The Palestine Chronology

The IDF expands military operations in Gaza, making at least 7 air strikes on Hamas, ESF, and PA General Intelligence targets in Gaza, targeting 4 suspected arms caches and 3 other sites (including PA Interior Min. offices in Rafah), injuring 16 Palestinians, damaging at least 25 Palestinian homes; sending tanks and bulldozers into the Strip to level agricultural land e. of Bayt Hanun; directing heavy machine gun fire at a rocket launching site in n. Gaza; conducting arrest raids in Khuza’a nr. Khan Yunis. Late in the evening, the IDF sends troops into Khan Yunis to conduct arrest raids and house searches. Palestinians fire 9 rockets fr. Gaza into Israel, lightly wounding 2 Israelis. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Nablus, nr. Bethlehem, and in Hebron, Jericho, Jenin, Qalqilya. Jewish settlers vandalize Palestinian vehicles in East Jerusalem. A Hamas mbr. is fatally shot by suspected Fatah mbrs. in Khan Yunis. (OCHA, WP 5/23; PCHR 5/24; OCHA 5/30)

Heavy clashes btwn. the Lebanese army, FI at Nahr al-Barid r.c. continue for a 3d day. In Tripoli, a lone FI suicide bomber, still hiding from the police crackdown on 5/20, detonates a device when police close in on his location, killing only himself. Later in the afternoon, the Lebanese army halts its shelling of Nahr al-Barid r.c. in response to a shaky, undeclared cease-fire by FI, prompting some 10,000 Palestinians to flee. Palestinians in ‘Ayn al-Hilwa r.c. and Rashidiyya r.c. demonstrate against the army’s heavy shelling of Nahr al-Barid. (Independent, REU 5/22; DS, LBC, MENA, al-Sharq al-Awsat, al-Safir 5/22 in WNC 5/23; NYT, WP, WT 5/23)

The IDF continues massing tanks, armored vehicles on the n. Gaza border; Sharon instructs security officials to take “all measures, without restrictions, in order to stop the wave of terrorism,” though his advisers suggest that any push into Gaza likely would not happen until after Condoleezza Rice’s visit on 7/22. An IDF sniper (reportedly firing fr. a nearby Jewish settlement) assassinates senior Hamas cmdr. Sa‘id Siyam (not Shaykh Sa‘id Siyam, the Hamas spokesman) outside his home in Khan Yunis. The IDF also lifts the curfews on Tulkarm and surrounding areas imposed on 7/13; fires missiles at a Palestinian vehicle in Bayt Lahiya, injuring 1 Hamas mbr., injured 2 bystanders in an apparent assassination attempt; fires on stone-throwing youths in Tulkarm, wounding 1; shells residential areas of Khan Yunis; conducts arrest raids, house searches nr. Bethlehem, Ramallah and in ‘Azun, Hebron, Kafr Thuluth, Qalqilya, Saida nr. Tulkarm, Wadi al-Silqa. In retaliation, Hamas fires Qassam rockets into Neve Dekalim (hitting a house, injuring 6 settlers), Sederot (causing no injuries). Israel bars indefinitely all visits to Palestinian prisoners as punishment for the 7/12 Netanya bombing. A Palestinian injured in the IDF assassination of 3 Hamas mbrs. in Salfit on 7/15 dies. (HA, IMEMC, PRCS, XIN 7/17; VOI, VOP, YA 8/17, Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation 7/18 in WNC 7/18; NYT, WP, WT 7/18; XIN 7/18 in WNC 7/19; OCHA, PR 7/20; PCHR 7/21)

The IDF assassinates Hamas leader Rantisi, firing 2 missiles at his car as he drives through Gaza City, also killing his bodyguards Akram Nassar and Ahmad Ghurra, wounding 4 bystanders. 10,000s of Palestinians throughout the West Bank, Gaza take to the streets to protest. Hamas vows retaliation, says it has appointed Rantisi’s replacement but will not identify him for security reasons. (Senior spokesman Mahmud Zahar, senior political leader Ismail Haniyeh are considered the likely successors.) The IDF strike comes hrs. after a Palestinian suicide bomber detonates a device inside the Erez Industrial Zone in Gaza, killing an Israeli border policeman, injuring 3; the AMB, Hamas claim joint responsibility. IDF undercover units raid Hebron and capture, beat, arrest an Arab Bank employee. The IDF also seals all West Bank and Gaza crossings except the Rafah checkpoint; tightens restrictions on Palestinian movement throughout the territories; fatally shoots a mentally handicapped Palestinian who strays too close to a Jewish settlement nr. Gaza City; denies passage to a Palestinian who suffers a heart attack at a Nablus checkpoint, allowing him to die; shells residential areas of Khan Yunis, cutting some electricity, seriously injuring a 9-yr.-old girl inside her home and 6 others elsewhere; fires on, shells residential areas of Dayr al-Balah, Tulkarm (seriously injuring a 5-yr.-old girl); fires on residential areas nr. Rafah; conducts arrest raids, house searches in Dayr al-Balah, Jenin; bulldozes 6 dunams of land in Bayt Hanun. (HA, MA, REU 4/17; AFP, MENA, MNR, PSCT, VOP 4/17, AFP, ATL, HA, IRNA, JP, LBC, MENA, MNR, al-Quds, VOP, YA 4/18 in WNC 4/20; NYT, WP, WT 4/18; CSM, MM 4/19; ITAR-TASS 4/19 in WNC 4/21; DUS, al-Ra’i 4/19, JT 4/20 in WNC 4/22; AYM 4/19, al-Quds, SA 4/21 in WNC 4/23; MM, PR 4/21; PCHR 4/22; WP 4/25; MEI 4/30)

An IDF helicopter fires missiles at a car driving outside Gaza City, assassinating 3 senior Hamas mbrs. Tarad Jamal (local military cmdr.), Ibrahim Dayri, Ammar Hassan; fatally shoots an AMB mbr. brandishing an assault rifle who approaches an IDF patrol in Tulkarm. The IDF also transfers a West Bank administrative detainee to Gaza; raids Hebron University, damages an exhibit on Palestinian culture; fires on residential areas of Khan Yunis (seriously wounding a 6-yr.-old Palestinian inside his home), Rafah, Tulkarm r.c.; conducts arrest raids in Husan and al-Khadir nr. Bethlehem, Nablus, Tulkarm. Palestinians toss an explosive device at a Jewish settler vehicle nr. Hebron, lightly wounding 1 Jewish settler. A Palestinian dies of injuries received during the separation wall protest at Biddu on 2/26. (HA, PR 3/3; LBC, VOP 3/3 in WNC 3/5; MM, NYT, PCHR, WP, WT 3/4; PCHR 3/11)