The Palestine Chronology

Gaza’s power plant, which supplies up to 43% of Gaza’s power, ceases operation after running out of fuel due to Israel’s closure. The majority of Gazans, already used to going without power for 4 hrs./day because of Israeli limits on fuel imports, face cuts of 12 hrs./day. Electricity and fuel cuts prevent Gaza municipal authorities fr. treating wastewater, forcing them to begin dumping 40 m. liters/day of untreated sewage into the Mediterranean. Reps. of the military wings of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the PRCs hold a press conference in Rafah, threaten to use explosives to destroy the Gaza border fence with Egypt if Egypt does not take action within 24 hrs. to reopen the Rafah crossing and ease the siege. Meanwhile, Israel allows 70 Gaza medical cases into Israel for treatment. The IDF makes an air strike on AMB mbrs. Ibrahim al-Ghuti and As‘ad Abu Shari‘a as they walk across a bridge in Gaza City in an apparent assassination attempt, killing Ghuti, wounding Abu Shari‘a and 2 bystanders; makes an incursion into al-Shuka, raiding and searching homes, detaining 100 Palestinians for questioning, releasing all but 8 before withdrawing in the evening; makes at least 1 air strike on n. Gaza, allegedly targeting a rocket launching site, killing 1 Palestinian; fires a missile across the border e. of Gaza City, wounding 1 Islamic Jihad mbr. Palestinians fire 2 rockets fr. Gaza into Israel, causing damage but no injuries. In Gaza City, 2,000 Palestinians organized by the Palestinian Popular Comm. Against the Siege (PPCAS) hold a candlelight vigil to protest the Israeli siege; 400 Palestinians hold a similar rally in Nussayrat r.c. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts arrest raids, house searches in Dahaysha r.c., Hebron, and nr. Ramallah, Tulkarm (heavily damaging a Palestinian home, displacing a family of 5). (JP 1/20; JAZ, NYT, WP, WT 1/21; NYT, WP 1/22; OCHA 1/23; PCHR 1/24)

On the 5th day of Operation Southern Arrow, the IDF conducts an air strike on a car driving in Gaza City, killing AMB mbrs. Muhammad Abu Shari‘a and Mahmud Ajjur and seriously injuring a 3d who had just fired a rocket into Israel (causing no damage or injuries), and an air strike on a car nr. Khan Yunis, assassinating at least 6 mbrs. of the Abu Rish Brigades (ARB; a Fatah offshoot) and wounding 4 other ARB mbrs. and at least 11 bystanders; 3 Palestinian children in Jabaliya r.c. and a family of 5 in Bayt Lahiya are wounded by shrapnel in continued shelling of n. Gaza. The IDF also bars Palestinians under age 30 fr. crossing checkpoints into or out of the Jordan Valley; sends troops back into Nablus, firing on stone-throwing youths who confront them, wounding 12; conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Hebron, nr. Jenin (targeting Islamic Jihad, firing on stone-throwing youths who confront the troops); patrols in Anabta nr. Tulkarm, firing on Palestinian youths who confront the troops. Jewish settlers fr. Suissa set fire to a Palestinian home, attack Palestinian farmers, shepherds in nearby Yatta. A smugglers tunnel on the Rafah border collapses, killing 2 Palestinians. (IMEMC 4/8; Palestine Satellite Channel Television, VOI, VOP 4/8 in WNC 4/9; IMEMC, NYT, PCHR, WP, WT 4/9; PCHR 4/13)

The IDF conducts air strikes to destroy 2 vacant AMB buildings in n. Gaza; fires 3 shells at the eastern border of Gaza nr. alMaghazi r.c., causing no injuries; demolishes a Palestinian home in Bayt Hanina outside East Jerusalem for being constructed without permits; conducts arrest raids, house searches nr. Bethlehem, Jenin, Nablus; completes a section of the separation wall btwn. Qalandia checkpoint s. of Ramallah and the al-Ram and Dahiyat al-Barid area nr. Jerusalem. Nr. Tulkarm, 2 Palestinian teenagers throw Molotov cocktails at an IDF patrol, causing no injuries; 1 is shot, wounded by the IDF. Some 20 AMB gunmen occupy the n. Gaza governor’s office, Education Min. offices, and a shari‘a court for several hrs., demanding jobs in the PA security forces; some 400 Palestinians, including AMB mbrs., hold a similar protest outside the Fatah headquarters in Bethlehem. The Jewish “hilltop youth” settlers set up 13 new unauthorized outposts nr. existing settlements in the Bethlehem, Hebron, Jericho, Nablus, Qalqilya, and Ramallah areas. (HA, IMEMC, JAZ, REU, YA 12/27; DS, HA, IMEMC, NYT 12/28; PCHR 12/29)

The IDF assassinates Izzeddin alQassam Brigades leader Wa’il Nassar, firing missiles at his motorcycle as he drives through Gaza City, also killing his top assistant Muhammad Sarsur (riding with him) and 1 bystander, wounding 9 bystanders. The IDF reopens checkpoints around Nablus to Palestinians over age 35; fires on farmers working a field outside Gaza’s Gadid settlement, wounding 1; demolishes a Palestinian home in Husan nr. Bethlehem; raids Ramallah, firing on residential areas, raiding the shari‘a court, arresting 1 Palestinian, wounding 4; conducts arrest raids nr. Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarm. 3 Jewish settlers fr. Tekoa nr. Bethlehem beat, seriously injure a Palestinian farmer grazing sheep nr. the settlement. Jewish settlers fr. Hebron, escorted by IDF troops, throw stones, bottles at local Palestinians, their homes. (NYT, WP, WT 5/30; VOI, VOP 5/30 in WNC 6/1; MM 6/1; PR 6/2; PCHR 6/3; al-Quds 6/3 in WNC 6/5)