The Palestine Chronology

The IDF seals Rafah as the 1st step in what the government says will be a major military offensive against Palestinian militants, dubbed Operation Rainbow. Tanks, armored personnel carriers, armored bulldozers, helicopters, troops ring the city, firing on any traffic attempting to enter or exit. Many residents nr. the Philadelphi Route evacuate their homes, taking their belongings with them. IDF troops also fire on the area to encourage Palestinians to leave. In Gaza City, the IDF fires missiles at offices of Fatah, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, causing damage but no reported injuries. The IDF also imposes a curfew on Silwad nr. Ramallah, fires on stone-throwing youths, killing 1 Palestinian; conducts arrest raids, house searches in Balata r.c. nr. Nablus, Bethlehem, Yatta nr. Hebron; demolishes 3 Palestinian homes nr. Hebron for construction of the separation wall; evacuates the unauthorized settlement outpost Mitzpe Yitzhar nr. Nablus; arrests an Israeli Arab fr. Um al-Fahm for allegedly plotting with Hamas to stage attacks inside Israel. (AFP, HA, MM, WP 5/17; VOI, VOP 5/17 in WNC 5/19; NYT, PCHR, WP, WT 5/18; PR 5/19; PCHR 5/20; JPI, MEI 5/28)

Overnight, the IDF sends 25 heavy vehicles, 2 helicopters into Tulkarm city and r.c., nearby Far‘un village; imposes curfews on the areas, seizes a building in central Far‘un as an IDF post, fires on stone-throwing youths who confront the incursion, wounding 4 (ages 9–18). The IDF alsofires on residential areas s. and n. of Rafah; shoots, wounds a farmer working his field nr. Khan Yunis; shoots, wounds a mentally handicapped Palestinian nr. Dayr al-Balah who fails to follow orders to halt; fires on stonethrowing youths nr. Jenin, wounding 2; lifts the curfew on Hebron imposed on 11/1. A 16-yr.-old AMB suicide bomber detonates a device in the West Bank village of Azun as IDF soldiers move in to capture him, wounding 1 soldier. Palestinian Tariq Hussein, wanted in the shooting death of an Israeli girl, turns himself in tothe IDF at a Qalqilya roadblock. The IDF confirms that Jewish settlers fr. Yitzhar settlement, the unauthorized outpost of Mitzpe Yitzhar are suspected of having felled some 500 Palestinian olive trees in ‘Ayn Abus (s. of Nablus) in the past wk., while Palestinians have been under curfew. (JP 11/3; VOP 11/3 in WNC 11/5; MM, NYT 11/4; NYT, PCHR 11/6)