Mitchell goes to Beirut to brief Lebanese officials on the Israeli-Palestinian talks, informing them that the U.S. will push for a comprehensive Israeli-Arab peace that would include Lebanon and Syria. (Asia Times 9/16)
Israel seals the West Bank through 9/18 for the Yom Kippur holiday. Overnight in the West Bank, an IDF special forces unit raids the home of local IQB cmdr. Iyad Abu Shilbaya in Nur Shams r.c. nr. Tulkarm, fatally shooting him at close range in his bedroom, in what Hamas and the PA both call an assassination. The IDF says it received intelligence that Abu Shilbaya might be armed and fired on him “when they felt their lives were threatened.” Hamas vows revenge against Israel and the PA, accusing the PASF of collusion, noting that they arrested Abu Shilbaya just days before. Simultaneously with the assassination, the IDF conducts arrest sweeps in Nur Shams, detaining 11 suspected Hamas mbrs. During the day, Palestinians (accompanied by Israeli and international activists in some locations) hold weekly nonviolent demonstrations against the separation wall, land confiscations, and settlement expansion in Bil‘in, Ni‘lin, and Nabi Salih/Dayr Nizam. IDF soldiers fire rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas, and stun grenades at the protesters; 10s suffer tear gas inhalation and 1 Palestinian is moderately injured. (WP 9/18, 9/22; PCHR 9/23; OCHA 9/24)