The Palestine Chronology

The IDF fires missiles at a car in Gaza City, assassinating AMB mbrs. ’Atiya Abu Shari‘a and Suhail Bakir, wounding 3 bystanders; fires several missiles at roads around Bayt Lahiya, rendering them impassable. IDF undercover units, a bulldozer and some 25 vehicles enter Nablus, targeting and assassinating Islamic Jihad’s Nablus military cmdr. Raddad (targeted on 2/5) in an exchange of gunfire that also leaves 2 IDF soldiers wounded; hrs. later Palestinians gather at the scene and throw stones at IDF troops, who fire rubber-coated steel bullets at the youths, injuring 11. The IDF fires on stone-throwing Palestinians nr. Jenin; conducts arrest raids and searches shops in Qalandia r.c., firing on residential areas and wounding a Palestinian woman and 2 children; conducts arrest raids, house searches in Nablus and nr. Hebron; confiscates 129 d. of agricultural land in Bayt Hanina n. of Jerusalem for construction of the separation wall. Palestinians fire several rockets fr. Gaza towards Sederot, damaging 1 house, causing no injuries. (HA, WP 2/8; PCHR 2/9)

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)