The Palestine Chronology

In Gaza, 2,000 Palestinians hold a peaceful demonstration at a sealed breach in the Rafah border to urge Egypt to keep the border open. Outside Rafah, 2 Palestinian teenagers are injured when they accidentally trigger unexploded IDF ordnance. In the West Bank, the IDF sets up a checkpoint outside a Bayt Umar cemetery to check the IDs of mourners attending the funeral of the 2d Kefar Etzion attacker (see 1/24); later fires percussion grenades, rubber-coated steel bullets at mourners, wounding 6; fires on residential areas of al-Khadir nr. Bethlehem, causing no injuries; conducts arrest raids, house searches in Jenin, northwest of Jerusalem; fires rubber-coated steel bullets, percussion grenades, tear gas at Palestinian, Israeli, international activists taking part in nonviolent demonstrations against the separation wall in Bil‘in (injuring 2). Palestinian children throw stones at Jewish settler vehicles traveling on Route 55 nr. Azun and Route 60 nr. Hawara, damaging 2 but causing no injuries. Inside Israel, 20,000 Israeli Palestinians march in Sakhnin to protest a 1/27 government decision not to try police officers who fatally shot 13 Israeli Palestinians during 10/00 antigovernment demonstrations in Um al-Fahm in solidarity with the intifada. In Gaza City, Hamas-affiliated police release Fayyad adviser Ghul, arrested on 12/14. (AFP 2/1; NYT, WP 2/2; OCHA 2/6; PCHR 2/7)

The IDF eases the encirclement (in place since the 9/9 suicide bombings) of 6 major Palestinian cities, excluding Jenin and Nablus, in an apparent bid to aid Qurai‘ in forming a cabinet; confiscates 424 dunams of Palestinian land in the n. Jordan Valley for construction of the separation wall; blows up a Palestinian home in Silwad (nr. Ramallah); conducts arrest raids, house searches in Hebron, Qalqilya; fires on residential areas of Khan Yunis, Rafah; shells a main water reservoir in Bayt Hanun, cutting the water supply to the area. Palestinians who are allowed to reach their olive groves for the 1st time since the harvest began report that Jewish settlers have felled 100s of trees nr. Sawiyya (nr. Ely settlement) outside Hawara (where a curfew remains in effect; see 11/4); the IDF confirms the reports, also requests an additional NIS 20 m. fr. the Finance Min. for the fortification of Jewish settlements. Jewish settlers also beat up a Palestinian in East Jerusalem. (AFP, HA, MM 11/5; VOP 11/5 in WNC 11/7; NYT, PCHR 11/6; VOP 11/6 in WNC 11/8; MA 11/7 in WNC 11/11; PCHR 11/13)