The Palestine Chronology

Overnight, the IDF escalates its military operations in Gaza, making air strikes on Haniyeh’s empty Gaza City offices (destroying them, but causing no casualties), an Interior Min. office used by the ESF (killing 1 Hamas volunteer with the ESF, wounding a 2d) in Jabaliya r.c., 2 ESF training sites in Gaza City (no casualties), a Gaza City school (causing damage but no injuries); shells the s. Gaza coast fr. the sea, causing no injuries; continues to shell open areas in n. Gaza (setting fire to a Palestinian home), break the sound barrier over the Strip. Egyptian security envoy Omar Sulayman cancels plans to visit Gaza as Egyptian mediation efforts to free Cpl. Shalit will not result in a deal, though lower-level efforts continue. During the day, the IDF reduces the rate of shelling of n. Gaza; fatally shoots 3 armed Palestinians nr. the Dahaniyya airport. Under international pressure, Olmert allows Qarni crossing to open for 5 hrs. for the import of basic goods, resumes fuel deliveries to Gaza through Nahal Oz to ease the humanitarian situation. In the West Bank, the IDF raids a Nablus hospital in a failed search for a wanted Palestinian, firing on the surrounding neighborhood (wounding 1 Palestinian) and stone-throwing youths who confront the troops (wounding 6); patrols in and around Nablus, bulldozing several Palestinian vehicles, raiding and shutting down transmission of the Nablus TV station; raids 4 Islamic charities and a clinic in ‘Askar r.c., 3 other charities in Bethlehem, nr. Qalqilya, and in Tulkarm, confiscating computers, files; conducts arrest raids, house searches in Nablus, Salfit and nr. Bethlehem, Hebron, Jenin; conducts house searches, fires percussion grenades in al-Fawwar r.c., several villages around Hebron. (AFP, AP, HA, IFM, IMEMC, NYT, WP, WT, YA 7/2; AFP 7/2 in WNC 7/2; NYT, WP 7/3; PCHR 7/6)

Israel closes all Gaza crossing into Israel, reimposing the full seal on the territories (set on 3/11) for parliamentary elections; sends troops into al-Fawwar r.c. to conduct arrest raids and house searches, fires on stone-throwing youths who confront the troops, wounding 6; also conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Hebron and in Bethlehem, Nablus, Tubas. Israeli security contractors guarding the separation wall nr. Jerusalem shoot, wound a Palestinian who strays too close to the wall. Islamic Jihad fires a Grad missile (an Eastern European rocket with a range greater than a Qassam but less than a Katyusha) fr. Gaza towards Ashkelon, which lands unexploded causing no damage or injuries. Jewish settlers fr. Kiryat Arba attack Palestinians, vandalize property in Hebron. Separately, Jewish settlers fr. Hebron attack Palestinian children on their way to school by a Palestinian road that passes near a settleronly bypass road. Inside Israel, 2 bedouin are killed in the Negev when they accidentally detonate an unexploded Palestinian rocket. (IMEMC, YA 3/28; VOP 3/28 in WNC 3/29; HA, MM, NYT, OCHA 3/29; PCHR 3/30; MM 4/7, 4/13, 4/21)

Israel holds parliamentary elections, with voter turnout at a relatively low 63%. The Kadima party, founded by Ariel Sharon and led by Ehud Olmert, wins 29 of the 120 Knesset seats (less than expected) compared to Labor with 19 seats, Likud (the biggest loser compared with its 38 seats last election) with 12, Shas with 12, Yisrael Beiteinu with 11, National Union–National Religious Party with 9, Pensioners’ Party with 7, United Torah Judaism with 6, Meretz with 5, and 3 Arab parties with a total of 10. (MM 3/28; HA, JP, MM, NYT, WP, WT 3/29; NYT, WT 3/30; WP 3/31; XIN, YA 4/3)

The PC approves (71–36, with 2 abstentions) the Hamas-led cabinet. (NYT 3/29; XIN 3/28 in WNC 3/29)

The IDF expands its Balata arrest operation to the wider Nablus area, fatally shooting Islamic Jihad’s al-Quds Brigades leader Ahmad Abu Sharikh, AMB Nablus cmdr. Muhammad Shatawi in apparent assassinations; firing on stone-throwing youths, wounding 12. The IDF also shells the n. Gaza no-go zone, damaging several homes in Um al-Nasser n. of Bayt Lahiya but causing no injuries; severely beats a Palestinian teenager in Hebron; demolishes a Palestinian home nr. Tulkarm; fires on residential areas of al-Fawwar r.c. nr. Hebron, wounding 2 Palestinians; conducts arrest raids, house searches in Azariyya nr. Jerusalem, Tulkarm, and nr. Bethlehem, Hebron, Jenin. Palestinians fire a rocket fr. n. Gaza into Israel, causing no damage or injuries. (AP, IMEMC, MM, NYT, WT 2/20; VOI 2/20 in WNC 2/21; IMEMC, NYT 2/21; PCHR 2/23; YA 3/1)

The IDF assassinates senior Hamas military cmdr. Thabit Ayadi, fatally shooting him in a raid on Tulkarm, also arresting 3 Palestinians, raiding 10s of homes; demolishes 2 Palestinian homes nr. Bethlehem, 1 nr. Nablus; conducts arrest raids, house searches in al-Fawwar r.c., Hebron, Nablus, Ramallah. In retaliation, PRC mbrs. fire 2 rockets at the Sufa crossing into Gaza, causing no damage or injuries. The IDF also sends 100s of reinforcements to Hebron, where confrontations continue with Jewish settlers protesting their planned eviction fr. the Hebron market; several settlers are arrested. (AFP, HA, IMEMC, YA 1/17; IMEMC, NYT 1/18; PCHR 1/19)

Israeli authorities bulldoze 7 Palestinian buildings in unrecognized villages in the Negev for being built without permits, present bedouin with orders to demolish another 40 structures, including a mosque. (Palestine News Agency [WAFA] 1/18)

The IDF fires tank shells at Palestinians harvesting strawberry fields outside Bayt Lahiya, killing 7 Palestinian children (ages 10–17) wounding at least 2 adults, 5 children; fires on Palestinians working agricultural land southeast of Gaza City, killing 1 Palestinian, wounding 5; fires on residential areas of Brazil r.c., Rafah; conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Hebron, and in Bethlehem, al-Fawwar r.c., Silwad, ‘Anin nr. Jenin, Qalqilya, Rafah. Hamas fires 2 Qassam rockets fr. Khan Yunis at nearby settlements and fr. n. Gaza at Sederot, injuring 2 Israelis. (FT, IMEMC 1/4; VOI, VOP 1/4 in WNC 1/6; MM, NYT, PM, PR 1/5; IDF Radio, al-Quds, VOI, YA 1/5 in WNC 1/7; PCHR 1/6; MEI 1/7)