the
five-billion-dollar purchase of Ratiopharm, formerly owned by a
German billionaire who killed himself.
(AFP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 19, Palestinians in
east Jerusalem and the West Bank lobbed rocks at Israeli security
forces, set garbage bins and tires ablaze and torched an Israeli
flag in a new outbreak of violence over contested Jerusalem building
plans and unsubstantiated rumors about threats to the city's holiest
shrine. Israeli aircraft fired five missiles at Gaza's defunct
airport and nearby border tunnels, wounding at least 12 people.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, In Russia the
international Quartet for the Middle East met in Moscow in a bid to
revive the peace process despite tensions after Israel's
announcement of new settler homes and a deadly rocket attack.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 20, UN chief Ban
Ki-moon, after getting a closer look at some of the Israeli enclaves
scattered across Palestinian-claimed territories, said Israeli
settlement building anywhere on occupied land is illegal and must be
stopped.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 22, Israeli forces
mistakenly shot and killed a fellow soldier while looking for three
Palestinians who crossed the border from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 23, The Macro Centre
for Political Economics said in a report that spending on Jewish
settlements in the West Bank over the past 4 decades has totaled
around $17.4 billion. An Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip
overnight injured four people.
(AP, 3/23/10)(AFP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, Britain expelled
an Israeli diplomat to rebuke Israel for its alleged use of forged
British passports in the assassination of a Hamas operative in a
suspected Mossad hit.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 23, Talks between US
President Barack Obama and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu failed to
produce signs they had ended a dispute which Netanyahu said could
block the Middle East peace process for a year.
(AFP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, The Jerusalem
municipality said it has approved 20 new apartments for Jews in an
Arab neighborhood of east Jerusalem, in a move that could stir a new
diplomatic crisis with the United States just as Israel's leader is
in Washington on a fence-mending visit.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 26, Israel insisted it
would continue construction in contested east Jerusalem, taking an
uncompromising stance against US pressure following a tense visit by
PM Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington. Two Israeli soldiers and two
Palestinian militants were killed in a gunbattle in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian medics said one civilian was killed and seven were
wounded in the fighting. Militants reported one wounded and one
missing. Israeli soldier withdrew the next day.
(AP, 3/26/10)(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Tens of thousands
of Syrians and Palestinians gathered in a Damascus square in a
government-orchestrated "march of anger" against Israeli settlements
in east Jerusalem.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 28, Israel said it
will restrict access to its territory from the occupied West Bank
starting late today ahead of the week-long Jewish Passover holiday.
(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Apr 1, An Israeli military
judge ordered the release of 10 Palestinians, including a senior
Fatah official, detained at a March 27 protest march through a West
Bank checkpoint.
(AFP, 4/1/10)
2010 Apr 2, It was reported
that researchers, at Israeli weapons maker Rafael, were putting the
final touches on a tank-mounted miniature anti-missile system,
Trophy, that detects incoming projectiles and shoots them down
before they reach tanks equipped with the system.
(AP, 4/2/10)
2010 Apr 4, Israel allowed the
first commercial shipment of clothes and shoes into the Gaza Strip
since 2008 but said its policy towards the territory's Hamas rulers
had not changed.
(AP, 4/4/10)
2010 Apr 6, Israel began
distributing millions of protection kits against biochemical
warfare, Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai announced, stressing
the campaign was not linked to any imminent threat.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 7, Israel’s police
said 6 Israelis have been detained on suspicion of running an
international organ trafficking ring and breaking promises to donors
to pay for their removed kidneys.
(AP, 4/7/10)
2010 Apr 8, Israel lifted
months of censorship on a military espionage case, confirming the
house arrest of Anat Kamm (23), a former female soldier, charged
with leaking more than 2,000 military documents to a newspaper. She
had been arrested in Dec 2009. PM Netanyahu abruptly called off a
trip to Washington just days before he was slated to attend a
conference there on the spread of nuclear weapons, fearing Israel
would be singled out over its own nuclear program. On Oct 31, 2011,
Kamm was sentenced to 4 ½ years in prison.
(AP, 4/8/10)(AP, 4/9/10)(AP, 10/31/11)
2010 Apr 11, Israel's military
issued new orders that human rights groups warned could lead to the
expulsion of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank.
The orders have been posted on the Web site of the military
prosecutor and are to go into effect April 13.
(AP, 4/11/10)
2010 Apr 13, Gaza's Hamas
rulers ordered residents to shut smuggling tunnels along the border
with Egypt indefinitely, cutting off the economic lifeline for 1.5
million Palestinians in the impoverished territory. An Israeli
spokesman said at least 2 Palestinian militants were killed and 2
wounded when Israeli troops shot at them as they tried to plant
explosives near the border.
(AP, 4/14/10)(SFC, 4/14/10, p.A2)
2010 Apr 13, Israel's Supreme
Court permitted an Israeli-Arab author to travel to Lebanon to
receive a literary award. Ala Hlehel (35) was invited to the
Beirut39 Festival this week, but laws in enemy nations prevented him
from going. Hlehel is acclaimed for a collection of short stories
called "The Circus" and a play.
(AP, 4/13/10)
2010 Apr 14, Israeli police
arrested Uri Lupolianski, a former mayor of Jerusalem (2003-2008),
in connection with a multimillion-dollar bribery scandal that has
been linked to a key confidant of former PM Ehud Olmert. The bribes
were allegedly given during construction of the massive Holyland
complex in the 1990s.
(AP, 4/14/10)(Econ, 4/24/10, p.47)(AFP, 1/5/12)
2010 Apr 15, Israel customs
officials said they already have confiscated about 10 iPads since
Israel announced new regulations this week. The iPad banned anyone
from bringing an iPad into the country until officials certify that
they are in compliance with local transmitter standards. Israel
lifted a ban on April 25.
(AP, 4/15/10)(AP, 4/25/10)
2010 Apr 16, Israeli troops
killed a Palestinian militant along the border fence between Israel
and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip as he planted a bomb along the
fence. Palestinian residents and the Israeli military said Jewish
settlers vandalized property overnight in the Palestinian village of
Jen Safout in the West Bank. Raed Hamad (27), a Palestinian
prisoner, died in an Israeli prison. he had been in solitary
confinement for the last 18 months. Lawyer Tareq Barghouth said his
client required psychological help but none was provided during his
five years in detention.
(AP, 4/16/10)(AP, 4/17/10)
2010 Apr 16, Lebanese residents
dismantled a barbed wire fence set up by Israeli troops in a
disputed border area, leading to a call for restraint by UN
peacekeepers in the tense region. Army clashes with a powerful clan
in the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek wounded 10 people, including
five soldiers.
(AFP, 4/16/10)
2010 Apr 17, Hamas and Fatah
closed ranks to mark Palestinian Prisoners' Day to protest against
Israel for continuing to keep some 6,600 Palestinian militants in
jail. This was the first joint initiative by the bitter rivals since
Fatah was routed from Gaza in 2007.
(AFP, 4/17/10)(Econ, 5/1/10, p.48)
2010 Apr 19, Israeli Defense
minister Ehud Barak said Israel must recognize that the world will
not put up with decades more of Israeli rule over the Palestinian
people.
(AP, 4/19/10)
2010 Apr 22, Israel unveiled an
indictment against five of its citizens, including a retired army
general, charging them with operating a nationwide organ trafficking
ring that ensnared dozens of potential victims.
(AP, 4/22/10)
2010 Apr 23, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas rejected the establishment of a Palestinian
state within temporary borders, an idea he said was recently
proposed for restarting peace talks.
(AP, 4/24/10)
2010 Apr 24, Palestinian
president Mahmud Abbas called for an "open political dialogue"
between Palestinian groups and both Israeli and Jewish organizations
around the world.
(AFP, 4/24/10)
2010 Apr 26, Municipal
officials said the Israeli government has imposed a de facto freeze
on new Jewish construction in Jerusalem's disputed eastern sector.
The decision was made despite PM Benjamin Netanyahu's public
insistence that building would not be stopped in the face of US
pressure. Israeli troops killed Hamas activist Ali Sweiti, a wanted
Palestinian militant in a raid on a West Bank house. Sweiti was
wanted in five shooting attacks, one of which killed a paramilitary
policeman in 2004.
(AP, 4/26/10)
2010 Apr 26, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas signed a law banning Palestinians from
working in Israeli settlements and selling settlement goods, with
violators facing up to five years in prison and stiff fines.
(AP, 4/26/10)
2010 Apr 30, Hezbollah's leader
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in published remarks that Hezbollah can
strike infrastructure deep inside Israel if a new war breaks out,
but refused to confirm whether or not the Lebanon-based militants
have long-range Scud missiles.
(AP, 4/30/10)
2010 Apr, Israel’s Defense
Minister Ehud Barak announced that Gen. Ashkenazi's four-year term
would not be extended by a year, as is customary. In 2011 it was
reported that the action was a result of Ashkenazi’s objection to a
proposal to attack Iranian nuclear sites.
(Reuters, 1/12/11)
2010 May 1, Arab nations
endorsed indirect peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis,
a move that likely paves the way for the start of long-stalled
US-brokered negotiations.
(AP, 5/1/10)
2010 May 2, Moshe Hirsch (86),
an American-born anti-Zionist rabbi and close associate of the late
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, died in Jerusalem. Hirsch was a
leading figure in Neturei Karta, a tiny ultra-Orthodox sect that
opposes Israel's existence as a Jewish state and has embraced its
enemies. Neturei Karta, which is Aramaic for "Guardians of the
City," was founded some 70 years ago in Jerusalem by Jews who
opposed the drive to establish the state of Israel.
(AP, 5/3/10)
2010 May 3, The leaders of
Israel and Egypt met to discuss the renewal of the Middle East peace
process ahead of US-backed indirect negotiations between the
Palestinians and the Jewish state.
(AP, 5/3/10)
2010 May 3, A team of Israeli,
Jordanian and Palestinian environmental scientists said large
stretches of the biblical Jordan River could dry up by 2011. In
1847, a US Naval officer visiting the area reported on the
"deafening roar of the tumultuous waters."
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 3, Rabbi David Forman,
founder of Rabbis for Human Rights, a prominent group defending
Palestinians, died in Dallas, Texas. Forman founded Rabbis for Human
Rights in 1988 and led it until 1992. He served as its chairman
again from 2002-2003.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, Fires ripped
through a mosque and an olive grove in two West Bank villages, and
local Palestinians accused Jewish settlers of deliberately setting
the blazes.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 5, US mediator George
Mitchell launched Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations after a
break of more than a year, starting a shuttle mission between a
hard-line Israeli government and a Palestinian administration in
control of only part of its territory.
(AP, 5/5/10)
2010 May 5, Yukiya Amano, the
head of the UN atomic watchdog, asked for international input on an
Arab-led push to have Israel join the Nonproliferation Treaty, in a
move that adds to pressure on the Jewish state to disclose its
unacknowledged nuclear arsenal.
(AP, 5/6/10)
2010 May 6, Israel declined to
address the international pressure that's been mounting for it to
join the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, saying only that its
refusal to acknowledge or deny it possesses atomic weapons is a
pillar of its military deterrence.
(AP, 5/6/10)
2010 May 9, The Palestinians
announced the official start of indirect peace talks with Israel
after a 17-month breakdown, while Israel's leader urged a quick
transition to face-to-face negotiations to tackle the hardest
issues. Israeli-Arab leaders launched a boycott of 1000 companies
that produce Jewish settlement-made products, following Palestinian
Authority Pres. Abbas’ call for a similar ban by West Bank Arabs.
(AP, 5/9/10)(SSFC, 5/9/10, p.A4)
2010 May 10, Israel said it
will press forward with construction of new housing for Jews in east
Jerusalem, drawing Palestinian accusations that the plans could
undermine newly relaunched peace talks. Israeli police said two
Israeli Arabs were under arrest on suspicions they spied for the
Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas. Police detained Amir Makhoul, the
brother of a former member of Israel's parliament, on April 26 and
the other suspect on May 6.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 10, The Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) accepted Israel into
its ranks, capping a lengthy effort by the Jewish state to join the
exclusive club in the face of stiff opposition from the
Palestinians.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 11, Israeli Foreign
Minister Avigdor Lieberman accused nuclear power North Korea of
supplying Syria with weapons of mass destruction.
(AP, 5/11/10)
2010 May 11, Russia's Pres.
Medvedev said that Israeli-Arab tensions threaten to draw the Middle
East into a new catastrophe, as he added Moscow's weight to a
diplomatic push to ease antagonism between Israel and Syria. While
in Syria, Medvedev unnerved Israel by paying a visit to Khaled
Meshaal, the exiled leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
(AP, 5/11/10)(AP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 13, The Israeli
government asked the fishermen to stop fishing in the Sea of
Galilee. Officials said a decade of overfishing has left the aquatic
population of the biblical body of water in danger. The fishing ban
was approved by PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his Cabinet last month and
will be in effect for two years.
(AP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 13, A Palestinian
teenager (16) was found dead from a gunshot wound near his village
in the West Bank. Palestinians said he was likely shot by an Israeli
settler while throwing stones at cars.
(AP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 15, The Israeli army
gunfire killed farmer Fuad Abu Matar (75) and wounded another
Palestinian near northern Gaza's border with the Jewish state.
(AFP, 5/15/10)
2010 May 15, Moshe Greenberg
(81), an influential Bible scholar, died in Jerusalem. His work won
the first-ever Israel Prize for biblical studies (1994). His
definitive two-volume commentary on the Book of Ezekiel described,
among other things, how the prohibition of murder became an
unbreakable taboo with the Abrahamic religions because of the rise
of a belief in man's connection to God.
(AP, 5/17/10)
2010 May 16, Israel inaugurated
a huge new desalination facility on its Mediterranean seashore, with
a network of pipes beneath the beach reaching far into the ocean.
The $425 million Hadera plant is the world's largest using reverse
osmosis technology.
(AP, 5/16/10)
2010 May 18, An Israeli Defense
Ministry spokesman said Israel has fined Global CST, a local
security consulting firm, for negotiating a deal last year to
provide arms and military training to Guinea's military junta
without the state's prior approval. Global CST said it was not
fined, but was instead ordered to spend the money to tighten its
oversight procedures to avoid similar "errors" in the future.
(AP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 20, Israel released
Mohammed Abu Teir, a Hamas lawmaker. He was arrested nearly four
years ago following the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Gaza
militants in a deadly cross-border raid.
(AFP, 5/20/10)
2010 May 21, Two Palestinian
militants, Nader Abu Dakkar (17) and Hamdi Abu Hammad (17)
infiltrated Israel from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip but were killed
in a firefight with Israeli troops. The Israeli military launched
aerial raids overnight in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, following a
rocket attack the previous evening. No one was injured or killed in
the sorties.
(AP, 5/21/10)(AFP, 5/21/10)(AFP, 5/22/10)
2010 May 24, Israel's military
announced it plans to further ease restrictions on Palestinian
travel in the West Bank, delivering what appeared to be a first in a
series of gestures requested by the US as part of renewed peace
talks.
(AP, 5/24/10)
2010 May 24, Australia demanded
that Israel withdraw an embassy official from the country, saying
the Jewish state was behind fake Australian passports linked to the
killing of a Hamas operative.
(AP, 5/24/10)
2010 May 25, More than 500
Israeli academics have denounced the government decision banning
famed Jewish-American linguist Noam Chomsky from entering the West
Bank last week. Chomsky (81), an outspoken critic of Israel, was to
speak at a West Bank university last week when Israeli authorities
barred him from entering from neighboring Jordan. The Interior
Ministry later said the border agent had made a mistake and Chomsky
was welcome to return.
(AP, 5/25/10)
2010 May 25, Eight ships
carrying 10,000 tons of donated supplies and hundreds of
pro-Palestinian activists were making their way toward blockaded
Gaza, and a likely weekend showdown with the Israeli navy.
(AP, 5/25/10)
2010 May 26, Palestinian
hospital officials say 15 people were wounded in overnight Israeli
airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. The strikes came after the Israeli
military reported that Palestinian militants had blown up a donkey
cart filled with dynamite near the concrete wall that separates Gaza
from Israel and fired several mortar rounds into Israel. No Israelis
were injured.
(AP, 5/26/10)
2010 May 27, Israel indicted
two prominent activists from its Arab minority for allegedly spying
for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, deepening a case that has
raised tensions with the country's Arab minority.
(AP, 5/27/10)
2010 May 27, Israel said a
flotilla of activist aid boats bound for Gaza was a "cheap political
stunt" as it unveiled a port facility where it intends to divert the
boats and detain those on board.
(AFP, 5/27/10)
2010 May 27, Israel officially
joined the OECD club of rich economies. PM Benjamin Netanyahu
attended a ceremony at the Paris headquarters of the Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development as it welcomed Israel along
with Estonia, Slovenia and Chile to the 31-nation grouping.
(AFP, 5/27/10)
2010 May 28, The Israeli army
reopened a key highway to Palestinian traffic after the supreme
court ordered the lifting of a 10-year-old ban which had turned
Route 443 into an Israelis-only road.
(AFP, 5/28/10)
2010 May 28, In a breakthrough
after a decade of deadlock, the Non-Proliferation Treaty's 189
nations proposed new steps towards nuclear disarmament and making
the Middle East free of atomic weapons. The next day Israel
condemned the NPT plan.
(AFP, 5/29/10)(SSFC, 5/30/10, p.A5)
2010 May 29, Palestinian
security officials and witnesses said Israeli warplanes launched six
overnight raids on the Islamist-run Gaza Strip, adding that nobody
was wounded in the attacks. An Israeli military spokesman said only
that two air raids had taken place, and that they targeted a tunnel
in the south linking Gaza to Israel and a weapons workshop in the
north.
(AP, 5/29/10)
2010 May 30, Hundreds of
pro-Palestinian activists set sail for the Gaza Strip from
international waters off the coast of Cyprus, edging closer to an
expected naval showdown with Israeli gunships determined to stop
them.
(AP, 5/30/10)
2010 May 31, Israeli naval
commandos stormed a flotilla of ships carrying aid and hundreds of
pro-Palestinian activists to the blockaded Gaza Strip, killing 9
passengers in a predawn raid that set off worldwide condemnation and
a diplomatic crisis. At least 4 of the 9 dead were Turkish. A
massive protest broke out in Turkey, Israel's longtime Muslim ally,
which unofficially supported the mission. Ankara announced it would
recall its ambassador and call off military exercises with the
Jewish state. The flotilla of three cargo ships and three passenger
ships carrying 10,000 tons of aid and 700 activists was carrying
items that Israel bars from reaching Gaza, like cement and other
building materials. Israeli police said 16 pro-Palestinian activists
from the flotilla were sent to jail following the deadly
confrontation. Turkey sent three planes to bring back some 20 Turks
wounded during clashes that broke out when Israeli commandos raided
the Turkish vessel.
(AP, 5/31/10)(AP, 6/1/10)
2010 Jun 1, Pro-Palestinian
activists sent another boat to challenge Israel's blockade of the
Gaza Strip. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ordered the opening of
the Rafah border crossing to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza
Strip.
(AP, 6/1/10)
2010 Jun 1, Iranian-backed
Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip said three of its members have been
killed in an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza. The Israeli
military confirmed it carried out an airstrike, and Gaza's chief
medical examiner also says there were three deaths. The fighters
were killed shortly after firing rockets into southern Israel.
Israeli authorities said the rockets landed in open areas and caused
no injuries.
(AP, 6/1/10)
2010 Jun 2, Israel was deported
the last of the nearly 700 foreign activists detained in a deadly
raid on an aid flotilla bound for Palestinians in the blockaded,
Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Israel came under renewed pressure at an
urgent session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, as
countries lined up to condemn its interception of a Gaza-bound
flotilla and urge an impartial probe.
(AP, 6/2/10)(AFP, 6/2/10)
2010 Jun 2, France's former top
anti-terrorism judge said the Turkish Islamic charity behind the
flotilla of aid ships that was raided by Israeli forces on its way
to Gaza had ties to terrorism networks, including a 1999 al-Qaida
plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport.
(AP, 6/2/10)
2010 Jun 2, UN chief Ban
Ki-moon demanded that Israel lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip
immediately in the wake of its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid
flotilla.
(AP, 6/3/10)
2010 Jun 3, Israel rejected
calls from the UN and others for an international investigation of
its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla but left the door open
to foreign involvement. The Foreign Press Association demanded that
Israel’s military stop using the captured material without
permission and identify the source of the video already released.
The material appeared Wednesday on the army's YouTube site labeled
as "captured."
(AP, 6/3/10)
2010 Jun 4, The Rachel Corrie
activist ship kept its course for a June 5 arrival in Gaza as world
anger simmered over Israel's deadly raid on an earlier
blockade-busting bid.
(AFP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 4, Turkey’s Deputy PM
Bulent Arinc said Turkey will reduce economic and defense ties with
Israel, but bilateral cooperation will not be entirely frozen after
the Gaza ship raid.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 5, Israeli forces
boarded the Rachel Corrie after it ignored orders not to head for
Gaza, but there was no repetition of the bloody violence that
erupted when commandos stormed an aid boat earlier in the week.
(AFP, 6/5/10)
2010 Jun 5, A Cairo court
upheld a ruling to strip Egyptian men married to Israeli women of
their citizenship in a case that has highlighted national sentiment
towards Israel.
(AFP, 6/5/10)
2010 Jun 6, In Israel Rabbi
Jacob Milgrom (87), considered by many as the world's foremost
authority on the biblical book of Leviticus, died. Milgrom wrote a
three-volume series on Leviticus, interpreting Jewish dietary and
purification rituals as well as the Bible's position on
homosexuality. He concluded the ban on homosexuality applies only to
Jewish men.
(AP, 6/8/10)
2010 Jun 7, The Israeli navy
killed 4 Palestinian militants in diver suits off the coast of Gaza
before dawn. Palestinian officials said Israel fired a missile at
Palestinian militants near the Gaza border, wounding one. The bodies
of two Palestinians killed by Israeli fire washed ashore a day
later, bringing to six the total number of alleged militants killed
by the navy raid.
(AP, 6/7/10)(AP, 6/8/10)
2010 Jun 7, Mordechai Eliyahu
(81), a former chief rabbi who encouraged Israelis to oppose removal
of settlements and blamed Reform Jewry for the Holocaust died in
Jerusalem.
(AFP, 6/7/10)
2010 Jun 7, An Egyptian
security official declared the blockade of Gaza a failure and said
his country will keep its border with the Palestinian territory open
indefinitely.
(AP, 6/7/10)
2010 Jun 7, The Iranian Red
Crescent said that it will send three aid ships to Gaza in the
latest bid to break the blockade imposed on the Palestinian
territory by Iran's archfoe Israel.
(AFP, 6/7/10)
2010 Jun 8, Israeli settlers
clashed with police after the demolition of two shacks built in the
West Bank settlement of Beit El.
(AP, 6/9/10)
2010 Jun 9, Israel eased a
three-year blockade of Gaza to allow in some previously banned food
items in an effort to defuse the worldwide furor over its deadly
raid on a Gaza-bound international flotilla. But critics said the
step falls far short of what is needed in the impoverished
Palestinian territory. Vandals defaced a mosque in northern Israel,
a day after Israeli troops demolished unauthorized construction in a
West Bank settlement.
(AP, 6/9/10)
2010 Jun 11, Israeli police
said an unidentified Palestinian man was shot dead after he struck
two Israeli police officers with his car in east Jerusalem.
(AP, 6/11/10)
2010 Jun 12, Germany’s federal
prosecutor's office said that Polish authorities have arrested an
alleged Mossad spy from Israel wanted in connection with the slaying
of a Hamas agent in Dubai. A man using the name of Uri Brodsky was
arrested in early June upon his arrival in Poland because of a
European arrest warrant issued by Germany and Germany is now seeking
his extradition.
(AP, 6/12/10)
2010 Jun 14, The Israeli
Cabinet approved an investigation into the deadly raid on a
Gaza-bound flotilla in an effort to counter international criticism
as the EU pressed Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza, deeming it
"unacceptable." Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a police vehicle
in the West Bank, killing an Israeli police officer and wounding two
others. On July 19 the Shin Bet security service said five
Palestinians, accused of being members of a Hamas cell, have been
arrested for killing the Israeli policeman.
(AP, 6/14/10)(AP, 7/19/10)
2010 Jun 14, Iran’s state radio
said Iran is sending aid ships to blockaded Gaza, a move likely to
be considered provocative by Israel which accuses Tehran of arming
Hamas, the Palestinian enclave's Islamist rulers.
(Reuters, 6/14/10)
2010 Jun 15, Ireland's
government called on Israel to withdraw a staffer at its Dublin
embassy over the use of fake passports in the January assassination
of a Hamas commander in Dubai.
(Reuters, 6/15/10)
2010 Jun 16, Israeli officials
they will significantly ease its bruising land blockade of the Gaza
Strip, in an effort to blunt the widespread international criticism
that has followed a deadly Israeli commando raid on a
blockade-busting flotilla. Israeli troops shot and killed a drug
smuggler on the Egyptian border. Egypt said he was among a group of
seven armed men trying to bring drugs into Israel.
(AP, 6/16/10)
2010 Jun 17, In Israel tens of
thousands of black-clad ultra-Orthodox Jews staged mass
demonstrations to protest a Supreme Court ruling forcing the
integration of a religious girls' school.
(AP, 6/17/10)
2010 Jun 17, Israel agreed to
ease its three-year-old land blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip,
hoping to quell international outrage over its deadly raid on a
flotilla bound for the Palestinian territory.
(AP, 6/17/10)
2010 Jun 20, The Israeli
government approved the construction of a massive new water
desalination plant to help the arid country deal with a severe
shortage.
(AFP, 6/20/10)
2010 Jun 21, Lebanese
authorities granted permission for a blockade-busting ship with
activists and aid on board to sail first to the Mediterranean
island of Cyprus.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 22, Israel's defense
minister criticized the approval by a Jerusalem planning body of a
plan to raze 22 Palestinian homes in the disputed eastern part of
the city to make room for an Israeli tourist center, saying it
lacked "common sense" and "a sense of timing."
(AP, 6/22/10)
2010 Jun 22, Israel launched a
spy satellite called "Ofek 9" increasing Israel's capacity to keep
an eye on enemies like Iran.
(AP, 6/22/10)
2010 Jun 22, Israeli
archaeologists uncovered the heaviest and most valuable gold coin
ever found in Israel. The 2,200-year-old coin weighs an ounce (28
grams) and was found at the Tel Kedesh site near the Lebanon border.
(AP, 8/11/10)
2010 Jun 23, Israeli troops
overnight arrested four Palestinians in the occupied West Bank,
among them Shadi Amwasi (30), a former intelligence officer.
(AFP, 6/23/10)
2010 Jun 23, The Swedish Dock
Workers Union launched a week-long blockade of cargo to and from
Israel to protest the Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla last
month.
(AFP, 6/23/10)
2010 Jun 24, Noorsat, the
operator which handles the broadcasting of Al-Aqsa TV to parts of
Europe and throughout the Middle East, shut down the broadcasts of
Al-Aqsa TV, a Gaza-based television station accused of inciting
hatred of Jews and Israel.
(AFP, 6/25/10)
2010 Jun 25, Israeli warplanes
raided the Gaza Strip overnight killing a Palestinian and wounding
another.
(AFP, 6/25/10)
2010 Jun 26, Egyptian security
officials said that Israeli soldiers shot dead a suspected Egyptian
drug smuggler after he illegally crossed the border with the Jewish
state.
(AFP, 6/26/10)
2010 Jun 27, In Israel Admiral
Mike Mullen, the top US military officer, held talks in Tel Aviv
with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and other members of the military's
top brass. Mullen's meetings focused on Iran's nuclear program and
the situation in Syria and Lebanon.
(AFP, 6/27/10)
2010 Jun 28, Israel's internal
security service said 7 Israeli Arabs inspired by al-Qaida have been
indicted in the killing of an Israeli cab driver and other attacks
on Jews and Christians.
(AP, 6/28/10)
2010 Jun 30, The Israeli army
said an Israeli soldier and several civilians have been arrested for
allegedly passing information to the Lebanese militia Hezbollah and
smuggling drugs across the border.
(AFP, 6/30/10)
2010 Jul 3, In Syria, Mohammed
Oudeh (73), the key planner of the 1972 Munich Olympics attack that
killed 11 Israeli athletes, died.
(AP, 7/3/10)
2010 Jul 5, Israel dropped its
long-standing restrictions on allowing consumer goods into the Gaza
Strip but retained limits on desperately needed construction
materials. Thousands of marchers brought the cultural and financial
capital to a standstill, urging the government to do whatever it
takes to win freedom for a soldier captured four years ago by Gaza
militants. Near Israel's border with Gaza, thousands more gathered
for a concert led by a world-famous conductor to press Hamas to let
the Red Cross visit the soldier for the first time.
(AP, 7/5/10)(AP, 7/6/10)
2010 Jul 6, Pres. Obama met
with Israel’s PM Netanyahu, who was accorded all the trappings of a
visiting head of state. Obama and Netanyahu dismissed talk of a rift
as wildly unfounded, and Netanyahu pledged concrete, "very robust"
steps to revive sluggish Mideast peace efforts with the
Palestinians. One of the main outcomes of the summit was the US push
for a shift to direct talks with Palestinians.
(AP, 7/6/10)(AFP, 7/7/10)
2010 Jul 7, Israel said that
its moves to ease its blockade on Gaza do not include relaxing
regulations on Palestinians looking to travel out of the enclave.
Israel's military released maps and aerial photographs showing what
it described as a network of Hezbollah weapons depots and command
centers inside villages in south Lebanon, near the Israeli border.
(AFP, 7/7/10)(AP, 7/7/10)
2010 Jul 8, In Israel police
arrested overnight a pair of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men suspected of
trying to smuggle $1 million of pure cocaine into Israel from
Brazil. More than 15,000 Israelis marched into Jerusalem and rallied
at a park downtown for the government to conclude a deal for the
release of a captive soldier held by Palestinian militants.
(AP, 7/8/10)(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 9, Libyan organizers
said a charity headed by Saif Al-Islam Kadhafi, the second son of
Libyan leader Moamar Kadhafi, is sending an aid boat from Greece to
Gaza to break the Israeli "siege." Organizers of the initiative had
earlier said the 25-year-old ship, owned by Piraeus-based ACA
Shipping Corporation, was called Hope. The ship set sail from Greece
on July 10 and headed for Egypt.
(AFP, 7/9/10)(AFP, 7/10/10)
2010 Jul 12, Israeli
archaeologists said a newly discovered clay fragment from the 14th
century BC is the oldest example of writing ever found in
antiquity-rich Jerusalem. Dig director Eilat Mazar of Hebrew
University said the 2-centimeter-long fragment bears an ancient form
of writing known as Akkadian wedge script.
(AP, 7/12/10)
2010 Jul 13, Israeli bulldozers
destroyed six buildings, including at least three homes, in
contested east Jerusalem, resuming the demolition of Palestinian
property after a halt aimed at encouraging peace talks.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 13, An Israeli
military vessel confronted a Libyan aid ship trying to breach
Israel's three-year-old Gaza blockade and ordered it to divert to an
Egyptian port.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 12, A group of 91
Israelis, wounded by Hezbollah rockets during the 2006 war, sued the
Arab news network Al-Jazeera for $1.2 billion in a New York court
for allegedly aiding the Lebanese guerrillas. The suit claimed the
Qatar-based news network intentionally violated Israel's military
censorship regulations and reported the precise locations of rocket
strikes in Israel in live broadcasts during the monthlong 2006 war.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 14, A ship sent by a
Libyan charity to break Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip
changed course in the Mediterranean Sea and docked at an Egyptian
port after agreeing to deliver its cargo of aid through Egyptian
territory.
(AP, 7/14/10)(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 15, An Israeli
lieutenant colonel and one of his soldiers were convicted in a 2008
shooting of a bound and blindfolded Palestinian demonstrator. Video
taken by a local resident showed the soldier firing a rubber-coated
bullet from close range at the feet of the Palestinian man, whose
hands were tied behind his back.
(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 15, Lebanon arrested a
third person in a widening probe into a suspected network of Israeli
spies employed in the country's telecom sector.
(AFP, 7/16/10)
2010 Jul 19, Israeli forces
demolished a cluster of tents and shacks belonging to Palestinians
in the northern West Bank.
(AP, 7/19/10)
2010 Jul 20, Israel canceled a
warning to its people to avoid traveling to Turkey, citing an end to
stormy protests over Israel's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla.
(AP, 7/20/10)
2010 Jul 21, Israel said it
will restrict its use of white phosphorus munitions and seek to
limit civilian casualties in future wars, in a report to the UN
secretary general released this week. Israeli fire killed two
Palestinians and wounded 10 in the northern Gaza Strip.
(AFP, 7/21/10)
2010 Jul 21, The leaders of
Egypt and Turkey met in Cairo to discuss stuttering international
efforts to coax Israeli and Palestinian leaders back to the
negotiating table.
(AFP, 7/21/10)
2010 Jul 22, Israeli troops
shot and killed a Palestinian man entering a Jewish settlement in
the West Bank, drawing a Palestinian accusation that soldiers are
too quick to open fire.
(AP, 7/23/10)
2010 Jul 25, An Israeli
military spokesman said Gaza-based militants fired four rockets into
southern Israel over the weekend. None of them caused any casualties
or damage.
(AFP, 7/25/10)
2010 Jul 26, In central Romania
an Israeli helicopter crashed with no survivors among the six
Israeli and one Romanian soldiers on board.
(AP, 7/27/10)
2010 Jul 29, Thousands of
Israelis marched calmly in Jerusalem's longest gay pride parade
despite opposition from anti-gay demonstrators.
(AP, 7/29/10)
2010 Jul 29, Qatar's PM Sheik
Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani said the Arab nations have endorsed direct
Palestinian talks with the Israelis but left the timing to the
Palestinians themselves.
(AP, 7/29/10)
2010 Jul 30, Gaza militants
fired a rocket into the Israeli city of Ashkelon, a rare strike in a
period of relative quiet.
(AP, 7/30/10)
2010 Jul 30, A UN panel of
experts called on Israel to fall in line with international norms on
civil rights and to take action against targeted killings, torture
and impunity for security forces.
(AP, 7/30/10)
2010 Jul 31, Israeli warplanes
fired missiles killing Issa Batran (42), a senior commander of the
Hamas military wing, and wounding 11 people in five targets hit
across Gaza overnight. Hamas said 8 of its supporters and 3
civilians were also wounded in the overnight airstrikes and vowed
revenge.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Aug 1, Israel approved new
residency criteria that could result in the deportations of hundreds
of children of migrant workers.
(AP, 8/1/10)
2010 Aug 2, A string of
rockets was fired toward the Israeli resort city Eilat, and one hit
in neighboring Jordan, killing one person and wounding four. On Aug
3 Jordan said it has evidence that the rocket attack originated from
neighboring Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. After days of denials an
Egyptian official said the deadly rocket attacks were carried out by
the militant Palestinian Hamas group operating from Egypt.
(AP, 8/2/10)(AP, 8/3/10)(AP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 2, UN chief Ban
Ki-moon announced a four-member panel, including an Israeli and a
Turk, to probe Israel's deadly raid in May on a Gaza-bound aid
flotilla.
(AP, 8/2/10)
2010 Aug 3, Lebanese and
Israeli troops exchanged fire on the border in the most serious
clashes since a fierce war four years ago. 3 Lebanese nationals, two
soldiers and a journalist, and an Israeli soldier were killed in the
shootout which saw both sides threatening retaliation if the
shooting recurred. Israeli troops returned the next day to the site
of the shootout and cut down a number of trees growing along the
border, completing a task which had set off the confrontation.
(AP, 8/3/10)(AFP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 3, Israeli municipal
officials confirmed the approval for the building of 40 apartments
in a Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem's disputed eastern sector.
(AP, 8/3/10)
2010 Aug 4, Israeli soldiers
killed a Gaza Strip militant was killed. The Israeli military said
soldiers saw a group of men approach Israel's border fence with Gaza
and launched an airstrike against them before dawn. 3 other
militants were wounded in the attack.
(AP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 5, Israel’s Shin Bet
security service reported that two Druse Arabs living in the Golan
Heights and an Arab citizen of Israel were charged with passing
information to the enemy and plotting to kidnap a Syrian pilot who
had defected to Israel.
(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 6, In southern Israel
7 members of one family, including a pregnant woman and two
children, were killed when the minibus they were traveling in
ignored traffic signals and crossed the tracks right into the path
of a speeding train near the town of Kiryat Gat.
(AP, 8/6/10)
2010 Aug 8, Arab League chief
Amr Moussa signed a letter asking for backing of a resolution urging
Washington and other powers to end support of Israel's nuclear
secrecy and to push the Jewish state to allow international
inspections of its program. Arab nations planned submit the request
to the September assembly of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
(AP, 8/15/10)
2010 Aug 9, Israeli
photographer Rafael Rafram Chaddad, jailed by Libya for five months,
returned home after an Austrian tycoon brokered a deal for his
freedom that involved the delivery of 20 prefabricated homes from a
Libyan charity to the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/9/10)
2010 Aug 15, Israel's military
said Hezbollah is moving fighters and weapons into the villages of
south Lebanon, building up a secret network of arms warehouses,
bunkers and command posts in preparation for war.
(AP, 8/15/10)
2010 Aug 16, Israeli troops
killed a Palestinian militant who the military said was planting a
bomb along the border.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 17, In Israel a
Palestinian who broke into the Turkish Embassy trying to take
hostages and demanding asylum was turned over to Israeli
authorities. The next day his lawyer claimed that Nadim Injaz was a
former Israeli informer who was seeking political asylum. 2 Israeli
soldiers were lightly wounded by a mortar shell fired from Gaza.
Later in the day Israeli warplanes struck targets including Hamas
training facilities in five locations in Gaza. No one was hurt.
(AP, 8/17/10)(AP, 8/18/10)(AFP, 8/18/10)
2010 Aug 21, Israel and
the Palestinians accepted a US call to restart direct peace talks
but politicians on both sides have warned of the pitfalls ahead,
saying talks will be stillborn unless Israel halts building in West
Bank settlements. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak accepted an
invitation to attend the start of direct peace talks.
(AFP, 8/21/10)
2010 Aug 28, An Egyptian
security official said police in the Sinai desert have discovered
two large caches of weapons that were to be smuggled to Gaza. The
find included anti-aircraft weaponry.
(AP, 8/28/10)
2010 Aug 31, A West Bank gunman
opened fire on a passing vehicle in Hebron, killing all four Israeli
passengers inside, two men and two women from settlements in the
area. The dead included a married couple with five children.
(AP, 9/1/10)
2010 Aug, Yukiya Amano, chief
of the International Atomic Energy Agency, "invited Israel to
consider to accede" signing up to the nuclear Nonproliferation
Treaty, during a low-key visit to the country.
(AP, 9/3/10)
2010 Sep 1, Palestinian
security forces arrested more than 250 Hamas members in an overnight
sweep throughout the West Bank after the Islamic militant group
claimed responsibility for shooting dead four Israelis on the eve of
new Mideast peace talks.
(AP, 9/1/10)
2010 Sep 2, Israeli and
Palestinian leaders met in Washington and cleared the first hurdle
in what promises to be difficult negotiations, vowing to try to
settle core differences within a year and meet every two weeks.
Neither leader addressed the sensitive question of whether Israel
would extend a moratorium on settlement building in the West Bank
due to expire on September 26. The next round of talks was set for
September 14-15 in Egypt.
(AFP, 9/3/10)
2010 Sep 4, Two Palestinians
were killed and another three were wounded in Israeli air strikes
carried out after a rocket attack from Gaza. This was the first
exchange of fire since the relaunch of Middle East peace talks last
week. Two raids targeted smuggling tunnels along the border with
Egypt, causing a tunnel to collapse on the two men, and a third
struck a former base used by the militant Hamas movement.
(AFP, 9/5/10)
2010 Sep 8, Israelis ushered in
the Jewish new year, or Rosh Hashana, at sundown with a widespread
sense of pessimism that a new round of US-sponsored Mideast talks
can achieve peace.
(AP, 9/9/10)
2010 Sep 8, Israel Tal (86), a
decorated war hero and the creator of Israel's renowned "Merkava"
tank, died in the Israeli town of Rehovot. In the 1970s Tal oversaw
the design of the Merkava tank (Hebrew for "chariot") which is
widely seen as one of the best of its time.
(AP, 9/9/10)
2010 Sep 10, Militants in Gaza
fired a projectile into southern Israel just hours after Israeli
warplanes carried out a series of raids across the coastal strip.
Overnight, two Gazans in the Hamas security forces were wounded in
Gaza City when Israel launched a series of retaliatory air strikes
after an earlier rocket attack.
(AFP, 9/10/10)
2010 Sep 12, Israeli PM
Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his demand for the Palestinians to
recognize Israel as a Jewish state, in remarks ahead of a second
round of US-backed peace talks. A rocket fired by Palestinian
militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip struck Israel without causing
any casualties or damage. A burst of Israeli tank fire killed three
civilians in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun, a man (91), his
grandson (17) and another man (20). A senior commander on Sep
14 said the killing was a mistake.
(AFP, 9/12/10)(AFP, 9/14/10)
2010 Sep 13, Officials said
Israel will begin deporting families of illegal migrants in coming
weeks as an emotional debate rages over the ballooning numbers of
foreign workers that some fear could threaten the country's Jewish
identity.
(AP, 9/13/10)
2010 Sep 13, Staff at Israel's
Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv went on strike,
grounding all flights and leaving arriving passengers without their
luggage.
(AP, 9/13/10)
2010 Sep 14, Three Palestinians
were wounded by Israeli tank fire in a clash along the volatile Gaza
border. On Sep 25 Hamas reported that one died as the result of his
wounds.
(AFP, 9/25/10)
2010 Sep 15, Israeli and
Palestinian leaders held peace talks in Jerusalem with US Secretary
of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. A Qassam rocket and six mortar
rounds hit southern Israel. Israeli jets bombed smuggling targets
along the Gaza-Egypt border. Hamas officials said one person was
killed and four wounded.
(AP, 9/15/10)(AFP, 9/15/10)
2010 Sep 16, Israel's Supreme
Court ordered the Jerusalem city government to provide more than
$120,000 in funding for a prominent gay community center. It was
reported that Israeli government offices, that provide a wide array
of public services, are pulling the plug on online payments on the
Jewish Sabbath and holidays, creating a potential new source of
friction between the religious and secular in the Jewish state.
(AP, 9/16/10)
2010 Sep 17, Israel reiterated
its refusal to extend curbs on settlement building that expire this
month, despite US pressure and Palestinian threats to walk out of
peace talks. Israeli troops killed Abu Shilbaya (37), a Hamas
militant and local leader of its armed wing, during a raid in the
northern West Bank town of Tulkarm. Some 3,000 Hamas loyalists
gathered to march in Abu Shilbaya's funeral.
(AFP, 9/17/10)(AP, 9/17/10)
2010 Sep 17, Israel came to a
virtual standstill at sundown as Jews began observing the start of
the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, the 25 hours of fasting and
contemplation known as Yom Kippur.
(AP, 9/17/10)
2010 Sep 21, Israel’s nuclear
chief Shaul Chorev said It is against Israel's interests to join a
global anti-nuclear arms treaty and the UN atomic watchdog is
overstepping its mandate in demanding it to do so.
(AFP, 9/21/10)
2010 Sep 22, An Israeli guard
shot dead a Palestinian after rocks were thrown at his car, setting
off clashes with police. Crowds of Palestinian youths violently
rampaged in a tense neighborhood in annexed Arab east Jerusalem
following the shooting death of a local man. This clouded fragile
peace efforts even as the Palestinian president signaled he may back
away from threats to quit negotiations if Israel resumes West Bank
settlement construction.
(AFP, 9/22/10)(AP, 9/22/10)
2010 Sep 23, The Palestinian
militant Hamas group said its military court has convicted and
sentenced Omar Kawari to death by a firing squad. The Gaza man was
convicted on charges of spying for Israel.
(AP, 9/23/10)
2010 Sep 24, The UN atomic
watchdog threw out an Arab-backed resolution urging Israel to accede
to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The International Atomic
Energy Agency, on the last day of its annual general conference,
voted against the resolution, with 51 votes against, 46 votes for
and 23 abstentions.
(AFP, 9/24/10)
2010 Sep 25, In New York US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Palestinian president Mahmud
Abbas met for a second day of talks, after failing to break the
deadlock between Israelis and Palestinians. The talks were
overshadowed by the end of an Israeli moratorium on settlement
building.
(AFP, 9/25/10)
2010 Sep 25, Hamas, in a
statement from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said "Mahmud
al-Ahmarine (21) has died as the result of wounds inflicted by an
Israeli tank on September 14 east of Gaza City."
(AGFP, 9/25/10)
2010 Sep 26, With a midnight
deadline looming, Israel's PM Netanyahu called on West Bank settlers
to "show restraint" following the end of a government-ordered
construction slowdown. Settler leaders rejected Netanyahu's call,
however, and vowed to proceed with a symbolic groundbreaking
ceremony later in the day at Revava, a settlement deep inside the
West Bank, marking the end of the construction restrictions.
(AP, 9/26/10)
2010 Sep 26, A boat carrying
Jewish activists from Israel, Europe and the US set sail from Cyprus
bound for Gaza, in a bid to run Israel's blockade of the Palestinian
territory.
(AFP, 9/27/10)
2010 Sep 27, Settlement
building resumed across the West Bank just hours after a 10-month
freeze expired, but Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held back on
a threat to quit peace talks with Israel over the move. Abbas said
he would wait at least a week before deciding whether to quit
Mideast peace talks, giving US mediators precious time to broker a
compromise.
(AFP, 9/27/10)
2010 Sep 28, Israeli naval
forces intercepted a catamaran carrying nine Jewish activists toward
the Gaza Strip, encountering no resistance as they took control of
the sailboat and escorted it to shore.
(AP, 9/28/10)
2010 Sep 28, Irish Nobel
laureate and peace activist Mairead Maguire (66) was detained after
arriving in Israel because she had been deported in June for trying
to reach Gaza by boat in defiance of an Israeli naval blockade.
Airport officials told her she would not be allowed in to Israel for
10 years. Her appeal on Oct 1 was rejected. She was deported on Oct
5.
(AP, 10/1/10)(AP, 10/5/10)
2010 Sep 30, The
Arabic-language Al-Ittihad daily quoted Dubai police chief Dahi
Khalfan as saying he had "received two death threats based on the
case of Hamas militant" Mahmud al-Mabhuh's assassination in a Dubai
hotel on January 20.
(AFP, 9/30/10)
2010 Sep 30, In Sweden
activists from Nepal, Nigeria, Brazil and Israel were named the
winners of this year's Right Livelihood Award, also known as the
"alternative Nobel," for work that included fighting to save the
Amazon rain forest and bringing health care to Palestinians cut off
from services. The recipients included Nigeria's Nnimmo Bassey (42),
Catholic Bishop Erwin Kraeutler (71) of Brazil, Shrikrishna Upadhyay
(65) of Nepal, and the organization Physicians for Human Rights
Israel.
(AP, 9/30/10)
2010 Oct 2, Senior Palestinian
politicians backed President Mahmoud Abbas' demand to link peace
talks to restrictions on Israeli settlement building, delivering a
new setback to bogged down US efforts to salvage the negotiations.
(AP, 10/2/10)
2010 Oct 3, An Israeli
military court convicted two soldiers of using a Palestinian child
as a human shield by forcing him to check for booby traps on Jan 15,
2009, during the 2008-2009 Gaza war. Israeli police shot and killed
Izzedine Qawasmeh (35), a father of five and a construction worker
from the West Bank village of Sair, after he used a rope to scale a
towering wall meant to keep Palestinians from sneaking into Israel.
On Nov 21 the two soldiers received suspended sentences and
demotions.
(AFP, 10/3/10)(AP, 10/3/10)(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Oct 3, Egypt backed the
Palestinians' refusal to negotiate with Israel as long as it
continues to build West Bank settlements, even as officials urged
for continued diplomacy to salvage the month-old talks.
(AP, 10/3/10)
2010 Oct 4, Arsonists torched a
mosque in a Palestinian village in the West Bank, scrawling
"revenge" on a wall in Hebrew and charring copies of the Muslim holy
book in a blaze that threatened to stoke new tensions over
deadlocked Mideast peacemaking.
(AP, 10/4/10)
2010 Oct 7, Israel signed a
contract with the United States to buy 20 F-35 fighter jets after
Washington offered "incentives" for the Jewish state to help
sputtering peace talks.
(AFP, 10/8/10)
2010 Oct 7, A top Palestinian
negotiator says the Palestinians have accepted a US proposal calling
on Israel to extend a West Bank settlement slowdown for another two
months.
(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 8, Israeli troops
killed two senior Hamas militants in an early-morning raid in the
West Bank city of Hebron, raising tensions as peace talks remain
stuck over Israeli settlement building. The two gunmen were wanted
in connection with the killing of four Israelis near Hebron on Aug.
31. An incident captured on film and widely broadcast showed two
masked boys standing in the road among a group throwing stones when
a car driven by David Beeri, the local leader of Elad, drove round
the corner and ploughed into them. One boy was thrown into the air
and bounced off the car's windscreen before crashing to the ground.
The car stopped briefly before driving off.
(AP, 10/8/10)(AFP, 10/11/10)
2010 Oct 9, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas urged Arab leaders to press the United
States to recognize a unilateral declaration of statehood if peace
talks with Israel collapse. Extremist Jews ripped off branches and
cut the roots of Palestinian olive trees in the West Bank village of
Burin, as the yearly 45-day harvest of the important crop began.
(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 10, Israel's Cabinet
approved a bill that would require new citizens to pledge a loyalty
oath to a "Jewish and democratic" state, language that triggered
charges of racism from Arab lawmakers who see it as undermining the
rights of the country's Arab minority.
(AP, 10/10/10)
2010 Oct 11, The Israeli
government endorsed a bill requiring a national referendum be held
before any withdrawal from occupied east Jerusalem or the Golan
Heights. PM Netanyahu spelled out recognition of Israel as a Jewish
state as his price for a renewal of a ban on construction in the
occupied West Bank. The offer was rejected out of hand by the
Palestinians, who said it had "nothing to do with the peace
process."
(AFP, 10/11/10)(AFP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 13, The Palestinians
called on the US administration and Israel to define Israel's
borders after Washington invited proposals to get peace talks back
on track.
(AFP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 15, Israel signed off
on the construction of 238 homes in Jewish neighborhoods in east
Jerusalem, bringing an end to an unofficial building freeze in the
traditionally Arab sector of the city and further complicating peace
talks stuck over the broader fate of West Bank settlements. A report
released by aid organization Oxfam said attacks and other acts of
harassment by Jewish settlers against Palestinian olive farmers "are
common and often increase during the time of the harvest." The
Israeli army says it does all it can to protect Palestinian olive
growers. So far this year there have been no casualties at least.
But neither have the police made any arrests.
(AP, 10/15/10)(AFP, 10/16/10)
2010 Oct 15, Israeli police
arrested Staten Island resident Eric Bellucci (30), a US citizen who
escaped to Israel after allegedly stabbing his parents to death in
their New York home earlier this week. Bellucci's parents, Arthur
(61) and Marian (56), were found dead the night of Oct 13 in their
Staten Island home.
(AP, 10/15/10)(AP, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 17, Two Palestinians
were killed and a third wounded in a pre-dawn Israeli air strike
north of Gaza City. The Israeli military said the air force had
struck a "squad of terror operatives who were preparing to fire
rockets from the northern Gaza Strip into Israel."
(AFP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 20, Palestinians said
Jewish settlers set fire to a girls school near the northern city of
Nablus. A powerful explosion ripped through a Hamas military
compound in the Gaza Strip, wounding more than a dozen people,
including women and children.
(AP, 10/20/10)
2010 Oct 21, In Israel the
Elders, a group of retired world figures, visited a flashpoint east
Jerusalem neighborhood, vowing to help Palestinian residents whose
homes are facing demolition.
(AFP, 10/21/10)
2010 Oct 25, A senior Israeli
settler official said that work has begun on up to 600 new homes in
West Bank settlements since Israel lifted its curb on such
construction Sep 26. Palestinian Pres. Mahmoud Abbas has said he
will only resume talks once building restrictions are reimposed,
arguing there is no point negotiating while Israel continues to
build on land the Palestinians want for a future state.
(AP, 10/25/10)
2010 Oct 26, The UN General
Assembly voted 187-2 to end US sanctions against Cuba. Only the US
and Israel voted in favor.
(SFC, 10/27/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 27, Jewish settlers
said Israel's defense minister is holding up construction on 4,300
apartments that could be built immediately in the West Bank. Dozens
of Jewish extremists hoisting Israeli flags defiantly marched
through the Arab-Israeli town of Umm el-Fahm, chanting "death to
terrorists" and touching off clashes between rock-hurling residents
and police who quelled them with tear gas. An Israeli court
convicted Amir Makhoul, a prominent Arab-Israeli activist, of spying
for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in a plea bargain that
will send him to prison for up to 10 years.
(AP, 10/27/10)
2010 Oct 28, Israeli officials
said that the military-grade armaments seized at a shipping terminal
in Nigeria came from Iran and were bound for the Hamas-controlled
Gaza Strip. On Oct 30 an international shipping company said the
weapons cache originally came from Iran. Last week, the Iranian
shipper filed a request for the containers to be picked up again and
this time shipped to the West African nation of Gambia. On Feb 1,
2011, Azim Aghajani of Iran and his alleged accomplice, Nigerian
national Usman Abbas Jega, both maintained their innocence against
three charges over the shipment.
(AP, 10/28/10)(AP, 10/30/10)(AP, 2/1/11)
2010 Oct 28, Ehud Netzer (76),
leading Israeli archaeologist, died of injuries suffered in a fall
at an excavation at the King Herod-era site near Bethlehem.
(AP, 10/29/10)
2010 Oct 29, An Egyptian
security official said a man from Sudan's Darfur region was shot
dead trying to sneak across the border into Israel. 2 others were
taken into custody as smugglers and others scattered into the
desert.
(AP, 10/30/10)
2010 Nov 2, Israel's military
intelligence chief said Iran possesses enough enriched uranium to
build one nuclear bomb and soon will have enough to produce a
second.
(AP, 11/3/10)
2010 Nov 3, Israel suspended a
special strategic dialogue with London as long as Israeli officials
visiting Britain face possible arrest for suspected war crimes
against Palestinians. The two countries announced the dialogue two
years ago to boost relations. But Israel put them on hold at the
beginning of the year after former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni
canceled a trip to London for fear of arrest.
(AP, 11/3/10)
2010 Nov 3, A car exploded
outside the police headquarters of Gaza's Hamas rulers, killing a
Palestinian militant (27) and wounding a second man. Ihab Ghussein,
spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry. The Israeli
military said the target was Mohammed Namnam (25) of the Army of
Islam group.
(AP, 11/3/10)
2010 Nov 4, In Israel the
global diamond industry's oversight body upheld restrictions
preventing Zimbabwe from exporting its vast stockpile of diamonds
from a large mine after efforts to reach a compromise ended in
deadlock. Extending the approval to all the fields dominated this
week's Kimberley Process plenary meeting in Jerusalem, where the
unanimous agreement of members is required to certify the trade of
diamonds. Israel is this year's sponsor of the conference.
(AP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 4, British Foreign
Secretary William Hague pledged that Britain would act fast to amend
a law that puts visiting Israeli officials at risk of arrest for
alleged war crimes.
(AFP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 6, Palestinian
militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket into southern Israel on
Saturday but caused no casualties or damage.
(AP, 11/6/10)
2010 Nov 7, Israeli court
documents were published showing the government had sold or leased
property in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem to Israeli settlers at
exceptionally low prices, helping them cement a Jewish presence
there. Israeli police demolished an illegally built mosque in the
impoverished Arab city of Rahat, touching off rock-throwing protests
by residents and fueling new grievances for the country's Arab
minority against the government.
(AP, 11/7/10)
2010 Nov 8, Israel said it is
moving ahead with plans to build 1,300 new apartments in disputed
east Jerusalem. The new $11 million performing arts center opened in
Ariel, an Israeli enclave of 19,000 people. In August, more than 60
Israeli actors and playwrights signed a letter saying they would not
perform in the new cultural center.
(AP, 11/8/10)
2010 Nov 10, Israeli forces
arrested senior Hamas MP Mahmud al-Ramahi at his home in the West
Bank city of Ramallah overnight. Omar Abdul Razek, a senior Hamas
official in the West Bank, said Ramahi's arrest appeared to be an
attempt by Israel to undermine the reconciliation talks between
Hamas and the Fatah party that had just begun in Damascus.
(AFP, 11/10/10)
2010 Nov 11, Israeli police and
stone-throwing youths clashed for a third day running in the Arab
neighborhood of Issawiya in occupied east Jerusalem.
(AFP, 11/11/10)
2010 Nov 14, Israel’s Cabinet
approved a proposal to allow 8,000 Ethiopians of Jewish descent to
move to the Jewish state. The would-be immigrants are the last
recognized members of the Falashmura, a community whose ancestors
converted from Judaism to Christianity about 100 years ago.
(AP, 11/14/10)
2010 Nov 17, Israel approved
the withdrawal of troops from the northern half of a village that
straddles the border with Lebanon, a step that would end its
four-year presence in the area.
(AFP, 11/17/10)
2010 Nov 17, An Israeli
airstrike killed two senior members of the Army of Islam. An Israeli
statement said the men targeted were "part of a terror cell that
planned to kidnap and kill Israelis" in the Sinai peninsula.
(AP, 11/19/10)
2010 Nov 18, Southern Israel
received 2 mortar shells fired from the Gaza Strip. There were no
casualties or damage.
(AFP, 11/18/10)
2010 Nov 19, Israel's military
condemned the publication of names and photographs of 200 Israeli
soldiers on a website that called them "war criminals." It was put
up earlier this week by anonymous activists in Britain and hosted by
a US-based Web service, which took it down by today citing "breach
of terms." Militants in Gaza fired rockets at southern Israel,
causing no casualties. Retaliatory Israeli air strikes wounded at
least 6 Palestinians.
(AP, 11/19/10)(SFC, 11/20/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 20, Yair Klein, an
Israeli wanted in Colombia for training militias that killed
hundreds of people, returned home after he was released from a
Moscow jail. Klein has denied working with Colombia's cocaine
cartels and said he only instructed paramilitaries in defense
tactics.
(AP, 11/20/10)
2010 Nov 21, Palestinian
president Mahmud Abbas said that he will not return to the
negotiating table with Israel without a settlement freeze that
includes annexed Arab east Jerusalem. Thousands of young Jewish
settlers held a mass demonstration outside Israeli PM Benjamin
Netanyahu's offices in Jerusalem in protest at plans for a new ban
on settlement building.
(AFP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 21, In Israel 2
workers were killed and two others were in critical condition in a
Haifa hospital after inhaling poisonous material from an accidental
leak at the country's oil refinery.
(AP, 11/24/10)
2010 Nov 22, Israeli bulldozers
began laying the groundwork for construction of a barrier to seal
off part of the Jewish state's border with Egypt. Israel's
parliament passed a law calling for a national referendum ahead of
any withdrawal from annexed east Jerusalem or the Golan Heights, a
move that could derail future peace deals.
(AP, 11/22/10)(AFP, 11/23/10)
2010 Nov 28, Israel's Cabinet
voted to erect a massive detention facility to hold thousands of
Africans who have slipped illegally through the porous southern
border with Egypt, heating up a debate over how to handle their
mounting numbers.
(AP, 11/28/10)
2010 Nov 28, More than 250,000
classified US State Department documents were released by online
whistleblower WikiLeaks. Among the leaked memos was information that
Iranian Red Crescent ambulances were used to smuggle weapons to
Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group during its 2006 war with Israel.
Memos said the "IRC shipments of medical supplies served also to
facilitate weapons shipments." Documents also detailed concerns by
US officials in Baghdad about Iran’s influence on Iraq. Memos also
said King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had repeatedly urged the United
States to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear program to stop Tehran
from developing a nuclear weapon.
(AP, 11/28/10)
2010 Nov 29, Israel gave
preliminary approval for 130 new apartments in disputed east
Jerusalem, the area the Palestinians want as the capital of their
hoped-for state.
(AP, 11/29/10)
2010 Nov 30, An Israeli court
convicted Elior Chen, a self-proclaimed rabbi, of severely abusing
eight young children and instructing his followers to do the same.
He was found guilty of hitting the children with a hammer, binding
their limbs and burning body parts, among other acts. Chen was
arrested in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 2008 after fleeing Israel. He was
extradited to Israel last year. On Feb 28, 2011, an Israeli court
sentenced Chen to 24 years in prison.
(AP, 11/30/10)(AP, 2/28/11)
2010 Dec 2, In northern Israel
at least 41 people were killed in a massive forest fire. At least 37
of the dead were prison guards on board a bus, who had been trying
to evacuate prisoners from a facility in the forest.
(AP, 12/2/10)(AFP, 12/3/10)(SFC, 12/3/10, p.A4)
2010 Dec 3, Outgoing Brazilian
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced recognition of a
Palestinian state within the 1967 borders in a public letter
addressed to Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas. This was made public
by Brazil's foreign ministry.
(AP, 12/4/10)
2010 Dec 3, In Lebanon the
militant Hezbollah group said it discovered what it said was an
Israeli device on Hezbollah's private telecommunications network in
the southern village of Majdel Silim. The device was apparently
detonated remotely by the Israelis.
(AP, 12/4/10)
2010 Dec 3, Palestinian
president Mahmud Abbas threatened to dissolve the Palestinian
Authority if Israel does not stop building settlements on occupied
land.
(AFP, 12/4/10)
2010 Dec 4, Israel said it was
disappointed by Brazil's decision to recognize a Palestinian state
within the 1967 borders, saying it flew in the face of efforts to
negotiate a peace deal.
(AFP, 12/4/10)
2010 Dec 4, In northern Israel
a massive fire was still consuming swathes of land, with little sign
Israeli and foreign firefighters were winning the battle to contain
it.
(AFP, 12/4/10)
2010 Dec 5, An Israeli fire
department official said the huge forest fire in Israel's north is
under control. The fire burned half of one of Israel's largest
wooded areas over four days. 42 Israelis were killed in the fire.
(AP, 12/5/10)(AP, 1/5/11)
2010 Dec 6, Israel's top
policewoman, who had clung to life for four days after her patrol
car was trapped in a burning Israel forest, died of her wounds as
the last of the flames subsided in the worst fire in Israel's
history.
(AP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 6, Argentina announced
that it recognizes the Palestinian territories as a free and
independent state within their 1967 borders, a step it said reflects
frustration at the slow progress of peace talks with Israel.
(AP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 7, Israel expressed
disappointment with Argentina's recognition of a Palestinian state
in territories Israel occupied in 1967, saying they undercut
American-led efforts to create such a state through negotiations
with Israel.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, In Israel 3 dozen
top rabbis threw their support behind a religious ruling barring
Jews from selling or renting homes to non-Jews, an indication of
growing radicalism within the rabbinical community at a time of
mounting friction between Israeli Arabs and Jews.
(AP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 7, The New York Times
reported that US officials believe the militant group Hezbollah,
based in Lebanon, has acquired an arsenal of some 50,000 rockets and
missiles, raising fears of an enlarged conflict with Israel. Iran
and Syria were named as the sources.
(AFP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 8, Israel decided to
allow increased exports from the Gaza Strip, further easing its
blockade of the territory run by the militant Palestinian Hamas
group.
(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 8, The Middle East
peace process lay in tatters after Washington admitted defeat in its
efforts to secure an Israeli freeze on settlement building, the
Palestinians' condition for resuming talks.
(AFP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 8, A top Israeli
official said his government is holding talks with Turkey aimed at
mending relations, seven months after a deadly Israeli raid on a
Gaza-bound flotilla sent ties into a chill.
(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 9, The Israeli air
force bombed four sites in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, causing no
casualties. The air raids came after Palestinian militants fired
several mortars into southern Israel from Gaza the previous day.
(AFP, 12/9/10)
2010 Dec 12, Heavy rain and
fierce winds pummeled countries across the Middle East, killing a
woman in Lebanon, sinking a ship off Israel's coast and prompting
Egypt to close its largest Mediterranean port. At least 3 people
killed in Egypt as gale-force winds and torrential rain pounded the
coastline.
(AP, 12/12/10)(AFP, 12/12/10)
2010 Dec 13, Israel flew home
150 illegal Sudanese migrants in a secret operation that was the
largest such deportation from the Jewish state.
(AP, 12/14/10)
2010 Dec 14, Israel barred a
group of Palestinian firefighters who helped battle the country's
worst wildfire from attending a ceremony in their honor, the latest
in a series of embarrassments over Israel's handling of the blaze.
(AP, 12/14/10)
2010 Dec 15, Lebanon's army
said its military experts have discovered and dismantled two spy
cameras planted in the country's mountains by Israel.
(AP, 12/15/10)
2010 Dec 16, The Israeli
military said the air force has shot down a suspicious object,
"apparently a balloon," hovering over southern Israel, where its
main nuclear reactor is located.
(AP, 12/16/10)
2010 Dec 16, Palestinian
negotiator Nabil Shaath said he has asked representatives of several
EU countries to recognize the truce lines before the 1967 Mideast
war as the borders between Israel and a Palestinian state.
(AP, 12/16/10)
2010 Dec 17, In Israel
Christine Luken (44), female American tourist, was stabbed to death.
Her body was found on Dec 19 bound and with multiple stab wounds
near a road outside Jerusalem. Her friend, Kaye Susan Wilson, told
police the two had been hiking in a nearby forest when they were
assaulted by two Arab men. She, too, was bound and stabbed, but
managed to escape her assailants. On Jan 26, 2011, Palestinians
Kifah Ghneimat and Iyad Fatafa were indicted for Luken’s murder.
Ghneimat was convicted on Sep 25.
(AP, 12/19/10)(AP, 1/26/11)(AP, 9/26/11)
2010 Dec 18, An Israeli
airstrike killed five Gaza militants in the deadliest attack against
the coastal strip in months. The Israeli military says the men were
about to launch a rocket attack against southern Israeli communities
when they were struck.
(AP, 12/18/10)
2010 Dec 19, Israel's cabinet
decided to limit stipends paid to full-time ultra-Orthodox Jewish
seminary students after the payments sparked widespread protests
among university students.
(AFP, 12/19/10)
2010 Dec 19, Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas hosted dozens of Israeli legislators and
activists, and urged them to relay a simple message to the Israeli
public — he is serious about negotiating a peace deal and that the
Palestinians will never again resort to violence.
(AP, 12/19/10)
2010 Dec 20, An Egyptian State
Security prosecutor said that authorities have charged a local
businessman, Tarek Hassan, and two Israelis for recruiting agents in
Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon to spy for Israeli intelligence.
(AP, 12/20/10)
2010 Dec 21, The Israeli air
force hit seven suspected militant sites in the Gaza Strip in an
unusually large operation. Palestinian militants retaliated by
sending a rocket crashing down near a kindergarten in southern
Israel. Israel's military chief confirmed the Palestinian use of
Kornet missiles. This marked a new milestone for Gaza militants, who
have steadily built up their arsenal from a collection of crude,
homemade rockets to include more menacing imported weapons. Israeli
defense officials said the laser-guided Kornet came from Iran.
Israel's answer, called Trophy, was the first-of-its-kind
Israeli-made system carried by tanks that is designed to shoot down
missiles like the Kornet.
(AP, 12/21/10)(AP, 12/22/10)
2010 Dec 22, Bolivia sent a
letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declaring its
recognition of an independent and sovereign state of Palestine.
(AP, 12/22/10)
2010 Dec 23, Israel's Peace Now
movement said Israeli settlers have illegally begun work on at least
100 homes in the occupied West Bank since the end of a freeze on
settlement construction.
(AFP, 12/23/10)
2010 Dec 24, In Israel hundreds
of Israelis and African migrants marched down Tel Aviv's main
boulevard to protest a government plan to build a detention facility
to hold those who enter the country illegally.
(AP, 12/24/10)
2010 Dec 26, Israel and
Palestinian militants traded threats amid fresh skirmishes along the
tense Gaza Strip border in which two Islamic Jihad fighters were
killed. Nine French activists were arrested during a pro-Palestinian
demonstration at a major Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank.
(AFP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 27, A Tel Aviv
University team excavating a cave in central Israel said teeth found
in the cave are about 400,000 years old and resemble those of other
remains of modern man, known scientifically as Homo sapiens, found
in Israel. The earliest Homo sapiens remains found until now are
half as old. The prehistoric Qesem cave was discovered in 2000, and
excavations began in 2004.
(AP, 12/28/10)
2010 Dec 28, Project developer
Bashar Masri said about 20 Israeli suppliers will help build Rawabi,
the first modern Palestinian city in the West Bank, but only after
promising they will not use products or services from Israeli
settlements.
(AP, 12/28/10)
2010 Dec 28, Veteran Israeli
journalist Dov Yudkovsky (89) died. He had fled the Nazi Holocaust
and later became editor of Israel's best-selling newspaper. In 2002,
Yudkovsky was awarded the Israel Prize, the Jewish state's highest
honor, for his work in the media.
(AP, 12/29/10)
2010 Dec 30, In Israel former
President Moshe Katsav (65) was convicted of raping an employee when
he was a Cabinet minister in 1998. "Relax, you'll enjoy it." He held
the largely ceremonial office of president from 2000-2007.
(AP, 12/30/10)
2010 Dec 30, Israeli troops
seized Khalil al-Rabai, a Hamas member of the Palestinian
parliament, the fifth to be rearrested recently after serving
previous prison terms. With Rabai's arrest the number of Hamas MPs
in Israeli custody is now believed to be 13.
(AFP, 12/30/10)
2010 Sasha Polakow-Suransky
authored “The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Alliance with
apartheid South Africa.
(Econ, 5/22/10, p.88)
2010 Robert S. Wistrich
authored “A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism From Antiquity to the
Global Jihad.”
(SSFC, 2/14/10, p.F4)
2011 Jan 1, Jawaher Abu Rahma
(36), a Palestinian woman, died one day after allegedly inhaling
massive amounts of tear gas fired by the Israeli military at a West
Bank demonstration. On Jan 20 Israel's military said Rahma was the
victim of a medical error and was not killed by tear gas.
(AFP, 1/3/11)(AP, 1/20/11)
2011 Jan 2, Israel's PM
Netanyahu said that he's ready to sit down with the Palestinian
president for continuous one-on-one talks until they reach a peace
deal. Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian at a checkpoint near
the West Bank city of Nablus. Palestinian security sources said
Mohammed Daraghmeh was trying to pass through the checkpoint on his
way to work at a West Bank settlement and a row broke out with
troops when they refused him passage.
(AP, 1/2/11)(AFP, 1/2/11)(AFP, 1/3/11)
2011 Jan 2, Israel formally
charged 2 Arabs for a suspected plot to fire a rocket into a
Jerusalem football stadium along with three other men who sold them
firearms. Shin Bet intelligence service said the arrests were made
in November.
(AFP, 1/2/11)
2011 Jan 2, In Israel Eugene
Perchikov, an Israeli doctor accused of killing two women in New
York, bled to death in a Jerusalem jail after cutting himself with a
prison-issued razor blade as his cellmates slept. US authorities
believed he poisoned two women to death in order to collect their
life insurance. Larysa Vasserman of Brooklyn, was slain in 2002, and
Tatiana Korkhova of Manhattan, was murdered in 2004.
(AP, 1/4/11)(http://tinyurl.com/25a9wh4)
2011 Jan 5, Israeli troops
killed two Palestinians along the Israel-Gaza border. Troops opened
fire at two men trying to cross the border fence into Israel.
(AP, 1/6/11)
2011 Jan 6, Israel's Supreme
Court issued a ruling permitting the separation of men and women on
some buses serving minority ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, but
only if the passengers agree. The approval was for a trial period of
a year.
(AP, 1/6/11)
2011 Jan 7, Israeli troops
mistakenly shot and killed Omar Kawasmeh, a 65-year-old Palestinian
man, during a predawn raid to arrest a Hamas militant in the West
Bank. The raid targeted one of six Hamas fighters released from
prison a day earlier by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. 5
of the freed militants, including the target of the raid in which
the man was killed, were arrested overnight.
(AP, 1/7/11)
2011 Jan 8, Israeli soldiers
shot and killed a Palestinian who tried to throw explosives at a
West Bank checkpoint. A mortar attack from Gaza wounded 2 Thai
workers in southern Israel.
(AP, 1/8/11)(SSFC, 1/9/11, p.A5)
2011 Jan 9, Israeli organizers
said at least 165 professors have declared a boycott against a
contentious Israeli college in the West Bank, deepening an internal
rift in Israel over the expansion of West Bank settlements. They
said Ariel University Center is an "illegal settlement" intended to
prevent Palestinians from establishing an independent state.
Bulldozers demolished a wing of the Hotel Shepherd in Jerusalem to
make way for a new Israeli enclave in the heart of a Palestinian
neighborhood.
(AP, 1/9/11)(Econ, 1/15/11, p.50)
2011 Jan 10, Israeli troops
shot dead a Palestinian farmer (65) in the northern Gaza Strip.
(AFP, 1/10/11)
2011 Jan 10, Iran's
intelligence services said they have arrested suspects in the
assassination a year ago of nuclear physicist Masoud Ali Mohammadi
in a months-long covert operation that also led them to penetrate
Israel's Mossad spy agency.
(AP, 1/10/11)
2011 Jan 11, An Israeli
military court extended the jail term of Palestinian activist
Abdullah Abu Rahma by 16 months. Rahma has already served over a
year in prison for organizing protests against Israel's security
barrier.
(AP, 1/11/11)
2011 Jan 11, Iran said it has
arrested 10 people linked to Mossad in what it calls a "severe blow"
to the Israeli spy agency.
(AFP, 1/11/11)
2011 Jan 11, The Palestinian
Hamas movement in Gaza urged militants to halt their attacks, saying
that continued violence would only invite Israeli reprisals. An
Israeli airstrike killed a person riding a motorcycle in the Gaza
Strip.
(AP, 1/11/11)
2011 Jan 12, Israeli extradited
to the US two suspected leaders of one of the country's most
powerful crime families to face murder, drug and racketeering
charges. US marshals escorted brothers Itzhak and Meir Abergil onto
a plane to Los Angeles.
(AP, 1/12/11)
2011 Jan 13, A Palestinian
minister said Gaza's Hamas rulers will ensure a truce on rocket fire
against Israel is protected, a day after militant factions agreed to
a period of calm.
(AFP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 13, Guyana recognized
Palestinian statehood, joining a string of other South American
nations in a push for Palestinians and Israelis to negotiate a peace
deal.
(AP, 1/13/11)
2011 Jan 14, An Israeli
newspaper reported that the army is to begin collecting weapons from
Jewish settlers as a result of the calm in the West Bank and over
fears they may be used against Palestinians.
(AFP, 1/14/11)
2011 Jan 16, Israeli
authorities said they are moving ahead with a new proposal to build
1,400 apartments in a contested part of Jerusalem, enraging
Palestinians who denounced the plan as another settler land grab.
(AP, 1/16/11)
2011 Jan 17, Israeli Defense
Minister Ehud Barak abruptly announced that he was leaving the Labor
Party, dividing the movement that has dominated Israeli politics for
decades and setting off a chain reaction that cast new doubts over
troubled peace efforts with the Palestinians.
(AP, 1/17/11)
2011 Jan 18, Israeli police
arrested Aleksander Cvetkovic, a former Bosnian Serb soldier. He was
suspected by Bosnian authorities to be a member of an eight-man
firing squad involved in executing between 1,000 and 1,200 Bosnian
Muslims at the Branjevo Farm in July 1995.
(AP, 1/18/11)
2011 Jan 18, Israeli forces
killed a Palestinian on the Gaza border after militants set off a
bomb.
(AP, 1/19/11)
2011 Jan 19, Dhyan Or, the
Israel director of the global anti-mining advocacy group Roots of
Peace, said there are half a million mines in the Jordan Valley, an
area prone to floods. He warned that land mines could drift from the
fenced areas, and that overzealous worshippers could stray from the
marked paths.
(AP, 1/19/11)
2011 Jan 20, A Palestinian man
opened fire at an Israeli guard post in the West Bank and soldiers
returned fire, killing him.
(AP, 1/20/11)
2011 Jan 24, Israel's foreign
minister confirmed that he has drawn up a plan for the creation of
an interim Palestinian state with temporary borders in the absence
of a full peace agreement.
(AP, 1/24/11)
2011 Jan 24, Palestinian
protesters smashed windows and sprayed graffiti outside the
headquarters of the Al-Jazeera TV channel in the West Bank.
Al-Jazeera the previous evening had aired what it said were leaked
documents showing that Palestinian leaders agreed to deep
concessions on two of the thorniest issues in negotiations with
Israel: Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
(AP, 1/24/11)
2011 Jan 24, Peru joined a
growing number of South American countries in recognizing an
independent and sovereign Palestinian state. The decision does not
recognize Palestine's borders pre-dating the Six-Day War of 1967.
Peru also recognized Israel's indisputable right to exist without
any threats to its people.
(AP, 1/24/11)
2011 Jan 27, Colombia asked
Israel to extradite former Israeli army Lt. Col. Yair Klein, who was
convicted by a Colombian court and sentenced in absentia to nearly
11 years in prison for training drug lords' assassins in the late
1980s.
(AP, 1/27/11)
2011 Jan 28, An Israeli settler
shot and critically wounded a Palestinian teenager in the West Bank,
in the second such shooting in two days. The teenager from the
village of Beit Safa was shot in the head during a clash with
settlers near the city of Hebron.
(AP, 1/28/11)
2011 Jan 30, Israeli officials
agreed to allow Egypt to move several hundred troops into the Sinai
peninsula for the first time since the countries reached peace three
decades ago.
(AP, 1/31/11)
2011 Jan 30, Israel sentenced a
prominent Arab-Israeli human rights activist to nine years in jail
after pleading guilty to spying for Lebanon's Hezbollah. Ameer
Makhoul was convicted last October of espionage and aggravated
espionage on the basis of a plea bargain in which the prosecution
dropped a charge of assisting the enemy in time of war.
(AFP, 1/30/11)
2011 Jan 30, Israel signed an
agreement with the European Space Agency for cooperation on space
technology and exploration of the solar system.
(AFP, 1/30/11)
2011 Feb 5, Unknown saboteurs
attacked an Egyptian pipeline supplying gas to Jordan, forcing
authorities to switch off gas supply from a twin pipeline to Israel.
Egypt supplies about 40 percent of Israel's natural gas. The attack
came after Israel expressed concern that its natural gas supplies
from Egypt could be threatened if a new regime takes power in Cairo.
(AFP, 2/5/11)
2011 Feb 5, Israeli police
arrested four men in the theft of religious items valued at more
than $1 million from a synagogue in Italy. The 4 suspects, Israelis
in their 20s, were accused of stealing the items from Milan's
central synagogue last week and smuggling them to Israel.
(AP, 2/7/11)
2011 Feb 7, In Israel Jerusalem
officials pushed forward plans to build new Jewish housing in an
Arab neighborhood in the city's eastern sector, drawing swift
condemnation from Palestinians who see it as encroaching on land
they seek for a future state.
(AP, 2/7/11)
2011 Feb 9, Israeli aircraft
overnight carried out retaliatory airstrikes in the Gaza territory
after militants launched rockets into Israel on Feb 8. The
airstrikes lightly wounded 8 Palestinians.
(AP, 2/9/11)
2011 Feb 14, In Israel
Jerusalem's municipal council approved the construction of 120 new
homes in the Jewish settlement neighborhood of Ramot in occupied
east Jerusalem.
(AFP, 2/14/11)
2011 Feb 17, Israeli forces
shot dead three Palestinians along the tense border with the Gaza
Strip before dawn. Soldiers fired on the men after they were spotted
planting an explosive device in a no-go zone along the border
between 2 and 3 am.
(AP, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 17, A Lebanese
military court convicted Amin al-Baba of spying for Israel and
sentenced him to death. He had been spying for Israel from 1997
until his 2009 arrest.
(AP, 2/18/11)
2011 Feb 18, The Obama
administration vetoed a UN Arab-backed Security Council resolution
that would have condemned Israel for continuing to build Jewish-only
settlements in the West Bank.
(AP, 2/19/11)
2011 Feb 19, Dirar Abu Sisi
(42), a Palestinian engineer, went missing "under unknown
circumstances" after boarding a train in the Ukraine city of Kharkiv
bound for the capital Kiev. The UN refugee agency later confirmed
his wife's fears that he is being held in prison by the Israeli
secret service. Sisi's Ukrainian wife, Veronika (32), alleged the
Israeli secret service Mossad carried out the abduction in order to
sabotage a key electric power plant in the Hamas-controlled Gaza
Strip where he worked as a senior manager.
(AP, 3/10/11)
2011 Feb 22, The US and Israel
carried out a successful test of the Arrow anti-missile system off
the coast of California.
(AP, 2/22/11)
2011 Feb 22, Christchurch, New
Zealand, lay in ruins after a magnitude 6.3 earthquake toppled tall
buildings and churches. The earthquake left at least 166 dead,
including 21 Chinese students. The earthquake also caused some 30
million tons of ice to break off from New Zealand's biggest glacier.
On Feb 3 rescuers officially gave up hope of finding more
survivors. On May 16 nine final victims of the earthquake were
declared dead, ending an agonizing wait for families of people whose
remains have never been identified in the wreckage. 3 Israelis died
in the Christchurch quake that killed 181 people. Other Israelis
escaped the quake. One of the Israelis who died was carrying at
least five passports.
(AFP, 2/23/11)(AP, 2/24/11)(AFP, 2/25/11)(AP,
3/4/11)(AP, 3/5/11)(AP, 5/16/11)(AP, 7/19/11)
2011 Feb 23, Israeli tank fire
wounded 11 people in the Gaza Strip, including at least six
militants. The military said it opened fire after the militants
detonated a bomb targeting a passing Israeli patrol near the border
and then fired mortars at the soldiers.
(AP, 2/23/11)
2011 Feb 26, Israeli warplanes
bombed militant training camps in the Gaza Strip for a second time,
wounding four people, including a toddler. The raids came after
pre-dawn strikes against two other training camps of the hardline
Islamic Jihad group.
(AFP, 2/26/11)
2011 Feb 27, A rocket fired
from the Gaza Strip hit Israeli territory, raising Israel's alert
level but causing no damage or casualties.
(AFP, 2/27/11)
2011 Feb 28, Israeli police
demolished two structures at an unauthorized West Bank outpost. This
was followed by new hints from PM Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel
could soon be forced to curb construction in the settlements.
(AP, 3/1/11)
2011 Mar 1, Suspected Jewish
settlers smashed the windows of 7 Palestinian cars and threw a fire
bomb at a Palestinian house in the West Bank.
(AP, 3/1/11)
2011 Mar 2, Jerusalem officials
approved new housing for Jews in the heart of an Arab neighborhood,
infuriating Palestinians who see the growing Jewish presence in the
city's war-won eastern sector as undermining their aspirations to
statehood. Israel closed the Karni Crossing east of Gaza City citing
security concerns. This left only the Kerem Shalom checkpoint for
commercial crossing.
(AP, 3/2/11)(SFC, 3/3/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 8, Israeli PM Benjamin
Netanyahu vowed that Israeli troops would remain on the border
between Jordan and the West Bank under any future peace deal with
the Palestinians.
(AFP, 3/8/11)
2011 Mar 11, An Israeli family
of five, Ehud and Ruthy Fogel, their two young children and a baby,
were knifed to death as they slept at the Itamar West Bank
settlement. In September Hakim Awwad (18) was sentenced to five
consecutive life sentences for the slayings. On Oct 4 an army
statement said Amjad Awwad (19), a cousin of Hakim Awwad, has
confessed to involvement in the slayings.
(AP, 3/12/11)(AFP, 10/4/11)
2011 Mar 13, Israel said it has
approved the building of 300 to 500 apartments and settler homes.
They would take place in major West Bank settlement blocs that
Israel expects to hold on to in any final peace deal.
(AP, 3/13/11)
2011 Mar 15, The Israeli navy
intercepted an Egyptian-bound ship carrying a large delivery of
weapons off the Mediterranean coast, saying the arms had been sent
by Syria to Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. PM Netanyahu
said the source of the weaponry was Iran.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 16, Israeli aircraft
fired rockets at a Hamas training ground in the Gaza Strip, killing
two militants from the Islamist group.
(AFP, 3/16/11)
2011 Mar 19, Palestinian
militants in Gaza fired 54 rockets into Israel, the heaviest barrage
in two years. A Hamas official was killed and four civilians were
wounded when Israel hit back with tank fire and air strikes. The
Israeli army opened fire on two men who were spotted moving
suspiciously toward a frontier "no-go" zone. The bodies of Salah Abu
Attwa and Imad Faraj, both 17, were found the next day.
(AP, 3/19/11)(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 20, Palestinian
militants fired a rocket into southern Israel, while Israeli troops
killed two Palestinians in a fresh wave of violence along the
volatile border with Gaza.
(AP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 22, An Israeli court
ordered former Israeli President Moshe Katsav to prison for seven
years following a rape conviction, rejecting his attorneys' request
for leniency and making him the highest-ranking Israeli official
ever sentenced to jail.
(AP, 3/22/11)
2011 Mar 22, The Israeli
military struck a series of Palestinian militant targets in the Gaza
Strip, damaging smuggling tunnels and suspected weapons sites.
Palestinian officials said 19 people were wounded. The shelling
killed 3 children and their uncle and wounded 13 other family
members as they played soccer in a backyard.
(AP, 3/22/11)(SFC, 3/23/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 23, The Israeli
parliament approved a pair of laws that critics said were
discriminatory and aimed against the country's Arab minority, who
made up roughly one-fifth of Israel's 7.7 million people. A bomb
exploded at a bus stop in central Jerusalem, killing a British
woman, Mary Jean Gardner (59), and wounding 38 people. Two Grad
rockets slammed into the Israeli city of Beersheva, as Gaza
militants vowed to strike deep into the Jewish state after raids
killed 8 Gazans.
(AP, 3/23/11)(AFP, 3/23/11)(SFC, 3/24/11,
p.A5)(SFC, 3/25/11, p.A3)
2011 Mar 23, South Africa’s
University of Johannesburg voted to sever ties with Israel's
Ben-Gurion University, acting on calls from hundreds of South
African academics and intellectuals for an academic boycott in a
growing campaign to isolate Israel for its attacks on Palestinians
in Gaza. It will end a 25-year relationship on April 1, but
professors can continue to work individually with Ben-Gurion.
(AP, 3/24/11)
2011 Mar 24, Israeli aircraft
struck the Gaza Strip in response to militant rocket and mortar
attacks, stoking concerns that a grave new round of hostilities will
fill the vacuum left by an impasse in Israeli-Palestinian
peacemaking. At least 10 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/24/11)(SFC, 3/25/11, p.A3)
2011 Mar 24, Eyad Abuarga, an
Palestinian-born Australian information technology expert, was
detained in Israel over alleged links to Hamas.
(AFP, 5/29/11)(http://tinyurl.com/4xfnexu)
2011 Mar 25, Israel
deployed its newly developed "Iron Dome" rocket defense system for
the first time to defend its southern communities from attacks by
Gaza militants after a bloody week of Palestinian strikes and
Israeli reprisals.
(AP, 3/25/11)
2011 Mar 25, A Palestinian was
shot and wounded by Israeli police after he injured a soldier in the
West Bank.
(AP, 3/25/11)
2011 Mar 26, Gaza militants
fired over 50 mortar shells into southern Israel. One rocket damaged
a house.
(SSFC, 3/27/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 27, Israel deployed a
cutting-edge rocket defense system, rolling out the latest tool in
its arsenal to stop a recent spike in attacks from the neighboring
Gaza Strip. “Iron Dome” is expected to be fully operational in a
matter of months. Israeli aircraft struck a Palestinian rocket squad
in the Gaza Strip, killing two militants as the military activated a
new defense system to shoot down incoming rockets.
(AP, 3/27/11)
2011 Mar 27, Israel deployed a
cutting-edge rocket defense system on the outskirts of Beersheba.
“Iron Dome” is expected to be fully operational in a matter of
months. Israeli aircraft struck a Palestinian rocket squad in the
Gaza Strip, killing two militants as the military activated a new
defense system to shoot down incoming rockets.
(AP, 3/27/11)(SFC, 3/28/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 29, Israeli PM
Benjamin Netanyahu filed $300,000 libel suits against an Israeli TV
station and a newspaper over reports he allegedly took expensive
flights, hotels and restaurant meals from wealthy associates.
(AP, 3/30/11)
2011 Mar 30, An Israeli
aircraft attacked a pair of Palestinian militants riding on a
motorcycle in the Gaza Strip, killing one and wounding the other.
(AP, 3/30/11)
2011 Mar 31, The Israeli
military released a map detailing what it says are nearly 1,000
underground bunkers, weapons storage facilities and monitoring sites
built by the militant Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon.
(AP, 3/31/11)
2011 Apr 1, Israel asked the
United Nations to help prevent activists sailing to Gaza on the
first anniversary of the bloody Israeli seizure of a Turkish ship
that tried to reach the blockaded Palestinian enclave.
(Reuters, 4/1/11)
2011 Apr 2, Israeli aircraft
killed 3 Palestinian militants who were planning to abduct Israelis
over the upcoming Jewish festival of Passover.
(AP, 4/2/11)
2011 Apr 2, South African judge
Richard Goldstone said he had been wrong to say Israel had targeted
civilians in his 2009 report on Israel’s 2008-2998 offensive in
Gaza. He had faced down enormous criticism in Israel at the time
over the report which accused both Israel and the Hamas rulers of
Gaza of potential war crimes during the 22-day conflict. He said his
assessment had also been changed by the fact that whereas Israel had
thoroughly investigated the concerns raised by his panel, Hamas had
not.
(AFP, 4/3/11)
2011 Apr 3, Israel demanded
that the United Nations bin a report critical of its deadly
2008-2009 offensive on Gaza after the author, South African judge
Richard Goldstone, said he had been wrong to say it had targeted
civilians.
(AFP, 4/3/11)
2011 Apr 4, An Israeli court
indicted Dirar Abu Sisi, a Palestinian engineer captured on Feb 19
in Ukraine, on charges he was a senior Hamas operative who developed
sophisticated rockets for the Islamic militant group.
(AP, 4/4/11)
2011 Apr 4, Israel asked
Facebook to pull down a page with 350,000 “fans” calling for “the
third Palestinian uprising.” Facebook at first refused, but took the
page down a day later.
(SSFC, 4/10/11, p.F9)
2011 Apr 4, In the northern
West Bank Juliano Mer-Khamis, a well-known actor and theatre
director born of Jewish and Arab parents, died when a gunman opened
fire on his car in the Jenin refugee camp as he was driving home
with his infant son and the babysitter.
(AFP, 4/5/11)
2011 Apr 5, Palestinian
authorities said Mohammed Shalha (21) was killed by Israeli fire
along Gaza's volatile border. Relatives of Shalha said he was
collecting gravel along the border. The Israeli military said the
man was armed, and that soldiers opened fire after spotting him.
(AP, 4/5/11)
2011 Apr 5, In Sudan an
unidentified plane flew in from the Red Sea and fired a missile at a
car travelling from the airport to Port Sudan, killing both
passengers and destroying the vehicle. The next day Foreign Minister
Ali Ahmad Karti accused Israel of carrying out the air strike.
(AFP, 4/6/11)
2011 Apr 6, Israeli aircraft
attacked two targets in the Gaza Strip, wounding four people, among
them a pregnant woman. A group of prominent Israelis, many of them
former defense chiefs, launched a new peace plan calling for the
establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
(AFP, 4/6/11)
2011 Apr 7, Israeli tanks
quickly retaliated after an anti-tank missile fired from the Gaza
Strip struck a school bus in southern Israel, wounding two people,
including one child. The critically injured boy (16) died of his
wounds on April 17. The missile attack came hours after Israel
carried out a series of airstrikes against tunnels it says are used
by militants to smuggle weapons under the Egyptian border and carry
out attacks. The tank fire killed a 50-year-old man and wounded 7
other people.
(AP, 4/7/11)(SFC, 4/18/11, p.A2)
2011 Apr 8, Israeli aircraft
and ground forces struck Gaza, killing 9 Palestinians including 5
militia fighters, in a surge of fighting sparked by a Palestinian
rocket attack on an Israeli school bus the day before.
(AP, 4/8/11)(SFC, 4/9/11, p.A3)
2011 Apr 9, Palestinian
militants fired over 30 rockets at southern Israel. Israeli
warplanes killed 5 militants in the Gaza Strip.
(SSFC, 4/10/11, p.A4)
2011 Apr 10, Sudan said that
remnants of a missile used in a mysterious attack that killed two
people on April 5 proved that Israel carried out the strike.
(Reuters, 4/10/11)
2011 Apr 11, Israel’s PM
Benjamin Netanyahu asked a government panel to put off final
approval of 2,500 new apartments in east Jerusalem.
(AP, 4/11/11)
2011 Apr 12, In Israel
followers of the Bahai faith unveiled their newly renovated holy
site on the Israeli coast, drawing attention to one of the Holy
Land's lesser-known religions.
(AP, 4/12/11)
2011 Apr 14, Britain's Guardian
newspaper published a statement by the co-authors of a scathing UN
report on Israel's conduct during its 2008-2009 offensive in Gaza.
They said they stand by their work, hitting back at critics who've
pushed to have its findings withdrawn after the report's lead
author, Richard Goldstone, aired doubts about one of its central
conclusions.
(AP, 4/14/11)
2011 Apr 16, A senior Iranian
military official said experts have determined the United States and
Israel were behind a mysterious computer worm known as Stuxnet that
has harmed Iran's nuclear program.
(AP, 4/16/11)
2011 Apr 17, Israel announced
the arrests of two Palestinian teenagers in the deadly March 11
stabbings of a West Bank settler family. Hakim Awad (17) was
arrested on April 5, and Amjad Awad (18), taken into custody on
April 10. They said they are cousins, and that five other
Palestinians have been arrested as suspected accomplices.
(AP, 4/17/11)
2011 Apr 17, Iran’s Kayhan
daily reported that an Iranian military commander has accused German
engineering company Siemens of helping the United States and Israel
launch the Stuxnet virus, a cyber attack on its nuclear facilities.
(Reuters, 4/17/11)
2011 Apr 20, Prominent Israeli
intellectuals and artists came out in favor of creating a
Palestinian state based on the 1967 line marking the West Bank. Gaza
Strip and east Jerusalem. 47 signatories to a statement released
today called for an Israeli pullout from the West Bank.
(AP, 4/20/11)
2011 Apr 20, Israeli police
arrested two Israelis in connection with a seizure of over $60
million worth of cocaine smuggled into Israel aboard a Colombian
vessel.
(AP, 5/16/11)
2011 Apr 24, A Palestinian
policeman opened fire at a group of Israelis who had come to pray at
a Jewish holy site in the West Bank without authorization, killing
one and wounding four. Hours later, Jewish settlers attacked
Palestinian cars south of Nablus, setting fire to one after its
passengers fled and stoning passing vehicles before Israeli soldiers
dispersed them.
(AP, 4/24/11)
2011 Apr 27, Rival Palestinian
groups said they reached an agreement on reuniting their governments
in the West Bank and Gaza after years of bitter infighting that
weakened them politically and caused the deaths of hundreds in
violent clashes and crackdowns since. Israel swiftly rejected the
prospect.
(AP, 4/27/11)
2011 May 1, Israel's finance
minister said Israel is suspending the transfer of Palestinian tax
and customs fees to the Palestinian Authority (PA) until it is sure
the money will not reach Hamas.
(AFP, 5/1/11)
2011 May 2, Israeli-based Teva
Pharmaceutical said it will pay $6.8 billion to acquired Cephalon
Inc.
(SFC, 5/3/11, p.D2)
2011 May 3, Japan’s Nikkei
newspaper said Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries has decided
to buy Japan's third-largest generic drug company Taiyo
Pharmaceutical Industry for about $500 million.
(AFP, 5/3/11)
2011 May 4, Rival Palestinian
factions Fatah and Hamas proclaimed a landmark, Egyptian-mediated
reconciliation pact signed in Cairo aimed at ending their bitter
four-year rift. Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal said that his Islamist
movement would work to achieve the "Palestinian national goal" of a
sovereign state on the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Gaza's Hamas rulers
executed a man convicted of collaborating with Israel. His execution
was the 11th in Gaza since Hamas violently wrested control of the
territory in June 2007.
(AP, 5/4/11)(AFP, 5/4/11)(AP, 5/5/11)(Econ,
5/7/11, p.51)
2011 May 9, The Palestinian
Authority said it had not been able to pay salaries for the first
time since 2007 because of Israel's decision to halt the transfer of
funds it collects on its behalf.
(Reuters, 5/9/11)
2011 May 13, Palestinian teen
Milad Said Ayyash was fatally wounded after being shot and wounded
near a Jewish settler enclave in east Jerusalem. New clashes erupted
in the disputed city ahead of Palestinian commemoration of their
uprooting more than six decades ago.
(AFP, 5/14/11)
2011 May 15, Israeli troops
clashed with Arab protesters along three hostile borders, leaving at
least 12 people dead and dozens wounded in an unprecedented wave of
violence marking the anniversary of the mass displacement of
Palestinians surrounding Israel's establishment in 1948. Israeli
gunfire killed two protesters and wounded dozens as civilians
crossed from Syria onto the annexed Golan Heights, raising tensions
between Damascus and the Jewish state. 10 of the dead were
Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon.
(AP, 5/15/11)(AFP, 5/15/11)(AP, 5/16/11)
2011 May 16, The Israeli
military blocked a Malaysian anti-war group's ship from reaching the
Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. The Malaysian group, the Perdana Global
Peace Foundation, said its ship was fired at when it tried to reach
Gaza. The military denied firing at the ship.
(AP, 5/16/11)
2011 May 16, Israeli
authorities arrested John Lund (70), a retired US lecturer, on
suspicion of trafficking antiquities stolen from Israel. Lund was
allowed to leave after posting a $7,500 bond meant to guarantee he
will return to stand trial.
(AP, 5/18/11)
2011 May 20, President Barack
Obama met with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu warned Obama
against chasing what he called a Middle East peace "based on
illusions" as he lectured the US president amid a widening rift in
US-Israeli ties.
(AFP, 5/20/11)(AFP, 5/21/11)
2011 May 20, Two young
Palestinians were moderately wounded in Gaza when Israeli troops
opened fire at a protest near the border fence.
(AFP, 5/20/11)
2011 May 22, Anti-settlement
NGO Peace Now reported that Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has
approved the construction of 294 new homes in Beitar Ilit settlement
on the occupied West Bank.
(AFP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 31, The Israeli
military said it has arrested a dozen Palestinian militants in
nighttime raids around Jenin in the West Bank. The suspects were
linked to Islamic Jihad, which has targeted Israeli civilians in
suicide bombings and other deadly attacks.
(AP, 5/31/11)
2011 Jun 3, In Israel
billionaire Sammy Ofer (89) died after a long illness. Along with
his brother, Ofer owned one of the world's biggest container
shipping companies. Ofer's name was recently in the news after the
US government sanctioned one of his companies for doing business
with Iran's national shipping company.
(AP, 6/3/11)
2011 Jun 5, Israeli troops
opened fire across the Syrian frontier to disperse hundreds of
pro-Palestinian protesters who stormed the border of the
Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. Syrian state television said 20
people were killed by the Israeli Defense Forces. Israelis said only
10 demonstrators were killed near Kuneitra when their own Molotov
cocktails triggered border anti-tank mines.
(AP, 6/5/11)(Reuters, 6/5/11)(AFP, 6/5/11)(SFC,
6/6/11, p.A2)(Econ, 6/11/11, p.54)
2011 Jun 12, In Egypt Ilan
Grapel, an Israeli legal aid worker, was arrested in Cairo on
suspicion of spying. In October Israel’s government announced plans
for his release in exchange for 25 Egyptian prisoners. The exchange
took place on Oct 27.
(SFC, 10/25/11, p.A2)(SFC, 10/28/11, p.A4)
2011 Jun 17, In Israel an
explosion in a residential building in Netanya killed 3 people. The
blast appeared to be due to a gas cylinder used for cooking fuel.
(SFC, 6/17/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 17, The Ynet website
reported that a Jerusalem rabbinical court has condemned to death by
stoning a dog it suspects is the reincarnation of a secular lawyer
who insulted the court's judges 20 years ago.
(AFP, 6/17/11)
2011 Jun 19, In Israel the
Jerusalem municipality approved the expansion of 2,000 homes in the
settlement district of Ramat Shlomo, allowing each Israeli home to
add an additional room.
(AFP, 6/19/11)
2011 Jun 23, An Egyptian state
security court sentenced Tareq Hassan, an Egyptian businessman, to
25 years in prison for spying for Israel. Two Israeli citizens were
also sentenced in absentia to 25 years in jail.
(AP, 6/23/11)
2011 Jun 24, Palestinian
protesters rammed a bulldozer into a contested barrier near the
village of Bilin, days after the Israeli army said it would finally
comply with a court order and reposition the fence.
(AP, 6/24/11)
2011 Jun 26, The Israeli
cabinet approved broad economic sanctions against Iran, bringing the
Jewish state into line with measures taken by other governments.
(AFP, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 26, Israel began
tearing down a section of its contentious West Bank separation
barrier near Bilin village that has come to symbolize Palestinian
opposition to the enclosure. Two Palestinians, and five in the
nearby village of Naalin, have died and hundreds others have been
wounded since the Bilin protests began in 2005.
(AP, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 27, The Israeli
government dropped a threat to issue lengthy deportation orders
against journalists aboard a Gaza-bound flotilla. Israel's security
cabinet ordered the navy to stop an international aid flotilla from
breaching a naval blockade on the Gaza Strip but to avoid clashes
with activists on board.
(AP, 6/27/11)(AFP, 6/27/11)
2011 Jun 29, The Israeli
military razed the West Bank settlement outpost of Ramat Migron,
prompting clashes with youths that resulted in two arrests. The
makeshift settlement, outpost established without Israeli government
permission, has been razed several times since 2009.
(AFP, 6/29/11)
2011 Jun 30, Organizers of a
pro-Palestinian flotilla that will try to break Israel's sea
blockade of the Gaza Strip accused Israel of sabotaging a second
ship.
(AP, 6/30/11)
2011 Jul 5, Israeli Defense
Minister Ehud Barak called off the impending transfer of the remains
of 84 Palestinian militants from an Israeli grave site to the West
Bank — just hours after the military confirmed the planned handover.
Israeli aircraft fired at Gaza militants about to launch rockets at
Israel, killing two.
(AP, 7/5/11)(SFC, 7/6/11, p.A4)
2011 Jul 7, An Israeli tank hit
a roadside bomb that was planted by Palestinian militants along the
border with the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. A soldier was slightly injured
in the incident.
(AP, 7/7/11)
2011 Jul 8, Scores of
pro-Palestinian activists trying to reach Tel Aviv, as part of a
coordinated protest, were blocked at European airports. 6 activists
who managed to land were deported as Israel moved to defuse the mass
arrival envisioned by organizers.
(AP, 7/8/11)
2011 Jul 12, Israeli air raids
hit what the military called two "weapons manufacturing sites" in
northern Gaza.
(AFP, 7/16/11)
2011 Jul 13, Israel said it has
given final approval to build its Museum of Tolerance over a
centuries-old Muslim graveyard in the Jewish western half of
Jerusalem.
(AP, 7/13/11)
2011 Jul 13, In Israel hundreds
of ultra-Orthodox Jews clashed with police in a conservative
neighborhood of Jerusalem as tax officials tried to close down an
illegal slaughterhouse.
(AFP, 7/13/11)
2011 Jul 13, Israeli soldiers
killed Ibrahim Sarhan (21), a member of Hamas, during a raid on a
northern West Bank refugee camp. He was shot dead as he emerged from
a mosque and tried to flee during an Israeli arrest operation in
Al-Fara camp. Israeli jets bombed two sites in Gaza, wounding one
woman, after Palestinians fired three rockets into southern Israel.
Israeli aircraft targeted three tunnels, two used for smuggling in
southern Gaza and one "used for terrorist activity" in the north of
the Palestinian territory.
(AFP, 7/13/11)(AFP, 7/16/11)
2011 Jul 14, Israeli jets
struck three targets in Gaza, moderately wounding four Palestinians.
(AFP, 7/16/11)
2011 Jul 15, Some 1,000
Israelis and Palestinians gathered in east Jerusalem for a protest
march to support the Palestinian bid for United Nations recognition.
(AFP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 17, A spokesman for
the Hamas-run medical services in the Gaza Strip, said 4 children
and 3 adults suffered moderate injuries in air strikes in the
northern Beit Hanun area. Israel denied it had carried out any such
raid.
(AFP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 18, Israel put out
bids to build 336 apartments in Jewish settlements in the West Bank,
a new blow to international efforts to get Israelis and Palestinians
back to peace talks after months of deadlock over settlement
construction.
(AP, 7/18/11)
2011 Jul 19, Israeli naval
commandos seized control of a French ship attempting to break
Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, reporting no resistance during
the takeover in international waters. 16 people, including
pro-Palestinian activists from France, Canada and Sweden,
journalists and three crew members, were aboard the Dignity
al-Karama, a French-based ship.
(AP, 7/19/11)
2011 Jul 23, In Israel tens of
thousands marched in the coastal city of Tel Aviv to protest against
rising housing prices and social inequalities in the Jewish state.
(AFP, 7/23/11)
2011 Jul 25, Israeli security
forces intercepted on the Dead Sea carrying assault rifles and
ammunition from Jordan.
(AP, 7/25/11)
2011 Jul 25, In Jerusalem
Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders joined forces to launch a
multi-faith environmental campaign, the Interfaith Centre for
Sustainable Development, citing religious injunctions to protect the
Earth across their three faiths.
(AFP, 7/25/11)
2011 Jul 26, Israeli PM
Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled a series of reforms to address a massive
housing crisis which has sparked the biggest social protests seen in
the Jewish state since the 1970s. He said some 50,000 homes would be
built and put on the market in the next 18 months, and pledged to
build 10,000 dormitory places for university and college students,
who would also benefit from subsidized public transport.
(AFP, 7/26/11)
2011 Aug 1, Israeli soldiers
shot dead 2 Palestinian stone throwers overnight in the Qalandiya
refugee camp in the West Bank. Moatassem Adwan (22) and Ali Khalifa
(23) were killed by soldiers as they carried out arrests in the
camp.
(AFP, 8/1/11)
2011 Aug 2, The Israeli
military said it has slapped restraining orders on 12 Israeli
settlers, accused of setting fire to Palestinian mosques,
property and vehicles, limiting their movement in the West Bank.
Israel’s Supreme Court ordered the government to remove the largest
unauthorized settlement outpost in the West Bank.
(AP, 8/2/11)(SFC, 8/3/11, p.A2)
2011 Aug 3, Activists from
Israel's social protest movement reacted furiously after parliament
passed a housing bill that they say will favor the rich and endanger
the environment.
(AFP, 8/3/11)
2011 Aug 4, An Israeli a prison
services spokeswoman said Israel is to free 770 Israeli and
Palestinian prisoners due to overcrowding. They included Hassan
Yusef, a founder of the Islamist movement Hamas. Israel's air force
carried out 3 night time raids on the Gaza Strip, wounding 3 people.
The Israeli army said they had targeted 3 tunnels and an operations
base in the central Gaza Strip and a fourth target in the south in
response to rocket fire.
(AFP, 8/4/11)
2011 Aug 6, In Israel over a
quarter of a million people poured into the streets of major cities
in the “movement for justice,” an ongoing protest over the cost of
living.
(SSFC, 8/7/11, p.A8)(Econ, 8/6/11, p.38)
2011 Aug 6, Hamas security
forces in the Gaza Strip detained two members of a Salafist
organization called Al-Tawfid wal Jihad, an Islamist group suspected
of firing rockets at Israel. (AFP, 8/6/11)
2011 Aug 11, Israel's interior
minister gave final authorization to build 1,600 apartments in
disputed east Jerusalem and said it will approve 2,700 more in days.
(AP, 8/11/11)
2011 Aug 11, Israeli media said
Dirar Abu Sisi, a Gazan engineer snatched from Ukraine, has told
Israeli interrogators that he headed a Hamas military academy to
rebuild Hamas fighting capabilities after a devastating war with
Israel. Hamas has denied that Abu Sisi had any connection to the
organization.
(AFP, 8/11/11)
2011 Aug 13, Israel’s military
magazine Ba'mahaneh reported that the army is planting new land
mines along its border with Syria in an attempt to dissuade
protesters from rushing into the Golan Heights. Tens of thousands of
Israelis poured into streets across the country for a fourth
consecutive week, expanding their protest movement against the
nation's high cost of living from major central cities to smaller
ones in outlying areas.
(AP, 8/13/11)
2011 Aug 15, Israel was
reported to have approved the building of 277 apartments in the
Jewish settlement in Ariel, the deepest one inside the West Bank,
defying international criticism of continued construction on land
the Palestinians claim for a state.
(AP, 8/15/11)
2011 Aug 16, Israeli aircraft
struck 5 targets in the Gaza Strip, killing 1 militant and wounding
4 other Palestinians in retaliation for rocket fire on southern
Israel the previous evening. Another Palestinian was killed as he
approached the Gaza border.
(AP, 8/16/11)
2011 Aug 18, In southern Israel
assailants armed with heavy weapons, guns and explosives launched
three attacks in quick succession near the border with Egypt's Sinai
Peninsula, killing 8 people and wounding about a dozen more. Israeli
security forces tracked down some of the assailants and are engaged
in an ongoing gunbattle with them. 3 Egyptian security personnel
died as a result of the gunbattles. 2 more died from wounds the next
day. A 6th died from wounds in September. Israel responded hours
after the border attack with an airstrike in Gaza that killed five
members of the Palestinian group that Israel said was behind it, an
organization known as the Popular Resistance Committees. The dead
included the group's leader.
(AP, 8/18/11)(AP, 8/19/11)(AFP, 9/11/11)
2011 Aug 19, Gaza militants
launched barrages of rockets deep into Israel. Israeli aircraft
struck targets in the Palestinian territory in the aftermath of the
deadliest attack against Israelis in three years. Hamas said two
children, 3 and 13, were killed in the Israeli strikes.
(AP, 8/19/11)
2011 Aug 20, Egypt said it
would recall its ambassador from Israel to protest the deaths of at
least 3 Egyptian troops killed in a shootout between Israeli
soldiers and Palestinian militants.
(AP, 8/20/11)
2011 Aug 21, Palestinian
militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip bombarded southern Israel
with rockets and mortars and Israel hit back with an airstrike.
Israeli troops also rounded up 50 Hamas activists in the West Bank
in a sweeping overnight raid. Gaza militants agreed to a cease-fire
with Israel to stop three days of violence.
(AP, 8/21/11)
2011 Aug 22, Palestinian
militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip fired rockets and mortar
shells into southern Israel, despite an unofficial truce meant to
defuse days of escalating violence.
(AP, 8/22/11)
2011 Aug 24, Israeli aircraft
killed a militant from Gaza's Islamic Jihad faction before dawn.
They later targeted two militants who had fired two mortars at
Israel shortly before. Israeli air strikes on Gaza killed 4 people
Palestinians including 2 Islamic Jihad militants.
(AP, 8/24/11)(AFP, 8/25/11)
2011 Aug 25, Israeli air
strikes on Gaza killed 2 Palestinians. Over the last 24 hour period,
Gaza militants fired 19 rockets and mortars into southern Israel,
lightly injuring an infant.
(AFP, 8/25/11)
2011 Aug 26, Israel said it is
allowing Jewish settlers to expand a building in Hebron, one of the
West Bank's most volatile cities. Hebron is holy to Muslims and
Jews. Today, more than 600 Jews live there in fortified enclaves
amid 170,000 Palestinians. Gaza militants called their second truce
in less than five days in an attempt to keep more than a week of
hostilities with Israel from escalating.
(AP, 8/26/11)
2011 Aug 29, A Palestinian
attacker (21) wounded 7 Israelis, one critically, near a Tel Aviv
nightclub early in the day, hitting a police checkpoint with a
stolen taxi and then stabbing others.
(AP, 8/29/11)
2011 Sep 2, Israeli activists
have called for a Sep 3 "demonstration of one million" people as
part of their ongoing protest movement against rising costs of
living in the Jewish state.
(AFP, 9/2/11)
2011 Sep 2, Turkey expelled the
Israeli ambassador to Ankara and suspended all military ties with
its one-time ally after a UN report slammed the "excessive" force
used in the May 31, 2010, raid on a Gaza aid flotilla.
(AFP, 9/2/11)
2011 Sep 3, Witnesses said
Egypt's military has started to close smuggling tunnels to Gaza,
amid Israeli warnings of plans by Gazan militants to attack the
Jewish state through Egyptian territory.
(AFP, 9/3/11)
2011 Sep 4, Israeli PM Benjamin
Netanyahu pledged "real" economic change after massive nationwide
protests that broke Israeli records and prompted questions about the
future of the social movement.
(AFP, 9/4/11)
2011 Sep 5, The Israeli
military razed three buildings before dawn in Migron, an
unauthorized West Bank settlement outpost, and clashed with settlers
who reject a Supreme Court ruling ordering the enclave to be
dismantled.
(AP, 9/5/11)
2011 Sep 7, Israel’s Shin Bet
security service said security forces have arrested Hamas militants
accused in a March 23 bombing that killed British woman Mary Jean
Gardner and wounded dozens of civilians. A Palestinian militant from
the Islamic Jihad faction was killed by an explosion in a car in
central Gaza. Another militant in the car was badly wounded. Islamic
Jihad said the car was hit by an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli
military denied involvement.
(AP, 9/7/11)
2011 Sep 9, In Egypt thousands
demonstrated in Cairo's Tahrir Square against the pace of reform
under the country's military rulers. Smaller crowds demonstrated in
other Egyptian cities. Hundreds of protesters tore down a concrete
security wall that authorities had recently erected outside the
Israel embassy building. Young men battered the wall with
sledgehammers, ripping off chunks with their bare hands. Protesters
were able to get to the top of the building and pull down the
Israeli flag, which they replaced with the Egyptian flag.
(AP, 9/9/11)(AP, 9/10/11)
2011 Sep 10, Israel’s
ambassador to Egypt and the entire embassy staff except for one
deputy ambassador were evacuated along with their families in the
face of the overnight rampage at the Nile-side embassy in Cairo,
when hundreds of protesters tore down a concrete security wall
outside the building, set fires in the street and dozens broke into
an office of the embassy tossing documents off the balcony to the
crowd below.
(AP, 9/10/11)
2011 Sep 19, Israeli settlers
in the West Bank set fire to dozens of acres of farm land and cut
down some 500 olive, fig and almond trees near the villages of
Einabous and Deir Istiya.
(AP, 9/20/11)
2011 Sep 23, In Israel a car
crash killed an Israeli settlement father and his infant son in the
West Bank. An investigation found that he lost control of his car
after he was hit in the head by a stone.
(AP, 9/28/11)
2011 Sep 23, Islamic nations at
a 151-nation IAEA conference in Vienna demanded that Israel open its
nuclear program to international purview, asserting that its
undeclared atomic arms program is a threat to Mideast peace.
(AP, 9/23/11)
2011 Sep 23, Palestinians
calling for UN recognition of a Palestinian state clashed with
Israeli soldiers in the West Bank, just hours before their
president, Mahmoud Abbas, was to deliver his widely anticipated
request to the world body.
(AP, 9/23/11)
2011 Sep 26, Undercover Israeli
police officers arrested Ahmed Abu Atoun, a Hamas lawmaker who had
been hiding in the Red Cross' office in east Jerusalem for the past
year. Lawmaker Mohammed Abu Teir was taken into custody earlier this
month after venturing out of the compound.
(AP, 9/26/11)
2011 Sep 26, Israel's national
museum and the international web giant Google led a project, that
put five Dead Sea scrolls online today. The scrolls include the
biblical Book of Isaiah.
(AP, 9/26/11)
2011 Sep 27, Israel's
government granted the go-ahead for construction of 1,100 new
housing units in occupied east Jerusalem, raising already heightened
tensions fueled by last week's Palestinian move to seek UN
membership.
(AP, 9/27/11)
2011 Sep 27, In Egypt
assailants in two pickup trucks struck a pumping station on a gas
pipeline to Israel about 15 miles (25 km) west of the region's main
city of el-Arish before, causing a loud explosion and fire.
(AP, 9/27/11)
2011 Sep 28, Dozens of
Palestinian olive trees were destroyed in an attack near the city of
Hebron in what local residents called an act of revenge carried out
by settlers.
(AFP, 10/1/11)
2011 Oct 1, Israeli settlers
from Yitzhar, near Nablus, invaded Palestinian olive groves in the
West Bank and uprooted 200 trees around the villages of Hawwara and
Ein Nabus.
(AFP, 10/1/11)
2011 Oct 2, Israel’s PM
Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel "welcomes the Quartet's call
for direct negotiations between the parties without preconditions"
but said it has unspecified "concerns" about the proposal. The plan
by the Quartet of Mideast mediators calls for the resumption of
talks and a deal within a year.
(AP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 2, The Israeli
newspaper Haaretz reported that Israeli writer Yoram Kaniuk has won
a historic court victory granting his request to be officially
registered as "without religion" rather than "Jewish." A Tel Aviv
court sided with his demand, ruling last week that Israeli law
allows citizens to be officially registered as having no religion.
(AFP, 10/2/11)
2011 Oct 3, In northern Israel
arsonists torched a mosque in an Arab village, setting off protests
by residents who clashed with police. Graffiti sprayed at the site
suggested Jewish radicals, suspected in other recent mosque fires,
were involved.
(AP, 10/3/11)
2011 Oct 3, Hanan Porat (67), a
driving force behind Israel's settlement of the West Bank, died of
cancer. The former Israeli lawmaker was a founder of the now-defunct
movement Gush Emunim, Hebrew for "the bloc of the faithful" (1974),
a messianic movement committed to settling land Israel captured in
the 1967 war.
(AP, 10/4/11)
2011 Oct 5, Israeli scientist
Dan Shechtman was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for a
discovery that faced skepticism and mockery. While doing research in
the US in 1982, Shechtman discovered a new chemical structure,
quasicrystals, that researchers previously thought was impossible.
(AP, 10/5/11)
2011 Oct 6, Israel's supreme
court barred nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu (56) from
emigrating on the grounds he still poses a threat to state security.
Vanunu served 18 years behind bars for disclosing the inner workings
of Israel's Dimona nuclear plant to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper
in 1986.
(AFP, 10/7/11)
2011 Oct 10, In Israel nearly
300 residents at hospitals failed to turn up to work and hundreds
more were poised to resign later the same day in a dispute over pay
and conditions.
(AFP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 10, In the Gaza Strip
at least one person has been killed in an explosion along the
northern border with Israel. Israeli army officials believed the
blast was set off by two militants who were trying to plant a bomb.
(AP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 11, Israel and Hamas
announced that Sgt. Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier abducted to
Gaza five years ago, would be swapped for about 1,000 Palestinians
held by Israel and accused of militant activity. The next morning
the Israeli Cabinet endorsed the Egyptian-brokered deal in a 26-3
vote. Shalit was expected to return via Egypt by Oct 19.
(AP, 10/11/11)(AP, 10/12/11)(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, A Hamas official
said that close to 200 of the 450 Palestinians to be freed in the
first phase of a swap for a captured Israeli soldier will not be
allowed to return to their homes in the West Bank, Gaza or east
Jerusalem, suggesting a substantial number may face deportation.
(AP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 14, Israel unveiled
plans to build 2,610 units on disputed Jerusalem land. The project
would nearly cut Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem from West Bank
communities.
(SFC, 10/15/11, p.A2)
2011 Oct 16, Israel released
the names of the first 477 Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged for
Staff Sgt. Gilad Schalit.
(SFC, 10/17/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 18, Israeli soldier
Gilad Schalit emerged from more than five years in Hamas captivity,
surrounded by Hamas militants with black face masks and green
headbands who handed him over to Egyptian mediators in an exchange
for 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
(AP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 26, Talks between
envoys of the international peacemaking Quartet and Israeli and
Palestinian officials in Jerusalem ended with a pledge to introduce
"comprehensive proposals" but no deal on new peace talks.
(AFP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 27, Israeli police
said vandals have cut down 20 olive trees belonging to an
Palestinian family in Jerusalem, with a note at the scene implying
it might have been a Jewish extremist act against Arabs.
(AFP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 27, In Egypt Ilan
Grapel (27), an Israeli held by Egypt since June 12 on espionage
charges, was freed in exchange for 25 Egyptian citizens, mostly
Bedouin residents of Sinai charged with smuggling.
(SFC, 10/28/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 29, In Israel tens of
thousands of people marched in Tel Aviv to express anger over the
high cost of living. Thousands of others protested in Jerusalem.
(AP, 10/29/11)
2011 Oct 29, Israeli aircraft
killed 5 Palestinian militants from the Islamic Jihad group whom it
says were responsible for recent rocket attacks on Israel. Field
commander Ahmed Sheikh Khalil was killed as militants were preparing
to launch more rockets at Israel. Palestinians fired 10 rockets into
Israel in the early hours of the morning, and Israeli aircraft
targeted six militant sites in Gaza. 9 militants and an Israeli
civilian were killed altogether in some of the worst violence in the
area in months.
(AP, 10/29/11)(AP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 29, Saudi Prince
Khaled bin Talal, brother of billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal,
told the kingdom's al-Daleel TV station by telephone that he was
raising a previous offer made by Sheik Awadh al-Qarani, a prominent
Saudi cleric who promised $100,000 for capturing an Israeli soldier.
(AP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 30, An Israeli
aircraft struck a pair of Palestinian militants, killing one man and
wounding a second in a new eruption of violence that raised the
death toll in a weekend of rocket attacks and airstrikes to 11.
(AP, 10/30/11)
2011 Oct 31, Israeli aircraft
struck the southern Gaza Strip targeting rocket-launching militants.
Palestinian officials reported that two men were found dead in the
area. The Israeli military said its aircraft attacked a squad that
had just fired a rocket into Israel.
(AP, 10/31/11)
2011 Oct 31, Israeli Committee
Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) submitted complaints to three UN
Special Reporters, demanding they launch an investigation into the
legality of Israel's policy in the eastern sector of Jerusalem,
which it occupied in 1967 and later annexed, a move never recognized
by the rest of the world. The group's report "No Home, No Homeland"
accuses Israel of making it almost impossible for Palestinians to
obtain building permits.
(AFP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, Israeli troops in
Ramallah rearrested Hassan Yusef, a senior Hamas official overnight,
along with his son. Yusef was freed on August 4 as part of a mass
release of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners due to overcrowding. He
had six weeks left of his sentence.
(AFP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 1, Hackers from around
the world attacked Palestinian servers, cutting Internet service
across the West Bank and Gaza, one day after the Palestinians won
full membership of UNESCO.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 3, Palestinians said
Israel has carried out its threat to suspend transfer of tax
payments totaling some $100 million to the Palestinians Authority to
protest this week's admission of Palestine to the United Nations'
cultural agency. 2 Palestinian men were reported killed in clashes
with Israeli forces.
(AP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 3, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy branded Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu "a liar" in a
private conversation with US President Barack Obama that was
accidentally broadcast to journalists during the G20 summit in
Cannes.
(Reuters, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 4, Israeli naval
vessels intercepted two protest boats on their way to Gaza to try to
break Israel's blockade. Commandos boarded the Irish-flagged Saoirse
(Freedom) and the Canadian ship Tahrir (Arabic for Liberation) in
international waters off Gaza before the navy escorted them to the
port of Ashdod.
(AP, 11/4/11)(AFP, 11/5/11)
2011 Nov 5, Israel freed six of
27 passengers and crew who were aboard two ships intercepted by its
navy while trying to breach the Jewish state's blockade on the
Hamas-run Gaza Strip. The six released included an Israeli Arab, two
Greek crewmen and three journalists -- from Egypt, Spain and the
United States. Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip killed an
Islamic Jihad militant and wounded three other Palestinians.
(AFP, 11/5/11)(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 6, Israeli President
Shimon Peres warned that an attack on Iran is becoming increasingly
likely, days before a report by the UN's nuclear watchdog on Iran's
nuclear program is due.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 6, The websites of
Israel's army and intelligence services were down today, two days
after a hacker group appeared to threaten the Jewish state over its
interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 7, Israel was hit by a
brief general strike that affected hospitals, banks, ports and the
country's main international airport, but which ended after just
four hours. Its scope was limited to four hours following an
all-night session by the National Labour Court which met after the
collapse of talks between the powerful Histadrut trades union and
the finance ministry. The Histadrut has accused the government of
massively increasing its use of contract workers and is demanding it
offer hundreds of thousands of them coverage under the civil
service's collective bargaining agreement.
(AFP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 7, The Israeli
military opened fire at a group of militants planting explosives
along Gaza's border with Israel. Gaza health officials said tank
shrapnel wounded three Palestinians, one of whom was in critical
condition.
(AP, 11/7/11)
2011 Nov 8, Israel’s Foreign
Minister Avigdor Lieberman said only crippling sanctions against
Iran's central bank and its oil and gas industries will force Tehran
to halt its nuclear drive. The UN atomic agency said for the first
time that Iran is suspected of conducting secret experiments whose
sole purpose is the development of nuclear arms.
(AFP, 11/8/11)(AP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 9, Israeli warplanes
raided the Gaza Strip after a rocket was fired at southern Israel.
Three Palestinian cars were set ablaze overnight in the West Bank
village of Beit Omar near Hebron and a house sprayed with graffiti.
Hardline Jewish settlers have adopted what they call a "price tag"
policy under which they have attacked mainly Palestinians and their
property in response to Israeli government measures against
settlements.
(AFP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 10, Israel's Supreme
Court ordered former President Moshe Katsav (65) to spend seven
years in prison after rejecting the disgraced politician's appeal of
a rape conviction and other sex crimes. He was convicted last
December of raping a former employee when he was a Cabinet minister
and of sexually harassing two other women during his term as
president from 2000 to 2007.
(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 10, An Israeli court
ordered a Brooklyn man, Yitzchak Shuchat, extradited to the US in
connection with an April 2008 assault on a black man, Andrew
Charles, in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.
(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 10, In Egypt 2
explosions a gas pipeline halting supplies to Israel and Jordan.
(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 14, Israeli Cabinet
ministers decided to hold on to some $100 million in taxes owed to
the Palestinians, an official said, despite warnings from Israel's
Defense Ministry that the measure could threaten the stability of
the Palestinian government in the West Bank. A Hamas naval policeman
was killed and 7 others wounded in an Israeli airstrike on their
building in the northern Gaza Strip.
(AP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 14, A Kenya government
statement said PM Raila Odinga asked Israeli President Shimon Peres
for assistance in building the capacity of the Kenyan police to deal
with attacks by al-Shabab militants.
(AP, 11/14/11)
2011 Nov 16, Israel's domestic
security agency Shin Bet said in a statement that Israeli forces
have arrested four Palestinians accused of attacks against Israelis,
including shooting at an army patrol. Israel allowed the first
truckloads of a rare shipment of construction materials into
Gaza to allow the reconstruction of 10 privately owned factories.
(AFP, 11/16/11)(SFC, 11/17/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 17, Annual figures
from Israel’s National Insurance Institute showed one in four
Israelis was living under the poverty line in 2010, although the
numbers showed an improvement since 2009.
(AFP, 11/17/11)
2011 Nov 19, Israeli researcher
Dror Etkes said 375 acres from the Palestinian village of Bardaleh
have been annexed to the Israeli Kibbutz Meirav.
(AP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 20, In Israel
officials and the "All for Peace" radio station operators said the
government has ordered the shutdown of a dovish Israeli-Palestinian
radio station. A shutdown order was issued last week. The West Bank
station, which has been operating since 2004, said it would go to
court in Israel to try to get back on the air.
(AP, 11/20/11)
2011 Nov 24, Israeli ministers
decided, for the time being, to maintain a freeze on the transfer of
tens of millions of dollars in tax monies to the Palestinian
Authority. This followed hours after Palestinian president Mahmud
Abbas held top-level talks with Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal at which
they announced a new era of "partnership."
(AFP, 11/25/11)
2011 Nov 24, Israeli women's
rights activists marched through Tel Aviv carrying black coffins to
raise awareness about domestic violence in Israel, which so far this
year has claimed 24 women's lives.
(AFP, 11/24/11)
2011 Nov 25, In Egypt masked
gunmen blew up a gas pipeline which supplies Egyptian gas to Israel,
in the eighth such attack this year.
(AFP, 11/25/11)
2011 Nov 26, Palestinian
militants in the Gaza Strip fired a Qassam rocket into the Eshkol
region of southern Israel. The attack only damaged a farm
outbuilding.
(AFP, 11/26/11)
2011 Nov 27, Palestinian
officials said they will not be able to pay the next round of public
sector salaries due to Israeli sanctions.
(SFC, 11/28/11, p.A2)
2011 Nov 28, Israeli settlement
watchdog Peace Now said Israel has approved construction of more 119
homes in the West Bank settlement of Shilo, a move likely to bring
fresh international condemnation.
(AFP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 28, Chinese automaker
Chery Automobile Co. and partner Israel Corp. launched the 50-50
joint venture Qoros Automotive Co., seeking fresh appeal both
overseas and in the slowing local market. Israel Corp. is Israel's
largest holding company, with interests mainly in chemicals,
shipping and energy.
(AP, 11/28/11)
2011 Nov 29, Rockets fired from
Lebanon struck northern Israel for the first time in more than two
years, drawing a burst of Israeli artillery fire across the tense
border. No casualties or major damage were reported.
(AP, 11/29/11)
2011 Nov 30, Israel announced
that it would release tens of millions of dollars of tax funds owed
to the Palestinians, ending a standoff that the Palestinians say has
caused grave damage to their fragile economy.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Nov 30, A senior German
official said the government has approved the subsidized sale of
another Dolphin-type military submarine to Israel. Israel already
has 3 Dolphin submarines from Germany, one half-funded and two
entirely funded by Berlin.
(AP, 11/30/11)
2011 Dec 7, Israel's official
Holocaust memorial says it has received its largest private donation
ever, a $25 million gift from US casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. He
also owns a leading daily newspaper, Israel Hayom, which is
distributed in Israel for free.
(AP, 12/7/11)
2011 Dec 7, Israeli warplanes
hit targets east of Gaza City, killing one militant and injuring
another two, with the military saying they were planning to fire
rockets across the border.
(AFP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 8, An Israeli strike
killed 2 Gaza militants. Israel said one of them, Issam al-Batsh,
had planned a deadly bombing in Eilat in 2007. The Israeli military
said the two men had also been planning another attack on southern
Israel by infiltrating from the Sinai peninsula.
(AFP, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 9, An Israeli
airstrike against a Hamas target in Gaza killed a Palestinian
civilian and his son (12). Palestinian Mustafa Abelrazek al-Tamimi
(28) was critically wounded when he was hit in the face by a tear
gas canister fired by Israeli troops at a rally in the West Bank.
Tamimi had been throwing stones and died of his injuries the next
day. Gaza militants fired twelve rockets at Israel.
(AP, 12/9/11)(AFP, 12/9/11)(AP, 12/10/11)(AFP,
12/10/11)
2011 Dec 10, Israeli warplanes
attacked Gaza and militants fired four rockets at southern Israel in
return.
(AP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 11, The Israeli
Cabinet voted unanimously to finance a $160 million program to
stanch the flow of illegal African migrants by stepping up
construction of a border fence and expanding a detention center.
Several thousand Bedouin demonstrated outside Israeli PM Benjamin
Netanyahu's office, protesting over a plan they say will displace
tens of thousands of people from their land.
(AP, 12/11/11)(AFP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 11, A Palestinian
father and his daughter were wounded in an Israeli air strike on
Gaza City.
(AFP, 12/11/11)
2011 Dec 12, The Efrat
settlement mayor said Israel's government has approved 40 new houses
to replace trailers at the West Bank settlement, drawing criticism
from Palestinians. The trailers at the site, known as Givat Hadagan,
were put up without authorization.
(AP, 12/12/11)
2011 Dec 12, Dozens of Jewish
settlers broke into an army base in the West Bank and lit fires,
damaged vehicles and threw stones at a senior officer, just hours
after another group took over an abandoned building in a closed
military zone on the border with Jordan. The settlers were
reportedly protesting the planned evacuations of unauthorized
settlement outposts.
(AP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 14, Israeli police
detained six Jewish extremists following a series of attacks on
mosques and Israeli military bases. Unknown arsonists torched an
inactive Jerusalem mosque, provoking calls in Israel for a more
effective crackdown on Jewish extremists.
(AP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 15, Suspected Israeli
vandals set fire to a mosque in the West Bank and defaced it with
Hebrew graffiti a day after a similar arson attack on a Jerusalem
mosque. Suspicion fell on Jewish extremists widely assumed to be
behind stepped-up violence against Palestinians and the Israeli
military.
(AP, 12/15/11)
2011 Dec 16, In Gaza a man died
from heavy machine gun fire on the border between the Gaza Strip and
Israel. An Israeli military spokeswoman said soldiers on patrol in
the area heard explosions, and a tank responded with gunfire toward
"suspicious locations." Family members identified the victim as
Nafez Nabhein (35), a Bedouin civilian from the Bureij refugee camp.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 18, Israel released
hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, the second and final phase of a
swap with Gaza Hamas militants that brought home an Israeli soldier
after five years in captivity.
(AP, 12/18/11)
2011 Dec 22, The rival
Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas took an important step toward
reconciliation, announcing plans for the Islamic militants to join
the umbrella group that has overseen two decades of on-and-off peace
talks with Israel. Israeli officials reacted with alarm to the
emerging agreement.
(AP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 27, Israeli strikes
overnight killed a Palestinian and wounded 10 others, as the
military struck what it described as "global jihad" targets who were
planning cross-border attacks on southern Israel from the Egyptian
Sinai.
(AFP, 12/29/11)(AFP, 12/30/11)
2011 Dec 29, Palestinian
militants fired two rockets at southern Israel, after Israeli
warplanes attacked "terror sites" overnight inside the Gaza Strip.
(AFP, 12/29/11)
2011 Dec 30, Israel said its
warplanes killed a senior jihadist militant in Gaza thwarting a
rocket fire attempt. Palestinians said that Moamen abu-Daff, known
locally as a fundamentalist Islamic Salafi militant, was killed in a
raid east of Gaza City that also wounded another man.
(AFP, 12/30/11)
2011 Daniel Byman authored “A
High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism.
(SSFC, 7/10/11, p.99)
2011 James Carroll authored
Jerusalem, Jerusalem: How the Ancient Ignited Our Modern World.”
(SSFC, 3/13/11, p.G7)
2011 Ilan Pappe authored “the
Forgotten Palestinians: a History of the Palestinians in Israel.”
(Econ, 5/28/11, p.89)
2011 Simon Sebag authored
“Jerusalem: The Biography.”
(Econ, 3/19/11, p.93)
2012 Jan 2, Israeli and
Palestinian negotiators headed to Jordan for their first
face-to-face meeting in nearly 16 months, although both sides
stressed it did not mark a renewal of talks.
(AFP, 1/2/12)
2012 Jan 3, Israel's Yitzhak
Molcho and Palestinian Saeb Erekat met in Jordan in the presence of
envoys from the US, Russia, the EU and the UN. The Palestinian
president threatened to take "new measures" against Israel if a
much-anticipated meeting in Jordan fails to bring about a resumption
of peace talks. There were no significant breakthroughs but both
sides agreed to continue the dialogue.
(AP, 1/3/12)(SFC, 1/4/12, p.A3)
2012 Jan 3, Israeli credit card
companies said hackers claiming to be Saudis disclosed credit card
information of thousands of Israelis on the Internet.
(AP, 1/3/12)
2012 Jan 5, Former Israeli
prime minister Ehud Olmert was indicted alongside a number of other
people for allegedly taking bribes in a massive property scandal.
(AFP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 6, In Israel Christian
lawyer and accountant Gabriel Cadis was fatally stabbed by a man in
a Santa suit after a parade in the historic Mediterranean port
district marking the day before the Greek Orthodox Christmas. Six
Israeli Arabs were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the
killing in Jaffa.
(AFP, 1/7/12)
2012 Jan 6, An alleged Saudi
hacker (19), oxOmar, posted thousands of Israeli credit card numbers
and other personal data online, his second politically motivated
attack this week.
(AP, 1/6/12)
2012 Jan 8, Yair Lapid (48),
one of Israel's most popular television personalities, quit the news
business to start his own political party, a move that could shake
up the Israeli political system by energizing opposition to PM
Benjamin Netanyahu.
(AP, 1/8/12)
2012 Jan 8, Israeli police
arrested 3 more men in a suspected pedophilia ring thought to have
preyed on dozens of Jerusalem children. The ring is suspected of
molesting 70 children between the ages of 2 and 7 in their religious
Jewish neighborhood.
(AP, 1/9/12)
2012 Jan 8, Israel charged five
alleged Jewish extremists over a December 12 raid on an army base,
accusing them of gathering intelligence on the Israeli military and
planning a riot.
(AFP, 1/8/12)
2012 Jan 10, Israel's
parliament approved harsh new penalties on illegal migrants and
Israelis who help them, building on other contentious measures
designed to stanch the flood of Africans seeking sanctuary here.
(AP, 1/10/12)
2012 Jan 11, Israel's Supreme
Court upheld a controversial law that bans most Palestinians who
marry Israelis from living inside the Jewish state.
(AP, 1/12/12)
2012 Jan 11, Egypt called off
an annual Jewish festival in the Nile Delta, which draws Israeli
pilgrims every year to the tomb of holy man Abu Hassira (Abi Hasira,
aka Yaakov Abuhatzeira), a renowned religious figure from Morocco,
who fell ill and died in Damanhur, Egypt, in 1880.
(AFP,
1/11/12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damanhur)
2012 Jan 11, A Hamas official
in Gaza said the militant group has sentenced a local Palestinian to
death for collaborating with Israel. 3 cars were torched and
graffiti was sprayed on a mosque in the northern West Bank, in the
latest apparent "price tag" attack.
(AP, 1/11/12)(AFP, 1/11/12)
2012 Jan 12, Israeli rights
groups and parliamentarians criticized a court ruling upholding a
law that prevents Palestinians married to Arab Israelis from
obtaining Israeli citizenship or residency. Israel troops demolished
an unauthorized settler outpost made up of 10 wooden huts in the
southern West Bank.
(AFP, 1/12/12)(AFP, 1/12/12)
2012 Jan 12, Lebanese media and
officials said the Lebanese army has detained a man on suspicion of
collaborating for years with Israel's Mossad spy agency. Elias
Younes, a retired employee of the state telecommunications company
Ogero, was arrested earlier in the week.
(AP, 1/12/12)
2020 Israel’s population was
expected to reach 8 million with a density of 857 people per sq. km.
compared with 400 for Holland and 26 per sq. km. in the US.
(SFEM, 5/31/98, p.16)
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End of file.