The Palestine Chronology

Russian dep. FM Posuvalyuk discusses state of the peace process with Crown Prince Hassan in Amman, then heads to Israel. (RJ 4/16 in WNC 4/18) (see 4/16)

Arafat, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Amnon Shahak, Shin Bet head Ami Aylon hold mtg. on security coordination Gaza. U.S. special envoy Ross also attends. (ITV 4/18 in WNC 4/21; MA 4/23 in WNC 4/24)

IDF demolishes home of a relative of suicide bomber Ghanimat in Surif, leaving 10 people homeless. (LAW 5/6) (see 4/16)

Fmr. Israeli pres. (1983+n93) Chaim Herzog dies in Tel Aviv. (NYT, WT 4/18; JP 4/26)

U.S. special envoy Ross arrives in the Middle East; holds talks in Gaza with Arafat, in Jerusalem with Netanyahu. (WP 4/15; CSM, WP 4/16)

EU-Mediterranean business conference opens in Malta. Arafat, Israeli FM Levy meet on the sidelines in the highest level contact since talks broke down in 3/97. (CSM, MM, WT 4/15; Radio France Internationale [Paris] 4/15 in WNC 4/16; CSM, MM 4/16; De Volkskrank [Amsterdam], SANA 4/16 in WNC 4/17; CSM, NYT, WP 4/17; MEI, PR 4/18)

On the sidelines of the Malta conference, Jordanian FM Tarawnah, Syrian FM Shara` discuss improving bilateral relations. (al-Dustur 4/23 in WNC 4/24)

In Surif, 3 critically ill Palestinians die when IDF troops enforcing curfew deny them access to medical treatment. (NYT 4/16)

Israeli police recommend felony indictments in the Bar-On affair be sought against Justice M Hanegbi, chief of staff Avigdor Lieberman, Netanyahu political ally and Shas head Arye Deri. (ITV 4/15 in WNC 4/16; MM, WP, WT 4/16; YA 4/16 in WNC 4/17) (see 2/28)

In Mina, Saudi Arabia, an estimated 210 Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani pilgrims participating in the Hajj are killed, 800 are injured when canisters of cooking fuel ignite tents. At least 70,000 tents are destroyed, leaving 100,000s of pilgrims temporarily without shelter. (CSM, NYT, WP, WT 4/16; MM 4/22, 4/24; MEI 5/2)

SLA releases 7 detainees fr. al-Khiyam prison in s. Lebanon to mark the end of Ramadan. (RL 4/15 in WNC 4/16)