The Palestine Chronology

The IDF continues operations in Rafah and al-Shuka, firing on and shelling residential areas, conducting house-to-house searches, forcing some 400 Palestinian families to flee their homes, killing 1 Palestinian civilian, wounding at least 13 civilians. The IDF also shells areas around Bayt Hanun, wounding at least 2 Palestinians; fires across the border fr. Israel at Palestinian farmers working their land nr. al-Maghazi r.c., wounding 1. In the West Bank, the IDF arrests PA parliament speaker ‘Aziz Dwayk (Change and Reform) in his Ramallah home on charges of being a mbr. of a terrorist organization (Hamas); conducts random ID checks in Dahaysha r.c. (firing on stone-throwing Palestinians who confront them, wounding 2), Tubas; conducts arrest raids, house searches in Bethlehem, Jenin town and r.c., Nablus; burns 30 d. of agricultural land btwn. the separation wall and the Green Line nr. Tulkarm, barring fire engines fr. reaching the scene. A Palestinian dies of injuries received in the 7/16 IDF air strike on the PA FMin. offices in Gaza City. (NYT, PCHR 8/5; NYT, WP, WT 8/6; NYT 8/7; PCHR 8/10)

Overnight, the IDF makes air strikes outside a Palestinian r.c. s. of Tyre, wounding 1 person, lands 2 naval commando units (reportedly wearing Lebanese army uniforms) nearby, raids an apartment building housing Hizballah mbrs. allegedly involved in long-range rocket attacks on Israel, clashing with Hizballah mbrs. for 3 hrs., killing 4 suspected Hizballah mbrs., 1 Lebanese soldier at a nearby checkpoint, 2 bystanders before withdrawing. During the day, the IDF continues air strikes, hitting 170 targets in s. Beirut, and n. of Hermel; drops leaflets over Sidon, warning residents to leave prior to imminent strikes there; continues ground operations in some 20 villages in s. Lebanon, leaving 2 IDF soldiers dead, at least 9 wounded in clashes in Aita al-Sha‘b, Taybeh. Hizballah fires 160 rockets into n. Israel (140 of them in a 90 min. period in the evening), killing 3 Israeli Palestinians in Arab al-Aramshe, also hitting targets in Haifa, Kiryat Shimona, Ma’alot, Nahariya, Safad, Shlomi, Tiberias, wounding a total of 54 Israelis. (NYT 8/5; NYT, WP, WT 8/6)