The Palestine Chronology

IDF troops on the n. Gaza border shoot, wound a Palestinian farmer working his land nr. the border fence e. of Bayt Lahiya. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Hebron, nr. Bethlehem, and in Aida r.c., Jenin (detaining a senior Islamic Jihad cmdr.), Nablus; begins work on a new segment of the separation wall s. of Bethlehem nr. Um Salamuna; fences off areas along a settler bypass road through Jinata village nr. Bethlehem, declaring the areas closed military zones. (In response to the Jenin arrest, Islamic Jihad fires 7 rockets fr. Gaza into Israel, seriously wounding 2 13-yr.-old Israeli boys in Sederot.) Israel announces approval for a new Jewish settlement, Maskiyot, in the n. Jordan Valley, where construction work to house 23 settler families evacuated fr. Shirat Hayam in the Gaza disengagement began several mos. ago, though 100 families are expected to move there in the near future; the approval violates pledges to the U.S. to halt settlement expansion and marking the government’s 1st official announcement of a new settlement since 1992 (though more than 100 unauthorized settlements have been built since 3/01); Israel claims the settlement is not new but the revival of a settlement approved in 1981; the site has been in use as an IDF base. (NYT, OCHA, WP, WT 12/27; PCHR 12/28)

The IDF raids Qabatya, surrounds the home of senior Islamic Jihad military leader Elias al-Ashkar, killing Ashkar and 4 Islamic Jihad mbrs. in an exchange of fire, sparking massive protests in Qabatya in which soldiers kill a 6th Palestinian, wound 16 (including a journalist); sends undercover units into Jenin in car with Palestinian license plates, willfully shooting and killing a PA General Intelligence Service (GIS) officer guarding the GIS headquarters in Jenin, besieging a house nearby, arresting 1 wanted Palestinian; shoots, wounds senior Islamic Jihad political leader Shaykh Mahmud al-Sadi outside Jenin in an apparent assassination attempt; conducts additional arrest raids, house searches in and around Nablus, in Tulkarm, nr. Hebron; raids Aida r.c., chasing and firing on Palestinian children who allegedly threw stones at IDF soldiers, wounding an 11- and a 12-yr.-old with live ammunition; confiscates goods from, demolishes 13 shops in a farmers market in the Jordan Valley; captures a Palestinian boat smuggling explosives fr. Egypt to Gaza. A small bomb explodes at a hitchhiking post outside Shiloh settlement nr. Ramallah, lightly wounding 1 Jewish settler; no group takes responsibility. Unidentified gunmen shoot, wound a bodyguard outside the home of PA GIS Gaza chief Maj. Gen. Tariq Abu Rajab; no group claims responsibility. An American wounded in the 4/17 Tel Aviv bombing dies of his injuries, bringing that toll to 11. (AFP, REU, XIN, YA 5/14; HA, MM, NYT, WP, WT 5/15; PCHR 5/18)

The Israeli High Court upholds (6–5) a 2002 law that sharply restricts family reunification for West Bank and Gaza Palestinians married to Israeli Palestinians living in Israel to women over age 25 and men over age 35. (AP, B’Tselem press release, HA 5/14; HA, MM, NYT, WP, WT 5/15)