The Palestine Chronology

In Cairo, Livni rejects Mubarak’s call to renew the Gaza cease-fire. Palestinians in Gaza fire 3 rockets, 15 mortars into Israel, causing no damage or injuries. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts simultaneous late-night house searches in 2 villages nr Jenin, making no arrests. An Israeli court sentences jailed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader Ahmad Saadat, detained in 2001 for involvement in the assassination of Israeli cabinet minister Rehavam Ze’evi, to 30 yrs. in jail; Saadat is acquitted of planning the assassination but found guilty of plotting other anti-Israel attacks. (IFM 12/25; NYT, WP, WT 12/26; PCHR 1/1; NYT 1/3)

In the West Bank, IDF undercover units enter Kafr Qallil nr. Nablus in the afternoon, driving vehicles with Palestinian license plates, to capture 2 wanted Palestinians (1 a mbr. of military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PFLP], the other of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade [AMB]). The IDF also issues a military order confiscating Palestinian land in Hebron for construction of a settler-only bypass road and military outpost; fires tear gas, rubbercoated steel bullets at Palestinian, Israeli, international peace activists taking part in a nonviolent demonstration against the separation wall in Ni‘lin, injuring 10; conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in and around Nablus, nr. Bethlehem and Ramallah. (OCHA 8/27; PCHR 8/28)

In the West Bank, Jewish settlers in Hebron attack Palestinians and their property in Wadi al-Nassara, severely beating 2 Palestinians. Separately, Jewish settlers fr. Kiryat Arba stone Palestinian cars driving nr. the settlement, causing no reported injuries. In Gaza, Hamas-affiliated police raid an area of Gaza City controlled by the Hillis family, which Hamas has accused of hiding suspects wanted in connection with the 7/25 bombings, sparking violent clashing involving exchanges of mortars and grenades that leave 11 Palestinians dead (2 policemen, 8 mbrs. of the Hillis clan, 1 bystander) and 88 injured (including 12 children), marking some of the heaviest intra-Palestinian fighting since 6/07. (A 12th Palestinian dies several days later.) By afternoon, Hamas forces seize control of the 100,000-resident Shijaiyah neighborhood, conduct house-to-house searches for weapons and suspects, arresting 50 people. During the fighting, 188 Fatah mbrs. fr. Gaza, including clan leader and senior Fatah mbr. Ahmad Hillis, flee to Nahal Oz crossing, where Israel grants them entry for transit to the West Bank; Hamas police fire on the fleeing men, injuring 22, who are treated in Israeli hospitals. Hamas also closes a PFLP radio station in Gaza for reporting sympathetic to Fatah. (NYT, WP, WT 8/3; WT 8/4; OCHA 8/6; PCHR 8/7; OCHA 8/20)

IDF soldiers manning the Sufa crossing fire on nearby Palestinian residential areas, causing no reported injuries. In the West Bank, the IDF patrols in, fires on residential areas of Nablus, causing no injuries; conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in Jenin town and r.c. and Nablus, and nr. Hebron and Ramallah; fires rubber-coated steel bullets, percussion grenades, tear gas at Palestinian, Israeli, international activists taking part in the weekly nonviolent demonstration against the separation wall in Bil‘in (10s suffer tear gas inhalation) and beat demonstrators at a similar protest in al-Masa’ra (lightly injuring 3). In Hebron, a Jewish settler rams his car into the convoy of the U.S. envoy overseeing road map compliance, Gen. William Fraser, causing damage but no injuries, while other settlers demonstrate against his visit; Fraser’s delegation cuts its visit short. Outside Ramallah, 15 Jewish settlers fr. Yad Ta’ir attack, beat, threaten to shoot 2 Palestinian families picnicking; they flee when 1 of the Palestinians warns him that he is a UN employee, pointing to his car, which has a UN emblem. Nr. Hebron, 3 Jewish settlers attack several Palestinians; international peace activists intervene to protect the Palestinians, prompting more settlers to join the attack; the IDF intervenes, ordering the Palestinians to leave the area. In n. Gaza, Hamas-affiliated police attempt to break up a dispute btwn. rival PFLP factions, sparking an exchange of fire that leaves 1 policeman, 1 PFLP mbr. wounded. In Rafah, DFLP, Hamas mbrs. exchange fire, killing 1 Palestinian bystander, wounding a 2d. Islamic Jihad mbr. Ussama al-Houbi dies of injuries sustained in the 4/30 IDF assassination of Islamic Jihad’s Qiq. (HA 5/2; OCHA 5/7; PCHR 5/8)

In Gaza, the IDF makes an air strike on a car carrying 2 Izzeddin al-Qassam Brigades mbrs. nr. Khan Yunis, missing it, wounding 6 bystanders. Gazan PC mbrs. erect a tent in front of the PC headquarters in Gaza City, begin a hunger strike to protest Israel’s ongoing siege. In the West Bank, the IDF fires on stone-throwing Palestinian youths outside Dahaysha r.c. nr. Bethlehem, wounding 5 with live ammunition; conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in and around Nablus, in Qabatya, and nr. Hebron, Jenin, Qalqilya, Tulkarm. Israel bars access to the Jordan River to 15,000 Christians making a pilgrimage to Jesus’s baptismal cite to mark Orthodox Christian Holy Week, keeping them behind a fence 30 ft. fr. the river. Birzeit University student council elections allot 25 seats to Fatah, 19 to Hamas, 5 each to the PFLP and a joint Islamic Jihad/People’s Party list. Students clash over the results, prompting the university to close the campus until tensions cool. (OCHA, WT 4/23; PCHR 4/24)

In Gaza, the IDF sends troops into alQarara, where they exchange fire with local gunmen, killing 1 armed Palestinian, wounding 2. In the West Bank, the IDF sends an undercover unit into Tulkarm r.c., to raid a caf´e in search of a wanted Palestinian but withdraws without finding him; conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in and around Nablus, in Azariyya e. of Jerusalem. A Jewish settler woman fr. Taffuh settlement nr. Qalqilya beats a Palestinian woman waiting at a bus stop nr. the settlement. Jewish settlers fr. Havat Ma’on nr. Hebron fire on a Palestinian shepherd and sheep nearby, injuring 2 sheep. In Hebron, Palestinian Polytechnic University suspends classes after a dispute on the student council sparks unarmed clashes btwn. Fatah and PFLP student groups. (OCHA 4/2; PCHR 4/3)

The PFLP fires a rocket (the IDF alleges a Grad) fr. Gaza into Israel, hitting nr. Ashqelon, causing no damage or injuries. In the West Bank, the IDF bulldozes 4 Palestinian homes (displacing 31 Palestinians) nr. Tubas, another 4 homes in Bayt Dajan in the Jordan Valley (also displacing 31 Palestinians), 2 bedouin tents nr. Hebron, and 2 shops in Qalqilya; conducts arrest raids, house searches in Abu Dis and Jabal Mukabir nr. Jerusalem, Jalazun r.c. nr. Ramallah, Qalqilya (firing on residential areas, wounding 7 Palestinians, including a woman and 5 children), and Qabatya, as well as nr. Bethlehem, Hebron, Jenin, Nablus. (IFM, NYT, OCHA 3/12; PCHR 3/13)

Israel sends troops to the unauthorized settlement outpost of Esh Kodesh e. of Ramallah to disconnect a water pipe, highlighting the move as evidence that it is taking steps against outposts as requested by the U.S.; within hours, settlers reconnect the pipe and restore water service. Also in the West Bank, the IDF fires on Palestinians in Bil‘in demonstrating against Operation Hot Winter, wounding 1; conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in Balata r.c. (a 72-yr.-old Palestinian woman dies of a heart attack when soldiers raid her home), nr. Jenin. Unidentified gunmen fire on a car with Israeli license plates nr. Hebron, killing a Palestinian man, wounding an Israeli civilian. In Gaza, Islamic Jihad and the PFLP fire 2 rockets fr. Gaza into Israel, causing no damage or injuries. (NYT, PCHR 3/6; OCHA 3/12; PCHR 3/13)

IDF troops on the Gaza border e. of Gaza City fire a missile at a group of armed Palestinians nr. the border, wounding 1 armed Palestinian, 1 Palestinian teenager outside his home nearby. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts arrest raids, house searches in ‘Ayn Bayt al-Ma’ r.c. nr. Nablus (arresting senior Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PFLP] mbr. Majdi Mabruk) and nr. Bethlehem, Hebron, Tulkarm; breaks the windows of several Palestinian cars parked nr. a Hebron building occupied by Jewish settlers for the past yr., stating the vehicles posed a threat to the settlers; fires rubber-coated steel bullets, percussion grenades, tear gas at Palestinian, Israeli, international activists taking part in the weekly nonviolent demonstration against the separation wall in Bil‘in nr. Ramallah (injuring 6). Hamas-affiliated imam Majid Barghouti (age 44), who was among 8 Palestinians arrested by the PA in a raid nr. Ramallah on 2/14, dies in PA General Intelligence custody in Ramallah of apparent torture; PA Pres. Mahmud Abbas puts West Bank security forces on high alert, orders an investigation. (JP 2/23; WP 2/24; al-Akhbar [Cairo] 2/26; OCHA 2/27; PCHR 2/28)

On the Israeli side of the Erez crossing into Gaza, more than 1,000 Israeli Palestinians and left-wing peace activists rally to urge Israel to lift the siege on Gaza, while in Gaza City, 100s of Palestinians hold a parallel demonstration “to join the hands of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists who want to end the siege and all forms of violence.” In the West Bank, the IDF conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Hebron. Jewish settlers stone Palestinian vehicles driving on Wadi Qana Road nr. Qalqilya, damaging 1 but causing no injuries. (NYT, WT 1/27; OCHA 1/30; PCHR 1/31)

PFLP founder George Habash dies of a heart attack in Amman at age 82. (AP, NYT, REU, WP, WT 1/27; NYT 1/28)

The IDF makes a major pre-dawn incursion into Gaza City, sending in tanks and helicopters, clashing with local Palestinians, and conducting at least 4 air strikes, leaving at least 17 Palestinians dead (5 bystanders; 12 Hamas mbrs., including the son of senior Hamas mbr. Mahmud al-Zahar, whose oldest son was killed when the IDF attempted to assassinate him in 2003), around 55 wounded by the time troops withdraw in the evening. The IDF also sends troops into al-Qarara, firing on residential areas, wounding a 71-yr.-old Palestinian man, bulldozing 20 d. of agricultural land before withdrawing in the evening; fires a missile across the border at armed AMB mbrs. e. of Gaza City, wounding 4; sends armored vehicles, bulldozers back into the Erez industrial zone (see 1/14) under cover of heavy fire to continue land-leveling operations (no injuries are reported). In retaliation for the Gaza City incursion, Palestinians fire around 25 mortars and 25 rockets fr. Gaza into Israel, hitting a house, moderately injuring 4 Israelis; Hamas claims responsibility for 17 of the mortars and 3 of the rockets, marking the 1st time since 6/07 that it has fired rockets. A Hamas gunman also fires across the border into Israel, killing an Ecuadorian laborer on an Israeli farm. In the West Bank, the IDF raids Qabatya nr. Jenin, fatally shoots local Islamic Jihad cmdr. Walid Obaydi in an apparent assassination, also wounding 2 other Palestinians (Obaydi has been on Israel’s most wanted list for 7 yrs.; the IDF attempted to assassinate him on 8/9/07 in Jenin r.c.); sends undercover units into Nablus to ambush and arrest a wanted PFLP mbr.; conducts separate late-night arrest raids, house searches in Nablus; bulldozes 40 d. of almond and olive trees, 6 wells nr. Hebron. Jewish settlers fr. Beit Hadasah throw Molotov cocktails into a Palestinian home, causing damage; the IDF intervenes, detains 2 of the Palestinian homeowner’s sons for questioning. (NYT, OCHA, WP, WT 1/16; PCHR 1/17)