The Palestine Chronology

In the West Bank, Israeli settlers attack Palestinian farmers harvesting olives near Nablus, causing no serious injuries. IDF troops arrest 1 Palestinian student after questioning a group in Zayta village near Tulkarm and another during a late-night raid near Ramallah. In East Jerusalem, Israeli forces arrest 1 Palestinian during a raid in Silwan. Along Gaza’s border, unidentified parties open fire on an IDF patrol, causing no injuries or damage. In the Negev, Israeli police arrest a West Bank Palestinian in Rahat on suspicions that he was planning an attack on Israeli civilians. (HA, TOI, WAFA 10/11; EI, PCHR 10/12; PCHR 10/19)

Israel’s Interior Min. says it will move forward with plans to build 1,300 new Jewish settlement housing units in East Jerusalem (978 in Har Homa/Jabal Abu Ghunaym, 320 in Ramot). At the same time, Israel issues construction tenders for 800 units in the West Bank settlement of Ariel, which Israel intends to keep under final status. Meanwhile, Israel’s Jerusalem municipal authorities issue a report stating that the municipality is currently building more than 13,500 housing units for Jews in various Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. The UN, U.S., and PA denounce the plans. In the West Bank, the IDF patrols without incident in Zayta village nr. Tulkarm in the morning; patrols in Bayt Liqya late at night, firing rubbercoated steel bullets, tear gas, stun grenades at stone-throwing Palestinian youths who confront them, causing no serious injuries. (HA, JAZ, MNA, YA 11/8; HA, NYT, WP, WT 11/9; OCHA, PCHR 11/11)

Pres. Obama dispatches U.S. Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on a 3-day regional tour of the Middle East, with stops in Syria (to warn Damascus against interfering in Lebanon), Turkey (to urge Turkey to repair its ties with Israel), Lebanon (to show support for Pres. Michel Suleiman), and Israel and Ramallah (to explore ways of reviving the peace talks). (XIN 11/8; AP 11/9; NYT 11/11)

IDF troops on the n. Gaza border fire warning shots at Palestinians scavenging for construction materials in the fmr. settlement sites, wounding 1. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts late-night patrols in Zayta village nr. Tulkarm, detaining 2 Palestinian men for questioning, but releasing them when they withdraw hrs. later. In an act of reconciliation, rabbis fr. the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, escorted by the IDF and PASF, bring new Qur’ans to the Bayt Fajjar mosque burned on 10/4, saying they are “sorry and ashamed” by the arson. A PA security court in Ramallah sentences IQB mbr. Alaa Hisham Diab to 20 yrs. in prison for his participation in a 5/09 shootout in Qalqilya that left 3 PASF officers and 2 IQB mbrs. dead. Hamas denounces the verdict, saying that the apparent “lack of legality of the courts that issue these verdicts” and the timing of “these verdicts . . . while there is talk of coming closer to reaching internal reconciliation” are disturbing. (AFP, MNA 10/5; UNSCO, WP, WT 10/6; PCHR 10/7; OCHA 10/8)

The IDF sends tanks, bulldozers into Gaza nr. al-Qarara to level land for a 2d day.Israeli naval vessels fire on Palestinian fishermen off the Rafah coast, forcing them to return to shore. In the West Bank, the IDF patrols in Zayta for a 2d day, firing on residential areas, conducting random ID checks, and arresting 3 Palestinian teenagers; conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in Nablus, nr. Jenin. Jewish settlers throw stones at Palestinian vehicles driving nr. Qalqilya, causing no injuries. Palestinians throw stones at a Jewish settler vehicle nr. Ramallah, causing no injuries. (OCHA 5/28; PCHR 5/29)