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  • February 8, 2011

    The PA sets 7/9/2011 as the start date for municipal elections in the West Bank. (WT 2/9)

    In the morning, unidentified Palestinians fire 2 mortars fr. Gaza into Israel, causing light damage...

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  • January 28, 2011

    Paraguay recognizes Palestine as independent state on the 1967 borders. (JP 2/5)

    In Gaza, 1,000s of Hamas supporters protest against the PA in light of the Palestine Papers revelations...

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The PA sets 7/9/2011 as the start date for municipal elections in the West Bank. (WT 2/9)

In the morning, unidentified Palestinians fire 2 mortars fr. Gaza into Israel, causing light damage but no injuries. In the afternoon, Islamic Jihad mbrs. fire 2 more mortars into Israel, causing no damage or injuries. Late in the evening, the IDF retaliates with an air strike, destroying an abandoned plastics factory in Gaza City (an alleged weapons manufacturing facility), also damaging a nearby PA Health Min. warehouse used for storing medicine, a textile factory, and a school and lightly injuring 11 Palestinian civilians (including 4 children). An hr. later, the IDF makes 2 air strikes on an Islamic Jihad training site in Khan Yunis (injuring 2 Islamic Jihad mbrs.) and a smuggling tunnel on the Rafah border (no injuries). Also during the day, the IDF makes a brief incursion into s. Gaza e. of Shuka village to level lands and clear lines of sight, firing on nearby residential areas to keep Palestinians indoors, causing no injuries. UNRWA reports that it has resumed 3 stalled construction projects in Gaza after Israel allowed in 2 large shipments of construction aggregates (see 2/1). In the West Bank, the IDF conducts late-night patrols in 1 village nr. Tulkarm; conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in and around Tubas, in Nablus, and nr. Hebron. (YA 2/9; PCHR 2/10; OCHA 2/11)

Egyptian demonstrators hold the largest rally in Tahrir Square to date and surround the parliament building, rejecting government proposals for an extended transition and demanding Mubarak’s immediate removal and dissolution of parliament. Huge demonstrations are also held in Alexandria, Suez, and other cities. Egyptian labor unions begin a nationwide general strike to observe a “Week of Steadfastness” with demonstrators. Since 2/4, Mubarak has released some activists arrested since 1/25, allowed government contact with the Muslim Brotherhood for the first time, agreed in principle to lift emergency regulations and allow a free press, formed a legal panel (all Mubarak loyalists) to explore constitutional changes demanded by protesters, announced 15% raises for civil servants and pensioners, and vowed to open corruption investigations of senior government and NDP party officials. Some opposition figures note (e.g., WP 2/7) that some of these steps were significant and might have been enough to appease protesters 2 wks. ago, but that the mood has shifted significantly since then and these steps are now seen as far too little. Another round of massive demonstrations in Tahrir Square is called for Friday 2/10. In the interim, labor strikes and demonstrations grow and spread nationwide. (NYT, WP, WT 2/8; NYT, WP, WT 2/9; NYT, WP, WT 2/10; see also NYT, WP 2/6; NYT, WP, WT 2/7)

Paraguay recognizes Palestine as independent state on the 1967 borders. (JP 2/5)

In Gaza, 1,000s of Hamas supporters protest against the PA in light of the Palestine Papers revelations about negotiation concessions, particularly on the right of return. In the West Bank, around 2,000 Palestinians in Hebron and smaller groups in other cities attend Fatah-organized rallies in support of Abbas and against al-Jazeera. Also in the West Bank, a group of 100 armed Jewish settlers hiking nr. Khirbat Safa nr. Hebron is confronted by stone-throwing Palestinian youths, prompting 1 Jewish settler to open fire, killing 1 Palestinian teenager and wounding a 2d, marking the 2d such shooting in 2 days. Jewish settlers fr. Yonatan outpost in the East Jerusalem environs attack nearby Palestinian houses; accompanying IDF soldiers fire tear gas and stun grenades to keep Palestinians at a distance, sparking a fire that lightly damages 1 home. Meanwhile in the West Bank, the IDF patrols in villages nr. Ramallah, Tulkarm; enters Jayyus village nr. Qalqilya, searching 1 home but making no arrests. Palestinians (accompanied by Israeli and international activists in some areas) hold weekly nonviolent demonstrations against the separation wall, land confiscations, and settlement expansion in Bil‘in and Ni‘lin. IDF soldiers fire rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas, and stun grenades at the protesters, injuring 2 Palestinians. PA General Intelligence units detain leading Hizb al-Tahrir mbr. Mus‘ab Abu Arqub after Friday prayers in Dura nr. Hebron. (WP 1/29, MNA 1/30; PCHR 2/3; OCHA 2/4)

Across Egypt, 100,000s of protesters heed the call to observe a “Friday of rage” in Egypt, launching massive demonstrations after midday prayers. Protesters burn the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) headquarters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Police stations and NDP offices are torched in several of Cairo’s middleclass neighborhoods and poorer quarters, as well as in Alexandria, Suez, Port Said, Damietta, Damanhour, and other areas of Upper Egypt and Sinai; prisoners in several jails are freed. With regular police already largely having withdrawn fr. the street, not wanting to confront protesters, Mubarak sends out security and plain-clothes police who violently clash with demonstrators and target journalists, killing as many as 300 and injuring as many as 2,000. Protesters in Cairo and Alexandria overwhelm the security police by dusk, forcing Mubarak to withdraw them to regroup and send the army and tanks into the cities to impose a curfew; but when protesters ignore the curfew, the army does not act. Later, Mubarak appears on state TV and, in effort to appease critics and quell protests, pledges to speed up his program of political and economic reforms, announcing that he has dissolved his cabinet, appointed a new PM to form a new government, and named military intelligence chief Gen. Omar Suleiman as his 1st ever VP, but protesters vow to remain in the streets until he steps down. The U.S. issues its first warnings that it will review its $1.56 b. in annual aid to Egypt depending on how events unfold in the coming days, pressing its contacts within the Egyptian army to avoid violence. Abbas, however, phones Mubarak to assure him of the PA’s support for Egypt’s security and stability. (IHS Global Insight, Middle East Research and Information Project, NYT, WP 1/29; MNA 1/30)

In Jordan, where criticism of the king is banned, 1,000s of demonstrators inspired by events in Egypt and Tunisia turn out after Friday prayers in Amman and cities across the kingdom to demand the resignation of PM Samir al-Rifa‘i and his cabinet, dissolution of the parliament, and a new round of free and fair elections. (The last parliamentary elections held in 11/2010 were widely criticized as fraudulent.) (NYT 1/29; NYT, WP 1/30; WP 2/1; NYT 2/2)