The Palestine Chronology

For a 2d day, Israel allows a significantly higher number of Palestinians to transit through the Rafah border, most of them medical cases: 568 entering Egypt and 896 entering Gaza. In the West Bank, the IDF enters Hebron in the evening and erects a checkpoint nr. Hebron University, checking Palestinians’ IDs but making no arrests; conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in and around Balata r.c. and Nablus, in Bil‘in, and nr. Hebron and Jenin. (OCHA, PCHR 7/2)

IDF troops on the c. Gaza border fire a shell into Gaza City, injuring a Palestinian teenager; bulldoze land e. of Gaza City, firing on surrounding residential areas, causing no reported injuries. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in and around Jenin town and r.c. and Nablus, in Bethlehem and Jalazun r.c. nr. Ramallah, and nr. Hebron. Hebron University suspends classes following unarmed clashes btwn. Fatah, Hamas student groups that leave 12 students injured; PA security forces surround the campus. (OCHA 3/16; PCHR 4/17)

In the West Bank, the IDF surrounds Hebron’s al-Ansar Mosque during evening prayers, photographing and checking the IDs of worshipers as they leave; conducts arrest raids, house searches in ‘Ayn Bayt al-Ma’a r.c., Jenin town and r.c., Nablus, Qabatya. The ESF raids, searches the homes of several Fatah mbrs., beating and injuring 8, detaining 14; 1 wanted Fatah mbr. evades arrest when neighbors stone ESF officers who come to detain him. PA security forces violently disperse a demonstration by students at the predominantly Hamas Hebron University protesting tuition increases, also beat and detain 2 journalists covering the event; in response, some 100 Hamas mbrs. burn tires, attack the local PA police station. (OCHA 9/12; PCHR 9/13)

IDF troops fire on, kill a Palestinian taxi driver who hits an IDF soldier at a checkpoint nr. Hebron; the soldier is also killed, but the IDF says he may have died fr. IDF gunfire, not from being struck by the car; also says it is unclear whether the Palestinian deliberately tried to run down the soldier. The IDF declares closed military zones around Nablus to protect a group of Jewish settlers visiting Joseph’s Tomb, arrests 2 Palestinians found in the closed areas; raids Hebron University, detains and interrogates students and staff, searching for wanted Palestinians but apparently not arresting anyone; conducts arrest raids, house searches in Dahariyya, Qalqilya; sends troops into Bayt Iba nr. Nablus to remove all campaign advertising for the 5/5 municipal elections; orders an Agence France-Presse photographer to stop filming nr. Shu‘fat checkpoint outside Jerusalem, beats and detains him for several hours. (IMEMC, PRCS 4/25; BBC, HA, NYT 4/26; NYT, OCHA, PR 4/27; PCHR 4/28)

The IDF fires on 3 Palestinians attempting to sneak into Israel fr. Jabaliya to find work, seriously wounding 1, lightly injuring 1, while 1 escapes; conducts arrest raids, house searches in Baqa‘ al-Sharqiyya. The IDF also imposes new restrictions on Palestinian movement nr. the Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, erecting an iron gate 30 m away fr. the site, closing the main road leading to the site to Palestinians, checking all Palestinians before allowing them through the gate to the site. Jewish settlers fr. Ma’on attack 5 Palestinian shepherds grazing their animals nearby; the IDF intervenes, arrests the Palestinians, takes them to Kiryat Arba for interrogation, releases them later. Israel authorizes the construction of a “temporary wall” btwn. Jerusalem, the West Bank in areas where the legal disputes to the route of the separation wall are still underway; approves a new route for the separation wall around Jerusalem that would annex Ma’ale Adumim settlement, surround Shu‘fat r.c. with fences, isolate Palestinian neighborhoods and villages n. of the city, incorporate Bilal Bin Rabah mosque n. of Bethlehem into Jerusalem. At Hebron University, 100s of students supporting Fatah disrupt a Hamas student rally in advance of campus elections, leaving 9 Palestinians injured. (AP, IMEMC 3/13; WT 3/14; OCHA 3/16; PCHR 3/17)