IDF commandos ambush, assassinate wanted PA intelligence officer Ayid Mansur outside his home in Nablus. The IDF fatally shoots 1 Palestinian nr. the new security wall in Zita; raids a makeshift PSF jail in Tulkarm, arresting 6 PSF officers, 12 prisoners (the PSF officers, 9 prisoners are later released); conducts arrest raids, searches houses, blows up 2 Palestinian homes in Bayt Hanun; fires on residential areas, bulldozes 1 Palestinian home and part of a mosque in Brazil r.c.; conducts arrest raids, house-to-house searches, fires on residential areas in Askar r.c.; raids Qalandia r.c., detaining 50 Palestinians; directs shells, heavy machine gun fire at residential areas of Bayt Lahia, Gaza City, Rafah; bulldozes 17.5 dunams of Palestinian land s. of Khan Yunis. Some 40 prominent Israelis outraged by recent Jewish settler attacks on Palestinian olive pickers travel to the West Bank to participate in a Palestinian olive harvest. (GS, LAW, PCHR 10/30; PCHR, PR 11/6; MEI 11/8)
DM and Labor party head Ben-Eliezer resigns fr. the government hrs. before Sharon’s FY 2003 budget passes (67-45) in the Knesset, with all 25 Labor party MKs voting against. Afterward, the 5 other Labor Ms, including FM Shimon Peres, resign. (HA, MM 10/30; MM, NYT, WP, WT 10/31; JT 10/31 in WNC 11/1; al-Quds 11/2, MENA 11/3 in WNC 11/5; AYM 11/2 in WNC 11/8; JPI, MEI 11/8)