The Palestine Chronology

Israel rejects Hamas’s latest call (ca. 12/20) via Egypt for a cease-fire, vows to continue “counterterrorist operations” to deter rocket fire. Dep. PM Haim Ramon says Israel’s strategic goal is to overthrow Hamas in Gaza using military and economic pres sure. Islamic Jihad, declaring that it would not adhere to a truce, fires 5 rockets fr. Gaza into Israel, damaging 2 commercial buildings but causing no injuries; another rocket lands inside Gaza, damaging a Palestinian home in Bayt Hanun, causing no injuries. Before the 2d post-Annapolis mtg. of the Palestinian and Israeli negotiating teams on 12/24, Olmert’s government reopens the Sufa crossing (closed since 10/28/07) for up to 30 trucks/day, but also seeks Knesset approval for $25 m. to construct 500 settlement housing units in Har Homa in Jerusalem and 240 units in Ma’ale Adumim outside of Jerusalem; it is unclear whether the money is for units already approved for construction (see 12/4) or involves new building plans. Meanwhile, in Gaza, the IDF fires on unarmed Palestinians (including a child) on their land nr. the border fence e. of Dayr al-Balah, wounding 1; shells a Hamas border patrol e. of al-Bureij r.c., killing 2 Hamas mbrs. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts arrest raids, house searches nr. Hebron. (NYT, WT 12/24; NYT 12/25; OCHA 12/26; PCHR 12/27)

Islamic Jihad fires a rocket fr. Gaza into Israel, moderately wounding 1 Israeli. Hrs. later, in response, the IDF fires a surface-tosurface missile at a car in Gaza City, assassinating a cmdr. of Islamic Jihad’s rocket crews, Sami Tafish, also killing 1 Islamic Jihad mbr., 1 AMB mbr., and 1 civilian. The IDF also levels land inside the Gaza border e. of Dayr al-Balah. In the West Bank, the IDF sends undercover units in cars with Palestinian license plates into Jenin r.c. to conduct arrest raids; also conducts arrest raids, house searches in Jenin. In Gaza City, a Palestinian prisoner dies in Hamasaffiliated police custody; no details are released. (NYT, WP 12/14; OCHA 12/19; PCHR 12/27)

UN officials report that Israel has now reduced daily fuel imports to Gaza by 20% and that, as a result, some 400,000 Gazans have lost (or have only limited access to) safe drinking water because of lack of fuel to run pumps, water treatment facilities, and generators; vaccinations and medicines have spoiled at some hospitals because of inconsistent power to run refrigerators. Overnight, the IDF sends some 30 tanks and APCs supported by helicopters and warplanes into s. Gaza border areas, allegedly to look for rocket-launching sites, clashing with Palestinian gunmen, killing 3 Islamic Jihad mbrs. and 3 PRC mbrs., wounding 13 Palestinians (including 5 civilians), rounding up all males age 15–50 for questioning, detaining 10s, demolishing 1 Palestinian home, bulldozing 133 dunams (d.; 4 d. = 1 acre) of land before withdrawing late in the evening. The IDF also makes 2 air strikes on rocket-launching sites in n. Gaza, killing 2 Palestinians. In the West Bank, the IDF demolishes a Palestinian home in Jerusalem’s Old City; raids the offices of several media outlets in Nablus (including Afaq TV, al-Nahar, al-Quds) accused of “supporting terrorism,” confiscating computers and documents, and clashing with local gunmen, wounding 3. Separately in Nablus, 1 AMB is killed when explosives he is handling detonate prematurely. (WT 12/11; OCHA, WP 12/12; PCHR 12/13; WP 12/15)

IDF troops in the Erez industrial zone fatally shoot 2 armed Palestinians laying a roadside bomb nearby, wound and arrest a 3d; fire a shell at Palestinian resistance mbrs. e. of Jabaliya, killing 1 armed Palestinian, wounding another armed Palestinian, 2 bystanders. Hamas mbrs. fire 3 mortars and a rocket fr. n. Gaza into Israel, causing no damage or injuries; the IDF responds with an air strike on the launch site, killing 1 Hamas mbr., wounding 4. As the Annapolis mtgs. open, at least 15,000 right-wing Israeli demonstrators protest in Jerusalem against any possible concessions by Israeli PM Ehud Olmert to the Palestinians. In Gaza, Hamas and Islamic Jihad host a conference on Palestine, attended by Hamas’s top leaders (including Ismail Haniyeh, Mahmud Zahar), vowing to “not relinquish a centimeter of Palestine” or recognize Israel’s right to exist. (NYT, WP, WT 11/27; OCHA 11/28; PCHR 11/29)

In an apparent assassination attempt, the IDF makes a failed air strike on a car carrying several Islamic Jihad mbrs. in Khan Yunis late in the evening; no casualties are reported. During the day, Palestinians fire a rocket fr. Gaza into Israel, damaging several cars but causing no injuries. Some 7,000 Palestinians attend a Hamas-sponsored rally in n. Gaza, protesting ongoing Israeli excavations nr. al-Aqsa Mosque. In the West Bank, Palestinians stone Jewish settler vehicles driving nr. Ramallah, damaging 1 but causing no injuries. (OCHA 11/21; PCHR 11/22)

The IDF makes an air strike on an ESF post in Abasan in s. Gaza, killing 4 ESF officers; makes a 2d air strike on a suspected rocket-launching site in Jabaliya r.c., hitting a home, wounding 6 Palestinian civilians (ages 1, 3, 29, 30, 75, 82). Palestinians fire 2 rockets, 5 mortars fr. Gaza into Israel, causing damage but no injuries; the IDF shells the launching site, causing no reported injuries. Late in the evening, the IDF sends troops into Dayr al-Balah, conducting arrest raids and house searches, occupying a home as an observation post, leveling land to improve lines of site; launches a similar operation in al-Shuka (Palestinian militants fire on the troops, detonate a roadside bomb, causing no injuries). In the West Bank, the IDF bulldozes the farming community of Khirbat Qussa, located btwn. the separation wall and the Green Line nr. Hebron, demolishing the 15 homes, 12 cave dwellings, and 27 sheep pens comprising the village, evicting the 267 residents to the “Palestinian” side of the separation wall. The IDF also conducts arrest raids, house searches nr. Jenin, Nablus, Salfit; raids a number of stores and a bank in Ramallah. Jewish settlers fr. Brakha nr. Nablus prevent Palestinians fr. reaching their olive groves; the IDF intervenes, forcing the settlers to leave. The IDF also intervenes to prevent Jewish settlers fr. Elon Moreh nr. Nablus fr. blocking Palestinians access to their olive groves nearby. Inside Israel, some 100 Israeli police officers make an overnight raid on the Galilee Druze village of Pekiin to arrest men suspected of vandalizing a cell phone antenna, firing live ammunition at stonethrowing residents who protest the predawn incursion, wounding 10s. An AMB mbr. wounded by the IDF in Nablus on 10/16 dies. (NYT, OCHA, PAP, WP 10/31; PCHR, WT 11/1)

The IDF sends troops into n. Gaza, bulldozing Palestinian land and searching for rockets and rocket launchers, reportedly uncovering 4 rockets, 11 launchers; Palestinians fire 2 antitank missiles at the troops, causing no damage or injuries. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts arrest raids, house searches in Hebron, Nablus (where 3 IDF soldiers are wounded when an explosive device detonates nr. their patrol) and nr. Qalqilya, Tulkarm. (IFM 9/5; PCHR 9/6; OCHA 9/12; PCHR 9/13)

The IDF launches air strikes on 5 rocketlaunching sites in nr. Bayt Hanun, killing 3 Palestinian children (ages 8–12); Israel says it hit viable targets, claiming that Hamas was using the children to “adjust” the launchers, states its “sorrow for the cynical use the terror organizations make of the active participation of teenagers in terror attacks”; relatives of the children say they were playing in the vicinity of an Islamic Jihad launcher. The Israeli navy fires on Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of Rafah, forcing them to return to shore. Palestinians fire 1 rocket fr. Gaza into Israel, causing no damage or injuries. Nr. Gaza City, a Palestinian dies when a roadside bomb he is planting explodes prematurely. In the West Bank, the IDF demolishes 6 Palestinian homes in Qalqilya; conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Nablus, in Bethlehem. Meanwhile, AMB mbrs. in Ramallah fire on the car of a Hamas-affiliated municipal council mbr., causing damage but no injuries. A Hamas mbr. dies of injuries received in an 8/23 IDF missile attack on Gaza. (AP, IFM, YA 8/29; NYT, PCHR, WP 8/30; OCHA 9/5; PCHR 9/6; NYT 9/26)

In Gaza, 2 Palestinian children (ages 7, 9) are killed nr. Bayt Lahiya when a Palestinian rocket fired toward Israel explodes prematurely. Some 3,000 IDF soldiers and border police forcibly remove 2 Jewish settler families, 100s of settler activists squatting in vacant Palestinian stores in Hebron’s wholesale market (see 8/5, 8/6); 12 IDF soldiers refuse to take part in the evacuation and are sentenced to 14–28 days military detention; during the eviction, settlers set fire to a Palestinian shop. (HA, NYT, OCHA, WP, WT 8/8; PCHR 8/9)

Under intense pressure from human and legal rights groups, Abbas temporarily suspends a 7/6 presidential decree expanding the mandate of the PA security forces at the expense of the judiciary. Overnight, the IDF sends tanks and bulldozers supported by helicopters, drones, warplanes into central Gaza nr. al-Bureij r.c., searching residential areas for weapons and wanted Palestinians, detaining 10s of Palestinians, bulldozing 118 d. of land, clashing with Hamas mbrs. who detonate a roadside bomb nr. an IDF vehicle, killing 1 IDF soldier (the 1st killed by Palestinians since 11/1/06), lightly wounding 2. The IDF also makes an air strike on a rocket launching site nr. al-Bureij r.c., injuring 2 Islamic Jihad mbrs. In the West Bank, the IDF fatally shoots an Islamic Jihad gunman who opened fire on an IDF checkpoint nr. Tulkarm without causing injuries; demolishes 3 Palestinian homes, an agricultural warehouse nr. Qalqilya; conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Jenin town and r.c., Nablus. In Khan Yunis, 5,000 Fatah mbrs. stage a march in support of Abbas; when they stone an ESF post, ESF mbrs. fire in the air to disperse the crowd, wounding 1 Fatah mbr. In Gaza City, Hamas supporters hold a sit-in to protest Abbas’s recent decision to halt salary payments to employees hired after 12/05. In al-Bureij r.c., Islamic Jihad mbrs. kidnap, kill an alleged Palestinian collaborator. (AYM 7/12; NYT, WP, WT 7/13; OCHA 7/18; PCHR 7/19)

The Lebanese army shells FI targets in Nahr al-Barid r.c. fr. land and sea, sparking the heaviest clashes in wks. Additional troops sent into the camp reportedly encounter sniper fire and booby-trapped buildings as they advance deeper into areas controlled by FI. At least 4 soldiers and 1 civilian are killed, 20 soldiers injured during the day. (NYT, WP, WT 7/13)

The IDF makes air strikes on a car in Bayt Lahiya, assassinating 4 Islamic Jihad mbrs. (Muhammad Abu Nima, Mahmud Awad, Majid al-Batash, ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Hilu); on an alleged weapons factory in Gaza City, damaging several neighboring houses but causing no injuries; on a group of armed Palestinians in al-Bureij r.c., missing them, hitting a building, damaging 7 homes, injuring 4 bystanders (including a 1-yr.-old child). The IDF also conducts an arrest raid in Bayt Lahiya. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Comms. (PRCs) fire 15 rockets fr. Gaza toward Israel (3 land in Gaza), hitting a car in Sederot, killing 1 Israeli woman (the 11th killed by Palestinian rocket fire since rockets came into use in 1/02; the previous deadly strike occurred on 11/21/06), wounding 2 men. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus, and in Balata r.c. (targeting the AMB), Qalqilya, Tulkarm. Jewish settler teenagers fr. Karmi’el nr. Hebron throw stones at a bedouin woman nr. Yatta, injuring her. Fatah mbrs. shoot, wound 2 Hamas mbrs. in Khan Yunis and set fire to a library on the campus of the predominantly Hamas College of Science and Technology. An NSF mbr. dies of injuries received in clashes with Hamas on 5/16. (NYT, WP, WT 5/22; OCHA, WP 5/23; PCHR 5/24)

The Lebanese army’s siege of Nahr al-Barid r.c. continues overnight. During the day, fighting is heavy: Army snipers atop buildings surrounding the camp firing on anyone moving in the streets inside, soldiers open machine gun fire on anyone trying to leave the camp; FI responds with automatic weapons, mortar fire, anti-aircraft guns; the army responds with artillery, tank fire. (The army also surrounds the volatile ‘Ayn al-Hilwa r.c. as a precaution, prompting armed Palestinian factions there to go on alert.) The UN secures a brief cease-fire in the afternoon, allowing the evacuation of 16 wounded Palestinian civilians fr. the camp before FI breaks the truce. Lebanese PM Fuad Siniora asks the U.S. to expedite $280 m. in previously pledged military aid to more effectively combat FI. After dark, army shelling of Nahr al-Barid increases significantly. In Beirut, another car bomb explodes in the predominantly Sunni Verdun area, wounding 6 Lebanese, setting 2 buildings on fire. (AP, NYT, REU 5/21; NYT, WP, WT 5/22; NYT, WP 5/23)

Palestinians fire some 7 rockets fr. Gaza into Israel, hitting a gas station in Sederot, lightly injuring 2 Israelis. An Islamic Jihad mbr. is injured when explosives he is handling detonate prematurely. In the West Bank, the IDF sends troops into Jenin town and r.c., firing on residential areas and stonethrowing youths who confront the troops, wounding 5 Palestinians; conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Hebron and in al-Khadir. Jewish settlers fr. Karme Tzur and Kiryat Arba set up a tent on a hill northeast of Halhul, later leave but vow to establish a new settlement on the site; the IDF observes but does not intervene. Jewish settlers fr. Einav nr. Tulkarm set fire to 80 d. of Palestinian olive, almond trees nearby. Nr. Ramallah, Palestinian gunmen fire on a convoy delivering gas to a Jewish settlement, wounding an Israeli security guard. Some 70 Palestinian protesters thought to be aligned with the Army of Islam throw stones, possibly fire at Fatah lawmaker Majid Abu Shamalah as he leaves an end-of-the-school-year celebration at a Rafah UNRWA school, prompting his bodyguards to open fire, killing 1 of their own and leaving 2 teachers, 2 protesters, and 2 schoolchildren (ages 9, 14) wounded; the attack on the school comes days after the Army of Islam warned the school against holding the celebration, which they condemned for involving “the mixing of adolescent boys and girls, which is forbidden in Islam.” Unidentified gunmen fire on a Fatah base in Bureij r.c., causing no injuries. A Palestinian possibly affiliated with the Army of Islam orders UNRWA employees off an agency minibus in Rafah before tossing a hand grenade inside, damaging it. (Jerusalem Post 5/6; NYT 5/7; OCHA 5/9; PCHR 5/10; AHR 5/15)

Palestinians fire a rocket fr. Gaza into Israel, causing no damage or injuries. In Shati’ r.c., 2 Hamas mbrs. are injured when explosives they are handling detonate prematurely. In the West Bank, the IDF patrols, fires on residential areas of Nablus; conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches nr. Hebron and in Qabatya, al-Til. The PRCs release 4 Palestinians abducted in Jabaliya r.c. on 4/22, saying the incident, especially the death of a 5th abductee on 4/22, was a “regrettable mistake.” (NYT, WP 4/24; OCHA 4/25; PCHR 4/26)

The IDF pulls troops out of Nablus in the afternoon, once again suspending but not declaring an official end to Operation Hot Winter; troops raid an apartment building (killing 1 Palestinian civilian, arresting 10 wanted men) and exchange fire with Palestinians in a mosque before withdrawing; the UN reports that 248 homes, shops in Nablus have been damaged since 2/25. The IDF also conducts patrols in Burkin nr. Jenin; conducts arrest raids, house searches in Bethlehem, Qalqilya; seals the West Bank at midnight local time for the Purim holidays. Palestinians fire a rocket fr. Gaza into Israel, damaging a greenhouse but causing no injuries. A Palestinian gunman fires on a Jewish settler vehicle nr. Qalqilya, wounding the driver. (AP, HA, REU 3/1; OCHA 3/7; PCHR 3/8)

In the West Bank, the IDF sends undercover units into Jenin r.c., where they assassinate Islamic Jihad mbr. Mahmud Abu Obeid, an alleged bomb maker; also sends undercover units into Bayt Jala to arrest a wanted Palestinian; conducts arrest raids in and around Bethlehem and Tulkarm, nr. Hebron, and in Balata r.c. nr. Nablus, Jenin town and r.c.; demolishes a Palestinian home northwest of Jerusalem. In Gaza, a Palestinian farmer is killed when he accidentally detonates unexploded IDF ordnance. Palestinians fire at least 1 rocket fr. Gaza toward Israel that lands inside Gaza nr. Bayt Lahiya, wounding 6 Palestinians. Egyptian security forces conduct raids in Egyptian Rafah, detaining 2 Palestinians connected to the Palestinian arrested on 2/20, charging them with plotting suicide bombings; Egyptian authorities say they have arrested 23 Palestinians and Egyptians in the n. Sinai in recent days. In Gaza City, unidentified assailants detonate an explosive device outside the home of a PA police officer, causing damage but no injuries. (IFM 2/21; PCHR, WP 2/22; OCHA 2/28; PCHR 3/1)