Timeline Palestine C 2004- 2009
Return to home
2004 Jan 3,
Israeli soldiers shot and killed 3 Palestinians in the West Bank city
of Nablus.
(AP, 1/3/04)
2004 Jan 7, Israeli soldiers
patrolling West Bank towns shot and killed 3 Palestinian militants
during an ongoing sweep of the area.
(AP, 1/7/04)
2004 Jan 8, PM Ahmed Qureia warned
that Palestinians would forgo a 2-state solution and force Israel into
a losing demographic race if a unilateral boundary is imposed.
(WSJ, 1/9/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 9, Israeli troops swept
into the West Bank town of Jenin, making arrests and trading gunfire
with militants.
(AP, 1/9/04)
2004 Jan 14, Reem al-Reyashi (22),
Palestinian mother of two, blew herself up at the main crossing point
between Israel and the Gaza Strip, killing at least 4 Israelis and
wounding 7 other people.
(AP, 1/14/04)(SFC, 1/15/04, p.A3)
2004 Jan 16, Hamas founder Ahmed
Yassin brushed off warnings by a top Israeli official that he is
"marked for death" and, in a defiant appearance at a Gaza City mosque,
and said his Is-lamic militant group will continue to attack Israelis.
(AP, 1/16/04)
2004 Jan 21, Israeli forces
demolished houses in Gaza's Rafah refugee camp for the second straight
day in an anti-militant clampdown that has left 400 people homeless. A
Palestinian woman was killed.
(AP, 1/21/04)(WSJ, 1/22/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 22, Israeli soldiers shot
and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy as he and six other unarmed
teenagers tried to sneak from the Gaza Strip into Israel.
(AP, 1/22/04)
2004 Jan 24, Israeli troops shot
to death two Palestinian militants who entered an unauthor-ized
military zone near a security barrier separating Gaza from Israel.
(AP, 1/24/04)
2004 Jan 28, Arab prisoners began
their journey to Germany under a long-awaited prisoner swap between
Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.
(AP, 1/28/04)
2004 Jan 28, Israeli troops
clashed with Palestinian militants in fierce, prolonged street battles
across Gaza City, killing eight Palestinians.
(AP, 1/28/04)(SFC, 1/29/04, p.A7)
2004 Jan 29, A Palestinian suicide
bomber detonated a bag of explosives on a crowded Jeru-salem bus
outside Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's residence, killing 10 passengers
and wounding 50 bystanders.
(AP, 1/29/04)
2004 Feb 1, Israeli troops riding
jeeps and a tank raided the biblical town of Jericho for the first time
in months, killing one Palestinian militant and forcing many residents
to stay inside at the start of the four-day Muslim holiday of Eid
al-Adha.
(AP, 2/1/04)
2004 Feb 2, Israel killed a leader
of Islamic Jihad and three other militants in a Gaza raid.
(AP, 2/2/05)
2004 Feb 7, An Israeli helicopter
fired a missile into a car traveling in a crowded Gaza City street,
killing Aziz Mahmoud Shami, a leader of the militant Islamic Jihad
group and a 12-year-old boy on his way to school. The attack wounded 10
Palestinians, three of them critically.
(AP, 2/7/04)
2004 Feb 7, Nearly 400 members of
Yasser Arafat's ruling Fatah Party resigned to protest what they call
corruption and bad leadership within the group.
(AP, 2/7/04)
2004 Feb 9, Saloum Cohen (82),
high priest of the tiny Samaritan community and a Palestin-ian
lawmaker, died. Cohen had been the spiritual head of the 660-strong
Samaritans since 2001.
(AP, 2/9/04)
2004 Feb 11, Israeli troops rode
tanks into the Gaza Strip searching for Islamic militants firing
rockets at nearby Jewish settlements, and the ensuing battle left at
least 14 Palestinians dead and more than 50 wounded.
(AP, 2/11/04)
2004 Feb 10, French prosecutors
launched a money-laundering probe into the alleged trans-fers of $11.5
million dollars to accounts held by the wife of Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat.
(AP, 2/11/04)(WSJ, 2/11/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 11, Israeli troops rode
tanks into the Gaza Strip searching for Islamic militants firing
rockets at nearby Jewish settlements, and the ensuing battle left at
least 15 Palestinians dead and more than 50 wounded.
(AP, 2/11/04)(SFC, 2/12/04, p.A8)
2004 Feb 25, Israeli security
forces raided four branches of Palestinian banks, seizing $6.7 million
they said was sent by Iran, Syria and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas to
fund Palestinian militants.
(AP, 2/25/04)(WSJ, 2/26/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 26, Israeli soldiers shot
and killed two Palestinians during violent protests against Israel's
West Bank barrier. Two Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli soldier at
a Gaza Strip crossing before being gunned down by troops. 3 Palestinian
boys, aged 12-15, were arrested near Nablus as they tried to cross a
checkpoint with homemade guns.
(AP, 2/26/04)(SSFC, 2/29/04, p.A3)
2004 Feb 27, Israeli police
stormed one of Jerusalem's holiest sites to disperse hundreds of
Palestinian stone-throwers protesting Israel's contentious West Bank
barrier.
(AP, 2/27/04)
2004 Feb 28, The mayor of Nablus,
the West Bank's largest city, said he is quitting to protest Yasser
Arafat's failure to rein in armed gangs.
(AP, 2/28/04)
2004 Feb 29, Israel's Supreme
Court ordered the government to suspend work for one week on a section
of the West Bank security barrier, an attorney said, while security
forces arrested three Palestinian youths who planned an attack.
(AP, 2/29/04)
2004 Mar 2, Khalil al-Zaben (59),
a close associate of Yasser Arafat, was assassinated in Gaza City by
unidentified gunmen. Separately Arafat agreed to a new system for
paying his se-curity forces.
(SFC, 3/03/04, p.A8)
2004 Mar 4, Israeli forces raided
the southern Gaza town of Rafah, killing a 14-year-old boy, bulldozing
houses and damaging the water and electricity networks.
(AP, 3/4/04)
2004 Mar 6, Palestinian gunmen and
car bombers attacked a major crossing point between the Gaza Strip and
Israel. At least four attackers and two Palestinian policemen were
killed, and no Israeli soldiers were hurt.
(AP, 3/6/04)
2004 Mar 7, Israeli troops traded
heavy gunfire with Palestinians in a raid near Bureij Refugee Camp,
killing 14 Palestinians. Among the dead were 11 militants and three
boys between the ages of 8 and 15, and 81 people were wounded.
(AP, 3/7/04)(AP, 3/8/04)
2004 Mar 9, Israeli forces backed
by tanks and combat helicopters raided the West Bank town of Jenin,
prompting a gun battle that killed a Palestinian woman in her home.
(AP, 3/9/04)
2004 Mar 13, Israeli soldiers shot
and killed two Palestinian militants in an off-limits military zone
between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/13/04)
2004 Mar 14, In Israel 2
explosions killed eight people and wounding 18 at the seaport of
Ash-dod. Police said 2 Palestinian suicide bombers were responsible.
(AP, 3/14/04)
2004 Mar 15, Israeli helicopters
attacked two suspected Hamas weapons workshops in Gaza City and Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon called off a summit with his Palestinian
counterpart.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2004 Mar 17, Israeli helicopters
fired two missiles into a crowd of suspected gunmen in a Pal-estinian
refugee camp, killing four people in a stepped-up campaign to root out
militants in the Gaza Strip. 2 teenage boys were killed in an air
strike at the Rafah refugee camp.
(AP, 3/17/04)(SFC, 3/18/04, p.A2)
2004 Mar 17, Israel's Supreme
Court imposed an open-ended freeze on construction of a 15-mile section
of the country's controversial West Bank separation barrier.
(AP, 3/18/04)
2004 Mar 21, Four Hamas militants
and a Palestinian woman were killed in fighting with Israeli troops,
the sixth day of Israel's new offensive in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/21/04)
2004 Mar 22, Israel killed Hamas
founder Ahmed Yassin and 7 other Hamas members in a helicopter missile
strike outside a Gaza City mosque, prompting threats of unprecedented
re-venge by thousands of Palestinian. Sheik Ahmed Yassin, a
quadriplegic preacher, founded the Islamic militant group Hamas in 1987
and presided over its rise to a violent, radical alternative to Yasser
Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
(AP, 3/22/04)(USAT, 3/23/04, p.1A)
2004 Mar 23, Israel threatened the
entire Hamas leadership with death as Abdel Aziz Rantisi took command
of the group in Gaza.
(WSJ, 3/24/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 25, Armed Palestinians in
wetsuits and flippers emerged from the Mediterranean and fired toward a
beachfront Israeli settlement of Tel Katifa in Gaza. Two attackers were
killed and a third was wounded and fled.
(AP, 3/26/04)
2004 Mar 26, A Palestinian
militant was killed when an explosion went off in a van he was driving
in a West Bank refugee camp.
(AP, 3/26/04)
2004 Mar 27, A 7-year-old
Palestinian boy was killed by what the Israeli military said was
hap-hazard Palestinian gunfire toward an army jeep in a West Bank
refugee camp.
(AP, 3/27/04)
2004 Apr 2, PM Ariel Sharon
revealed the scope of his withdrawal plan, saying Israel will leave all
of the Gaza Strip and dismantle four West Bank settlements.
(AP, 4/2/04)
2004 Apr 3, Israeli troops
arrested 23 wanted Palestinians early in a large-scale raid in the West
Bank city of Nablus. Zohair Arda, a Palestinian gunman, broke into an
Israeli settlement early, killing an Israeli man and wounding his
12-year-old daughter in their home. Israeli troops entered the Tulkarem
refugee camp overnight and demolished the home of Arda (18), who was
shot dead during the attack.
(AP, 4/3/04)(AP, 4/4/04)
2004 Apr 5, Israeli troops killed
3 Palestinians near a Gaza settlement.
(WSJ, 4/6/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 10, A stray bullet killed
an 11-year old Palestinian girl in her kitchen when Israeli troops
fired on her neighborhood in the southern Gaza Strip.
(AP, 4/10/04)
2004 Apr 12, Israeli troops
exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen near an Israeli settlement in
the Northern Gaza Strip, killing at least three of the assailants.
(AP, 4/12/04)
2004 Apr 14, President Bush gave
PM Ariel Sharon U.S backing for Israeli plans to hold on to parts of
the West Bank. He also ruled out Palestinian refugees returning to
Israel, bringing strong criticism from the Palestinians.
(AP, 4/15/04)
2004 Apr 17, A Palestinian suicide
bomber blew himself up at an industrial zone between Is-rael and Gaza,
wounding four Israeli security workers.
(AP, 4/17/04)
2004 Apr 17, An Israeli missile
strike came 4 hours after a suicide bombing and killed Hamas leader
Abdel Aziz Rantisi (56) as he rode in his car in Gaza City. The dead
included Akram Nassar (35) Rantisi's personal bodyguard and his son
Mohammed (27).
(AP, 4/17/04)(SSFC, 4/18/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 18, Hamas secretly
appointed a new Gaza Strip chief. Dr. Mahmoud Zahar was ap-pointed as
the group's 3rd leader.
(AP, 4/18/04)(SFC, 4/23/04, p.A16)
2004 Apr 20, Palestinians fired a
barrage of homemade rockets and mortar shells at Gaza Strip settlements
and towns inside Israel in retaliation for the killing of Hamas leader
Abdel Aziz Rantisi. Over two days, 15 Qassam rockets hit Israeli
targets, wounding one Israeli and damag-ing at least five structures.
Israeli soldiers raided the Gaza neighborhood where some of the rockets
originated, killing 5 Palestinians, among them 3 militants, and
wounding 21 others.
(AP, 4/20/04)(SFC, 4/21/04, p.A12)
2004 Apr 20, Palestinian militants
stormed a Palestinian police station in Gaza City and re-leased three
men with possible links to a deadly bombing of a U.S. diplomatic convoy.
(AP, 4/23/04)
2004 Apr 21, Israeli troops killed
9 Palestinians after rocket attacks were fired at Israel for a 2nd day.
(WSJ, 4/22/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 23, Israeli troops killed
four Palestinians, one of them armed, in arrest raids in the West Bank.
(AP, 4/23/04)
2004 Apr 26, Hamas denounced 2
Palestinian men who died while stopping a suicide bomber from entering
Israel.
(WSJ, 4/28/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 27, Israeli troops killed
two Hamas fugitives and seriously wounded a third in a gun battle in
the West Bank Tulkarem refugee camp.
(AP, 4/27/04)
2004 May 2, In Israel PM Sharon’s
Likud Party rejected his proposal to withdraw troops and settlers from
the West Bank. Palestinian militants attacked an Israeli vehicle in the
Gaza Strip, killing 4 children and their mother. Israeli soldiers
killed the 2 attackers.
(AP, 5/2/04)(SFC, 5/3/04, p.A1)
2004 May 5, Israel's state
comptroller said the Housing Ministry has funneled nearly $6.5 mil-lion
to illegal settlement construction in the West Bank in the past three
years, more than half of it to outposts Israel pledged to remove.
(AP, 5/5/04)
2004 May 7, Israeli troops raided
a West Bank village near the town of Tulkarem, surrounding a house and
killing two Palestinian militants.
(AP, 5/7/04)
2004 May 11, Hamas militants
triumphantly displayed remains of some of the six Israeli sol-diers
killed in a roadside bombing in Gaza City, prompting Israeli threats of
punishing reprisals if body parts are not returned. 8 Palestinians were
killed and 123 wounded in a battle that pitted hundreds of gunmen
against Israeli troops.
(AP, 5/11/04)
2004 May 12, Israeli troops
launched a massive incursion into a Gaza neighborhood, firing missiles,
demolishing buildings and scouring rooftops, in a bid to recover the
body parts of six soldiers killed the day before by Palestinian
militants. An Israeli helicopter fired a missile in Gaza's Zeitoun
neighborhood, killing at least three Palestinians. Five Israeli
soldiers were killed when Palestinians blew up an Israeli armored
vehicle.
(AP, 5/12/04)(AP, 5/13/04)
2004 May 13, Israeli forces pulled
out of Gaza City after Egyptian intermediaries helped return body parts
of Israeli soldiers. At least 12 Palestinians were killed as the army
left behind a swath of destruction.
(AP, 5/13/04)(SFC, 5/14/04, p.A6)
2004 May 14, Heavy fighting raged
in the Rafah refugee camp, killing two Israeli soldiers and a
Palestinian man.
(AP, 5/14/04)
2004 May 15, More than 100,000
Israelis rallied in favor of a pullout from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 5/15/04)
2004 May 18, Israeli troops under
Operation Rainbow combed the Rafah refugee camp for weapons and gunmen
in the biggest Gaza offensive in years. Twenty Palestinians were
killed, including two teenagers, shot by an Israeli sniper, as they
gathered laundry.
(AP, 5/18/04)(SFC, 5/18/04, p.A3)(SFC, 5/25/04, p.A5)
2004 May 19, Israeli forces fired
a missile and a tank shell into a large crowd of Palestinians
demonstrating against the invasion of a neighboring refugee camp,
witnesses said. At least 10 Palestinians were killed, all children and
teenagers.
(AP, 5/19/04)
2004 May 20, Palestinian uprising
leader Marwan Barghouti, widely seen as a potential suc-cessor to
Yasser Arafat, was convicted of ordering shootings that killed four
Israelis and a Greek monk and supplying funds and arms for other
attacks. Israeli troops pressed their offen-sive in a Gaza Strip
refugee camp for a third day, killing 8 Palestinians, most of them
armed, and demolishing several buildings. In the West Bank, 3
Palestinians were killed by army fire.
(AP, 5/20/04)
2004 May 21, Israeli troops pulled
back from two neighborhoods in the Rafah refugee camp.
(AP, 5/21/04)
2004 May 22, A 3-year-old
Palestinian girl was shot and killed in the Rafah refugee camp on the
fifth day of Israeli searches and house demolitions. A suicide bomber
blew himself at an Is-raeli army checkpoint in the West Bank, wounding
five people.
(AP, 5/22/04)
2004 May 23, A car explosion
rocked the West Bank city of Nablus, killing at least 2 people. Israeli
military denied responsibility.
(AP, 5/23/04)
2004 May 25, Israeli troops
abruptly left the Rafah refugee camp without completing a sweep for
arms smuggling tunnels. The weeklong offensive left 45 Palestinians
killed by Israeli fire, in-cluding at least 17 gunmen and 12 children
under 16.
(AP, 5/25/04)
2004 May 29, A Palestinian gunman
killed an Israeli officer after opening fire on Israeli troops
conducting a routine raid in the West Bank Balata refugee camp. An
Israeli man was stabbed in the back by a Palestinian in Jerusalem's Old
City.
(AP, 5/29/04)
2004 May 30, An Israeli air strike
killed Wael Nassar (38), a top Hamas commander, along with his
assistant and a bystander in Gaza City.
(SSFC, 5/30/04, p.A9)
2004 Jun 6, Ariel Sharon’s cabinet
declared its intent to remove 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza strip
plus 4 in the West Bank. An Israeli court sentenced Palestinian leader
Marwan Barghouti to 5 consecutive life terms and 40 years for his role
in attacks that killed 4 Israelis and a Greek monk.
(AP, 6/6/04)(Econ, 6/12/04, p.45)
2004 Jun 14, An Israeli helicopter
attack in the West Bank killed 2 Palestinian militants.
(WSJ, 6/15/04, p.A1)
2004 Jun 24, Israeli troops posted
near a Gaza Strip settlement killed two Palestinians wear-ing
bulletproof vests and armed with submachine guns, ammunition clips and
grenades.
(AP, 6/24/04)
2004 Jun 26, Israeli troops killed
7 Palestinian militants during a raid in Nablus.
(SSFC, 6/27/04, p.A24)
2004 Jun 27, Palestinian militants
blew up an Israeli army post with explosives in a tunnel near the Gush
Katif settlement in the Gaza Strip. At least one soldier was killed. A
firefight fol-lowed that left 2 Palestinians dead.
(SFC, 6/28/04, p.A6)
2004 Jun 28, A Palestinian rocket
attack on Sderot killed an Israeli boy (3) and man (49).
(USAT, 6/29/04, p.12A)
2004 Jun 29, Israeli forces
countered a Palestinian rocket attack with tanks and missiles in
northern Gaza. One Palestinian was killed.
(USAT, 6/29/04, p.12A)
2004 Jul 3, Israeli troops shot
and killed a 9-year-old Palestinian boy in the 5th day of an army
operation meant to prevent militants from firing rockets at Israeli
towns by the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 7/3/04)
2004 Jul 6, Khaled Sallah, an
American-educated computer science professor, and his son were killed
during an arrest raid by Israeli commandos in the Ein Beit Ilma refugee
camp in the West Bank city of Nablus. West Bank and Gaza fighting left
6 Palestinians and one Israeli sol-dier dead.
(AP, 7/6/04)(WSJ, 7/7/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 8, Israeli troops killed
7 Palestinians in northern Gaza.
(WSJ, 7/9/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 9, The Int’l. Court of
Justice ruled that Israel’s separation barrier in the occupied West
Bank violates freedom of movement and should be demolished.
(SFC, 7/10/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 11, Palestinian militants
set off explosives hidden in shrubs at a Tel Aviv bus stop, killing a
female soldier and seriously wounding at least five people.
(AP, 7/11/04)
2004 Jul 15, Israel said it will
spend $11.1 million to change completed portions of its West Bank
barrier, building new roads, underpasses and tunnels to try to ease
Palestinian conditions.
(AP, 7/15/04)
2004 Jul 17, A Palestinian
security panel under Yasser Arafat declared a state of emergency after
a spate of kidnappings.
(SFC, 7/17/04, p.A11)
2004 Jul 17, Palestinian PM Ahmed
Qureia submitted his resignation to Yasser Arafat, who rejected it the
next day.
(AP, 7/17/05)
2004 Jul 18, Gunmen angry over
Yasser Arafat's overhaul of his security forces burned down Palestinian
Authority offices in Gaza.
(AP, 7/18/04)
2004 Jul 19, An Israeli aircraft
struck a Palestinian militant safe house at a beach camp near Gaza
City, wounding three fighters.
(AP, 7/19/04)
2004 Jul 22, In a Gaza City 2
Palestinians were killed when their car exploded. The Israeli at-tack
was aimed at a man involved in the slaying of six Israeli soldiers on
May 11.
(AP, 7/23/04)(SFC, 7/24/04, p.A14)
2004 Jul 24, Militants torched a
Palestinian police station south of Gaza City.
(AP, 7/24/04)
2004 Jul 25, Tens of thousands of
Jewish settlers and their supporters joined hands to form a human chain
along a 55-mile route, serving notice they will fight Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 7/26/04)
2004 Jul 25, Israeli soldiers in
the West Bank shot to death six members of the Al Aqsa Mar-tyrs
Brigades in a gunbattle in the town of Tulkarem.
(AP, 7/26/04)
2004 Jul 29, Israeli forces killed
2 top Palestinian militants in Gaza.
(WSJ, 7/30/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 2, In Gaza City 5 masked
men broke into a hospital and shot dead a convicted Pal-estinian
collaborator who had been wounded in a grenade attack in his prison
cell just hours earlier.
(AP, 8/2/04)
2004 Aug 4, Clashes in the Gaza
Strip left 4 Palestinians dead including a 10-year-old boy. Israeli
forces uncovered a smuggling tunnel on the border with Egypt.
(SFC, 8/5/04, p.A3)
2004 Aug 6, Israel reopened a
border crossing with Egypt, closed since July 18, enabling some 2,000
stranded Palestinians to return home.
(SFC, 8/7/04, p.A11)
2004 Aug 7, Nahed Arreyes,
Palestinian justice minister, resigned to protest Yasser Arafat’s
refusal to share power.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.A18)
2004 Aug 11, A West Bank assailant
detonated a large bomb near a busy Israeli military checkpoint, killing
two Palestinian men and wounding 16 people.
(AP, 8/11/04)
2004 Aug 13, A Palestinian gunman
killed an Israeli security guard near a Jewish West Bank settlement
before being slain himself.
(AP, 8/13/04)
2004 Aug 14, More than 100
unemployed university graduates stormed a Palestinian Author-ity
building in a Gaza Strip refugee camp, calling on the Palestinian
leadership to provide them with jobs.
(AP, 8/15/04)
2004 Aug 17, Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon approved the construction of 1,000 more homes in
Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
(AP, 8/17/04)
2004 Aug 17, Israeli soldiers shot
and killed a 9-year-old Palestinian boy in Nablus as he sat on the
front steps of his home eating a sandwich.
(AP, 8/17/04)
2004 Aug 18, Five Palestinians
were killed in a blast outside the house of a well-known Hamas militant
in Gaza City.
(AP, 8/17/04)
2004 Aug 23, Israel announced
plans for more than 500 new housing units in the West Bank, following
an apparent US policy shift on Jewish settlements that has infuriated
the Palestinians.
(AP, 8/23/04)
2004 Aug 29, Israeli troops killed
an armed Palestinian man as he tried to sneak into southern Israel.
(AP, 8/29/04)
2004 Aug 29, In Sidon, Lebanon,
fighting in a Palestinian camp left 3 dead.
(WSJ, 8/30/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 30, Israeli officials
said PM Ariel Sharon wants all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip
evacuated at the same time, instead of in three stages.
(AP, 8/30/04)
2004 Aug 31, In Beersheba, Israel,
Palestinian suicide bombers exploded two buses almost simultaneously,
killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 80.
(AP, 8/31/04)(AP, 9/1/04)
2004 Sep 7, Israeli helicopters
attacked a Hamas training camp, killing at least 14 militants and
wounding 30 others.
(AP, 9/7/04)
2004 Sep 9, Clashes with Israeli
troops killed 8 Palestinians and left 27 wounded in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip.
(AP, 9/9/04)(WSJ, 9/10/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 13, An Israeli helicopter
fired a missile at a car in the West Bank town of Jenin, kill-ing three
Al Aqsa men. Israeli police shut down six Palestinian elections offices
in east Jerusa-lem after seizing voter registration lists.
(AP, 9/13/04)(WSJ, 9/14/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 20, An Israeli helicopter
blew up a car in Gaza City, killing Khaled Abu Shamiyeh (30), a Hamas
militant who was involved in making and firing rockets at Israeli towns.
(AP, 9/20/04)
2004 Sep 22, A Palestinian suicide
bomber blew herself up near a crowded bus stop in Jeru-salem. 2 Israeli
police officers were killed.
(AP, 9/22/04)(SFC, 9/23/04, p.A3)
2004 Sep 23, Three Palestinian
gunmen infiltrated a fog-shrouded Israeli army post at dawn, killing
three Israeli soldiers in a fierce gunbattle before they were shot to
death.
(AP, 9/23/04)
2004 Sep 24, Palestinians shelled
a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip and killed an Israeli-American
woman just ahead of Yom Kippur.
(AP, 9/24/04)
2004 Sep 25, An Israeli helicopter
fired two missiles toward a crowd of Palestinians on the outskirts of a
refugee camp, killing a 55-year-old man and wounding five people.
(SFC, 9/25/04, p.A3)
2004 Sep 25, The Israeli army
charged into a Palestinian refugee camp, killing one person and tearing
down 35 homes.
(AP, 9/25/04)
2004 Sep 26, Ezzedin Sheikh
Khalil, a senior Hamas operative, was killed in a car bombing outside
his house in Damascus, the first such killing of a leader of the
Islamic militant group in Syria. The hit was claimed by Israeli
security officials.
(AP, 9/26/04)
2004 Sep 27, An Israeli helicopter
fired a missile at a Palestinian vehicle traveling in the southern Gaza
Strip, killing one person and wounding three others. 7 Palestinians
were killed in several incidents across the West Bank and Gaza. In Gaza
City gunmen kidnapped a CNN TV producer and released him the next day.
(AP, 9/27/04)(SFC, 9/28/04, p.A8)(WSJ, 9/29/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 29, A large force of
Israeli tanks, armored vehicles and troops pushed into northern Gaza in
an overnight raid aimed at militants who have fired rockets against
nearby Israeli towns. The incursion killed at least three Palestinians.
(AP, 9/29/04)
2004 Oct 1, Israel's security
Cabinet approved a large-scale military operation, dubbed "Days of
Penitence," to stop Palestinian rocket fire. Two Palestinians were
killed and three wounded when an Israeli tank fired a shell in the
Jebaliya refugee camp. 8 Palestinians were killed in the northern Gaza
Strip.
(AP, 10/1/04)(SFC, 10/2/04, p.A9)
2004 Oct 2, Israeli troops killed
10 Palestinian militants, as the military expanded one of its largest
offensives against Palestinian militants in four years of fighting.
(AP, 10/2/04)(SSFC, 10/3/04, p.A11)
2004 Oct 3, An Israeli aircraft
fired two missiles at a group of Palestinians who launched a homemade
rocket at Israel, killing two militants.
(AP, 10/3/04)
2004 Oct 4, Palestinian militants
fired off two more rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot, lightly
wounding one person, according to rescue workers. Ongoing violence in
northern Gaza killed at least seven Palestinians, including a teenager.
(AP, 10/4/04)
2004 Oct 5, An Israeli aircraft
launched a missile at a car in Gaza City, killing at least 2 mili-tants
and wounding three others. A helicopter strike in Gaza killed Bashir Al
Dabash (42), a senior Islamic Jihad leader, as well as his bodyguard.
Iyman Hams, a 13-year-old Palestinian girl, was shot and killed by
Israeli forces, which soon prompted an investigation. In 2005 an
Is-raeli military court acquitted an army captain who was charged with
intentionally killing the Pal-estinian girl, saying she was already
dead when he shot her.
(AP, 10/5/04)(SFC, 10/6/04, p.A17)(SFC, 10/13/04,
p.A14)(AP, 11/16/05)
2004 Oct 5, The US vetoed an
Arab-backed UN Security Council resolution demanding that the Jewish
state immediately end military operations and called the resolution
"lopsided and unbalanced." 11 of 15 voted in favor with 3 abstentions.
(AP, 10/6/04)
2004 Oct 7, Two Palestinian boys,
ages 15 and 14, were killed in an Israeli missile strike.
(AP, 10/7/04)
2004 Oct 8, Israeli Soldiers shot
and killed a 10-year-old Palestinian girl and three other Pal-estinians
died in missile strikes during a massive offensive into the northern
Gaza Strip.
(AP, 10/8/04)
2004 Oct 9, Israeli troops shot at
Hamas militants about to fire an anti-tank missile, setting off an
explosion that killed one man and wounded three. Israeli soldiers in
northern Gaza killed 5 Palestinians including Hamas militant Abed
Nabham (25).
(AP, 10/9/04)(SSFC, 10/10/04, p.A16)
2004 Oct 10, An Israeli aircraft
fired a missile at a home near a Hamas stronghold in the Je-baliya
refugee camp, killing one civilian and wounding 8 other Palestinians
(AP, 10/10/04)
2004 Oct 11, An Israeli aircraft
fired a missile at a house in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, wounding
five people, including a top Islamic Jihad leader.
(AP, 10/11/04)
2004 Oct 13, The Israeli military
killed 4 Palestinian militants as troops extended a 2-week operation in
the Gaza Strip to silence Palestinian rocket fire.
(SFC, 10/14/04, p.A8)
2004 Oct 21, An Israeli aircraft
fired two missiles at a car traveling in the Gaza Strip killing Adnan
al-Ghoul, a senior Hamas commander.
(AP, 10/21/04)
2004 Oct 22, A UN aid agency
reported that Israel's recent 17-day military offensive in the northern
Gaza Strip killed 107 Palestinians, left nearly 700 homeless and caused
more than $3 million dollars in property damage.
(AP, 10/22/04)
2004 Oct 22, Defiant Palestinian
militants pounded Jewish settlements in the southern Gaza Strip with
mortar fire, following the killing of a top Hamas militant in an
Israeli airstrike.
(AP, 10/22/04)
2004 Oct 23, The bullet-riddled
body of a Palestinian was found near a trash bin on a Gaza City. Hamas
said it killed the man on suspicion he passed along information that
helped Israel assassinate the group's founder and nine others.
(AP, 10/23/04)
2004 Oct 25, Israeli troops killed
14 Palestinians in a Gaza raid.
(WSJ, 10/26/04, p.A1)
2004 Oct 27, An ailing Yasser
Arafat collapsed, was unconscious for about 10 minutes and remained in
a serious condition.
(AP, 10/27/04)
2004 Oct 29, Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat (75), suffering from a serious but mystery ill-ness, was
flown to France and rushed to a military hospital for treatment.
Arafat’s secret assets have been estimated at $200 million to $6
billion. Details were only known by his financial advi-sor Mohammed
Rashid.
(AP, 10/29/04)(SSFC, 11/7/04, p.A10)
2004 Nov 1, A Palestinian (16)
blew himself up in a crowded outdoor market in central Tel Aviv,
killing three Israelis and wounding 32. This was the 117th suicide
bombing since Israeli-Palestinian fighting broke out in 2000. 494
Israelis have been killed in the attacks. Israeli troops killed 3
activists in Nablus and a boy (12) throwing stones in Askar.
(AP, 11/1/04)(SFC, 11/2/04, p.A5)
2004 Nov 6, Israeli troops killed
5 Palestinians, including a 14-year-old boy, in West Bank and Gaza
Strip.
(AP, 11/6/04)
2004 Nov 7, Israeli undercover
forces shot and killed 4 Palestinians in Jenin.
(AP, 11/7/04)
2004 Nov 7, Hezbollah sent an
aerial drone over northern Israel on a 1st test flight.
(WSJ, 11/8/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov 9, Israeli troops shot
and killed two Palestinians who entered an unauthorized area in the
Gaza Strip. Israeli troops in Nablus clashed with stone throwing
youths, shooting dead a 22-year-old man and seriously wounding another.
(AP, 11/9/04)
2004 Nov 11, Yasser Arafat (75),
Palestinian leader, died in Paris. He triumphantly forced his people's
plight into the world spotlight but failed to achieve his lifelong
quest for statehood. Arafat's body was flown back to the Mideast for
funeral services in Egypt. Internment was to be in Ramallah.
(AP, 11/11/04)(SFC, 11/11/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov 11, Mahmoud Abbas, a
former PM and veteran peace negotiator, was elected chairman of the
Palestine Liberation Organization. Rauhi Fattouh, Palestinian
parliament speaker, was set to serve as president until elections in
about 60 days.
(AP, 11/11/04)(WSJ, 11/11/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov 11, Israeli troops,
backed by tanks and helicopter gunships raided a Gaza Strip town,
killing 3 Palestinians and wounding at least 9 others.
(AP, 11/11/04)
2004 Nov 12, Kings, princes and
presidents from across the world paid a last tribute to Yasser Arafat
at a military funeral in Cairo. Arafat was interned in Ramallah before
a sea of mourners.
(AP, 11/12/04)(SFC, 11/13/04, p.A17)
2004 Nov 14, Israel's military
said it will stop allowing Palestinian security forces in the West Bank
to carry weapons in public within the next 24 hours.
(AP, 11/14/04)
2004 Nov 14, Gunmen in the Gaza
Strip fired weapons near Mahmoud Abbas (69) and left 2 security men
dead. Palestinian officials scheduled Jan. 9, 2005, for presidential
elections.
(AP, 11/14/04)(SFC, 11/15/04, p.A3)
2004 Nov 15, Israel offered its
first indication it was reassessing relations with the Palestini-ans
after Yasser Arafat's death, suggesting it might coordinate a planned
withdrawal from the Gaza Strip if the Palestinian Authority cracks down
on militant groups.
(AP, 11/15/04)
2004 Nov 15, Interim Palestinian
leader, Mahmoud Abbas, has asked Palestinian militants to halt violence
during the campaign for Jan. 9 presidential elections.
(AP, 11/16/04)
2004 Nov 19, Israel’s Yediot
Ahronot newspaper published photos of Israeli soldiers posing with dead
Palestinians. Allegations of abuse followed.
(SFC, 11/20/04, p.A16)
2004 Nov 20, Palestinians formally
opened the campaign for a successor to Yasser Arafat.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2004 Nov 22, The ruling Fatah
party chose Mahmoud Abbas as its candidate to replace Yasser Arafat as
head of the Palestinian Authority in Jan. 9 elections.
(AP, 11/22/04)
2004 Nov 22, A World Bank report
said nearly half the Palestinian population was living in poverty on
less than $2 a day.
(AP, 11/22/04)
2004 Nov 23, Interim Palestinian
leader Mahmoud Abbas told parliament that he would follow Arafat's
footsteps and demand that Israel recognize the "right of return" of
Palestinian refugees.
(AP, 11/23/04)
2004 Nov 26, The ruling party in
the Palestinian Authority set Aug. 4 as the date for an inter-nal
election in an apparent attempt to persuade the head of Fatah's
restless young guard to drop out of the January presidential balloting.
(AP, 11/26/04)
2004 Dec 1, A Hamas leader
announced that the militant group will boycott upcoming Pales-tinian
presidential elections.
(AP, 12/1/04)
2004 Dec 3, Sheikh Hassan Yousef,
a top Hamas leader, said the militant group would accept the
establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as
well as a long-term truce with Israel.
(AP, 12/3/04)(SFC, 12/4/04, p.A3)
2004 Dec 5, In Ramallah Jad
al-Hindi (19) was abducted by the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent
militant group linked to the dominant Fatah movement. Police found
al-Hindi's body the next day, saying he had been shot in the head 12
times.
(AP, 12/6/04)
2004 Dec 7, Hamas militants killed
an Israeli soldier and wounded four with an explosion in a
booby-trapped chicken coop. An Israeli aircraft fired a retaliatory
missile at armed Palestinians near Gaza City leaving 4 gunmen dead.
(AP, 12/7/04)(WSJ, 12/8/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 10, Israeli troops shot
and killed a 7-year-old Palestinian girl after militants fired mortar
rounds at a Gaza Strip settlement, injuring four Israelis, one of them
a child.
(AP, 12/10/04)
2004 Dec 12, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas apologized to Kuwaitis for the Palestinian support of
former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.
(AP, 12/12/05)
2004 Dec 12, Palestinians
detonated a massive bomb under an Israeli military checkpoint kill-ing
at least 5 Israeli soldiers.
(SFC, 12/13/04, p.A6)(AP, 12/12/05)
2004 Dec 12, The Israeli Cabinet
agreed to release scores of Palestinian prisoners as a ges-ture to
Egypt and the Palestinian leadership ahead of next month's Palestinian
elections. The Israeli army fired three tank shells at the Khan Younis
refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, wounding seven
schoolchildren.
(AP, 12/12/04)
2004 Dec 14, Palestinian leader
Abbas called for an end to attacks on Israel as Israeli troops
destroyed 7 Palestinian houses in Gaza.
(WSJ, 12/15/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 17, Israeli troops raided
a Gaza refugee camp in retaliation for a deadly Palestinian mortar
fire, sparking fighting that killed 8 Palestinians and wounded 24
Palestinians and an Is-raeli soldier.
(AP, 12/17/04)(SFC, 12/18/04, p.A14)
2004 Dec 18, Israeli troops killed
three Palestinians on the second day of an Israeli raid in the Khan
Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza. Israeli forces withdrew and ended
a 2-day raid that left 11 Palestinians dead.
(AP, 12/18/04)(SSFC, 12/19/04, p.A15)
2004 Dec 19, Israel approved the
release of 170 Palestinian prisoners in a goodwill gesture toward Egypt
and the new Palestinian leadership.
(AP, 12/19/04)
2004 Dec 23, Thousands of
Palestinians crammed polling stations in West Bank towns to vote in
municipal elections, the first in nearly 30 years. Hamas made a strong
showing in local elections in the West Bank. Palestinian women won 51
seats in local elections defeating many of their male opponents.
(AP, 12/24/04)(AP, 12/27/04)
2004 Dec 27, Israel released 159
Palestinian prisoners as a gesture to the new Palestinian leadership.
(AP, 12/27/04)
2004 Dec 29, About 10 Israeli
tanks moved into the Khan Younis refugee camp to stop rocket fire. 2
Palestinian gunmen were killed by tank fire.
(AP, 12/30/04)(WSJ, 12/30/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 30, In southern Gaza 2
Palestinians were killed in an Israeli missile strike, the 2nd day of
an army raid to stop Palestinian rocket fire from the Khan Younis
refugee camp.
(AP, 12/31/04)
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 an 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, Palestinians held
their 1st presidential election in nine years, choosing a succes-sor to
longtime leader Yasser Arafat. Mahmoud Abbas was elected Palestinian
Authority presi-dent by a landslide, giving the pragmatist a mandate to
resume peace talks with Israel.
(AP, 1/9/05)(AP, 1/10/05)
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, 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 15, Mahmoud Abbas was
sworn in as Palestinian Authority president. 46 members of the
Palestinian election commission, including top managers, resigned
saying they were pressured by Mahmoud Abbas' campaign and intelligence
officials to abruptly change voting procedures during the Jan. 9
presidential poll.
(AP, 1/15/05)
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, 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 18, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas summoned militant leaders to cease-fire talks in the Gaza
Strip and said he is hopeful he can persuade them to halt attacks on
Israel.
(AP, 1/18/05)
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 27, The Palestinian
leadership banned civilians from carrying weapons, its latest step
aimed at reigning in militant violence.
(AP, 1/27/05)
2005 Jan 28, Election officials
said the Hamas won an overwhelming victory in local elections in Gaza
towns in a setback for the Fatah Party of Palestinian leader Mahmoud
Abbas.
(AP, 1/28/05)
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 refu-gee camp.
(AP, 1/31/05)
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 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 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
Pales-tinians in parts of the West Bank and abandon several major
checkpoints as part of its with-drawal 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 re-leased
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 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 22, Palestinian Prime
Minister Ahmed Qureia promised a drastic overhaul of his Cabinet,
signaling the start of long-sought reform.
(AP, 2/22/05)
2005 Feb 24, The Palestinian
parliament approved a 24-member Cabinet dominated by pro-fessional
appointees, including nearly half with doctoral degrees, in a major
move toward long-promised government reform.
(AP, 2/24/05)
2005 Feb 25, A Palestinian suicide
bomber blew himself up in a crowd of young Israelis wait-ing outside
the Stage nightclub near Tel Aviv's beachfront promenade just before
midnight, kill-ing 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 connec-tion
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 1, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas pledged to reform Palestinian security. Mili-tants in the
West Bank town of Jenin issued a belligerent challenge to the new
Palestinian lead-ership's efforts to rein in militant groups, shooting
in the air and demanding that the visiting se-curity chief, Interior
Minister Nasser Yousef, leave the area immediately.
(AP, 3/1/05)
2005 Mar 4, Palestinian gunmen
opened fire at a police station, sparking a gunfight that left three
people wounded.
(AP, 3/4/05)
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 12, The Hamas militant
group announced it will participate in Palestinian parliamen-tary
elections.
(AP, 3/12/05)
2005 Mar 14, UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan said the United Nations is establishing a reg-ister of
property damage caused by Israel's West Bank separation barrier.
Hundreds of Pales-tinians 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
Palestini-ans 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 prom-ised to hold
its fire in return, but demanded that the Palestinian Authority
eventually dismantle the armed groups.
(AP, 3/18/05)
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 Mar 31, In Palestine Mahmoud
Abbas ordered a crackdown on Ramallah militants after a group of gunmen
fired at his compound in a sign of escalating tensions.
(AP, 3/31/05)
2005 Apr 3, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas announced plans for a jobs program aimed at militants.
(SFC, 4/12/05, p.A6)(http://tinyurl.com/6ldnx)
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 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 14, Israeli troops shot
and killed a Palestinian militant in the West Bank.
(AP, 4/14/05)
2005 Apr 17, Armed Palestinian
militants shut down a government building in the West Bank and
threatened to kill members of the Palestinian parliament, demanding the
Palestinian Au-thority provide jobs to former prisoners and to
relatives of people killed in fighting.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 29, Russian President
Vladimir Putin laid a wreath on the late-Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat's tomb and held talks with Arafat's successor, Mahmoud Abbas,
but Palestinians held out little hope for concrete results.
(AP, 4/29/05)
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 al-ready filmed the video testament
often left by suicide bombers.
(AP, 5/1/05)
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 par-liament
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 5, Palestinians voted for
local governments in dozens of towns and villages across the West Bank
and Gaza Strip. More than 2,500 candidates were vying for seats on 84
munici-pal councils.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 6, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas' ruling Fatah movement narrowly fended off a strong
challenge by Hamas to win local elections, but the Islamic militant
group captured the 3 biggest races in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,
establishing itself as a major political force.
(AP, 5/6/05)
2005 May 6, The UN Sec. Gen.
appointed Alvaro de Soto as the Special Coordinator for the Middle East
Peace Process. De Soto resigned in May, 2007.
(www.un.org/unsco/coordinator.html)
2005 May 9, Palestinian militants
and police exchanged gunfire in two West Bank towns Mon-day, defying
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' attempts to crack down on lawlessness
and put peacemaking with Israel on a more solid footing.
(AP, 5/9/05)
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 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 Jerusa-lem'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 23, The Palestinian
Election Commission said that parliamentary elections sched-uled for
July 17 will be delayed because it needed more time to prepare for the
vote.
(AP, 5/23/05)
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 alleg-edly 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 26, President Bush met
with Palestinian leader Mohmoud Abbas, praised his steps toward
democracy, and said the US will pay $50 million in housing aid for
Palestinians in Gaza.
(AP, 5/26/05)
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, James Wolfensohn,
former World Bank chief, assumed the post of special en-voy 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 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 12, The Palestinian
Authority carried out its first executions since 2001, killing four
convicted murderers as part of a new campaign to rein in lawlessness
and chaos.
(AP, 6/12/05)
2005 Jun 18, The Palestinian
parliament passed a compromise election law afternoon remov-ing a major
hurdle to new legislative elections that were originally scheduled for
next month but were postponed indefinitely.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 18, Palestinian militants
attacked a Gaza Strip settlement, sparking a gunbattle that killed one
of the attackers and wounded another.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 19, Palestinian militants
fired light arms and rocket-propelled grenades at Israelis near an army
post on the Gaza-Egypt border, wounding 3 Israelis. One militant was
killed in the attack.
(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 22, The first
Palestinian-Israeli summit in four months failed to propel peace
pros-pects forward or solidify a shaky truce, leaving main issues
unresolved and both sides disap-pointed.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 22, Palestinian gunmen
fired shots and detonated an explosive device as PM Ah-med Qureia left
a building in a West Bank refugee camp where he was lecturing militants
on the need to restore order to the streets.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 23, Palestinian officials
said they reached a tentative agreement to absorb about 700 gunmen in
Nablus into the Palestinian security services.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 23, Palestinian militants
killed an officer in an attack on a police station in the West Bank
town of Jenin.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 24, Palestinian gunmen
opened fire on a group of hitchhikers and killed one, the third Israeli
slaying in a flare-up of violence that threatens a truce reached in
February.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 29, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas asked Hamas militants to join his Cabinet to improve
prospects of a peaceful takeover of the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 7/2/05)
2005 Jul 5, Hamas rejected an
invitation from Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to join his government.
(AP, 7/5/05)
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 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 Palestin-ian
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 mili-tants 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 Pales-tinian
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 20, In Palestine the
ruling Fatah movement and the Islamic Hamas agreed to end several days
of clashes in northern Gaza that took the lives of two bystanders.
(AP, 7/20/05)
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 26, Officials said
Jerusalem planners have approved the construction of a new Jew-ish
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 Aug 2, A 3-year old
Palestinian boy was killed and 9 Palestinians were wounded in the
northern Gaza Strip when rockets launched by militants misfired and
landed in Palestinian ar-eas.
(AP, 8/2/05)
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 6, Palestinian judges and
lawyers shut down the Palestinian legal system until fur-ther notice to
protest recent attacks against senior legal officials.
(AP, 8/6/05)
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 impend-ing 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 18, Israeli forces
stormed the synagogue Neve Dekalim to remove about 1,500 pro-testers
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 set-tlement 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 at-tacks 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 re-moving
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 suc-ceed their
ousted leader, who fell from grace over a controversial east Jerusalem
land deal.
(AP, 8/22/05)
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 mili-tants
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 30, A US federal court
ordered Palestinian Authority assets in the US frozen in or-der to pay
a $116 million judgement for the 1996 killing of an American in Israel.
(WSJ, 8/31/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug, Samar Sabih (22), Hamas'
first female bomb maker, was arrested by Israeli secu-rity 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 3, Hamas' secretive
military wing emerged from hiding, naming commanders and detailing how
they attacked Israelis as part of a competition with the Palestinian
Authority over who will get credit for Israel's pullout from Gaza.
(AP, 9/3/05)
2005 Sep 5, An explosion destroyed
a house after nightfall in Gaza City, killing four people and injuring
at least 30. It belonged to a well-known family of supporters of the
Islamic militant group Hamas, but the Israeli military denied having
anything to do with the blast.
(AP, 9/5/05)
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 7, About 100 masked
militants stormed the heavily guarded home of Moussa Arafat (65),
Gaza's former security chief, dragged him out in his pajamas and killed
him in a burst of gunfire days before Israel was to hand over Gaza. The
Popular Resistance Committees, a vio-lent group made up largely of
former members of the Fatah movement of Palestinian leader Mahmoud
Abbas, claimed responsibility.
(AP, 9/7/05)
2005 Sep 10, Masked gunmen
abducted Lorenzo Cremonesi of the Corriere della Serra daily, an
Italian journalist in the Gaza Strip town of Deir El-Balah. He was
released after a few hours.
(AP, 9/10/05)
2005 Sep 10, Syrian President
Bashar Assad met with leaders of 10 militant Palestinian groups based
in Syria, defying U.S. pressure to crack down on these groups. Syria's
official news agency SANA reported Assad urged the radical Palestinian
leaders, including Khaled Mashaal, the political leader of the militant
Hamas group, to close ranks and continue the strug-gle in order to
achieve their goal of an independent Palestinian state.
(AP, 9/10/05)
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 12, Joyous Gazans flooded
into empty Jewish settlements and Palestinians climbed ropes and
clambered over walls to the Egyptian side of Rafah to join a chaotic
celebration of the end of 38 years of Israeli military rule over the
Gaza Strip. Palestinians set fire to aban-doned synagogues.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 13, Tens of thousands of
people filled the center of Gaza City for the biggest Hamas
demonstration ever seen here, celebrating Israel's pullout and
listening to Hamas lead-ers vowing to continue the fight until Israelis
leave the rest of the Palestinian areas.
(AP, 9/13/05)
2005 Sep 14, Egypt said it had
found an arms-smuggling tunnel under the Gaza border, and Palestinians
crossing the frontier were warned to return by sunset when passport
controls will be reimposed.
(AP, 9/14/05)
2005 Sep 15, Israel's Supreme
Court upheld the legality of Israel's West Bank security bar-rier,
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, Thousands of
Palestinians broke through Egyptian and Palestinian Authority lines on
the Gaza border, pouring into Egypt in defiance of government attempts
to secure the frontier.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 19, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas said the Gaza-Egypt border will reopen only as part of an
international agreement, quashing speculation Egypt and the
Palestinians might operate a crossing without Israel's blessing.
(AP, 9/19/05)
2005 Sep 20, Egyptian police
stopped Palestinians from returning to Gaza, causing a crowd of more
than 1,000 people to gather near the crossing here, as officials from
the two sides met to discuss the border situation.
(AP, 9/20/05)
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, Palestinians took
charge of a border for the first time ever, allowing thousands to cross
between the Gaza Strip and Egypt in a temporary opening of the frontier.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep 23, In Gaza’s Jebaliya
refugee camp a truck filled with masked militants and home-made weapons
exploded at a Hamas rally, killing at least 15 Palestinians and
wounding 80, in-cluding 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
au-thorities arrested hundreds of militants in the West Bank, launching
an offensive against the Is-lamic 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, Hamas captured up to
1/3 of the votes in Palestinian municipal elections. Pales-tinian
leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party won in 51 of 104 municipalities, to
13 for the Hamas militant group.
(SFC, 9/30/05, p.A10)(AP, 10/1/05)
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 2, Hamas gunmen clashed
with Palestinian security forces in the Gaza Strip. A po-lice commander
and a civilian were killed and at least 50 others were wounded.
(SFC, 10/3/05, p.A8)
2005 Oct 3, The Palestinian
parliament voted that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas must form a new
government within two weeks.
(AP, 10/3/05)
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 6, Gunmen abducted three
local Hamas leaders in a series of kidnappings. Prof. Riad Abdel Karim
al-Raz (47), a Palestinian university professor known as a Hamas
leader, was released the next day. The al-Farouk bin al-Khatab
Brigades, claimed responsibility.
(AP, 10/7/05)
2005 Oct 7, Palestinian police
arrested 30 suspected car thieves and drug dealers in a high-profile
crackdown on crime in this West Bank town.
(AP, 10/7/05)
2005 Oct 10, Israeli forces caught
a 14-year-old boy whom militants tried to push into becom-ing a suicide
bomber.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 11, Israeli forces
disguised as vegetable vendors in Tsurif captured Ibrahim Ighni-mat
(47), a senior Hamas operative, who had been on the run for eight years.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, Masked Palestinian
gunmen kidnapped a US and a British journalist in the Gaza Strip. Both
men were freed in the evening.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 14, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Jordan for talks with King Abdul-lah II.
(AP, 10/14/05)
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 gun-men killed three Israelis and wounded five a day
earlier.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 18, A shadowy Palestinian
militant group said it has abducted two alleged collabora-tors with
Israel and threatened to carry out additional kidnappings.
(AP, 10/18/05)
2005 Oct 20, President Bush met
with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the Oval Office and said
prospects for Palestinians gaining a state seem to be better than ever
before.
(AP, 10/20/05)
2005 Oct 23, Militant Palestinians
fought members of a Lebanese leftist party in a gun battle that left
one man dead and three wounded outside a refugee camp.
(AP, 10/23/05)
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 27, Israeli troops
entered the West Bank town of Jenin and witnesses said they ar-rested 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, 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 7, The EU agreed to
monitor a Gaza-Egypt border crossing that serves as the main gate to
the world for Palestinians.
(AP, 11/7/05)
2005 Nov 7, EU foreign ministers
agreed to launch a three-year police training mission to help the
Palestinian Authority build up a new "sustainable and effective" police
force.
(AP, 11/7/05)
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 17, Israeli forces killed
two Palestinian militants during a West Bank arrest raid, rid-dling
their car with bullets when it tried to run a roadblock outside the
town of Jenin.
(AP, 11/17/05)
2005 Nov 18, In Gaza 2 rival clans
and Palestinian police exchanged fire in a dispute over land in the
area of a former Israeli settlement, killing Naef Astal (17) and
wounding 5 people.
(AP, 11/19/05)
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, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas opened the Gaza-Egypt border in a festive ceremony, a
milestone for the Palestinians who for the first time took control of a
frontier cross-ing without Israeli veto powers and gained some freedom
of movement.
(AP, 11/25/05)
2005 Nov 25, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party held primaries in six West Bank cities to
choose candidates for a January parliament election.
(AP, 11/25/05)
2005 Nov 26, Preliminary results
showed jailed Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti and other
younger activists swept Fatah primaries, signaling a change of
generations that could make the corruption-tainted ruling party more
attractive to voters in Jan. 25 parliament elec-tions.
(AP, 11/26/05)
2005 Nov 28, The Palestinians'
ruling Fatah Party halted its primary election across the Gaza Strip
after angry gunmen shot in the air at several polling stations, stole
some ballot boxes and destroyed others.
(AP, 11/28/05)
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 vir-tually 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 13, Masked Palestinian
security forces have arrested dozens of Islamic Jihad activ-ists in a
series of overnight raids across the West Bank in recent days. However,
the raids net-ted only low-level operatives, and some suspect the goal
is to appease the United States and Israel rather than crush the
militant group.
(AP, 12/13/05)
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 16, The Hamas militant
group won local elections in the West Bank's largest cities, according
to preliminary results, dealing a harsh blow to the ruling Fatah party
just six weeks ahead of a parliamentary poll.
(AP, 12/16/05)
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 20, About two dozen
gunmen briefly seized Bethlehem's city hall on Manger Square, demanding
money and jobs in the Palestinian security forces. Worried clergy
temporar-ily closed the nearby Church of the Nativity for safety
reasons.
(AP, 12/20/05)
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 settle-ments, 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, hit-ting
two offices of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and a bridge the army said
was used by mili-tants to reach areas where they fire rockets.
(AP, 12/27/05)
2005 Dec 28, Dozens of masked
Palestinian gunmen took over election offices in the Gaza Strip,
exchanging fire with police and demanding spaces for the ruling Fatah
Party's military wing on a list for Jan. 25 parliamentary elections.
(AP, 12/28/05)
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 30, Palestinian policemen
angry over the killing of a fellow officer stormed the Gaza-Egypt
border crossing, firing in the air and forcing European monitors to
flee and close the terminal for several hours.
(AP, 12/30/05)
2005 Dec 31, Dozens of Palestinian
gunmen stormed several government offices in Gaza City and briefly took
the Interior Ministry to demand jobs.
(AP, 12/31/05)
2005 Dec 31, A British aid worker
and her parents were whisked out of Gaza after being re-leased by
Palestinian gunmen who had abducted them two days earlier.
(AP, 12/31/05)
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)
2006 Jan 1, Palestinian security
forces stormed a building where an Italian hostage was being held,
freeing the man after a shootout with his kidnappers.
(AP, 1/1/06)
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 2, An Israeli
intelligence report said Palestinians have smuggled anti-aircraft
mis-siles into the Gaza Strip along with tons of other military
hardware since Israel withdrew in Sep-tember.
(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 4, Palestinian militants
angry at the jailing of their leader stole two bulldozers and smashed
through the border wall between Gaza and Egypt.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 8, The Islamic militant
group Hamas launched a TV station in the Gaza Strip as part of its
expansion into Palestinian politics.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 9, Israel permitted
Palestinian politicians to campaign in disputed Jerusalem, revers-ing
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 Cabi-net 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 Heb-ron,
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 16, The Palestinian film
"Paradise Now," which explores the lives of a pair of suicide bombers,
won the Golden Globe for best foreign film. "Brokeback Mountain" won
four Golden Globes, including best motion picture drama; "Lost" won
best dramatic television series while "Desperate Housewives" won for
best musical or comedy series.
(AP, 1/17/06)(AP, 1/16/07)
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, kill-ing himself
and wounding 15 people.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 21, Palestinian security
forces cast ballots for parliamentary candidates in the offi-cial start
of this week's Palestinian elections.
(AP, 1/21/06)
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 24, Palestinian gunmen in
Nablus linked to the ruling Fatah movement killed Abu Ahmed Hassouna
(44), one of their party leaders, increasing tensions on the eve of
parliamen-tary balloting.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 25, Palestinians cast
ballots in their first parliamentary election in a decade. Hamas won a
huge majority in parliamentary elections as Palestinian voters rejected
the longtime rule of the Fatah Party, throwing the future of Mideast
peacemaking into question. Hamas counted up to 6 leaderships: notional
chief Khaled Meshal in exile in Damascus; Ismail Haniyeh and other
heavyweights in the Gaza Strip; members in the West Bank; convicted
prisoners in Israeli jails; unconvicted prisoners detained in Israeli
military jails; and heads of the armed wing.
(AP, 1/26/06)(Econ, 6/17/06, p.51)
2006 Jan 26, Hamas leader Mahmoud
Zahar said he was ready to maintain a cease-fire with Israel forged in
February 2005 if Israel does likewise, but that the Islamic group will
respond to attacks. Hamas supporters raised their flag over the
Palestinian parliament and rushed into the building amid clashes with
Fatah loyalists.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 26, President Bush said
that Hamas cannot be a partner for Middle East peacemak-ing without
renouncing violence, and he reiterated that the United States will not
deal with Pal-estinian leaders who do not recognize Israel's right to
exist.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 27, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas asked Hamas to form a new government after his vanquished
Fatah Party rejected a role in the Cabinet and Israel ruled out peace
talks. In the wake of Hamas' triumph in Palestinian parliamentary
elections, thousands of outraged Fatah supporters burned cars and fired
in the air across the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 1/27/06)(AP, 1/27/07)
2006 Jan 28, Fatah activists
marched to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' compound, po-lice briefly
stormed the parliament building in Gaza and security forces clashed
with Hamas gunmen as the long-ruling party lashed out in anger for its
devastating election loss.
(AP, 1/28/06)
2006 Jan 30, European Union
foreign ministers called on Hamas to recognize the state of Is-rael,
renounce violence and disarm. “It is the view of the Quartet (UN, EU,
American and Rus-sia) 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 Jan 31, Saudi Arabia and
Jordan pressed the Islamic militant group Hamas to moderate its stand
on Israel and to entice the defeated Fatah party into a deal to share
power.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Feb 1, Two top Egyptian
officials called on Hamas to recognize Israel, disarm and honor past
peace deals, the latest sign Arab governments are pushing the militant
group to moderate after its surprise election victory.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 1, Israeli forces
completed the evacuation of the Amona West Bank settlement out-post,
ending a violent operation in which dozens of people were injured in
clashes between po-lice 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, Armed militants,
angered by a cartoon drawing of the Prophet Muhammad pub-lished in
European media, surrounded EU offices in Gaza and threatened to kidnap
foreigners as outrage over the caricatures spread across the Islamic
world. A fatwa was issued by Yussuf al-Qaradawi, a Brotherhood sheikh
with his own program on al-Jazeera. Other radical groups joined the
fray. Although there is no Quranic injunction against images, Islam in
its early years came into contact with a version of Christianity that
was militantly iconoclastic and some Muslim theologians issued fatwas
against any depiction of the Godhead.
(AP, 2/2/06)(WSJ, 2/8/06, p.A16)
2006 Feb 3, A study by the Israeli
Research Institute for Economic and Social Affairs deter-mined 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 4, Rage against
caricatures of Islam's revered prophet poured out across the Mus-lim
world. Aggrieved believers in Syria called for executions, stormed,
European buildings and torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in
Damascus. In Gaza Palestinians marched through the streets, storming
European buildings and burning German and Danish flags.
(AP, 2/4/06)(AP, 2/4/07)
2006 Feb 5, Israeli aircraft fired
three missiles at a building used by militants in Gaza City, kill-ing
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 reve-nues 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 kill-ing
two Palestinian militants, including a man described as a senior
commander.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 8, Hundreds of
Palestinians attacked an international observer mission in Hebron,
throwing stones and smashing windows as dozens of foreigners were
trapped inside.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, Khaled Batch, a leader
of the militant Islamic Jihad group, said the group rejects the idea of
a long-term truce with Israel and will not join a Hamas-led government.
Islamic Ji-had, which is believed to be funded, in part, by Iran,
boycotted last month's Palestinian parlia-ment election.
(AP, 2/8/06)
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 9, Palestinian
prosecutors froze bank accounts and seized assets of dozens of suspects
in a widening corruption probe of senior government officials believed
to have stolen hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 9, Two masked gunmen shot
out the tires of a diplomatic vehicle and kidnapped Egypt's military
attache to the Palestinian Authority, in a brazen daylight abduction
just outside the heavily guarded Egyptian mission in Gaza City.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 9, Russian President
Vladimir Putin invited leaders of Hamas to Moscow, saying his country
does not see the Palestinian group as a terrorist organization.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 13, The outgoing
Palestinian parliament passed legislation giving Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas the power to appoint a court that could veto legislation
passed by the new Hamas-led parliament to be sworn in this week.
(AP, 2/13/06)
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 in-coming militant Hamas rulers and return ousted Fatah
moderates to power.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 18, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas asked Hamas to form the next Palestinian government, but
demanded that the Islamic militant group recognize existing peace deals
and fall in line with his moderate policies, including negotiations
with Israel.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, Hamas legislator
Abdel Aziz Duaik, a geography professor from the West Bank, was elected
speaker of the new Palestinian parliament.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 19, Ismail Haniyeh (46),
a Gaza lawmaker seen as a leader of Hamas' pragmatic wing, was
nominated to be Palestinian prime minister.
(AP, 2/19/06)
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, Amr Moussa, the head
of the Arab League, said that members would meet this week to hammer
out a plan for sending millions of dollars a month to the Palestinian
Authority, despite US attempts to stop the flow of money to the new
Hamas-led government.
(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 20, Hamas began coalition
talks to form the Palestinians' first government led by Islamic
militants after winning the nod from moderate Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 21, Hamas presented its
choice for Palestinian prime minister. Ismail Haniyeh (43), a pragmatic
former university administrator, and the Islamic militant group reached
out to other factions, including Fatah, to join a broad-based Cabinet
that might stand a chance of gaining in-ternational approval.
(AP, 2/21/06)
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 seri-ously
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 25, A senior US diplomat
said the US will continue to give humanitarian aid to ease the plight
of the Palestinians despite militant group Hamas's victory in elections.
(AP, 2/25/06)
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 Feb 27, The EU agreed to
grant $145 million in urgent aid to the Palestinians before a
government led by the Islamic militant group Hamas takes power, a move
aimed at preventing a financial collapse that could add to the chaos in
the Middle East.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Mar 1, Palestinian leaders
returned some $30 million of $46 million that the US donated directly
to the government and will send back the rest before the militant Hamas
organization takes over. The current government, led by Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas' moderate Fatah Party, agreed under US pressure
to return about $46 million in unspent direct donations. The
Palestinian Authority gets about $1 billion of its annual $1.9 billion
budget from overseas donors, with European nations the largest
contributors.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 1, An explosion in a car
in Gaza City killed rocket maker Khaled Dahdouh (45), Is-lamic 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 mili-tants shot and killed a
Jewish settler traveling on a road near the settlement of Tapuah.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 2, Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas said in a published interview that the al-Qaida terror
network has infiltrated the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
(AP, 3/2/06)
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, Khaled Mashaal, Hamas'
political leader, rejected any discussion about the mili-tant group's
refusal to recognize Israel, dealing a setback to Moscow's efforts to
persuade it to soften its stance.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 3, Israeli troops shot
and killed a Palestinian teenager and wounded a second per-son during
an early morning raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 6, Hamas lawmakers in
Palestine voted to revoke decisions made by the Fatah-led parliament at
its last meeting in February, including more power for Pres. Abbas.
(WSJ, 3/7/06, p.A1)
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 car-ried out rocket
attacks against Israel.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 7, The World Bank
announced a $42 million grant to the Palestinian Authority, which was
plunged into a financial crisis by a drop in revenues after the Islamic
militant group Hamas won Palestinian parliament elections in January.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 10, The EU threatened to
cut off aid to a Hamas-led Palestinian government "unless it seeks
peace by peaceful means," its strongest signal to the new leadership.
(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 with-draw 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 kill-ing an Israeli Cabinet minister.
Palestinian gunmen kidnapped an American teacher at a univer-sity 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 ear-lier to
protest an Israeli military raid on a West Bank prison. Meanwhile,
Palestinian PM Mah-moud 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 sur-render of five wanted men.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 16, The World Bank warned
that the Palestinian economy will be devastated if Is-rael and the
international community follow through on threats to cut off financial
assistance once Hamas assumes power.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 18, Hamas said it has
formed a government two weeks before a deadline but ap-parently without
coalition partners that might have softened the Islamic militant
group's image.
(AP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 20, Palestinian gunmen
from the ousted Fatah Party stormed government buildings, briefly took
over a power plant and blocked a vital road in the Gaza Strip,
injecting more chaos into the volatile area as Hamas militants readied
to take power.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 21, Israel reopened the
Gaza Strip's main cargo crossing to alleviate a food short-age 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 26, Hamas pressed Arab
leaders gathering for a summit in Sudan to triple their fi-nancial
support to Palestinians and provide it fast, saying its government will
need around $170 million a month, mostly for salaries.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 28, The Palestinian
parliament overwhelming approved the new Hamas Cabinet, setting the
stage for the new administration to take office later this week.
(AP, 3/28/06)
2006 Mar 29, Hamas formally took
power, and the newly installed prime minister pledged to cooperate with
President Mahmoud Abbas, head of the defeated Fatah party. The bush
admini-stration and Canada cut all official ties as the new government
was sworn in.
(AP, 3/29/06)(SFC, 3/30/06, p.A12)
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 30, The EU, Russia, the
UN and the US warned the Hamas-led Palestinian gov-ernment that it must
recognize Israel and seek peace talks if it wants to be guaranteed
contin-ued aid.
(AP, 3/30/06)
2006 Mar 31, Abu Yousef Abu Quka,
a top commander of a small militant Palestinian group, was killed when
his car mysteriously exploded in flames. A shootout between rival
Palestinian factions erupted shortly after the blast.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Apr 4, Israeli warplanes
fired three missiles into the presidential compound of Palestin-ian
leader Mahmoud Abbas, wounding 2 people and leaving deep craters in the
ground.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2006 Apr 5, PM Ismail Haniyeh said
the new Hamas-led government is broke and missed the April 1 monthly
pay date for tens of thousands of Palestinian public workers.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 6, Palestinian PM Ismail
Haniya said his Hamas-led government would study any Israeli offer for
negotiations following an unprecedented peace overture to the UN.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 7, The EU said it has cut
off direct aid payments to the Hamas-led Palestinian gov-ernment
because of its refusal to renounce violence and recognize Israel.
(AP, 4/7/06)
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 Pales-tinian
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, EU foreign ministers
endorsed a freeze of aid to the Palestinian government but said they
would seek alternative ways of providing money for humanitarian
projects.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 10, Israel suspended
formal security ties with the Palestinians in a bid to further iso-late
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 10, Lebanon arrested 9
Lebanese and Palestinians suspected of plotting the assas-sination of
Hezbollah’s leader.
(WSJ, 4/11/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 11, The UN said it has
ended its policy of unrestricted political contacts with the
Pal-estinians and will now assess every request for political talks
with the new Hamas-run govern-ment.
(AP, 4/11/06)
2006 Apr 12, The US Treasury
Department said "transactions with the Palestinian Authority by US
persons are prohibited, unless licensed." It said the decision was
based on "existing ter-rorism sanctions."
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 12, The Israeli army
killed to Al Aqsa infiltrators trying to enter from Gaza.
(WSJ, 4/13/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 15, Palestinian police
sealed off a main road and briefly stormed a government building in the
central Gaza town of Khan Younis, angered by the Hamas-led government's
fail-ure to pay them.
(AP, 4/15/06)
2006 Apr 16, State-run television
reported that Iran will give the financially strapped Palestin-ian
Authority $50 million in aid.
(AP, 4/16/06)
2006 Apr 17, Israeli soldiers
holed up in a home in Nablus opened fire on stone-throwing pro-testers
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 Palestin-ian
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 17, Qatar said it would
give the Palestinian government $50 million in aid to help make up for
a shortfall after the US and the EU cut off funding.
(AP, 4/17/06)
2006 Apr 18, Israel decided to
revoke the Jerusalem residency rights of four Hamas lawmak-ers, a
response to a suicide bombing that killed nine civilians in a Tel Aviv
restaurant. Israeli air-craft fired missiles at a metal workshop in
Gaza City.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 18, Jordan accused Hamas
activists of smuggling missiles and other weapons into the kingdom and
said it was canceling a planned visit of the Palestinian foreign
minister, the second diplomatic snub for the Hamas-led government in a
week.
(AP, 4/18/06)
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 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 23, The militant Hamas
group and the rival Fatah Party agreed to work together to restore calm
following violent clashes and mass protests across the Palestinian
areas over their struggle for control over security forces.
(AP, 4/23/06)
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 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 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 May 1, Israeli soldiers shot
and killed a Palestinian woman and wounded her two daugh-ters when they
fired on a West Bank house that an Islamic Jihad militant was hiding in.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 2, An explosion destroyed
a building inside a Palestinian national security com-pound in the
northern Gaza Strip, killing two police officers and wounding seven
others.
(AP, 5/2/06)
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 6, Teachers at five
schools in the West Bank city of Hebron went on strike, de-manding
their overdue paychecks in the first sign of unrest by public
employees. Hundreds of government workers, most of them supporters of
Abbas' moderate Fatah faction, also protested in the West Bank city of
Nablus.
(AP, 5/6/06)
2006 May 7, Israeli police armed
with batons evicted dozens of Jewish squatters from a Pal-estinian 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 8, In Gaza rival gunmen
from Hamas and Fatah fought with assault rifles and mis-siles, killing
3 militants in the bloodiest internal fighting since Hamas came to
power six weeks ago.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 9, Renewed clashes
between Hamas and Fatah militants wounded nine Palestini-ans, including
five children, raising fears that Palestinian territories could erupt
in a much wider conflagration.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, The United States
bowed to pressure from its allies and agreed to support a new program
to temporarily funnel additional aid directly to the Palestinian people.
(AP, 5/10/06)
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 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 Palestin-ian areas
is cutting off supplies due to growing debts. Israel said it was
willing to release mil-lions of dollars in funds it has withheld from
the Palestinians and was considering easing restric-tions on the
transport of goods between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 5/10/06)(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 15, The Palestine
Liberation Organization reopened its Beirut office, closed since the
1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
(AP, 5/15/06)
2006 May 16, Shooting attacks in
the Gaza Strip left one Hamas member dead and two oth-ers wounded.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 17, The Palestinians'
defiant Hamas-led government sent a 3000-man force into the streets of
Gaza, disregarding President Mahmoud Abbas' order banning the creation
of the security body and raising the stakes in their deepening power
struggle.
(AP, 5/17/06)(WSJ, 5/18/06, p.A1)
2006 May 18, Thousands of police
loyal to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas marched in a show
of force, a day after the Hamas-led government deployed 3,000 heavily
armed militants in a daring challenge.
(AP, 5/18/06)
2006 May 19, A gun battle erupted
between the new Hamas security force and rival Fatah forces in Gaza
City, police officials said. Two police officers were wounded.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 20, A bomb blast
seriously wounded Tareq Abu Rajab, the Palestinian intelligence chief,
at his headquarters in what security officials called an assassination
attempt against a key ally of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. One
bodyguard was killed.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 20, In Gaza City an
Israeli missile killed Mohammed Dadouh, the top military com-mander 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 22, Hamas militiamen and
Palestinian police traded heavy fire near Gaza City's parliament
building, killing the driver of the Jordanian ambassador and wounding
six people in the worst internal fighting in recent weeks.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 23, Ibrahim Hamed (41), a
top Hamas military commander, surrendered in Ramal-lah 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 25, A gunfight between a
Palestinian security force and a Hamas militia killed one police
officer and wounded four others in the latest outbreak of internal
Palestinian fighting.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 26, The Hamas-led
government withdrew a controversial 3,000-member private militia from
the streets of Gaza, saying it wanted to reduce friction with the rival
Fatah move-ment.
(AP, 5/26/06)
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 ad-hered 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 27, The Hamas-led
government sent its private militia back into the streets of Gaza, a
day after withdrawing the force to help calm an increasingly bloody
standoff with forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 5/27/06)
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 guerril-las in Lebanon and
wounded two Israeli soldiers, two Lebanese civilians and six militants.
(AP, 5/28/06)(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 1, Several thousand
police officers fired into the air and smashed windows of the
Palestinian parliament building, raising fears of new unrest in Gaza
after the Hamas-led gov-ernment said it still cannot pay most of its
workers.
(AP, 6/1/06)
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 4, The Hamas-led
Palestinian government rejected a deadline to accept a proposal that
implicitly recognizes Israel, saying President Mahmoud Abbas' plan for
a referendum on the matter is illegal. Members of a new, unarmed
security force loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deployed in
Jenin in a move that residents feared could provoke clashes with rival
factions.
(AP, 6/4/06)(Reuters, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 5, Hamas militants
stormed a Palestinian TV broadcast facility in the southern Gaza Strip,
kicking workers out of the building and destroying equipment in a
shooting rampage. A large explosion ripped through a house in northern
Gaza, killing a member of the Hamas mili-tant group and wounding two
other people, including his 8-year-old son.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 6, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas gave the governing Hamas party on three more days to
accept a document that implicitly recognizes Israel, threatening to
bring the issue to a national referendum.
(AP, 6/6/06)
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 halt-ing 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 Hamas-led
government's 3,000-member private militia showed no signs of
withdrawing from Gaza's streets despite a deal with the rival Fatah
movement to remove it from public areas.
(AP, 6/8/06)
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 mis-siles 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, criti-cally
injuring an Israeli and nearly hitting a college in the southern Israel
town of Sderot. In re-turn 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, Hundreds of
Palestinian security men loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas went on a
rampage against the Hamas-led government, riddling the parliament
building and Cabinet offices with bullets before setting them ablaze in
retaliation for an attack by Hamas gunmen in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 6/12/06)
2006 Jun 13, Israeli PM Ehud
Olmert said he had given the go ahead for a shipment of weap-ons 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 investiga-tion 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 com-mandos and not an Israeli shell.
(AP, 6/13/06)(AP, 6/14/06)
2006 Jun 14, Dozens of Palestinian
civil servants stormed a parliamentary session to demand long-overdue
salaries, attacking Hamas lawmakers and forcing the parliament speaker
to flee the building. Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, who has been
seeking to raise money for the fi-nancially strapped government,
returned to the Gaza Strip with luggage containing $20 million in cash
from Muslim nations. A Hamas militant was shot and killed outside his
home in the Gaza town of Khan Younis after Hamas gunmen shot a security
commander loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 6/14/06)(AP, 6/15/06)
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
minis-ter returned to the Gaza Strip with $2 million in his luggage for
his money-starved government.
(AP, 6/15/06)
2006 Jun 16, EU leaders agreed to
channel aid to cash-starved Palestinians for health care, utilities and
social services while still maintaining a funding freeze on the
Hamas-led govern-ment.
(AP, 6/16/06)
2006 Jun 18, Thousands of
Palestinian government workers who have been living without salaries
for nearly four months received food packets from the UN.
(AP, 6/19/06)
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 tar-geted 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 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 mili-tants 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 Is-rael. 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
follow-ing 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 explo-sion demolished a car traveling near the residence of
President Mahmoud Abbas, killing an un-known 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
assas-sination. A Palestinian militant group threatened to kill an
abducted Jewish settler if Israel does-n'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 rul-ing
Hamas party, including the deputy prime minister, while forging ahead
with a military cam-paign 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 hack-ers 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 peo-ple were
injured.
(AP, 6/30/06)
2006 Jul 1, Palestinian militants
holding an Israeli soldier issued a new set of demands, call-ing 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 3, Palestinian militants
holding an Israeli soldier gave Israel less than 24 hours to start
releasing 1,500 Palestinian prisoners and implied that he would be
killed if it did not com-ply, but Israel said it would not negotiate.
(AP, 7/3/06)
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 7, Israel launched an
airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip. Witnesses said three
Pal-estinians 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, President Mahmoud
Abbas' office said it had received $50 million from the Arab League,
the most international aid Palestinians have gotten since the Islamic
militant group Hamas won legislative elections.
(AP, 7/11/06)
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, 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 Pales-tinian officials it has arrested.
(AP, 7/12/06)
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 15, Israeli aircraft
fired at least one missile at a house in Gaza City. Palestinian res-cue
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 expand-ing
assault on Lebanon, the worst Israeli attack on its neighbor in 24
years.
(AP, 7/15/06)
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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 se-verely 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 troops
withdrew from northern Gaza after a bloody two-day sweep that killed 29
Palestinians.
(AP, 7/28/06)
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 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 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 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 Pales-tinians with tanks and air strikes.
(AP, 8/4/06)
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 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 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 14, In Gaza American
reporter Steve Centanni (60) and New Zealand cameraman Olaf Wiig (36)
were seized by masked gunmen near the headquarters of the Palestinian
secu-rity services. An Israeli airstrike destroyed a house in the Gaza
Strip, injuring at least eight peo-ple. The military said an Islamic
Jihad command center was targeted but Palestinians said the building
was empty.
(AP, 8/14/06)(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 16, Palestinian gunmen
from the rival Hamas and Fatah militias clashed in southern Gaza,
killing a 14-year old boy in the crossfire and injuring four others.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 18, Israeli soldiers
killed 3 Palestinian gunmen and wounded 2 others in confronta-tions in
Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
(WSJ, 8/19/06, p.A1)
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 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 else-where in the coast strip.
(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 23, A previously unknown
Palestinian group released the first video of two kid-napped Fox News
journalists and demanded that Muslim prisoners in US jails be released
within 72 hours in exchange for the men. Correspondent Steve Centanni
and cameraman Olaf Wiig were later freed.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AP, 8/23/07)
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, In Jordan top leaders
of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party gave their leader
the go-ahead to begin forming a unity government with the militant
Hamas in an effort to end internal feuding and international isolation.
(AP, 8/25/06)
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 dur-ing 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 27, Militants freed Steve
Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig, two Fox News jour-nalists in the Gaza
Strip, ending a nearly two week hostage drama.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 28, Palestinian municipal
workers responsible for garbage collection, water treat-ment, and
sewage processing went on strike in Gaza City and two other southern
towns.
(AP, 8/31/06)
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 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 1, World donors pledged
$500 million in aid for Palestinians, including $55 million for a UN
emergency appeal for humanitarian help. Carin Jamtin, Sweden's aid
minister and host of the donors' conference held in the Swedish
capital, said a total of $114 million of the money pledged will go
toward humanitarian aid, with the rest going to rebuilding
infrastructure and other projects.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 2, Unpaid teachers shut
down thousands of schools across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the
first day of the school year, in a major challenge to the Hamas
government.
(AP, 9/2/06)
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 6, Unpaid employees in
the Palestinian prime minister's office joined a widespread strike that
is challenging the survival of the Hamas-led government. Sinn Fein
leader Gerry Ad-ams met with a Hamas legislator in the West Bank and
advised Israel and the Palestinians to solve their problems using the
Northern Ireland formula, negotiations.
(AP, 9/7/06)
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 11, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas and PM Ismail Haniyeh agreed that their moderate Fatah
and militant Hamas parties would form a coalition government.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 12, An Israeli military
court ordered the release of 18 imprisoned Hamas lawmak-ers, including
three Cabinet ministers, and raised questions about the army's case. A
spokes-man 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 13, The Palestinian
Cabinet resigned to clear the way for a new unity government, and
President Mahmoud Abbas said he plans to send a delegation to the UN to
try to revive a Mideast peace plan.
(AP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 15, Palestinian gunmen
opened fire on a car in Gaza City carrying Brig. Gen. Jad Tayeh, a top
Palestinian security officer, in a drive-by shooting that killed Tayeh
and four of his bodyguards.
(AP, 9/15/06)
2006 Sep 16, Leaders across the
Muslim world demanded Pope Benedict XVI apologize for his remarks on
Islam and jihad. The Vatican said Pope Benedict XVI "sincerely"
regretted of-fending Muslims with his reference to an obscure medieval
text characterizing some of the teachings of Islam's founder as "evil
and inhuman," but the statement stopped short of the apology demanded
by Islamic leaders. Two West Bank Christian churches were hit by
fire-bombs, and a group claiming responsibility said it was protesting
Pope Benedict XVI's remarks about Islam.
(AP, 9/16/06)(AP, 9/16/07)
2006 Sep 18, Palestine’s PM Ismail
Haniyeh's bodyguards opened fire outside the parliament building to
disperse a crowd of protesters angry over the government's failure to
end a growing economic crisis in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 9/18/06)
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, Pres. Bush met with
Palestinian leader Abbas in a bid to restart Mideast peace efforts.
(WSJ, 9/21/06, p.A1)
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 terror-ism. 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, Palestinian PM Ismail
Haniyeh of Hamas said he will not head a government that recognizes
Israel, striking a potential blow to President Mahmoud Abbas' attempts
to cre-ate a national unity government.
(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 thou-sands
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 Sep 30, Thousands of
government employees and security officials filled the streets of Gaza,
burning tires, blocking roads and firing in the air to protest delays
and complications in receiving their long-awaited salaries.
(AP, 9/30/06)
2006 Oct 1, Palestinian militiamen
from the ruling Hamas opened fire on government workers protesting
their unpaid salaries, touching off gunbattles with security forces
loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas. Seven people were killed in the
violence.
(AP, 10/1/06)
2006 Oct 2, In the Gaza town of
Rafah gunbattles between Fatah and Hamas left 2 people dead and 14
wounded.
(SFC, 10/3/06, p.A3)
2006 Oct 3, Gunmen linked to
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement threatened to
assassinate leaders of the rival Hamas group, heightening tensions from
three days of fighting that has killed 10 Palestinians.
(AP, 10/3/06)
2006 Oct 4, Masked men killed a
local Hamas political activist as he set out for morning prayers before
dawn in the northern West Bank.
(AP, 10/4/06)
2006 Oct 6, Tens of thousands of
Palestinians rallied in a Gaza Strip soccer stadium in a massive show
of support for the ruling Hamas group and its beleaguered government.
PM Is-mail Haniyeh told supporters Hamas will not recognize Israel or
give in to international pressure that has crippled the Palestinian
government.
(AP, 10/6/06)
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, Palestine’s militant
Hamas group rejected key elements of a Qatari proposal to forge a
power-sharing government with the rival Fatah group that would
recognize Israel's right to exist and force militants to renounce
violence.
(AP, 10/10/06)
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' Bri-gades, in
the course of an overnight arrest raid.
(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 mili-tant, 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 Is-raeli government is taking steps to tear them down.
(AP, 10/20/06)
2006 Oct 21, Members of the
Palestinian security forces fired in the air in Gaza City's main
shopping district and burned tires near President Mahmoud Abbas' home
to press demands for payment of salaries.
(AP, 10/21/06)
2006 Oct 22, Palestinian security
forces blocked main Gaza Strip intersections, burning tires and
snarling traffic to protest the Hamas-led government's inability to pay
their salaries.
(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 24, Palestinian gunmen
kidnapped Emilio Morenatti (37), an Associated Press pho-tographer in
the Gaza Strip, grabbing him as he walked out of his apartment and
whisking him away in their vehicle. Morenatti was freed the next day.
(AP, 10/24/06)(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, Palestinian gunmen
abducted a Spanish aid worker in the Gaza Strip. Roberto Vila (34) was
released after a few hours.
(AP, 10/31/06)
2006 Nov 1, Israeli troops, backed
by tanks and helicopter gunships, killed at least six Pales-tinian
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 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, leav-ing 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 at-tacked a group of Palestinian militants near
the West Bank town of Jenin, killing four and a civil-ian. Hamas'
exiled leader, Khaled Mashaal, says a 2005 truce with Israel is
finished and ap-pealed to all Palestinian factions to resume attacks.
(AP, 11/8/06)
2006 Nov 10, Hamas leader Ismail
Haniyeh said he would step down as Palestinian prime minister if that
would persuade the West to lift debilitating economic sanctions.
(AP, 11/10/06)
2006 Nov 10, Israel's gay
community braved vehement opposition from religious fundamental-ists
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 Jerusa-lem after one of them was
beaten unconscious by a man from the Waqf Muslim religious au-thority.
(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 11, Palestinian students
filled schools that had been empty for months, happily greeting friends
as classes resumed after a 70-day teachers' strike that interrupted
studies across the West Bank and Gaza.
(AP, 11/11/06)
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, A senior Hamas
official confirmed that the militant Palestinian group and the Fatah
faction have agreed on naming Mohammed Shabir to head the next
Palestinian unity government.
(AP, 11/13/06)
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 Egyp-tian 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, 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 ig-nore 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 peo-ple,
including two Hamas militants. Militants from the ruling Islamic group
Hamas fired two rock-ets 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, 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 Jew-ish 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 Pales-tinian 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 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, The first privately
owned English-language daily, the Palestine Times, was launched in the
West Bank and Gaza, with its editors aiming to provide news about the
region to English speakers abroad.
(AP, 11/27/06)
2006 Nov 27, Israeli PM Ehud
Olmert, seeking to build on a shaky cease-fire with the Pales-tinians,
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 1, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas convened the PLO's top decision-making body to map out a
strategy after declaring that talks to form a more moderate government
with ruling Hamas militants had collapsed.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 2, Hamas rejected demands
by PLO leaders that its government resign over the failure to form a
moderate coalition acceptable to the West, a sign of an intensifying
power struggle between Islamic militants and moderate President Mahmoud
Abbas.
(AP, 12/2/06)
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 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 Jerusa-lem."
(AP, 12/8/06)
2006 Dec 9, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas said he would dismiss the parliament and call early
elections to end a political impasse with Hamas, but left open the
possibility of a com-promise with the Islamic militant group, PLO.
(AP, 12/9/06)
2006 Dec 11, Palestinian gunmen
killed three young sons of a senior Palestinian intelligence officer,
pumping dozens of bullets into their car as it passed through a street
crowded with schoolchildren in an apparent botched assassination
attempt that could ignite widespread fac-tional fighting.
(AP, 12/11/06)
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 11, Iran promised $250
million to Palestine’s Hamas-led government.
(WSJ, 12/12/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 12, Hamas gunmen fired on
demonstrators from the rival Fatah movement, wound-ing four people and
intensifying fears of a new wave of Palestinian infighting.
(AP, 12/12/06)
2006 Dec 13, Palestinian gunmen
forced a Hamas commander to his knees and shot him to death outside the
courthouse where he worked as an Islamic judge, escalating factional
ten-sions in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh cut short
his trip to Sudan.
(AP, 12/13/06)
2006 Dec 13, Israel's Supreme
Court ruled that some Palestinians injured by the Israeli mili-tary 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 secu-rity.
(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 cri-sis. 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,
unidenti-fied 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, Gunmen allied with
Hamas and Fatah clashed at a West Bank mosque and in Gaza Strip streets.
(AP, 12/15/06)
2006 Dec 15, The UN General
Assembly voted overwhelmingly to establish an office to regis-ter
Palestinian damage claims stemming from Israel's construction of a
barrier in the West Bank.
(AP, 12/16/06)
2006 Dec 16, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas called for new presidential and parlia-mentary elections,
a dramatic challenge to ruling Hamas militants that threatens to touch
off a civil war.
(AP, 12/16/06)
2006 Dec 17, Gunmen attacked the
convoy of the Palestinian foreign minister and raided a training base
for an elite security forces unit, stepping up factional violence over
a decision by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to end nine months of
Hamas leadership and call early elections. A 19-year-old woman and a
Palestinian security officer were killed in the chaos. Ear-lier in the
day dozens of gunmen raided a training camp of Abbas' Presidential
Guard near the president's residence, killing a member of the elite
force.
(AP, 12/17/06)
2006 Dec 18, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas said he is pushing ahead with early elections, despite
factional fighting that intensified after his initial call for a poll.
He also ap-pealed for international help in restarting peace talks with
Israel.
(AP, 12/18/06)
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, in-cluding five children caught in the
crossfire.
(AP, 12/19/06)
2006 Dec 20, Ayman al-Zawahri, the
deputy leader of al-Qaida, criticized both sides of the Palestinian
power struggle in a video, calling the Palestinian president "America's
man" but also lashing out at the Islamic group Hamas. Hamas gunmen
killed two Palestinian policemen loyal to the rival Fatah movement,
hours after the sides agreed to a new cease-fire meant to end more than
a week of factional fighting.
(AP, 12/20/06)
2006 Dec 22, The office of
President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah blocked five major Hamas appointments
to senior government positions. Ferocious gunbattles broke out between
Hamas and Fatah militants in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. A Hamas
militiaman injured in violence that touched off the Gaza City shootout
died of his wounds.
(AP, 12/22/06)
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 23, Assailants fired on
the car of a senior Palestinian security official, wounding him, a
bodyguard and a girl in intensifying factional fighting in the Gaza
Strip.
(AP, 12/23/06)
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, Mah-moud Abbas, an extraordinary show of support by both
countries for his efforts to renew peacemaking with Israel.
(AP, 12/28/06)
2006 Rashid Khalidi authored “The
Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for State-hood.”
(Econ, 11/25/06, p.86)
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)
2007 Jan 1, A photographer for the
French news agency Agence France Presse was kid-napped in Gaza City
just before sundown.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2007 Jan 4, Israeli troops and
Palestinian gunmen exchanged heavy fire in downtown Ramal-lah 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 be-tween Israel
and Egypt achieved little in reviving the long-stalled Mideast peace
process, high-lighting instead the disagreements between Israel and its
Arab neighbors.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 5, In Gaza cleric Adel
Nasar was shot by men in a car after he delivered a sermon warning that
God would punish those responsible for seven killings the previous day.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 5, In Gaza Adel Nasar, an
anti-Hamas cleric, was shot by men in a car after he de-livered a
sermon warning that God would punish those responsible for seven
killings the previ-ous day.
(AP, 1/5/07)(WSJ, 1/6/07, p.A1)
2007 Jan 7, Tens of thousands of
Fatah supporters packed Gaza's main soccer stadium in a show of
strength to boost the movement in its increasingly violent struggle
against the Islamic militant group Hamas.
(AP, 1/7/07)
2007 Jan 8, Fatah gunmen released
the deputy mayor of Nablus unharmed, two days after kidnapping him.
Fatah militants torched stores of Hamas supporters in Ramallah and shot
at the house of a top Hamas official. Agence France-Presse expressed
gratitude for the release of a photographer who had been held hostage
by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 1/8/07)
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 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 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 23, Dozens of masked
gunmen claiming to be members of al-Qaida stormed an empty Gaza Strip
beach resort and blew up a reception hall, saying they were sending a
mes-sage to an ally of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 1/23/07)
2007 Jan 26, Hamas gunmen stormed
the home of a militant from the rival Fatah movement, sparking a deadly
gunbattle and capping a day of factional violence across the Gaza Strip
that killed 16 people, including a 2-year-old boy.
(AP, 1/27/07)
2007 Jan 27, Gunmen armed with
mortars and grenades fought in several areas of Gaza City, killing two
men on the third straight day of factional clashes linked to the power
struggle over the Palestinian government.
(AP, 1/27/07)
2007 Jan 28, Hamas and Fatah
gunmen battled each other in the streets in an increasingly bloody
power struggle that left more than two dozen Palestinians dead over the
weekend. Pal-estinian gunmen shot dead a member of a Hamas police force
and a senior Fatah intelligence official was abducted in Gaza as Saudi
Arabia called for talks to end the spiraling violence.
(AP, 1/28/07)(AFP, 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 com-manders in some of the most extensive
factional fighting in recent weeks.
(AP, 1/29/07)
2007 Jan 30, Palestinian PM Ismail
Haniyeh appealed to all Palestinians to prevent a resur-gence in the
internal violence that killed 36 people in recent days as a tenuous
cease-fire took hold in the Gaza Strip. Gunmen killed a Hamas militant,
but the cease-fire seemed to hold.
(AP, 1/30/07)(WSJ, 1/31/07, p.A1)
2007 Feb 1, Palestinian gunmen
opened fire at Hamas officials in separate attacks, marring efforts to
shore up a truce that brought relative quiet to Gaza after days of
deadly factional vio-lence.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Feb 1, Israeli troops killed
two Palestinian gunmen in an exchange of fire in Nablus.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Feb 2, Fatah fighters stormed
a Hamas-affiliated university for the second time, hours before the two
political factions grappling for control of the Palestinian government
said they had agreed on a new cease-fire. Fifteen people, including
four children, were killed in renewed fighting before the
announcement.
(AP, 2/2/07)
2007 Feb 3, Fatah and Hamas
clashed at Cabinet ministries, universities and security head-quarters
in defiance of a truce that was to have calmed the seething Gaza Strip.
(AP, 2/3/07)
2007 Feb 4, Hamas gunmen attacked
bases of Fatah-allied troops with mortars and rocket-propelled
grenades, part of a four-day campaign by the Islamic militants to
weaken the security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 7, In Saudi Arabia rival
Palestinian leaders began open-ended talks in Mecca opti-mistic that
they could reach an agreement to end their bloody street battles and
resume the peace process with Israel.
(AP, 2/7/07)
2007 Feb 8, Welding equipment
touched off an explosion at a West Bank gas station, killing at least
eight people and wounded 17.
(AP, 2/9/07)
2007 Feb 8, A Fatah official in
Saudi Arabia said that rival Palestinian factions had reached an
agreement on how to divide up Cabinet posts in a power-sharing
government.
(AP, 2/8/07)
2007 Feb 9, Gazans rejoiced in the
streets to celebrate a Hamas-Fatah power-sharing deal they hope will
avert civil war, but Palestinian officials preached patience, saying
implementing the agreement would be a challenge.
(AP, 2/9/07)
2007 Feb 9, Israeli police stormed
the grounds of Islam's third-holiest shrine, firing stun gre-nades 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 15, Palestine’s PM Ismail
Haniyeh and his government resigned and President Mahmoud Abbas of
Fatah appointed him to form the new team, based on last week's
agree-ment in the Muslim holy city of Mecca to split power between the
two rivals.
(AP, 2/16/07)
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, Security officials
said Egyptian border and security authorities had arrested 23
Palestinians and Egyptians in the Sinai region, including one who was
wearing an explosives belt and had crossed from Gaza to Egypt in an
underground tunnel.
(AP, 2/21/07)
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 au-dience 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 23-2007 Feb 24, In Gaza
City Mohammed Ghelban, a 28-year-old commander from Hamas' military
wing, was killed in a drive-by shooting outside his home. A 22-year-old
man from a Fatah family, Hazem Karouah, was killed several hours later,
as was 75-year-old Ismail Sabah, who was caught in the cross-fire.
(AP, 2/24/07)
2007 Feb 24, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas ended his European tour without per-suading any country
to end crippling economic sanctions based on his power-sharing deal
with the rival Islamic militant Hamas.
(AP, 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 5, A daylong gunbattle
between rival Palestinian factions raged in the streets of Gaza City as
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and PM Ismail Haniyeh again failed
to agree on the formation of a unity government.
(AP, 3/5/07)
2007 Mar 7, Israeli troops raided
the Palestinian military headquarters in Ramallah and ar-rested 18
fugitives who had sought shelter there.
(AP, 3/7/07)
2007 Mar 8, Palestinians desperate
to cross into Egypt from Gaza surged toward a border terminal, throwing
stones as security personnel fired their weapons to maintain control.
Seven people were injured.
(AP, 3/8/07)
2007 Mar 10, The Hamas-run
Education Ministry rescinded its decision to pull an anthology of
Palestinian folk tales from school libraries and destroy copies,
reportedly over mild sexual innu-endo, following a widespread public
outcry.
(AP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 11, Palestinian gunmen
from Hamas and Fatah exchanged fire in the Gaza Strip, killing a local
militia leader and wounding seven people.
(AP, 3/11/07)
2007 Mar 12, In Gaza four masked
gunmen abducted Alan Johnston, a BBC journalist. He was later reported
to be held by the Dughmush clan and was released after several months.
(AP, 3/13/07)(WSJ, 1/3/07, p.A14)(AP, 3/12/08)
2007 Mar 13, A Hamas military
commander was killed in a shootout with Fatah gunmen shortly before the
leaders of the two groups met to try to bridge their differences over a
power-sharing deal.
(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, The rival Hamas and
Fatah movements formed a long-elusive unity govern-ment, hoping to end
bloody infighting and lead the Palestinians out of yearlong
international iso-lation. 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 17, The new Hamas-Fatah
coalition won overwhelming parliamentary approval, clearing a final
formal hurdle before taking on the challenge of persuading a skeptical
world to end a crippling yearlong boycott of the Palestinian
government. Fatah counted 6 ministers, Hamas had 12, and 7 more went to
independents and small, centrist parties.
(AP, 3/16/07)(Econ, 3/24/07, p.51)
2007 Mar 19, Hamas militants
claimed responsibility for a shooting that wounded an Israeli civilian
near the border with the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 19, In northern Lebanon
rival Palestinian factions clashed in a refugee camp, shak-ing the camp
with explosions and wounding at least two gunmen.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, A US diplomat met
with the Palestinian finance minister, the first American con-tact with
the new Palestinian government and a sign of a break in policy between
Israel and its closest ally.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 21, The EU and the UN
eased their diplomatic boycott of the Palestinian govern-ment, holding
talks with non-Hamas ministers.
(Reuters, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 25, UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon, declaring the atmosphere "not fully ripe," shunned
officials from the Islamic militant Hamas group. Ban Ki-Moon toured a
Palestinian refu-gee camp and a stretch of Israel's separation barrier
in the West Bank, and said the visit strengthened his resolve to work
for Mideast peace.
(AP, 3/25/07)
2007 Mar 26, Israel welcomed the
idea of a regional peace summit and Saudi Arabia suggest-ing it would
consider changes in a dormant peace initiative to make it more
acceptable to Israel.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 27, In Palestine’s
northern Gaza Strip an earth embankment around a cesspool col-lapsed,
spewing a river of sewage and mud that killed four people.
(AP, 3/27/07)
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, Unidentified gunmen
shot at a Hamas militant leader and his family during a car chase
through Gaza City, injuring five people, including bystanders and a
child.
(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 or-ganization 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 un-usual public
unity as it revived the peace offer, which they first made in 2002 only
to meet rejec-tion from Israel.
(AP, 3/29/07)
2007 Mar 31, EU foreign ministers
backed an Arab peace initiative and agreed to engage with ministers of
the new Palestinian national unity government who are not members of
the Islamist Hamas movement.
(AP, 3/31/07)
2007 Apr 1, Palestinian
journalists announced a three-day strike in protest at what they called
their government's inadequate response to the suspected kidnap of a
British journalist.
(AP, 4/1/07)
2007 Apr 1, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert
invited Arab leaders to attend a peace conference to dis-cuss 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, Palestinian
journalists began a three-day strike to protest the kidnapping of
Brit-ish Broadcasting Corp. correspondent Alan Johnston, the
longest-held reporter ever abducted in the Gaza Strip.
(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 with-draw from Arab lands.
(AP, 4/2/07)
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 5, A British diplomat met
with Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh to push for the release of a
kidnapped BBC journalist, the first direct meeting between a European
Union diplomat and a Hamas official of the Palestinians' new coalition
government.
(AP, 4/5/07)
2007 Apr 7, An Israeli helicopter
launched an airstrike along the Gaza Strip's border with Is-rael,
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 check-point
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 13, Five European
countries and the European Commission signed an accord on under which
they will give 5.2 million dollars for administrative reforms within
the Palestinian presidency.
(AP, 4/13/07)
2007 Apr 15, Three explosions hit
Gaza City, damaging two Internet cafes and a Christian bookstore.
Palestinian security officials have said they suspect a secret "vice
squad" of Muslim militants.
(AP, 4/15/07)
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 peace-making.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 16, A World Bank study
said that Palestinian industry is "bound to fail" unless Israel lifts
tight restrictions on trade and movement of people and goods in the
Palestinian territories. , The Palestinian information minister said
China and Switzerland said they will deal with the new Palestinian
unity government made up of the moderate Fatah movement and the Islamic
mili-tant Hamas group.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 16, Thousands of BBC
staff across Britain held a silent vigil to remember its kid-napped
Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston after a Palestinian group said it had
killed him. Johnston was snatched at gunpoint on March 12 as he
returned to his Gaza City home. Johns-ton was not killed and was freed
on July 4.
(AFP, 4/16/07)(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Apr 17, Israel's Shin Bet
security agency said that it has broken up an Iranian plot to re-cruit
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 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. Palestin-ian 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 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 Pal-estinians 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 29, Saudi Arabia's King
Abdullah held an unannounced meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas to discuss the recent escalation in Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
Saudi Arabia banned the sale of concentrated fertilizer, a favorite
component of homemade ter-rorist bombs.
(AP, 4/30/07)(Econ, 5/5/07, p.60)
2007 Apr 30, Hundreds of
protesters briefly pushed into the Palestinian education ministry as
Fatah-allied teachers in the West Bank went on strike to press for the
payment of overdue sala-ries. Angry Palestinian demonstrators stormed
the Egyptian embassy in Gaza City, demanding that Egypt release five
Palestinians held in Cairo jails.
(AP, 5/1/07)(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 May 6, Palestinian militants
opened fire near a children's festival at a UN-operated ele-mentary
school in the southern Gaza Strip, killing a bodyguard of a local Fatah
leader and wounding seven other people. Palestinian militants shot and
seriously injured an Israeli motorist who was driving west of the West
Bank city of Ramallah.
(AP, 5/6/07)
2007 May 9, The Palestinian
information minister said Hamas militants have suspended a TV program
that featured a Mickey Mouse lookalike urging Palestinian children to
fight Israel and work for global Islamic domination. Hamas militants in
Palestine had enlisted a figure bearing a strong resemblance to Mickey
Mouse to broadcast their message of Islamic domination and armed
resistance to their most impressionable audience, children. The show
was broadcast as usual two days after the Palestinian information
minister said it would be suspended.
(AP, 5/9/07)(AP, 5/11/07)
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 13, Fighting between
Palestinian faction of Hamas and Fatah left 4 people dead in the Gaza
Strip.
(SFC, 5/14/07, p.A7)
2007 May 14, The Palestinian
interior minister resigned, accusing Hamas and Fatah leaders of
thwarting his efforts to halt new violence that is threatening the
survival of the Palestinian coalition government.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 15, Hamas gunmen ambushed
rival Fatah forces near a key crossing along the Is-raeli border,
killing eight people in the deadliest battle yet in three days of
factional fighting.
(AP, 5/15/07)
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 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 be-tween the Islamic militants and the rival Fatah fighters of
President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 5/18/07)
2007 May 19, In Gaza negotiators
from the rival Hamas and Fatah movements reached a new cease-fire deal.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 20, Israeli Vice Premier
Shimon Peres said his government would offer a counter-proposal 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 20, Lebanese tanks
pounded a militant group's headquarters in a Palestinian refu-gee camp
near Tripoli after the northern city's worst clashes in two decades
killed 13 soldiers and 17 militants. The raid that triggered the
clashes was part of a police search for suspects in a bank robbery a
day earlier in Amyoun, a town southeast of Tripoli. Gunmen made off
with $125,000 in cash in the robbery.
(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 21, Lebanese troops
pounded a Palestinian refugee camp with artillery and tank fire for a
second day, raising huge palls of smoke as they battled a militant
group suspected of ties to al-Qaida in the worst eruption of violence
since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 21, Norway said it would
make its first transfer of direct aid to the Palestinians' new
government, more than two months after the Nordic country broke with
most Western nations by recognizing the Hamas-led coalition.
(AP, 5/21/07)
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 Palestin-ian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas
could be a target.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 22, In Lebanon a convoy
of UN relief supplies was hit in renewed fighting as it tried to enter
the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 23, In Lebanon hundreds
of Palestinian civilians carrying their belongings in plastic bags
trickled out of a besieged refugee camp, taking advantage of a truce in
fighting that mostly held overnight.
(AP, 5/23/07)
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, Pales-tinian
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, Alan Johnston, a
British reporter kidnapped in the Gaza Strip nearly three months, ago
appeared in a videotape posted on an Islamic militant Web site, saying
his captors had treated him well, denouncing Israel, and criticizing
British and US Mideast policy.
(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 Jun 1, The Swords of Truth,
an Islamic group, threatened to behead female TV broad-casters if they
don't wear strict Islamic dress, frightening reporters and signaling a
further shift toward extremism in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 6/2/07)
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 2, The Lebanese air force
joined tanks and artillery in pounding Islamic militant hideouts on the
second day of an intensifying offensive to uproot al-Qaida-inspired
gunmen barricaded in a Palestinian refugee camp.
(AP, 6/2/07)
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 opera-tions against Palestinian gunmen.
(AP, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 3, Heavy gunfire rang out
from inside a bombed out Palestinian refugee camp as the Lebanese army
pounded Islamic militants holed up inside during the third day of a
military offensive aimed at crushing the al-Qaida-inspired group.
(AP, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 4, Violence sparked by a
two-week old confrontation between the Lebanese army and al-Qaida
inspired militants spread to a second Palestinian refugee camp in the
southern part of the country, killing two soldiers.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 6, A Palestinian security
force fanned out in two neighborhoods of the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp
in southern Lebanon to prevent further clashes between Islamic
militants and Lebanese troops. Maj. Gen. Khaled Aref, a senior Fatah
commander based in Ein el-Hilweh, said on Lebanese Broadcasting Corp.
television that about 20 Fatah Islam fighters had surren-dered to his
group in besieged Nahr el-Bared.
(AP, 6/6/07)
2007 Jun 7, A battle between
gunmen from Hamas and Fatah in the Gaza Strip left one Fatah man dead
before daybreak.
(AP, 6/7/07)
2007 Jun 8, Lebanese troops
battled al-Qaida-inspired militants in a Palestinian refugee camp where
violence has raged for three weeks. The clashes in northern Lebanon
came hours after a bombing in a Christian town northeast of Beirut
killed at least one man.
(AP, 6/8/07)
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 kid-napping and shooting of a
doctor by Palestinian militants, the first physician targeted in months
of deadly infighting.
(AP, 6/9/07)
2007 Jun 9, Lebanon's army pounded
Islamic militants hiding in a Palestinian refugee camp in renewed heavy
clashes following a few days of intermittent fighting.
(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, Fighting between
Palestinian factions left 12 people dead.
(SFC, 6/12/07, p.A16)(WSJ, 6/12/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun 12, A rocket-propelled
grenade hit the home of the Hamas prime minister, while his fighters
captured several positions from the rival Fatah movement and threatened
to step up the offensive. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused
his Hamas rivals of staging a coup and called for a cease-fire.
(AP, 6/12/07)
2007 Jun 12, An official said
Japan has agreed to offer direct aid to the Palestinian Authority, but
will send it to president Mahmud Abbas and not Hamas militants.
(AP, 6/12/07)
2007 Jun 13, Fierce battles over
key security positions spread to central Gaza, with Hamas fighters
wresting control of the coastal strip's main north-south road, and
putting themselves in position to cut off reinforcements to beleaguered
Fatah forces. At least 20 Palestinians died across Gaza.
(AP, 6/13/07)(SFC, 6/14/07, p.A3)
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 com-plex, bringing the day's death toll to 25 by
mid-afternoon. Witnesses, Fatah officials and a doc-tor 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 15, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas appointed Fayyad to replace Ismail Haniyeh, who was fired
after his Hamas group violently took control of the Gaza Strip. On its
first day of full rule in Gaza, the Islamic militant Hamas granted
amnesty to Fatah leaders, sig-naling that it seeks conciliation with
the defeated forces of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 6/15/07)
2007 Jun 16, The US strengthened
its offer of support for President Mahmoud Abbas, telling him an
international aid embargo against the Palestinians would end as soon as
he forms a new government without Hamas.
(AP, 6/16/07)
2007 Jun 17, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas swore in an emergency Cabinet and out-lawed the militia
forces of the Islamic Hamas movement, deepening the violent rupture in
Pales-tinian society.
(AP, 6/17/07)
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 terri-fied Gazans
fleeing Hamas rule were trapped at a main crossing with Israel, hoping
to gain per-mission to pass through Israeli territory to sanctuary in
the West Bank.
(AP, 6/19/07)
2007 Jun 19, A Lebanese soldier
was killed in clashes with al-Qaida-inspired militants in a Palestinian
refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
(AP, 6/19/07)
2007 Jun 20, Israeli tanks entered
southern Gaza, and four people, including at least two mili-tants, 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 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 im-prove 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 re-sort with Abbas and the leaders of
Egypt and Jordan. Hamas militants posted an audio mes-sage 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 10 Palestinians, including a 12-year-old boy.
(AP, 6/27/07)
2007 Jun 28, Salam Fayyad, the new
Palestinian PM, delivered a stern warning to hundreds of Islamic
preachers, including Hamas supporters: He won't tolerate calls for
violence delivered from mosque pulpits and plans to collect militants'
weapons.
(AP, 6/29/07)
2007 Jun 28, Israeli President
Moshe Katzav agreed to resign under an unexpected plea bar-gain that
included no jail time for sex crimes, ending a year-long investigation.
Israeli troops im-posed 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, 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, Gaza’s 1.5 million
Palestinians lived in an area about the size of Wichita, Kansas.
(WSJ, 6/19/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 1, Israel transferred
millions of dollars worth of tax funds to the new Palestinian
gov-ernment, 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 2, Hamas arrested the
spokesman of a shadowy group holding British reporter Alan Johnston, a
move that could give it a bargaining chip to secure the Briton's
release.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 4, Palestinian gunmen
released Alan Johnston, a British journalist, who had been kidnapped
March 12. The powerful Dughmush clan got to keep its weapons in return
for giving Johnston up.
(AP, 7/5/07)(Econ, 7/7/07, p.46)
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 camera-man 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 televi-sion.
Imad Ghanem had to have both legs amputated as a result of his
injuries. Israel repatri-ated 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 Palestin-ian
militants dead and pushed Gaza's rival factions together in urging
their people to fight back.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 11, Hamas boycotted the
opening of the Palestinian parliament's new term, effec-tively allowing
President Mahmoud Abbas to keep his moderate emergency Cabinet in power.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 12, Israeli forces moved
into the Gaza Strip in a hunt for weapons and wanted mili-tants,
sparking a fierce battle with Hamas militants that killed one Israeli
soldier.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, The Lebanese army
pounded a Palestinian refugee camp with artillery fire, but the
military denied reports that the action was part of a final assault on
the al-Qaida-inspired Is-lamic militants barricaded inside.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 13, Some 4,000
Palestinians remained stuck on the Egyptian side of the border with
trouble finding food and shelter, shortages they blamed on local
authorities who are indifferent to their plight.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, In north Lebanon
Islamic militants fired back volleys of rockets at the Lebanese army as
troops pounded the remaining suspected hideouts of the Fatah Islam
fighters holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 14, Palestinian PM Salam
Fayyad resigned as head of an emergency government and was immediately
appointed to lead an interim Cabinet.
(AP, 7/14/07)
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 Is-raeli city of Haifa. Scores of Fatah militiamen
signed pledges to renounce violence against Is-rael 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, In northern Lebanon
fierce fighting erupted at a besieged Palestinian refugee camp as army
troops pounded the remaining hideouts of al-Qaida-inspired militants
holed up inside with artillery and tank fire.
(AP, 7/16/07)
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 17, Libya's foreign
minister said the death sentences for five Bulgarian nurses and a
Palestinian doctor accused of infecting hundreds of Libyan children
with HIV have been com-muted to life in prison. The ruling came after
the families of the children each received $1 mil-lion and agreed to
drop their demand for the execution of the six.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 19, About 2,000 people
protested at the border terminal between Egypt and the Gaza Strip,
demanding the crossing be opened to allow thousands of Palestinians
trapped in Egypt to return.
(AP, 7/19/07)
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 22, in northern Lebanon 3
Lebanese soldiers were killed in sporadic fighting with
al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants barricaded in a Palestinian refugee
camp.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, Foreign Minister
Peter MacKay said Canada will give the new Palestinian gov-ernment C$8
million ($7.6 million) in direct aid and more could follow now that
Hamas is no longer in the government.
(Reuters, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, Former British Prime
Minister Tony Blair, in his new capacity as a Mideast envoy, opened his
mission to help Palestinians build solid foundations for their future
state.
(AP, 7/23/08)
2007 Jul 24, Mohammed Radad (20),
was shot by Fatah-allied gunmen, when students aligned with the rival
groups clashes on the campus of An Najah University in Nablus. Radad
died from his wounds on July 27.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 24, Five Bulgarian nurses
and a Palestinian doctor, sentenced to life in prison in Libya for
allegedly infecting children with HIV, came home to Bulgaria and were
greeted with tears and hugs, and a presidential pardon that allowed
them to walk free after 8 1/2 years be-hind bars. French President
Nicolas Sarkozy said Qatar mediated the release and hinted the Gulf
country may have had a broader role in resolving the crisis.
(AP, 7/24/07)
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 25, Lebanese army troops
unleashed barrages of artillery and tank shells at Islamic militants in
a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 26, An Israeli airstrike
targeting a car south of Gaza City killed 3 Islamic Jihad mili-tants.
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 Pales-tinian militants,
wounding two members of Islamic Jihad and the Gaza commander of the Al
Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, Egyptian police
clashed with Bedouins protesting a government order to demol-ish their
houses along the Palestinian Gaza Strip's border, leaving dozens
injured. Egyptian media have reported a government plan to force the
Bedouins from a 500-foot-wide band of land along the border to prevent
traffickers from digging tunnels used to smuggle weapons and people
into Gaza.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Aug 4, Two Palestinians were
killed and six wounded in an Israeli air strike on two vehi-cles 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 out-break of
fighting seven years ago, meeting under heavy guard with Palestinian
President Mah-moud Abbas to talk about the creation of a Palestinian
state.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 7, A large explosion in
northern Gaza killed an 8-year-old boy and his 6-year-old sister and
injured five other children. Witnesses said a group of children
stumbled upon a homemade rocket or a mortar shell and began playing
with it. The device exploded, injuring all seven children, two of whom
died later of their wounds.
(AP, 8/7/07)
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 11, Hamas militiamen
detained 32 Fatah supporters across Gaza, half of them after breaking
up a bachelor's party and beating guests with clubs and chairs.
(AP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 13, Hamas militiamen beat
protesters with clubs and rifle butts to try to stop a dem-onstration
by political opponents in the Gaza Strip, but hundreds chanting "We
want freedom" defied the ban.
(AP, 8/13/07)
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 of-ficers for Gaza's
Hamas rulers were reported killed in fierce fighting with the powerful
Palestin-ian 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 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 Informa-tion 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 kindergar-ten 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 21, The EU said it will
resume vital fuel aid to the Gaza Strip's electric company, money the
bloc suspended because of suspicions that Gaza's Hamas rulers were
diverting revenues.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 22, Israeli aircraft
killed one Hamas militant and wounded three others in an air-strike in
Gaza City.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 24, Hamas security agents
clashed with supporters of the rival Fatah movement, firing into the
air and beating journalists covering a demonstration against the
Islamic militant group's rule in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 24, A deal was reached
with Islamic extremists holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp in
northern Lebanon to allow their families to leave the besieged area.
The UN Security Council voted unanimously to keep peacekeepers in
Lebanon for another 12 months.
(AP, 8/24/07)(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 25, Two Palestinian
militants infiltrated Israel from the Gaza Strip, attacking an Is-raeli
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 26, The moderate
Palestinian government began implementing the closure of 103
institutions in the West Bank and Gaza in an apparent crackdown against
the Islamic Hamas.
(AP, 8/27/07)
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 31, In Gaza a protest of
Hamas rule by Fatah supporters turned violent when Hamas men began
forcefully dispersing the crowd, firing in the air and beating
demonstrators and reporters. Five people were wounded in the clashes,
including two French journalists.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Sep 1, Hamas gunmen opened
fire on their own supporters, killing a teenager at a pro-test on the
Gaza-Egypt border, as tens of thousands of flag-waving Hamas supporters
gathered at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt to demand it be
reopened.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 2, In Lebanon the last
militant stronghold of a Palestinian refugee camp devastated by more
than 3 months of fighting fell to the army. The army killed 39
militants and captured at least 15 others as they tried to break out of
the Nahr el-Bared camp. 5 soldiers were killed in the 2-day fight,
raising to 158 the number of troops killed in the conflict that began
May 20. The dead also included over 20 civilians and over 60 militants.
(AP, 9/2/07)(SFC, 9/3/07, p.A13)
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 Is-raeli army post.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 7, Hamas security forces
armed with rifles and clubs beat Fatah supporters trying to hold street
prayers to protest the Islamic group's rule in Gaza. Hamas men also
assaulted at least seven Palestinian journalists and detained five.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 10, Israeli PM Ehud
Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met in Je-rusalem 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 mili-tants launching rockets from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 9/11/07)
2007 Sep 13, The Jewish New Year
of 5768 began and marked a year of agricultural sabbati-cal, 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 Is-lamic Jihad
group.
(AP, 9/13/07)
2007 Sep 16, Israeli fire killed
two Palestinians in separate incidents in the West Bank, includ-ing 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 strug-gle with Islamic Hamas militants.
(AP, 9/23/07)
2007 Sep 25, Haidar Abdel Shafi
(88), medical doctor and founding member of the Palestine Liberation
organization (PLO), died at his home in Gaza City. He had founded and
directed the Gaza branch of the Red Crescent.
(Econ, 10/6/07,
p.101)(www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/26/africa/obits.php)
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 carry-ing 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 to-ward 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 Sep 30, Scores of Palestinian
militants who had been stranded in Egypt since Hamas seized Gaza in
June returned to the territory.
(AP, 9/30/07)
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 7, Rami Khader Ayyad
(32), a prominent Palestinian Christian activist, was found dead on a
Gaza City street, sending a shudder of fear through a tiny Christian
community feel-ing increasingly insecure since the Islamic Hamas seized
control last summer. He bore a visible gunshot wound to the head and
was also stabbed numerous times. Ayyad had been missing since the
previous afternoon.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 8, Sudan said it will
host hundreds of Palestinian refugees who have been stranded in
terrible conditions on Iraq's border with Syria and Jordan.
(Reuters, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 17, A clash between Hamas
security forces and members of a large Gaza clan af-filiated with the
rival Fatah party left four people dead.
(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,
Palestinian surveyors fanned out across Gaza and the West Bank,
counting homes and people in the first census in a decade, a rare joint
endeavor of bitter rivals Hamas and Fatah.
(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 20,
In Gaza City Hamas police and a clan allied with the rival Fatah
movement traded fire killing a young man and a boy on the 4th day of
heavy internal fighting.
(SSFC, 10/21/07, p.A3)
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 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 riot-ing 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 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 5, Palestinian police
attacked militants in the Balata refugee camp, home to 22,000 people,
one of 19 in the West Bank.
(SFC, 11/6/07, p.A17)
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 terri-tory.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.A11)
2007 Nov 12, Hamas security forces
opened fire at a rally by the rival Fatah movement com-memorating
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. 7 people were killed and 85 wounded
in the bloodiest day of intra-Palestinian fighting since Hamas seized
control of the Gaza Strip in June.
(AP, 11/12/07)(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 15, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas called for the overthrow of Gaza's Is-lamic Hamas rulers.
Hundreds of Palestinian business people and professionals, led by an
in-fluential billionaire, launched a new political movement, reflecting
growing disillusionment with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah
party.
(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 16, Thousands of Hamas
loyalists protested outside Palestinian President Mah-moud Abbas's Gaza
City home, warning that violence would erupt if he makes concessions to
Israel in a US-sponsored peace conference.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, It was reported that
generic Viagra, made in India, was a popular item in Gaza, selling for
75 cents a tablet.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.56)
2007 Nov 19, The Israeli Cabinet
approved the release of 441 Palestinian prisoners in a ges-ture 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 de-signed 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 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, Tens of thousands of
people in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip rallied against the Mideast peace
conference under way in the US, while the group's top leader in Gaza
insisted the summit is "doomed to failure."
(AP, 11/27/07)
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 Ol-mert 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, Palestinian police
loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas fired shots in the air and beat
protesters with sticks during the funeral of a man killed during a
protest against this week's US-hosted Mideast peace summit. At least 26
people were wounded, one critically.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, A day after an
international Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md., Presi-dent
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 mili-tants to fire
longer-range rockets at Israeli border towns.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 2, Hamas officials shut
down the Gaza census office, saying the surveyors had vio-lated an
agreement to share their data with Hamas as it is collected.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas closed 92 charities linked to Hamas, as part of a West
Bank crackdown on Islamic militants.
(WSJ, 12/4/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 3, Egypt opened its
border crossing with Gaza to let in Palestinian religious pilgrims
headed for Saudi Arabia, the first time Palestinians have been allowed
to enter Egyptian terri-tory since Hamas militants seized Gaza in June.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, Israel released 429
Palestinian prisoners in a gesture meant to strengthen mod-erate
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 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 12, Palestinian
pedestrians gawked at the unusual sight of female police officers
directing traffic in Ramallah, the first batch of women to venture into
a job traditionally reserved for men in the West Bank.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 14, Hamas gunmen burst
into the home of Omar Al-Ghoul, a top Fatah official in Gaza, and
arrested him. He was the most senior Fatah politician to be detained
since Hamas forces overtook the territory in June. In the West Bank,
Abbas' security forces arrested 26 Hamas supporters. 3 people were
killed in a mysterious explosion at a Fatah-organized funeral in Gaza
City.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 15, Hamas marked the 20th
anniversary of its founding with a huge rally in Gaza City. Hamas was
founded in Gaza after the outbreak of the first Palestinian uprising
against Is-raeli occupation.
(AP, 12/15/07)
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 unprece-dented 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 con-struction undermines nascent peace talks.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 25, In Egypt dozens of
Palestinian security men affiliated to Fatah staged a mass break-out
from the camp where they have been held in Rafah. Egyptian police were
able to re-capture 40 of them, transferring them to police stations in
the coastal town of Arish.
(Reuters, 12/25/07)
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 Pales-tinians' chief negotiator.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 29, Palestinian PM Salam
Fayyad said his security forces had arrested a number of suspects in
the killings of two off-duty Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and had
given Israeli au-thorities weapons taken from the dead men by their
attackers.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 31, Palestinian pilgrims
broke windows and burned mattresses and blankets in tem-porary camps to
protest Egypt's refusal to let them return to Gaza through a crossing
controlled by Hamas. A Palestinian woman (67) died of a heart attack
when she was caught amid scuffles. The standoff over the pilgrims began
Dec 29, when some 3,060 Palestinians returning from the hajj in Saudi
Arabia arrived by ferry at the Egyptian Red Sea port of Nuweiba in
southern Sinai, heading back to Gaza.
(AP, 12/31/07)
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 Akiva Eldar and Idith Zertal
authored “Lords of the Land: The War for Israel’s Settle-ments in the
Occupied Territories 1967-2007.”
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.97)
2007 Sari Nusseibeh, president of
Al Quds Univ. in Jerusalem, authored “Once Upon a Coun-try: A
Palestinian Life.”
(SSFC, 4/8/07, p.M1)
2007 Bernard Rougier’s “Everyday
Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam Among Palestinians in Lebanon” was
published in English. The French version (Le Jihad au quotidien) was
initially published in 2004.
(WSJ, 6/26/07, p.D5)
2007 Raja Shehadeh authored
“Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape,” which told of 6
walks taken between 1978 and 2006. It was first published in Britain
and in 2008 came out in the US.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.101)
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 1, Gaza's ruling Hamas
militant group launched a new crackdown on the rival Fatah movement,
arresting dozens of activists and barring public gatherings after Fatah
anniversary celebrations sparked deadly violence. Fighting stretched
into a second day, leaving a total of eight dead and 60 wounded.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 2, Egypt allowed more
than 2,000 Palestinian pilgrims to enter the Gaza Strip, draw-ing 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 un-covered 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 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 dis-covered
another explosives laboratory there.
(SSFC, 1/6/08, p.A18)
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 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 12, Gunmen smashed
windows, burned buses and looted computers belonging to a private
American school in Gaza before dawn, an attack officials believed was
linked to Presi-dent Bush's visit to the West Bank earlier this week.
(AP, 1/12/08)
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 gov-ernment,
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 hun-dreds of
dissidents haunted his visit. Bush promised to stay engaged in pulling
Israelis and Pal-estinians toward a peace pact by the end of his term.
(AP, 1/16/08)
2008 Jan 17, Militants in
Hamas-ruled Gaza bombarded southern Israel with rockets and Is-rael
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 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 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 23, Tens of thousands of
Palestinians on foot and on donkey carts poured into Egypt from Gaza
after masked gunmen used land mines to blast down a seven-mile barrier
di-viding the border town of Rafah.
(AP, 1/23/08)
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 offi-cer near Jerusalem.
(AP, 1/24/08)
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 25, Egyptian guards with
riot shields formed human chains along the Egypt-Gaza border, but were
unable to stop hundreds of Palestinians from rushing into Egypt after a
bull-dozer wrecked another section of fence along the frontier.
(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Jan 26, Egyptian riot police
and armored vehicles restricted Gaza motorists to a small border area
of Egypt, in the second attempt in two days to restore control over the
chaotic fron-tier breached by Hamas militants. At least 36 Egyptian
security personnel have been hospital-ized, including some in critical
condition, due to border incidents with Palestinians.
(AP, 1/26/08)
2008 Jan 26, George Habash (81),
former PLO leader, died in Jordan. His radical PLO faction gained
notoriety after the simultaneous hijackings of four Western airliners
in 1970 and the sei-zure of an Air France flight to Entebbe, Uganda.
(AP, 1/26/08)
2008 Jan 27, Egyptian forces
brandishing electrified batons stopped Gaza cars from crossing the
breached border and tightened security at checkpoints to try to confine
Palestinians who moved freely into Egypt for a fifth straight day.
(AP, 1/27/08)
2008 Jan 28, Egyptian security
forces and Hamas militants strung barbed wire across one of the
openings in the Egypt-Gaza border, a sign that a days-long breaching of
the frontier may be nearing an end.
(AP, 1/28/08)
2008 Jan 29, Cars and trucks
traveled freely across the border from Gaza to Egypt for a sev-enth
day. Egyptians living near the breached border with Gaza warned that
chaos was brewing and demanded the crisis be resolved.
(AP, 1/29/08)
2008 Feb 1, Hundreds of Hamas
supporters protested on the breached Gaza-Egypt border to demand it
remain open, while Egyptian troops poured cement and laid down metal
spikes in a new attempt to halt the influx of Gazans.
(AP, 2/1/08)
2008 Feb 2, Hamas agreed to
Egyptian calls to control the flow of Palestinians through the breached
Gaza border and expects Egypt to seal remaining gaps in the frontier
wall.
(AP, 2/2/08)
2008 Feb 3, Egyptian troops closed
the last breach in Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip, end-ing 11 days
of free movement for Palestinian residents of the blockaded territory.
(AP, 2/3/08)
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 4, Egyptian forces and
Palestinian gunmen exchanged fire at the Gaza-Egypt bor-der, killing
one person and wounding 59 others a day after Cairo closed the breached
frontier with the Hamas-run enclave.
(Reuters, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 5, An Israeli airstrike
in response to Qassam rockets killed at least 8 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)
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.
(AP, 2/6/08)
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 hob-bling peace efforts.
(AP, 2/7/08)
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 tar-geted weapons-making operations of the Islamic militant
Hamas group.
(AP, 2/10/08)
2008 Feb 9, The population in Gaza
was about 1.5 million people.
(Econ, 2/9/08, p.54)
2008 Feb 12, Israel said it plans
to build 1,000 homes in East Jerusalem, angering Palestini-ans who said
the move undermines efforts for a peace deal.
(WSJ, 2/13/08, p.A1)
2008 Feb 15, In Gaza City a
powerful blast went off in the house of Ayman Atallah Fayed, a senior
Islamic Jihad activist, killing him, his wife, three sons and three
neighbors.
(AP, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 17, Israeli troops backed
by aircraft and tanks clashed with Palestinian militants fir-ing
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 22, Majed Barghouti (44),
a Hamas preacher, died in the custody of the Palestinian intelligence
service. The next day his family alleged that he had been tortured by
interrogators from the rival Fatah faction.
(AP, 2/23/08)
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 per-son 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 min-ister 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 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 south-ern
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 Is-raeli 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 mili-tants and 3 civilians were wounded.
(AP, 3/4/08)(AP, 3/5/08)
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, kill-ing 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 7, An official said Egypt
is building a 13-foot high concrete and rock wall inter-spersed with
watch towers along its narrow boundary with the Gaza Strip to prevent
Hamas militants from breaching the border.
(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 Pales-tinian 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 sanc-tions 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 Dai-hatsu 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 13, Chile said it has
agreed to receive 117 Palestine refugees from Iraq who have spent
months living in tents along the desert border with Syria.
(AP, 3/14/08)
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 20, Palestinian militants
accidentally set off a large blast at a Hamas training base in the
central Gaza Strip, killing 2 members of the violent Islamic group and
wounding another.
(AP, 3/20/08)
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 im-prove
everyday life for Palestinians after US Sec. of State Rice met with
Israel's defense minis-ter, 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 4, In the West Bank 12
members of the members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades fled the
Palestinian-run Jneid Prison in Nablus, complaining that guards had
pummeled them with clubs following a fight among the detainees.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 6, A Palestinian boy (8)
was killed by shrapnel in an explosion in the central Gaza Strip. The
source of the shrapnel was not identified.
(SFC, 4/7/08, p.A3)
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 at-tacked 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 mili-tants
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 13, Palestinian medical
officials said 3 people died in an explosion in a house in the Gaza
Strip. They said the blast likely resulted from the accidental
detonation of explosives.
(AP, 4/13/08)
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 set-tlements 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, Former US Pres. Jimmy
Carter visited the West Bank and laid a wreath at the grave of Yasser
Arafat. Carter was criticized by Israel and Washington for his plans to
meet with Hamas leaders in Syria.
(SFC, 4/16/08, p.A8)
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.
(AP, 4/17/08)
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 Is-raeli officials. Carter said he urged Hamas
leaders from the Gaza Strip to stop militants from fir-ing 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 settle-ments, one of them deep in the West Bank, in violation of
its pledge to freeze settlement ex-pansion. 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 cross-ing 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 deto-nated two jeeps packed with hundreds of kilograms of
explosives on the Gaza border.
(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 20,
A group of Palestinian refugees stranded on the Iraq-Syria border
since 2006 flew to Chile under a resettlement plan sponsored by the
Catholic Church in the South Ameri-can country and the UN agency for
refugees.
(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 to-ward the area.
Hamas proposed a six-month cease-fire with Israel, saying it will stop
firing rock-ets 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 ex-change 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 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 north-ern 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 2, A UN official said
rising prices and funding shortages have forced the UN to stop
providing emergency food aid to more than 13 percent of the 750,000
Palestinian refugees it feeds in Gaza.
(AP, 5/2/08)
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, The main border
crossing between the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and Egypt was
temporarily opened under a deal between the Islamist group and Cairo.
(Reuters, 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 op-timism
for democratic change throughout the Middle East, opening a trip
divided between cere-monial 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 sacri-ficing 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 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 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 be-sides the bomber.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, A US government
agency signed a political risk insurance deal with a Palestin-ian firm
to help guarantee investments in the West Bank as part of an
international effort to de-velop the beleaguered local economy.
(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 23, Japan allocated $54
million in emergency grants to the UN to help Afghanistan, Africa and
Palestinian refugees cope with the ongoing food crisis.
(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 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 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 30, Palestinian doctors
said Israel troops opened fire and wounded 7 Palestinians in a
demonstration at a crossing into Israel.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 May 31, An explosion in the
Gaza Strip house of Nader Abu Shaban, a Hamas militant, killed him and
wounded 16 of his relatives and neighbors.
(AP, 5/31/08)
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 reve-nue 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.
(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
involve-ment. Hamas said the blast was caused by an Israeli airstrike
and responded with a heavy bar-rage 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, im-mediately
drawing the ire of Palestinians who accused it of sabotaging already
rocky peace ef-forts. 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 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 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
mili-tant group Hamas said it remains committed to a cease-fire with
Israel, but will not act as Is-rael'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 24, Countries at a
one-day conference in Berlin agreed to commit more than $240 million to
help strengthen the Palestinian Authority's police force and court
system. The funding being sought was for the Palestinian
Authority-controlled West Bank, which does not control the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 26, Gaza militants fired
a rocket into southern Israel, causing no injuries but under-mining a
shaky, week-old truce meant to halt a violent cycle of attacks and
harsh Israeli repri-sals. 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 mili-tants
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 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 com-munal 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 2, Japan and Middle
Eastern leaders agreed on a project to bring thousands of badly needed
jobs to the West Bank, voicing hope it would lay the groundwork for a
Palestinian state.
(AFP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 6, Israel re-opened its
border crossings with the Gaza Strip after closing them be-cause 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. Pal-estinian 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 sol-diers captured in 2006.
(AP, 7/7/08)
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 sta-tion, and raided a
mosque.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 10, A Palestinian health
official said a tunnel used to smuggle goods across the Gaza-Egypt
border has collapsed, killing two Palestinians.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 11, Israeli police
revealed stinging new allegations against PM Ehud Olmert, accus-ing him
of pocketing tens of thousands of dollars by deceiving multiple sources
into paying for the same trips abroad. 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)(AP, 7/12/08)
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 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 Jeru-salem hotel
where Barack Obama is supposed to stay, injuring four people before an
Israeli ci-vilian 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. A mysterious beachside blast
killed 3 Hamas members and a 6-year-old girl. 2 more Hamas activists
died the next day.
(AP, 7/25/08)(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 26, Hamas security
arrested dozens of supporters of the rival Fatah group, hurled grenades
at the home of a Fatah leader and set up checkpoints across Gaza
following the previous day’s beachside blast that killed five Hamas
members and a 6-year-old girl. Masked Hamas gunmen nabbed Sawah Abu
Saif (42), a Palestinian cameraman for German TV, from his Gaza home,
during a mass weekend roundup of alleged activists of the rival Fatah
move-ment. He was tortured and released on July 31.
(AP, 7/26/08)(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 29, A huge blast rocked a
training base run by the Islamic militant Hamas in south-ern Gaza,
injuring at least five members of the group.
(AP, 7/30/08)
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 31, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas ordered the release of all Hamas activists detained in
recent days by his security forces.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Aug 1, Hamas forces seized
about 15 leaders of Fatah in Gaza, upping the stakes in a week of
tit-for-tat arrests between the bitter Palestinian rivals. Fatah said
more than 200 of its men have been seized over the past week. Five
Palestinians died and 18 were wounded in a smuggling tunnel under the
Gaza-Egypt border after Egyptian troops blew up the entrance.
(AP, 8/1/08)(AP, 8/2/08)
2008 Aug 2, Hamas security forces
battled fighters in a tribal stronghold where they say sus-pects 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 "im-mediate 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 9, Mahmoud Darwish (67),
a Palestinian poet, died, died in Houston. His poetry elo-quently told
of his people's experiences of exile, occupation and infighting.
(AP, 8/10/08)
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. Is-rael 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 30, Egypt opened its
Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip, allowing more than 2,500
people to leave the Hamas-controlled territory and about 1,000 to enter
in a goodwill ges-ture before the holy Muslim month of Ramadan begins.
(AP, 8/30/08)(Reuters, 8/31/08)
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 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
Presi-dent George W. Bush, might not be achieved.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 13, A Palestinian stabbed
a 9-year-old Israeli boy in a West Bank settlement out-post, 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 16, Hamas police
waged a fierce gunbattle against members of a heavily armed Palestinian
clan in a crowded neighborhood, leaving three clan members and one
policeman dead.
(AP, 9/16/08)
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 22, A driver plowed a BMW
into a group of soldiers at a busy intersection near Je-rusalem's Old
City, injuring 13 of them before he was shot to death. The driver was a
Palestin-ian resident of east Jerusalem who apparently acted alone.
(AP, 9/22/08)
2008 Sep 23, The bodies of 2
Palestinian smugglers were pulled from a tunnel that collapsed along
the Gaza-Egypt border. 3 more bodies were removed the next day. The
five were bring-ing contraband goods from Egypt into Gaza when an
explosion collapsed the tunnel. Three smugglers survived and were
arrested on the Egyptian side.
(AP, 9/24/08)
2008 Oct 8, It was reported that
Gaza's smugglers have gone legit. Owners of the scores of tunnels
running under the Gaza-Egypt border have registered with the Hamas
authorities, pledged to pay workers' compensation and hooked up their
operations to the electricity net-work.
(AP, 10/8/08)
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 Hamas government
announced that it will not permit thousands of striking teachers to
return to their jobs, further heightening tensions with its political
rivals in the West Bank. Despite the August 24 strike, Hamas kept
schools running and hired some 2,200 new teachers and administrators.
(AP, 10/14/08)
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 an-other 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 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 Je-rusalem
neighborhood, killing an 86-year-old man and wounding a police officer
in what authori-ties 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 col-lapsed. 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, The Palestinian
national team hosted an international match for the first time, in the
West Bank's only regulation-size stadium. Located in a West Bank suburb
of Jerusalem. The game against Jordan ended in a 1-1 tie.
(AP, 10/27/08)
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 viola-tion of
a 4-month-old truce, but the strike did not cause any injuries or
damage. The Israeli De-fense Ministry responded by snapping shut cargo
crossings into Gaza until further notice.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, Scientists reported
that 1 in 17 men living on the coasts of North Africa and southern
europe may have a Phoenician direct male line ancestor. Evidence was
based on Y-chromosomes collected in Cyprus, Malta, Morocco, the West
Bank, Syria and Tunisia.
(SFC, 10/31/08, p.A14)
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 Nov 4, A World Bank
delegation launched a sewage project, long delayed by the stand-off
between Israel and Hamas, in the Gaza Strip to prevent raw sewage from
spilling into resi-dential areas.
(AP, 11/4/08)
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 inter-nationally
backed blockade of the Hamas-run territory with activists promising to
send more visi-tors 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 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 ar-eas,
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 mili-tants 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 Na-tions 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 air-strike 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 18, Israeli tanks forged
into the southern Gaza Strip, drawing mortar fire from Pal-estinian
militants and intensifying violence that has chipped away at a tenuous
cease-fire. Is-raeli 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, The US government won
a terrorism conviction against Texas-based Holy Land, what had been the
nation's largest Muslim charity, and five of its leaders for funneling
mil-lions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Holy Land
supporters accused the gov-ernment of politicizing the case as part of
its war on terrorism, while attorneys for the foundation said Holy
Land's mission was philanthropy and providing aid to the Middle East.
(AP, 11/25/08)
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 26, The UN and other aid
agencies appealed to the international community to send $462 million
in emergency assistance to address what they said is a humanitarian
crisis in the Palestinian territories.
(AP, 11/26/08)
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 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 interna-tional 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 re-vealed 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 re-sponse 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 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 24, Palestinian militants
in the Gaza Strip bombarded southern Israel with dozens of mortars and
rockets, sowing panic and despair there and burdening diplomatic
efforts to re-vive an expired truce. Hamas said two of its fighters
have been killed in a blast in the southern Gaza Strip.
(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 26, Israel reopened its
border with Gaza to allow deliveries of humanitarian aid, de-spite
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 be-gan. 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 Mus-lim
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 doz-ens 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
Ash-kelon 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 Pales-tinian 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)
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
govern-ment 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 ci-vilians 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 of-fensive 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 mis-siles fell on southern Israel, wounding five people.
(AP, 1/4/09)(AP, 1/5/09)
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.
(AP, 1/5/09)(SFC, 1/6/09, p.A3)(AP, 1/11/09)(Econ,
1/17/09, p.49)
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 Con-doleezza 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 peo-ple, including
three who were fleeing their homes, raising the death toll from its
13-day offen-sive 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 bar-rage 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 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 mili-tant 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 down-town 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 of-ficials 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 mili-tants 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 me-diators
pushed the militant Palestinian Hamas group to accept a truce proposal
for the embat-tled 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
Palestini-ans 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 dip-lomatic 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, includ-ing
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 esti-mated 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 mili-tary
offensive in Gaza.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 15, Israel shelled the
United Nations 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 in-cluding 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.
(AP, 1/15/09)(SFC, 1/16/09, p.A2)
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 blood-shed at an
Arab summit that deepened the divisions between pro-US Arab nations and
their ri-vals 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 uni-lateral 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 20, In Gaza UN chief Ban
Ki-moon voiced sorrow and frustration over the suffering of civilians
during Israel’s 3-week war on Hamas rulers. Ismail Radwan, a Hamas
legislator, celebrated the blood battles as proof of Hamas strength and
defiance.
(SFC, 1/21/09, p.A21)
2009 Jan 20, In Kuwait the deeply
divided Arab League failed to come up with a plan to re-construct the
devastated Gaza Strip and could not agree on whether to back Egyptian
peace efforts to end the crisis.
(AP, 1/20/09)
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
sus-pected 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, Hundreds of workers
toiled in southern Gaza to repair dozens of tunnels dug under tents or
fake greenhouses while smugglers brought in food and fuel just days
after Israel ended a barrage of bombs and missiles aimed at cutting off
the supply route from Egypt.
(AP, 1/22/09)
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 Hol-brook as envoy
to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(WSJ, 1/23/09, 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 air-strike 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 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 walk-ing home
from school. Senior officials in the Islamic group Hamas indicated a
willingness to ne-gotiate 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, 1/30/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 29, The ship Monchegorsk
arrived in Cyprus. It was examined twice after it arrived under
suspicion of ferrying weapons from Iran to Hamas fighters in Gaza, and
detained. The US military had stopped the ship last month in the Red
Sea, and said it found artillery shells and other arms on board. But it
could not legally detain the ship, which continued to Port Said, Egypt,
and then to Cyprus.
(AP, 2/10/09)
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 30, An Israeli rights
group said it to use a database detailing the complicity of Is-rael's
government in widespread illegal construction in West Bank settlements
to help Palestini-ans file lawsuits over their lost land.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 31, Palestinian militants
fired a rocket from Gaza that exploded close to the south-ern Israeli
town of Ashkelon without causing any damages or injuries.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 31, Security sources said
Egypt has begun installing cameras and motion sensors along its border
with the Gaza Strip to try to combat smuggling to the Hamas-run
territory.
(Reuters, 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.
(Reuters, 3/27/09)(Econ, 4/4/09, p.50)
2009 Feb 1, Gaza militants
launched at least 10 rockets and mortar shells into southern Is-rael,
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, 2/2/09, 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. De-fense Minister Ehud Barak proposed linking
Gaza with the West Bank by digging a tunnel through Israeli territory.
(AP, 2/2/09)(WSJ, 2/3/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 3, Hamas policemen broke
into an aid warehouse in Gaza City and confiscated 3,500 blankets and
more than 4,000 food parcels meant for 500 families after UN officials
re-fused to voluntarily hand it over to the Hamas-run Ministry of
Social Affairs. Ahmad Kurd, the Hamas Minister of Social Affairs
countered that the U.N. had been handing out relief to groups tied to
Hamas' opponents.
(AP, 2/4/09)
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 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 6, The UN agency for
Palestinian refugees suspended aid to Gaza, accusing the Hamas rulers
of stealing a delivery of humanitarian supplies for the 2nd time in a
week. Jamil Shaqqura (51) died in a hospital of wounds from beating and
torture, a week after he was picked for interrogation by Hamas'
internal security.
(SFC, 2/709, p.A3)(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 7, In Gaza Hasan
al-Hijazi, who was shot by three masked men. Hamas later is-sued a
statement calling the killing a "mistake."
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 8, Two rockets fired by
Palestinian militants struck southern Israel, violating an in-formal
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 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 12, An Egyptian security
official said police have arrested 40 suspected smugglers and seized
goods in a new crackdown on smuggling into the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in
a crack-down that started last weekend.
(AP, 2/12/09)
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 Is-raeli 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 17, The UN said
unexploded Israeli bombs under Hamas guard has been stolen.
(WSJ, 2/18/09, p.A1)
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, US Sen. John Kerry as
well as 2 other congressional Democrats came to the Gaza Strip, the
highest-level visit by a US official since the Hamas militant group
seized power in the territory nearly two years ago. Kerry said he was
in Gaza to view the aftermath of Israel's recent military offensive
against Hamas.
(AP, 2/19/09)(SFC, 2/20/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 22, The bodies of four
people were found in a smuggling tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt border, a
day after another body was discovered in the area. Border officials
said about 1,000 university students and holders of foreign residency
permits were eligible to cross, and by mid-afternoon, about 600 people
had made the trip.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 23, A government official
said US aid for the Gaza Strip's reconstruction will likely top $900
million, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepared to make her
first Mideast trip as America's top diplomat.
(AP, 2/24/09)
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 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, Tony Blair paid his
first visit to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip as envoy of interna-tional
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 mili-tants for rockets
still hitting Israel, six weeks after its military halted an offensive
that was sup-posed to have stopped them for good.
(Reuters, 3/1/09)(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 2, At a donor’s
conference in Egypt Palestinian Pres. Mahmoud Abbas, seeking to shore
up his position against rival Hamas, asked international donors to
funnel millions of dol-lars through his government to rebuild the
devastated Gaza Strip. The gathering aimed to raise at least $2.8
billion from 80 donor nations and international organizations.
(AP, 3/2/09)
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 Is-raeli targets.
(AP, 3/5/09)(SFC, 3/6/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 7, Palestinian PM Salam
Fayyad submitted his resignation, a move that could help pave the way
for an elusive power-sharing deal between Palestinian moderates and
militants.
(AP, 3/7/09)
2009 Mar 10, In Egypt rival
Palestinian factions opened talks aimed at coming up with a
power-sharing agreement, hearing a call to forget their contentious and
sometimes bloody past.
(AP, 3/10/09)
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. Is-raeli 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 17, Egyptian security
officials caught 2 Hamas officials returning to Gaza with nearly
$850,000 stuffed into candy tins.
(SFC, 3/18/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 18, Egypt opened its
border crossing with the Gaza Strip for the second time in two months
to allow medical aid and Palestinians to enter the coastal territory.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 23, In southern Lebanon
an explosion killed Kamal Madhat (55), a senior Fatah offi-cial, and
three of his bodyguards as they were leaving a Palestinian refugee camp.
(AP, 3/24/09)
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 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 Cabi-net 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 oth-ers 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, 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 Is-rael 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 offi-cers 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 5, In Iraq Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas won assurances that Iraqi leaders will protect
Palestinians living in Iraq, including thousands stranded in desert
refugee camps, during his first visit to the country since the US-led
invasion of 2003. Two roadside bombs in Fallujah killed one officer and
wounded three other people. Someone threw a grenade at a po-lice patrol
in Samarra, killing one policeman and wounding four. 8 people,
including seven po-licemen, were wounded by a bomb that blasted their
patrol in the northern oil city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 4/5/09)
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, 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 ef-forts forward.
(AP, 4/12/09)
2009 Apr 13, An unmanned
Palestinian fishing boat laden with hundreds of pounds of explo-sives
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 15, Egyptian police
detained three teenage Palestinian men on suspicion of cross-ing
illegally into Egypt and also found explosives near the border with
Gaza.
(AP, 4/15/09)
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
was killed when he was hit in the chest by a tear gas canister.
(AP, 4/17/09)
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 Mer-cedes 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 pa-tients leave the blockaded territory.
(AP, 4/18/09)
2009 Apr 20, New York-based Human
Rights Watch said gunmen with suspected links to Hamas security forces
in the Gaza Strip killed at least 32 Palestinians and wounded dozens in
attacks on political opponents and alleged informers during and after
Israel's recent war in the coastal territory. The report said 18
Palestinians were killed by Hamas during the three-week war, which
ended Jan. 18, and 14 others were killed afterward.
(AP, 4/20/09)
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 27, Palestinian officials
established formal ties with Venezuela and opened a diplo-matic mission
in the South American country.
(AP, 4/28/09)
2009 Apr 29, Youssef Magied
al-Molqui, one of the 4 Palestinians who hijacked the Achille Lauro
cruise ship and killed an American passenger in 1985, left prison in
Palermo, Sicily, after more than 23 years in jail. Ibrahim Fatayer
Abdelatif, another convicted Achille Lauro hijacker, was released last
year.
(AP, 4/30/09)
2009 May 1, A UN agency urged
Israel to freeze demolitions of Arab homes in east Jerusa-lem, 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 leaders of Iran
and Syria reaffirmed their support for Palestinian resistance, a
defiant message to the US and its Mideast allies who are uneasy over
Washington's efforts to forge closer ties with the hard-line government
in Tehran.
(AP, 5/5/09)
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 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 estab-lishment 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, 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 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 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 Je-sus' crucifixion that peace is possible.
(AP, 5/15/09)
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 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 Is-rael in
the 1967 Middle East war.
(AP, 5/28/09)(AP, 6/23/09)
2009 May 31, Palestinian forces
stormed a Hamas hideout in Qalqilya in the northern West Bank, setting
off a fierce battle that left six dead in the bloodiest factional
violence since the Palestinian president launched a crackdown on the
Islamic militant group two years ago.
(AP, 5/31/09)(Econ, 6/6/09, p.46)
2009 Jun 1, Israel's PM Netanyahu
dismissed the US demand for a settlement freeze as un-reasonable,
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 4, Palestinian police
killed two Hamas militants after the men opened fire at security forces
who had surrounded their underground hideout in Qalqiliya. One officer
was also killed in the operation, part of an intensifying crackdown on
Islamic militants in this West Bank town.
(AP, 6/4/09)
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 Pal-estinian 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 at-tached 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 22, In Italy Khaled
Hussein (73), a Palestinian man who helped plan the 1985 hi-jacking of
the Achille Lauro cruise ship, died of a heart attack in a jail in
Benevento.
(SFC, 6/23/09, p.A2)
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
Pal-estinian 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, Beth-lehem, Jericho and
Ramallah.
(AP, 6/25/09)
2009 Jun 26, The Quartet of
Mideast negotiators called on Israel to freeze all settlement activ-ity
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)
(AP, 6/29/09)
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 Corri-gan Maguire,
a Nobel peace prize laureate, and other activists who were arrested and
jailed af-ter 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 19, Palestinian
authorities allowed Al-Jazeera to resume operations in the West Bank,
four days after banning the Arab satellite station over the airing of a
claim linking Presi-dent Mahmoud Abbas to the death of his legendary
predecessor, Yasser Arafat.
(AP, 7/19/09)
2009 Jul 20, A Palestinian
official said more than 30 Israeli settlers, some of them on
horse-back, 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 schoolchil-dren. 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
educa-tion minister for the first time in 2007.
(AP, 7/22/09)
2009 Jul 24, The United States
transferred $200 million to the Palestinian government to help ease a
growing budget deficit.
(AP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 26, Gaza's top judge said
that he has ordered female lawyers to wear Muslim head-scarves when
they appear in court, the latest sign that the Islamic militant group
is increasingly imposing its strict interpretation of Islamic law on
residents of the coastal strip.
(AP, 7/26/09)
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 con-ference 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. The 3-day general as-sembly’s main task was to elect a new
central committee.
(AP, 8/4/09)(Econ, 8/8/09, p.42)
2009 Aug 8, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas was named head of his Fatah move-ments at his party's
first conference in two decades, strengthening the hand of the
Western-backed leader in his bid to revive peace talks with Israel.
(AP, 8/8/09)
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 11, The Palestinian Fatah
movement ended a 4-day conference. Pres. Abbas was unanimously
re-elected as party head and a group of younger leaders were elected to
its top council, bolstering its credentials as the West's best hope for
Mideast peace. Also elected were Marwan Barghouti (50), a firebrand
militant leader now jailed by Israel and seen as a likely fu-ture
president, and Jibril Rajoub (56), a former aide to the late Yasser
Arafat who led several crackdowns against Hamas.
(AP, 8/11/09)(Econ, 8/15/09, p.41)
2009 Aug 14, In the southern Gaza
town of Rafah on the Egyptian border fighting broke out when Hamas
security men surrounded a mosque where about 100 members of Jund Ansar
Al-lah, or the Soldiers of the Companions of God, were holed up.
Abdel-Latif Moussa, the leader of the group, defied Gaza's Hamas rulers
by declaring in a prayer sermon that the territory was an Islamic
emirate. 11 homemade rockets were launched from Gaza into Egypt. Only
five of the rockets detonated, injuring a young girl.
(AP, 8/15/09)
2009 Aug 15, In the Gaza Strip
Abdel-Latif Moussa, the leader of an al-Qaida-inspired group, blew
himself up during a shootout with Hamas security forces, ending hours
of violence sparked by a rebellious sermon at a mosque near the
Egyptian border. A total of 24 people, including six Hamas police
officers and an 11-year-old girl, were killed and 150 were wounded.
(AP, 8/15/09)
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 31, Egyptian police found
the entrances to four tunnels and two tons of explosives hidden near
the border with Gaza. A day earlier they had thwarted an attempt to
smuggle 500 kg (1,100 lb) of explosives into Gaza.
(AP, 9/1/09)
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 set-tlement
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 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
in-cursion into Gaza.
(AP, 9/16/09)(SSFC, 9/20/09, p.A20)
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 lead-ers
proved Israel could successfully fend off international pressure to
freeze West Bank settle-ment construction.
(AP, 9/23/09)
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 Je-rusalem
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 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
Gold-stone 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 out-rage 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 re-sponse to one mortar shell and one rocket fired at Israel from
Gaza the day before.
(AP, 10/3/09)
2009 Oct 6, The Hamas government
banned motorcycle riders from carrying women on the back seat, the
latest in the militants' virtue campaign in Gaza.
(AP, 10/7/09)
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 7, Yasser Abed Rabbo,
Palestinian adviser to Pres. Abbas, said the Palestinian leadership
made a mistake by suspending action on a UN report on Gaza war crimes,
the first such acknowledgment after days of protests in the West Bank
and Gaza. In an apparent at-tempt at damage control, Abbas' government
is now backing a request by Libya to convene the UN Security Council
for an emergency session on the report.
(AP, 10/7/09)
2009 Oct 13, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party accepted Egypt's plan for separate signings
of a reconciliation deal with Hamas after the Islamist group balked at
attend-ing a unity ceremony.
(Reuters, 10/13/09)
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 15, The Syrian-based
leadership of the militant Palestinian Hamas said it has re-jected an
Egyptian-mediated proposal to reconcile with the rival Fatah group.
Hamas and seven other Damascus-based Palestinian factions issued a
joint statement saying the reconciliation plan must be revised to
include a reference to the Palestinian right to resist Israeli
occupation.
(AP, 10/15/09)
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 Pal-estinians accused of war crimes.
(AP, 10/16/09)
2009 Oct 25, Israeli forces
stormed Jerusalem's holiest shrine, firing stun grenades to dis-perse
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 disproportion-ate 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 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 Pal-estinian 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 un-dermining
progress toward Mideast peace talks after she praised Israel for
offering to curb some Jewish settlement construction.
(AP, 11/1/09)
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 5, Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas pushed Mideast peace prospects into un-known territory,
announcing he doesn't want another term and opening the way to a
succession battle that could play into the hands of his rival, the
militant Hamas.
(AP, 11/6/09)
2009 Nov 13, Israeli troops killed
a Palestinian man along the Gaza Strip border, but the cir-cumstances
of the incident were unclear.
(AP, 11/13/09)
2009 Nov 16, The Palestinians
asked the European Union to support their plan to ask the UN to
recognize an independent Palestinian state without Israeli consent.
(AP, 11/16/09)
2009 Nov 17, The European Union
joined the US in discouraging Palestinian intentions to seek
international recognition of an independent state, urging instead a
return to stalled peace talks with Israel.
(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 tun-nels 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 smug-gling 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 rul-ers 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 set-tlement
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 fu-ture 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 Nov 27, Venezuela’s President
Chavez said he plans to open an embassy in Palestinian territories and
upgrade its ties to ambassadorial level, to support Palestinians in
their struggle against Israel.
(Reuters, 11/27/09)
2009 Dec 1, Israel sternly warned
the EU against recognizing east Jerusalem as the Palestin-ian 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 6, The Palestinian
Authority signed an agreement with the World Bank and other donors for
$64 million to help it prepare for statehood.
(AP, 12/6/09)
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 8, EU nations agreed that
Jerusalem should be the capital of both Israel and a fu-ture
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 10, Egyptian security
officials said a project is under way along the Gaza border to stem
smuggling into the Palestinian territory through underground tunnels. A
border guard with Hamas' Gaza rulers said the Egyptians are digging
during the day and putting sheets of metal into the trenches at night.
(AP, 12/10/09)
2009 Dec 10, Abdullah Abu Rahmeh
(38), a teacher and leader of the most persistent Pales-tinian protest
movement against Israel's West Bank separation barrier, was arrested by
Israeli troops in a pre-dawn raid.
(AP, 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 re-ceive 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 Avi Shlaim authored “Israel
and Palestine: Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations.”
(Econ, 9/26/09, p.98)
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