Thursday, July 19, 2001

Mbrs. of the Comm. for Road Safety, the armed wing of the militant Jewish settler group Kach, spray a Palestinian vehicle with automatic weapons fire, leaving 3 Palestinians dead, 4 wounded. The gunmen then run an IDF roadblock and escape into Israel. In Hebron, the IDF shells Palestinian residential areas, injuring 20, and exchanges gunfire with Force 17, PSF officers; Jewish settlers fire on, try to set fire to several Palestinian homes, causing no injures. The IDF also directs shells/heavy machine gun fire at residential areas of Bayt Hanun, Bayt Jala. Palestinian gunmen fire on a settler bus nr. Ariel, causing no injuries; the IDF seals 3 nearby Palestinian villages while troops sweep the area. (AFP [Internet], AP, MM 7/19; HP, MM, NYT, WP, WT 7/20; WP, WT 7/21; MA 7/22 in WNC 7/23, 7/24; al-Quds 7/22 in WNC 7/25; MM 7/24; MEI 7/27; JP 8/3)

At the G-8 preparatory mtg. in Rome, FMs unanimously adopt a resolution supporting "third-party monitoring" as a means of facilitating a cease-fire, but agree that both Israel, the PA would have to approve. Powell backs the resolution after the wording is changed to call for "third-party monitors" rather than "international observers." Israel denounces the proposal. (AFP [Internet], AP, BBC, HA 7/19; MM, NYT, REU, WP, WT 7/20; MENA 7/20, AFP, MENA 7/22 in WNC 7/23; AYM 7/21 in WNC 7/25; WP 7/23; MEI 7/27)