The Palestine Chronology

Israel opens the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing into Gaza for the first time since 4/08, when a Palestinian suicide bomber struck there; 15 trucks carrying humanitarian aid enter Gaza. Israel says it will allow around 80 trucks to enter over the next few days as a “trial run” prior to reopening the crossing for regular imports as part of the 6/19 cease-fire deal with Hamas. In the West Bank, the IDF searches homes and shops in Tulkarm, making no arrests; conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in and around Nablus, in Jenin town and refugee camp (r.c.), and nr. Hebron. As part of a new crackdown on Hamas in Hebron, PA security officials inform the head of the privately run Islamic Charitable Association (ICA), allegedly affiliated with Hamas, that the PA has removed the organization’s governing board and replaced it with a governing body comprising exclusively of Fatah mbrs. to run the charity and its affiliated orphanage and boarding school. (OCHA, WP, WT 8/20; PCHR 8/21; AHR 8/23)

After a wk. of almost complete Palestinian quiet in Gaza, Israel agrees to an Egyptian request to resume limited imports to the Strip, but states that it will henceforth close Gaza’s borders for 1 day for each Palestinian rocket fired and allow an extra 5 truckloads of food and 200 tons of cement into Gaza (over the minimum level of humanitarian goods) for each day without rocket fire. After Israel opens its border crossings at noon, Palestinians fire 3 mortars from Gaza toward Israel; 1 lands in Gaza and 2 in Israel, causing no damage or injuries; Israel does not respond. Israeli naval vessels fire on Palestinian fishing boats off the Gaza City coast, wounding 1 fisherman and forcing the boats to return to shore. In the West Bank, late in the evening, the IDF orders PA security forces in Nablus to return to their barracks, then sends some 130 military vehicles into the city to raid and seal several ICA-run schools, businesses (including a shopping mall, claiming that profits of the mall’s owners finance Hamas operations, a claim the shop owners deny), charities, and sport clubs, as well as a major medical center, seizing computers, records, cash; Shin Bet officers post notices that raided properties have been turned over to the Israeli army for 5 yrs., occupants have a limited time to vacate the premises, and anyone entering the sites after this may be arrested and imprisoned for Hamas collaboration. TheIDF also raids the al-Bireh municipal center, destroying computers containing vital data, such as land registrations, births, marriages; patrols in al-Far‘a r.c. nr, Jenin, firing on stone-throwing youths who confront them, wounding 3 (ages 12, 13, 19); lifts the 24-hr. curfew on Ni‘lin that was imposed on 7/5. (AHR, AP, OCHA, WP 7/9; PCHR 7/10, 7/17; AHR 7/21)

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)

Overnight, the IDF sends troops into Hebron to search the offices of several schools, youth centers, orphanages (housing some 1,000 children) owned by the Islamic Charitable Association (ICA), issuing an order declaring the ICA an illegal organization affiliated with Hamas, demanding that the buildings be vacated and turned over to the IDF for a 3-yr. period by 4/8, and stating that anyone remaining in the buildings will be considered to be admitting membership in Hamas and thereby subject to 5-yr. imprisonment; soldiers immediately confiscate 2 buses, a car, computers, appliances, furniture, documents; the ICA, a major philanthropic group founded in 1962 that runs many schools, nurseries, bakeries, and other services for the poor across the West Bank, denies Hamas affiliation. During the day, the IDF conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Jenin town and r.c., Ramallah. In East Jerusalem, the IDF demolishes a Palestinian home. Meanwhile, in s. Gaza, the IDF sends troops into al-Qarara, firing on residential areas, killing 1 Palestinian civilian. (OCHA, WP 2/27; PCHR 2/28; al-Ahram Weekly [Cairo] 4/18)