The Palestine Chronology

Overnight, the IDF sends troops back into Khan Yunis, shelling residential areas, clashing with Palestinians, leaving 3 Palestinians (2 resistance mbrs., 1 civilian) dead, wounding 11, demolishing 9 Palestinian homes as well as walls around a hospital and elementary school. The IDF fatally shoots an unarmed Palestinian attempting to infiltrate the Israeli border in n. Gaza. AMB gunmen fatally shoot an Israeli security officer guarding civilian contractors working on the separation wall in Idna in the s. West Bank. Palestinians report that the curfew on Talluza, imposed on 12/11, is still in place. The IDF allows 1,000 PA policemen in the West Bank to patrol with arms through 12/23 to provide security during municipal elections. Israeli police arrest 5 teenage Jewish settler girls for robbing, stoning a Palestinian family walking in Jerusalem. (PR 12/22; VOI 12/22 in WNC 12/24; JP, JTA, MM, NYT, WP, WT 12/23) 

The IDF deports to Gaza a Palestinian woman married to an Israeli Palestinian, their 2-yr. old daughter, saying they violated the Israeli Citizenship Law; fires on residential areas of Khan Yunis, Rafah; begins bulldozing Far‘un, Jayyus land confiscated on 12/17 for construction of the separation wall. The IDF denies a press card for entry to the occupied territories to Israeli Arab photographer Jamil Kadamani, citing “security considerations”; Kadamani, who works for French TV station FT1, has had a regular press card, allowing him access to Israeli officials, for 3 yrs. Palestinians fire mortars at central Gaza Jewish settlements, causing no damage or injuries. A PA court in Gaza sentences 4 Palestinians to terms ranging fr. 10 to 20 yrs. for collaborating with the Shin Bet. (HA 12/20; VOI 12/20 in WNC 12/22; AYM 12/21 in WNC 12/23; PCHR 12/23; HA 1/31)

Hamas takes responsibility for planting a bomb in a chicken coop nr. Gaza’s Qarni crossing, luring an IDF bomb squad to the site, and detonating the device, killing an IDF solider and a bomb-sniffing dog, wounding 4 soldiers. The IDF retaliates with gunfire nearby, killing 2 Hamas mbrs., 2 Islamic Jihad mbrs., wounding 10 bystanders, bulldozing 30 d. of land. The IDF raids a charitable society, orphanage, and school reportedly tied to Hamas in Bani Na‘im, confiscating files, sealing 3 offices; raids the Prisoners’ Supporters Society in Hebron, confiscating computers, files; fires on residential areas of Brazil r.c., Khan Yunis, Rafah; conducts arrest raids, house searches in Balata r.c., Beitunia, Hebron and nearby Bayt ‘Awwa, Qalqilya and neighboring ‘Azun and Jayyus, Taqu‘a, Zabbuba nr. Jenin; begins large-scale bulldozing operations nr. Jaba‘ village northwest of Hebron for construction of the separation wall; fires rubber bullets, percussion grenades, tear gas at stone-throwing Palestinians demonstrating against the separation wall in Budrus nr. Ramallah, also arrests 40 Israeli protesters demonstrating with them. The AMB kills a Palestinian collaborator believed to have passed information to the IDF that led to the killing of 3 AMB mbrs. on 11/21. A carload of Jewish settlers twice attempts to run down a group of Palestinian teenagers on their way to school; the settlers then emerge fr. the car, attempt to kidnap a Palestinian boy, scuffle with teenagers; the IDF intervenes, orders settlers to leave but does not arrest them. (IMEMC, MM 12/7; VOI 12/7 in WNC 12/9; NYT, WP, WT 12/8; VOI 12/8 in WNC 12/10; PCHR 12/9; MEI 12/17)