The Palestine Chronology

PA pres. Mahmud Abbas sends a letter to U.S. pres. Barack Obama to inform him that if the UN bid is successful, he intends to resume negotiations with Israel. (AFP, HA, REU 10/16)

Qatar announces a $254 m. plan for reconstruction in the Gaza Strip, the largest such injection of aid since the end of Operation Cast Lead in 1/2009. (REU 10/16)

Israeli government officials say that Palestinians deployed an anti-aircraft missile for the 1st time in the Gaza Strip the previous week, missing their target. (AFP 10/16)

Unidentified Palestinians fire 2 rockets from Gaza into Israel, 1 of which lands by a house nr. Ashqelon, causing no injuries. The IDF fires missiles at an IQB training site in the n. Gaza Strip at night, causing no injuries. IDF troops on the Gaza border open fire on Palestinians and internationals staging nonviolent protests nr. Bayt Hanun and the Erez crossing against Israel’s imposition of a no-go zone inside the Gaza border, causing no reported injuries. (JP 10/16)

Palestinian and international protesters block a key highway linking Jerusalem and Tel Aviv (Road 443) in the West Bank to protest the uprooting of olive trees by Jewish settlers. The IDF forces them off the road, firing shock grenades. (AIC, IMEMC 10/16)

PA security forces raid an apartment in Nablus and claim to have confiscated documents and weapons belong to the IQB. (MNA 10/16)

Israeli coalition party Yisrael Beiteinu announces it intends to request that the Central Election Comm. disqualify Balad party from the upcoming elections on the grounds that it ‘‘supports terror and acts against the existence of Israel as a Jewish, democratic state.’’ A Likud MK submits a similar petition. (JP, YA 10/16)

Israel closes all Gaza crossing into Israel, reimposing the full seal on the territories (set on 3/11) for parliamentary elections; sends troops into al-Fawwar r.c. to conduct arrest raids and house searches, fires on stone-throwing youths who confront the troops, wounding 6; also conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Hebron and in Bethlehem, Nablus, Tubas. Israeli security contractors guarding the separation wall nr. Jerusalem shoot, wound a Palestinian who strays too close to the wall. Islamic Jihad fires a Grad missile (an Eastern European rocket with a range greater than a Qassam but less than a Katyusha) fr. Gaza towards Ashkelon, which lands unexploded causing no damage or injuries. Jewish settlers fr. Kiryat Arba attack Palestinians, vandalize property in Hebron. Separately, Jewish settlers fr. Hebron attack Palestinian children on their way to school by a Palestinian road that passes near a settleronly bypass road. Inside Israel, 2 bedouin are killed in the Negev when they accidentally detonate an unexploded Palestinian rocket. (IMEMC, YA 3/28; VOP 3/28 in WNC 3/29; HA, MM, NYT, OCHA 3/29; PCHR 3/30; MM 4/7, 4/13, 4/21)

Israel holds parliamentary elections, with voter turnout at a relatively low 63%. The Kadima party, founded by Ariel Sharon and led by Ehud Olmert, wins 29 of the 120 Knesset seats (less than expected) compared to Labor with 19 seats, Likud (the biggest loser compared with its 38 seats last election) with 12, Shas with 12, Yisrael Beiteinu with 11, National Union–National Religious Party with 9, Pensioners’ Party with 7, United Torah Judaism with 6, Meretz with 5, and 3 Arab parties with a total of 10. (MM 3/28; HA, JP, MM, NYT, WP, WT 3/29; NYT, WT 3/30; WP 3/31; XIN, YA 4/3)

The PC approves (71–36, with 2 abstentions) the Hamas-led cabinet. (NYT 3/29; XIN 3/28 in WNC 3/29)