The Palestine Chronology

Hamas officials say that all main Gaza factions have agreed to reimpose their cease-fire immediately, while Egyptian mediators work to secure the compliance of smaller factions. Islamic Jihad says it will observe the moratorium as long as Israel also ceases fire. Israel does not comment. Before the new cease-fire goes into effect, the PFLP and other unidentified Palestinians fire 1 Grad and 2 Qassam rockets fr. Gaza into Israel, causing no damage or injuries. Israel does not respond. Israeli DM Barak authorizes construction of a kindergarten in Hebron’s Beit Romano settlement, home to some of the most extremist Jewish settlers. Meanwhile, Jewish settlers uproot olive trees in Qasra village nr. Nablus; when local Palestinians try to drive them away, IDF troops intervene, firing tear gas and live ammunition at the Palestinians, seriously injuring 1. The IDF also patrols in Kafr al-Dik village nr. Salfit. Palestinians (sometimes accompanied by Israeli and international activists) hold weekly nonviolent demonstrations against the separation wall, land confiscations, and settlement expansion in Bil‘in, al-Ma‘sara, and Ni‘lin, as well as at the Qalandia crossing into Jerusalem. IDF soldiers beat and fire rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas, and stun grenades at the protesters, causing no serious injuries, and arrest 2 Palestinians. (AP, MNA, YA 8/26; MNA, WP 8/27; PCHR 9/8; OCHA 9/9)

In Egypt, 100s of protesters rally outside the Israeli emb. after Friday prayers demanding the expulsion of the amb. (WP 8/28)

Palestinians in Gaza fire an antitank missile at an IDF patrol inside Israel, causing no damage or injuries. During the day, Palestinians also fire 10 mortars toward Israel in 2 barrages, causing no damage or injuries; some of the mortars land inside Gaza. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts synchronized morning patrols in Tulkarm and several nearby villages; patrols in alBireh and neighboring al-Am‘ari r.c., and in 3 villages nr. Jericho and Ramallah. Palestinians (sometimes accompanied by Israeli and international activists) hold weekly nonviolent demonstrations against the separation wall, land confiscations, and settlement expansion in Bil‘in, Ni‘lin, and Nabi Salih/Dayr Nizam. IDF soldiers fire rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas, and stun grenades at the protesters, injuring 4 Palestinians, including 2 children. A Jewish settler deliberately attempts to run down a Palestinian nr. the Hawara checkpoint nr. Nablus, moderately injuring him; the IDF does not intervene. Jewish settlers fr. Taffuh settlement attempt to seize a plot of nearby Palestinian agricultural land but are sent away by the IDF. Jewish settlers close Jit intersection nr. Qalqilya with burning tires, blocking the main Qalqilya-Nablus road. In separate incidents, Jewish settlers fr. Keddumim and Karnei Shomron settlements stone Palestinian vehicles nr. Qalqilya. In East Jerusalem, Palestinians clash with Israeli border police in Silwan, leaving at least 1 Israeli officer injured. (IsRN, JP 3/18; WP 3/19; PCHR 3/24; OCHA 4/1)

After 2 days of clashes with protesters, arrest raids targeting opposition figures, and imposition of a nighttime curfew in Manama, Bahrain’s troops demolish the giant pearl monument in Pearl Square in a symbolic crushing of antigovernment protesters. No further demonstrations are reported this quarter. By 3/20 observers describe daily life returning to normal (schools and stores reopen, traffic moving) but note “a sense of political paralysis.” Saudi, UAE, and Kuwaiti forces remain in the country through the end of the quarter. (WP 3/19; NYT 3/21)

In Syria, govt. forces violently disperse protests (ranging in size fr. the 100s to the 1,000s) held after Friday prayers in Baniyas, Dara‘a, Damascus, and Homs, fatally shooting 6 protesters and wounding 10s. Though protests are small, the govt. response is harsh and tensions are high. (NYT, WP 3/19)

In Yemen, govt. troops and supporters open fire for more than 20 minutes on protesters demonstrating after Friday prayers in Sana’a, leaving at least 47 dead and 100s injured but failing to disperse the crowd. Afterward, the govt. declares a state of emergency, allowing authorities to curtail civil rights and monitor communications. Over the next 5 days, Yemen’s ambassador to the UN, several other ambassadors, the country’s most influential military commander Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar (a relative and very close ally of Pres. Saleh), and 4 other generals resigned in protest, and Saleh’s own tribe and another key tribal leader called on him to step down. Saleh also fires his cabinet in an apparent attempt to preempt a mass resignation to protest recent deadly clashes. Popular protests also continued. (NYT, WP 3/19; NYT, WP 3/20–21; NYT, WP, WT 3/22–23; NYT, WP 3/24)

In a 45-min. phone conversation, U.S. secy. of state Hillary Clinton sharply rebukes Netanyahu for the 3/9 Ramat Shlomo construction approval, demanding that Israel prove its desire to seek peace by revoking the plans, stating that the U.S. viewed his apology for the timing of the announcement alone as inadequate. She lists several additional steps the U.S. expects Israel to take to support the peace process and warns of consequences if Israel does not comply; no details are made public (State Dept. press release 3/12; WP 3/13; HA 3/15)

The IDF makes a day-long incursion 200 m into Gaza e. of Jabaliya, later moving s. toward Gaza City, to level land along the border fence to clear lines of sight. IDF troops on the n. Gaza border nr. Bayt Hanun fire on Palestinians scavenging construction materials from destroyed buildings, forcing them to flee, causing no injuries. Late in the evening, the IDF makes air strikes on a suspected weapons lab in Khan Yunis in retaliation for Palestinian rocket fire on 3/11, causing no reported injuries; Israeli naval vessels fire on a Palestinian fishing boat off the Bayt Lahiya coast, forcing it to return to shore. Israel, fearing serious Palestinian protests after Friday prayers over the 3/9 Ramat Shlomo construction approval, imposes a general closure on the West Bank through 3/16 and deploys extra units of riot police around Jerusalem; no violence is reported. In an effort to halt weekly Palestinian protests against the separation wall, the IDF issues a military order declaring Bil‘in and Ni‘lin closed military zones on Fridays until 8/17. Today the order is ignored: Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists stage a nonviolent march to the separation wall in Bil‘in and a protest against the wall in Ni‘lin, where some of them throw stones at IDF troops. In both cases, IDF troops fire rubber-coated steel bullets, stun grenades, tear gas (injuring 2 Palestinians in Bil‘in; arresting 1 Palestinian, 1 Israeli in Ni‘lin). The IDF also fires rubber-coated steel bullets, stun grenades, tear gas at Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists staging a nonviolent protest against settlement expansion nr. Dayr Nizam/al-Nabi Salih (injuring 18); fires stun grenades and beats Palestinian and international activists demonstrating against the separation wall in al-Ma‘sara village s. of Bethlehem (injuring 2 Palestinians). Jewish settlers fr. Eli nr. Nablus uproot 40 Palestinian olive trees in nearby Qaryut village. (YA 3/12; OCHA, PCHR 3/18)

The IDF makes a brief incursion into s. Gaza to level land and clear lines of sight e. of Abasan, Khuza, and al-Fukhari villages. (PCHR 8/27)

In the West Bank, the IDF fires rubbercoated steel bullets, sound bombs, tear gas, skunk (a foul-smelling liquid) at Palestinians and international activists taking part in a nonviolent demonstration against the separation wall in Ni‘lin (10s suffer fr. tear gas inhalation); fires rubber-coated steel bullets, sound bombs, tear gas and violently beats a number of Palestinian and international activists taking part in a nonviolent demonstration against the separation wall in al-Ma‘sara (injuring 2, including 1 teenager); fires rubber-coated bullets, sound bombs, tear gas at Palestinian activists, some of whom throw stones at IDF troops, taking part in a demonstration against the separation wall in Bil‘in (10s suffer fr. tear gas inhalation); implements additional security restrictions on the movements of Palestinians in the old city of Hebron, which prevents a number of them fr. entering the al-Ibrahimi Mosque/ Tomb of the Patriarchs for Friday prayers; conducts late-night raids, house searches in Surif village nr. Hebron, arresting 2 Palestinians. (OCHA 8/25; PCHR 8/27)

The IDF imposes a curfew on Allar nr. Tulkarm, raids and occupies a girls school and 4 Palestinian homes as observation sites, detains 10s of Palestinians for interrogation; also conducts arrest raids, house searches in ‘Azun nr. Qalqilya, Dahariyya nr. Hebron; closes checkpoints into East Jerusalem before Friday prayers, fires tear gas and percussion grenades to disperse Palestinians waiting to cross; beats a Palestinian farmer tilling his land nr. the separation wall in Dayr al-‘Asal nr. Hebron; fires on residential areas of Khan Yunis; fires rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas at a nonviolent Palestinian demonstration against the separation wall nr. Bil‘in, seriously injuring a Palestinian, lightly injuring a foreign journalist with the Associated Press. Some 40 Jewish rabbinical students club, stone 8 Palestinian laborers working legally at Nachliel settlement, seriously injuring at least 5; Israeli police intervene but the settlers escape; police sources say the 8 Palestinians were “almost lynched.” Jewish settlers fr. Brakha settlement nr. Nablus ambush, beat, seriously injure a Palestinian truck driver passing the settlement. 10s of Jewish settlers fr. Halamish settlement occupy a plot of nearby Palestinian land housing the water spigots controlling the water supply to the settlement and nearby Palestinian villages. PA security officers seal a smugglers’ tunnel in Rafah; some Palestinians confront the officers with stones, causing no injuries; 1 Palestinian is arrested. (HA, MM 3/18; VOP 3/19; AYM 3/20; OCHA 3/23; PCHR 3/24)

Ma’ariv 3/18 reports that that the financial officer of the Greek Orthodox Church, Nikolaos Papadimas, who has power of attorney for Greek Orthodox Patriarch Irineos, recently signed a secret deal, without Irineos’s permission, to sell the church’s Omar Bin Khattab Square property in the Old City of Jerusalem to Jewish investors fr. abroad and then fled the country with his family, depositing $1.5 m. in a Tel Aviv bank account. The square is a valuable commercial area inside the Jaffa Gate, where 3 prominent Palestinian hotels and a number of shops are located. Irineos denies that he gave permission for the sale, meaning that, by church bylaws, the sale is void. (JAZ, MA, al-Quds, VOP 3/19 in WNC 3/28; HA, VOP 3/23; AP 3/24; NYT 3/25; PR 3/30; al-Quds, VOP 4/3 in WNC 4/4; NYT 4/4; Independent 5/10; HA 5/15; PR 5/18)