PA pres. Mahmud Abbas sends a letter to U.S. pres. Barack Obama to inform him that if the UN bid is successful, he intends to resume negotiations with Israel. (AFP, HA, REU 10/16)
Qatar announces a $254 m. plan for reconstruction in the Gaza Strip, the largest such injection of aid since the end of Operation Cast Lead in 1/2009. (REU 10/16)
Israeli government officials say that Palestinians deployed an anti-aircraft missile for the 1st time in the Gaza Strip the previous week, missing their target. (AFP 10/16)
Unidentified Palestinians fire 2 rockets from Gaza into Israel, 1 of which lands by a house nr. Ashqelon, causing no injuries. The IDF fires missiles at an IQB training site in the n. Gaza Strip at night, causing no injuries. IDF troops on the Gaza border open fire on Palestinians and internationals staging nonviolent protests nr. Bayt Hanun and the Erez crossing against Israel’s imposition of a no-go zone inside the Gaza border, causing no reported injuries. (JP 10/16)
Palestinian and international protesters block a key highway linking Jerusalem and Tel Aviv (Road 443) in the West Bank to protest the uprooting of olive trees by Jewish settlers. The IDF forces them off the road, firing shock grenades. (AIC, IMEMC 10/16)
PA security forces raid an apartment in Nablus and claim to have confiscated documents and weapons belong to the IQB. (MNA 10/16)
Israeli coalition party Yisrael Beiteinu announces it intends to request that the Central Election Comm. disqualify Balad party from the upcoming elections on the grounds that it ‘‘supports terror and acts against the existence of Israel as a Jewish, democratic state.’’ A Likud MK submits a similar petition. (JP, YA 10/16)