The Palestine Chronology

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)

The IDF reopens the Qarni crossing (closed on 4/26); conducts arrest raids, house searches in Bethlehem, Hebron, Jenin, Nablus. Palestinians fire a rocket fr. Gaza into Israel, causing no damage or injuries; the IDF responds by shelling n. Gaza, causing no injuries. Jewish settlers fr. Kiryat Arba vandalize Palestinian homes in Hebron for a 2d day. (HA, IMEMC 4/30; B’Tselem press release 5/1; OCHA 5/3; PCHR 5/4)