The Palestine Chronology

An Israeli security official confirms that Israel allowed 900 assault weapons and ammunition to be transferred to PA security forces in late 8/08 to build the capacity of forces loyal to Abbas; the arms came via Jordan, but the source is not noted. In the West Bank, the IDF fires rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas, skunk spray at Palestinian, Israeli, international peace activists taking part in a nonviolent demonstration against the separation wall in Bil‘in, wounding 1; fires rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas at Palestinian, Israeli, international peace activists taking part in a similar nonviolent demonstration in Ni‘lin, injuring 2; conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in Nablus, neighboring ‘Ayn Bayt al-Ma’ r.c., and al-Til, and nr. Bethlehem and Jenin. Jewish settlers fr. Beit HaShalom attack Palestinians, vandalize nearby homes. The IDF declares the Joseph’s Tomb area nr. Nablus a closed military zone, escorts Jewish settlers to the site to pray. (NYT 9/6; OCHA 9/10; PCHR 9/11; AIC 11/9)

Israel releases 4 Fatah-affiliated political prisoners as a goodwill gesture to Abbas, marking the start of Ramadan; none are fr. Gaza. In the West Bank, the IDF fires rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas at Palestinian, Israeli, international peace activists taking part in a nonviolent demonstration against the separation wall in Ni‘lin, injuring 1; conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in Nablus and neighboring Balata r.c., nr. Hebron and Jenin. Jewish settlers fr. Kiryat Arba stone a Palestinian teenager, vandalize several homes nearby. (OCHA 9/10; PCHR 9/11; AIC 11/9)

For a 2d day, Palestinians fire 2 rockets fr. Gaza into Israel, causing no damage or injuries. Israel closes Gaza border crossings for 48 hrs. in response. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in and around Hebron, Jenin town and r.c., Nablus. (OCHA 8/27; PCHR 8/28)

Timed with Rice’s arrival in Israel, the Israeli human rights group Peace Now issues a report showing that Israeli settlement construction in 2008 to date has nearly doubled compared to the same period in 2007, with significant construction taking place in East Jerusalem and the unauthorized settlement outposts that Israel pledged to the U.S. it would remove as part of its road map commitments to advance the peace process. In her meeting with Israeli FM Tzipi Livni, Rice urges Israel not to take such steps that undermine peace talks. Livni calls the 2008 construction “small activities” that should not be used by the Palestinians as an “excuse” not to negotiate. Rice then holds a 3-way mtg. in Jerusalem with the PA and Israeli negotiating teams, then heads to Ramallah to meet with Abbas. (NYT, WP, WT 8/27)

In response to Palestinian rocket fire on 8/11, Israel suspends fuel shipments and humanitarian imports to Gaza for 1 day (see 7/8); Hamas official Mahmud Zahhar calls those who fired the rocket on 8/11 in violation of the cease-fire traitors and collaborators, reiterating that “there is a consensus by all Palestinian factions to respect the truce.” In the West Bank, theIDF conducts daytime arrest raids, house searches in Hebron and Tulkarm, and nr. Qalqilya. Jewish settlers who occupied (7/17) a plot of Palestinian land in Wadi alNassara in Hebron attack a Palestinian home with rocks and bottles, injuring a 13-yr.-old boy. Armed Jewish settlers attempt for a 3d time (see 8/6, 8/7) to enter Shu‘fat r.c. to establish an unauthorized outpost; the IDF bars their entry, arrests 13 settlers. PA security forces raid, seal for 1 yr. a school in Hebron, detain the director for alleged affiliation with Hamas (see 8/8). Meanwhile, OCHA reports that Hamas’s crackdown on Fatah in Gaza continues, with 465 Fatah supporters arrested and 204 Fatah-affiliated community organizations shut since the 7/25 Gaza City bombings; 279 of the detainees have been released; 34 of the organizations have been allowed to reopen. (OCHA 8/13; PCHR, WT 8/14)

Meeting with Abbas in Jerusalem, Olmert pledges to release 150 Palestinian prisoners as a gesture to improve the climate of negotiations and support for Abbas; the release is tentatively set for 8/25. Today, Israel releases 6 Palestinian prisoners (fulfilling a requirement of the 7/16 prisoner release deal with Hizballah): the 6 include Hamas-affiliated Nablus mayor Adli Yaish (see 7/14) and 5 minors arrested for stone-throwing. Meanwhile, the IDF sends undercover units into Ramallah to arrest a wanted Palestinian; conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches nr. Hebron, and in and around Jenin town and r.c., Tulkarm (breaking into a taxi company, stealing 3 cars). Armed Jewish settlers attempt to enter East Jerusalem’s Shu‘fat r.c. to establish an unauthorized outpost, claiming ownership of land inside the camp; the IDF bars their entry. (AFP, NYT, PCHR, WP, WT 8/7; OCHA 8/13; PCHR 8/14)

Israeli DM Ehud Barak signs an order banning 36 foreign nonprofits that have given money to charities run by the Islamic Charitable Association (ICA), which Israel alleges is connected to Hamas (see Quarterly Update in JPS 148), initiating what it vows will be an “unprecedented” military campaign to seal “scores” of offices that had received money from the 36 groups, viewing the action as “essential for the disruption of Hamas operations” in the West Bank. Late at night, the IDF raids and seals the first 7 ICA charities in Nablus. During the day, the IDF detains 1 Palestinian at a demonstration against the separation wall in Ni‘lin (see 7/5); a Palestinian girl videotapes soldiers handcuffing, blindfolding, beating the Palestinian, then shooting him at close range with a rubber-coated steel bullet, injuring him; he is treated by a IDF medic and released. Nr. Salfit, an armed Palestinian shoots, wounds a Jewish settler fr. nearby Yaqir settlement, is shot dead by an IDF soldier; the IDF later (7/20) alleges that the gunman, Mahmud ‘Azi fr. Qarawat Bani Hasan, was the head of the ICA. Late in the evening, the IDF conducts arrest raids, house searches in al-Bireh, nr. Bethlehem and Hebron. Meanwhile, Palestinians fire 2 mortars from Gaza toward Israel; both land inside the Strip, causing no damage or injuries. (BBC 7/7; IFM, OCHA 7/9; BBC, IFM, PCHR 7/10; AHR 7/20; PCHR 7/24)

IDF troops on the c. Gaza border fire on Palestinian farmers working a plot of land nr. al-Maghazi refugee camp (r.c.), causing no injuries. In the West Bank, the IDF patrols in Dura nr. Hebron, firing on stone-throwing youths who confront them, causing no reported injuries; conducts daytime arrest raids, house searches nr. Bethlehem and late-night raids, searches in and around Jenin. Jewish settlers fr. Kiryat Arba nr. Hebron vandalize nearby Palestinian property; the IDF observes but does not intervene. For a 2d day, 10s of armed Jewish settlers fr. Yitzhar vandalize Palestinian homes in nearby Asira al-Qibliyya. In Gaza’s Jabaliya r.c., Hamas mbrs. raid a mosque controlled by the Salafist group al-Kitab wa al-Sunna, where the imam had denounced (5/16) Hamas in his Friday sermon, and evict at least 5 Palestinian worshippers. (OCHA 5/21; PCHR 5/22)

Bush arrives in Egypt to attend the World Economic Forum meetings, which open on 5/18. Today he meets in Cairo with PA pres. Mahmud Abbas to discuss the IsraeliPalestinian negotiations. (WP 5/18; NYT, WT 5/19)

In Doha, Qatar, 14 of Lebanon’s leading politicians open national unity talks aimed at resolving the ongoing government crisis. (WP, WT 5/18)

Under U.S. pressure, Abbas meets with Olmert for the 1st time since he suspended final status talks on 3/2 to protest Operation Hot Winter; pledges to continue negotiations “without interruption.” The last Abbas-Olmert mtg. was on 2/19. (NYT 4/8)

In Gaza, the IDF bulldozes 17 d. of Palestinian agricultural land inside the Gaza border e. of Bayt Hanun. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in and around Nablus, in Jenin town and r.c., and nr. Hebron. A Jewish settler fr. Elon Moreh driving a bus nr. Nablus deliberately runs down a 15-yr.-old Palestinian shepherd, killing the boy, his donkey, 8 sheep. Citing Abbas’s failure to achieve any gains to date for the Palestinians, AMB Jenin cmdr. Zakariya Zubaydi and several other AMB mbrs. say they will no longer agree to stay in PA custody overnight as they agreed in 7/07 to receive amnesty from Israel; Zubaydi does not threaten to resume resistance operations. (HA, WT 4/8; OCHA, PCHR 4/9)

The IDF makes a major pre-dawn incursion into Gaza City, sending in tanks and helicopters, clashing with local Palestinians, and conducting at least 4 air strikes, leaving at least 17 Palestinians dead (5 bystanders; 12 Hamas mbrs., including the son of senior Hamas mbr. Mahmud al-Zahar, whose oldest son was killed when the IDF attempted to assassinate him in 2003), around 55 wounded by the time troops withdraw in the evening. The IDF also sends troops into al-Qarara, firing on residential areas, wounding a 71-yr.-old Palestinian man, bulldozing 20 d. of agricultural land before withdrawing in the evening; fires a missile across the border at armed AMB mbrs. e. of Gaza City, wounding 4; sends armored vehicles, bulldozers back into the Erez industrial zone (see 1/14) under cover of heavy fire to continue land-leveling operations (no injuries are reported). In retaliation for the Gaza City incursion, Palestinians fire around 25 mortars and 25 rockets fr. Gaza into Israel, hitting a house, moderately injuring 4 Israelis; Hamas claims responsibility for 17 of the mortars and 3 of the rockets, marking the 1st time since 6/07 that it has fired rockets. A Hamas gunman also fires across the border into Israel, killing an Ecuadorian laborer on an Israeli farm. In the West Bank, the IDF raids Qabatya nr. Jenin, fatally shoots local Islamic Jihad cmdr. Walid Obaydi in an apparent assassination, also wounding 2 other Palestinians (Obaydi has been on Israel’s most wanted list for 7 yrs.; the IDF attempted to assassinate him on 8/9/07 in Jenin r.c.); sends undercover units into Nablus to ambush and arrest a wanted PFLP mbr.; conducts separate late-night arrest raids, house searches in Nablus; bulldozes 40 d. of almond and olive trees, 6 wells nr. Hebron. Jewish settlers fr. Beit Hadasah throw Molotov cocktails into a Palestinian home, causing damage; the IDF intervenes, detains 2 of the Palestinian homeowner’s sons for questioning. (NYT, OCHA, WP, WT 1/16; PCHR 1/17)