The Palestine Chronology

Before dawn, IDF helicopters fire 5 missiles at a school in Khan Yunis, extensively damaging it; fatally shoots a Palestinian drummer going alley-to-alley in Askar r.c. nr. Nablus despite the curfew to declare the start of the day’s Ramadan fast (Ramadan began on 11/6), bars an ambulance fr. reaching him, allowing him to bleed to death. During the day, the IDF fatally shoots 1 Palestinian driving in Bethlehem; holds a Palestinian woman in labor at a Bethlehem checkpoint for 2 hrs., causing her baby to die; conducts arrest raids in Balata r.c., Nablus; raids an emergency clinic in Hebron, vandalizing patient files. A PFLP suicide bomber detonates a car bomb nr. an IDF post in Gaza, killing himself but causing no other injuries. Palestinians fire 5 mortars at Gush Katif settlement, causing no damage or injuries. (LAW, PCHR, PM, UPMRC, WT 11/27; HA, WP 11/28)

Israel’s Interior M Eli Yishai announces his decision to strip Israeli Arab Qays Obeid, now residing in Lebanon, of his Israeli citizenship for allegedly spying for Hizballah, marking the 2d time Yishai has stripped an Israeli Arab of his citizenship. (HA 11/27)

The IDF sends tanks, troops into Artas village, nr. Bethlehem, to detain a wanted Islamic Jihad mbr. Omar Ayish. In the process the IDF wound 4 Palestinians; throw a grenade into the Ayish home, causing damage but no injuries; leave a trail of cars crushed and overturned by tanks. In response to the raid, Palestinian gunmen fire on Gilo fr. Bayt Jala, lightly injuring 1 Jewish settler. IDF soldiers detain and beat a Red Crescent doctor, ambulance driver at a checkpoint in Nablus. The doctor is released after several hrs. but the driver is kept in custody. (AP 1/29; NYT, PCHR 1/30)

Omri Sharon, the PM's son, meets Arafat in Ramallah to arrange a secret mtg. btwn. Sharon, senior PA officials in Jerusalem for 1/30. (SA 2/3 in WNC 2/4; MM 2/4)

In his State of the Union address, Bush calls Iran, Iraq, North Korea an "axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world"; also refers to a "terrorist underworld, including groups like Hamas, Hizballah, [and] Islamic Jihad." (HA, NYT, WP, WT 1/30; MM 1/31; MM 2/1; MA 2/1 in WNC 2/4; JP, MEI 2/8)