The Palestine Chronology

U.S. Secy. of State Rice begins her final 4-day Middle East tour of Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and the West Bank to discuss efforts to achieve “lasting peace in the region consistent with the goal of a two-state solution.” The U.S. had announced the trip on 10/30, when optimism surrounding the Gaza ceasefire was high, hoping that the visit would end with the signing of an Israeli-Palestinian joint statement on future negotiations at a high-level Quartet meeting on 11/9. In the wake of the 11/4–5 violence, however, the White House declares today, as Rice begins her meetings, that it intends to leave IsraeliArab peacemaking to the Obama admin. and no longer thinks any Israeli-Palestinian peace deal will occur before Bush leaves office in 1/09. Rice meets with Livni today. (BBC 11/6; NYT, WP, WSJ 11/7) (WT 10/31; HA 11/8; IFM, NYT, WP, WT 11/9; WP 11/10)

IDF troops on the s. Gaza border fire on Palestinian farmers working their fields nearby, forcing them to leave. The IDF also makes an air strike on a group of Palestinians nr. Jabaliya r.c. allegedly preparing to fire a rocket, injuring 1. Palestinians fire 4 rockets fr. Gaza into Israel, causing no damage or injuries. In the West Bank, in the morning, the IDF sends undercover units into Qalqilya driving a car with Palestinian plates to raid a store, arrest the owner; conducts a similar undercover raid into Nablus later in the day, raiding another store and arresting the owner; sends troops into al-Khadir village at midday, forcing stores to close, patrolling streets, withdrawing early in the evening; makes an evening incursion into Azun nr. Qalqilya, imposing a curfew, beating Palestinians who do not quickly leave the streets, withdrawing before midnight. Abbas accuses Hamas forces in Gaza of detaining nearly 50 Fatah members and supporters in a political move to undermine upcoming Cairo unity talks; at least 9 of those arrested, including a Fatah PC mbr., are released by the end of the day. A Palestinian woman dies of injures receive in the 11/4 IDF attacks on Gaza. (HA 11/6; MM 11/7; OCHA 11/12; PCHR 11/13)

In response to Palestinian rocket fire on 8/11, Israel suspends fuel shipments and humanitarian imports to Gaza for 1 day (see 7/8); Hamas official Mahmud Zahhar calls those who fired the rocket on 8/11 in violation of the cease-fire traitors and collaborators, reiterating that “there is a consensus by all Palestinian factions to respect the truce.” In the West Bank, theIDF conducts daytime arrest raids, house searches in Hebron and Tulkarm, and nr. Qalqilya. Jewish settlers who occupied (7/17) a plot of Palestinian land in Wadi alNassara in Hebron attack a Palestinian home with rocks and bottles, injuring a 13-yr.-old boy. Armed Jewish settlers attempt for a 3d time (see 8/6, 8/7) to enter Shu‘fat r.c. to establish an unauthorized outpost; the IDF bars their entry, arrests 13 settlers. PA security forces raid, seal for 1 yr. a school in Hebron, detain the director for alleged affiliation with Hamas (see 8/8). Meanwhile, OCHA reports that Hamas’s crackdown on Fatah in Gaza continues, with 465 Fatah supporters arrested and 204 Fatah-affiliated community organizations shut since the 7/25 Gaza City bombings; 279 of the detainees have been released; 34 of the organizations have been allowed to reopen. (OCHA 8/13; PCHR, WT 8/14)

Just before a Gaza cease-fire goes into effect, the IDF makes a series of air strikes on Gaza (killing 1 armed Palestinian, wounding 1), and Palestinians (mostly Islamic Jihad mbrs. seeking revenge for IDF killings of its mbrs. in previous days) fire 33 rockets and 10 mortars into Israel (causing light damage but no injuries); 5 rockets land inside Gaza, wounding 1 armed Palestinian, 2 civilians. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in and around Nablus, nr. Bethlehem; also makes a major arrest raid in Qalqilya, searching, firing on, and heavily damaging a 3-story apartment building and 2 homes, demolishing 2 uninhabited Palestinian homes.(PCHR, WT 6/19; NYT 6/20; OCHA 6/25; PCHR 6/26)

Israel publicly calls for opening “direct, bilateral” peace talks with Lebanon, which says it is not interested (NYT, WP 6/19)

Hamas’s Haniyeh publicly offersIsrael a comprehensive cease-fire deal covering the West Bank and Gaza in exchange for a lifting of the siege of Gaza and a halt to all Israeli “assassinations, killings, and raids.” The Israeli government does not officially reply, but hrs. later in the West Bank, IDF undercover units in Bethlehem ambush, assassinate Islamic Jihad’s Bethlehem cmdr. Muhammad Shihada, senior AMB mbr. Ahmad Balbul), and 2 Islamic Jihad mbrs. driving with them. The IDF also sends troops into Sa‘ida village nr. Tulkarm in search of Islamic Jihad’s Tulkarm cmdr. Salih Karouir, wounding him in an exchange of fire and then shooting him in the head execution style. In an “initial response,” Islamic Jihad mbrs. in Gaza resume rocket fire into Israel, damaging 1 building. The IDF also conducts house searches nr. Hebron, firing on stone-throwing Palestinian youths who confront them, wounding 2; conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in and around Hebron, Nablus, Tulkarm, as well as in Qabatya, Qalqilya, and nr. Bethlehem, Jenin. In Gaza, 1 Palestinian is killed, 5 are injured when a smuggling tunnel they are renovating collapses; 1 Palestinian is killed when explosives he is handling detonate prematurely. (BBC, IFM 3/12; NYT, PCHR, WT 3/13; OCHA, PCHR 3/19)