The Palestine Chronology

In ongoing operations in Bayt Hanun, the IDF overnight fires tear gas, stun grenades, exchanges gunfire with Palestinian militants in al-Nasir Mosque, sending bulldozers in to demolish parts of the structure, prompting some gunmen to surrender. During the day the IDF fatally shoots 2 Palestinian women, wounds around 40 who are part of a group of 2,000 women heeding Hamas’s call to position themselves outside the mosque as human shields; the IDF claims that wanted gunmen were hiding among the women; some 60 gunmen inside the mosque escape; the IDF bulldozes the entire mosque. (Later, 1,000 Palestinian women march outside Egypt’s diplomatic mission in Gaza City, denouncing Israel’s actions and calling for Egypt’s intervention.) During the day, the IDF also expands operations to Bayt Lahiya and Jabaliya r.c., killing at least 9 Palestinians (including 4 Hamas mbrs., 2 Palestinian medics in an ambulance), shelling areas, making at least 1 air strike destroying a Palestinian home; makes an air strike on a car in Gaza City (assassinating Hamas mbrs. Muhammad Farhat, Tamir Hillis, Imad Mushtaha) and on a car in Rafah (assassinating Hamas mbr. Ahmad Abu Humayd); bulldozes 19 d. of Palestinian land e. of Gaza City; fires on farmers who stray near the border fence outside al-Maghazi, wounding 1; conducts a series of late-night air strikes in Rafah. A Palestinian wounded in Bayt Hanun clashes on 11/2 dies. Palestinians fire at least 5 rockets fr. Gaza into Israel, causing no damage or injuries. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts arrest raids, house searches in Bethlehem (demolishing a Palestinian home, killing 1 Palestinian; raiding and searching a hospital), Nablus (killing 2 Palestinians including 1 civilian), Tulkarm. A Palestinian wounded nr. Bethlehem on 11/2 dies. (NYT, WP, WT 11/4; NYT 11/5; PCHR 11/9)

Before dawn, the IDF sends troops, tanks, helicopters into s. Gaza, leaving at least 2 Palestinians wounded. Later in the day, the IDF fires on Palestinian farmers working their land nr. the central Gaza border, wounding an 11-yr.-old child. Late in the evening, the IDF conducts air strikes, destroying the home of an AMB mbr. in Jabaliya r.c. (the IDF phones residents in advance to warn them to evacuate), damaging 3 nearby houses. Also in Gaza, Palestinian militants blow a hole in the border wall separating Rafah fr. Egypt to try to allow Palestinians stranded on the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing to leave for Egypt; the crossing has been open for only a few hrs. since Israel forced its closure on 6/25, barring EU monitors access. Islamic Jihad fires a rocket fr. Gaza into Israel, causing no damage or injuries. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Nablus and in Hebron, Jenin (firing on residential areas). (PCHR, WP 8/24; NYT 8/25; PCHR 8/31)

In Gaza, the IDF sends troops back into s. Gaza to search for a reported tunnel on the Gaza-Egypt border, cuts power to Rafah, makes an air strike on a building in Gaza City that allegedly holds a weapons cache; makes air strikes destroying 2 Palestinian homes in n. Gaza after phoning residents (at least 1 of them an AMB mbr.) to warn them to evacuate, also destroying 1 home nearby; shells residential areas of n. Gaza without warning (hitting 4 Palestinian homes, injuring 3 Palestinians), al-Shuka (wounding 2 Palestinians); temporarily occupies the Erez industrial zone, withdrawing after nightfall; sends bulldozers into southeastern Khan Yunis to raze 100 d. of agricultural land. UNRWA reports that it is housing in its schools some 1,200 Palestinians who have fled n. Gaza to escape IDF shelling. In the West Bank, the IDF sends undercover units into Nablus to assassinate local Islamic Jihad military cmdr. Hani Uwayjan, a Palestinian civilian with him; conducts arrest raids, house searches in Hebron, Qalqilya; patrols in, fires on residential areas of Jenin, wounding 1 Palestinian. A Palestinian civilian wounded by IDF fire in Gaza City on 7/27 dies. (NYT, PCHR, WP, WT 7/30; PCHR 8/3)

The IDF keeps up intensive air and artillery strikes across Lebanon, targeting the Beirut–Damascus highway (closing the Syrian border crossing for the 1st time since 7/12; though the road is used primarily by civilians trying to flee the country and aid workers bringing in humanitarian assistance, Israel claims it targeted the road to prevent arms smuggling), killing at least 6 Lebanese civilians, wounding 2 UNIFIL monitors. During the day, the IDF withdraws troops fr. Bint Jubayl, claiming to have destroyed Hizballah’s elaborate network of tunnels and storage areas, but continues air and artillery strikes and keeps troops in the area, saying they could be sent back in at any time. Hizballah fires at least 90 rockets into Israel. Israel allows military planes delivering aid fr. Egypt, Jordan, the UAE to land at Beirut airport; a warship fr. Turkey brings medical supplies into Beirut port; a U.S. naval catamaran brings blankets, tarps, medical kits; aid workers in Lebanon complain that it is still too dangerous to transport aid supplies, that the IDF still requires convoy-by-convoy approval to move the aid to hard-hit areas. (NYT, WP, WT 7/30)

Before dawn, 8 Palestinian gunmen dressed in IDF uniforms sneak across the s. Gaza border into Israel using a tunnel, attack an IDF border post nr. Kerem Shalom with grenades, rifles, antitank rockets, killing 2 IDF soldiers, wounding 4, capturing 1 (IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit, apparently wounded in the exchange) in what they call Operation Dispel Illusion; 2 Palestinian gunmen are killed by retaliatory fire; the IDF sends tanks, bulldozers a half-mile inside Gaza to search for the captured soldier, the tunnel; several groups including Hamas’s Izzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, the PRCs, and a previously unknown group, the Army of Islam, jointly claim the attack as retaliation for the IDF’s 6/8 Abu Samhadana assassination; Abbas, some Hamas political leaders call for the captured IDF soldier’s immediate release. In response, Israel shuts all crossings into Gaza (including forcing the closing of the Rafah crossing by barring EU monitors fr. entering Gaza through Kerem Shalom, leaving as many as 3,000 Palestinians stranded on the border inside Egypt, and some 400 medical patients awaiting treatment abroad stranded on the Gaza side); shuts off fuel supplies to Gaza; bars Palestinian fishermen fr. going out to sea; tightens restrictions on Palestinian movement at checkpoints and roadblocks across the West Bank. During the day, the IDF also conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Nablus (firing on a clearly marked al-Jazeera TV vehicle, causing damage but no injuries), and nr. Hebron, Jenin (firing on stone-throwing youths who confront the troops, wounding 2), Qalqilya. (AFP, HA, IFM, YA 6/25; MENA, OSC, VOI 6/25 in WNC 6/26; AFP, AP, CSM, JP, MM, NYT, WP, WT, YA 6/26; WT 6/27; NYT, OCHA 6/28; PCHR 6/29; NYT 7/8)

The IDF fatally shoots 2 Egyptian border guards who cross the Israeli border into the Negev, while a 3d Egyptian escapes; Israel claims that the men intentionally crossed the border and fired on IDF troops in a predawn raid; Egypt claims the men accidentally strayed across the border and the IDF fired first. The IDF also patrols in the Old City of Nablus, surrounding r.c.s; conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Hebron and nr. Jenin, Ramallah. (HA, MM 6/2; NYT, WP 6/3; MENA 6/3 in WNC 6/4; PCHR 6/8)

The IDF raids Qabatya, surrounds the home of senior Islamic Jihad military leader Elias al-Ashkar, killing Ashkar and 4 Islamic Jihad mbrs. in an exchange of fire, sparking massive protests in Qabatya in which soldiers kill a 6th Palestinian, wound 16 (including a journalist); sends undercover units into Jenin in car with Palestinian license plates, willfully shooting and killing a PA General Intelligence Service (GIS) officer guarding the GIS headquarters in Jenin, besieging a house nearby, arresting 1 wanted Palestinian; shoots, wounds senior Islamic Jihad political leader Shaykh Mahmud al-Sadi outside Jenin in an apparent assassination attempt; conducts additional arrest raids, house searches in and around Nablus, in Tulkarm, nr. Hebron; raids Aida r.c., chasing and firing on Palestinian children who allegedly threw stones at IDF soldiers, wounding an 11- and a 12-yr.-old with live ammunition; confiscates goods from, demolishes 13 shops in a farmers market in the Jordan Valley; captures a Palestinian boat smuggling explosives fr. Egypt to Gaza. A small bomb explodes at a hitchhiking post outside Shiloh settlement nr. Ramallah, lightly wounding 1 Jewish settler; no group takes responsibility. Unidentified gunmen shoot, wound a bodyguard outside the home of PA GIS Gaza chief Maj. Gen. Tariq Abu Rajab; no group claims responsibility. An American wounded in the 4/17 Tel Aviv bombing dies of his injuries, bringing that toll to 11. (AFP, REU, XIN, YA 5/14; HA, MM, NYT, WP, WT 5/15; PCHR 5/18)

The Israeli High Court upholds (6–5) a 2002 law that sharply restricts family reunification for West Bank and Gaza Palestinians married to Israeli Palestinians living in Israel to women over age 25 and men over age 35. (AP, B’Tselem press release, HA 5/14; HA, MM, NYT, WP, WT 5/15)

Israel extends the seal on the West Bank and Gaza (imposed on 3/11) until after the 3/28 Israeli elections. The IDF arrests 3 unarmed Palestinians attempting to sneak into Israel fr. n. Gaza to find work; patrols in Nablus; conducts arrest raids, house searches nr. Bethlehem, Hebron, Jenin, Nablus; seizes 766 d. of Palestinian land in Bethlehem for construction of the separation wall. (AFP, IMEMC 3/19; PCHR 3/23)

The UN warns that Gaza is dangerously short of basic foodstuffs and faces a major humanitarian crisis as a result of Israel’s continued closure of the Qarni trade crossing. The UNRWA Gaza dir. reports that the agency has run out of food to distribute to impoverished families. In a bid to avert a crisis, U.S. Amb. to Israel Richard Jones calls an emergency mtg. with Israeli, PA delegations (with the participation of reps of the EU, Egypt) in Tel Aviv to discuss declining humanitarian conditions in Gaza; says shortages of food, medicine are beginning to threaten Palestinians’ basic welfare. The sides agree to open Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing in s. Gaza on 3/20 for the transport of humanitarian goods fr. Egypt. (AFP, AP 3/19; MM, NYT, WP, WT 3/20)

Having failed in its negotiations with Fatah and other parties to form a national unity government or agree on a national unity program, Hamas presents its cabinet slate to Abbas for approval and issues the draft national unity program as its platform. (AP, NYT, WT 3/19; AP, MM, NYT, WP, WT 3/20; HA 3/21; MM 3/22; MM, Washington Jewish Week 3/23)

As the quarter opens, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continues Operation Blue Skies (launched 12/28/05) to prevent Palestinians fr. firing crude homemade rockets fr. Gaza into Israel, enforcing a 1.5-mi-deep no-go zone along the n. Gaza border using artillery fire fr. inside Israel, occasional air strikes, heavy surveillance fr. air and sea, and construction of a border fence along the n. Gaza border (see Quarterly Update in JPS 139). The IDF also continues to restrict the flow of Palestinian goods and individuals into and out of Gaza: Rafah operates 8 hrs./day for entry and exit of individuals to and from Egypt; Erez is open as the sole entry of Palestinian workers to Israel (the IDF has issued 5,000 permits but only 2,500– 3,500 workers can pass because of slow processing by the IDF); Qarni is open for the transit of goods (360 trucks/day entering Gaza, 75 trucks/day exiting with agricultural goods); Sufa, for the import of raw materials only, is closed since 2/14. In the West Bank, the IDF maintains 100s of checkpoints and roadblocks, effectively separating the northern and southern West Bank, cutting off access to the n. Jordan Valley, and restricting movement within those cantons. Work also continues on Israel’s separation wall. The IDF conducts arrest raids in and around Balata refugee camp (r.c.), Nablus and nr. Bethlehem, Hebron (occupying 1 house as an observation post), Jenin. A Palestinian woman fr. Bethlehem attempts to stab an Israeli police officer outside the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, is arrested. (HA 2/16; OCHA 5/22; PCHR 2/23)

As the campaign period for the 1/25 Palestinian elections opens, Israeli police in East Jerusalem arrest Independent Palestine candidate Mustafa Barghouthi as he campaigns, releases him after 4 hrs.; detain 7 Fatah candidates campaigning in the city; disperse a Third Way rally led by Palestinian Council (PC) mbr. Hanan Ashrawi (Jerusalem); in 2 separate incidents, bars Central Election Commission (CEC) staff mbrs. fr. crossing a Tulkarm checkpoint to attend an election-related mtg. in nearby Dayr al-Ghusun and the Jordan Valley; blocks the transportation of election campaigning material fr. the West Bank to Gaza; sends troops into Jenin town and r.c. Meanwhile, the IDF opens the new Kerem Shalom commercial crossing on the Egypt-Gaza-Israel border; fatally shoots wanted Palestinian Mustafa Muhammad during an arrest raid nr. Hebron; raids a Palestinian school in Anata n. of Jerusalem, firing rubber bullets, injuring 1 teacher, 1 student and then fires on stone-throwing Palestinians who confront the troops, wounding 8; bulldozes a Palestinian home in Bayt Hanina; conducts arrest raids, house searches in Bethlehem, Jalazun r.c., Jenin town and r.c., Nablus, Qalqilya; dismantles 3 unauthorized settlement outposts nr. Bat Ayin, Efrat, Pdu’el. In response to the 1/2 assassination, Islamic Jihad fires at least 12 rockets at the Negev, the ARB fires a rocket at Sederot, causing no damage or injuries; the IDF responds with artillery fire on 8 roads leading to the n. Gaza no-go zone, causing no injuries. The AMB, ARB claim joint responsibility for detonating an explosive device nr. an IDF bulldozer operating on Jenin r.c., seriously injuring 1 IDF soldier. PA police arrest Gaza AMB leader Ala’ al-Hams for plotting the kidnapping of 3 Britons on 12/28. Jewish settlers fr. Avraham Avino break into, rob, vandalize several Palestinian shops in Hebron. (AFP, AP, BBC, HA, IMEMC, JAZ 1/3; IMEMC, PMC, WP, WT, YA 1/4; HA, NYT, PCHR, WP, WT 1/5; HA 1/6; PLO Negotiation Affairs Dept. press release 1/23)