The Palestine Chronology

In response to the 5/28 rocket fire, the IDF carries out 2 air strikes on a suspected weapons factory in n. Gaza and a smuggling tunnel on the Rafah border, causing no reported injuries. In the West Bank, the IDF fires rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas at Palestinians staging a nonviolent march protesting settlement expansion, injuring 2 Palestinians (one a journalist). For a 2d day, Jewish settlers fr. Beit Yonatan harass a group of Palestinian children, sparking a stone throwing clash; the IDF intervenes, beating back Palestinians, moderately injuring 2. (JP 5/30; PCHR 6/3; OCHA 6/4)

Unidentified Palestinians fire 4 mortars fr. Gaza toward Israel; 3 land inside Israel, causing no damage or injuries, while 1 lands harmlessly in Gaza. Late in the evening, the IDF responds with air strikes on a smuggling tunnel on the Rafah border and on the destroyed Dahaniyya airport site in s. Gaza (causing no injuries), as well as on a Hamas building in Bayt Hanun (destroying it, damaging 26 houses, 23 shops, a clinic, the local municipal building, and a sports club nearby, injuring 15 Palestinian bystanders, and knocking out electricity to some areas). Unidentified Palestinians detonate a bomb hidden in a donkey cart by the Gaza border fence as an IDF border patrol unit on the Israeli side of the border passes, killing the donkey but causing no IDF injuries. IDF troops on the n. Gaza border fire warning shots at Palestinians scavenging construction materials fr. former settlement sites nr. the border twice during the day, causing no injuries; also fire warning shots at farmers who stray nr. the border fence nr. Bayt Lahiya, causing no injuries. Later, IDF troops make an incursion into the n. Gaza buffer zone nr. Bayt Lahiya to search the area, opening fire but causing no injuries. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in Tubas and nr. Hebron, Nablus. Israel’s Jerusalem District Court upholds a decision to evacuate and seal the Beit Yonatan building in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem, built without a permit in 2004 by the right-wing group Ateret Cohanim and housing 8 settler families. Hamas-affiliated police in Gaza say they have arrested several suspects in the 5/23 UNRWA arson. (HA, JP, JTA, UPI 5/25; JP, YA 5/26; OCHA, PCHR 5/27)

As the quarter opens, Israel’s siege of Gaza continues, with Israel barring all exports, most imports except limited humanitarian and consumer goods and small amounts of construction materials for UN-supervised projects, and most crossborder transit by individuals (with very limited exceptions for extreme medical cases, VIPs, and international NGO workers). The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) enforces a 300-meter-deep no-go zone inside the full length of the Gaza border and limits the Palestinian fishing zone off Gaza to 500–1,000 m off the immediate Bayt Lahiya and Rafah coasts, and 3 nautical miles elsewhere. In the West Bank, the IDF raids Palestinian municipal inspector offices in al-Gazzazin in Hebron’s old city, sealing the office and evicting the staff (unarmed police who maintain public order); fires tear gas to disperse Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists conducting a nonviolent march to the separation wall outside Bayt Jala nr. Bethlehem, arresting 8 demonstrators. In Gaza, batonwielding, Hamas-affiliated police beat and evict Palestinians fr. at least 25 homes in s. Rafah before bulldozing the houses, saying they were built illegally on government land; 31 families (190 individuals) are rendered homeless. (WT 5/17; NYT 5/19; OCHA, PCHR 5/20)

Egyptian naval forces fire on a Palestinian fishing boat fr. Gaza that strays nr. Egyptian territorial waters, killing 1 Palestinian fisherman, wounding 3. The UN reports that 1 Palestinian has been killed in a tunnel collapse on the Rafah border since 5/4. Israel’s Peace Now reports that construction has begun of 14 new Jewish homes in Ras al-Amud in East Jerusalem. The PA informs the U.S., calling the construction a violation of Israel’s pledges at the start of proximity talks. Israel says the homes are being built privately and the government has no authority to stop it. In the West Bank, the IDF patrols in Bayt Umar village in the afternoon, firing live ammunition at stone-throwing Palestinian youths who confront them, wounding 1; makes a late-night raid on a Palestinian home in Bil‘in, summoning 1 resident for interrogation; conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches nr. Salfit, arresting 11 Palestinian teenagers. Israel’s Jerusalem municipality orders Palestinian business owners to evacuate a 3 d. plot of land nr. the U.S. consulate, saying it is state-owned land; the order is not immediately enforced. (OCHA, PCHR, WJW 5/13)

Proximity talks begin with 1 day of Mitchell shuttling between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, securing Israeli and Palestinian pledges to refrain from actions that hinder peace as talks move forward and starting discussion on more substantive issues. Late in the day, he returns to Washington, praising the positive atmosphere of the first day of talks. From Washington, the U.S. warns that “if either takes significant actions during the proximity talks that we judge would seriously undermine trust, we will respond to hold them accountable and ensure that negotations continue.” (CSM, IFM 5/9; HA, NYT, WP 5/10)

The IDF carries out 2 air strikes on 2 smuggling tunnels on the Rafah border in retaliation for rocket fire on 5/8, causing no injuries. IDF troops on the n. Gaza border nr. Bayt Lahiya fire on Palestinian farmers working their land 500 m fr. the border fence, forcing them to leave but causing no injuries. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts a late-night raid on a Palestinian home nr. Bethlehem, demanding that 1 resident turn himself in for interrogation. At least 1 Jewish settler fr. Gil’ad nr. Qalqilya sets fire to 3 d. of nearby Palestinian crop land. (IDF 5/10; OCHA, PCHR 5/13)