The Palestine Chronology

In the West Bank, the IDF issues 2 military orders confiscating 140 d. of Palestinian land in Bardala village in the Jordan Valley (reportedly for “settlement activities”) and 22 d. nr. Yatta outside Hebron (to build a wall near Miskadot Yehuda settlement); sends troops into Ramallah, where they occupy a previously abandoned observation post, withdrawing later in the afternoon; makes a rare daytime incursion into Dahaysha r.c. to arrest a Palestinian teenager; conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches nr. Bethlehem, Jenin. Jewish settlers attack 2 Palestinian homes in Hebron, claiming that Palestinians threw stones fr. the area; the IDF, accompanied by settlers, evacuates and searches the homes. Some 20 masked, armed Jewish settlers fr. Talmon and Harsha settlements nr. Ramallah attack a Palestinian home and car, causing heavy damage. Jewish settlers fr. Yitzhar stone Palestinian cars driving nr. the settlement, causing no reported injuries. Later in the day, the same settlers close the Nablus–Ramallah road to Palestinian traffic. (OCHA 9/24; PCHR 9/25) 

In Gaza, the IDF fatally shoots a deaf Palestinian working a field nr. the Gaza border e. of al-Bureij r.c.; shells residential areas of Bayt Hanun; conducts air strikes on a workshop in Gaza City, destroying it, damaging 2 nearby homes, wounding 2 bystanders. In the West Bank, the IDF issues military orders confiscating 10s of dunams (d.; 4 d. = 1 acre) of Palestinian land s. of Tulkarm. Late in the evening in the West Bank, the IDF closes all crossings to Jerusalem; raids al-Ubidiyya nr. Bethlehem, fatally shoots wanted Islamic Jihad mbrs. ‘Uqla Shanayta,Khalid Shanayta in an apparent assassination; conducts arrest raids, house searches in Askar r.c., neighboring Nablus, Yatta nr. Hebron. (PCHR 8/24)

Early in the morning, the IDF begins withdrawing fr. areas of s. Lebanon, giving UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) control. (The IDF does not confirm how many troops are in Lebanon, though at the peak, observers estimated there were as many as 30,000.) Soon after, the Lebanese army begins deploying troops s. of the Litani. In Naqura, 2 Lebanese children are killed when they accidentally detonate unexploded bomblets fr. an Israeli cluster bomb; UN deminers say they have identified 10 locations in s. Lebanon where the IDF used cluster bombs and may pose similar hazards for civilians, saying the 10 sites could be the “tip of the iceberg.” Beirut airport received its 1st commercial flight since it was bombed on 7/13; hopes to be able to resume normal service within a wk. (NYT, WP, WT 8/17; NYT, WP, WT 8/18)

Late this evening, in response to assassinations in recent days, the AMB, Hamas, the PRCs stage a joint attack on the Qarni crossing, killing 4 Israeli civilian workers at the crossing and 2 Israeli Palestinian truck drivers waiting to cross, wounding 10 people (4 of them Israelis, others not identified)—in the attack, 3 armed men, 1 fr. each group, detonate a truck bomb on the Palestinian side of the crossing, blowing open a gate to the Israeli side, then open fire with automatic weapons and toss grenades, while other mbrs. at a distance reportedly fire mortars and automatic weapons at the crossing; the 3 Palestinians initiating the attack are shot dead by the IDF. In response, IDF helicopter gunships fire rockets at Dayr al-Balah, the suspected home of the bombers, destroying a medical center run by a charity with links to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, wounding 1 Palestinian; IDF tanks also fire on targets in s. Gaza. During the day, the IDF makes a major raid into Bureij r.c., conducts arrest raids and house searches, bulldozes 41 d. of land, fires on residential areas (killing a 10-yr.-old Palestinian boy), fires on stone-throwing youths who confront the troops (wounding 2), sparking clashes with Palestinian militants (killing a wanted PRC mbr.). The IDF also fatally shoots a 2d Palestinian driving his pregnant neighbor to the Bayt Lahiya hospital when the car inadvertently enters an area where IDF arrest raids are under way, also injuring the woman’s husband; fires on residential areas of Tarqumiyya, Yatta; conducts arrest raids, house searches in Hebron (arresting local Islamic Jihad leader Khalil Mahsin), Ithna, Qalqilya, Taqu‘a, Tarqumiyya, Tulkarm, Yatta; issues military orders confiscating 363 d. of agricultural land in 5 villages northwest of Jerusalem, begins bulldozing 400 d. in Ithna w. of Hebron for construction of the separation wall. Unknown gunmen fire shots at the Gaza City offices of the Islamic Salvation Party’s al-Risala newspaper; editors believe the paper was targeted for its critical reporting on the 1/9 PA elections, which stressed the PA’s decision to extend polling hours, the PA’s skewed reporting of voter turnout figures. (AFP 1/13; JAZ, JP, VOI, VOP 1/13 in WNC 1/15; BBC, HA, MM, NYT, REU, WP, WT 1/14; MM 1/17; OCHA 1/19; PR 1/20; MEI 1/21; AYM 1/23 in WNC 1/24; PCHR 1/27; MEI 2/4)