Israel closes off Jericho self-rule area for 1 day after Palestinian police disarm 2 settlers. Closure ostensibly to allow Palestinian police to organize. (Qol Yisra'el 5/24 in FBIS 5/24; MM 5/...
Arab World: Jordan gov't. places former PM Mudar Badran & Minister of Occupied Territories Ibrahim under town arrest for suspicion of embezzling over $500,000...
After day of quiet, renewed artillery exchanges in Tripoli, coastal road cut 20 miles south of city; IDF announces 4 Katyusha rockets found in South Lebanon.
Five minute clash between Lebanese Army and IDF convoy.
Casualties:
2 Lebanese soldiers killed, 1 IDF soldier wounded in clash.
Political Responses:...
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Israel closes off Jericho self-rule area for 1 day after Palestinian police disarm 2 settlers. Closure ostensibly to allow Palestinian police to organize. (Qol Yisra'el 5/24 in FBIS 5/24; MM 5/24; NYT, WP, WT 5/25)
PM Rabin tours Gaza Strip to inspect IDF redeployment, new security fence. IDF Chief of Staff Amnon Shahak tells Knesset comm. Rabin has ordered IDF to draft contingency plans in event agreements with PLO are broken. (Qol Yisra'el 5/24 in FBIS 5/25; MM 5/24, 5/25)
East Jerusalem Arabic newspapers publish decree by PLO Chmn. Arafat reinstating pre-1967 laws in areas under Palestinian control. Decree signed in Tunis 5/20. Israeli F Min Legal Adviser Joel Singer calls decree violation of Gaza-Jericho agreement. (al-Quds 5/24 in FBIS 5/25; CSM, MM, WP 5/24)
PLO appoints Morgan Stanley Asset Management to manage foreign aid for development and admin. of West Bank and Gaza Strip. (Algiers VOP 5/24 in FBIS 5/25; MM 5/24; NYT 5/27)
Israeli FM Peres arrives in Washington for 2-day working visit, including talks with VP Gore, Secy of State Christopher, National Security Advisor Lake, EPA Director Browner, and AFL-CIO officials. (WT 5/24)
U.S. District Court in NY sentences 3 Palestinians, 1 Egyptian to 240-yr. prison terms in 2/23/93 bombing of World Trade Center. (MM, NYT, WP, WT 2/25)
Social/Economic/Political
Arab World: Jordan gov't. places former PM Mudar Badran & Minister of Occupied Territories Ibrahim under town arrest for suspicion of embezzling over $500,000 from Joint Committee funds.
Other Countries: Arab league amb. to US Clovis Maksoud urges US to renew peace efforts in Middle East, says recent events have not irreparably damaged US influence in region. AFL-CIO Executive Council votes to endorse boycott of El Al Airlines for its union-breaking policies.
Military Action
Arab World; Lebanese army reportedly repels 2 IDF gunboats approaching West Beirut coast. Military post atop Nabatiya building attacked with grenade; 1 Israeli killed, 1 wounded.
Military Action:
After day of quiet, renewed artillery exchanges in Tripoli, coastal road cut 20 miles south of city; IDF announces 4 Katyusha rockets found in South Lebanon.
Casualties:
UNRWA asks IDF for protection from Palestinian refugees in Sidon protesting delay in distribution of kerosene heating stoves, cement and winter clothing; 16-tent school operating in Ain el-Hilweh; 625 building plots cleared and allocated by UNRWA, 590 plots cleared by refugees, 850 plots allocated in Tyre; 40 killed, more wounded, large sections of Tripoli without electricity, water, telephone and basic food, hospitals short of supplies, many civilians living in shelters.
Political Responses:
Israel/ Occupied Territories: IDF spokes-man announces Syria is building 2 bases for Soviet SA-5 missiles, warns USSR not to deploy missiles in Syria; President Yitzhak Navon begins 2 week visit to US, will meet Reagan with Shultz, Kissinger, AFL-CIO, Jewish groups; Mapam MK Elazar Granot introduces motion in Knesset that Sharon be removed as Defense Minister and be replaced in Lebanon negotiations because of his leak about a separate agreement with Lebanese leaders and distortion of the facts of the war from its beginning; Foreign Minister Shamir charges that Lebanese Muslim leaders opposed to normalization with Israel are agents of foreign interests, and reiterates commitment to Eretz Israel, calling on international convention delegates to invest all efforts in aliya; Moshavim Herut and Mismeret will close illegal camps for Arab workers who will have to return to Gaza to sleep; Yitzhak Rabin, touring settlements, says Labor Party firmly opposed to any withdrawal to 1948 green line, that Camp David accord includes change in frontier to incorporate Jerusalem and Jordan Valley; Peace Now distributes document of military government which says Science and Technology Minister Yuval Ne'eman and his assistant MK Hanan Porat helped establish supervisory teams of settlers to guard state lands and may be used to deport Palestinians; Peace Now charges that Kiryat Arba council intends to pressure and persuade Arab shop-owners to leave Hebron; at his courtmartial, IDF paratrooper and Deputy Commander of Judea District Major David Mofaz, one of seven defendants, excuses his beating of Palestinian students at Hebron's Islamic University by charging that District Commander Lt. Col. Shalom Lugassi instructed soldiers to beat, pester and break watches of demonstrators, that Sharon said Arab rioters should have their testicles ripped off; West Bank Military Commander Yaakov Hartabi testifies soldiers acted properly and according to written and oral orders.
Palestinians/ Lebanese: Prime Minister Shafik Wazzan calls Syrian Prime Minister Abdel Raouf al-Kassem, appealing for security measures to end fighting in Tripoli; Rashid Karami goes to Damascus; local Tripoli leaders Mohammed Ali Dannawi of Muslim Salvation Front and Farouk Mokaddam of October 24 Movement call for withdrawal of Syrian troops from Tripoli.
US and Other Countries: US Special Envoy Philip Habib summoned from vacation to Washington as President Reagan prepares a new initiative to break Lebanon stalemate.
Military Action:
Five minute clash between Lebanese Army and IDF convoy.
Casualties:
2 Lebanese soldiers killed, 1 IDF soldier wounded in clash.
Political Responses:
Israel/ Occupied Territories: Number of Jewish settlers on West Bank to double to 50,000 in next 3 months as housing units completed.
Palestinians/ Lebanese: PFLP leader Habash comes out against Arafat strategy; President Gemayel meets Egyptian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Butros Ghali and presidential advisor Osama el-Baz in Beirut (first official visit since diplomatic relations were broken in March 1979), message from Mubarak expresses Egyptian willingness to press US and EEC to press Israel for speedy withdrawal from Lebanon, praises Lebanese refusal to hold talks in Jerusalem; Egyptian charge d'affaires and Egyptian newspapers return to Beirut for first time in three years.
US and Other Countries: Nicaragua concerned over proposed Israeli arms sales to Honduras; State Department says Israeli- Lebanese clash underscores urgency of troop withdrawal; Habib and Draper brief White House staff; AFL-CIO leader Lane Kirkland pledges continuing US labor support for Israel.
