Timeline Palestine 2004 (A) thru 2010
Timeline Palestine C 2004-2009
2004 Jan 3, Israeli soldiers shot and killed 3 Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 1/3/04)
2004 Jan 7, Israeli soldiers patrolling West Bank towns shot and killed 3 Palestinian militants during an ongoing sweep of the area.
(AP, 1/7/04)
2004 Jan 8, PM Ahmed Qureia warned that Palestinians would forgo a 2-state solution and force Israel into a losing demographic race if a unilateral boundary is imposed.
(WSJ, 1/9/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 9, Israeli troops swept into the West Bank town of Jenin, making arrests and trading gunfire with militants.
(AP, 1/9/04)
2004 Jan 14, Reem al-Reyashi (22), Palestinian mother of two, blew herself up at the main crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip, killing at least 4 Israelis and wounding 7 other people.
(AP, 1/14/04)(SFC, 1/15/04, p.A3)
2004 Jan 16, Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin brushed off warnings by a top Israeli official that he is "marked for death" and, in a defiant appearance at a Gaza City mosque, and said his Islamic militant group will continue to attack Israelis.
(AP, 1/16/04)
2004 Jan 21, Israeli forces demolished houses in Gaza's Rafah refugee camp for the second straight day in an anti-militant clampdown that has left 400 people homeless. A Palestinian woman was killed.
(AP, 1/21/04)(WSJ, 1/22/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 22, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy as he and six other unarmed teenagers tried to sneak from the Gaza Strip into Israel.
(AP, 1/22/04)
2004 Jan 24, Israeli troops shot to death two Palestinian militants who entered an unauthorized military zone near a security barrier separating Gaza from Israel.
(AP, 1/24/04)
2004 Jan 28, Arab prisoners began their journey to Germany under a long-awaited prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.
(AP, 1/28/04)
2004 Jan 28, Israeli troops clashed with Palestinian militants in fierce, prolonged street battles across Gaza City, killing eight Palestinians.
(AP, 1/28/04)(SFC, 1/29/04, p.A7)
2004 Jan 29, A Palestinian suicide bomber detonated a bag of explosives on a crowded Jerusalem bus outside Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's residence, killing 10 passengers and wounding 50 bystanders.
(AP, 1/29/04)
2004 Feb 1, Israeli troops riding jeeps and a tank raided the biblical town of Jericho for the first time in months, killing one Palestinian militant and forcing many residents to stay inside at the start of the four-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
(AP, 2/1/04)
2004 Feb 2, Israel killed a leader of Islamic Jihad and three other militants in a Gaza raid.
(AP, 2/2/05)
2004 Feb 7, An Israeli helicopter fired a missile into a car traveling in a crowded Gaza City street, killing Aziz Mahmoud Shami, a leader of the militant Islamic Jihad group and a 12-year-old boy on his way to school. The attack wounded 10 Palestinians, three of them critically.
(AP, 2/7/04)
2004 Feb 7, Nearly 400 members of Yasser Arafat's ruling Fatah Party resigned to protest what they call corruption and bad leadership within the group.
(AP, 2/7/04)
2004 Feb 9, Saloum Cohen (82), high priest of the tiny Samaritan community and a Palestinian lawmaker, died. Cohen had been the spiritual head of the 660-strong Samaritans since 2001.
(AP, 2/9/04)
2004 Feb 11, Israeli troops rode tanks into the Gaza Strip searching for Islamic militants firing rockets at nearby Jewish settlements, and the ensuing battle left at least 14 Palestinians dead and more than 50 wounded.
(AP, 2/11/04)
2004 Feb 10, French prosecutors launched a money-laundering probe into the alleged transfers of $11.5 million dollars to accounts held by the wife of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
(AP, 2/11/04)(WSJ, 2/11/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 11, Israeli troops rode tanks into the Gaza Strip searching for Islamic militants firing rockets at nearby Jewish settlements, and the ensuing battle left at least 15 Palestinians dead and more than 50 wounded.
(AP, 2/11/04)(SFC, 2/12/04, p.A8)
2004 Feb 25, Israeli security forces raided four branches of Palestinian banks, seizing $6.7 million they said was sent by Iran, Syria and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas to fund Palestinian militants.
(AP, 2/25/04)(WSJ, 2/26/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 26, Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians during violent protests against Israel's West Bank barrier. Two Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli soldier at a Gaza Strip crossing before being gunned down by troops. 3 Palestinian boys, aged 12-15, were arrested near Nablus as they tried to cross a checkpoint with homemade guns.
(AP, 2/26/04)(SSFC, 2/29/04, p.A3)
2004 Feb 27, Israeli police stormed one of Jerusalem's holiest sites to disperse hundreds of Palestinian stone-throwers protesting Israel's contentious West Bank barrier.
(AP, 2/27/04)
2004 Feb 28, The mayor of Nablus, the West Bank's largest city, said he is quitting to protest Yasser Arafat's failure to rein in armed gangs.
(AP, 2/28/04)
2004 Feb 29, Israel's Supreme Court ordered the government to suspend work for one week on a section of the West Bank security barrier, an attorney said, while security forces arrested three Palestinian youths who planned an attack.
(AP, 2/29/04)
2004 Mar 2, Khalil al-Zaben (59), a close associate of Yasser Arafat, was assassinated in Gaza City by unidentified gunmen. Separately Arafat agreed to a new system for paying his security forces.
(SFC, 3/03/04, p.A8)
2004 Mar 4, Israeli forces raided the southern Gaza town of Rafah, killing a 14-year-old boy, bulldozing houses and damaging the water and electricity networks.
(AP, 3/4/04)
2004 Mar 6, Palestinian gunmen and car bombers attacked a major crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Israel. At least four attackers and two Palestinian policemen were killed, and no Israeli soldiers were hurt.
(AP, 3/6/04)
2004 Mar 7, Israeli troops traded heavy gunfire with Palestinians in a raid near Bureij Refugee Camp, killing 14 Palestinians. Among the dead were 11 militants and three boys between the ages of 8 and 15, and 81 people were wounded.
(AP, 3/7/04)(AP, 3/8/04)
2004 Mar 9, Israeli forces backed by tanks and combat helicopters raided the West Bank town of Jenin, prompting a gun battle that killed a Palestinian woman in her home.
(AP, 3/9/04)
2004 Mar 13, Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinian militants in an off-limits military zone between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/13/04)
2004 Mar 14, In Israel 2 explosions killed eight people and wounding 18 at the seaport of Ashdod. Police said 2 Palestinian suicide bombers were responsible.
(AP, 3/14/04)
2004 Mar 15, Israeli helicopters attacked two suspected Hamas weapons workshops in Gaza City and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called off a summit with his Palestinian counterpart.
(AP, 3/15/04)
2004 Mar 17, Israeli helicopters fired two missiles into a crowd of suspected gunmen in a Palestinian refugee camp, killing four people in a stepped-up campaign to root out militants in the Gaza Strip. 2 teenage boys were killed in an air strike at the Rafah refugee camp.
(AP, 3/17/04)(SFC, 3/18/04, p.A2)
2004 Mar 17, Israel's Supreme Court imposed an open-ended freeze on construction of a 15-mile section of the country's controversial West Bank separation barrier.
(AP, 3/18/04)
2004 Mar 21, Four Hamas militants and a Palestinian woman were killed in fighting with Israeli troops, the sixth day of Israel's new offensive in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/21/04)
2004 Mar 22, Israel killed Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin and 7 other Hamas members in a helicopter missile strike outside a Gaza City mosque, prompting threats of unprecedented revenge by thousands of Palestinian. Sheik Ahmed Yassin, a quadriplegic preacher, founded the Islamic militant group Hamas in 1987 and presided over its rise to a violent, radical alternative to Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
(AP, 3/22/04)(USAT, 3/23/04, p.1A)
2004 Mar 23, Israel threatened the entire Hamas leadership with death as Abdel Aziz Rantisi took command of the group in Gaza.
(WSJ, 3/24/04, p.A1)
2004 Mar 25, Armed Palestinians in wetsuits and flippers emerged from the Mediterranean and fired toward a beachfront Israeli settlement of Tel Katifa in Gaza. Two attackers were killed and a third was wounded and fled.
(AP, 3/26/04)
2004 Mar 26, A Palestinian militant was killed when an explosion went off in a van he was driving in a West Bank refugee camp.
(AP, 3/26/04)
2004 Mar 27, A 7-year-old Palestinian boy was killed by what the Israeli military said was haphazard Palestinian gunfire toward an army jeep in a West Bank refugee camp.
(AP, 3/27/04)
2004 Apr 2, PM Ariel Sharon revealed the scope of his withdrawal plan, saying Israel will leave all of the Gaza Strip and dismantle four West Bank settlements.
(AP, 4/2/04)
2004 Apr 3, Israeli troops arrested 23 wanted Palestinians early in a large-scale raid in the West Bank city of Nablus. Zohair Arda, a Palestinian gunman, broke into an Israeli settlement early, killing an Israeli man and wounding his 12-year-old daughter in their home. Israeli troops entered the Tulkarem refugee camp overnight and demolished the home of Arda (18), who was shot dead during the attack.
(AP, 4/3/04)(AP, 4/4/04)
2004 Apr 5, Israeli troops killed 3 Palestinians near a Gaza settlement.
(WSJ, 4/6/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 10, A stray bullet killed an 11-year old Palestinian girl in her kitchen when Israeli troops fired on her neighborhood in the southern Gaza Strip.
(AP, 4/10/04)
2004 Apr 12, Israeli troops exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen near an Israeli settlement in the Northern Gaza Strip, killing at least three of the assailants.
(AP, 4/12/04)
2004 Apr 14, President Bush gave PM Ariel Sharon U.S backing for Israeli plans to hold on to parts of the West Bank. He also ruled out Palestinian refugees returning to Israel, bringing strong criticism from the Palestinians.
(AP, 4/15/04)
2004 Apr 17, A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at an industrial zone between Israel and Gaza, wounding four Israeli security workers.
(AP, 4/17/04)
2004 Apr 17, An Israeli missile strike came 4 hours after a suicide bombing and killed Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi (56) as he rode in his car in Gaza City. The dead included Akram Nassar (35) Rantisi's personal bodyguard and his son Mohammed (27).
(AP, 4/17/04)(SSFC, 4/18/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 18, Hamas secretly appointed a new Gaza Strip chief. Dr. Mahmoud Zahar was appointed as the group's 3rd leader.
(AP, 4/18/04)(SFC, 4/23/04, p.A16)
2004 Apr 20, Palestinians fired a barrage of homemade rockets and mortar shells at Gaza Strip settlements and towns inside Israel in retaliation for the killing of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi. Over two days, 15 Qassam rockets hit Israeli targets, wounding one Israeli and damaging at least five structures. Israeli soldiers raided the Gaza neighborhood where some of the rockets originated, killing 5 Palestinians, among them 3 militants, and wounding 21 others.
(AP, 4/20/04)(SFC, 4/21/04, p.A12)
2004 Apr 20, Palestinian militants stormed a Palestinian police station in Gaza City and released three men with possible links to a deadly bombing of a U.S. diplomatic convoy.
(AP, 4/23/04)
2004 Apr 21, Israeli troops killed 9 Palestinians after rocket attacks were fired at Israel for a 2nd day.
(WSJ, 4/22/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 23, Israeli troops killed four Palestinians, one of them armed, in arrest raids in the West Bank.
(AP, 4/23/04)
2004 Apr 26, Hamas denounced 2 Palestinian men who died while stopping a suicide bomber from entering Israel.
(WSJ, 4/28/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 27, Israeli troops killed two Hamas fugitives and seriously wounded a third in a gun battle in the West Bank Tulkarem refugee camp.
(AP, 4/27/04)
2004 May 2, In Israel PM Sharon’s Likud Party rejected his proposal to withdraw troops and settlers from the West Bank. Palestinian militants attacked an Israeli vehicle in the Gaza Strip, killing 4 children and their mother. Israeli soldiers killed the 2 attackers.
(AP, 5/2/04)(SFC, 5/3/04, p.A1)
2004 May 5, Israel's state comptroller said the Housing Ministry has funneled nearly $6.5 million to illegal settlement construction in the West Bank in the past three years, more than half of it to outposts Israel pledged to remove.
(AP, 5/5/04)
2004 May 7, Israeli troops raided a West Bank village near the town of Tulkarem, surrounding a house and killing two Palestinian militants.
(AP, 5/7/04)
2004 May 11, Hamas militants triumphantly displayed remains of some of the six Israeli soldiers killed in a roadside bombing in Gaza City, prompting Israeli threats of punishing reprisals if body parts are not returned. 8 Palestinians were killed and 123 wounded in a battle that pitted hundreds of gunmen against Israeli troops.
(AP, 5/11/04)
2004 May 12, Israeli troops launched a massive incursion into a Gaza neighborhood, firing missiles, demolishing buildings and scouring rooftops, in a bid to recover the body parts of six soldiers killed the day before by Palestinian militants. An Israeli helicopter fired a missile in Gaza's Zeitoun neighborhood, killing at least three Palestinians. Five Israeli soldiers were killed when Palestinians blew up an Israeli armored vehicle.
(AP, 5/12/04)(AP, 5/13/04)
2004 May 13, Israeli forces pulled out of Gaza City after Egyptian intermediaries helped return body parts of Israeli soldiers. At least 12 Palestinians were killed as the army left behind a swath of destruction.
(AP, 5/13/04)(SFC, 5/14/04, p.A6)
2004 May 14, Heavy fighting raged in the Rafah refugee camp, killing two Israeli soldiers and a Palestinian man.
(AP, 5/14/04)
2004 May 15, More than 100,000 Israelis rallied in favor of a pullout from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 5/15/04)
2004 May 18, Israeli troops under Operation Rainbow combed the Rafah refugee camp for weapons and gunmen in the biggest Gaza offensive in years. Twenty Palestinians were killed, including two teenagers, shot by an Israeli sniper, as they gathered laundry.
(AP, 5/18/04)(SFC, 5/18/04, p.A3)(SFC, 5/25/04, p.A5)
2004 May 19, Israeli forces fired a missile and a tank shell into a large crowd of Palestinians demonstrating against the invasion of a neighboring refugee camp, witnesses said. At least 10 Palestinians were killed, all children and teenagers.
(AP, 5/19/04)
2004 May 20, Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti, widely seen as a potential successor to Yasser Arafat, was convicted of ordering shootings that killed four Israelis and a Greek monk and supplying funds and arms for other attacks. Israeli troops pressed their offensive in a Gaza Strip refugee camp for a third day, killing 8 Palestinians, most of them armed, and demolishing several buildings. In the West Bank, 3 Palestinians were killed by army fire.
(AP, 5/20/04)
2004 May 21, Israeli troops pulled back from two neighborhoods in the Rafah refugee camp.
(AP, 5/21/04)
2004 May 22, A 3-year-old Palestinian girl was shot and killed in the Rafah refugee camp on the fifth day of Israeli searches and house demolitions. A suicide bomber blew himself at an Israeli army checkpoint in the West Bank, wounding five people.
(AP, 5/22/04)
2004 May 23, A car explosion rocked the West Bank city of Nablus, killing at least 2 people. Israeli military denied responsibility.
(AP, 5/23/04)
2004 May 25, Israeli troops abruptly left the Rafah refugee camp without completing a sweep for arms smuggling tunnels. The weeklong offensive left 45 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire, including at least 17 gunmen and 12 children under 16.
(AP, 5/25/04)
2004 May 29, A Palestinian gunman killed an Israeli officer after opening fire on Israeli troops conducting a routine raid in the West Bank Balata refugee camp. An Israeli man was stabbed in the back by a Palestinian in Jerusalem's Old City.
(AP, 5/29/04)
2004 May 30, An Israeli air strike killed Wael Nassar (38), a top Hamas commander, along with his assistant and a bystander in Gaza City.
(SSFC, 5/30/04, p.A9)
2004 Jun 6, Ariel Sharon’s cabinet declared its intent to remove 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza strip plus 4 in the West Bank. An Israeli court sentenced Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti to 5 consecutive life terms and 40 years for his role in attacks that killed 4 Israelis and a Greek monk.
(AP, 6/6/04)(Econ, 6/12/04, p.45)
2004 Jun 14, An Israeli helicopter attack in the West Bank killed 2 Palestinian militants.
(WSJ, 6/15/04, p.A1)
2004 Jun 24, Israeli troops posted near a Gaza Strip settlement killed two Palestinians wearing bulletproof vests and armed with submachine guns, ammunition clips and grenades.
(AP, 6/24/04)
2004 Jun 26, Israeli troops killed 7 Palestinian militants during a raid in Nablus.
(SSFC, 6/27/04, p.A24)
2004 Jun 27, Palestinian militants blew up an Israeli army post with explosives in a tunnel near the Gush Katif settlement in the Gaza Strip. At least one soldier was killed. A firefight followed that left 2 Palestinians dead.
(SFC, 6/28/04, p.A6)
2004 Jun 28, A Palestinian rocket attack on Sderot killed an Israeli boy (3) and man (49).
(USAT, 6/29/04, p.12A)
2004 Jun 29, Israeli forces countered a Palestinian rocket attack with tanks and missiles in northern Gaza. One Palestinian was killed.
(USAT, 6/29/04, p.12A)
2004 Jul 3, Israeli troops shot and killed a 9-year-old Palestinian boy in the 5th day of an army operation meant to prevent militants from firing rockets at Israeli towns by the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 7/3/04)
2004 Jul 6, Khaled Sallah, an American-educated computer science professor, and his son were killed during an arrest raid by Israeli commandos in the Ein Beit Ilma refugee camp in the West Bank city of Nablus. West Bank and Gaza fighting left 6 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier dead.
(AP, 7/6/04)(WSJ, 7/7/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 8, Israeli troops killed 7 Palestinians in northern Gaza.
(WSJ, 7/9/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 9, The Int’l. Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s separation barrier in the occupied West Bank violates freedom of movement and should be demolished.
(SFC, 7/10/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 11, Palestinian militants set off explosives hidden in shrubs at a Tel Aviv bus stop, killing a female soldier and seriously wounding at least five people.
(AP, 7/11/04)
2004 Jul 15, Israel said it will spend $11.1 million to change completed portions of its West Bank barrier, building new roads, underpasses and tunnels to try to ease Palestinian conditions.
(AP, 7/15/04)
2004 Jul 17, A Palestinian security panel under Yasser Arafat declared a state of emergency after a spate of kidnappings.
(SFC, 7/17/04, p.A11)
2004 Jul 17, Palestinian PM Ahmed Qureia submitted his resignation to Yasser Arafat, who rejected it the next day.
(AP, 7/17/05)
2004 Jul 18, Gunmen angry over Yasser Arafat's overhaul of his security forces burned down Palestinian Authority offices in Gaza.
(AP, 7/18/04)
2004 Jul 19, An Israeli aircraft struck a Palestinian militant safe house at a beach camp near Gaza City, wounding three fighters.
(AP, 7/19/04)
2004 Jul 22, In a Gaza City 2 Palestinians were killed when their car exploded. The Israeli attack was aimed at a man involved in the slaying of six Israeli soldiers on May 11.
(AP, 7/23/04)(SFC, 7/24/04, p.A14)
2004 Jul 24, Militants torched a Palestinian police station south of Gaza City.
(AP, 7/24/04)
2004 Jul 25, Tens of thousands of Jewish settlers and their supporters joined hands to form a human chain along a 55-mile route, serving notice they will fight Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 7/26/04)
2004 Jul 25, Israeli soldiers in the West Bank shot to death six members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in a gunbattle in the town of Tulkarem.
(AP, 7/26/04)
2004 Jul 29, Israeli forces killed 2 top Palestinian militants in Gaza.
(WSJ, 7/30/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 2, In Gaza City 5 masked men broke into a hospital and shot dead a convicted Palestinian collaborator who had been wounded in a grenade attack in his prison cell just hours earlier.
(AP, 8/2/04)
2004 Aug 4, Clashes in the Gaza Strip left 4 Palestinians dead including a 10-year-old boy. Israeli forces uncovered a smuggling tunnel on the border with Egypt.
(SFC, 8/5/04, p.A3)
2004 Aug 6, Israel reopened a border crossing with Egypt, closed since July 18, enabling some 2,000 stranded Palestinians to return home.
(SFC, 8/7/04, p.A11)
2004 Aug 7, Nahed Arreyes, Palestinian justice minister, resigned to protest Yasser Arafat’s refusal to share power.
(SSFC, 8/8/04, p.A18)
2004 Aug 11, A West Bank assailant detonated a large bomb near a busy Israeli military checkpoint, killing two Palestinian men and wounding 16 people.
(AP, 8/11/04)
2004 Aug 13, A Palestinian gunman killed an Israeli security guard near a Jewish West Bank settlement before being slain himself.
(AP, 8/13/04)
2004 Aug 14, More than 100 unemployed university graduates stormed a Palestinian Authority building in a Gaza Strip refugee camp, calling on the Palestinian leadership to provide them with jobs.
(AP, 8/15/04)
2004 Aug 17, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon approved the construction of 1,000 more homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
(AP, 8/17/04)
2004 Aug 17, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 9-year-old Palestinian boy in Nablus as he sat on the front steps of his home eating a sandwich.
(AP, 8/17/04)
2004 Aug 18, Five Palestinians were killed in a blast outside the house of a well-known Hamas militant in Gaza City.
(AP, 8/17/04)
2004 Aug 23, Israel announced plans for more than 500 new housing units in the West Bank, following an apparent US policy shift on Jewish settlements that has infuriated the Palestinians.
(AP, 8/23/04)
2004 Aug 29, Israeli troops killed an armed Palestinian man as he tried to sneak into southern Israel.
(AP, 8/29/04)
2004 Aug 29, In Sidon, Lebanon, fighting in a Palestinian camp left 3 dead.
(WSJ, 8/30/04, p.A1)
2004 Aug 30, Israeli officials said PM Ariel Sharon wants all 21 Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip evacuated at the same time, instead of in three stages.
(AP, 8/30/04)
2004 Aug 31, In Beersheba, Israel, Palestinian suicide bombers exploded two buses almost simultaneously, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 80.
(AP, 8/31/04)(AP, 9/1/04)
2004 Sep 7, Israeli helicopters attacked a Hamas training camp, killing at least 14 militants and wounding 30 others.
(AP, 9/7/04)
2004 Sep 9, Clashes with Israeli troops killed 8 Palestinians and left 27 wounded in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
(AP, 9/9/04)(WSJ, 9/10/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 13, An Israeli helicopter fired a missile at a car in the West Bank town of Jenin, killing three Al Aqsa men. Israeli police shut down six Palestinian elections offices in east Jerusalem after seizing voter registration lists.
(AP, 9/13/04)(WSJ, 9/14/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 20, An Israeli helicopter blew up a car in Gaza City, killing Khaled Abu Shamiyeh (30), a Hamas militant who was involved in making and firing rockets at Israeli towns.
(AP, 9/20/04)
2004 Sep 22, A Palestinian suicide bomber blew herself up near a crowded bus stop in Jerusalem. 2 Israeli police officers were killed.
(AP, 9/22/04)(SFC, 9/23/04, p.A3)
2004 Sep 23, Three Palestinian gunmen infiltrated a fog-shrouded Israeli army post at dawn, killing three Israeli soldiers in a fierce gunbattle before they were shot to death.
(AP, 9/23/04)
2004 Sep 24, Palestinians shelled a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip and killed an Israeli-American woman just ahead of Yom Kippur.
(AP, 9/24/04)
2004 Sep 25, An Israeli helicopter fired two missiles toward a crowd of Palestinians on the outskirts of a refugee camp, killing a 55-year-old man and wounding five people.
(SFC, 9/25/04, p.A3)
2004 Sep 25, The Israeli army charged into a Palestinian refugee camp, killing one person and tearing down 35 homes.
(AP, 9/25/04)
2004 Sep 26, Ezzedin Sheikh Khalil, a senior Hamas operative, was killed in a car bombing outside his house in Damascus, the first such killing of a leader of the Islamic militant group in Syria. The hit was claimed by Israeli security officials.
(AP, 9/26/04)
2004 Sep 27, An Israeli helicopter fired a missile at a Palestinian vehicle traveling in the southern Gaza Strip, killing one person and wounding three others. 7 Palestinians were killed in several incidents across the West Bank and Gaza. In Gaza City gunmen kidnapped a CNN TV producer and released him the next day.
(AP, 9/27/04)(SFC, 9/28/04, p.A8)(WSJ, 9/29/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 29, A large force of Israeli tanks, armored vehicles and troops pushed into northern Gaza in an overnight raid aimed at militants who have fired rockets against nearby Israeli towns. The incursion killed at least three Palestinians.
(AP, 9/29/04)
2004 Oct 1, Israel's security Cabinet approved a large-scale military operation, dubbed "Days of Penitence," to stop Palestinian rocket fire. Two Palestinians were killed and three wounded when an Israeli tank fired a shell in the Jebaliya refugee camp. 8 Palestinians were killed in the northern Gaza Strip.
(AP, 10/1/04)(SFC, 10/2/04, p.A9)
2004 Oct 2, Israeli troops killed 10 Palestinian militants, as the military expanded one of its largest offensives against Palestinian militants in four years of fighting.
(AP, 10/2/04)(SSFC, 10/3/04, p.A11)
2004 Oct 3, An Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at a group of Palestinians who launched a homemade rocket at Israel, killing two militants.
(AP, 10/3/04)
2004 Oct 4, Palestinian militants fired off two more rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot, lightly wounding one person, according to rescue workers. Ongoing violence in northern Gaza killed at least seven Palestinians, including a teenager.
(AP, 10/4/04)
2004 Oct 5, An Israeli aircraft launched a missile at a car in Gaza City, killing at least 2 militants and wounding three others. A helicopter strike in Gaza killed Bashir Al Dabash (42), a senior Islamic Jihad leader, as well as his bodyguard. Iyman Hams, a 13-year-old Palestinian girl, was shot and killed by Israeli forces, which soon prompted an investigation. In 2005 an Israeli military court acquitted an army captain who was charged with intentionally killing the Palestinian girl, saying she was already dead when he shot her.
(AP, 10/5/04)(SFC, 10/6/04, p.A17)(SFC, 10/13/04, p.A14)(AP, 11/16/05)
2004 Oct 5, The US vetoed an Arab-backed UN Security Council resolution demanding that the Jewish state immediately end military operations and called the resolution "lopsided and unbalanced." 11 of 15 voted in favor with 3 abstentions.
(AP, 10/6/04)
2004 Oct 7, Two Palestinian boys, ages 15 and 14, were killed in an Israeli missile strike.
(AP, 10/7/04)
2004 Oct 8, Israeli Soldiers shot and killed a 10-year-old Palestinian girl and three other Palestinians died in missile strikes during a massive offensive into the northern Gaza Strip.
(AP, 10/8/04)
2004 Oct 9, Israeli troops shot at Hamas militants about to fire an anti-tank missile, setting off an explosion that killed one man and wounded three. Israeli soldiers in northern Gaza killed 5 Palestinians including Hamas militant Abed Nabham (25).
(AP, 10/9/04)(SSFC, 10/10/04, p.A16)
2004 Oct 10, An Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a home near a Hamas stronghold in the Jebaliya refugee camp, killing one civilian and wounding 8 other Palestinians
(AP, 10/10/04)
2004 Oct 11, An Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a house in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, wounding five people, including a top Islamic Jihad leader.
(AP, 10/11/04)
2004 Oct 13, The Israeli military killed 4 Palestinian militants as troops extended a 2-week operation in the Gaza Strip to silence Palestinian rocket fire.
(SFC, 10/14/04, p.A8)
2004 Oct 21, An Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at a car traveling in the Gaza Strip killing Adnan al-Ghoul, a senior Hamas commander.
(AP, 10/21/04)
2004 Oct 22, A UN aid agency reported that Israel's recent 17-day military offensive in the northern Gaza Strip killed 107 Palestinians, left nearly 700 homeless and caused more than $3 million dollars in property damage.
(AP, 10/22/04)
2004 Oct 22, Defiant Palestinian militants pounded Jewish settlements in the southern Gaza Strip with mortar fire, following the killing of a top Hamas militant in an Israeli airstrike.
(AP, 10/22/04)
2004 Oct 23, The bullet-riddled body of a Palestinian was found near a trash bin on a Gaza City. Hamas said it killed the man on suspicion he passed along information that helped Israel assassinate the group's founder and nine others.
(AP, 10/23/04)
2004 Oct 25, Israeli troops killed 14 Palestinians in a Gaza raid.
(WSJ, 10/26/04, p.A1)
2004 Oct 25, Egyptian authorities said a Palestinian refugee plotted the coordinated bombings targeting Israeli tourists at resorts in the Sinai and accidentally killed himself while carrying out the deadliest blast. Egypt announced it had arrested five of the nine men who bombed Red Sea resorts almost three weeks ago, saying the attackers used stolen cars packed with old war-time explosives and a washing-machine timer.
(AP, 10/25/04)
2004 Oct 27, An ailing Yasser Arafat collapsed, was unconscious for about 10 minutes and remained in a serious condition.
(AP, 10/27/04)
2004 Oct 29, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (75), suffering from a serious but mystery illness, was flown to France and rushed to a military hospital for treatment. Arafat’s secret assets have been estimated at $200 million to $6 billion. Details were only known by his financial advisor Mohammed Rashid.
(AP, 10/29/04)(SSFC, 11/7/04, p.A10)
2004 Nov 1, A Palestinian (16) blew himself up in a crowded outdoor market in central Tel Aviv, killing three Israelis and wounding 32. This was the 117th suicide bombing since Israeli-Palestinian fighting broke out in 2000. 494 Israelis have been killed in the attacks. Israeli troops killed 3 activists in Nablus and a boy (12) throwing stones in Askar.
(AP, 11/1/04)(SFC, 11/2/04, p.A5)
2004 Nov 6, Israeli troops killed 5 Palestinians, including a 14-year-old boy, in West Bank and Gaza Strip.
(AP, 11/6/04)
2004 Nov 7, Israeli undercover forces shot and killed 4 Palestinians in Jenin.
(AP, 11/7/04)
2004 Nov 7, Hezbollah sent an aerial drone over northern Israel on a 1st test flight.
(WSJ, 11/8/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov 9, Israeli troops shot and killed two Palestinians who entered an unauthorized area in the Gaza Strip. Israeli troops in Nablus clashed with stone throwing youths, shooting dead a 22-year-old man and seriously wounding another.
(AP, 11/9/04)
2004 Nov 11, Yasser Arafat (75), Palestinian leader, died in Paris. He triumphantly forced his people's plight into the world spotlight but failed to achieve his lifelong quest for statehood. Arafat's body was flown back to the Mideast for funeral services in Egypt. Internment was to be in Ramallah.
(AP, 11/11/04)(SFC, 11/11/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov 11, Mahmoud Abbas, a former PM and veteran peace negotiator, was elected chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Rauhi Fattouh, Palestinian parliament speaker, was set to serve as president until elections in about 60 days.
(AP, 11/11/04)(WSJ, 11/11/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov 11, Israeli troops, backed by tanks and helicopter gunships raided a Gaza Strip town, killing 3 Palestinians and wounding at least 9 others.
(AP, 11/11/04)
2004 Nov 12, Kings, princes and presidents from across the world paid a last tribute to Yasser Arafat at a military funeral in Cairo. Arafat was interned in Ramallah before a sea of mourners.
(AP, 11/12/04)(SFC, 11/13/04, p.A17)
2004 Nov 14, Israel's military said it will stop allowing Palestinian security forces in the West Bank to carry weapons in public within the next 24 hours.
(AP, 11/14/04)
2004 Nov 14, Gunmen in the Gaza Strip fired weapons near Mahmoud Abbas (69) and left 2 security men dead. Palestinian officials scheduled Jan. 9, 2005, for presidential elections.
(AP, 11/14/04)(SFC, 11/15/04, p.A3)
2004 Nov 15, Israel offered its first indication it was reassessing relations with the Palestinians after Yasser Arafat's death, suggesting it might coordinate a planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip if the Palestinian Authority cracks down on militant groups.
(AP, 11/15/04)
2004 Nov 15, Interim Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, has asked Palestinian militants to halt violence during the campaign for Jan. 9 presidential elections.
(AP, 11/16/04)
2004 Nov 19, Israel’s Yediot Ahronot newspaper published photos of Israeli soldiers posing with dead Palestinians. Allegations of abuse followed.
(SFC, 11/20/04, p.A16)
2004 Nov 20, Palestinians formally opened the campaign for a successor to Yasser Arafat.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2004 Nov 22, The ruling Fatah party chose Mahmoud Abbas as its candidate to replace Yasser Arafat as head of the Palestinian Authority in Jan. 9 elections.
(AP, 11/22/04)
2004 Nov 22, A World Bank report said nearly half the Palestinian population was living in poverty on less than $2 a day.
(AP, 11/22/04)
2004 Nov 23, Interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told parliament that he would follow Arafat's footsteps and demand that Israel recognize the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees.
(AP, 11/23/04)
2004 Nov 26, The ruling party in the Palestinian Authority set Aug. 4 as the date for an internal election in an apparent attempt to persuade the head of Fatah's restless young guard to drop out of the January presidential balloting.
(AP, 11/26/04)
2004 Dec 1, A Hamas leader announced that the militant group will boycott upcoming Palestinian presidential elections.
(AP, 12/1/04)
2004 Dec 3, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a top Hamas leader, said the militant group would accept the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as a long-term truce with Israel.
(AP, 12/3/04)(SFC, 12/4/04, p.A3)
2004 Dec 5, In Ramallah Jad al-Hindi (19) was abducted by the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent militant group linked to the dominant Fatah movement. Police found al-Hindi's body the next day, saying he had been shot in the head 12 times.
(AP, 12/6/04)
2004 Dec 7, Hamas militants killed an Israeli soldier and wounded four with an explosion in a booby-trapped chicken coop. An Israeli aircraft fired a retaliatory missile at armed Palestinians near Gaza City leaving 4 gunmen dead.
(AP, 12/7/04)(WSJ, 12/8/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 10, Israeli troops shot and killed a 7-year-old Palestinian girl after militants fired mortar rounds at a Gaza Strip settlement, injuring four Israelis, one of them a child.
(AP, 12/10/04)
2004 Dec 12, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas apologized to Kuwaitis for the Palestinian support of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.
(AP, 12/12/05)
2004 Dec 12, Palestinians detonated a massive bomb under an Israeli military checkpoint killing at least 5 Israeli soldiers.
(SFC, 12/13/04, p.A6)(AP, 12/12/05)
2004 Dec 12, The Israeli Cabinet agreed to release scores of Palestinian prisoners as a gesture to Egypt and the Palestinian leadership ahead of next month's Palestinian elections. The Israeli army fired three tank shells at the Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, wounding seven schoolchildren.
(AP, 12/12/04)
2004 Dec 14, Palestinian leader Abbas called for an end to attacks on Israel as Israeli troops destroyed 7 Palestinian houses in Gaza.
(WSJ, 12/15/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 17, Israeli troops raided a Gaza refugee camp in retaliation for a deadly Palestinian mortar fire, sparking fighting that killed 8 Palestinians and wounded 24 Palestinians and an Israeli soldier.
(AP, 12/17/04)(SFC, 12/18/04, p.A14)
2004 Dec 18, Israeli troops killed three Palestinians on the second day of an Israeli raid in the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza. Israeli forces withdrew and ended a 2-day raid that left 11 Palestinians dead.
(AP, 12/18/04)(SSFC, 12/19/04, p.A15)
2004 Dec 19, Israel approved the release of 170 Palestinian prisoners in a goodwill gesture toward Egypt and the new Palestinian leadership.
(AP, 12/19/04)
2004 Dec 23, Thousands of Palestinians crammed polling stations in West Bank towns to vote in municipal elections, the first in nearly 30 years. Hamas made a strong showing in local elections in the West Bank. Palestinian women won 51 seats in local elections defeating many of their male opponents.
(AP, 12/24/04)(AP, 12/27/04)
2004 Dec 27, Israel released 159 Palestinian prisoners as a gesture to the new Palestinian leadership.
(AP, 12/27/04)
2004 Dec 29, About 10 Israeli tanks moved into the Khan Younis refugee camp to stop rocket fire. 2 Palestinian gunmen were killed by tank fire.
(AP, 12/30/04)(WSJ, 12/30/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 30, In southern Gaza 2 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli missile strike, the 2nd day of an army raid to stop Palestinian rocket fire from the Khan Younis refugee camp.
(AP, 12/31/04)
2004 Daniel Gavron authored “The Other Side of Despair: Jews and Arabs in the Promised Land,” in which he called for the creation of a democratic, binational State of Jerusalem.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.25)
2004-2008 Jordan stripped some 2,700 Jordanians of Palestinian origin of their citizenship during this period. Nearly half the kingdom’s people were of Palestinian origin. The government allegedly feared that if Palestinians were to become a majority, it would disrupt the its delicate demographic balance.
(SFC, 2/2/10, p.A2)
2005 Jan 4, Two Israeli tank shells slammed into a field in response to Palestinian mortar fire, killing seven Palestinians youths working in a strawberry field.
(AP, 1/4/05)(SFC, 1/4/05, p.A3)
2005 Jan 5, A group calling itself "The Free People of the Galilee" claimed that it abducted an Dana Bennet, an Israeli-American woman in Aug 2003, and demanded that Israel release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for information about her fate.
(AP, 1/5/05)
2005 Jan 5, Two homemade Palestinian rockets fell into an army base in southern Israel, wounding 12 people, one of them seriously.
(AP, 1/5/05)
2005 Jan 7, Palestinian militants attacked a group of Israeli civilians outside the West Bank city of Nablus, wounding four people, including one who was in critical condition.
(AP, 1/7/05)
2005 Jan 9, Palestinians held their 1st presidential election in nine years, choosing a successor to longtime leader Yasser Arafat. Mahmoud Abbas was elected Palestinian Authority president by a landslide, giving the pragmatist a mandate to resume peace talks with Israel.
(AP, 1/9/05)(AP, 1/10/05)
2005 Jan 11, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip launched a barrage of homemade rockets and mortar rounds at Jewish towns and settlements, hours after newly elected Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas extended his hand in peace to Israel.
(AP, 1/11/05)
2005 Jan 12, Islamic militants detonated a bomb near a Jewish settlement in the southern Gaza Strip, killing an Israeli civilian and wounding three soldiers.
(AP, 1/12/05)
2005 Jan 13, Palestinian militants killed six Israeli workers at a Gaza crossing. 3 Palestinian attackers were also killed.
(AP, 1/14/05)(SFC, 1/14/05, p.A3)
2005 Jan 14, Israel sealed off the Gaza Strip but signaled it will hold off on harsh retaliation for an attack by Palestinian militants.
(AP, 1/14/05)
2005 Jan 15, Mahmoud Abbas was sworn in as Palestinian Authority president. 46 members of the Palestinian election commission, including top managers, resigned saying they were pressured by Mahmoud Abbas' campaign and intelligence officials to abruptly change voting procedures during the Jan. 9 presidential poll.
(AP, 1/15/05)
2005 Jan 16, A top PLO decision-making body called on Palestinian militants to halt attacks against Israel, charging that the violence gives Israel an excuse to carry out military operations.
(AP, 1/16/05)
2005 Jan 17, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas ordered his security forces to try to prevent attacks against Israel and to investigate a shooting at a Gaza Strip crossing that killed six Israeli civilians last week.
(AP, 1/17/05)
2005 Jan 18, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas summoned militant leaders to cease-fire talks in the Gaza Strip and said he is hopeful he can persuade them to halt attacks on Israel.
(AP, 1/18/05)
2005 Jan 20, Israeli officials accepted a Palestinian plan to deploy hundreds of police officers along the Gaza-Israel frontier Jan 21, in the first act of security cooperation with Israel under Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 1/20/05)
2005 Jan 21, Hundreds of armed Palestinian police deployed across the northern Gaza Strip on Friday to prevent rocket fire on Israeli communities.
(AP, 1/21/05)
2005 Jan 23, Israeli leaders said it willing to suspend military operations against Palestinian militants if they call off attacks.
(AP, 1/23/05)
2005 Jan 24, Militant groups have agreed to suspend attacks as they near a formal truce deal with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and await Israel's response.
(AP, 1/24/05)
2005 Jan 25, The top Hamas leader said his militant group is prepared to suspend attacks if Israel stops targeting militants and agrees to release thousands of Palestinian prisoners.
(AP, 1/25/05)
2005 Jan 26, Israel and the Palestinian Authority resumed diplomatic contacts after a two-week freeze, and Israel agreed to suspend targeted killings of Palestinian militants.
(AP, 1/26/05)
2005 Jan 27, The Palestinian leadership banned civilians from carrying weapons, its latest step aimed at reigning in militant violence.
(AP, 1/27/05)
2005 Jan 28, Election officials said the Hamas won an overwhelming victory in local elections in Gaza towns in a setback for the Fatah Party of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 1/28/05)
2005 Jan 28, Israel's army chief ordered troops to halt operations in the Gaza Strip and to scale back raids in the West Bank, as hundreds of Palestinian police deployed in the volatile central and southern parts of the territory.
(AP, 1/28/05)
2005 Jan 30, More than 100,000 demonstrators gathered in Jerusalem to protest PM Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements from Gaza and four from the West Bank, demanding it be put to a national referendum.
(AP, 1/30/05)
2005 Jan 30, Israeli troops killed a 65-year-old man who entered an unauthorized area near an army post.
(AP, 1/31/05)
2005 Jan 31, Jewish settlers and their supporters protested outside parliament for a 2nd day against Israel's planned withdrawal from Palestinian territories. Palestinian officials said a 10-year-old Palestinian girl was shot and killed by Israeli tank fire at a UN school in the Rafah refugee camp.
(AP, 1/31/05)
2005 Feb 3, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said that fugitives in his Palestinian group would not sign pledges to halt attacks because that would negate the legitimacy of their right to fight the Israeli occupation.
(AP, 2/3/05)
2005 Feb 3, Israeli Cabinet ministers approved the release of 900 Palestinian prisoners and a military pullout from the West Bank town of Jericho within days.
(AP, 2/3/05)
2005 Feb 8, In Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas declared that their people would stop all military and violent attacks against each other, pledging to get peace talks back on track. The Palestinian militant group Hamas said it would not be bound by the cease-fire declarations.
(AP, 2/8/05)
2005 Feb 9, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said Israel will lift travel restrictions on Palestinians in parts of the West Bank and abandon several major checkpoints as part of its withdrawal from five towns in the coming weeks.
(AP, 2/9/05)
2005 Feb 10, Palestinian militants fired dozens of mortar shells and homemade rockets at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, prompting Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to order his security forces to move quickly to preserve a new cease-fire with Israel. Abbas fired his top security commanders following the attacks.
(AP, 2/10/05)(WSJ, 2/11/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 11, A day after firing his top security commanders, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas headed to the Gaza Strip to demand that militant leaders stop attacking Israelis, a strong sign of his determination to enforce a fragile truce with Israel.
(AP, 2/11/05)
2005 Feb 13, Israel's Cabinet approved a list of names of 500 Palestinian prisoners to be released in coming days, and several hundred Palestinian workers returned to jobs in Israel in line with agreements reached at a Mideast summit last week.
(AP, 2/13/05)
2005 Feb 16, Israel's parliament gave the final approval to PM Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements.
(AP, 2/16/06)
2005 Feb 17, Hundreds of Jewish settlers took first steps to eventually leave their homes in the Gaza Strip, a day after Israel's parliament approved $871 million in compensation for them.
(AP, 2/17/05)
2005 Feb 20, Israel's Cabinet gave final approval to the government's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements.
(AP, 2/20/05)
2005 Feb 21, Israel freed 500 Palestinian prisoners in a goodwill gesture.
(AP, 2/21/05)
2005 Feb 22, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia promised a drastic overhaul of his Cabinet, signaling the start of long-sought reform.
(AP, 2/22/05)
2005 Feb 24, The Palestinian parliament approved a 24-member Cabinet dominated by professional appointees, including nearly half with doctoral degrees, in a major move toward long-promised government reform.
(AP, 2/24/05)
2005 Feb 25, A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of young Israelis waiting outside the Stage nightclub near Tel Aviv's beachfront promenade just before midnight, killing at least four other people, wounding dozens.
(AP, 2/25/05)(SFC, 2/26/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 26, Palestinian and Israeli security forces arrested 7 suspected militants in connection with a suicide bombing that killed four Israelis at a Tel Aviv nightclub. The bomber was identified as Abdullah Badran (21), a student from the West Bank village of Deir al-Ghusun.
(AP, 2/26/05)(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.A7)
2005 Feb 28, Israeli troops discovered a vehicle packed with half a ton of explosives in the West Bank, the largest bomb found in four years of fighting.
(AP, 3/1/05)
2005 Mar 1, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas pledged to reform Palestinian security. Militants in the West Bank town of Jenin issued a belligerent challenge to the new Palestinian leadership's efforts to rein in militant groups, shooting in the air and demanding that the visiting security chief, Interior Minister Nasser Yousef, leave the area immediately.
(AP, 3/1/05)
2005 Mar 4, Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a police station, sparking a gunfight that left three people wounded.
(AP, 3/4/05)
2005 Mar 6, Palestinian militants shot and wounded two Israeli border policemen in an attack on a military post near a West Bank shrine.
(AP, 3/7/05)
2005 Mar 9, An Israeli inquiry into the establishment of unauthorized West Bank settlement outposts found widespread complicity of successive Israeli governments and recommended that prosecutors consider investigations some of those involved.
(AP, 3/9/05)
2005 Mar 10, Israeli troops killed an Islamic Jihad Palestinian militant in a raid on a village near the West Bank town of Jenin.
(AP, 3/10/05)
2005 Mar 12, The Hamas militant group announced it will participate in Palestinian parliamentary elections.
(AP, 3/12/05)
2005 Mar 14, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the United Nations is establishing a register of property damage caused by Israel's West Bank separation barrier. Hundreds of Palestinians protested the barrier outside the walled Palestinian government compound where he spoke.
(AP, 3/14/05)
2005 Mar 16, Israeli troops handed Jericho to Palestinian security control, dismantling a checkpoint and easing travel restrictions in what was seen as a message to ordinary Palestinians that an informal truce is starting to pay off.
(AP, 3/16/05)
2005 Mar 17, Palestinian militants declared a halt to attacks on Israel for the rest of this year, their longest cease-fire promise ever and a victory for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 3/17/05)
2005 Mar 18, Israel welcomed a temporary truce declared by Palestinian militants and promised to hold its fire in return, but demanded that the Palestinian Authority eventually dismantle the armed groups.
(AP, 3/18/05)
2005 Mar 21, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators reached agreement on handing over control of the West Bank town of Tulkarem to Palestinian security forces.
(AP, 3/21/05)
2005 Mar 22, Israel completed its handover of the West Bank town of Tulkarem to Palestinian security control.
(AP, 3/22/05)
2005 Mar 28, Israeli troops raided the West Bank town of Jenin, carrying out house-to-house searches and arresting eight Palestinians.
(AP, 3/28/05)
2005 Mar 31, In Palestine Mahmoud Abbas ordered a crackdown on Ramallah militants after a group of gunmen fired at his compound in a sign of escalating tensions.
(AP, 3/31/05)
2005 Apr 3, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas announced plans for a jobs program aimed at militants.
(SFC, 4/12/05, p.A6)(http://tinyurl.com/6ldnx)
2005 Apr 4, A Palestinian official immediately denounced Israeli plans to dispose of garbage on Palestinian land in the West Bank, as violating international law, saying, "We are not a dumping ground."
(AP, 4/4/05)
2005 Apr 9, Israeli border troops shot and killed 3 Palestinian youths in a southern Gaza Strip refugee camp in violence that ended weeks of calm.
(AP, 4/9/05)(SSFC, 4/10/05, p.A5)
2005 Apr 14, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on ordered reforms of his security services, a key Israeli and U.S. condition for renewing peace negotiations.
(AP, 4/14/05)
2005 Apr 14, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian militant in the West Bank.
(AP, 4/14/05)
2005 Apr 17, Armed Palestinian militants shut down a government building in the West Bank and threatened to kill members of the Palestinian parliament, demanding the Palestinian Authority provide jobs to former prisoners and to relatives of people killed in fighting.
(AP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 29, Russian President Vladimir Putin laid a wreath on the late-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's tomb and held talks with Arafat's successor, Mahmoud Abbas, but Palestinians held out little hope for concrete results.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 Apr 30, Palestinian security officials said Israeli special forces entered Tulkarem before dawn and arrested 18-year-old Mohammed Shalhoub. Israeli military officials said Shalhoub was an Islamic Jihad militant preparing an imminent suicide attack against Israelis and had already filmed the video testament often left by suicide bombers.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 May 2, An Israeli soldier and a Palestinian fugitive were killed in a shootout at Seideh in the West Bank.
(AP, 5/2/05)(SFC, 5/3/05, p.A5)
2005 May 3, Israeli officials said Hamas must disarm before participating in Palestinian parliament elections this summer, in a new twist to their standoff with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas over his refusal to use force against militants.
(AP, 5/3/05)
2005 May 4, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said he is freezing the handover of West Bank towns to Palestinian security control because the Palestinians have failed to honor their promise to disarm militants.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 4, Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinian youths in a West Bank village near the city of Ramallah.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 5, Palestinians voted for local governments in dozens of towns and villages across the West Bank and Gaza Strip. More than 2,500 candidates were vying for seats on 84 municipal councils.
(AP, 5/5/05)
2005 May 6, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' ruling Fatah movement narrowly fended off a strong challenge by Hamas to win local elections, but the Islamic militant group captured the 3 biggest races in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, establishing itself as a major political force.
(AP, 5/6/05)
2005 May 6, The UN Sec. Gen. appointed Alvaro de Soto as the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. De Soto resigned in May, 2007.
(www.un.org/unsco/coordinator.html)
2005 May 9, Palestinian militants and police exchanged gunfire in two West Bank towns Monday, defying Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' attempts to crack down on lawlessness and put peacemaking with Israel on a more solid footing.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 9, PM Ariel Sharon told Israeli media that Israel's evacuation of the Gaza Strip will be put off until mid-August.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 18, An Israeli aircraft fired at a group of Hamas militants who were about to shoot mortar shells at a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 5/18/05)
2005 May 20, Palestinian militants fired six anti-tank missiles and a mortar round and opened up with light arms at a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 5/20/05)
2005 May 21, The Palestinian interior ministry said the Hamas militant group has agreed to halt mortar and rocket fire on Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, a deal meant to save a truce threatened by three consecutive days of violence.
(AP, 5/21/05)
2005 May 22, In Palestine protesters besieged Laura Bush during her visit to two of Jerusalem's most sacred sites.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 22, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority said they had agreed terms for a feasibility study on transferring water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, to save the world's lowest sea from vanishing.
(AP, 5/22/05)
2005 May 23, The Palestinian Election Commission said that parliamentary elections scheduled for July 17 will be delayed because it needed more time to prepare for the vote.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 May 24, World Orthodox leaders gathered in Istanbul, the ancient seat of Orthodoxy. They decided to stop recognizing the beleaguered patriarch of Jerusalem, Irineos I, for allegedly leasing sites in the Palestinian side of the city to Jewish investors. They asserted a rare unified position on the crisis facing the church in the Holy Land.
(AP, 5/24/05)(WSJ, 5/25/05, p.A1)
2005 May 26, President Bush met with Palestinian leader Mohmoud Abbas, praised his steps toward democracy, and said the US will pay $50 million in housing aid for Palestinians in Gaza.
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May 29, Israel's Cabinet approved the release of 400 Palestinian prisoners.
(AP, 5/29/05)
2005 May 30, The Israeli military targeted rocket launchers just before an attack was to be launched from northern Gaza, and two launchers were destroyed.
(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 May 31, James Wolfensohn, former World Bank chief, assumed the post of special envoy for Gaza disengagement for the Quartet (USA, Russia, EU and UN). He was assigned to co-ordinate Israel’s imminent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and to focus on economic ways to help Palestinians after the Israeli exit. He left the post a year later.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Wolfensohn)(Econ, 6/30/07, p.55)
2005 Jun 2, Israel released 398 Palestinian prisoners, completing a pledge made under a cease-fire agreement, hours after Israel and the Palestinians announced their leaders would soon meet for the first time since February.
(AP, 6/2/05)(WSJ, 6/3/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 7, Israeli soldiers killed a top Islamic Jihad militant in a West Bank gunbattle, and a Palestinian mortar attack on a Jewish settlement in Gaza killed two non-Israeli workers.
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Jun 8, In Palestine 3 workers at a Jewish settlement in Gaza were killed in a Palestinian mortar strike, two West Bank militants were shot dead by soldiers and an infiltrator from Egypt to Gaza was gunned down by Israeli forces.
(AP, 6/8/05)
2005 Jun 12, The Palestinian Authority carried out its first executions since 2001, killing four convicted murderers as part of a new campaign to rein in lawlessness and chaos.
(AP, 6/12/05)
2005 Jun 18, The Palestinian parliament passed a compromise election law afternoon removing a major hurdle to new legislative elections that were originally scheduled for next month but were postponed indefinitely.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 18, Palestinian militants attacked a Gaza Strip settlement, sparking a gunbattle that killed one of the attackers and wounded another.
(AP, 6/18/05)
2005 Jun 19, Palestinian militants fired light arms and rocket-propelled grenades at Israelis near an army post on the Gaza-Egypt border, wounding 3 Israelis. One militant was killed in the attack.
(AP, 6/19/05)
2005 Jun 20, Palestinian gunmen ambushed an Israeli minivan driving through the northern West Bank, riddling the vehicle with bullets, killing one passenger and wounding a second.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005 Jun 21, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met for the first time since declaring a February truce, but the summit was clouded by Israel's arrest of 52 Islamic Jihad activists and a missile strike in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 22, The first Palestinian-Israeli summit in four months failed to propel peace prospects forward or solidify a shaky truce, leaving main issues unresolved and both sides disappointed.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 22, Palestinian gunmen fired shots and detonated an explosive device as PM Ahmed Qureia left a building in a West Bank refugee camp where he was lecturing militants on the need to restore order to the streets.
(AP, 6/22/05)
2005 Jun 23, Palestinian officials said they reached a tentative agreement to absorb about 700 gunmen in Nablus into the Palestinian security services.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 23, Palestinian militants killed an officer in an attack on a police station in the West Bank town of Jenin.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 24, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a group of hitchhikers and killed one, the third Israeli slaying in a flare-up of violence that threatens a truce reached in February.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 29, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas asked Hamas militants to join his Cabinet to improve prospects of a peaceful takeover of the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 7/2/05)
2005 Jul 5, Hamas rejected an invitation from Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to join his government.
(AP, 7/5/05)
2005 Jul 8, An Israeli security guard shot dead a Palestinian teenager during a protest against Israel's West Bank separation barrier.
(AP, 7/9/05)
2005 Jul 12, Sami Abu Khalil (18), from the West Bank village of Atil, detonated 22 pounds of explosives strapped to his body outside a shopping mall in Netanya. He killed two 16-year-old girls and a 31-year-old woman. A 50-year-old woman died in the hospital the next day.
(AP, 7/13/05)
2005 Jul 13, Israeli troops reoccupied the West Bank city of Tulkarem early, killing a Palestinian policeman in a firefight and arresting five Islamic Jihad activists after the militant group killed four Israelis in a suicide bombing.
(AP, 7/13/05)
2005 Jul 15, The Israeli military launched an airstrike at a van carrying a group of Hamas militants and a cache of homemade rockets in a Gaza City street, killing 4 people.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2005 Jul 16, Israeli troops raided towns across the West Bank, arresting 26 suspected Palestinian militants. Israeli aircraft launched a series of airstrikes in Gaza City and the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.
(AP, 7/16/05)
2005 Jul 19, Israeli police encircled thousands of Gaza withdrawal opponents, confining them to a fenced-in farming village to prevent them from marching to the nearby Gaza Strip. Israeli and Palestinian leaders announced a fresh truce.
(AP, 7/19/05)(Econ, 7/23/05, p.41)
2005 Jul 20, In Palestine the ruling Fatah movement and the Islamic Hamas agreed to end several days of clashes in northern Gaza that took the lives of two bystanders.
(AP, 7/20/05)
2005 Jul 24, Palestinian militants killed two Israeli motorists in the Gaza Strip. Israeli troops killed 2 of the gunmen. A suicide bomber was caught near an Israeli communal farm with a belt packed with 11 pounds of explosives.
(AP, 7/24/05)(WSJ, 7/25/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 26, Officials said Jerusalem planners have approved the construction of a new Jewish neighborhood in the city's Muslim Quarter.
(AP, 7/26/05)
2005 Jul 27, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian stone-thrower during an arrest raid that caught a wanted Islamic Jihad militant in this West Bank town.
(AP, 7/27/05)
2005 Aug 2, A 3-year old Palestinian boy was killed and 9 Palestinians were wounded in the northern Gaza Strip when rockets launched by militants misfired and landed in Palestinian areas.
(AP, 8/2/05)
2005 Aug 3, Islamic Jihad, a major Palestinian militant group, declared that it would fire no more rockets at Israelis through Israel's planned Gaza Strip withdrawal, after a deadly barrage inadvertently killed a 5-year-old Palestinian boy.
(AP, 8/3/05)
2005 Aug 6, Palestinian judges and lawyers shut down the Palestinian legal system until further notice to protest recent attacks against senior legal officials.
(AP, 8/6/05)
2005 Aug 13, For the first time in a decade, the founders and top political leaders of Hamas gathered on the same stage, vowing to go on fighting Israel and claiming victory for its impending withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/13/05)
2005 Aug 14, Israel sealed the Gaza Strip to Israeli civilians, signaling the start of the historic withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2005 Aug 15, Israel began to pull out from the Gaza Strip after 38 years of occupation. Asher Weisgen (Weisgan), an Israeli settler, murdered four Palestinians under his employ and wounded a fifth near Shilo in an effort to prevent Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. On Sep 27, 2006, Weisgan was sentenced to 4 consecutive life terms plus 12 years and ordered to pay $53,000 to the families of those killed and $23,000 to Rauhi Kassab, who survived.
(AP, 8/15/05)(http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/135780/index.php)
2005 Aug 18, Israeli forces stormed the synagogue Neve Dekalim to remove about 1,500 protesters inside. This was the main synagogue of the Gaza Strip Jewish settlement and one of the last bastions of resistance to the Gaza pullout.
(AP, 8/18/05)
2005 Aug 20, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas signed a decree appropriating Jewish settlement land and scheduled elections for Jan 25. In a challenge to Abbas, dozens of masked Hamas gunmen took over Gaza City's central square and announced they would not stop attacks on Israel, despite Israel's ongoing withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/20/05)(SSFC, 8/21/05, p.A13)
2005 Aug 21, Thousands of troops poured into four Gaza settlements, the final phase of removing settlers from the coastal strip.
(AP, 8/21/05)
2005 Aug 22, The last Jewish settlers left Gaza, making way for the Palestinian government.
(AP, 8/22/06)
2005 Aug 22, The Greek Orthodox Church in the Holy Land elected a new patriarch to succeed their ousted leader, who fell from grace over a controversial east Jerusalem land deal.
(AP, 8/22/05)
2005 Aug 24, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that the Israeli Army is expected to leave the Gaza Strip by Oct. 4 at the latest.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 25, An Israeli military raid on the West Bank refugee camp of Tulkarem left five militants dead. Palestinians said at least two of the dead were unarmed teenagers who were neighbors of the wanted men but didn't belong to any militant group. An Orthodox Jewish man was stabbed to death in Jerusalem.
(AP, 8/25/05)
2005 Aug 30, A US federal court ordered Palestinian Authority assets in the US frozen in order to pay a $116 million judgement for the 1996 killing of an American in Israel.
(WSJ, 8/31/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug, Samar Sabih (22), Hamas' first female bomb maker, was arrested by Israeli security at her home in the West Bank town of Tulkarem. The university graduate was recruited in Gaza and sent to the West Bank to teach others to assemble explosives. Security officials noted a sharp rise in the use of women by militant groups in the past two years.
(AP, 10/11/05)
2005 Sep 3, Hamas' secretive military wing emerged from hiding, naming commanders and detailing how they attacked Israelis as part of a competition with the Palestinian Authority over who will get credit for Israel's pullout from Gaza.
(AP, 9/3/05)
2005 Sep 5, An explosion destroyed a house after nightfall in Gaza City, killing four people and injuring at least 30. It belonged to a well-known family of supporters of the Islamic militant group Hamas, but the Israeli military denied having anything to do with the blast.
(AP, 9/5/05)
2005 Sep 6, Israel said it its has authorized construction of 117 homes in one of the West Bank's largest settlements and approved preliminary plans for another 3,000 housing units there, despite repeated US appeals to freeze settlement expansion.
(AP, 9/6/05)
2005 Sep 7, About 100 masked militants stormed the heavily guarded home of Moussa Arafat (65), Gaza's former security chief, dragged him out in his pajamas and killed him in a burst of gunfire days before Israel was to hand over Gaza. The Popular Resistance Committees, a violent group made up largely of former members of the Fatah movement of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, claimed responsibility.
(AP, 9/7/05)
2005 Sep 10, Masked gunmen abducted Lorenzo Cremonesi of the Corriere della Serra daily, an Italian journalist in the Gaza Strip town of Deir El-Balah. He was released after a few hours.
(AP, 9/10/05)
2005 Sep 10, Syrian President Bashar Assad met with leaders of 10 militant Palestinian groups based in Syria, defying U.S. pressure to crack down on these groups. Syria's official news agency SANA reported Assad urged the radical Palestinian leaders, including Khaled Mashaal, the political leader of the militant Hamas group, to close ranks and continue the struggle in order to achieve their goal of an independent Palestinian state.
(AP, 9/10/05)
2005 Sep 11, Israel's Cabinet voted unanimously to end its 38-year occupation of the Gaza Strip, clearing the way to complete the country's withdrawal from the area and turn it over to Palestinian control.
(AP, 9/11/05)
2005 Sep 12, Joyous Gazans flooded into empty Jewish settlements and Palestinians climbed ropes and clambered over walls to the Egyptian side of Rafah to join a chaotic celebration of the end of 38 years of Israeli military rule over the Gaza Strip. Palestinians set fire to abandoned synagogues.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 13, Tens of thousands of people filled the center of Gaza City for the biggest Hamas demonstration ever seen here, celebrating Israel's pullout and listening to Hamas leaders vowing to continue the fight until Israelis leave the rest of the Palestinian areas.
(AP, 9/13/05)
2005 Sep 14, Egypt said it had found an arms-smuggling tunnel under the Gaza border, and Palestinians crossing the frontier were warned to return by sunset when passport controls will be reimposed.
(AP, 9/14/05)
2005 Sep 15, Israel's Supreme Court upheld the legality of Israel's West Bank security barrier, rejecting a ruling by the International Court of Justice that the barrier violates Palestinian rights and should be torn down. It also ruled that part of the barrier imposed major hardship on Palestinian villagers and must be rerouted.
(AP, 9/15/05)(SFC, 9/16/05, p.A7)
2005 Sep 16, Thousands of Palestinians broke through Egyptian and Palestinian Authority lines on the Gaza border, pouring into Egypt in defiance of government attempts to secure the frontier.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 19, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said the Gaza-Egypt border will reopen only as part of an international agreement, quashing speculation Egypt and the Palestinians might operate a crossing without Israel's blessing.
(AP, 9/19/05)
2005 Sep 20, Egyptian police stopped Palestinians from returning to Gaza, causing a crowd of more than 1,000 people to gather near the crossing here, as officials from the two sides met to discuss the border situation.
(AP, 9/20/05)
2005 Sep 22, Israelis left a West Bank base used as a staging area to remove settlers and soldiers killed a Palestinian teenager who entered the base early.
(WSJ, 9/23/05, p.A1)
2005 Sep 23, Palestinians took charge of a border for the first time ever, allowing thousands to cross between the Gaza Strip and Egypt in a temporary opening of the frontier.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep 23, In Gaza’s Jebaliya refugee camp a truck filled with masked militants and homemade weapons exploded at a Hamas rally, killing at least 15 Palestinians and wounding 80, including children. Hamas blamed Israel and unleashed a barrage of rocket fire that lasted through the night.
(AP, 9/24/05)(SSFC, 9/25/05, A3)
2005 Sep 24, Israel killed at least two Hamas militants in a missile strike and moved artillery cannons to the Gaza border, launching what it vowed would be a "crushing" response to a Hamas rocket barrage on Israeli towns. An air strike caused heavy damage to the Al-Arkam school run by Hamas.
(AP, 9/24/05)(SSFC, 9/25/05, A3)
2005 Sep 25, Israeli aircraft blasted suspected Palestinian weapons facilities in Gaza and authorities arrested hundreds of militants in the West Bank, launching an offensive against the Islamic group Hamas after it bombarded Israeli towns with rockets. Hamas announced it would no longer use Gaza Strip as a staging ground for attacks against Israel.
(AP, 9/25/05)(SFC, 9/26/05, A4)
2005 Sep 26, Israeli aircraft attacked suspected weapons factories throughout the Gaza Strip, pushing forward an offensive against Palestinian militants despite a pledge by a top Hamas leader to halt rocket fire against Israel.
(AP, 9/26/05)
2005 Sep 27, Israel hit Gaza with shells and airstrikes to suppress rocket fire and detained 379 West Bank militants in an overnight sweep against Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists.
(AP, 9/27/05)(WSJ, 9/28/05, p.A1)
2005 Sep 28, Widening its five-day campaign against Palestinian militants, Israel for the first time fired live artillery shells into the Gaza Strip and shut down 15 West Bank offices suspected of distributing money to families of suicide bombers.
(AP, 9/28/05)
2005 Sep 29, Hamas captured up to 1/3 of the votes in Palestinian municipal elections. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party won in 51 of 104 municipalities, to 13 for the Hamas militant group.
(SFC, 9/30/05, p.A10)(AP, 10/1/05)
2005 Sep 29, Israeli soldiers killed 3 Palestinian gunmen in arrest raids in the West Bank, pressing on with a major offensive against militants even as Palestinian officials said they have begun enforcing a ban on public weapons displays.
(AP, 9/29/05)
2005 Sep 30, Israeli troops killed two Palestinian militants in a shootout, while Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement made an unexpectedly strong showing against rival Hamas in local elections in dozens of West Bank towns and villages.
(AP, 9/30/05)
2005 Oct 2, Israel suspended its offensive into the Gaza Strip following a lull in rocket fire by Palestinian militants, but it is ready to restart the operation if attacks resume.
(AP, 10/2/05)
2005 Oct 2, Hamas gunmen clashed with Palestinian security forces in the Gaza Strip. A police commander and a civilian were killed and at least 50 others were wounded.
(SFC, 10/3/05, p.A8)
2005 Oct 3, The Palestinian parliament voted that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas must form a new government within two weeks.
(AP, 10/3/05)
2005 Oct 4, A Palestinian woman brandishing a knife stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint outside the West Bank city of Nablus before other soldiers shot and killed her.
(AP, 10/4/05)
2005 Oct 6, Gunmen abducted three local Hamas leaders in a series of kidnappings. Prof. Riad Abdel Karim al-Raz (47), a Palestinian university professor known as a Hamas leader, was released the next day. The al-Farouk bin al-Khatab Brigades, claimed responsibility.
(AP, 10/7/05)
2005 Oct 7, Palestinian police arrested 30 suspected car thieves and drug dealers in a high-profile crackdown on crime in this West Bank town.
(AP, 10/7/05)
2005 Oct 10, Israeli forces caught a 14-year-old boy whom militants tried to push into becoming a suicide bomber.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 11, Israeli forces disguised as vegetable vendors in Tsurif captured Ibrahim Ighnimat (47), a senior Hamas operative, who had been on the run for eight years.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 12, Masked Palestinian gunmen kidnapped a US and a British journalist in the Gaza Strip. Both men were freed in the evening.
(AP, 10/12/05)
2005 Oct 14, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Jordan for talks with King Abdullah II.
(AP, 10/14/05)
2005 Oct 16, Palestinian gunmen killed three Israelis and wounded five in drive-by attacks near Jewish settlements.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 17, Israel suspended negotiations with the Palestinian Authority on issues such as prisoner releases and slapped tough travel restrictions on the West Bank after Palestinian gunmen killed three Israelis and wounded five a day earlier.
(AP, 10/17/05)
2005 Oct 18, A shadowy Palestinian militant group said it has abducted two alleged collaborators with Israel and threatened to carry out additional kidnappings.
(AP, 10/18/05)
2005 Oct 20, President Bush met with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the Oval Office and said prospects for Palestinians gaining a state seem to be better than ever before.
(AP, 10/20/05)
2005 Oct 23, Militant Palestinians fought members of a Lebanese leftist party in a gun battle that left one man dead and three wounded outside a refugee camp.
(AP, 10/23/05)
2005 Oct 26, A Palestinian suicide bomber struck a food stand in the Israeli town of Hadera, killing 5 people, wounding at least 30 and leaving a path of destruction at an open air market.
(AP, 10/26/05)
2005 Oct 27, Israeli troops entered the West Bank town of Jenin and witnesses said they arrested a local leader of Islamic Jihad, pushing forward with an offensive against the Palestinian militant group following a suicide bombing that killed five Israelis.
(AP, 10/27/05)
2005 Oct 27, Israeli forces fired missiles in a Gaza refugee camp after nightfall, killing two people including a leading Islamic Jihad militant.
(AP, 10/27/05)
2005 Oct 29, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at open areas in northern Gaza and ground troops set up a second artillery battery near the coastal strip, part of an intensifying campaign against Palestinian rocket fire.
(AP, 10/29/05)
2005 Oct 30, Palestinian officials said they have agreed with Israel to halt nearly a week of fighting after militant groups pledged to halt rocket fire on southern Israeli towns.
(AP, 10/30/05)
2005 Oct 30, Israeli troops killed 3 Palestinian militants, including the suspected mastermind of a suicide attack, in a West Bank raid just hours after the two sides had reached a tentative new truce deal.
(AP, 10/31/05)
2005 Nov 1, An Israeli missile strike on a car killed two Palestinians in the Jebaliya refugee camp, Hassan Madhoun (37), a leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and Fawzi Abu al-Karei (32), top man of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the militant wing of Hamas.
(AP, 11/1/05)(SFC, 11/2/05, p.A12)(Econ, 11/5/05, p.50)
2005 Nov 3, Israeli soldiers shot and critically wounded a 13-year-old Palestinian boy who threw stones at troops patrolling Jenin. The boy died Nov 5. The parents of the Palestinian boy donated his organs to three Israeli children waiting for transplants.
(AP, 11/3/05)(AP, 11/5/05)(AP, 11/7/05)
2005 Nov 7, The EU agreed to monitor a Gaza-Egypt border crossing that serves as the main gate to the world for Palestinians.
(AP, 11/7/05)
2005 Nov 7, EU foreign ministers agreed to launch a three-year police training mission to help the Palestinian Authority build up a new "sustainable and effective" police force.
(AP, 11/7/05)
2005 Nov 14, Israeli troops killed Amjad Hanawi (34), a senior Hamas militant, during an early raid and arrest attempt in Nablus.
(AP, 11/14/05)
2005 Nov 15, Prodded by US Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice, Israel and the Palestinians agreed on details for opening the borders of the Gaza Strip and allowing freer movement for Palestinians elsewhere.
(AP, 11/15/05)
2005 Nov 17, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian militants during a West Bank arrest raid, riddling their car with bullets when it tried to run a roadblock outside the town of Jenin.
(AP, 11/17/05)
2005 Nov 18, In Gaza 2 rival clans and Palestinian police exchanged fire in a dispute over land in the area of a former Israeli settlement, killing Naef Astal (17) and wounding 5 people.
(AP, 11/19/05)
2005 Nov 24, Iyad Abu Rob, a top Islamic Jihad militant, surrendered to Israeli soldiers in Jenin. In a separate operation, 2 wanted men surrendered after Israeli troops surrounded two houses in the village of Kfar Kalil near Nablus. Another man was shot, but his condition was not known.
(AP, 11/24/05)
2005 Nov 25, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas opened the Gaza-Egypt border in a festive ceremony, a milestone for the Palestinians who for the first time took control of a frontier crossing without Israeli veto powers and gained some freedom of movement.
(AP, 11/25/05)
2005 Nov 25, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party held primaries in six West Bank cities to choose candidates for a January parliament election.
(AP, 11/25/05)
2005 Nov 26, Preliminary results showed jailed Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti and other younger activists swept Fatah primaries, signaling a change of generations that could make the corruption-tainted ruling party more attractive to voters in Jan. 25 parliament elections.
(AP, 11/26/05)
2005 Nov 28, The Palestinians' ruling Fatah Party halted its primary election across the Gaza Strip after angry gunmen shot in the air at several polling stations, stole some ballot boxes and destroyed others.
(AP, 11/28/05)
2005 Dec 2, Israeli officials said Palestinians have allowed up to 15 militants wanted by Israel to return to the Gaza Strip, violating a U.S.-brokered agreement that was to have let Israel monitor who enters the area from Egypt.
(AP, 12/02/05)
2005 Dec 4, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at an abandoned building and a rocket launching ground in the northern Gaza Strip in the first aerial attack on Gaza in more than a month.
(AP, 12/04/05)
2005 Dec 5, A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up among shoppers waiting to enter a mall in the Israeli town of Netanya, killing at least 5 people and wounding more than 30 others.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 6, Israel clamped an open-ended closure on the West Bank and Gaza, banning virtually all Palestinians from Israel, and arrested 15 Palestinian militants in a first response to the suicide bombing that killed five Israelis outside a shopping mall.
(AP, 12/06/05)
2005 Dec 7, An Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a car carrying Palestinian militants, killing at least one militant and wounding 10 others.
(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Dec 8, An Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip killed two Palestinian militants and a Palestinian stabbing attack killed an Israeli in the West Bank in a new spasm of violence.
(AP, 12/08/05)
2005 Dec 13, Masked Palestinian security forces have arrested dozens of Islamic Jihad activists in a series of overnight raids across the West Bank in recent days. However, the raids netted only low-level operatives, and some suspect the goal is to appease the United States and Israel rather than crush the militant group.
(AP, 12/13/05)
2005 Dec 14, Israel’s the Defense Ministry said it has approved construction of hundreds of new homes in West Bank settlements, confirming what would be a violation of the U.S.-backed peace plan.
(AP, 12/14/05)
2005 Dec 14, The Israeli military fired a missile at a car in northern Gaza it said was packed with militants about to carry out an attack. Four Palestinians were killed and four were wounded.
(AP, 12/14/05)
2005 Dec 16, The Hamas militant group won local elections in the West Bank's largest cities, according to preliminary results, dealing a harsh blow to the ruling Fatah party just six weeks ahead of a parliamentary poll.
(AP, 12/16/05)
2005 Dec 17, An explosion in the southern Gaza Strip killed a militant who fired homemade rockets at Israel and wounded three other people.
(AP, 12/18/05)
2005 Dec 20, About two dozen gunmen briefly seized Bethlehem's city hall on Manger Square, demanding money and jobs in the Palestinian security forces. Worried clergy temporarily closed the nearby Church of the Nativity for safety reasons.
(AP, 12/20/05)
2005 Dec 22, Israeli troops shot and killed three Palestinian militants, including Bashar Hanani (29), the local leader of a small radical faction, during an arrest raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 12/22/05)(SFC, 12/23/05, p.A15)
2005 Dec 26, Israel said it will build more than 200 new homes in Jewish West Bank settlements, a blow to peace efforts despite word that Ariel Sharon's new party plans a major push for Palestinian statehood if it wins upcoming elections.
(AP, 12/26/05)
2005 Dec 27, The Israeli military fired a barrage of artillery and missiles at the Gaza Strip, hitting two offices of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and a bridge the army said was used by militants to reach areas where they fire rockets.
(AP, 12/27/05)
2005 Dec 28, Dozens of masked Palestinian gunmen took over election offices in the Gaza Strip, exchanging fire with police and demanding spaces for the ruling Fatah Party's military wing on a list for Jan. 25 parliamentary elections.
(AP, 12/28/05)
2005 Dec 28, Israeli jets blasted a Palestinian militant group's base a few miles outside Beirut, hours after rockets fired from Lebanon hit a northern Israeli border town.
(AP, 12/28/05)
2005 Dec 29, A Palestinian suicide bomber trying to enter Israel blew himself at a military checkpoint set up to foil attackers, killing an Israeli soldier and two other Palestinians.
(AP, 12/29/05)
2005 Dec 30, Palestinian policemen angry over the killing of a fellow officer stormed the Gaza-Egypt border crossing, firing in the air and forcing European monitors to flee and close the terminal for several hours.
(AP, 12/30/05)
2005 Dec 31, Dozens of Palestinian gunmen stormed several government offices in Gaza City and briefly took the Interior Ministry to demand jobs.
(AP, 12/31/05)
2005 Dec 31, A British aid worker and her parents were whisked out of Gaza after being released by Palestinian gunmen who had abducted them two days earlier.
(AP, 12/31/05)
2005 Dec 31, Two Palestinians were killed in Israel's first deadly airstrike in a Gaza border area it recently put off-limits, just as a truce that has drastically reduced violence between the two sides formally ended.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 1, Palestinian security forces stormed a building where an Italian hostage was being held, freeing the man after a shootout with his kidnappers.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 2, A car exploded in northern Gaza after nightfall, killing at least one Palestinian. Witnesses said an Israeli aircraft was overhead.
(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 2, An Israeli intelligence report said Palestinians have smuggled anti-aircraft missiles into the Gaza Strip along with tons of other military hardware since Israel withdrew in September.
(AP, 1/2/06)
2006 Jan 4, Palestinian militants angry at the jailing of their leader stole two bulldozers and smashed through the border wall between Gaza and Egypt.
(AP, 1/4/06)
2006 Jan 8, The Islamic militant group Hamas launched a TV station in the Gaza Strip as part of its expansion into Palestinian politics.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 9, Israel permitted Palestinian politicians to campaign in disputed Jerusalem, reversing an initial ban and clearing an obstacle to holding Palestinian parliament elections on Jan. 25.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 12, A Palestinian militant blew himself up and two other Palestinians were killed in a gunbattle with Israeli troops during an arrest raid in the West Bank town of Jenin.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan 15, Israel’s acting PM Ehud Olmert faced his first major test when he led his Cabinet in a unanimous decision to let Palestinians vote in Jerusalem later this month.
(AP, 1/15/06)
2006 Jan 16, Israeli police seized buildings and rooftops in a Jewish settler enclave in Hebron, restoring order after three days of riots sparked by plans to evict Israeli squatters from an abandoned Palestinian market.
(AP, 1/16/06)
2006 Jan 16, The Palestinian film "Paradise Now," which explores the lives of a pair of suicide bombers, won the Golden Globe for best foreign film. "Brokeback Mountain" won four Golden Globes, including best motion picture drama; "Lost" won best dramatic television series while "Desperate Housewives" won for best musical or comedy series.
(AP, 1/17/06)(AP, 1/16/07)
2006 Jan 18, Former PM Shimon Peres said Israel would be ready to open negotiations with the Palestinians on a permanent peace accord after Israeli elections on March 28.
(AP, 1/18/06)
2006 Jan 19, A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a Tel Aviv fast-food stand, killing himself and wounding 15 people.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 21, Palestinian security forces cast ballots for parliamentary candidates in the official start of this week's Palestinian elections.
(AP, 1/21/06)
2006 Jan 22, An Israeli aircraft fired at three Palestinian gunmen trying to infiltrate Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing one man and wounding the other two.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 24, Palestinian gunmen in Nablus linked to the ruling Fatah movement killed Abu Ahmed Hassouna (44), one of their party leaders, increasing tensions on the eve of parliamentary balloting.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 25, Palestinians cast ballots in their first parliamentary election in a decade. Hamas won a huge majority in parliamentary elections as Palestinian voters rejected the longtime rule of the Fatah Party, throwing the future of Mideast peacemaking into question. Hamas counted up to 6 leaderships: notional chief Khaled Meshal in exile in Damascus; Ismail Haniyeh and other heavyweights in the Gaza Strip; members in the West Bank; convicted prisoners in Israeli jails; unconvicted prisoners detained in Israeli military jails; and heads of the armed wing.
(AP, 1/26/06)(Econ, 6/17/06, p.51)
2006 Jan 26, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said he was ready to maintain a cease-fire with Israel forged in February 2005 if Israel does likewise, but that the Islamic group will respond to attacks. Hamas supporters raised their flag over the Palestinian parliament and rushed into the building amid clashes with Fatah loyalists.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 26, President Bush said that Hamas cannot be a partner for Middle East peacemaking without renouncing violence, and he reiterated that the United States will not deal with Palestinian leaders who do not recognize Israel's right to exist.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 27, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas asked Hamas to form a new government after his vanquished Fatah Party rejected a role in the Cabinet and Israel ruled out peace talks. In the wake of Hamas' triumph in Palestinian parliamentary elections, thousands of outraged Fatah supporters burned cars and fired in the air across the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 1/27/06)(AP, 1/27/07)
2006 Jan 28, Fatah activists marched to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' compound, police briefly stormed the parliament building in Gaza and security forces clashed with Hamas gunmen as the long-ruling party lashed out in anger for its devastating election loss.
(AP, 1/28/06)
2006 Jan 30, European Union foreign ministers called on Hamas to recognize the state of Israel, renounce violence and disarm. “It is the view of the Quartet (UN, EU, American and Russia) that all members of a future Palestinian government must be committed to nonviolence, recognition of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations, including the Roadmap. We urge both parties to respect their existing agreements, including on movement and access."
(AP, 1/30/06)(http://tinyurl.com/fut5w)
2006 Jan 31, Israeli troops killed two Islamic Jihad militants, including Nidal Abu Saada, the group's top leader in the West Bank, during a shootout that erupted during an arrest raid.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, Saudi Arabia and Jordan pressed the Islamic militant group Hamas to moderate its stand on Israel and to entice the defeated Fatah party into a deal to share power.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Feb 1, Two top Egyptian officials called on Hamas to recognize Israel, disarm and honor past peace deals, the latest sign Arab governments are pushing the militant group to moderate after its surprise election victory.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 1, Israeli forces completed the evacuation of the Amona West Bank settlement outpost, ending a violent operation in which dozens of people were injured in clashes between police and Jewish settlers.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 1, Israel said it froze this month's transfer of $45 million in tax rebates and customs payments to the Palestinian Authority while it reviews its options following the Hamas victory in last week's parliamentary election. A senior Palestinian official said Saudi Arabia and Qatar pledged Wednesday to transfer millions to ease the crisis.
(AP, 2/1/06)
2006 Feb 2, Armed militants, angered by a cartoon drawing of the Prophet Muhammad published in European media, surrounded EU offices in Gaza and threatened to kidnap foreigners as outrage over the caricatures spread across the Islamic world. A fatwa was issued by Yussuf al-Qaradawi, a Brotherhood sheikh with his own program on al-Jazeera. Other radical groups joined the fray. Although there is no Quranic injunction against images, Islam in its early years came into contact with a version of Christianity that was militantly iconoclastic and some Muslim theologians issued fatwas against any depiction of the Godhead.
(AP, 2/2/06)(WSJ, 2/8/06, p.A16)
2006 Feb 3, A study by the Israeli Research Institute for Economic and Social Affairs determined that more than $14 billion has been spent on West Bank settlements since capturing the territory in 1967.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 4, A Palestinian man stabbed five people on a minibus in central Israel, killing one woman before passengers subdued him.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 4, Rage against caricatures of Islam's revered prophet poured out across the Muslim world. Aggrieved believers in Syria called for executions, stormed, European buildings and torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus. In Gaza Palestinians marched through the streets, storming European buildings and burning German and Danish flags.
(AP, 2/4/06)(AP, 2/4/07)
2006 Feb 5, Israeli aircraft fired three missiles at a building used by militants in Gaza City, killing three people and wounding five.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 5, Israel agreed to make a crucial payment of $54 million in tax and customs revenues to the Palestinians, but officials said future transfers will be halted once Hamas militants form the next Palestinian government.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 6, Israeli forces fired a missile at a car in the northern Gaza Strip after nightfall killing two Palestinian militants, including a man described as a senior commander.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 8, Hundreds of Palestinians attacked an international observer mission in Hebron, throwing stones and smashing windows as dozens of foreigners were trapped inside.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, Khaled Batch, a leader of the militant Islamic Jihad group, said the group rejects the idea of a long-term truce with Israel and will not join a Hamas-led government. Islamic Jihad, which is believed to be funded, in part, by Iran, boycotted last month's Palestinian parliament election.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 8, A dispute over the fate of an ancient Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem threatened to ignite tensions as workers removed skeletons from the site despite Muslim pleas for the work to end. Israeli developers and archaeologists were removing the tombs to make room for the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center to build a multi-million-dollar Museum of Tolerance, dedicated in part to promoting understanding among different religions.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 9, Palestinian prosecutors froze bank accounts and seized assets of dozens of suspects in a widening corruption probe of senior government officials believed to have stolen hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 9, Two masked gunmen shot out the tires of a diplomatic vehicle and kidnapped Egypt's military attache to the Palestinian Authority, in a brazen daylight abduction just outside the heavily guarded Egyptian mission in Gaza City.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin invited leaders of Hamas to Moscow, saying his country does not see the Palestinian group as a terrorist organization.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 13, The outgoing Palestinian parliament passed legislation giving Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas the power to appoint a court that could veto legislation passed by the new Hamas-led parliament to be sworn in this week.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 14, The NY Times reported that the US and Israel are considering a campaign to starve the Palestinian Authority of cash so Palestinians would grow disillusioned with their incoming militant Hamas rulers and return ousted Fatah moderates to power.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 18, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas asked Hamas to form the next Palestinian government, but demanded that the Islamic militant group recognize existing peace deals and fall in line with his moderate policies, including negotiations with Israel.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, Hamas legislator Abdel Aziz Duaik, a geography professor from the West Bank, was elected speaker of the new Palestinian parliament.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 19, Ismail Haniyeh (46), a Gaza lawmaker seen as a leader of Hamas' pragmatic wing, was nominated to be Palestinian prime minister.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, Israel's Cabinet approved an immediate freeze on the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax money to the Palestinians in its first response to the takeover of the Palestinian parliament by the militant group Hamas.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League, said that members would meet this week to hammer out a plan for sending millions of dollars a month to the Palestinian Authority, despite US attempts to stop the flow of money to the new Hamas-led government.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 19, An Israeli aircraft attacked two Palestinians laying a bomb near the Gaza-Israel border fence. Palestinians said two militants were killed.
(AP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 20, Hamas began coalition talks to form the Palestinians' first government led by Islamic militants after winning the nod from moderate Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 21, Hamas presented its choice for Palestinian prime minister. Ismail Haniyeh (43), a pragmatic former university administrator, and the Islamic militant group reached out to other factions, including Fatah, to join a broad-based Cabinet that might stand a chance of gaining international approval.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 22, Iran offered to help finance a Palestinian Authority run by the Hamas militant group, state radio said in a report that brought a quick warning from Israel that it would do all it could legally to stop the Palestinians from receiving the money.
(AP, 2/22/06)
2006 Feb 23, Israeli troops killed five Palestinians, including three fugitive gunmen, and seriously wounded a sixth man during an arrest sweep in the Balata refugee camp. The sweep, which began Feb 20, left a total of 8 Palestinians dead and over 50 injured.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 24, Israel's air force fired a missile at a group of Palestinian militants firing rockets at Israeli targets.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 25, A senior US diplomat said the US will continue to give humanitarian aid to ease the plight of the Palestinians despite militant group Hamas's victory in elections.
(AP, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 27, Israel said it will not hold peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas because he is powerless to enforce agreements while the Islamic militant group Hamas controls his government.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Feb 27, The EU agreed to grant $145 million in urgent aid to the Palestinians before a government led by the Islamic militant group Hamas takes power, a move aimed at preventing a financial collapse that could add to the chaos in the Middle East.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Mar 1, Palestinian leaders returned some $30 million of $46 million that the US donated directly to the government and will send back the rest before the militant Hamas organization takes over. The current government, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' moderate Fatah Party, agreed under US pressure to return about $46 million in unspent direct donations. The Palestinian Authority gets about $1 billion of its annual $1.9 billion budget from overseas donors, with European nations the largest contributors.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 1, An explosion in a car in Gaza City killed rocket maker Khaled Dahdouh (45), Islamic Jihad's top military commander in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military, which carries out pinpointed attacks against militants in the coastal strip, said it was not involved. Palestinian militants shot and killed a Jewish settler traveling on a road near the settlement of Tapuah.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 2, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said in a published interview that the al-Qaida terror network has infiltrated the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 2, South Africa joined a growing list of countries inviting Hamas leaders for talks, raising Israeli concerns that the international front against the Islamic militants is crumbling.
(AP, 3/2/06)
2006 Mar 3, Khaled Mashaal, Hamas' political leader, rejected any discussion about the militant group's refusal to recognize Israel, dealing a setback to Moscow's efforts to persuade it to soften its stance.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 3, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian teenager and wounded a second person during an early morning raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 6, Hamas lawmakers in Palestine voted to revoke decisions made by the Fatah-led parliament at its last meeting in February, including more power for Pres. Abbas.
(WSJ, 3/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 6, Israeli aircraft blew up a truck carrying Islamic Jihad militants, killing two of them and three bystanders, including two children. The Israeli military confirmed it attacked the truck, saying the target was one of the dead men, Islamic Jihad operative Moner Sukar, who had carried out rocket attacks against Israel.
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 7, The World Bank announced a $42 million grant to the Palestinian Authority, which was plunged into a financial crisis by a drop in revenues after the Islamic militant group Hamas won Palestinian parliament elections in January.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 10, The EU threatened to cut off aid to a Hamas-led Palestinian government "unless it seeks peace by peaceful means," its strongest signal to the new leadership.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 14, Israel’s acting PM Ehud Olmert pledged to annex the Ariel Jewish settlement deep in the West Bank, a message aimed at appeasing settlers alarmed by his plans to withdraw from large parts of the West Bank over the next four years.
(AP, 3/14/06)
2006 Mar 14, Israeli forces driving bulldozers and firing tank shells and missiles burst into a Palestinian prison and removed dozens of inmates in a raid targeting prisoners convicted of killing an Israeli Cabinet minister. Palestinian gunmen kidnapped an American teacher at a university in the West Bank following the raid by Israeli forces. A UN aid agency and the International Committee of the Red Cross said they were temporarily pulling all foreign staff out of the West Bank and Gaza, after gunmen kidnapped nine foreigners in just a few hours.
(AP, 3/14/06)(Econ, 3/18/06, p.49)
2006 Mar 15, Palestinian militants released the last four foreigners they had seized a day earlier to protest an Israeli military raid on a West Bank prison. Meanwhile, Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas called the raid an "unforgivable crime."
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 16, Israeli troops surrounded two houses in the West Bank town of Jenin, setting off a fierce gunbattle with Palestinian militants that left one Israeli soldier dead and forced the surrender of five wanted men.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 16, The World Bank warned that the Palestinian economy will be devastated if Israel and the international community follow through on threats to cut off financial assistance once Hamas assumes power.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 18, Hamas said it has formed a government two weeks before a deadline but apparently without coalition partners that might have softened the Islamic militant group's image.
(AP, 3/18/06)
2006 Mar 20, Palestinian gunmen from the ousted Fatah Party stormed government buildings, briefly took over a power plant and blocked a vital road in the Gaza Strip, injecting more chaos into the volatile area as Hamas militants readied to take power.
(AP, 3/20/06)
2006 Mar 21, Israel reopened the Gaza Strip's main cargo crossing to alleviate a food shortage in the area.
(AP, 3/21/06)
2006 Mar 21, Israel indicted two West Bank Palestinians on charges of belonging to al-Qaida and plotting to carry out a double bombing for the group in Jerusalem, the first time Palestinians have been formally linked to the terror network.
(AP, 3/21/06)
2006 Mar 22, Israeli troops raided the Aqwar Jaba West Bank refugee camp, killing a wanted Palestinian militant and forcing two others to surrender.
(AP, 3/22/06)
2006 Mar 26, Hamas pressed Arab leaders gathering for a summit in Sudan to triple their financial support to Palestinians and provide it fast, saying its government will need around $170 million a month, mostly for salaries.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 28, The Palestinian parliament overwhelming approved the new Hamas Cabinet, setting the stage for the new administration to take office later this week.
(AP, 3/28/06)
2006 Mar 29, Hamas formally took power, and the newly installed prime minister pledged to cooperate with President Mahmoud Abbas, head of the defeated Fatah party. The bush administration and Canada cut all official ties as the new government was sworn in.
(AP, 3/29/06)(SFC, 3/30/06, p.A12)
2006 Mar 30, A Palestinian militant killed four Israelis in a suicide bombing in the West Bank, weeks after being released from a Palestinian prison.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Mar 30, The EU, Russia, the UN and the US warned the Hamas-led Palestinian government that it must recognize Israel and seek peace talks if it wants to be guaranteed continued aid.
(AP, 3/30/06)
2006 Mar 31, Abu Yousef Abu Quka, a top commander of a small militant Palestinian group, was killed when his car mysteriously exploded in flames. A shootout between rival Palestinian factions erupted shortly after the blast.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Apr 4, Israeli warplanes fired three missiles into the presidential compound of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, wounding 2 people and leaving deep craters in the ground.
(AP, 4/4/06)
2006 Apr 5, PM Ismail Haniyeh said the new Hamas-led government is broke and missed the April 1 monthly pay date for tens of thousands of Palestinian public workers.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 6, Palestinian PM Ismail Haniya said his Hamas-led government would study any Israeli offer for negotiations following an unprecedented peace overture to the UN.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 7, The EU said it has cut off direct aid payments to the Hamas-led Palestinian government because of its refusal to renounce violence and recognize Israel.
(AP, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 7, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man during an overnight arrest raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 7, Israeli missiles slammed into a car in Gaza City, killing two members of a Palestinian rocket squad in the 2nd deadly airstrike since the Islamic militant group Hamas assumed power last week. An Israeli airstrike killed six Palestinian militants and wounded five at a militant training camp in central Gaza.
(AP, 4/8/06)(SFC, 4/8/06, p.A7)
2006 Apr 9, Israel's security Cabinet recommended that the government cut all ties with the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and declare it a "hostile entity." Israeli artillery fire killed a Palestinian police officer and wounded 16 people in Gaza, as Israel escalated its retaliation for militant rocket strikes and put pressure on the new Hamas-led government that refuses to stop the attacks.
(AP, 4/9/06)
2006 Apr 10, EU foreign ministers endorsed a freeze of aid to the Palestinian government but said they would seek alternative ways of providing money for humanitarian projects.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 10, Israel suspended formal security ties with the Palestinians in a bid to further isolate the new Hamas government one day after declaring it a hostile entity.
(AP, 4/10/06)
2006 Apr 10, Hadil Ghaben (8) was killed when 2 Israeli shells blew huge holes in a concrete block house in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip. The girl's mother and seven siblings were hurt in the attack.
(AP, 4/11/06)
2006 Apr 10, Lebanon arrested 9 Lebanese and Palestinians suspected of plotting the assassination of Hezbollah’s leader.
(WSJ, 4/11/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 11, The UN said it has ended its policy of unrestricted political contacts with the Palestinians and will now assess every request for political talks with the new Hamas-run government.
(AP, 4/11/06)
2006 Apr 12, The US Treasury Department said "transactions with the Palestinian Authority by US persons are prohibited, unless licensed." It said the decision was based on "existing terrorism sanctions."
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 12, The Israeli army killed to Al Aqsa infiltrators trying to enter from Gaza.
(WSJ, 4/13/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 15, Palestinian police sealed off a main road and briefly stormed a government building in the central Gaza town of Khan Younis, angered by the Hamas-led government's failure to pay them.
(AP, 4/15/06)
2006 Apr 16, State-run television reported that Iran will give the financially strapped Palestinian Authority $50 million in aid.
(AP, 4/16/06)
2006 Apr 17, Israeli soldiers holed up in a home in Nablus opened fire on stone-throwing protesters outside the building, wounding two people, including a 13-year-old boy. Sami Hammad, a Palestinian suicide bomber, blew himself up outside a fast-food restaurant in Tel Aviv during the Passover holiday, killing 9 other people and wounding at least 49 in the deadliest Palestinian attack in more than a year. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. Daniel Wultz (16) of Florida was among 11 people killed in the restaurant attack. In 2012 an Israeli advocacy group won a $323 million judgement in US court against Iran and Syria for supporting Palestinian militants involved in the attack.
(AP, 4/17/06)(SFC, 4/18/06, p.A1)(Econ, 4/22/06, p.47)(SFC, 5/16/12, p.A2)
2006 Apr 17, Qatar said it would give the Palestinian government $50 million in aid to help make up for a shortfall after the US and the EU cut off funding.
(AP, 4/17/06)
2006 Apr 18, Israel decided to revoke the Jerusalem residency rights of four Hamas lawmakers, a response to a suicide bombing that killed nine civilians in a Tel Aviv restaurant. Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a metal workshop in Gaza City.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 18, Jordan accused Hamas activists of smuggling missiles and other weapons into the kingdom and said it was canceling a planned visit of the Palestinian foreign minister, the second diplomatic snub for the Hamas-led government in a week.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 21, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas blocked Hamas' plans to set up a shadow security force, which was to be made up of militants and to be headed by the No. 2 on Israel's wanted list.
(AP, 4/21/06)
2006 Apr 21, A senior military commander said Israel is actively preparing to reoccupy the Gaza Strip and a powerful lawmaker said the entire Palestinian Cabinet could be targeted for assassination after the appointment of a wanted militant to head a new security force.
(AP, 4/21/06)
2006 Apr 23, The militant Hamas group and the rival Fatah Party agreed to work together to restore calm following violent clashes and mass protests across the Palestinian areas over their struggle for control over security forces.
(AP, 4/23/06)
2006 Apr 23, Israeli forces fired on a car of alleged militants in Bethlehem killing 2 people.
(WSJ, 4/24/06, p.A1)
2006 Apr 27, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at two cars in Gaza packed with rockets, killing one Islamic Jihad militant and critically wounding another.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 Apr 28, A senior Israeli military official said Palestinian militants have smuggled dozens of Katyusha rockets into the Gaza Strip, potentially threatening towns well inside Israel.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 May 1, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian woman and wounded her two daughters when they fired on a West Bank house that an Islamic Jihad militant was hiding in.
(AP, 5/1/06)
2006 May 2, An explosion destroyed a building inside a Palestinian national security compound in the northern Gaza Strip, killing two police officers and wounding seven others.
(AP, 5/2/06)
2006 May 5, An Israeli air strike killed 5 members of a group with close ties to the ruling Hamas movement in a Gaza City neighborhood training ground for militants.
(AP, 5/6/06)
2006 May 6, Teachers at five schools in the West Bank city of Hebron went on strike, demanding their overdue paychecks in the first sign of unrest by public employees. Hundreds of government workers, most of them supporters of Abbas' moderate Fatah faction, also protested in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 5/6/06)
2006 May 7, Israeli police armed with batons evicted dozens of Jewish squatters from a Palestinian home in West Bank city of Hebron, in an important test for Israel's new government and its plans to uproot tens of thousands of settlers.
(AP, 5/7/06)
2006 May 8, In Gaza rival gunmen from Hamas and Fatah fought with assault rifles and missiles, killing 3 militants in the bloodiest internal fighting since Hamas came to power six weeks ago.
(AP, 5/8/06)
2006 May 9, Renewed clashes between Hamas and Fatah militants wounded nine Palestinians, including five children, raising fears that Palestinian territories could erupt in a much wider conflagration.
(AP, 5/9/06)
2006 May 9, The United States bowed to pressure from its allies and agreed to support a new program to temporarily funnel additional aid directly to the Palestinian people.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 10, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said senior members of the rival Hamas and Fatah factions had forged a joint platform, including acceptance of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 10, Israel said it will give the Palestinians until the end of the year to prove they are willing to negotiate a final peace deal, and will unilaterally set its final borders by 2008 if they don't. Israeli and Palestinian officials said the Israeli company that provides fuel to the Palestinian areas is cutting off supplies due to growing debts. Israel said it was willing to release millions of dollars in funds it has withheld from the Palestinians and was considering easing restrictions on the transport of goods between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 5/10/06)(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 12, A Palestinian was killed in a large Israeli raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 14, Israeli troops raided a village in the West Bank, killing 5 Palestinians, including a militant Israel blamed for several suicide bombings that have killed dozens of Israelis.
(AP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 15, The Palestine Liberation Organization reopened its Beirut office, closed since the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
(AP, 5/15/06)
2006 May 16, Shooting attacks in the Gaza Strip left one Hamas member dead and two others wounded.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 17, The Palestinians' defiant Hamas-led government sent a 3000-man force into the streets of Gaza, disregarding President Mahmoud Abbas' order banning the creation of the security body and raising the stakes in their deepening power struggle.
(AP, 5/17/06)(WSJ, 5/18/06, p.A1)
2006 May 18, Thousands of police loyal to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas marched in a show of force, a day after the Hamas-led government deployed 3,000 heavily armed militants in a daring challenge.
(AP, 5/18/06)
2006 May 19, A gun battle erupted between the new Hamas security force and rival Fatah forces in Gaza City, police officials said. Two police officers were wounded.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 20, A bomb blast seriously wounded Tareq Abu Rajab, the Palestinian intelligence chief, at his headquarters in what security officials called an assassination attempt against a key ally of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. One bodyguard was killed.
(AP, 5/20/06)
2006 May 20, In Gaza City an Israeli missile killed Mohammed Dadouh, the top military commander of the militant group Islamic Jihad. A 2nd missile killed civilians: 3 generations of the Amen family, a grandmother, mother and son were killed, and a 4-year-old daughter and uncle were paralyzed. The Israeli Defense Ministry later decided to pay the Amen family’s medical expenses as "special humanitarian treatment."
(AP, 6/8/06)
2006 May 21, The Israeli Cabinet approved the transfer of $11 million worth of medicine and health supplies to the Palestinians to help ease the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Officials said that Israel has approved plans to expand four Jewish settlements in the West Bank, a practice the United States has opposed in the past.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 22, Hamas militiamen and Palestinian police traded heavy fire near Gaza City's parliament building, killing the driver of the Jordanian ambassador and wounding six people in the worst internal fighting in recent weeks.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 May 23, Ibrahim Hamed (41), a top Hamas military commander, surrendered in Ramallah after Israeli troops surrounded his hideout and threatened to demolish it with him inside. He was linked by Israel to attacks that killed 78 people, including five Americans.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 24, Fierce gunbattles broke out between Israeli troops and Palestinians in the heart of the West Bank city of Ramallah, killing two Palestinians and wounding 30.
(AP, 5/24/06)
2006 May 25, A gunfight between a Palestinian security force and a Hamas militia killed one police officer and wounded four others in the latest outbreak of internal Palestinian fighting.
(AP, 5/25/06)
2006 May 26, The Hamas-led government withdrew a controversial 3,000-member private militia from the streets of Gaza, saying it wanted to reduce friction with the rival Fatah movement.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 May 26, In Lebanon security officials said a car bomb killed Mahmoud Majzoub (41), a leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and his brother Nidal (39). Islamic Jihad vowed retaliation. The Iran-backed militant group had persisted in attacking Israel while other major factions adhered to a cease-fire. Islamic Jihad is led by Ramadan Shallah, a Palestinian from Gaza who now lives in exile in Syria. It considers the 1979 Iranian Revolution to be the beginning of a new era for the Muslim world and wants to turn all of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza into an Islamic state. It rejects compromise with Israel.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 May 27, The Hamas-led government sent its private militia back into the streets of Gaza, a day after withdrawing the force to help calm an increasingly bloody standoff with forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 5/27/06)
2006 May 28, Lebanese guerrillas fired a barrage of rockets into northern Israel, wounding an Israeli soldier at a military base. Israel destroyed most of the military positions of Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas along its northern border. Rocket and artillery exchanges killed two guerrillas in Lebanon and wounded two Israeli soldiers, two Lebanese civilians and six militants.
(AP, 5/28/06)(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 May 30, Israel launched its first ground military operation inside the Gaza Strip since it pulled out of the region nearly a year ago, killing three members of a Palestinian rocket squad and a policeman in a fierce battle.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2006 May 31, Palestinian militants fired homemade rockets at an Israeli town near the Gaza Strip, and Israeli media reported that one landed near the home of Israel's defense minister.
(AP, 5/31/06)
2006 Jun 1, Several thousand police officers fired into the air and smashed windows of the Palestinian parliament building, raising fears of new unrest in Gaza after the Hamas-led government said it still cannot pay most of its workers.
(AP, 6/1/06)
2006 Jun 2, Israel has begun laying the foundations for Maskiot, a new Jewish settlement deep in the West Bank, breaking a promise to Washington while strengthening its hold on a stretch of desert it wants to keep as it draws its final borders.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 4, The Hamas-led Palestinian government rejected a deadline to accept a proposal that implicitly recognizes Israel, saying President Mahmoud Abbas' plan for a referendum on the matter is illegal. Members of a new, unarmed security force loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deployed in Jenin in a move that residents feared could provoke clashes with rival factions.
(AP, 6/4/06)(Reuters, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 5, Hamas militants stormed a Palestinian TV broadcast facility in the southern Gaza Strip, kicking workers out of the building and destroying equipment in a shooting rampage. A large explosion ripped through a house in northern Gaza, killing a member of the Hamas militant group and wounding two other people, including his 8-year-old son.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 6, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gave the governing Hamas party on three more days to accept a document that implicitly recognizes Israel, threatening to bring the issue to a national referendum.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 7, Palestine’s Hamas-led government agreed to withdraw a controversial private militia from public areas of Gaza in an agreement with the rival Fatah movement aimed at halting weeks of bloody infighting. A border clash with Israeli soldiers left 3 Palestinians dead.
(AP, 6/7/06)(WSJ, 6/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 8, The Hamas-led government's 3,000-member private militia showed no signs of withdrawing from Gaza's streets despite a deal with the rival Fatah movement to remove it from public areas.
(AP, 6/8/06)
2006 Jun 8, The Israeli military struck a PRC training camp in the southern Gaza town of Rafah. Abu Samhadana (43), Hamas government's top security chief, was killed when four missiles struck. 3 other militants were also killed and 10 wounded. Palestinians fired 2 rockets into Israel hitting a building in Sderot.
(AP, 6/9/06)
2006 Jun 9, Palestinians fired rockets into Israel and vowed to avenge Israel's assassination of Abu Samhadana, the Hamas government's top security chief. Israeli artillery fired shells at targets in the northern Gaza Strip. 8 civilians, including 5 children, died and over 30 people were wounded at a beachside picnic. The Israeli government issued a statement of regret and launched an investigation [see June 13]. A separate Israeli strike killed 3 people in the northern Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 6/10/06, p.A3)(AP, 6/11/06)
2006 Jun 10, The ruling Hamas group fired a barrage of homemade rockets at Israel, hours after calling off a truce with Israel in anger over an artillery attack that killed seven civilians at a beachside picnic in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 6/10/06)
2006 Jun 11, Palestinian militants fired about 10 rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip, critically injuring an Israeli and nearly hitting a college in the southern Israel town of Sderot. In return Israeli aircraft struck a rocket-launching cell in the northern Gaza Strip, killing two militants from the Palestinians' ruling Hamas party.
(AP, 6/11/06)
2006 Jun 12, Hundreds of Palestinian security men loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas went on a rampage against the Hamas-led government, riddling the parliament building and Cabinet offices with bullets before setting them ablaze in retaliation for an attack by Hamas gunmen in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 6/12/06)
2006 Jun 13, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert said he had given the go ahead for a shipment of weapons to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, whose loyalists are engaged in bitter infighting with the militant Islamic Hamas. A failed Israeli airstrike targeting a key figure in Palestinian rocket attacks killed 9 people, including two children and three medical workers who rushed to the scene of an initial blast. 2 of the dead were members of the Islamic Jihad. An Israeli investigation into what caused an explosion on a Gaza beach that killed eight Palestinians said that the blast was most likely caused by a mine planted by Hamas militants against Israeli naval commandos and not an Israeli shell.
(AP, 6/13/06)(AP, 6/14/06)
2006 Jun 14, Dozens of Palestinian civil servants stormed a parliamentary session to demand long-overdue salaries, attacking Hamas lawmakers and forcing the parliament speaker to flee the building. Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, who has been seeking to raise money for the financially strapped government, returned to the Gaza Strip with luggage containing $20 million in cash from Muslim nations. A Hamas militant was shot and killed outside his home in the Gaza town of Khan Younis after Hamas gunmen shot a security commander loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 6/14/06)(AP, 6/15/06)
2006 Jun 15, The Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Israel must move part of its barrier meant to keep Palestinian attackers out because it causes hardships to nearby West Bank residents. Palestinian militants fired five rockets at southern Israel, shortly after officials said Israeli threats had cowered the Hamas-led government into stopping the attacks. A Hamas government minister returned to the Gaza Strip with $2 million in his luggage for his money-starved government.
(AP, 6/15/06)
2006 Jun 16, EU leaders agreed to channel aid to cash-starved Palestinians for health care, utilities and social services while still maintaining a funding freeze on the Hamas-led government.
(AP, 6/16/06)
2006 Jun 18, Thousands of Palestinian government workers who have been living without salaries for nearly four months received food packets from the UN.
(AP, 6/19/06)
2006 Jun 19, Israel's defense minister has ordered a review of the route of Israel's separation barrier to better reflect Palestinian concerns, a decision that could have significant implications for Israel's future borders.
(AP, 6/19/06)
2006 Jun 20, In Gaza City Mohammed Roka (5), Samia el-Sharif (5), and Bilal Al-hassi (16) were killed by an Israeli missile that hit a group of children, but didn't kill the militants in the targeted car. After the air attack went awry, Israel defended its pursuit of militants, but said it would "continue to take every precaution to keep civilians out of harm's way."
(AP, 6/21/06)
2006 Jun 23, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired three homemade rockets into Israel, hours after the Israeli prime minister pledged to push forward with airstrikes against the militants despite a recent string of civilian casualties.
(AP, 6/23/06)
2006 Jun 24, Israeli troops briefly entered the Gaza Strip before dawn and arrested two Hamas militants, one of their first incursions into the Palestinian-controlled area since last summer's withdrawal.
(AP, 6/24/06)
2006 Jun 25, Hamas militants infiltrated southern Israel through a tunnel from the Gaza Strip and attacked a tank with bombs and grenades, killing two crew members and kidnapping a third. Gilad Shalit (19), an Israeli corporal, was kidnapped. Israeli military officials said seven or eight militants crossed under a border fence through a tunnel that extended 300 yards inside Israel. Soldiers shot dead three gunmen. 3 groups claimed responsibility: the Islamic Army, the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.
(AP, 6/25/06)(Econ, 7/1/06, p.41)
2006 Jun 26, Israel massed troops along the Gaza Strip border in preparation for what PM Ehud Olmert said would be a "broad and ongoing" operation against Palestinian militants following the abduction of an Israeli soldier.
(AP, 6/26/06)
2006 Jun 27, The rival Hamas and Fatah movements agreed on a plan implicitly recognizing Israel, after weeks of acrimonious negotiations aiming to lift crippling international aid sanctions. A Palestinian militant leader said a captured Israeli soldier was being held in a "secure place," and he claimed that his group also seized a Jewish settler in the West Bank. A massive explosion demolished a car traveling near the residence of President Mahmoud Abbas, killing an unknown number of people inside. The blast scattered debris and body parts up to 200 yards away. The Israeli army said it was not involved in the blast.
(AP, 6/27/06)
2006 Jun 28, Israeli tanks and troops entered southern Gaza in the early morning and planes attacked three bridges and knocked out electricity and water supplies for most of the 1.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip. An Israeli Cabinet minister accused the Hamas leader in Syria of ordering the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip and said he is a target for assassination. A Palestinian militant group threatened to kill an abducted Jewish settler if Israel doesn't stop its raid on the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 6/28/06)
2006 Jun 29, Israeli troops rounded up 27 Palestinian ministers and lawmakers from the ruling Hamas party, including the deputy prime minister, while forging ahead with a military campaign in Gaza meant to win the release of an Israeli soldier held by Hamas gunmen. Palestinian militants detonated a land mine near the border with Egypt, blowing open a large hole in a wall near the border. Israeli aircraft fired on a car carrying suspected Palestinian militants in Gaza City. One person was wounded. A missing 62-year-old man that Palestinian militants claimed to have kidnapped was found dead, apparently of natural causes. A Palestinian militant group said it killed an 18-year-old Israeli settler kidnapped earlier in the West Bank. Pro-Palestinian hackers shut down hundreds of Israeli Web sites as Israeli troops invaded southern Gaza after the abduction of an Israeli soldier.
(AP, 6/29/06)(SFC, 6/29/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 30, An Israeli airstrike hit a car driving down a main road in Gaza City, and two people were injured.
(AP, 6/30/06)
2006 Jul 1, Palestinian militants holding an Israeli soldier issued a new set of demands, calling for the release of 1,000 prisoners and a halt to Israel's military offensive in Gaza. But Israel rejected them.
(AP, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 2, Israeli aircraft sent missiles tearing through the office of Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh in an unmistakable message to his ruling Hamas group to free an Israeli soldier.
(AP, 7/2/06)
2006 Jul 3, Palestinian militants holding an Israeli soldier gave Israel less than 24 hours to start releasing 1,500 Palestinian prisoners and implied that he would be killed if it did not comply, but Israel said it would not negotiate.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 4, PM Ehud Olmert ignored a deadline to begin releasing Palestinian prisoners and instead issued a veiled threat against Syria, vowing to strike "those who sponsor" the militants in the Gaza Strip who seized a young Israeli soldier.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 4, Palestinian militants hit an Israeli city with a rocket from Gaza for the first time, causing no casualties but drawing a pledge of harsh retaliation from Israel while it was already in the midst of a military offensive.
(AP, 7/4/06)
2006 Jul 5, Israeli leaders authorized troops to move into residential areas of the Gaza Strip as they increase pressure on militants holding an Israeli soldier and look to create a security zone to prevent Palestinians from firing rockets into Israel.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 6, Israeli forces took over the remains of three abandoned Jewish settlements in the northern Gaza Strip and entered a nearby Palestinian town, creating a temporary buffer zone to prevent Palestinian militants from firing rockets at Israel. At least 21 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed in the fighting.
(AP, 7/6/06)(SFC, 7/7/06, p.A3)
2006 Jul 7, Israel launched an airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip. Witnesses said three Palestinians were killed. The Israeli military said the attack on the town of Beit Lahiya targeted a group of militants. Palestinians said 32 people had died in days of Gaza fighting.
(AP, 7/7/06)(WSJ, 7/8/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 8, The Hamas-led Palestinian government called for a cease-fire in its violent two-week standoff with Israel but stopped short of offering to release an Israeli soldier held by Hamas militants. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected the proposal by Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Olmert will not agree to a truce until Hamas releases the soldier. Israeli tanks and troops clashed with militants in eastern Gaza.
(AP, 7/8/06)
2006 Jul 9, Top officials said Israel will push forward with its offensive in the Gaza Strip until Palestinian militants release a captured Israeli soldier and halt their rocket attacks.
(AP, 7/9/06)
2006 Jul 10, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a car in southern Gaza, killing two Islamic Jihad militants. Israeli PM Olmert rebuffed criticism of Gaza tactics as 8 Palestinians died.
(AP, 7/10/06)(WSJ, 7/11/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 11, President Mahmoud Abbas' office said it had received $50 million from the Arab League, the most international aid Palestinians have gotten since the Islamic militant group Hamas won legislative elections.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 11, Israeli leaders ordered new incursions into the Gaza Strip after the Hamas leader said he would not free an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian militants.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 12, Israel killed 18 Palestinians in Gaza including nine members of one family in an air strike that destroyed a residential building where the army said top Hamas commanders were meeting.
(Reuters, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 12, Acting on behalf of Arab nations, Qatar circulated a revised draft UN Security Council resolution demanding Israel end its offensive in the Gaza Strip and release the Palestinian officials it has arrested.
(AP, 7/12/06)
2006 Jul 13, An Israeli warplane bombed the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, collapsing part of the structure and causing widespread damage in the area.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 15, Israeli aircraft fired at least one missile at a house in Gaza City. Palestinian rescue workers said two Palestinians were killed and many others wounded. Since the offensive began in Gaza, 86 Palestinians have been killed, many of them gunmen.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 15, Arab foreign ministers held an emergency summit in Cairo over Israel's expanding assault on Lebanon, the worst Israeli attack on its neighbor in 24 years.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 17, Israel bombed the Palestinian Foreign Ministry building in Gaza City, pushing ahead with its 3-week offensive in Gaza.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 18, Egypt and Israel reopened the Rafah border crossing for the first time in three weeks, triggering a rush to the border by thousands of Palestinians who had been waiting in Egypt.
(AP, 7/18/06)
2006 Jul 19, Israeli forces killed six Palestinians after tanks moved into a refugee camp in central Gaza under cover of machine gun fire.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 20, Israeli forces killed 3 people and wounded six in the Gaza Strip. The army dropped leaflets on towns and villages warning that homes hiding weapons would be attacked.
(AP, 7/20/06)
2006 Jul 21, A Hamas activist and three relatives were killed in an explosion at his home in Gaza City, hospital officials said. Palestinians said the house was hit by an Israeli tank shell.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 23, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired three rockets at Israel, despite reports that they had agreed to halt such attacks.
(AP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 24, Israeli artillery shelled a town in the Gaza Strip used by Palestinian militants to fire rockets, and hospital officials said three Palestinians were killed and eight were wounded.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 26, Israeli strikes killed 23 people in the Gaza Strip, including 16 militants and a mother and her two young daughters, in the deadliest day of fighting since Israel withdrew from the coastal strip last year.
(AP, 7/26/06)
2006 Jul 27, The Israeli air force fired missiles at a target in eastern Gaza City, wounding 15 people, at least one of them critically. 5 Palestinians were killed including a woman (75) and a child. A Palestinian was shot and killed in Jerusalem after he attacked a police patrol. The severely burned body of man, thought to be Israeli, was found in the West Bank.
(AP, 7/27/06)(SFC, 7/28/06, p.A14)
2006 Jul 28, Israeli troops withdrew from northern Gaza after a bloody two-day sweep that killed 29 Palestinians.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 29, Israeli tanks pushed back into the Gaza Strip before dawn, a day after ending a bloody, 3-day sweep that killed 30 Palestinians. Israeli troops killed 2 militants including Hani Awijan (29), a leader of the radical Islamic Jihad’s militant wing in Nablus, in a West Bank raid.
(AP, 7/29/06)(AP, 7/30/06)
2006 Aug 1, Israel's air force fired missiles into northern Gaza, killing a 14-year-old boy and wounding four others near Beit Hanoun.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 3, Israeli troops raided southern Gaza, killing at least eight Palestinians, including four militants and an 8-year-old boy.
(AP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 4, Israel began pulling tanks out of southern Gaza after a two-day incursion. Israeli troops conducted house-to-house searches in the southern Gaza Strip and killed three Palestinians with tanks and air strikes.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 5, Israel pressed ahead with its incursion into the southern Gaza Strip as airstrikes killed 5 Palestinians, including a mother and her 2 children. Tanks rolled to the edge of Rafah.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 6, Israeli forces arrested the speaker of the Palestinian parliament at his house in the West Bank, and pressed their monthlong offensive in Gaza against Hamas.
(AP, 8/6/06)
2006 Aug 12, Thousands of people gathered across from the White House, even though President Bush was out of town, to condemn US and Israeli policies in the Middle East. In SF thousands of protesters decried US Mideast policy and Israel’s military actions in Lebanon and Palestine. A smaller group demonstrated on behalf of Israel.
(SSFC, 8/13/06, p.B1)(AP, 8/12/07)
2006 Aug 14, In Gaza American reporter Steve Centanni (60) and New Zealand cameraman Olaf Wiig (36) were seized by masked gunmen near the headquarters of the Palestinian security services. An Israeli airstrike destroyed a house in the Gaza Strip, injuring at least eight people. The military said an Islamic Jihad command center was targeted but Palestinians said the building was empty.
(AP, 8/14/06)(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 16, Palestinian gunmen from the rival Hamas and Fatah militias clashed in southern Gaza, killing a 14-year old boy in the crossfire and injuring four others.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 18, Israeli soldiers killed 3 Palestinian gunmen and wounded 2 others in confrontations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
(WSJ, 8/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 19, Israeli soldiers in Ramallah arrested Nasser Shaer, the Palestinian deputy prime minister. He was the highest-ranking Hamas official rounded up in a seven-week-old crackdown against the ruling party.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 20, Israeli troops detained Mahmoud al-Ramahi, secretary-general of the Hamas parliament, pushing forward with a crackdown on the Islamic militant group.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 22, Israeli troops shot and killed three militants from the Islamic Jihad group near the Israel-Gaza border, as soldiers conducted house-to-house searches and made arrests elsewhere in the coast strip.
(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 23, A previously unknown Palestinian group released the first video of two kidnapped Fox News journalists and demanded that Muslim prisoners in US jails be released within 72 hours in exchange for the men. Correspondent Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig were later freed.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AP, 8/23/07)
2006 Aug 24, Israeli forces crossed into the Gaza Strip in a raid that captured a local Hamas militant leader and left his brother dead near a Gaza border town.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 25, In Jordan top leaders of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party gave their leader the go-ahead to begin forming a unity government with the militant Hamas in an effort to end internal feuding and international isolation.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 25, Israeli aircraft attacked two buildings in the Gaza Strip, wounding at least nine people.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 26, In the West Bank, Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen traded heavy fire during a standoff at a fugitives' hideout and doctors said a 16-year-old Palestinian was killed. Twenty Palestinians were wounded in the clashes in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at an armored car belonging to the Reuters news agency, wounding five people, including two cameramen. Two Hamas militants were killed in separate airstrikes.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, Militants freed Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig, two Fox News journalists in the Gaza Strip, ending a nearly two week hostage drama.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 28, Palestinian municipal workers responsible for garbage collection, water treatment, and sewage processing went on strike in Gaza City and two other southern towns.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Aug 28, An Israeli airstrike on central Gaza killed 4 Palestinian militants.
(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 30, Israeli troops launched airstrikes on the outskirts of Gaza City and exchanged gunfire with Palestinian militants, killing six people.
(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Aug 31, Israeli soldiers searching for tunnels and explosives withdrew from the outskirts of Gaza City, ending a five-day operation that Palestinians said left 20 people dead and heavily damaged houses, streets and farmlands. Palestinian militants fired five homemade rockets into Israel, defying the calls by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to halt the attacks.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Sep 1, World donors pledged $500 million in aid for Palestinians, including $55 million for a UN emergency appeal for humanitarian help. Carin Jamtin, Sweden's aid minister and host of the donors' conference held in the Swedish capital, said a total of $114 million of the money pledged will go toward humanitarian aid, with the rest going to rebuilding infrastructure and other projects.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 2, Unpaid teachers shut down thousands of schools across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the first day of the school year, in a major challenge to the Hamas government.
(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 5, Palestinian security officers went on the rampage in Gaza City to demand back pay from the cash-strapped Hamas-led government. Israel pressed ahead with its offensive against Hamas militants, killing five with airstrikes in the Rafah refugee camp.
(AP, 9/5/06)(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 6, Unpaid employees in the Palestinian prime minister's office joined a widespread strike that is challenging the survival of the Hamas-led government. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams met with a Hamas legislator in the West Bank and advised Israel and the Palestinians to solve their problems using the Northern Ireland formula, negotiations.
(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 9, The 10-week Israeli military operation, code named Summer Rains, left 230 Gazans dead, including over 60 children. It had no noticeable impact on militant activities.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.47)
2006 Sep 11, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and PM Ismail Haniyeh agreed that their moderate Fatah and militant Hamas parties would form a coalition government.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 12, An Israeli military court ordered the release of 18 imprisoned Hamas lawmakers, including three Cabinet ministers, and raised questions about the army's case. A spokesman for the outgoing Hamas-led administration said the group is prepared to back peace efforts with Israel as part of the new coalition government being formed by the Palestinians. Hamas militants killed an Israeli soldier during a gunbattle in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 13, The Palestinian Cabinet resigned to clear the way for a new unity government, and President Mahmoud Abbas said he plans to send a delegation to the UN to try to revive a Mideast peace plan.
(AP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 15, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a car in Gaza City carrying Brig. Gen. Jad Tayeh, a top Palestinian security officer, in a drive-by shooting that killed Tayeh and four of his bodyguards.
(AP, 9/15/06)
2006 Sep 16, Leaders across the Muslim world demanded Pope Benedict XVI apologize for his remarks on Islam and jihad. The Vatican said Pope Benedict XVI "sincerely" regretted offending Muslims with his reference to an obscure medieval text characterizing some of the teachings of Islam's founder as "evil and inhuman," but the statement stopped short of the apology demanded by Islamic leaders. Two West Bank Christian churches were hit by firebombs, and a group claiming responsibility said it was protesting Pope Benedict XVI's remarks about Islam.
(AP, 9/16/06)(AP, 9/16/07)
2006 Sep 18, Palestine’s PM Ismail Haniyeh's bodyguards opened fire outside the parliament building to disperse a crowd of protesters angry over the government's failure to end a growing economic crisis in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2006 Sep 18, Israel said it will consider freeing Palestinian prisoners and releasing millions of dollars in tax rebates to Palestinians if their government moderates its hardline views. Israel charged three Hezbollah members arrested in Lebanon during the recent war with murder for involvement in deadly attacks on soldiers.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2006 Sep 20, Pres. Bush met with Palestinian leader Abbas in a bid to restart Mideast peace efforts.
(WSJ, 9/21/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 20, Israeli forces raided the West Bank cities of Nablus and Jenin, destroying five foreign exchange depots and a bank and taking funds the army said were earmarked for terrorism. Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired two rockets at an Israeli town, wounding a 15-year-old boy and another person.
(AP, 9/20/06)
2006 Sep 21, Israeli forces killed at least 5 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as gunmen fired rockets into Israel.
(SFC, 9/22/06, p.A13)
2006 Sep 22, Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said he will not head a government that recognizes Israel, striking a potential blow to President Mahmoud Abbas' attempts to create a national unity government.
(AP, 9/22/06)
2006 Sep 26, Palestinian militants fired at least two rockets from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, wounding at least one person.
(AP, 9/26/06)
2006 Sep 27, An Israeli court released the Palestinian deputy prime minister, the highest ranking Hamas official to be freed following a crackdown on the Islamic militant group. But the court temporarily banned him from going to his government office in the city of Ramallah. Israeli airstrikes on a house in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah killed a 14-year-old girl and wounded seven other people.
(AP, 9/27/06)
2006 Sep 29, Israeli soldiers killed two Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip. Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters marched in the Gaza Strip to show their backing for the militant group, even as its efforts to form a national unity government appeared stalled.
(AP, 9/29/06)
2006 Sep 30, Thousands of government employees and security officials filled the streets of Gaza, burning tires, blocking roads and firing in the air to protest delays and complications in receiving their long-awaited salaries.
(AP, 9/30/06)
2006 Oct 1, Palestinian militiamen from the ruling Hamas opened fire on government workers protesting their unpaid salaries, touching off gunbattles with security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas. Seven people were killed in the violence.
(AP, 10/1/06)
2006 Oct 2, In the Gaza town of Rafah gunbattles between Fatah and Hamas left 2 people dead and 14 wounded.
(SFC, 10/3/06, p.A3)
2006 Oct 3, Gunmen linked to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement threatened to assassinate leaders of the rival Hamas group, heightening tensions from three days of fighting that has killed 10 Palestinians.
(AP, 10/3/06)
2006 Oct 4, Masked men killed a local Hamas political activist as he set out for morning prayers before dawn in the northern West Bank.
(AP, 10/4/06)
2006 Oct 6, Tens of thousands of Palestinians rallied in a Gaza Strip soccer stadium in a massive show of support for the ruling Hamas group and its beleaguered government. PM Ismail Haniyeh told supporters Hamas will not recognize Israel or give in to international pressure that has crippled the Palestinian government.
(AP, 10/6/06)
2006 Oct 8, Israeli troops shot and killed Osama Talad (21), a Palestinian militant, during a fierce gunbattle in the Balata West Bank refugee camp.
(AP, 10/8/06)
2006 Oct 10, Palestine’s militant Hamas group rejected key elements of a Qatari proposal to forge a power-sharing government with the rival Fatah group that would recognize Israel's right to exist and force militants to renounce violence.
(AP, 10/10/06)
2006 Oct 10, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian militant who infiltrated from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel wearing a bomb belt.
(AP, 10/11/06)
2006 Oct 11, Israeli forces killed Abdullah Mansour (31), a militant in the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, in the course of an overnight arrest raid.
(AP, 10/11/06)
2006 Oct 12, An Israeli drone fired two missiles at a crowd of Palestinians in a pre-dawn in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 3 Hamas militants and 3 bystanders including a father and his 13-year-old son. An Israeli airstrike targeting the home of Ashraf Farwana, a senior Hamas militant, killed his brother and a 2-year-old girl.
(AP, 10/12/06)(SFC, 10/13/06, p.A17)
2006 Oct 13, Israeli forces killed at least four people in a series of attacks throughout the Gaza Strip. The deaths brought to 13 the number of Palestinians killed by the military in Gaza since the army launched its latest ground incursion early on Oct 12.
(AFP, 10/13/06)
2006 Oct 14, Israeli troops killed six Palestinian gunmen in airstrikes in the Gaza Strip and set up a makeshift detention center just outside the territory.
(AP, 10/14/06)
2006 Oct 17, Israeli troops shot and killed three Palestinians, including a 16-year-old stone-thrower, in the West Bank town of Qabatiyeh.
(AP, 10/17/06)
2006 Oct 18, Israeli tanks and infantry took up positions on the Egypt-Gaza border, killing two Palestinian gunmen as the army broadened its search for arms smuggling tunnels.
(AP, 10/19/06)
2006 Oct 20, A Jewish settler watchdog group said more than 40 percent of unauthorized West Bank outposts are built on private Palestinian land, adding that there are no signs the Israeli government is taking steps to tear them down.
(AP, 10/20/06)
2006 Oct 21, Members of the Palestinian security forces fired in the air in Gaza City's main shopping district and burned tires near President Mahmoud Abbas' home to press demands for payment of salaries.
(AP, 10/21/06)
2006 Oct 22, Palestinian security forces blocked main Gaza Strip intersections, burning tires and snarling traffic to protest the Hamas-led government's inability to pay their salaries.
(AP, 10/22/06)
2006 Oct 23, Israeli troops shot and killed seven Palestinians, including a militant who led a rocket-launching operation.
(AP, 10/23/06)
2006 Oct 24, Palestinian gunmen kidnapped Emilio Morenatti (37), an Associated Press photographer in the Gaza Strip, grabbing him as he walked out of his apartment and whisking him away in their vehicle. Morenatti was freed the next day.
(AP, 10/24/06)(AP, 10/25/06)
2006 Oct 26, Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinians in exchanges of gunfire in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 10/26/06)
2006 Oct 27, Israeli army raids in the northern West Bank killed 3 Palestinians.
(AP, 10/27/06)
2006 Oct 30, Palestinian gunmen abducted a Spanish aid worker in the Gaza Strip. Roberto Vila (34) was released after a few hours.
(AP, 10/31/06)
2006 Nov 1, Israeli troops, backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, killed at least six Palestinian militants. The raid left 9 Palestinians and a soldier dead.
(AP, 11/1/06)(WSJ, 11/2/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 2, Israeli helicopter gunships, tanks and ground troops tightened their grip on Beit Hanoun, a northern Gaza town they overran a day before. 9 Palestinians were killed in Israel's biggest push in months to stop militant rocket fire.
(AP, 11/2/06)(SFC, 11/3/06, p.A22)(WSJ, 11/3/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 3, Hundreds of Palestinian women in robes and headscarves streamed into a Gaza combat zone to help free gunmen besieged by Israeli troops at a mosque. Two women who came under fire were killed and at least 10 wounded, but some gunmen managed to escape. The 3-day Israeli offensive killed 35 Palestinians.
(AP, 11/4/06)(WSJ, 11/4/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 5, Israel’s PM Ehud Olmert pledged to press ahead with Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip until the army significantly decreases Palestinian rocket fire on Israel.
(AP, 11/5/06)
2006 Nov 6, A female suicide bomber approached Israeli troops in the northern Gaza Strip and blew herself up. One soldier was lightly wounded in the blast.
(AP, 11/6/06)
2006 Nov 7, Israeli tanks fired two shells at the home of the Hamas lawmaker who organized a women's protest that allowed militants to escape from a northern Gaza mosque under Israeli siege. Israeli forces ended a bloody weeklong operation in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, leaving behind a swath of destroyed homes, uprooted trees and streets muddied with sewage water from pipes destroyed by tanks and bulldozers.
(AP, 11/7/06)
2006 Nov 8, Israeli tank shells crashed into a residential neighborhood north of the town of Beit Hanoun, killing at least 18 people including eight children in their sleep. Israeli forces attacked a group of Palestinian militants near the West Bank town of Jenin, killing four and a civilian. Hamas' exiled leader, Khaled Mashaal, says a 2005 truce with Israel is finished and appealed to all Palestinian factions to resume attacks.
(AP, 11/8/06)
2006 Nov 10, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said he would step down as Palestinian prime minister if that would persuade the West to lift debilitating economic sanctions.
(AP, 11/10/06)
2006 Nov 10, Israel's gay community braved vehement opposition from religious fundamentalists and held a large rally in Jerusalem, complete with live rock music, dancing and declarations of pride. A group of gay Palestinian Americans canceled a planned pride march in East Jerusalem after one of them was beaten unconscious by a man from the Waqf Muslim religious authority.
(AP, 11/10/06)(SFC, 11/11/06, p.A3)
2006 Nov 11, The US vetoed a UN Security Council draft resolution that sought to condemn an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip and demand Israeli troops pull out of the territory.
(AP, 11/12/06)
2006 Nov 11, Palestinian students filled schools that had been empty for months, happily greeting friends as classes resumed after a 70-day teachers' strike that interrupted studies across the West Bank and Gaza.
(AP, 11/11/06)
2006 Nov 12, Palestinian foreign minister Mahmud Zahar told fellow ministers at an Arab League emergency meeting in Cairo that the costs of rebuilding the north Gaza town of Beit Hanun after deadly Israeli shelling amounts to 50 million dollars. Arab countries decided to lift the financial blockade on Palestinians in response to a US veto on a UN Security Council draft resolution condemning Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 11/12/06)
2006 Nov 13, A senior Hamas official confirmed that the militant Palestinian group and the Fatah faction have agreed on naming Mohammed Shabir to head the next Palestinian unity government.
(AP, 11/13/06)
2006 Nov 13, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that any effort to stop growing violence between Islamic and Western societies must include an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
(AP, 11/13/06)
2006 Nov 15, Two Palestinian lawmakers from the Islamist group Hamas crossed the Egyptian border into Gaza with more than $4 million in cash, bypassing a Western ban on bank transfers to the Palestinian Authority. A Palestinian rocket fired from Gaza exploded near the home of Israel's defense minister, killing one woman and raising the prospect of a new Israeli military offensive against militant rocket squads.
(Reuters, 11/15/06)(AP, 11/15/06)
2006 Nov 16, Spain, France and Italy unveiled a five-point Middle East peace initiative, calling Israeli-Palestinian violence intolerable and saying that Europe must take a lead role in ending the conflict.
(AP, 11/16/06)
2006 Nov 17, The UN General Assembly called for an end to Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip, overwhelmingly passing a resolution in an emergency special session the Israeli ambassador blasted as a "farce" and a "circus."
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 18, Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's new deputy prime minister, said Israel should ignore moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, wipe out the Hamas leadership and walk away from the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 19, An Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a car traveling in Gaza City, wounding 6 people, including two Hamas militants. Militants from the ruling Islamic group Hamas fired two rockets from the Gaza Strip at the Israeli town of Sderot. Israel canceled airstrikes on the houses of Gaza militants after Palestinians formed human shields around them.
(AP, 11/19/06)(WSJ, 11/20/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 21, The Israeli military launched a three-pronged offensive in the northern Gaza Strip, killing a top Hamas commander in its latest operation against Palestinian rocket squads. An elderly Palestinian woman died in a gunbattle between troops and militants. Two Italian aid workers were kidnapped in the Gaza Strip. Both were released within 24 hours.
(AP, 11/21/06)(AP, 11/22/06)
2006 Nov 22, Israeli ground troops, tanks and armored vehicles advanced on two northern Gaza towns in pursuit of Palestinian rocket squads, besieging a well-known Hamas lawmaker's house and engaging militants in ferocious clashes.
(AP, 11/22/06)
2006 Nov 23, Israeli troops went after Palestinian militants in Gaza as rockets slammed into southern Israel, but a planned meeting between a Hamas leader and Egyptian mediators raised hopes the violence could be contained. A 64-year-old Palestinian grandmother blew herself up near Israeli troops sweeping through northern Gaza, and eight other Palestinians were killed in a day of clashes and rocket fire.
(AP, 11/23/06)
2006 Nov 24, PM Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said that Palestinian factions had agreed to halt rocket fire if Israel reciprocates by stopping its military offensives in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel rejected the offer, saying it would respond positively only to a total truce.
(AP, 11/24/06)
2006 Nov 25, Israel and the Palestinians agreed to a cease-fire to end a five-month Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip and the firing of rockets by Palestinian militants into the Jewish state. Hamas' leader, Damascus-based supreme leader Khaled Mashaal, said his group was willing to give peace negotiations with Israel six months to reach an agreement for a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank, but threatened a new uprising if the talks fail.
(AP, 11/25/06) (AP, 11/25/07)
2006 Nov 26, Israeli troops withdrew from the Gaza Strip as an unexpected truce took hold, but two major Palestinian militant groups, saying they had no intention of stopping their attacks, fired volleys of homemade rockets into Israel.
(AP, 11/26/06)
2006 Nov 27, The first privately owned English-language daily, the Palestine Times, was launched in the West Bank and Gaza, with its editors aiming to provide news about the region to English speakers abroad.
(AP, 11/27/06)
2006 Nov 27, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert, seeking to build on a shaky cease-fire with the Palestinians, offered to reduce checkpoints, release frozen funds, and free prisoners in exchange for a serious push for peace by the Palestinians.
(AP, 11/27/06)
2006 Nov 28, Jordan's King Abdullah II called for renewed efforts to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a speech, but he warned that his country would not accept a deal that causes an influx of Palestinians.
(AP, 11/28/06)
2006 Dec 1, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas convened the PLO's top decision-making body to map out a strategy after declaring that talks to form a more moderate government with ruling Hamas militants had collapsed.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 2, Hamas rejected demands by PLO leaders that its government resign over the failure to form a moderate coalition acceptable to the West, a sign of an intensifying power struggle between Islamic militants and moderate President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 12/2/06)
2006 Dec 4, The Israeli army killed a Palestinian and arrested 17 militants in raids across the West Bank, despite a decision by the military to scale back such operations in order to bolster a shaky truce with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 8, Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh told thousands of Iranians that his Hamas-led government will never recognize Israel and will continue to fight for the "liberation of Jerusalem."
(AP, 12/8/06)
2006 Dec 9, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would dismiss the parliament and call early elections to end a political impasse with Hamas, but left open the possibility of a compromise with the Islamic militant group, PLO.
(AP, 12/9/06)
2006 Dec 11, Palestinian gunmen killed three young sons of a senior Palestinian intelligence officer, pumping dozens of bullets into their car as it passed through a street crowded with schoolchildren in an apparent botched assassination attempt that could ignite widespread factional fighting.
(AP, 12/11/06)
2006 Dec 11, UN officials said Israel has blocked a UN fact-finding mission to the Gaza Strip that was to be led by Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said that no final decision has been made.
(AP, 12/11/06)
2006 Dec 11, Iran promised $250 million to Palestine’s Hamas-led government.
(WSJ, 12/12/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 12, Hamas gunmen fired on demonstrators from the rival Fatah movement, wounding four people and intensifying fears of a new wave of Palestinian infighting.
(AP, 12/12/06)
2006 Dec 13, Palestinian gunmen forced a Hamas commander to his knees and shot him to death outside the courthouse where he worked as an Islamic judge, escalating factional tensions in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh cut short his trip to Sudan.
(AP, 12/13/06)
2006 Dec 13, Israel's Supreme Court ruled that some Palestinians injured by the Israeli military may sue the state for compensation, a decision hailed as groundbreaking by an Arab civil rights group but condemned by right-wing Israeli lawmakers as damaging to the country's security.
(AP, 12/12/06)
2006 Dec 14, Israel ordered the Rafah crossing closed to keep PM Haniyeh from bringing in an estimated $35 million he had collected abroad to help alleviate the Palestinian financial crisis. Israeli officials said Haniyeh could return to Gaza without the money, which it said was to be used for terror attacks. Haniyeh left the funds in Egypt. When Haniyeh finally crossed, unidentified men began firing toward him. One of his bodyguards was killed and his son and 26 others were wounded. Fatah-allied Palestinian security officers arrested a Hamas-linked militant in connection with the killing of a security chief's young children. Palestinian militants fired a rocket into Israel at dawn.
(AP, 12/14/06)(AP, 12/15/06)
2006 Dec 15, Gunmen allied with Hamas and Fatah clashed at a West Bank mosque and in Gaza Strip streets.
(AP, 12/15/06)
2006 Dec 15, The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to establish an office to register Palestinian damage claims stemming from Israel's construction of a barrier in the West Bank.
(AP, 12/16/06)
2006 Dec 16, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for new presidential and parliamentary elections, a dramatic challenge to ruling Hamas militants that threatens to touch off a civil war.
(AP, 12/16/06)
2006 Dec 17, Gunmen attacked the convoy of the Palestinian foreign minister and raided a training base for an elite security forces unit, stepping up factional violence over a decision by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to end nine months of Hamas leadership and call early elections. A 19-year-old woman and a Palestinian security officer were killed in the chaos. Earlier in the day dozens of gunmen raided a training camp of Abbas' Presidential Guard near the president's residence, killing a member of the elite force.
(AP, 12/17/06)
2006 Dec 18, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he is pushing ahead with early elections, despite factional fighting that intensified after his initial call for a poll. He also appealed for international help in restarting peace talks with Israel.
(AP, 12/18/06)
2006 Dec 19, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made a surprise visit to Jordan for talks with King Abdullah II on ways to revive Mideast peacemaking. A wanted Palestinian militant was killed and two others were arrested by Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Nablus. Gunbattles raged in the streets of Gaza City between the Hamas and Fatah movements, killing at least four people in factional fighting that shredded a shaky truce. At least 18 people were wounded, including five children caught in the crossfire.
(AP, 12/19/06)
2006 Dec 20, Ayman al-Zawahri, the deputy leader of al-Qaida, criticized both sides of the Palestinian power struggle in a video, calling the Palestinian president "America's man" but also lashing out at the Islamic group Hamas. Hamas gunmen killed two Palestinian policemen loyal to the rival Fatah movement, hours after the sides agreed to a new cease-fire meant to end more than a week of factional fighting.
(AP, 12/20/06)
2006 Dec 22, The office of President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah blocked five major Hamas appointments to senior government positions. Ferocious gunbattles broke out between Hamas and Fatah militants in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. A Hamas militiaman injured in violence that touched off the Gaza City shootout died of his wounds.
(AP, 12/22/06)
2006 Dec 23, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held the first Israeli-Palestinian summit in 22 months. Israel agreed to release $100 million in frozen funds to Palestinian Pres. Mahmoud Abbas and to ease West Bank travel restrictions.
(SSFC, 12/24/06, p.A21)(AP, 12/23/07)
2006 Dec 23, Assailants fired on the car of a senior Palestinian security official, wounding him, a bodyguard and a girl in intensifying factional fighting in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/23/06)
2006 Dec 27, Israel decided to resume pinpoint attacks against Palestinian rocket-launching cells in Gaza, jeopardizing what is already a shaky, month-old truce with Gaza militants.
(AP, 12/27/06)
2006 Dec 28, Israeli security officials said Egypt has sent a large shipment of weapons through Israeli territory to shore up forces loyal to the embattled Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, an extraordinary show of support by both countries for his efforts to renew peacemaking with Israel.
(AP, 12/28/06)
2006 Rashid Khalidi authored “The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood.”
(Econ, 11/25/06, p.86)
2006 Meir Margalit authored “Discrimination in the Heart of the Holy City,” an account of the differences between the Israeli and Palestinian sides of Jerusalem.
(Econ, 4/15/06, p.27)
2007 Jan 1, A photographer for the French news agency Agence France Presse was kidnapped in Gaza City just before sundown.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2007 Jan 4, Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen exchanged heavy fire in downtown Ramallah after undercover Israeli forces tried to arrest fugitives in the city's vegetable market. Four Palestinians were killed and 20 wounded. Pres. Abbas demanded $5 million in compensation for the damage to shops and cars in Ramallah. Fatah Col. Mohammed Ghayeb and six of his bodyguards were killed in factional fighting in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 1/4/07)(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 4, Overshadowed by an Israeli raid into the Palestinian territories, a summit between Israel and Egypt achieved little in reviving the long-stalled Mideast peace process, highlighting instead the disagreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 5, In Gaza cleric Adel Nasar was shot by men in a car after he delivered a sermon warning that God would punish those responsible for seven killings the previous day.
(AP, 1/5/07)
2007 Jan 5, In Gaza Adel Nasar, an anti-Hamas cleric, was shot by men in a car after he delivered a sermon warning that God would punish those responsible for seven killings the previous day.
(AP, 1/5/07)(WSJ, 1/6/07, p.A1)
2007 Jan 7, Tens of thousands of Fatah supporters packed Gaza's main soccer stadium in a show of strength to boost the movement in its increasingly violent struggle against the Islamic militant group Hamas.
(AP, 1/7/07)
2007 Jan 8, Fatah gunmen released the deputy mayor of Nablus unharmed, two days after kidnapping him. Fatah militants torched stores of Hamas supporters in Ramallah and shot at the house of a top Hamas official. Agence France-Presse expressed gratitude for the release of a photographer who had been held hostage by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 1/8/07)
2007 Jan 10, Khaled Meshaal, the leader of Hamas, said Hamas acknowledges the existence of Israel but formal recognition by the group will only be considered when a Palestinian state has been created.
(AP, 1/10/07)
2007 Jan 15, The Israeli government published plans to build 44 homes in Israel's largest West Bank settlement, violating a pledge to the US as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in the region on a peace-seeking mission.
(AP, 1/15/07)
2007 Jan 16, In Israel Abir Aramin, a 10-year-old Palestinian girl, was hit by a rubber-coated bullet as she stood some distance from a demonstration. She died two days later in a Jerusalem hospital. In 2010 a Jerusalem court decided in a ruling that the Israeli state was responsible for the death of the girl. In 2011 an Israeli court ordered the government to pay $432,000 to the family of Abir.
(AP, 8/18/10)(www.counterpunch.org/peled08082007.html)(AP, 9/26/11)
2007 Jan 19, Israel said it had paid $100 million in frozen tax funds to the Palestinians and rescinded a contentious decision for a new West Bank settlement, strengthening the hand of moderate President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of crucial weekend talks in Damascus with his Hamas rivals.
(AP, 1/19/07)
2007 Jan 21, Islamic Jihad militants launched homemade rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip in retaliation for Israel's continuing military operations against their group in the West Bank.
(AP, 1/21/07)
2007 Jan 23, Dozens of masked gunmen claiming to be members of al-Qaida stormed an empty Gaza Strip beach resort and blew up a reception hall, saying they were sending a message to an ally of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 1/23/07)
2007 Jan 26, Hamas gunmen stormed the home of a militant from the rival Fatah movement, sparking a deadly gunbattle and capping a day of factional violence across the Gaza Strip that killed 16 people, including a 2-year-old boy.
(AP, 1/27/07)
2007 Jan 27, Gunmen armed with mortars and grenades fought in several areas of Gaza City, killing two men on the third straight day of factional clashes linked to the power struggle over the Palestinian government.
(AP, 1/27/07)
2007 Jan 28, Hamas and Fatah gunmen battled each other in the streets in an increasingly bloody power struggle that left more than two dozen Palestinians dead over the weekend. Palestinian gunmen shot dead a member of a Hamas police force and a senior Fatah intelligence official was abducted in Gaza as Saudi Arabia called for talks to end the spiraling violence.
(AP, 1/28/07)(AFP, 1/28/07)
2007 Jan 29, A Palestinian suicide bomber attacked a bakery in Eilat, a southern Israeli resort town, killing three people and himself. The Palestinian who blew himself up was unemployed, despondent over the death of his baby daughter and driven to avenge his best friend's killing by Israeli troops. Hamas and Fatah gunmen battled each other across the Gaza Strip, attacking security compounds, knocking out an electrical transformer and kidnapping several local commanders in some of the most extensive factional fighting in recent weeks.
(AP, 1/29/07)
2007 Jan 30, Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh appealed to all Palestinians to prevent a resurgence in the internal violence that killed 36 people in recent days as a tenuous cease-fire took hold in the Gaza Strip. Gunmen killed a Hamas militant, but the cease-fire seemed to hold.
(AP, 1/30/07)(WSJ, 1/31/07, p.A1)
2007 Feb 1, Palestinian gunmen opened fire at Hamas officials in separate attacks, marring efforts to shore up a truce that brought relative quiet to Gaza after days of deadly factional violence.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Feb 1, Israeli troops killed two Palestinian gunmen in an exchange of fire in Nablus.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Feb 2, Fatah fighters stormed a Hamas-affiliated university for the second time, hours before the two political factions grappling for control of the Palestinian government said they had agreed on a new cease-fire. Fifteen people, including four children, were killed in renewed fighting before the announcement.
(AP, 2/2/07)
2007 Feb 3, Fatah and Hamas clashed at Cabinet ministries, universities and security headquarters in defiance of a truce that was to have calmed the seething Gaza Strip.
(AP, 2/3/07)
2007 Feb 4, Hamas gunmen attacked bases of Fatah-allied troops with mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, part of a four-day campaign by the Islamic militants to weaken the security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 7, In Saudi Arabia rival Palestinian leaders began open-ended talks in Mecca optimistic that they could reach an agreement to end their bloody street battles and resume the peace process with Israel.
(AP, 2/7/07)
2007 Feb 8, Welding equipment touched off an explosion at a West Bank gas station, killing at least eight people and wounded 17.
(AP, 2/9/07)
2007 Feb 8, A Fatah official in Saudi Arabia said that rival Palestinian factions had reached an agreement on how to divide up Cabinet posts in a power-sharing government.
(AP, 2/8/07)
2007 Feb 9, Gazans rejoiced in the streets to celebrate a Hamas-Fatah power-sharing deal they hope will avert civil war, but Palestinian officials preached patience, saying implementing the agreement would be a challenge.
(AP, 2/9/07)
2007 Feb 9, Israeli police stormed the grounds of Islam's third-holiest shrine, firing stun grenades and tear gas to disperse thousands of Muslim worshippers who hurled stones, bottles and trash in an eruption of outrage over Israeli renovation nearby.
(AP, 2/9/07)
2007 Feb 15, Palestine’s PM Ismail Haniyeh and his government resigned and President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah appointed him to form the new team, based on last week's agreement in the Muslim holy city of Mecca to split power between the two rivals.
(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 18, Israel and the US agreed ahead of a three-way meeting with the Palestinians to shun any new Palestinian government that does not renounce violence, recognize Israel and accept existing peace agreements.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 21, Security officials said Egyptian border and security authorities had arrested 23 Palestinians and Egyptians in the Sinai region, including one who was wearing an explosives belt and had crossed from Gaza to Egypt in an underground tunnel.
(AP, 2/21/07)
2007 Feb 21, Israeli troops fatally shot a West Bank leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group who was involved in an attempted bombing near Tel Aviv. 93.6 RAM FM began broadcasting 20 independent news bulletins a day from studios in Jerusalem and the West Bank to a target audience of half a million English-speakers on both sides of the divide in the Holy Land.
(AFP, 2/20/07)(AP, 2/21/07)
2007 Feb 23-2007 Feb 24, In Gaza City Mohammed Ghelban, a 28-year-old commander from Hamas' military wing, was killed in a drive-by shooting outside his home. A 22-year-old man from a Fatah family, Hazem Karouah, was killed several hours later, as was 75-year-old Ismail Sabah, who was caught in the cross-fire.
(AP, 2/24/07)
2007 Feb 24, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ended his European tour without persuading any country to end crippling economic sanctions based on his power-sharing deal with the rival Islamic militant Hamas.
(AP, 2/24/07)
2007 Feb 25, Dozens of Israeli jeeps and armored vehicles poured into Nablus overnight, placing large areas of the city under curfew and conducting house-to-house arrest raids in one of the largest West Bank military operations in months.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 26, Israeli troops sealed off the center of Nablus' old city with cement blocks and trash containers, and searched apartments for seven Palestinian fugitives whose names the army broadcast over local TV and radio stations.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 27, The Israeli army pulled its troops and armored vehicles out of the West Bank city of Nablus after a three-day operation targeting Palestinians militants.
(AP, 2/27/07)
2007 Feb 28, Israeli troops shot and killed three Palestinian militants in the West Bank town of Jenin and raided the nearby city of Nablus for the second time this week, placing tens of thousands of people under curfew.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Mar 5, A daylong gunbattle between rival Palestinian factions raged in the streets of Gaza City as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and PM Ismail Haniyeh again failed to agree on the formation of a unity government.
(AP, 3/5/07)
2007 Mar 7, Israeli troops raided the Palestinian military headquarters in Ramallah and arrested 18 fugitives who had sought shelter there.
(AP, 3/7/07)
2007 Mar 8, Palestinians desperate to cross into Egypt from Gaza surged toward a border terminal, throwing stones as security personnel fired their weapons to maintain control. Seven people were injured.
(AP, 3/8/07)
2007 Mar 10, The Hamas-run Education Ministry rescinded its decision to pull an anthology of Palestinian folk tales from school libraries and destroy copies, reportedly over mild sexual innuendo, following a widespread public outcry.
(AP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 11, Palestinian gunmen from Hamas and Fatah exchanged fire in the Gaza Strip, killing a local militia leader and wounding seven people.
(AP, 3/11/07)
2007 Mar 12, In Gaza four masked gunmen abducted Alan Johnston, a BBC journalist. He was later reported to be held by the Dughmush clan and was released after several months.
(AP, 3/13/07)(WSJ, 1/3/07, p.A14)(AP, 3/12/08)
2007 Mar 13, A Hamas military commander was killed in a shootout with Fatah gunmen shortly before the leaders of the two groups met to try to bridge their differences over a power-sharing deal.
(AP, 3/13/07)
2007 Mar 14, Israeli and Palestinian envoys said that improving the economy can revive the peace process as they got to work on a Japanese initiative to create jobs in the West Bank.
(AP, 3/14/07)
2007 Mar 15, The rival Hamas and Fatah movements formed a long-elusive unity government, hoping to end bloody infighting and lead the Palestinians out of yearlong international isolation. Israel immediately said that it would not deal with the new government.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 16, Israeli leaders criticized the new Palestinian unity government, charging that the Hamas-Fatah coalition did not meet international conditions, including recognizing the Jewish state's right to exist. Three masked Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a vehicle carrying the chief of the UN refugee mission in Gaza and tried to kidnap him. A Fatah intelligence official was killed in a nearby ambush.
(AP, 3/16/07)(WSJ, 3/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Mar 17, The new Hamas-Fatah coalition won overwhelming parliamentary approval, clearing a final formal hurdle before taking on the challenge of persuading a skeptical world to end a crippling yearlong boycott of the Palestinian government. Fatah counted 6 ministers, Hamas had 12, and 7 more went to independents and small, centrist parties.
(AP, 3/16/07)(Econ, 3/24/07, p.51)
2007 Mar 19, Hamas militants claimed responsibility for a shooting that wounded an Israeli civilian near the border with the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 19, In northern Lebanon rival Palestinian factions clashed in a refugee camp, shaking the camp with explosions and wounding at least two gunmen.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, A US diplomat met with the Palestinian finance minister, the first American contact with the new Palestinian government and a sign of a break in policy between Israel and its closest ally.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 21, The EU and the UN eased their diplomatic boycott of the Palestinian government, holding talks with non-Hamas ministers.
(Reuters, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 25, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, declaring the atmosphere "not fully ripe," shunned officials from the Islamic militant Hamas group. Ban Ki-Moon toured a Palestinian refugee camp and a stretch of Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank, and said the visit strengthened his resolve to work for Mideast peace.
(AP, 3/25/07)
2007 Mar 26, Israel welcomed the idea of a regional peace summit and Saudi Arabia suggesting it would consider changes in a dormant peace initiative to make it more acceptable to Israel.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 27, In Palestine’s northern Gaza Strip an earth embankment around a cesspool collapsed, spewing a river of sewage and mud that killed four people.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 27, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed to meet every two weeks to discuss day-to-day issues, in a quickening diplomatic pace that eventually could spur talks on a final peace settlement.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 28, Unidentified gunmen shot at a Hamas militant leader and his family during a car chase through Gaza City, injuring five people, including bystanders and a child.
(AP, 3/28/07)
2007 Mar 28, A small group of Arab lesbians quietly defied Islamist protesters and a social taboo to gather at a rare public conference in Haifa, Israeli. It was organized by Aswat, an organization for Arab lesbians with members in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/28/07)
2007 Mar 29, Arab leaders at their summit in Riyadh agreed on a call for Israel to accept their land-for-peace offer and open direct negotiations with the Arabs. Unlike past summits that at times saw overt feuds break out, the gathering of Arab kings, emirs and presidents showed unusual public unity as it revived the peace offer, which they first made in 2002 only to meet rejection from Israel.
(AP, 3/29/07)
2007 Mar 31, EU foreign ministers backed an Arab peace initiative and agreed to engage with ministers of the new Palestinian national unity government who are not members of the Islamist Hamas movement.
(AP, 3/31/07)
2007 Apr 1, Palestinian journalists announced a three-day strike in protest at what they called their government's inadequate response to the suspected kidnap of a British journalist.
(AP, 4/1/07)
2007 Apr 1, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert invited Arab leaders to attend a peace conference to discuss their ideas for reaching Mideast peace. The Israeli army sealed off the West Bank ahead of the weeklong Passover holiday, restricting the movement of Palestinians into Israel. In her first Mideast trip as EU president, German Chancellor Angela Merkel offered Europe's help in bringing Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table, trying to build on a new burst of international efforts to restart peace talks.
(AP, 4/1/07)(AP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 2, Palestinian journalists began a three-day strike to protest the kidnapping of British Broadcasting Corp. correspondent Alan Johnston, the longest-held reporter ever abducted in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 2, Saudi Arabia signaled it is unlikely to accept an Israeli invitation to a regional peace conference, saying that Israel must first stop mistreating Palestinians and move to withdraw from Arab lands.
(AP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 4, A Palestinian gunman was killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli troops in an area where militants frequently fire rockets toward Israel.
(AP, 4/4/07)
2007 Apr 5, A British diplomat met with Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh to push for the release of a kidnapped BBC journalist, the first direct meeting between a European Union diplomat and a Hamas official of the Palestinians' new coalition government.
(AP, 4/5/07)
2007 Apr 7, An Israeli helicopter launched an airstrike along the Gaza Strip's border with Israel, killing a Palestinian militant and wounding two others.
(AP, 4/7/07)
2007 Apr 8, A Palestinian attacker stabbed and wounded two Israeli police officers at a checkpoint outside a Hebron shrine that has been a flashpoint for violence in the past.
(AP, 4/8/07)
2007 Apr 10, Israeli authorities said they had arrested 19 Palestinian militants in March for planning to set off a huge car bomb in Tel Aviv over the Jewish holiday of Passover.
(AP, 4/10/07)
2007 Apr 13, Five European countries and the European Commission signed an accord on under which they will give 5.2 million dollars for administrative reforms within the Palestinian presidency.
(AP, 4/13/07)
2007 Apr 15, Three explosions hit Gaza City, damaging two Internet cafes and a Christian bookstore. Palestinian security officials have said they suspect a secret "vice squad" of Muslim militants.
(AP, 4/15/07)
2007 Apr 15, Israeli and Palestinian leaders discussed the outlines of Palestinian statehood for the first time in six years, taking a modest step toward breaking the long paralysis in peacemaking.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 16, A World Bank study said that Palestinian industry is "bound to fail" unless Israel lifts tight restrictions on trade and movement of people and goods in the Palestinian territories. , The Palestinian information minister said China and Switzerland said they will deal with the new Palestinian unity government made up of the moderate Fatah movement and the Islamic militant Hamas group.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 16, Thousands of BBC staff across Britain held a silent vigil to remember its kidnapped Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston after a Palestinian group said it had killed him. Johnston was snatched at gunpoint on March 12 as he returned to his Gaza City home. Johnston was not killed and was freed on July 4.
(AFP, 4/16/07)(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Apr 17, Israel's Shin Bet security agency said that it has broken up an Iranian plot to recruit Israelis of Iranian origin as spies, part of what it says is a burgeoning Iranian intelligence operation against the Jewish state. Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian militant near Jenin. Four Israelis were shot and wounded as they were driving near the West Bank Jewish settlement of Naaleh.
(AP, 4/17/07)
2007 Apr 19, Israeli Knesset speaker Dalia Yitzik arrived in Jordan, the second Israeli official to visit the Arab kingdom this week for talks on ways to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 21, Israeli troops killed four Palestinians in clashes in the West Bank, including three militants who died when troops opened fire at their vehicle. A Palestinian policeman was killed when he climbed on the roof of his home during an Israeli arrest operation in the village of Kafr Dan. Palestinian officials said a 17-year-old girl, identified as Bushra Wahash, was shot by Israeli gunfire as she peered out the window of her home in the Jenin refugee camp. Palestinian militants in Gaza fired three homemade rockets into southern Israel. One of the rockets scored a direct hit on a house in the Israeli border town of Sderot, causing no injuries. Minutes later, an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a Palestinian car near the rocket launch site. A 37-year-old man in the car was killed and a second occupant was wounded.
(AP, 4/21/07)
2007 Apr 22, Israeli troops killed two Palestinian militants, including a top bombmaker, during an arrest raid. The Islamic militant group Hamas called for new attacks on Israel after eight Palestinians were killed in a surge of fighting over the weekend.
(AP, 4/22/07)
2007 Apr 24, The armed wing of Hamas fired a barrage of rockets and mortar shells from Gaza toward Israel on its independence day, and said they considered it the end of a five-month truce with Israel.
(AP, 4/24/07)(WSJ, 4/25/07, p.A1)
2007 Apr 25, Israel’s PM Ehud Olmert authorized the army to carry out limited operations against militants in the Gaza Strip, but ruled out a large-scale ground offensive in response to a new round of Hamas rocket attacks.
(AP, 4/25/07)
2007 Apr 29, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah held an unannounced meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the recent escalation in Israeli-Palestinian tensions. Saudi Arabia banned the sale of concentrated fertilizer, a favorite component of homemade terrorist bombs.
(AP, 4/30/07)(Econ, 5/5/07, p.60)
2007 Apr 30, Hundreds of protesters briefly pushed into the Palestinian education ministry as Fatah-allied teachers in the West Bank went on strike to press for the payment of overdue salaries. Angry Palestinian demonstrators stormed the Egyptian embassy in Gaza City, demanding that Egypt release five Palestinians held in Cairo jails.
(AP, 5/1/07)(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 May 6, Palestinian militants opened fire near a children's festival at a UN-operated elementary school in the southern Gaza Strip, killing a bodyguard of a local Fatah leader and wounding seven other people. Palestinian militants shot and seriously injured an Israeli motorist who was driving west of the West Bank city of Ramallah.
(AP, 5/6/07)
2007 May 9, The Palestinian information minister said Hamas militants have suspended a TV program that featured a Mickey Mouse lookalike urging Palestinian children to fight Israel and work for global Islamic domination. Hamas militants in Palestine had enlisted a figure bearing a strong resemblance to Mickey Mouse to broadcast their message of Islamic domination and armed resistance to their most impressionable audience, children. The show was broadcast as usual two days after the Palestinian information minister said it would be suspended.
(AP, 5/9/07)(AP, 5/11/07)
2007 May 10, A Palestinian woman in the seventh month of her pregnancy lost her unborn baby when she was caught in crossfire between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants.
(AP, 5/11/07)
2007 May 13, Fighting between Palestinian faction of Hamas and Fatah left 4 people dead in the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 5/14/07, p.A7)
2007 May 14, The Palestinian interior minister resigned, accusing Hamas and Fatah leaders of thwarting his efforts to halt new violence that is threatening the survival of the Palestinian coalition government.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 15, Hamas gunmen ambushed rival Fatah forces near a key crossing along the Israeli border, killing eight people in the deadliest battle yet in three days of factional fighting.
(AP, 5/15/07)
2007 May 16, An Israeli helicopter launched missiles at a Hamas command center in the southern Gaza Strip, killing at least four people, after Hamas fired rocket barrages into Israel in an apparent attempt to draw Israel into increasingly violent Palestinian infighting. At least 19 people were killed in factional fighting between Fatah and Hamas.
(AP, 5/16/07)(SFC, 5/17/07, p.A12)
2007 May 17, Israeli aircraft struck a Hamas command center, a trailer housing bodyguards and two vehicles, citing the firing by militants of more than 50 rockets at the Israeli border town of Sderot over three days.
(AP, 5/17/07)
2007 May 18, Israel pounded more Hamas targets with airstrikes for a 2nd day, killing four Palestinians. 10 people have died with dozens wounded as it stepped deeper into fighting between the Islamic militants and the rival Fatah fighters of President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 5/18/07)
2007 May 19, In Gaza negotiators from the rival Hamas and Fatah movements reached a new cease-fire deal.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 20, Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres said his government would offer a counterproposal to an Arab peace initiative to resolve the conflict with Palestinians. Israeli warplanes fired missiles into a car carrying Hamas militants and a load of weapons, killing 3 people, and also demolished arms factories of 2 Palestinian militant groups.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 20, Lebanese tanks pounded a militant group's headquarters in a Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli after the northern city's worst clashes in two decades killed 13 soldiers and 17 militants. The raid that triggered the clashes was part of a police search for suspects in a bank robbery a day earlier in Amyoun, a town southeast of Tripoli. Gunmen made off with $125,000 in cash in the robbery.
(AP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 21, Israel pushed ahead with its campaign against Palestinian rocket squads, pounding the Gaza Strip with new airstrikes that killed five militants. A rocket from Gaza killed an Israeli woman.
(AP, 5/21/07)(WSJ, 5/22/07, p.A1)
2007 May 21, Lebanese troops pounded a Palestinian refugee camp with artillery and tank fire for a second day, raising huge palls of smoke as they battled a militant group suspected of ties to al-Qaida in the worst eruption of violence since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 21, Norway said it would make its first transfer of direct aid to the Palestinians' new government, more than two months after the Nordic country broke with most Western nations by recognizing the Hamas-led coalition.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 22, Israeli aircraft struck two camps used by the Islamic militant group Hamas, a day after a Palestinian rocket attack killed an Israeli woman. Officials suggested even Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas could be a target.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 22, In Lebanon a convoy of UN relief supplies was hit in renewed fighting as it tried to enter the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 23, In Lebanon hundreds of Palestinian civilians carrying their belongings in plastic bags trickled out of a besieged refugee camp, taking advantage of a truce in fighting that mostly held overnight.
(AP, 5/23/07)
2007 May 24, Israeli troops in the West Bank rounded up a Palestinian Cabinet minister and 32 other Hamas leaders in the West Bank before dawn, pressing forward with an offensive against the Islamic militant group.
(AP, 5/24/07)
2007 May 24, In Lebanon sporadic gunfire erupted inside the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp where Islamic militants are holed up after refusing an ultimatum by Lebanon's defense minister to surrender or face a military onslaught. Lebanon's leader vowed to uproot the fighters. The family of Shaker Youssef al-Absi, the Palestinian who heads the shadowy militant group blamed for this week's violence in Lebanon, said he is not a terrorist but a nationalist who seeks an end to Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands.
(AP, 5/24/07)
2007 May 26, Israel fired missiles at five Hamas targets minutes apart, killing five people just hours after Gaza militants floated the idea of halting rocket fire on Israeli border towns if the 10-day-old air campaign ends. In the West Bank, Israeli troops arrested Cabinet minister Wasfi Kabaha, confiscating his computer and many of his documents. Also in the West Bank, Palestinian police ambushed Adbel Razik (26), the leader of the violent Fatah offshoot the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, as he emerged from his home. A grenade blew up in his hand, and he later died of his wounds.
(AP, 5/26/07)
2007 May 27, PM Ehud Olmert promised more attacks on the Hamas militant group after a Palestinian rocket attack killed an Israeli man in southern Israel.
(AP, 5/27/07)
2007 May 30, A group of internationally renowned Israeli authors and university presidents demanded that Israel grant Palestinian students from the Gaza Strip free movement to superior universities in the West Bank.
(AP, 5/31/07)
2007 Jun 1, Alan Johnston, a British reporter kidnapped in the Gaza Strip nearly three months, ago appeared in a videotape posted on an Islamic militant Web site, saying his captors had treated him well, denouncing Israel, and criticizing British and US Mideast policy.
(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 Jun 1, The Swords of Truth, an Islamic group, threatened to behead female TV broadcasters if they don't wear strict Islamic dress, frightening reporters and signaling a further shift toward extremism in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 6/2/07)
2007 Jun 1, Israeli troops shot and killed two 13-year-old Palestinians near the Gaza-Israel border fence, saying they were crawling toward the barrier in a "suspicious manner." The boys had told their families they were going to the beach.
(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 Jun 2, The Lebanese air force joined tanks and artillery in pounding Islamic militant hideouts on the second day of an intensifying offensive to uproot al-Qaida-inspired gunmen barricaded in a Palestinian refugee camp.
(AP, 6/2/07)
2007 Jun 3, Hamas militants wounded four Israeli soldiers in a mortar attack on a base near the Gaza Strip, shortly after Israel's PM Ehud Olmert vowed to press ahead with military operations against Palestinian gunmen.
(AP, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 3, Heavy gunfire rang out from inside a bombed out Palestinian refugee camp as the Lebanese army pounded Islamic militants holed up inside during the third day of a military offensive aimed at crushing the al-Qaida-inspired group.
(AP, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 4, Violence sparked by a two-week old confrontation between the Lebanese army and al-Qaida inspired militants spread to a second Palestinian refugee camp in the southern part of the country, killing two soldiers.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 6, A Palestinian security force fanned out in two neighborhoods of the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon to prevent further clashes between Islamic militants and Lebanese troops. Maj. Gen. Khaled Aref, a senior Fatah commander based in Ein el-Hilweh, said on Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. television that about 20 Fatah Islam fighters had surrendered to his group in besieged Nahr el-Bared.
(AP, 6/6/07)
2007 Jun 7, A battle between gunmen from Hamas and Fatah in the Gaza Strip left one Fatah man dead before daybreak.
(AP, 6/7/07)
2007 Jun 8, Lebanese troops battled al-Qaida-inspired militants in a Palestinian refugee camp where violence has raged for three weeks. The clashes in northern Lebanon came hours after a bombing in a Christian town northeast of Beirut killed at least one man.
(AP, 6/8/07)
2007 Jun 9, Palestinian gunmen from Gaza broke through Israel's border fortifications and battled Israeli troops near an army post. Israeli Army Radio said troops killed one of the raiders. Medics at a northern Gaza Strip hospital walked off their jobs for a few hours to protest the kidnapping and shooting of a doctor by Palestinian militants, the first physician targeted in months of deadly infighting.
(AP, 6/9/07)
2007 Jun 9, Lebanon's army pounded Islamic militants hiding in a Palestinian refugee camp in renewed heavy clashes following a few days of intermittent fighting.
(AP, 6/9/07)
2007 Jun 10, Israeli aircraft fired on militant targets in Gaza City in predawn airstrikes, hours after Palestinian gunmen breached Israel's heavily fortified Gaza border and tried to capture an Israeli soldier. Rival Palestinian forces clashed in Gaza. 2 militants were killed after being thrown out of high-rise buildings.
(AP, 6/10/07)(SFC, 6/11/07, p.A7)
2007 Jun 11, Fighting between Palestinian factions left 12 people dead.
(SFC, 6/12/07, p.A16)(WSJ, 6/12/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun 12, A rocket-propelled grenade hit the home of the Hamas prime minister, while his fighters captured several positions from the rival Fatah movement and threatened to step up the offensive. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused his Hamas rivals of staging a coup and called for a cease-fire.
(AP, 6/12/07)
2007 Jun 12, An official said Japan has agreed to offer direct aid to the Palestinian Authority, but will send it to president Mahmud Abbas and not Hamas militants.
(AP, 6/12/07)
2007 Jun 13, Fierce battles over key security positions spread to central Gaza, with Hamas fighters wresting control of the coastal strip's main north-south road, and putting themselves in position to cut off reinforcements to beleaguered Fatah forces. At least 20 Palestinians died across Gaza.
(AP, 6/13/07)(SFC, 6/14/07, p.A3)
2007 Jun 14, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared an emergency after the Hamas militant group effectively took control of the Gaza Strip. Hamas fighters overran one of the rival Fatah movement's most important security installations in the Gaza Strip. Witnesses said the victors dragged vanquished gunmen into the street and shot them to death execution-style. 14 fighters and civilians were killed and 80 wounded in the battle for the Preventive Security complex, bringing the day's death toll to 25 by mid-afternoon. Witnesses, Fatah officials and a doctor reported gangland-style killings of the defeated fighters. Palestinian security officials said an Israeli tank shell killed six people, including five children, in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. The clashes in Gaza left an estimated 116 people dead and over 500 wounded.
(AP, 6/15/07)(WSJ, 6/19/07, p.A1)(AP, 6/14/08)
2007 Jun 15, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appointed Fayyad to replace Ismail Haniyeh, who was fired after his Hamas group violently took control of the Gaza Strip. On its first day of full rule in Gaza, the Islamic militant Hamas granted amnesty to Fatah leaders, signaling that it seeks conciliation with the defeated forces of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 6/15/07)
2007 Jun 16, The US strengthened its offer of support for President Mahmoud Abbas, telling him an international aid embargo against the Palestinians would end as soon as he forms a new government without Hamas.
(AP, 6/16/07)
2007 Jun 17, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas swore in an emergency Cabinet and outlawed the militia forces of the Islamic Hamas movement, deepening the violent rupture in Palestinian society.
(AP, 6/17/07)
2007 Jun 18, Gunmen and Israeli soldiers exchanged fire at the Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza, killing at least one Palestinian and wounding 15.
(AP, 6/19/07)
2007 Jun 19, Former Israeli PM Ehud Barak took over as defense minister. Hundreds of terrified Gazans fleeing Hamas rule were trapped at a main crossing with Israel, hoping to gain permission to pass through Israeli territory to sanctuary in the West Bank.
(AP, 6/19/07)
2007 Jun 19, A Lebanese soldier was killed in clashes with al-Qaida-inspired militants in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
(AP, 6/19/07)
2007 Jun 20, Israeli tanks entered southern Gaza, and four people, including at least two militants, were killed in an exchange of fire. Israel fired missiles at two rocket launchers in northern Gaza in the first attack since Hamas militants took control. Israel also let in a few seriously ill Palestinians who had been holed up for days at a fetid border crossing. In the West Bank, two Palestinian militants were killed in a shootout with Israeli troops during an arrest raid near Jenin.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007 Jun 24, The Israeli Cabinet approved the release of frozen tax funds to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in a step to bolster the moderate leader in his standoff against the Islamic militant group Hamas.
(AP, 6/24/07)
2007 Jun 25, Israel's PM Ehud Olmert promised to free 250 Palestinian prisoners and to improve life in the West Bank in an attempt to boost Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after Hamas' takeover in Gaza. Olmert made the pledges at a summit in this Egyptian Red Sea resort with Abbas and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan. Hamas militants posted an audio message from an Israeli soldier captured a year ago at an army base near the Gaza Strip, the first sign of life from the young serviceman since he was seized. In a new video kidnapped British journalist Alan Johnston appeared with what he says are explosives strapped to his body and warned that his captors intend to set them off if rescuers attempt to free him by force.
(AP, 6/25/07)(AP, 6/26/07)
2007 Jun 25, Ayman al-Zawahri, Al-Qaida's deputy leader, called on Muslims around the world to back Hamas with weapons, money and attacks on US and Israeli interests in a Web audiotape, urging the Palestinian militant group to unite with al-Qaida's "holy warriors" after its takeover of Gaza.
(AP, 6/25/07)
2007 Jun 26, In Jerusalem international Mideast negotiators searched for ways to revive peace talks after Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip. US officials said they were expected to name outgoing British PM Tony Blair as a senior envoy.
(AP, 6/26/07)
2007 Jun 27, Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip killed 10 Palestinians, including a 12-year-old boy.
(AP, 6/27/07)
2007 Jun 28, Salam Fayyad, the new Palestinian PM, delivered a stern warning to hundreds of Islamic preachers, including Hamas supporters: He won't tolerate calls for violence delivered from mosque pulpits and plans to collect militants' weapons.
(AP, 6/29/07)
2007 Jun 28, Israeli President Moshe Katzav agreed to resign under an unexpected plea bargain that included no jail time for sex crimes, ending a year-long investigation. Israeli troops imposed a curfew on downtown Nablus and clashed with Fatah militants as the army's activities moved from Gaza to the West Bank.
(AP, 6/28/07)
2007 Jun 29, In Gaza City a Mickey Mouse look-alike who preached Islamic domination on a Hamas-affiliated children's television program was beaten to death in the show's final episode by an actor posing as an Israeli official trying to buy his land.
(AP, 6/29/07)(SFC, 6/30/07, p.A9)
2007 Jun 30, An Israeli air strike killed 3 Palestinian militants in Gaza, including an Islamic Jihad commander long sought by Israel for involvement in rocket shootings at the Jewish state.
(AP, 6/30/07)
2007 Jun, Gaza’s 1.5 million Palestinians lived in an area about the size of Wichita, Kansas.
(WSJ, 6/19/07, p.A1)
2007 Jul 1, Israel transferred millions of dollars worth of tax funds to the new Palestinian government, allowing it to pay its workers in full for the first time in a year, while skipping the ones who work for the Islamic Hamas in Gaza.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, Hamas arrested the spokesman of a shadowy group holding British reporter Alan Johnston, a move that could give it a bargaining chip to secure the Briton's release.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 4, Palestinian gunmen released Alan Johnston, a British journalist, who had been kidnapped March 12. The powerful Dughmush clan got to keep its weapons in return for giving Johnston up.
(AP, 7/5/07)(Econ, 7/7/07, p.46)
2007 Jul 5, Israeli troops crossed into the Gaza Strip and engaged Hamas militants in a fierce gunbattle that drew in Israeli aircraft, tanks and bulldozers. 11 militants were killed. A cameraman for Hamas TV, who lay wounded on the ground, came under more fire during a clash with Israeli troops. The shooting was captured on film and broadcast on al-Jazeera satellite television. Imad Ghanem had to have both legs amputated as a result of his injuries. Israel repatriated 4 Jordanian infiltrators who were serving life sentences in Israeli prisons for killing Israeli soldiers.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AP, 7/6/07)(AP, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 6, Israeli forces pulled out of the Gaza Strip. Their military incursion left 11 Palestinian militants dead and pushed Gaza's rival factions together in urging their people to fight back.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 11, Hamas boycotted the opening of the Palestinian parliament's new term, effectively allowing President Mahmoud Abbas to keep his moderate emergency Cabinet in power.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 12, Israeli forces moved into the Gaza Strip in a hunt for weapons and wanted militants, sparking a fierce battle with Hamas militants that killed one Israeli soldier.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 12, The Lebanese army pounded a Palestinian refugee camp with artillery fire, but the military denied reports that the action was part of a final assault on the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants barricaded inside.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 13, Some 4,000 Palestinians remained stuck on the Egyptian side of the border with trouble finding food and shelter, shortages they blamed on local authorities who are indifferent to their plight.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, In north Lebanon Islamic militants fired back volleys of rockets at the Lebanese army as troops pounded the remaining suspected hideouts of the Fatah Islam fighters holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 14, Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad resigned as head of an emergency government and was immediately appointed to lead an interim Cabinet.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 15, Mahmoud Darwish, the world's most recognized Palestinian poet, delivered a stinging tirade against Palestinian infighting in his first public appearance in decades in the Israeli city of Haifa. Scores of Fatah militiamen signed pledges to renounce violence against Israel and turned in their weapons. Shimon Peres was inaugurated as Israel’s new president.
(AP, 7/16/07)(SFC, 7/16/07, p.A14)
2007 Jul 16, In northern Lebanon fierce fighting erupted at a besieged Palestinian refugee camp as army troops pounded the remaining hideouts of al-Qaida-inspired militants holed up inside with artillery and tank fire.
(AP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 16, Pres. Bush said he would call Israel, the Palestinians and others in the region to a peace conference and urged Arabs to send Cabinet-level officials to a Fall meeting to be led by Sec. of State Condoleeza Rice.
(SFC, 7/17/07, p.A7)(AP, 7/16/08)
2007 Jul 17, Libya's foreign minister said the death sentences for five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor accused of infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV have been commuted to life in prison. The ruling came after the families of the children each received $1 million and agreed to drop their demand for the execution of the six.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 19, About 2,000 people protested at the border terminal between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, demanding the crossing be opened to allow thousands of Palestinians trapped in Egypt to return.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 20, Israel released more than 250 Palestinian prisoners, aiming to bolster embattled President Mahmoud Abbas in his power struggle with the Islamic militants of Hamas.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 22, Israeli troops operating in the northern Gaza Strip shot and killed two Hamas gunmen. An Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip after they fired rockets at a nearby Israeli town.
(AP, 7/22/07)(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 22, in northern Lebanon 3 Lebanese soldiers were killed in sporadic fighting with al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants barricaded in a Palestinian refugee camp.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, Foreign Minister Peter MacKay said Canada will give the new Palestinian government C$8 million ($7.6 million) in direct aid and more could follow now that Hamas is no longer in the government.
(Reuters, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 23, Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in his new capacity as a Mideast envoy, opened his mission to help Palestinians build solid foundations for their future state.
(AP, 7/23/08)
2007 Jul 24, Mohammed Radad (20), was shot by Fatah-allied gunmen, when students aligned with the rival groups clashes on the campus of An Najah University in Nablus. Radad died from his wounds on July 27.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 24, Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, sentenced to life in prison in Libya for allegedly infecting children with HIV, came home to Bulgaria and were greeted with tears and hugs, and a presidential pardon that allowed them to walk free after 8 1/2 years behind bars. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Qatar mediated the release and hinted the Gulf country may have had a broader role in resolving the crisis.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 25, The foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan, delegated by the 22-member Arab League, began a historic visit to Israel to formally present an Arab peace plan, saying they were extending "a hand of peace" on behalf of the region.
(AP, 7/25/07)(Econ, 7/28/07, p.48)
2007 Jul 25, Lebanese army troops unleashed barrages of artillery and tank shells at Islamic militants in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 26, An Israeli airstrike targeting a car south of Gaza City killed 3 Islamic Jihad militants. Israeli forces also killed a Hamas militant during a military operation in the southern Gaza Strip. In the West Bank Israeli troops struck and seriously injured a Palestinian who tried to stab a soldier. The man's family said he later died of his wounds.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 27, The Israeli army suspended an officer and five soldiers involved in wounding a Palestinian man July 26 in the southern West Bank and put all of their unit's operational duties on hold.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Jul 28, Palestinian officials said Israel has agreed to allow at least 627 Palestinians who have been stranded in Egypt for weeks to pass into the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 7/28/07)
2007 Jul 30, An Israeli parliamentary committee voted unanimously to revoke the privileges of disgraced former president Moshe Katsav, who signed a plea bargain in June admitting he sexually harassed several female employees. An Israeli aircraft attacked a car carrying Palestinian militants, wounding two members of Islamic Jihad and the Gaza commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, Egyptian police clashed with Bedouins protesting a government order to demolish their houses along the Palestinian Gaza Strip's border, leaving dozens injured. Egyptian media have reported a government plan to force the Bedouins from a 500-foot-wide band of land along the border to prevent traffickers from digging tunnels used to smuggle weapons and people into Gaza.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Aug 4, Two Palestinians were killed and six wounded in an Israeli air strike on two vehicles near the southern Gaza Strip's border with Egypt.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 6, Ehud Olmert became the first Israeli PM to visit a Palestinian town since the outbreak of fighting seven years ago, meeting under heavy guard with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to talk about the creation of a Palestinian state.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 7, A large explosion in northern Gaza killed an 8-year-old boy and his 6-year-old sister and injured five other children. Witnesses said a group of children stumbled upon a homemade rocket or a mortar shell and began playing with it. The device exploded, injuring all seven children, two of whom died later of their wounds.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 7, Israeli police, using sledgehammers, chain saws and power clippers, stormed a building in the biblical city of Hebron and dragged out hundreds of Jewish settlers who had holed up there illegally.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 8, Israeli soldiers shot and killed three Palestinian militants near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip in two separate incidents.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 11, Hamas militiamen detained 32 Fatah supporters across Gaza, half of them after breaking up a bachelor's party and beating guests with clubs and chairs.
(AP, 8/11/07)
2007 Aug 13, Hamas militiamen beat protesters with clubs and rifle butts to try to stop a demonstration by political opponents in the Gaza Strip, but hundreds chanting "We want freedom" defied the ban.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 14, Benjamin Netanyahu won elections as leader of Israel's hardline Likud Party. Israeli troops and aircraft attacked Islamic militants in the southern Gaza Strip. Four fighters and two civilians died in the clashes and 26 people were wounded. Separately, two security officers for Gaza's Hamas rulers were reported killed in fierce fighting with the powerful Palestinian Doghmush clan.
(AP, 8/14/07)(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 15, Japan's foreign minister launched plans for a joint Israeli-Palestinian industrial park in the West Bank that he said would promote peace in the region through prosperity.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 19, Israel opened a crossing with the Gaza Strip to let in fuel shipments, but tens of thousands of homes remained without electricity because fuel for a major Gaza power company hadn't arrived. The EU cut off vital funding to a Gaza power plant, forcing it to shut down the last of its generators and darken tens of thousands of Palestinian homes. Palestinian Information Minister Riad Maliki said the EU ceased payment "because Hamas took over the electric company and started collecting the revenues and taking them to its pocket."
(AP, 8/19/07)(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 21, The Israeli army said ground forces fired at gunmen who approached the Israel-Gaza border fence. The Islamic Jihad group said three militants on a mission against Israel were killed. Palestinians fired three rockets into Israel including one that hit an empty kindergarten in the town of Sderot near Gaza. Israeli troops targeted two figures spotted near a rocket launcher in an area of northern Gaza where a rocket had been fired into Israel earlier. The fire killed a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old who were members of the same extended family. The army said Palestinian rocket teams have been known to send young children to retrieve rocket launchers after firing.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 21, The EU said it will resume vital fuel aid to the Gaza Strip's electric company, money the bloc suspended because of suspicions that Gaza's Hamas rulers were diverting revenues.
(AP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 22, Israeli aircraft killed one Hamas militant and wounded three others in an airstrike in Gaza City.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 24, Hamas security agents clashed with supporters of the rival Fatah movement, firing into the air and beating journalists covering a demonstration against the Islamic militant group's rule in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 24, A deal was reached with Islamic extremists holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon to allow their families to leave the besieged area. The UN Security Council voted unanimously to keep peacekeepers in Lebanon for another 12 months.
(AP, 8/24/07)(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 25, Two Palestinian militants infiltrated Israel from the Gaza Strip, attacking an Israeli military position before soldiers tracked them down and killed them. Militants detonated a bomb near the border fence in southern Gaza, lightly wounding four soldiers. Militants also fired several mortars into southern Israel, causing no injuries.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 26, The moderate Palestinian government began implementing the closure of 103 institutions in the West Bank and Gaza in an apparent crackdown against the Islamic Hamas.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 27, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported that security officials fear Hamas' exiled leadership in Syria is working to renew suicide attacks against Israel in an effort to derail peace efforts by Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli intelligence assessed that Islamic Hamas militants have smuggled 40 tons of weapons into the Gaza Strip since the group wrested control of the territory in June.
(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 28, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas tackled the major issues dividing the two sides at their meeting, final borders, Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.
(AP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 29, The three cousins, 10-year-old Mahmoud Ghazal, 10-year-old Sara Ghazal and 12-year-old Yehiya Ghazal, were killed when Israeli troops combating Palestinian rocket squads spotted figures moving near rocket launchers in northern Gaza and ordered a strike.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Aug 31, In Gaza a protest of Hamas rule by Fatah supporters turned violent when Hamas men began forcefully dispersing the crowd, firing in the air and beating demonstrators and reporters. Five people were wounded in the clashes, including two French journalists.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Sep 1, Hamas gunmen opened fire on their own supporters, killing a teenager at a protest on the Gaza-Egypt border, as tens of thousands of flag-waving Hamas supporters gathered at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt to demand it be reopened.
(AP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 2, In Lebanon the last militant stronghold of a Palestinian refugee camp devastated by more than 3 months of fighting fell to the army. The army killed 39 militants and captured at least 15 others as they tried to break out of the Nahr el-Bared camp. 5 soldiers were killed in the 2-day fight, raising to 158 the number of troops killed in the conflict that began May 20. The dead also included over 20 civilians and over 60 militants.
(AP, 9/2/07)(SFC, 9/3/07, p.A13)
2007 Sep 6, Israeli troops backed by tanks and bulldozers crossed into southern Gaza to strike at Palestinian militants and 10 militants were killed. Palestinian militants said fighters in a pickup truck and jeep crashed through a fence on the Gaza-Israel border and attacked an Israeli army post.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 7, Hamas security forces armed with rifles and clubs beat Fatah supporters trying to hold street prayers to protest the Islamic group's rule in Gaza. Hamas men also assaulted at least seven Palestinian journalists and detained five.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 10, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met in Jerusalem to discuss guidelines for resuming peace negotiations.
(AP, 9/10/07)
2007 Sep 11, A Palestinian rocket exploded in an Israeli army base, wounding more than 40 soldiers as they slept in their tents and drawing calls for a major military operation against militants launching rockets from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 9/11/07)
2007 Sep 13, The Jewish New Year of 5768 began and marked a year of agricultural sabbatical, known in Hebrew as "shmita." The commandment requires Jewish farmers in Israel to let their fields rest every seventh year, just as Jews are required to rest every seventh day. Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a car in a Gaza refugee camp, injuring two members of the violent Islamic Jihad group.
(AP, 9/13/07)
2007 Sep 16, Israeli fire killed two Palestinians in separate incidents in the West Bank, including a militant.
(AFP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 19, Israel's Security Cabinet declared the Gaza Strip an "enemy entity" in order to cut off power and fuel supplies to the coastal strip.
(AP, 9/19/07)
2007 Sep 23, The Israeli Cabinet voted overwhelmingly to release 90 Palestinian prisoners in an effort to shore up the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in his power struggle with Islamic Hamas militants.
(AP, 9/23/07)
2007 Sep 25, Haidar Abdel Shafi (88), medical doctor and founding member of the Palestine Liberation organization (PLO), died at his home in Gaza City. He had founded and directed the Gaza branch of the Red Crescent.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.101)(www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/26/africa/obits.php)
2007 Sep 25, Israel's largest bank said it was severing its last remaining ties with Palestinian banks in Gaza, following the Israeli government's declaration of the coastal strip as an "enemy entity."
(AP, 9/25/07)
2007 Sep 26, An Israeli missile strike targeted a jeep carrying members of the Army of Islam. Five passengers were killed, the Army of Islam said. The Israeli military said the jeep was carrying rockets ready for use. In northern Gaza, Israeli tanks and bulldozers briefly entered the town of Beit Hanoun, following rocket fire from the area. At one point, a tank shell was fired toward a group of people between two houses, killing four and wounding 25.
(AP, 9/27/07)
2007 Sep 27, Israeli forces killed two Gaza militants in a missile strike.
(AP, 9/27/07)
2007 Sep 30, Scores of Palestinian militants who had been stranded in Egypt since Hamas seized Gaza in June returned to the territory.
(AP, 9/30/07)
2007 Oct 1, Dozens of freed Palestinian prisoners kissed the ground at this West Bank checkpoint after Israel released them in a gesture to President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of a US-sponsored Mideast peace conference. Israeli troops killed two Hamas militants in Gaza in a gunbattle.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 2, Israel completed the release of 86 Palestinian prisoners and soldiers briefly opened fire as family members rushed toward the prisoners at the Erez crossing in the Gaza Strip. 2 people were wounded. A blast in Gaza killed four people, including three Fatah activists and a bystander. Hamas accused Fatah of having tried to attack the security compound, saying explosives in the car apparently blew up prematurely.
(SFC, 10/3/07, p.A12)(AP, 10/3/07)(WSJ, 10/3/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 7, Rami Khader Ayyad (32), a prominent Palestinian Christian activist, was found dead on a Gaza City street, sending a shudder of fear through a tiny Christian community feeling increasingly insecure since the Islamic Hamas seized control last summer. He bore a visible gunshot wound to the head and was also stabbed numerous times. Ayyad had been missing since the previous afternoon.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 8, Sudan said it will host hundreds of Palestinian refugees who have been stranded in terrible conditions on Iraq's border with Syria and Jordan.
(Reuters, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 17, A clash between Hamas security forces and members of a large Gaza clan affiliated with the rival Fatah party left four people dead.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17, Israeli troops killed a Hamas gunman in a battle in southern Gaza.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 18, Palestinian surveyors fanned out across Gaza and the West Bank, counting homes and people in the first census in a decade, a rare joint endeavor of bitter rivals Hamas and Fatah.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 19, A parliamentarian said that 61 of 120 Israeli lawmakers have signed a petition against any attempt by PM Ehud Olmert to transfer parts of Jerusalem to the Palestinians.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 20, In Gaza City Hamas police and a clan allied with the rival Fatah movement traded fire killing a young man and a boy on the 4th day of heavy internal fighting.
(SSFC, 10/21/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 22, About 1,000 Palestinian prisoners rioted at an Israeli desert prison, attacking guards, torching the tents where they are housed and leaving 30 people injured.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 23, Israel killed a top Gaza militant with a missile strike on his car prompting threats of more rocket attacks on Israeli border towns. A Palestinian prisoner who was wounded in rioting at an Israeli desert prison died, prompting Palestinian threats of revenge and accusations that the man was abused by Israeli authorities.
(AP, 10/23/07)(WSJ, 10/24/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 24, Officials said Israeli military experts have formulated a plan to gradually cut off power to the Gaza Strip in response to ongoing rocket fire from the Palestinian area.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 26, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas began talks in Jerusalem as part of efforts to work out a joint statement ahead of a US-sponsored Mideast peace conference this fall.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 28, Israel began cutting vital fuel shipments to the Gaza Strip, following through on a promise to step up pressure on the area's Hamas rulers in response to months of Palestinian rocket attacks.
(AP, 10/28/07)
2007 Oct 30, Israeli aircraft hit a Hamas-run police station in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, killing at least four people.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Nov 1, The Israel’ military announced that its forces operating in the Gaza Strip this week had uncovered and destroyed seven tunnels used by Palestinian militants to smuggle arms and people.
(AP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 5, Palestinian police attacked militants in the Balata refugee camp, home to 22,000 people, one of 19 in the West Bank.
(SFC, 11/6/07, p.A17)
2007 Nov 7, The watchdog group Peace Now said Israel is enlarging 88 of its 122 West Bank settlements despite an agreement to halt the spread of Jewish communities in Palestinian territory.
(SFC, 11/8/07, p.A11)
2007 Nov 12, Hamas security forces opened fire at a rally by the rival Fatah movement commemorating Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. 7 people were killed and 85 wounded in the bloodiest day of intra-Palestinian fighting since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June.
(AP, 11/12/07)(AP, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 15, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for the overthrow of Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers. Hundreds of Palestinian business people and professionals, led by an influential billionaire, launched a new political movement, reflecting growing disillusionment with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.
(AP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 16, Thousands of Hamas loyalists protested outside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Gaza City home, warning that violence would erupt if he makes concessions to Israel in a US-sponsored peace conference.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, It was reported that generic Viagra, made in India, was a popular item in Gaza, selling for 75 cents a tablet.
(Econ, 11/17/07, p.56)
2007 Nov 19, The Israeli Cabinet approved the release of 441 Palestinian prisoners in a gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but stopped short of US demands to halt West Bank settlement construction before a crucial Mideast conference.
(AP, 11/19/07)
2007 Nov 19, International Mideast envoy Tony Blair announced four economic projects designed to create thousands of jobs for Palestinians and bolster peace efforts with Israel.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 20, Israel’s PM Olmert met with Egypt’s Pres. Mubarek and said a peace deal with the Palestinians can be signed within a year.
(WSJ, 11/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Nov 25, An army spokesman and Palestinian medics said Israeli troops killed two armed Palestinians in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip overnight.
(AFP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 26, An Israeli aircraft pounded a squad of militants and Israeli border guards shot two Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 27, Tens of thousands of people in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip rallied against the Mideast peace conference under way in the US, while the group's top leader in Gaza insisted the summit is "doomed to failure."
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, Pres. Bush declared that the time is right to relaunch Mideast peace talks to create a Palestinian state because "a battle is under way for the future" of the troubled region, in remarks prepared for the start of the US-arranged Annapolis Mideast peace conference. Delegations from 46 countries and int’l. organizations attended the conference. Israeli PM Olmert and Palestine’s Pres. Abbas agreed to launch formal talks on Dec 12 and committed to negotiating a peace treaty by the end of 2008.
(AP, 11/27/07)(SFC, 11/27/07, p.A15)(WSJ, 11/28/07, p.A4)
2007 Nov 28, Palestinian police loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas fired shots in the air and beat protesters with sticks during the funeral of a man killed during a protest against this week's US-hosted Mideast peace summit. At least 26 people were wounded, one critically.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, A day after an international Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md., President Bush told the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian territories he was personally committed to their mission of peace.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2007 Dec 1, An Israeli airstrike killed five Hamas members, prompting threats by Gaza militants to fire longer-range rockets at Israeli border towns.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 2, Hamas officials shut down the Gaza census office, saying the surveyors had violated an agreement to share their data with Hamas as it is collected.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas closed 92 charities linked to Hamas, as part of a West Bank crackdown on Islamic militants.
(WSJ, 12/4/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 3, Egypt opened its border crossing with Gaza to let in Palestinian religious pilgrims headed for Saudi Arabia, the first time Palestinians have been allowed to enter Egyptian territory since Hamas militants seized Gaza in June.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, Israel released 429 Palestinian prisoners in a gesture meant to strengthen moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 4, Israel said it is seeking bids to build more than 300 new homes in a disputed east Jerusalem neighborhood, drawing Palestinian condemnations that the move is undermining the newly revived peace talks.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 5, Two Palestinian militants were killed by Israeli tank fire in northern Gaza. Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said Israel's army has completed plans for a large offensive in the Gaza Strip and is only waiting for government approval for the action.
(AP, 12/5/07)
2007 Dec 11, Israeli tanks and bulldozers backed by attack aircraft moved into the southern Gaza Strip, killing four militants in the widest operation in the territory since Islamic Hamas forces wrested control in June.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 12, The renewal of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians got off to a rocky start, with the Palestinians criticizing Israel for a construction project planned in disputed east Jerusalem, and Israel complaining about continued rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 12, Palestinian pedestrians gawked at the unusual sight of female police officers directing traffic in Ramallah, the first batch of women to venture into a job traditionally reserved for men in the West Bank.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 14, Hamas gunmen burst into the home of Omar Al-Ghoul, a top Fatah official in Gaza, and arrested him. He was the most senior Fatah politician to be detained since Hamas forces overtook the territory in June. In the West Bank, Abbas' security forces arrested 26 Hamas supporters. 3 people were killed in a mysterious explosion at a Fatah-organized funeral in Gaza City.
(AP, 12/14/07)
2007 Dec 15, Hamas marked the 20th anniversary of its founding with a huge rally in Gaza City. Hamas was founded in Gaza after the outbreak of the first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 17, Defense officials said Israel will allow the Palestinians to set up a new cell phone network, part of warming relations between the sides. The world rallied to the support of the embattled Palestinian government, and the co-chairman of a donors' conference said he was confident they could meet a $5.6 billion target in aid.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 18, Israeli aircraft launched an assault on the radical Islamic Jihad organization in Gaza, killing the group's overall commander and nine other militants in three fiery strikes. A fourth attack on a security post in southern Gaza killed two Hamas militants.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 19, A Hamas official confirmed that Gaza's embattled Hamas leaders are seeking a cease-fire after months of Israeli attacks and sanctions, going so far as to make an unprecedented appeal through the Israeli media.
(AP, 12/19/07)
2007 Dec 20, Israeli troops killed at least 6 Gaza militants, a day after rejecting an unofficial truce offer from the besieged Hamas rulers of the coastal territory.
(AP, 12/20/07)(SFC, 12/21/07, p.A18)(WSJ, 12/21/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 21, Israeli Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said that PM Ehud Olmert may consider talks with Hamas on a long-term cease-fire. A Hamas militant was killed in a clash with Israeli troops near the Israel-Gaza border.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 23, A Cabinet minister said Israel has plans to build an additional 740 apartments in disputed east Jerusalem and the West Bank in 2008, enraging Palestinians who say such construction undermines nascent peace talks.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 25, In Egypt dozens of Palestinian security men affiliated to Fatah staged a mass break-out from the camp where they have been held in Rafah. Egyptian police were able to recapture 40 of them, transferring them to police stations in the coastal town of Arish.
(Reuters, 12/25/07)
2007 Dec 26, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak visited Egypt to discuss Israeli allegations that Egypt was doing too little to prevent arms smuggling to the Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Egypt rejected Israeli complaints about weapons smuggling into Gaza.
(Reuters, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 27, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held their first summit since they agreed last month to renew peace talks, seeking to resolve a dispute over planned Israeli construction in east Jerusalem.
(AP, 12/27/07)
2007 Dec 28, Unknown assailants fatally shot two Israeli settlers hiking in the West Bank. The attack followed an Israeli operation overnight in which troops killed a bodyguard for the Palestinians' chief negotiator.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 29, Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad said his security forces had arrested a number of suspects in the killings of two off-duty Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and had given Israeli authorities weapons taken from the dead men by their attackers.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 31, Palestinian pilgrims broke windows and burned mattresses and blankets in temporary camps to protest Egypt's refusal to let them return to Gaza through a crossing controlled by Hamas. A Palestinian woman (67) died of a heart attack when she was caught amid scuffles. The standoff over the pilgrims began Dec 29, when some 3,060 Palestinians returning from the hajj in Saudi Arabia arrived by ferry at the Egyptian Red Sea port of Nuweiba in southern Sinai, heading back to Gaza.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec 31, The number of people killed in Israeli-Palestinian violence dropped dramatically this year. A report from an Israeli human rights group said Israeli forces killed 373 Palestinians during 2007, a 45 percent drop from the previous year. Palestinians killed 13 Israelis in the same period.
(SFC, 12/31/07, p.A3)
2007 Akiva Eldar and Idith Zertal authored “Lords of the Land: The War for Israel’s Settlements in the Occupied Territories 1967-2007.”
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.97)
2007 Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al Quds Univ. in Jerusalem, authored “Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life.”
(SSFC, 4/8/07, p.M1)
2007 Bernard Rougier’s “Everyday Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam Among Palestinians in Lebanon” was published in English. The French version (Le Jihad au quotidien) was initially published in 2004.
(WSJ, 6/26/07, p.D5)
2007 Raja Shehadeh authored “Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape,” which told of 6 walks taken between 1978 and 2006. It was first published in Britain and in 2008 came out in the US.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.101)
2007 Israel built some 2,600 new housing units this year, most of them inside its security fence on Palestinian land.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.58)
2008 Jan 1, Gaza's ruling Hamas militant group launched a new crackdown on the rival Fatah movement, arresting dozens of activists and barring public gatherings after Fatah anniversary celebrations sparked deadly violence. Fighting stretched into a second day, leaving a total of eight dead and 60 wounded.
(AP, 1/1/08)
2008 Jan 2, Egypt allowed more than 2,000 Palestinian pilgrims to enter the Gaza Strip, drawing a fierce rebuke from Israel, which had tried to prevent top members of the militant Hamas from returning home.
(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 3, Israeli tanks and warplanes attacked a series of targets throughout the Gaza Strip. 9 people were killed including 3 civilians with over 30 Palestinians wounded. The attack had intensified following a Katyusha rocket strike 10½ miles into Israel. The Israeli military uncovered an arms cache in Nablus that contained explosives, military equipment and material for manufacturing rockets.
(AP, 1/3/08)(SFC, 1/4/08, p.A16)(SSFC, 1/6/08, p.A18)
2008 Jan 4, Israeli troops on a night mission in the Gaza Strip killed two Hamas gunmen in the early hours as Israel responded to Palestinian rocket fire with strikes against militants that left 11 dead in 24 hours.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 5, The Israeli army wound up a large 3-day operation in Nablus saying they had discovered another explosives laboratory there.
(SSFC, 1/6/08, p.A18)
2008 Jan 6, The head of Gaza's energy authority said Palestinians in Gaza will be forced to live without electricity eight hours a day, beginning today, because Israel has sharply reduced fuel supplies to the territory's only electric plant.
(AP, 1/6/08)
2008 Jan 9, The Israeli military fired at Palestinian militants in Gaza, killing three people, after a rocket hit a house in a battered Israeli border town just as President Bush, with an entourage of some 800 people, began his Mideast peace mission. Bush, seeking to pull Israel and the Palestinians toward serious negotiations, said that despite ongoing land squabbles and fears of violence he has high hopes that a Mideast peace pact can be achieved before he leaves office at the end of the year.
(AP, 1/9/08)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.39)
2008 Jan 10, In the West Bank President Bush predicted that a Mideast peace treaty would be completed by the time he leaves office. Bush named Lt. Gen. William Fraser III of the US Air Force to oversee compliance with a US-backed peace plan.
(AP, 1/10/08)
2008 Jan 12, Gunmen smashed windows, burned buses and looted computers belonging to a private American school in Gaza before dawn, an attack officials believed was linked to President Bush's visit to the West Bank earlier this week.
(AP, 1/12/08)
2008 Jan 15, Israeli tanks and helicopters raided Gaza, killing the son of the territory's most powerful leader and 16 other Palestinians in the bloodiest day of fighting since Hamas seized the coastal strip in June.
(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 16, In Israel a hawkish faction in PM Ehud Olmert's coalition pulled out of the government, weakening him at a time when he needs broad support to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians by the end of the year. Israeli forces evacuated two makeshift settlement outposts in the West Bank. Israeli aircraft targeting Palestinian rocket squads hit a wrong vehicle killing a boy (12), along with his father and uncle.
(AP, 1/16/08)(SFC, 1/17/08, p.A10)
2008 Jan 16, Pres. Bush visited Egypt. Stalled reforms and bitterness over the jailing of hundreds of dissidents haunted his visit. Bush promised to stay engaged in pulling Israelis and Palestinians toward a peace pact by the end of his term.
(AP, 1/16/08)
2008 Jan 17, Militants in Hamas-ruled Gaza bombarded southern Israel with rockets and Israel pounded back with air and ground fire pushing peace efforts to the sidelines. Israeli rockets killed at least 5 Palestinians including 2 militants and 3 civilians.
(AP, 1/17/08)(SFC, 1/18/08, p.A10)
2008 Jan 18, Defense officials said Israel has closed all border crossings into Gaza, cutting off food and humanitarian supplies to the coastal strip in a bid to pressure its Hamas rulers to stop a barrage of rocket attacks on Israeli towns.
(AP, 1/18/08)
2008 Jan 19, Israeli air strikes killed two Hamas militants in Gaza, a day after Israel sealed the territory and bombed an empty Hamas government ministry in an intensifying campaign to halt rocket fire on Israeli border towns.
(AP, 1/19/08)
2008 Jan 20, Gaza's power plant shut down late in the day after an Israeli border closure blocked the entry of fuel that powers it. This plunged Gaza City into darkness, and gas stations and many bakeries stopped operating. Health officials warned that hospital generators were running out of fuel. 5 rockets were fired into Israel, down from 53 in the two previous days.
(AP, 1/20/08)(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 22, Israel eased a 5-day blockade of Gaza for a day, allowing in shipments of fuel and medicine. But tensions erupted over Egypt's closure of its Gaza border, with Palestinian protesters breaking through the crossing and clashing with Egyptian guards.
(AP, 1/22/08)(WSJ, 1/23/08, p.A1)
2008 Jan 23, Tens of thousands of Palestinians on foot and on donkey carts poured into Egypt from Gaza after masked gunmen used land mines to blast down a seven-mile barrier dividing the border town of Rafah.
(AP, 1/23/08)
2008 Jan 24, Two Palestinians infiltrated a religious seminary and attacked students in a West Bank settlement before being shot dead. Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli police officer near Jerusalem.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 24, A top Israeli defense official said that Israel wants to relinquish all responsibility for the Gaza Strip, including the supply of electricity and water, now that the territory's southern border with Egypt has been opened.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 25, Egyptian guards with riot shields formed human chains along the Egypt-Gaza border, but were unable to stop hundreds of Palestinians from rushing into Egypt after a bulldozer wrecked another section of fence along the frontier.
(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Jan 26, Egyptian riot police and armored vehicles restricted Gaza motorists to a small border area of Egypt, in the second attempt in two days to restore control over the chaotic frontier breached by Hamas militants. At least 36 Egyptian security personnel have been hospitalized, including some in critical condition, due to border incidents with Palestinians.
(AP, 1/26/08)
2008 Jan 26, George Habash (81), former PLO leader, died in Jordan. His radical PLO faction gained notoriety after the simultaneous hijackings of four Western airliners in 1970 and the seizure of an Air France flight to Entebbe, Uganda.
(AP, 1/26/08)
2008 Jan 27, Egyptian forces brandishing electrified batons stopped Gaza cars from crossing the breached border and tightened security at checkpoints to try to confine Palestinians who moved freely into Egypt for a fifth straight day.
(AP, 1/27/08)
2008 Jan 28, Egyptian security forces and Hamas militants strung barbed wire across one of the openings in the Egypt-Gaza border, a sign that a days-long breaching of the frontier may be nearing an end.
(AP, 1/28/08)
2008 Jan 29, Cars and trucks traveled freely across the border from Gaza to Egypt for a seventh day. Egyptians living near the breached border with Gaza warned that chaos was brewing and demanded the crisis be resolved.
(AP, 1/29/08)
2008 Feb 1, Hundreds of Hamas supporters protested on the breached Gaza-Egypt border to demand it remain open, while Egyptian troops poured cement and laid down metal spikes in a new attempt to halt the influx of Gazans.
(AP, 2/1/08)
2008 Feb 2, Hamas agreed to Egyptian calls to control the flow of Palestinians through the breached Gaza border and expects Egypt to seal remaining gaps in the frontier wall.
(AP, 2/2/08)
2008 Feb 3, Egyptian troops closed the last breach in Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip, ending 11 days of free movement for Palestinian residents of the blockaded territory.
(AP, 2/3/08)
2008 Feb 4, In Israel a suicide bomber blew himself up in Dimona, the southern town that houses Israel's secretive nuclear reactor. An Israeli woman (73) was killed and 7 other people wounded. Police killed a 2nd attacker before he had a chance to detonate his explosives belt. An Israeli response killed 9 armed Hamas men.
(AP, 2/4/08)(Econ, 2/9/08, p.54)
2008 Feb 4, Egyptian forces and Palestinian gunmen exchanged fire at the Gaza-Egypt border, killing one person and wounding 59 others a day after Cairo closed the breached frontier with the Hamas-run enclave.
(Reuters, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 5, An Israeli airstrike in response to Qassam rockets killed at least 8 Hamas police officers near Khan Yunis. A barrage of rockets followed and battered Sderot less than a half mile from the Gaza fence, seriously wounding a woman just before the arrival of President Shimon Peres.
(AP, 2/5/08)(SFC, 2/6/08, p.A7)
2008 Feb 6, Israel launched airstrikes against militants firing rockets from the Gaza Strip on and vowed to maintain a war "on all fronts" until the territory's Hamas rulers halt attacks.
(AP, 2/6/08)
2008 Feb 7, Israeli ground forces backed by warplanes exchanged fire with Hamas gunmen in the northern Gaza Strip, killing a teacher and six militants in escalating violence that is hobbling peace efforts.
(AP, 2/7/08)
2008 Feb 8, Palestinian militants launched nearly 20 rockets at Israel hours after Israel began cutting electricity to the Gaza Strip in an attempt to halt the barrages.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 9, An 8-year-old boy lost his leg in a rocket attack on Sderot, one of the 11 rockets fired at southern Israel. Four Israeli airstrikes after the attack killed a Gaza gunman and targeted weapons-making operations of the Islamic militant Hamas group.
(AP, 2/10/08)
2008 Feb 9, The population in Gaza was about 1.5 million people.
(Econ, 2/9/08, p.54)
2008 Feb 12, Israel said it plans to build 1,000 homes in East Jerusalem, angering Palestinians who said the move undermines efforts for a peace deal.
(WSJ, 2/13/08, p.A1)
2008 Feb 15, In Gaza City a powerful blast went off in the house of Ayman Atallah Fayed, a senior Islamic Jihad activist, killing him, his wife, three sons and three neighbors.
(AP, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 17, Israeli troops backed by aircraft and tanks clashed with Palestinian militants firing mortars and machine guns near Gaza's former international airport, killing three gunmen and a civilian. Later a Palestinian rocket struck a house in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, shortly after the UN's humanitarian chief condemned the rocket fire and urged Gaza's Hamas rulers to end the attacks.
(AP, 2/17/08)
2008 Feb 22, Majed Barghouti (44), a Hamas preacher, died in the custody of the Palestinian intelligence service. The next day his family alleged that he had been tortured by interrogators from the rival Fatah faction.
(AP, 2/23/08)
2008 Feb 23, An Israeli army missile strike killed 3 Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip. Militants from Gaza had fired 4 mortar shells at Israel earlier in the day.
(SSFC, 2/24/08, p.A8)
2008 Feb 26, Israel's highest court upheld a much-criticized plea bargain that allowed former President Moshe Katsav to avoid rape charges and a possible prison term. Israeli troops seized the facilities of a Hamas-affiliated charity in the West Bank city of Hebron, saying it funneled money to the Islamic group's militant activities and recruited members to its ranks.
(AP, 2/26/08)
2008 Feb 27, A Palestinian rocket struck a college campus in southern Israel, killing one person and injuring a second. The Hamas militant group said it had fired more than 20 rockets into southern Israel, including eight at Sderot, the town near Gaza where the deadly strike took place. The rocket barrage came hours after an Israeli airstrike killed five Hamas militants earlier in the day. Late in the day Israeli aircraft attacked the empty office of Gaza's Hamas prime minister and the nearby Interior Ministry building. Palestinians said the blasts killed a baby and wounded two dozen people in the surrounding area.
(AP, 2/27/08)(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 28, Israeli aircraft struck a series of targets throughout the Gaza Strip, killing 15 Palestinians, including 5 boys. Palestinian rocket fire continued throughout the day, lightly wounding two people. Hamza al-Haya, the son of hardline Hamas lawmaker Khalil al-Haya, was among those killed. Hamas said he had commanded a rocket-launching squad in northern Gaza.
(AP, 2/28/08)(SFC, 2/29/08, p.A10)
2008 Mar 1, Palestinians called off peace talks with Israel after 33 Gazans, at least half of them civilians, were killed in violence that escalated sharply during the day. The death toll climbed as Israeli troops, backed by tanks and aircraft, went after Palestinian militants who fired 40 rockets and mortars at southern Israeli communities near Gaza. A total of 54 Palestinians, roughly half of them civilians, were killed in fighting, the highest single-day death toll in more than seven years of violence. Two Israeli soldiers also were killed.
(AP, 3/1/08)(AP, 3/2/08)
2008 Mar 2, Israeli aircraft sent missiles slamming into the office of the prime minister of Hamas-ruled Gaza before dawn, pressing forward with an offensive that has killed nearly 70 Palestinians in two days of fighting. A 21-month-old girl was among the dead in new violence. The Israeli onslaught failed to stop rockets from battering southern Israel. 9 were fired at southern Israel by midday, including one that struck a house in Sderot.
(AP, 3/2/08)
2008 Mar 3, Israeli ground troops pulled out of northern Gaza before daybreak, following the first extended sweep in an offensive against Palestinian rocket squads that has left more than 100 dead and led the Palestinian president to call off peace talks.
(AP, 3/3/08)
2008 Mar 4, Israel said it would return to Hamas-ruled Gaza if necessary as it mounted new airstrikes on the Palestinian territory after militants fired more rockets at a nearby Israeli town. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared that peace is his first choice in the Mideast and visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice exhorted Israel to "spare innocent life" in the latest upsurge in fighting in Hamas-ruled Gaza. Palestinians fired three rockets at Israel. About 25 Israeli armored vehicles rumbled into southern Gaza and clashed with militants after nightfall. A 1-month-old baby was killed in the crossfire. A local Islamic Jihad leader was killed and 8 militants and 3 civilians were wounded.
(AP, 3/4/08)(AP, 3/5/08)
2008 Mar 5, Visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice persuaded Palestinians to return to peace talks. President Mahmoud Abbas said he will resume peace talks with Israel, backing off a threat to boycott negotiations until Israel reaches a truce with Hamas militants in Gaza.
(AP, 3/5/08)
2008 Mar 6, Palestinian militants ambushed an Israeli army jeep on the border with Gaza, killing one soldier and wounding three. Deputies of Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman met with officials from the Islamic militant Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad in the Egyptian Sinai city of el-Arish to persuade Hamas to accept a truce that would halt rocket attacks.
(AP, 3/6/08)
2008 Mar 6, A gunman infiltrated a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem and opened fire in a library, killing 8 students and wounding dozens before an Israeli army officer nearby shot the gunman dead. In Gaza, the Islamic militant Hamas praised the attack.
(AP, 3/6/08)(AP, 3/7/08)
2008 Mar 7, An official said Egypt is building a 13-foot high concrete and rock wall interspersed with watch towers along its narrow boundary with the Gaza Strip to prevent Hamas militants from breaching the border.
(AP, 3/7/08)
2008 Mar 9, An Israeli Construction Ministry official said PM Ehud Olmert has approved new construction in a West Bank settlement outside Jerusalem. An Israeli soldier wounded by Gaza militants in a border ambush on Mar 6 died of his wounds. The news immediately drew Palestinian condemnation.
(AP, 3/9/08)
2008 Mar 10, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert has instructed the army to halt airstrikes and raids into the Gaza Strip in response to a recent drop in rocket fire from the territory.
(AP, 3/10/08)
2008 Mar 11, Palestinian militants in Gaza launched a rocket at the Israeli city of Ashkelon, causing no injuries but threatening to upset a recent period of calm.
(AP, 3/11/08)
2008 Mar 12, Gaza's Hamas prime minister publicly set his conditions for a cease-fire with Israel to end the fighting that has killed dozens in recent weeks. Ismail Haniyeh demanded an end to Israeli military activity in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, a lifting of Israeli economic sanctions and the opening of Gaza's borders. Hours later Israeli forces killed 4 Palestinian militants in the West Bank. Israeli troops riding in a taxi van pulled up behind the militants' parked Daihatsu and began shooting immediately.
(AP, 3/12/08)(WSJ, 3/13/08, p.A1)(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Mar 13, The militant Islamic Jihad group in Gaza fired more than a dozen rockets at southern Israel after Israeli undercover forces killed one of its West Bank leaders, shattering a recent lull in Gaza fighting.
(AP, 3/13/08)
2008 Mar 13, Chile said it has agreed to receive 117 Palestine refugees from Iraq who have spent months living in tents along the desert border with Syria.
(AP, 3/14/08)
2008 Mar 14, The Bush administration's Mideast envoy pushed Israel and the Palestinians to speed up peace negotiations at the first meeting the US has attended since talks resumed nearly four months ago.
(AP, 3/14/08)
2008 Mar 20, Palestinian militants accidentally set off a large blast at a Hamas training base in the central Gaza Strip, killing 2 members of the violent Islamic group and wounding another.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 20, Israeli defense officials announced they've worked out a tentative deal for Egypt to become the main electricity supplier to the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 24, Al-Qaida deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on Muslims in a new audiotape to strike Jewish and American targets in revenge for Israel's recent offensive in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 3/24/08)
2008 Mar 26, The Israeli military captured Omar Jabar, the mastermind of the March 2002 bombing in Netanya, the deadliest suicide bombing of the Palestinian uprising.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 28, Palestinian medics say a Palestinian man was killed by Israeli army fire as he approached Gaza's border fence with Israel. The Israeli military said the man was armed and hurled a grenade at forces close to the fence.
(AP, 3/29/08)
2008 Mar 30, Israel pledged to remove 50 West Bank roadblocks as part of a package to improve everyday life for Palestinians after US Sec. of State Rice met with Israel's defense minister, Ehud Barak, and Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad.
(AP, 3/30/08)
2008 Mar 31, Jerusalem's city hall has announced a plan to construct 600 new apartments in the Pisgat Zeev neighborhood of east Jerusalem.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Apr 4, In the West Bank 12 members of the members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades fled the Palestinian-run Jneid Prison in Nablus, complaining that guards had pummeled them with clubs following a fight among the detainees.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 6, A Palestinian boy (8) was killed by shrapnel in an explosion in the central Gaza Strip. The source of the shrapnel was not identified.
(SFC, 4/7/08, p.A3)
2008 Apr 7, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas resumed face-to-face negotiations, trying to push forward peace efforts after nearly two months marred by heavy Gaza Strip violence and new Israeli plans to expand settlements.
(AP, 4/7/08)
2008 Apr 8, In Palestine’s Hamas threatened to burst across the Israeli border to end Israel's blockade of Gaza if Egypt and Israel do not lift their blockade.
(AP, 4/9/08)(WSJ, 4/9/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 9, Palestinian militants crossed into southern Israel and killed two Israeli civilians in a surprise attack before fleeing back to the Gaza Strip. At least one of the militants who attacked the Israeli terminal delivering fuel to the Gaza Strip was killed. Israel sent tanks, troops and aircraft into the Palestinian territory after the raid, killing at least 8 Palestinians, including 3 civilians, and warned that more reprisals could be coming.
(AP, 4/9/08)(AP, 4/10/08)
2008 Apr 10, Israel cut off all fuel supplies to Gaza's 1.4 million residents, one day after militants killed 2 civilians at a fuel terminal.
(AP, 4/10/08)
2008 Apr 11, Israeli forces launched air strikes and a ground raid in the Gaza Strip, trading fire with gunmen in clashes that killed 8 Palestinians including a 12-year-old boy.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 13, Palestinian medical officials said 3 people died in an explosion in a house in the Gaza Strip. They said the blast likely resulted from the accidental detonation of explosives.
(AP, 4/13/08)
2008 Apr 14, An Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle in northern Gaza, fatally wounding Ibrahim Abu Olba (42), a senior Palestinian militant. Former President Jimmy Carter deplored Palestinian militant attacks on Israel as a "despicable crime" as he toured Sderot, a rocket-battered town.
(AP, 4/14/08)(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 15, Israel said it will resume some crucial fuel shipments to the Gaza Strip. Defense officials confirmed that Israel will let Jewish settlers build new houses in existing West Bank settlements if they remove unauthorized settlement outposts. An Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a motorcycle in northern Gaza, killing Mohammed Ghausain, an Islamic Jihad commander.
(AP, 4/15/08)
2008 Apr 15, Former US Pres. Jimmy Carter visited the West Bank and laid a wreath at the grave of Yasser Arafat. Carter was criticized by Israel and Washington for his plans to meet with Hamas leaders in Syria.
(SFC, 4/16/08, p.A8)
2008 Apr 16, Palestinian militants ambushed an Israeli ground force in northern Gaza, killing three soldiers. The army responded with an airstrike and identified hitting militants in the Bureij area. Fadel Shana (23) a cameraman with the Reuters news agency, was struck, along with two bystanders, as he filmed Israeli tank movements in the distance during the bloodiest day in Gaza in more than a month. He had been in the area to film the aftermath of a deadly Israeli airstrike that killed 12 Palestinians, including five children aged 12-15.
(AP, 4/17/08)
2008 Apr 16, Palestinian militants ambushed an Israeli ground force in northern Gaza, killing three soldiers. The army responded with an airstrike and identified hitting militants in the Bureij area. Fadel Shana (23) a cameraman with the Reuters news agency, was struck, along with two bystanders, as he filmed Israeli tank movements in the distance during the bloodiest day in Gaza in more than a month. He had been in the area to film the aftermath of a deadly Israeli airstrike that killed 12 Palestinians, including five children aged 12-15. Israeli airstrikes left at least 19 Palestinians dead.
(AP, 4/17/08)(SFC, 4/17/08, p.A9)
2008 Apr 17, In Egypt former President Carter met with a Hamas delegation from Gaza, part of a series of talks with the Islamic militant group that has drawn sharp criticism from US and Israeli officials. Carter said he urged Hamas leaders from the Gaza Strip to stop militants from firing rockets into southern Israel.
(AP, 4/17/08)(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 18, The Israeli government revealed plans to build 100 homes in two Jewish settlements, one of them deep in the West Bank, in violation of its pledge to freeze settlement expansion. The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades said Hani Al-Kabi, a leader of the group in the Balata refugee camp, was killed by Israeli troops during a raid in Nablus.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 19, Hamas militants drove two cars laden with explosives to an Israeli border crossing with Gaza under the cover of morning fog and detonated one. 4 militants were killed in the huge blasts and exchanges of fire with at least 13 Israeli soldiers wounded. Israel killed 5 Hamas militants in a series of airstrikes after the group detonated the explosives.
(AFP, 4/19/08)(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 20, Israeli airstrikes killed 2 more Hamas militants one day after the group detonated two jeeps packed with hundreds of kilograms of explosives on the Gaza border.
(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 20, A group of Palestinian refugees stranded on the Iraq-Syria border since 2006 flew to Chile under a resettlement plan sponsored by the Catholic Church in the South American country and the UN agency for refugees.
(AP, 4/20/08)
2008 Apr 21, Israeli military forces killed three Palestinian militants who were trying to infiltrate into Israel from Gaza. Former President Carter said that Hamas, the Islamic militant group that has called for the destruction of Israel, is prepared to accept the right of the Jewish state to "live as a neighbor next door in peace." Hamas said it would accept a Palestinian state with pre-1967 borders.
(AP, 4/21/08)(WSJ, 4/21/08, p.A1)
2008 Apr 22, Senior representatives said Hamas has softened its position and is willing to accept a cease-fire in just the Gaza Strip, dropping a demand that the truce immediately include the West Bank.
(AP, 4/22/08)
2008 Apr 23, A threatened shutdown of the Gaza Strip's only power plant was averted after Israel agreed to pump in about 260,000 gallons of diesel fuel, enough to run the plant for at least 3 days. An Israeli airstrike killed a Palestinian civilian near the town of Beit Hanoun.
(AP, 4/23/08)(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 24, An Israeli airstrike in Gaza wounded three militants and tanks were moving toward the area. Hamas proposed a six-month cease-fire with Israel, saying it will stop firing rockets out of Gaza if the Jewish state simultaneously lifts its blockade of the coastal strip.
(AP, 4/24/08)(AFP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 25, A Palestinian militant shot and killed two Israeli security guards at a factory along the divide between Israel and the West Bank. The attacker was lightly wounded in an exchange of gunfire but managed to escape.
(AP, 4/25/08)
2008 Apr 26, Israeli forces entered a northern Gaza town and seized a local Hamas leader from his home amid heavy fighting with Palestinian gunmen. The wanted man's 14-year-old daughter was killed in the clashes.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 Apr 28, An Israeli tank shell slammed into a tiny Gaza Strip home during a skirmish with gunmen, killing a Palestinian woman and four of her children as they prepared to sit down for breakfast. A militant and an unidentified man were also killed in fighting in Beit Hanoun, a northern border town frequently used by militants to fire rockets and mortars at southern Israel.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 Apr 30, In Egypt state news agency MENA said Palestinian factions meeting in Cairo for talks with Egyptian security officials have agreed to an Egyptian proposal for a truce with Israel starting in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 4/30/08)
2008 May 2, A UN official said rising prices and funding shortages have forced the UN to stop providing emergency food aid to more than 13 percent of the 750,000 Palestinian refugees it feeds in Gaza.
(AP, 5/2/08)
2008 May 9, Mortar shells fired by militant Hamas killed an Israeli man in an Israeli communal farm near Gaza. Israel fired missiles at two Hamas police station in retaliation and killed five Hamas members.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 10, The main border crossing between the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and Egypt was temporarily opened under a deal between the Islamist group and Cairo.
(Reuters, 5/10/08)
2008 May 10, Hamas fired rockets at southern Israel, hitting a house and a Jewish seminary just hours after five Hamas policemen were killed in Israeli air strikes.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 11, A member of the militant group Hamas was killed in an explosion along Gaza's fence with Israel.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 12, Israel’s police raided Jerusalem’s city hall and seized documents as part of the corruption probe of PM Ehud Olmert. A rocket fired by Palestinian militants killed a 75-year-old Israeli woman, just as an Egyptian mediator was winding up truce talks in Israel.
(AP, 5/12/08)(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 14, In Israel President Bush said that 60 years of Israel's existence is cause for optimism for democratic change throughout the Middle East, opening a trip divided between ceremonial duties and a new push for Israeli-Palestinian peace. A rocket fired from Gaza exploded in a shopping center in Ashkelon, southern Israeli, wounding at least 14 people.
(AP, 5/14/08)
2008 May 16, Osama bin Laden said in a new audio recording that al-Qaida will continue its holy war against Israel and its allies until it liberates Palestine.
(AP, 5/16/08)
2008 May 18, Osama bin Laden released a new message denouncing Arab leaders for sacrificing the Palestinians and saying the head of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah did not really have the strength to take on Israel.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 20, Israeli aircraft launched at least three strikes on Palestinians, killing a boy (13), a Hamas fighter and an unidentified man. The first raid aircraft fired on the northeastern Gaza Strip at a group of Palestinians launching rockets. The 2nd aircraft fired at Palestinians who were planting explosives along the fence in central Gaza.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 22, A Palestinian suicide bomber detonated a truck loaded with explosives as he tried to ram a crucial crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel. There were no casualties besides the bomber.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 22, A US government agency signed a political risk insurance deal with a Palestinian firm to help guarantee investments in the West Bank as part of an international effort to develop the beleaguered local economy.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 23, Clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip left five militants dead.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 23, Japan allocated $54 million in emergency grants to the UN to help Afghanistan, Africa and Palestinian refugees cope with the ongoing food crisis.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 24, Israeli forces attacked two groups of Palestinian militants firing mortar shells in the northern Gaza Strip, wounding 4 Hamas gunmen.
(SSFC, 5/25/08, p.A4)
2008 May 26, David Mumford of Brown University said he would donate his $33,333 portion of the prestigious Israeli mathematics Wolf Prize, to a Palestinian university and an Israeli group that tries to ease Israeli travel restrictions on Palestinian students.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 28, An Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza Strip killed two Hamas gunmen during a military operation. The airstrike also wounded four militants who were firing mortars at Israeli forces.
(AP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 30, Palestinian doctors said Israel troops opened fire and wounded 7 Palestinians in a demonstration at a crossing into Israel.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 May 31, An explosion in the Gaza Strip house of Nader Abu Shaban, a Hamas militant, killed him and wounded 16 of his relatives and neighbors.
(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 May 31, An Egyptian police official said boxes of ammunition, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft missiles have been found in a mountain in the northern Sinai peninsula. He said the weapons were to be smuggled into the neighboring Gaza Strip.
(AP, 5/31/08)
2008 Jun 1, Israel freed Nasim Nisr (39), a convicted Hezbollah spy, and the militant group turned over the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in the 2006 war in Lebanon.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 4, The Israeli army says it has closed the Gaza fuel crossing after an errant rocket fired by militants wounded a Palestinian worker at the terminal.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 5, An Israeli missile aimed at a group of Palestinian militants struck a house and killed a girl (6), hours after an Israeli was killed by a Hamas mortar barrage fired from the area.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 6, An Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahiya targeted a Hamas base. One fighter was killed during an Israeli army operation in the central Gaza Strip.
(AP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 7, An Israeli tank killed a militant near Gaza City. Hamas confirmed the man was a member of the group and said two of his comrades were wounded. The Israeli military said the gunman was planting a bomb along the border.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 9, Israeli officials said they have transferred millions of dollars in delayed tax revenue to the Palestinian authority, money that will help pay thousands of workers who have not received their May wages.
(AP, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 10, Gaza militants bombarded southern Israel with 20 mortar rounds in the space of an hour midday, provoking Israeli ground strikes that killed 3 militants from the territory's ruling Hamas group.
(AP, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 11, The Israeli military said soldiers opened fire at militants launching rockets into Israel. Palestinian officials said a 6-year-old girl was killed by Israeli tank fire in Gaza.
(AP, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 12, A blast flattened the house of a militant commander in the Gaza Strip, killing four people, wounding 40 and burying an unknown number of others. Israel denied involvement. Hamas said the blast was caused by an Israeli airstrike and responded with a heavy barrage of rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel, wounding an Israeli woman. Earlier in the day Israeli troops killed two Palestinian militants in a clash in northern Gaza.
(AP, 6/12/08)
2008 Jun 13, Israel confirmed plans to build 1,300 more apartments in east Jerusalem, immediately drawing the ire of Palestinians who accused it of sabotaging already rocky peace efforts. Hamas claimed responsibility for a house explosion a day earlier in northern Gaza that killed seven Palestinians, one of them an infant girl.
(AP, 6/13/08)
2008 Jun 16, Israeli troops in southern Gaza killed three Palestinian gunmen as they planted explosives along the Gaza-Israel border. Separately an Israeli airstrike injured three Hamas militants, one of them critically.
(AP, 6/16/08)
2008 Jun 17, Egypt's state-owned news agency said Israel and Hamas have agreed on a truce to begin June 19.
(AP, 6/17/08)
2008 Jun 18, Israel and Hamas pledged to start a cease-fire June 19 in a bid to end a year of fighting that has killed more than 400 Palestinians and seven Israelis. The deal came as Israel also urged Lebanon to open peace talks.
(AP, 6/18/08)
2008 Jun 19, Guns went quiet as a six-month truce between Israel and Gaza Strip militants took effect, but there was widespread skepticism about its ability to hold.
(AP, 6/19/08)
2008 Jun 22, Israel increased the trickle of badly needed goods flowing into the Gaza Strip, in the latest stage of a four-day-old truce with Hamas militants.
(AP, 6/22/08)
2008 Jun 23, In Jerusalem French President Nicolas Sarkozy said there could be no Mideast peace unless Israel drops its refusal to cede sovereignty over parts of Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinians, challenging one of Israel's most emotionally held positions.
(AP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 24, Three Palestinian rockets hit southern Israel and PM Ehud Olmert's office says the cease-fire that took effect last week has been broken. Islamic Jihad militants in the Gaza Strip said they carried out the attack to avenge an Israeli military raid that killed one of their fighters in the West Bank. Israeli troops killed two Palestinians in the West Bank raid. The militant group Hamas said it remains committed to a cease-fire with Israel, but will not act as Israel's "police force" in confronting militants who breach the truce. An Israeli police officer fatally shot himself in the head at an airport farewell ceremony for French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The officer was identified as Raed Ghanem, a member of the minority Druse community.
(AP, 6/24/08)(AP, 6/25/08)
2008 Jun 24, Countries at a one-day conference in Berlin agreed to commit more than $240 million to help strengthen the Palestinian Authority's police force and court system. The funding being sought was for the Palestinian Authority-controlled West Bank, which does not control the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 26, Gaza militants fired a rocket into southern Israel, causing no injuries but undermining a shaky, week-old truce meant to halt a violent cycle of attacks and harsh Israeli reprisals. The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent group linked to the rival Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack saying "the truce must include the West Bank and all sorts of aggression must stop."
(AP, 6/26/08)
2008 Jun 27, Israel refused to fully open crossings with the Gaza Strip and Palestinian militants attacked Israel with mortars, further testing an already fragile truce. Israeli soldiers shot dead Mohammed Alameh (17), a West Bank teenager who threw Molotov cocktails at an army patrol.
(AP, 6/27/08)(AP, 6/28/08)
2008 Jul 1, Israel closed its cargo crossings with the Gaza Strip after accusing Palestinian militants of firing a rocket at southern Israel in violation of a shaky truce. The Israeli military said its radar detected a rocket launched from Gaza the previous evening that struck near the communal farm of Mefalsim.
(AP, 7/1/08)
2008 Jul 2, In Israel Hussam Dwayat (30), a Palestinian man from Arab east Jerusalem plowed, an enormous construction vehicle into cars, buses and pedestrians on a busy street, killing at least 3 people and wounding at least 45 before he was shot dead by security officers. Palestinian witnesses said an angry crowd in the Gaza Strip has stormed a border crossing with Egypt throwing rocks at Egyptian troops.
(AP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 2, Japan and Middle Eastern leaders agreed on a project to bring thousands of badly needed jobs to the West Bank, voicing hope it would lay the groundwork for a Palestinian state.
(AFP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 6, Israel re-opened its border crossings with the Gaza Strip after closing them because of Palestinian rocket fire.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 7, Israeli troops in jeeps swooped down on the West Bank town of Nablus, shutting down a girls' school, a medical center and two other facilities of a Hamas-affiliated charity. Palestinian militants fired a mortar shell at a border crossing with the Gaza Strip. Israel's military said it had begun digging up the bodies of Lebanese fighters after the government struck a deal with Hezbollah guerrillas to swap five living prisoners and dozens of bodies for two Israeli soldiers captured in 2006.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 7, Israeli Lt. Col. Omri Borberg was caught on video holding the arm of Ashraf Abu Rahmeh while he was shot in the foot with a rubber-coated bullet in the West Bank village of Naalin. On Jan 27, 2011, an Israeli military court sentenced two soldiers, convicted in the close-range shooting of a bound and blindfolded Palestinian man, but spared them jail time.
(AP, 1/27/11)(http://tinyurl.com/45ufwxq)
2008 Jul 8, The Israeli military said Gaza militants fired a mortar shell into Israel in another violation of a shaky truce.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 9, An Israel-Hamas truce has boiled down to a simple trade-off: For a day of calm, Israel adds five truckloads of cows and 200 tons of cement to the barest basics it ships to Gaza, but rocket fire from the territory reseals the border for a day.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 10, Israeli troops shot and killed a teenage Palestinian militant along the country's border with Gaza. Soldiers thought he was armed but, after inspecting the body, found that he was not. In the fourth day of operations in the city of Nablus, Israel closed a clinic and TV station, and raided a mosque.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 10, A Palestinian health official said a tunnel used to smuggle goods across the Gaza-Egypt border has collapsed, killing two Palestinians.
(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 11, Israeli police revealed stinging new allegations against PM Ehud Olmert, accusing him of pocketing tens of thousands of dollars by deceiving multiple sources into paying for the same trips abroad. Israeli troops killed a Palestinian gunman who opened fire in the early morning on an Israeli civilian driving in the West Bank.
(AP, 7/11/08)(AP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 15, Israel's Cabinet overwhelmingly approved an emotionally charged deal to trade a Lebanese militant convicted of killing three people for two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah guerrillas and believed to be dead. Israeli troops arrested three Hamas council members in a dawn raid on the West Bank city of Nablus. Witnesses and residents said a total of 12 Hamas members were arrested.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 20, In Israel British PM Gordon Brown, on his first official visit as prime minister, said that economic development was key to bringing peace to the Middle East. Brown demanded that Israel cease settlement construction and promised more money to jump-start the battered Palestinian economy.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 22, Palestinian rammed a construction truck into three cars and a bus near the Jerusalem hotel where Barack Obama is supposed to stay, injuring four people before an Israeli civilian shot and killed the attacker.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 23, US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama donned a Jewish skullcap at Israel's Holocaust memorial and vowed to preserve America's close ties with Israel in a dramatic visit to the Holy Land in which he also promised the Palestinians to push vigorously to win them a state.
(AP, 7/23/08)
2008 Jul 24, An Israeli official said a key committee has approved construction of the first new Jewish settlement in the West Bank in a decade. The news infuriated Palestinians, who said the decision could cripple peace efforts.
(AP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 25, A bomb exploded outside a Gaza City cafe and another went off outside the home of a Hamas lawmaker. One person was killed. A mysterious beachside blast killed 3 Hamas members and a 6-year-old girl. 2 more Hamas activists died the next day.
(AP, 7/25/08)(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 26, Hamas security arrested dozens of supporters of the rival Fatah group, hurled grenades at the home of a Fatah leader and set up checkpoints across Gaza following the previous day’s beachside blast that killed five Hamas members and a 6-year-old girl. Masked Hamas gunmen nabbed Sawah Abu Saif (42), a Palestinian cameraman for German TV, from his Gaza home, during a mass weekend roundup of alleged activists of the rival Fatah movement. He was tortured and released on July 31.
(AP, 7/26/08)(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Jul 29, A huge blast rocked a training base run by the Islamic militant Hamas in southern Gaza, injuring at least five members of the group.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 29, Israeli gunfire killed a 10-year-old Palestinian boy during a confrontation between troops and stone-throwers in a West Bank village.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 31, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ordered the release of all Hamas activists detained in recent days by his security forces.
(AP, 7/31/08)
2008 Aug 1, Hamas forces seized about 15 leaders of Fatah in Gaza, upping the stakes in a week of tit-for-tat arrests between the bitter Palestinian rivals. Fatah said more than 200 of its men have been seized over the past week. Five Palestinians died and 18 were wounded in a smuggling tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt border after Egyptian troops blew up the entrance.
(AP, 8/1/08)(AP, 8/2/08)
2008 Aug 2, Hamas security forces battled fighters in a tribal stronghold where they say suspects in a deadly bombing last week were hiding. Two Hamas police officers were killed and 35 people wounded. Some 180 Fatah supporters fled into Israel from a deadly Hamas crackdown.
(AP, 8/2/08)(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 3, Israeli and Palestinian officials said most of the 180 Fatah supporters, who had fled into Israel, would be sent back into the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 4, Israel's defense minister said a group of around 150 Fatah fighters who fled to Israel from the Gaza Strip will be allowed to relocate to the West Bank because they face "immediate danger" from Gaza's Hamas rulers.
(AP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 6, Israel released five Palestinian teenagers from jail as part of a prisoner exchange agreement made with Lebanon's Hezbollah militia last month.
(AP, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 9, Mahmoud Darwish (67), a Palestinian poet, died, died in Houston, Texas. His poetry eloquently told of his people's experiences of exile, occupation and infighting. His 1973 work “Journal of an Ordinary Grief” was translated to English in 2010.
(AP, 8/10/08)(Econ, 8/23/08, p.75)(Econ, 10/23/10, p.103)
2008 Aug 17, Israel's Cabinet approved the release of some 200 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture to the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 19, A Palestinian rocket attack on southern Israel violated a truce and led Israel to close its cargo crossings with the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 23, Two boats carrying dozens of international activists sailed into the Gaza Strip in defiance of an Israeli blockade, receiving a jubilant welcome from thousands of Palestinians. Israel said it would permit the boats to dock in Gaza after determining the activists did not pose a security threat. The group delivered a symbolic shipment of hearing aids and balloons.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 25, Israel freed nearly 200 jailed Palestinians, including a militant mastermind from the 1970s, in a goodwill gesture just hours before US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to begin her latest peace mission to the region.
(AP, 8/25/08)
2008 Aug 26, Israel ordered the Gaza Strip's border crossings closed after militants violated a cease-fire by launching two rockets the previous evening, bringing to 46 the number of rockets launched by militants since the truce began.
(AP, 8/26/08)
2008 Aug 30, Egypt opened its Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip, allowing more than 2,500 people to leave the Hamas-controlled territory and about 1,000 to enter in a goodwill gesture before the holy Muslim month of Ramadan begins.
(AP, 8/30/08)(Reuters, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug 31, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Israel's idea of an interim peace agreement at a summit, insisting on an all-or-nothing approach that virtually ruled out an accord by a January target date.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Sep 4, Middle East envoy Tony Blair toured a Palestinian aluminum factory in Beit Iba and was told it runs at one-third capacity because of Israeli import restrictions. He promised he'll take it up with Israeli authorities.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 5, An Israeli defense official said Israel has allowed Palestinian security forces in the West Bank to receive a shipment of about 1,000 Kalashnikov rifles and tens of thousands of bullets in a step aimed at bolstering the moderate Palestinian government there. The weapons shipment reached the Palestinians through Jordan about one week ago.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 5, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pledged to try to reach a final status peace agreement with Israel by the end of the year, but he admitted the goal, set by US President George W. Bush, might not be achieved.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 13, A Palestinian stabbed a 9-year-old Israeli boy in a West Bank settlement outpost, setting off clashes that left injured six Palestinians. Israeli troops fatally shot Hassan Hmeid (16), a Palestinian teenager during a clash near Bethlehem. Witnesses said the troops opened fire when a patrol entered Tekoa and were pelted with a hail of stones thrown by local young people.
(AP, 9/13/08)
2008 Sep 16, Hamas police waged a fierce gunbattle against members of a heavily armed Palestinian clan in a crowded neighborhood, leaving three clan members and one policeman dead.
(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 20, A Palestinian was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers who said they saw him light a firebomb near a Jewish settlement. Suhayeb Saleh was later identified by his parents, who said he was 14 years old. Egypt opened its Gaza border terminal to allow passage of students and medical patients for 2 days.
(AP, 9/20/08)
2008 Sep 22, A driver plowed a BMW into a group of soldiers at a busy intersection near Jerusalem's Old City, injuring 13 of them before he was shot to death. The driver was a Palestinian resident of east Jerusalem who apparently acted alone.
(AP, 9/22/08)
2008 Sep 23, The bodies of 2 Palestinian smugglers were pulled from a tunnel that collapsed along the Gaza-Egypt border. 3 more bodies were removed the next day. The five were bringing contraband goods from Egypt into Gaza when an explosion collapsed the tunnel. Three smugglers survived and were arrested on the Egyptian side.
(AP, 9/24/08)
2008 Sep, Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered to swap Israeli near the Gaza Strip and West Bank in exchange for settlement blocs in the West Bank. The Palestinians did not respond to the proposal, submitted at a time when Olmert's ability to negotiate a peace deal was compromised by corruption allegations that eventually forced him to step down. Talks broke down after Israel's war against Gaza militants and never resumed.
(AP, 12/17/09)
2008 Oct 8, It was reported that Gaza's smugglers have gone legit. Owners of the scores of tunnels running under the Gaza-Egypt border have registered with the Hamas authorities, pledged to pay workers' compensation and hooked up their operations to the electricity network.
(AP, 10/8/08)
2008 Oct 13, Israel shut down entry from the West Bank during the 7-day Sukkot holiday. The order bars almost all West Bank Palestinians from entering Israel until Oct. 21.
(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 14, The Hamas government announced that it will not permit thousands of striking teachers to return to their jobs, further heightening tensions with its political rivals in the West Bank. Despite the August 24 strike, Hamas kept schools running and hired some 2,200 new teachers and administrators.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 14, The Israeli military troops in the West Bank shot a Palestinian as he prepared to lob a blazing Molotov cocktail into a Jewish settlement north of Jerusalem. Troops found another 10 firebombs at the scene ready to be ignited.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 16, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man in Kufr Malek, a village near Ramallah. An army patrol spotted three men carrying firebombs and troops shot one man after the trio ignored warning shots. The other two escaped. A Palestinian man died in a Ramallah hospital a day after being shot by troops in the nearby Jelazoun refugee camp.
(AP, 10/16/08)
2008 Oct 20, Palestinian Pres. Abbas published remarks saying Israel has failed to protect Palestinians against attacks by Israeli settlers during the olive harvest.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 23, Mohammed Albaden, a Palestinian assailant, stabbed two Israelis in an east Jerusalem neighborhood, killing an 86-year-old man and wounding a police officer in what authorities called a "terror incident."
(AP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 25, Nearly 600 newly trained Palestinian troops took up positions in Hebron. In the Gaza Strip, three Palestinians were killed when a smuggling tunnel linking Gaza to Egypt collapsed. In the West Bank, a 23-year-old Palestinian was seriously wounded by Israeli army fire during a clash in the refugee camp of Fara.
(AP, 10/25/08)
2008 Oct 26, The Palestinian national team hosted an international match for the first time, in the West Bank's only regulation-size stadium. Located in a West Bank suburb of Jerusalem. The game against Jordan ended in a 1-1 tie.
(AP, 10/27/08)
2008 Oct 29, A boat carrying 27 activists and humanitarian supplies sailed into the Gaza Strip, defying an Israeli naval blockade to call attention to Israeli sanctions on the Hamas-controlled territory. The passengers included Mairead Corrigan Maguire, who won the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for her work with Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 30, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket into southern Israel in violation of a 4-month-old truce, but the strike did not cause any injuries or damage. The Israeli Defense Ministry responded by snapping shut cargo crossings into Gaza until further notice.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, Scientists reported that 1 in 17 men living on the coasts of North Africa and southern Europe may have a Phoenician direct male line ancestor. Evidence was based on Y-chromosomes collected in Cyprus, Malta, Morocco, the West Bank, Syria and Tunisia.
(SFC, 10/31/08, p.A14)
2008 Oct 31, Israeli settlers clashed with Israeli police and Palestinians in the West Bank town of Hebron following the overnight demolition of an unauthorized settler outpost. Israelis from across the political spectrum slammed a decision to air the first-ever television interview with Yigal Amir (43), the extremist Jew who assassinated PM Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.
(AP, 10/31/08)(AFP, 10/31/08)
2008 Nov 4, A World Bank delegation launched a sewage project, long delayed by the standoff between Israel and Hamas, in the Gaza Strip to prevent raw sewage from spilling into residential areas.
(AP, 11/4/08)
2008 Nov 5, Hamas militants pounded southern Israel with a barrage of rockets, hours after Israeli forces killed six gunmen. The clashes began the previous evening after Israeli forces burst into Gaza to destroy what the army said was a tunnel being dug near the border to abduct Israeli troops. The Israeli military said 35 rockets were fired. Late the same day Israel launched another airstrike, killing a Palestinian militant in northern Gaza. The army said it was targeting a rocket launcher, whom the Islamic Jihad group identified as its own. The group had fired two rockets at the Israeli border town of Sderot and one of its leaders, Khader Habib, declared the truce over.
(AP, 11/5/08)(AP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 7, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired at least 3 rockets at southern Israel, fraying a five-month truce that has been tested sorely this week. There were no injuries.
(AP, 11/7/08)
2008 Nov 8, A group of European lawmakers sailed from Cyprus into Gaza, defying an internationally backed blockade of the Hamas-run territory with activists promising to send more visitors and goods to end the coastal strip's isolation.
(AP, 11/8/08)
2008 Nov 9, Israel and the Palestinians pledged to continue peace talks that President Bush launched last year even though a possible deal won't be reached until after he leaves office.
(AP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 12, Israeli troops and Palestinian militants fought with missiles and mortars along the Gaza-Israel border, raising new concerns that an increasingly shaky five-month-old truce might collapse. Four Hamas militants were killed in the exchange, and the Hamas military wing said it would retaliate.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 13, Gaza militants fired a new barrage of rockets and mortars at Israeli border areas, prompting Israel to bar planned food and fuel shipments to Palestinian civilians hurt by the unraveling of a five-month-old truce.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 14, Palestinian militants attacked Ashkelon in southern Israel with rocket fire. They also unleashed rockets at nearby Sderot, where rescue services said one person was lightly wounded by shrapnel. The barrages followed an earlier strike by Israeli aircraft targeting militants firing rockets in northern Gaza. Israel kept the crossings into Gaza sealed for a tenth straight day, forcing the UN to suspend its food aid distribution to 750,000 Gaza residents.
(AP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 15, Gazans seeking food aid walked away empty-handed from locked United Nations distribution centers after a strict Israeli border closure depleted UN food reserves.
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 16, Israeli leaders made a secret journey to neighboring Jordan, listening to pleas from King Abdullah II to avert a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip. An Israeli airstrike killed 4 Palestinian militants as they were firing mortars at Israel from the Gaza Strip, just hours after another group of militants struck Israel in a separate rocket attack.
(AP, 11/16/08)(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 18, Israeli tanks forged into the southern Gaza Strip, drawing mortar fire from Palestinian militants and intensifying violence that has chipped away at a tenuous cease-fire. Israeli seamen boarded a Palestinian fishing boat and arrested one of Gaza's foreign supporters and five Palestinian fishermen. The foreigner was identified as Andrew Muncie of Scotland.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 20, Jewish settlers in Hebron spray-painted graffiti on a mosque slurring the Prophet Muhammad and defaced a Muslim cemetery, Israeli military officials said, threatening to worsen tensions in this volatile West Bank city.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 24, The US government won a terrorism conviction against Texas-based Holy Land, what had been the nation's largest Muslim charity, and five of its leaders for funneling millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Holy Land supporters accused the government of politicizing the case as part of its war on terrorism, while attorneys for the foundation said Holy Land's mission was philanthropy and providing aid to the Middle East.
(AP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 24, Gazans crowded into banks to withdraw money amid a worsening currency shortage resulting from Israeli sanctions.
(WSJ, 11/25/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 26, The UN and other aid agencies appealed to the international community to send $462 million in emergency assistance to address what they said is a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories.
(AP, 11/26/08)
2008 Nov 28, A Palestinian was killed in a clash with Israeli forces in southern Gaza. A mortar attack on an Israeli army base injured eight Israeli soldiers. The next day the Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility.
(AP, 11/28/08)(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Dec 1, The Israeli navy turned away a Libyan ship heading to Gaza with 3,000 tons of humanitarian aid, ending the most high-profile effort yet to break a blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 4, Rioting by Jewish settlers spread in the West Bank after Israeli soldiers forcibly removed about 250 extremists from a disputed house in the center of Hebron. Banks in the Gaza Strip shut down to count their dwindling cash. Israel lifted a four-week-old ban on international journalists entering the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/4/08)
2008 Dec 5, Israeli defense officials reinstated a ban on international journalists entering the Gaza Strip, despite protests from the heads of major news organizations and an appeal to the country's Supreme Court.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 6, Palestinians packed into cars to leave the West Bank city of Nablus after Israel eased restrictions on residents leaving the town in vehicles for the first time in six years.
(AP, 12/6/08)
2008 Dec 9, Israel reopened its crossings with Gaza to shipments of humanitarian aid and fuel. International journalists were also being allowed in.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 10, Israel agreed to allow the delivery of cash to banks in the Gaza Strip to ease a cash crunch that has badly hobbled the economy of the blockaded Palestinian territory.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2008 Dec 12, The chief Palestinian negotiators said Israel proposed to annex 6.8 percent of the West Bank and to take in a few thousand refugees under a peace deal, but it has not revealed its position on the most contentious issue, the future of Jerusalem.
(AP, 12/13/08)
2008 Dec 14, In Gaza City an estimated 300,000 supporters of Hamas gathered to mark 21 years since the organization’s founding. Israel closed its crossing with Gaza to journalist in response to rocket fire over the weekend.
(SFC, 12/15/08, p.A14)
2008 Dec 15, Israel released 224 Palestinian prisoners in a gesture to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and jubilant detainees waving Palestinian flags jumped on the roof of one of the buses carrying them to freedom.
(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 16, Israeli troops killed Jihad Nawhda (23), a wanted Palestinian militant in the West Bank, and the Islamic Jihad group retaliated with rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/16/08)
2008 Dec 17, Gaza militants fired nine rockets at Israel just two days before militants say a truce along the Gaza border is to expire. The rockets were fired by three small militant groups and caused no injuries. Israel says there's no expiration date.
(AP, 12/17/08)
2008 Dec 18, Hamas declared a formal end to a 6-month ceasefire with Israel.
(SFC, 12/19/08, p.A4)
2008 Dec 20, An Israeli air strike against a Gaza rocket squad killed a Palestinian militant, the first death since Hamas militants formally declared an end to a six-month truce with Israel.
(AP, 12/20/08)
2008 Dec 21, Barrages of rockets fired from Gaza hit Israeli towns and the Israeli air force responded with a missile strike as violence surged following the official expiration of a shaky truce with Hamas.
(AP, 12/21/08)
2008 Dec 23, Israeli forces killed three Hamas militants on the Gaza border.
(AP, 12/24/08)
2008 Dec 24, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip bombarded southern Israel with dozens of mortars and rockets, sowing panic and despair there and burdening diplomatic efforts to revive an expired truce. Hamas said two of its fighters have been killed in a blast in the southern Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/24/08)
2008 Dec 25, Israel moved closer to invading Gaza, saying it had wrapped up preparations for a broad offensive after Palestinian militants fired about 100 rockets and mortar shells across the border in two days.
(AP, 12/25/08)
2008 Dec 26, Israel reopened its border with Gaza to allow deliveries of humanitarian aid, despite continued rocket and mortar fire from the coastal strip and growing expectations of a large-scale Israeli military campaign against Palestinian militants. A rocket fired by Palestinian militants fell short and killed 2 schoolgirls in the northern Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/26/08)(SFC, 12/27/08, p.A5)
2008 Dec 27, Israel began “Operation Cast Lead” as its warplanes retaliating for rocket fire from the Gaza Strip pounded dozens of security compounds across the Hamas-ruled territory in waves of airstrikes, killing nearly 200 people and wounding 270 others in the single bloodiest day of fighting in years. Gaza militants fired 30 rockets and mortars after the air offensive began. A missile hit the town of Netivot, killing an Israeli man and wounding four people.
(AP, 12/27/08)(Econ, 1/10/09, p.24)
2008 Dec 27-2009 Jan 21, In Egypt security forces arrested at least 860 activists of the Muslim Brotherhood as public demonstrations mounted during the Israeli assault on Gaza.
(Econ, 1/17/09, p.48)
2008 Dec 28, Israeli warplanes pressing one of Israel's deadliest assaults ever on Palestinian militants dropped bombs and missiles on a top security installation, smuggling tunnels and dozens of other targets across Hamas-ruled Gaza. Some 280 Palestinians died in the first 24 hours of the campaign against Gaza rocket squads. Prisoners fled Gaza's central prison after it was damaged by an Israeli airstrike. 17 of them were later numbered among 32 dead in extra-judicial killings by Hamas.
(AP, 12/28/08)(AP, 2/14/09)
2008 Dec 28, The UN Security Council has issued a statement expressing serious concern at the escalating violence in Gaza and is calling on Israel and the Palestinians to immediately halt all military activities.
(AP, 12/28/08)
2008 Dec 29, Israel obliterated symbols of Hamas power on the third day of what the defense minister described as a "war to the bitter end," striking next to the Hamas premier's home, and devastating a security compound and a university building. The three-day death toll rose to at least 315, with some 1,400 wounded. One medium-range rocket fired at the Israeli city of Ashkelon killed an Arab construction worker and wounded several others. Egypt opened its borders to Gaza and allowed trucks loaded with humanitarian aid to enter the Rafah terminal. A Palestinian stabbed and wounded four Israelis in a West Bank settlement before he was shot and wounded.
(AP, 12/29/08)
2008 Dec 29, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanded an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and urged Mideast and world leaders to do more to help end the Israeli-Hamas conflict and promote political dialogue.
(AP, 12/30/08)
2008 Dec 30, Palestinian militants, armed with deadlier missiles than ever before, kept up rocket assaults against Israel, despite relentless air attacks against Gaza's Hamas rulers and unwelcome word from Egypt that it would not bail them out. More than 370 Palestinians have died since the Israeli air onslaught against Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers began on Dec 27.
(AP, 12/30/08)
2008 Dec 31, Israel rejected international pressure for a two-day cease-fire with Hamas and sent warplanes to demolish smuggling tunnels that are the lifeline of Gaza's Islamic rulers. Gaza officials said the five days of airstrikes have killed 390, including 200 uniformed members of Hamas security forces.
(AP, 12/31/08)
2008 Dec 31, The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on an Arab request for a binding and enforceable resolution condemning Israel and halting its military attacks on Gaza. The US immediately called the draft resolution circulated by Libya on behalf of the 22-member Arab League "unacceptable" and "unbalanced" and because it makes no mention of halting the Hamas rocket attacks that led to the Israeli offensive.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2008 Dec-2009 Jan, In 2009 Human Rights Watch issued a report saying 6 missile strikes in Gaza by Israeli drones killed 29 civilians, including 8 children, during this period.
(SFC, 7/1/09, p.A3)
2008 Raja Shehadeh authored “Palestinian Walks,” a “highly original consideration of the Palestinian-Israeli issue structured around a series of vigorous, attentive hikes through the occupied territories.”
(Econ, 8/14/10, p.69)(http://tinyurl.com/26lulh5)
2009 Jan 1, Israel assassinated Nizar Rayan (52), a Hamas strongman, in its first assault on the top leadership of Gaza's rulers, escalating a crushing aerial offensive even as it declared it was ready to launch a ground invasion. The aerial strike also killed 12 other people including two of Rayan's four wives and four of his 12 children. Officials said more than 400 Gazans have been killed and some 1,700 have been wounded. The UN said the death toll included more than 60 civilians, 34 of them children. Three Israeli civilians and one soldier have also died in rocket attacks from Gaza.
(AP, 1/1/09)
2009 Jan 2, Israel bombed a mosque it claimed was used to store weapons and destroyed homes of more than a dozen Hamas operatives, but under international pressure, the government allowed hundreds of Palestinians with foreign passports to leave besieged Gaza. Thus far more than 400 Gazans have been killed and some 1,700 have been wounded. Three Israeli civilians and one soldier have also died in the rocket attacks.
(AP, 1/2/09)
2009 Jan 3, Israeli warplanes, gunboats and artillery units bombarded more than 40 Hamas targets, including weapons storage facilities, training centers and leaders' homes. Palestinian medical officials said an Israeli airstrike on a mosque in the Gaza Strip killed 10 people and wounded dozens in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.
(AP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 3, The United States blocked approval of a UN Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 4, Israeli ground troops and tanks cut swaths through the Gaza Strip, cutting the coastal territory into two and surrounding its biggest city as the new phase of a devastating offensive against Hamas militants gained momentum. Gaza officials said at least 31 civilians were killed in the onslaught. Israel reported one soldier was killed by mortar fire. The new deaths brought the death toll in the Gaza Strip to more than 500 since Dec 27. At least 45 missiles fell on southern Israel, wounding five people. 2 women waving white flags were killed in the Juher a-Dik neighborhood in Gaza City. The incident occurred when the Abu Hajaj family evacuated their home after it was hit by a tank shell. On Aug 12, 2012, an infantry sergeant, who was initially charged with manslaughter for the deaths of the 2 women, was convicted in a military court of illegal weapons use as part of a plea deal and will serve 45 days in prison.
(AP, 1/4/09)(AP, 1/5/09)(AP, 6/16/10)(AP, 8/12/12)
2009 Jan 5, Israel consolidated its hold on parts of the Gaza Strip, seizing high-rise buildings on the outskirts of the territory's biggest city as a stream of world leaders headed for the region to press for a truce. About 12 Palestinian children were killed. The 10th day of fighting put the Palestinian death toll at an estimated 550. 3 Israeli soldiers were killed and 24 others wounded by friendly fire. Gaza health officials said an Israeli airstrike outside a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip killed 39 people, many of them children. An Israeli missile struck a building in Zeitoun where Palestinians had been herded. At least 30 people were killed. 4 members of the Haji family, including their three-year-old daughter, were killed and another nine people were injured when an Israeli tank opened fire on them in the Zeitun area, despite the fact that they were holding a white flag. In 2011 Israel's military advocate general closed an investigation into the white flag incident due to lack of evidence.
(AP, 1/5/09)(SFC, 1/6/09, p.A3)(AP, 1/11/09)(Econ, 1/17/09, p.49)(AFP, 4/12/11)
2009 Jan 5, Israeli forces directly targeted the house of Wa’el Fares Hamdi al-Samouni, and its vicinity, killing 21 persons and injuring many others. Between January 4-7, 27 members of the Samouni family were killed, including 11 children and 6 women, and 35 others were injured. On May 2, 2012, the Israeli military said it has closed its investigation into the shelling deaths of 21 members of a single Palestinian family and would not file any charges.
(http://tinyurl.com/6m5sh7h)(AFP, 5/2/12)
2009 Jan 6, A cease-fire initiative to halt the increasingly bloody Israeli offensive in Hamas-ruled Gaza won support from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on rival sides to follow up on the proposal. A Hamas rocket hit Gedera, 20 miles from Tel Aviv, the farthest one has reached to date.
(AP, 1/6/09)(AP, 1/7/09)(Econ, 1/10/09, p.24)
2009 Jan 6, Venezuela ordered Israel's ambassador expelled from the country in protest over the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 1/6/09)
2009 Jan 7, Israel ordered a three-hour pause in its Gaza offensive to allow food and fuel to reach besieged Palestinians, and said it welcomed a cease-fire proposal as long as Hamas halts rockets and weapons smuggling. About 300 of the more than 670 Palestinians killed so far were civilians. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that Israel and the Palestinian Authority have accepted an Egyptian-French plan for Gaza.
(AP, 1/7/09)
2009 Jan 8, Israeli representatives arrived in Cairo for Egyptian-brokered talks on a cease-fire proposal after the UN Security Council failed to agree on action to end the crisis in Gaza.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 8, The UN halted aid deliveries to the besieged Gaza Strip, citing Israeli attacks on a UN truck that killed 2 Palestinian workers. For a 2nd straight day, Israel suspended its Gaza military operation for three hours to allow in humanitarian supplies. Israel killed at least 11 people, including three who were fleeing their homes, raising the death toll from its 13-day offensive to 699 Palestinians. 11 Israelis have died since the offensive began. Militants in Lebanon fired at least three rockets into Israel. UN figures said as many as 257 children have been killed and 1,080 wounded, about a third of the total casualties since Dec. 27.
(AP, 1/8/09)(SFC, 1/9/09, p.A3)
2009 Jan 9, Israeli jets and helicopters bombarded Gaza and Hamas responded with a barrage of rockets on at least two cities as both sides defied a UN call for an immediate cease-fire. By the afternoon 22 Palestinians had been killed, pushing the death toll to 776 and in the two-week-old conflict.
(AP, 1/9/09)
2009 Jan 10, Israeli forces pounded rocket-launching sites and smuggling tunnels in Gaza and planes dropped leaflets warning of an escalation in attacks, as Palestinian militants fired at least 10 more rockets at Israel. The Israeli military said more than 15 militants were killed in overnight fighting. An Israeli tank shell killed nine people in a garden outside a home in the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya. In Cairo, Egypt, Palestinian Authority Pres. Mahmoud Abbas urged both Israel and Hamas to agree to an Egypt-brokered truce. Syria-based Palestinian militant groups including Hamas rejected the idea of deploying international observers or troops in Gaza.
(AP, 1/10/09)
2009 Jan 11, Israeli troops made their deepest advance into the Gaza Strip's most heavily populated area, encountering increasingly fierce resistance from Islamic Hamas fighters as they warned civilians to stay clear of the battle zone. Human Rights Watch said that Israel's military has fired artillery shells with the incendiary agent white phosphorus into Gaza and a doctor there said the chemical was suspected in the case of 10 burn victims who had skin peeling off their faces and bodies.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 11, An estimated 2,500 Lebanese and Palestinians protested peacefully in downtown Beirut against Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, as hundreds of demonstrators in neighboring Syria shouted insults at the both the Jewish state and Arab leaders.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 12, Israeli warplanes pounded the homes of Hamas leaders and ground troops edged closer to the Gaza Strip's densely populated urban center, as Israel weighed a decision to escalate its devastating offensive. Militants managed to fire off at least four rockets. Gaza officials said the offensive has killed some 870 Palestinians.
(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 13, Israeli ground troops closed in on downtown Gaza City, battling Palestinian militants in the streets of a densely populated neighborhood, destroying dozens of homes and sending terrified residents running for cover as gunfire and explosions echoed in the distance. Some 15 rockets and mortar shells were fired toward Israel, causing no injuries. Egyptian mediators pushed the militant Palestinian Hamas group to accept a truce proposal for the embattled Gaza Strip in talks. The UN secretary-general headed to the region to join the multitrack diplomatic efforts for a cease-fire in Israel’s 18-day offensive, in which more than 900 Palestinians have been killed, half of them civilians.
(AP, 1/13/09)
2009 Jan 14, Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden urged Muslims to launch a jihad against Israel and condemned Arab governments as allies of the Jewish state in a new message aimed at harnessing anger in the Mideast over the Gaza offensive.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, Guerrillas in Lebanon rocketed northern Israel for the second time in a week, drawing Israeli artillery fire and threatening to drag the Jewish state into a second front as diplomatic efforts to broker a truce in Gaza intensified. Gaza health ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain said the offensive has killed 1,000 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, including 300 children. The Israeli navy intercepted an Iranian ship loaded with medicine, food and clothing destined for Gaza and forced the vessel to Egypt instead. Palestinian surveyors estimated that Israel's fierce assault on Gaza's Hamas rulers has destroyed at least $1.4 billion worth of buildings, roads, pipes, power lines and other infrastructure.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 14, Venezuela and Bolivia broke off diplomatic relations with Israel to protest its military offensive in Gaza.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 15, Israel shelled the UN headquarters in the Gaza Strip, engulfing the compound and the main warehouse in fire and destroying thousands of pounds of food and humanitarian supplies intended for Palestinian refugees. Fighting killed at least 70 people including 2 top Hamas leaders, Said Siam (49), the minister of the interior, and deputy Salah Abu Sharah. Gaza medical officials said 1,100 Palestinians have been killed since Israel's offensive started Dec. 27. Israeli soldiers used a Palestinian child, later identified as Majd R, as a human shield by forcing him to check for booby traps. In 2010 two Israeli soldiers were convicted of using the child as a human shield. They received suspended sentences and demotions.
(AP, 1/15/09)(SFC, 1/16/09, p.A2)(AP, 10/3/10)(AP, 11/21/10)
2009 Jan 16, Israel said it was close to winding up its offensive against Hamas, and diplomats in Washington said the US will provide assurances on ending weapons smuggling into Gaza as part of a cease-fire. More than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed since the war began on Dec. 27, including 346 children. Khaled Mashaal, Hamas' political chief, rejected Israeli conditions for a Gaza cease-fire and demanded an immediate opening of the besieged territory's borders. Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish (Izzeldin Abuelaish) told Channel 10 that his house in the northern Gaza strip town of Jebalia had been hit by Israeli shells and his daughters, ages 22, 15 and 14, were killed along with a neighbor girl. In 2011 Dr. Abuelaish authored “I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity.
(AP, 1/16/09)(AP, 2/5/09)(Econ, 2/26/11, p.91)
2009 Jan 16, Mauritania and Qatar suspended contacts with Israel to protest the Gaza bloodshed at an Arab summit that deepened the divisions between pro-US Arab nations and their rivals in the Middle East.
(AP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 17, Israel bombarded dozens of Hamas targets hours before a government vote on an Egyptian brokered cease-fire, prompting Egypt to demand an immediate halt to the 3-week-old Gaza offensive.
(AP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 18, Militants in Hamas-ruled Gaza agreed to a weeklong cease-fire with Israel, after three weeks of violence that Palestinian medics say has killed more than 1,200 people, about half of them civilians. The announcement came about 12 hours after Israel declared its own unilateral ceasefire. On March 19 a final tally of Palestinians killed in Israel's recent war on Gaza's Hamas rulers was reported to be 1,417, including 926 civilians. A Palestinian human rights groups published the names, ages and other information about the dead on its Web site.
(AP, 1/18/09)(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Jan 19, Israeli officials said they hope to pull all its troops out of the Gaza Strip by the time Barack Obama is inaugurated as president of the United States on Jan 20. This was the last full day of fighting as Hamas fired 19 rockets into Israel. About 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died in the offensive, which started Dec. 27.
(AP, 1/19/09)(Econ, 1/24/09, p.53)(AP, 2/11/09)
2009 Jan 19, The Saudi king said his country will donate $1 billion to help rebuild the Gaza Strip after the devastating Israeli offensive and told Israel that an Arab initiative offering peace will not remain on the table forever. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency cut its benchmark lending rate a half point to 2%, and its deposit rate by three-quarters point to .75%.
(AP, 1/19/09)(WSJ, 1/20/08, p.A11)
2009 Jan 20, In Gaza UN chief Ban Ki-moon voiced sorrow and frustration over the suffering of civilians during Israel’s 3-week war on Hamas rulers. Ismail Radwan, a Hamas legislator, celebrated the blood battles as proof of Hamas strength and defiance.
(SFC, 1/21/09, p.A21)
2009 Jan 20, In Kuwait the deeply divided Arab League failed to come up with a plan to reconstruct the devastated Gaza Strip and could not agree on whether to back Egyptian peace efforts to end the crisis.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 21, The last Israeli troops left the Gaza Strip before dawn, as Israel dispatched its foreign minister to Europe in a bid to rally international support to end arms smuggling into the Hamas-ruled territory. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights released a final tally, saying 1,284 Gazans were killed and 4,336 wounded, the vast majority civilians. Israel's military said it will investigate charges that its forces used phosphorous shells in a way that burned civilians during the fighting in Gaza. Hamas officials conceded that they are executing Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel during the 3-week invasion. Fatah officials said at least 19 of its members have been executed and more brutally tortured. On Sep 9, 2009, the Israeli rights group B'Tselem published figures it said were compiled in months of research, including visits to families of victims. It said 1,387 Gazans were killed, including 773 civilians (including 252 children younger than 16) and 330 combatants. 13 Israelis also died, including 4 civilians.
(AP, 1/21/09)(SFC, 1/22/09, p.A3)(AP, 9/9/09)
2009 Jan 22, Hundreds of workers toiled in southern Gaza to repair dozens of tunnels dug under tents or fake greenhouses while smugglers brought in food and fuel just days after Israel ended a barrage of bombs and missiles aimed at cutting off the supply route from Egypt.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 22, Israel said it is lifting restrictions on foreign journalists entering the Gaza Strip, a ban that had drawn strong criticism from news media.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 22, Pres. Obama named George Mitchell as envoy to the Mideast and Richard Holbrook as envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(WSJ, 1/23/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 27, Palestinian militants detonated a bomb that killed an Israeli soldier patrolling near Gaza and Israel responded with an airstrike. Not long after the bombing, a 27-year-old Gaza farmer was killed by Israeli gunfire along the border several miles away. An Israeli airstrike wounded 2 men, at least one of whom was a Hamas gunman. Israel closed its crossings into Gaza to humanitarian aid traffic after briefly opening them.
(AP, 1/27/09)(SFC, 1/28/09, p.A2)
2009 Jan 28, Israeli warplanes struck Gaza smuggling tunnels and a weapons factory. There were no reports of casualties. George Mitchell, Pres. Obama's new Mideast envoy, said a long-term Gaza truce must be based on an end to weapons smuggling to Hamas and the re-opening of the territory's blockaded borders.
(AP, 1/28/09)(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 29, George Mitchell, President Barack Obama's Mideast envoy, turned his attention to the Western-backed Palestinian government in the West Bank. Palestinians fired a rocket into Israel, and residents of the south Gaza town of Khan Younis said an Israeli airstrike there wounded an unidentified man on a motorcycle and five passers-by, among them children walking home from school. Senior officials in the Islamic group Hamas indicated a willingness to negotiate a deal for a long-term truce with Israel as long as the borders of Gaza are opened to the rest of the world.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 29, The UN launched an emergency appeal for $613 million to help Palestinians recover from Israel's three weeks of military operations in Gaza.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 29, At the economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, Israel’s Pres. Peres (85) traded accusations with Turkey’s PM Erdogan, who declared: “You kill people,” and criticized Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Erdogan stalked off stage after being cut short during the exchange.
(SFC, 1/30/09, p.A4)(WSJ, 1/30/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 29, The ship Monchegorsk arrived in Cyprus. It was examined twice after it arrived under suspicion of ferrying weapons from Iran to Hamas fighters in Gaza, and detained. The US military had stopped the ship last month in the Red Sea, and said it found artillery shells and other arms on board. But it could not legally detain the ship, which continued to Port Said, Egypt, and then to Cyprus.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Jan 30, In Gaza City some 5,000 people rallied as Hamas lawmaker Khalil al-Hayeh emerged from hiding and declared victory in the 23-day Israeli offensive in Gaza.
(SFC, 1/31/09, p.A5)
2009 Jan 30, An Israeli rights group said it to use a database detailing the complicity of Israel's government in widespread illegal construction in West Bank settlements to help Palestinians file lawsuits over their lost land.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Jan 31, Palestinian militants fired a rocket from Gaza that exploded close to the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon without causing any damages or injuries.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 31, Security sources said Egypt has begun installing cameras and motion sensors along its border with the Gaza Strip to try to combat smuggling to the Hamas-run territory.
(Reuters, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan, In northeast Sudan Israel carried out an attack in which at least 30 people were killed, to stop weapons being transported to Gaza during its offensive against Hamas. Reports from Sudan quoted a lone survivor of the attack as saying two planes flew over the convoy then came back and shot up the "four or five" trucks. Israeli aircraft or drones destroyed 23 lorries carrying Iranian arms destined for Hamas.
(Reuters, 3/27/09)(Econ, 4/4/09, p.50)
2009 Feb 1, Gaza militants launched at least 10 rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel, drawing a threat of "disproportionate" retaliation from Israel's prime minister and further straining a cease-fire that ended Israel's Gaza offensive. Israeli warplanes bombed the area where Hamas smuggles in weapons from Egypt.
(AP, 2/1/09)(WSJ, 2/2/09, p.A10)
2009 Feb 2, A missile from an Israeli aircraft struck a car traveling in the southern Gaza Strip, killing a Palestinian militant and further straining a truce with the territory's Hamas rulers. Defense Minister Ehud Barak proposed linking Gaza with the West Bank by digging a tunnel through Israeli territory.
(AP, 2/2/09)(WSJ, 2/3/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 3, Hamas policemen broke into an aid warehouse in Gaza City and confiscated 3,500 blankets and more than 4,000 food parcels meant for 500 families after UN officials refused to voluntarily hand it over to the Hamas-run Ministry of Social Affairs. Ahmad Kurd, the Hamas Minister of Social Affairs countered that the U.N. had been handing out relief to groups tied to Hamas' opponents.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 3, A medium-range rocket from Gaza landed in the Israeli city of Ashkelon. Hamas said it is ready to commit to a yearlong cease-fire with Israel in exchange for a full opening of Gaza's border crossings, ahead of a new round of talks with Egyptian mediators in Cairo.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 5, The Israeli navy intercepted a ship delivering 60 tons of supplies to the Gaza Strip from Lebanon in the latest bid to defy Israel's blockade of the militant-held territory.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 6, The UN agency for Palestinian refugees suspended aid to Gaza, accusing the Hamas rulers of stealing a delivery of humanitarian supplies for the 2nd time in a week. Jamil Shaqqura (51) died in a hospital of wounds from beating and torture, a week after he was picked for interrogation by Hamas' internal security.
(SFC, 2/709, p.A3)(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 7, In Gaza Hasan al-Hijazi, who was shot by three masked men. Hamas later issued a statement calling the killing a "mistake."
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 8, Two rockets fired by Palestinian militants struck southern Israel, violating an informal truce even as Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers appeared to hurry closer to a long-term cease-fire deal two days before Israeli elections.
(AP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 9, A Palestinian fighter died in a clash with Israeli troops and Israeli aircraft attacked two targets in Gaza as mediators tried to broker a long-term cease-fire a day before Israel holds national elections.
(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 12, Hamas deputy leader Moussa Abu Marzouk told Egypt's official MENA news agency that the Islamic militant group has agreed to an 18-month truce with Israel.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 12, An Egyptian security official said police have arrested 40 suspected smugglers and seized goods in a new crackdown on smuggling into the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in a crackdown that started last weekend.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 13, Two rockets fired by Gaza militants hit near a communal farm and the town of Sderot. An Israeli airstrike on Gaza killed one man and critically wounded another. The men were riding a motorcycle near the town of Khan Younis when they were hit by fire from an Israeli drone.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 16, Officials said Israel has taken control of a large chunk of land near a prominent West Bank settlement, paving the way for the possible construction of 2,500 settlement homes, in a new challenge to Mideast peacemaking.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 17, The UN said unexploded Israeli bombs under Hamas guard has been stolen.
(WSJ, 2/18/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 18, Israel set a series of tough conditions for accepting a proposed cease-fire with Hamas, saying there would be no deal, and no open borders for Gaza, until the Islamic militant group releases a captured Israeli soldier. Israeli planes attacked smuggling tunnels around the Gaza-Egypt border and a disused Hamas security base near the town of Khan Younis.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 19, US Sen. John Kerry as well as 2 other congressional Democrats came to the Gaza Strip, the highest-level visit by a US official since the Hamas militant group seized power in the territory nearly two years ago. Kerry said he was in Gaza to view the aftermath of Israel's recent military offensive against Hamas.
(AP, 2/19/09)(SFC, 2/20/09, p.A6)
2009 Feb 22, The bodies of four people were found in a smuggling tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt border, a day after another body was discovered in the area. Border officials said about 1,000 university students and holders of foreign residency permits were eligible to cross, and by mid-afternoon, about 600 people had made the trip.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 23, A government official said US aid for the Gaza Strip's reconstruction will likely top $900 million, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepared to make her first Mideast trip as America's top diplomat.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 25, Militants in Gaza launched rockets at southern Israel and Israeli planes attacked smuggling tunnels as a stable truce between the two sides remained elusive. Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad said he is seeking $2.8 billion in foreign aid for rebuilding Gaza Strip. The rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah agreed to release each other's loyalists from detention, seeking to lower tensions during reconciliation talks.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Feb 28, Two rockets fired from Gaza crashed into southern Israel, one into a school that was closed for the weekend in the coastal city of Ashkelon and another into an open field.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Mar 1, Tony Blair paid his first visit to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip as envoy of international peace brokers and said reconstruction aid after Israel's offensive would not have a lasting effect without peace. Israel’s PM Ehud Olmert threatened painful retaliation against Gaza militants for rockets still hitting Israel, six weeks after its military halted an offensive that was supposed to have stopped them for good.
(Reuters, 3/1/09)(AP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 2, At a donor’s conference in Egypt Palestinian Pres. Mahmoud Abbas, seeking to shore up his position against rival Hamas, asked international donors to funnel millions of dollars through his government to rebuild the devastated Gaza Strip. The gathering aimed to raise at least $2.8 billion from 80 donor nations and international organizations.
(AP, 3/2/09)
2009 Mar 4, The Israeli military aircraft fired upon three smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border. An Israeli missile strike in northern Gaza killed Khaled Shalan, described as a senior Islamic Jihad commander.
(AP, 3/4/09)(SFC, 3/6/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 5, Israeli airstrikes killed 3 gunmen close to the border after they fired an anti-tank missile at Israeli forces. In Jerusalem Mari al-Radeideh (26), a Palestinian driver, rammed a construction vehicle into a bus and police car on a highway, wounding two officers before he was shot dead, the latest in a string of attacks by militants using heavy machinery against Israeli targets.
(AP, 3/5/09)(SFC, 3/6/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 7, Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad submitted his resignation, a move that could help pave the way for an elusive power-sharing deal between Palestinian moderates and militants.
(AP, 3/7/09)
2009 Mar 10, In Egypt rival Palestinian factions opened talks aimed at coming up with a power-sharing agreement, hearing a call to forget their contentious and sometimes bloody past.
(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 12, The Islamic militant group Hamas made a rare criticism of Palestinian rocket fire on Israel, saying now is the wrong time as truce talks continue.
(AP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 13, Tristan Anderson (38) of Oakland, Calif., was wounded in the West Bank village of Naalin, during a protest against Israel's separation barrier. He remained in serious condition after undergoing surgery.
(AP, 3/14/09)
2009 Mar 15, Two Israeli police officers were shot and killed while traveling near the Jewish settlement of Massua in the West Bank. A few days later the Martyrs of Imad Mughniyeh said it was behind the shooting. The group is named after an assassinated Hezbollah mastermind. Israeli and Palestinian security officials said there is no such group. They believe rogue militants have used the fake name as cover to evade Israeli reprisals.
(SFC, 3/16/09, p.A2)(AP, 3/16/09)(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 17, Egyptian security officials caught 2 Hamas officials returning to Gaza with nearly $850,000 stuffed into candy tins.
(SFC, 3/18/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 18, Egypt opened its border crossing with the Gaza Strip for the second time in two months to allow medical aid and Palestinians to enter the coastal territory.
(AP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 23, In southern Lebanon an explosion killed Kamal Madhat (55), a senior Fatah official, and three of his bodyguards as they were leaving a Palestinian refugee camp.
(AP, 3/24/09)
2009 Mar 25, Incoming Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said his government would be a "partner for peace with the Palestinians," softening his rhetoric a day after the centrist Labor Party joined his coalition in exchange for vaguely worded promises to pursue negotiations.
(AP, 3/25/09)
2009 Mar 29, A senior Israeli defense official said Palestinian militants have smuggled nearly 70 tons of explosives and bomb-making materials and other weapons into Gaza since Israel ended an offensive meant to choke off the arms flow.
(AP, 3/29/09)
2009 Mar 31, Israel’s parliament approved Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister. His Cabinet of 29 ministers was a among the largest in Israel’s history. Israeli forces attacked a group of Palestinian militants along the Gaza-Israel border, killing two gunmen and wounding three others in one of the worst flare-ups of violence since Israel ended its offensive in the territory more than two months ago.
(SFC, 4/1/09, p.A5)(AP, 3/31/09)
2009 Apr 1, Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s new foreign minister, said Israel will not abide by commitments made to pursue Palestinian statehood at the 2007 Annapolis Peace Summit.
(WSJ, 4/2/09, p.A1)
2009 Apr 2, A Palestinian militant went on a rampage in the Bat Ayin Jewish settlement in the West Bank, killing an Israeli boy (13) with a pickax and wounding another boy (7) before fleeing the area. On April 14 Israeli authorities detained suspect Moussa Tayet (26).
(AP, 4/2/09)(AP, 4/26/09)
2009 Apr 3, The UN appointed Richard Goldstone, former chief prosecutor for war crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, to lead a mission to investigate alleged war crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 4/4/09, p.A2)
2009 Apr 4, In southern Israel a woman opened fire on a police station Beersheba before officers shot back and killed her, in an apparent Palestinian militant attack. Israeli forces shot and killed two militants who were approaching the Gaza border. Elsewhere in Gaza, militants fired at least two mortar shells toward Israel. There were no reports of damage.
(AP, 4/4/09)
2009 Apr 5, In Iraq Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas won assurances that Iraqi leaders will protect Palestinians living in Iraq, including thousands stranded in desert refugee camps, during his first visit to the country since the US-led invasion of 2003. Two roadside bombs in Fallujah killed one officer and wounded three other people. Someone threw a grenade at a police patrol in Samarra, killing one policeman and wounding four. 8 people, including seven policemen, were wounded by a bomb that blasted their patrol in the northern oil city of Kirkuk.
(AP, 4/5/09)
2009 Apr 7, Israeli police fatally shot a Palestinian motorist as he tried to run over officers guarding the demolition of the home of a militant who killed three Israelis with a construction vehicle in July.
(AP, 4/7/09)
2009 Apr 8, Stone-throwing Israeli settlers and Palestinian villagers clashed near the site of an ax attack last week that killed a Jewish teenager, leaving at least 8 Palestinians wounded.
(AP, 4/8/09)
2009 Apr 12, Israel's new PM Netanyahu spoke to the Palestinian Pres. Abbas on Easter for the first time since taking office, telling him that he seeks close cooperation to drive peace efforts forward.
(AP, 4/12/09)
2009 Apr 13, An unmanned Palestinian fishing boat laden with hundreds of pounds of explosives blew up off the coast of Gaza in what the Israeli military said was an attempt to attack a naval patrol in the area.
(AP, 4/13/09)
2009 Apr 15, Egyptian police detained three teenage Palestinian men on suspicion of crossing illegally into Egypt and also found explosives near the border with Gaza.
(AP, 4/15/09)
2009 Apr 17, A Palestinian wielding a knife was shot and killed by Jewish settlers after he tried to attack residents of a West Bank settlement. Israeli troops killed a Palestinian during a protest against Israel's separation barrier. The military said protesters threw stones and other objects at security forces during a West Bank demonstration in town of Bilin. Abu Rahmeh (31) was killed when he was hit in the chest by a tear gas canister. On March 31, 2010, the Israeli military said it closed an investigation after determining the canister was not intentionally aimed at Abu Rahmeh.
(AP, 4/17/09)(AP, 4/1/10)
2009 Apr 18, A Palestinian teen (16) was fatally shot by Israeli troops after throwing firebombs at the gate of the Beit El Jewish settlement in the West Bank. A Palestinian man drove his Mercedes into two Israeli policemen checking motorists at a checkpoint outside Jerusalem. The driver was arrested after he told police he targeted the officers. Officials announced that the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt would be open over the weekend to let medical patients leave the blockaded territory.
(AP, 4/18/09)
2009 Apr 20, New York-based Human Rights Watch said gunmen with suspected links to Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip killed at least 32 Palestinians and wounded dozens in attacks on political opponents and alleged informers during and after Israel's recent war in the coastal territory. The report said 18 Palestinians were killed by Hamas during the three-week war, which ended Jan. 18, and 14 others were killed afterward.
(AP, 4/20/09)
2009 Apr 22, A group of Norwegian lawyers filed a complaint accusing 10 Israelis of war crimes in Gaza under the country's new universal jurisdiction law.
(AP, 4/22/09)
2009 Apr 24, Jewish settlers, Israeli troops and Palestinian villagers clashed with guns, rocks and tear gas, leaving five Palestinians hospitalized.
(AP, 4/25/09)
2009 Apr 24, Jordan's king recorded an interview urging President Barack Obama to take a more forceful role in the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians, warning of a new Mideast war if there is no significant progress in the next 18 months.
(AP, 4/26/09)
2009 Apr 27, Palestinian officials established formal ties with Venezuela and opened a diplomatic mission in the South American country.
(AP, 4/28/09)
2009 Apr 29, Youssef Magied al-Molqui, one of the 4 Palestinians who hijacked the Achille Lauro cruise ship and killed an American passenger in 1985, left prison in Palermo, Sicily, after more than 23 years in jail. Ibrahim Fatayer Abdelatif, another convicted Achille Lauro hijacker, was released last year.
(AP, 4/30/09)
2009 May 1, A UN agency urged Israel to freeze demolitions of Arab homes in east Jerusalem, citing a growing housing crisis in the part of the city the Palestinians claim as their future capital.
(AP, 5/1/09)
2009 May 2, An Israeli airstrike against smuggling tunnels on the Gaza-Egypt border killed two people.
(AP, 5/3/09)
2009 May 5, Israeli authorities arrested two Palestinians who tried to sell a looted 1,900-year-old papyrus document in Hebrew worth millions of dollars.
(AP, 5/6/09)
2009 May 5, The leaders of Iran and Syria reaffirmed their support for Palestinian resistance, a defiant message to the US and its Mideast allies who are uneasy over Washington's efforts to forge closer ties with the hard-line government in Tehran.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 5, The UN chief accused Israel of lying about attacks on United Nations schools and other facilities during the Gaza military campaign, including one reported to have killed more than 40 people, and formally demanded compensation.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 11, Pope Benedict XVI confronted the dark history of his native Germany on the first day of his visit to Israel, shaking the hands of six Holocaust survivors and saying victims of the genocide "lost their lives but they will never lose their names." He also called for the establishment of an independent Palestinian homeland, a stance that could put him at odds with his hosts on a trip aimed at improving ties between the Vatican and Jews.
(AP, 5/11/09)
2009 May 13, Standing in Bethlehem, Pope Benedict XVI told Palestinians he understands their suffering and offered the Vatican's strongest and most symbolic public backing yet for an independent Palestinian homeland.
(AP, 5/13/09)
2009 May 14, Jordan's king pressed Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to immediately commit to the establishment of a Palestinian state, as he pursues a sweeping resolution of the Muslim world's conflicts with Israel.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 14, Pope Benedict XVI greeted tens of thousands of adoring followers in Nazareth with a message of reconciliation, urging Christians and Muslims to overcome recent strife and "reject the destructive power of hatred and prejudice."
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 15, In Israel Pope Benedict XVI ended his pilgrimage to the Holy Land with his strongest call yet for the creation of a Palestinian state and telling the faithful at the site of Jesus' crucifixion that peace is possible.
(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 21, Israeli security forces demolished a minor Jewish settlement outpost in the West Bank, three days after President Barack Obama told visiting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he must halt settlement activity.
(AP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 22, Israeli troops crossed into Gaza and killed two Palestinian militants who were planting a bomb along the border fence before dawn.
(AP, 5/22/09)
2009 May 28, Israel defied a surprisingly blunt US demand that it freeze all building in West Bank Jewish settlements, saying it will press ahead with construction. Since 1967, Israel has built 121 West Bank settlements, now home to around 300,000 Israelis. An additional 180,000 live in Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, which, like the West Bank, was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
(AP, 5/28/09)(AP, 6/23/09)
2009 May 31, Palestinian forces stormed a Hamas hideout in Qalqilya in the northern West Bank, setting off a fierce battle that left six dead in the bloodiest factional violence since the Palestinian president launched a crackdown on the Islamic militant group two years ago.
(AP, 5/31/09)(Econ, 6/6/09, p.46)
2009 Jun 1, Israel's PM Netanyahu dismissed the US demand for a settlement freeze as unreasonable, moving closer to a collision with the Obama administration, while mobs of Jewish settlers attacked Palestinian laborers and burned West Bank fields. Israeli settlers waged court battles to evict dozens of Palestinians from homes in an East Jerusalem neighborhood, a move threatening to widen Israel's rift with US President Barack Obama over settlements.
(AP, 6/1/09)(Reuters, 6/1/09)
2009 Jun 2, In Israel detained a Jewish man for shooting to death a Palestinian in Jerusalem and wounding another Jewish man.
(AP, 6/2/09)
2009 Jun 3, Israel dismantled a military checkpoint that had significantly impeded Palestinian travel in the West Bank in an apparent goodwill gesture a day before President Barack Obama's much-anticipated address to the Muslim and Arab world.
(AP, 6/3/09)
2009 Jun 4, Palestinian police killed two Hamas militants after the men opened fire at security forces who had surrounded their underground hideout in Qalqiliya. One officer was also killed in the operation, part of an intensifying crackdown on Islamic militants in this West Bank town.
(AP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 5, President Barack Obama toured a World War II concentration camp in Germany after prodding the international community to redouble efforts toward separate Israeli and Palestinian states in hopes of resolving a conflict fueled by the Jewish nation's post-Holocaust creation.
(AP, 6/5/09)
2009 Jun 5, Israeli officials said they will not heed President Barack Obama's powerful appeal to halt all settlement activity on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state, a position that looks sure to cause a policy clash with its most powerful ally. Israeli troops killed a Palestinian man during a demonstration against the construction of the West Bank separation barrier. Yussef Aqil Srour (35) died from a chest wound that appeared to have been caused by live fire. Witnesses said troops fired tear gas, rubber bullets and possibly live rounds at rock-throwing demonstrators in the village of Naalin.
(AP, 6/5/09)
2009 Jun 8, Gaza militants equipped with explosives-laden horses approached the Israeli border, igniting a battle that left four gunmen dead.
(AP, 6/8/09)
2009 Jun 14, Israel’s PM Netanyahu said that he would accept a Palestinian state, but attached conditions such as having no army that the Palestinians swiftly rejected.
(AP, 6/15/09)(SFC, 6/15/09, p.A3)
2009 Jun 16, A Palestinian military tribunal in a security compound in the West Bank town of Jenin sentenced Taghreed, her last name was not released, to a life term of hard labor. The woman (22) said she became an informer for Israel to earn money that would get her out of prostitution.
(AP, 6/17/09)
2009 Jun 22, In Italy Khaled Hussein (73), a Palestinian man who helped plan the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship, died of a heart attack in a jail in Benevento.
(SFC, 6/23/09, p.A2)
2009 Jun 23, Abdel Aziz Duaik, the most senior Hamas leader being held by Israel, was freed after serving the bulk of his three-year sentence.
(AP, 6/23/09)
2009 Jun 25, Israeli and Palestinian defense officials said Israel has granted US-trained Palestinian security forces greater autonomy in four major West Bank cities. Bowing to pressure from Washington Israeli officials said the army would now reduce its presence in Qalqilya, Bethlehem, Jericho and Ramallah.
(AP, 6/25/09)
2009 Jun 26, The Quartet of Mideast negotiators called on Israel to freeze all settlement activity and to lift its blockade on the Gaza Strip. The US, Russia, UN and EU met on the sidelines of a meeting of the Group of Eight foreign ministers, who made a similar call for Mideast peace.
(AP, 6/26/09)
(AP, 6/29/09)
2009 Jun 29, Israeli court documents indicated the government has approved construction of 50 new housing units in a West Bank settlement to absorb settlers who are to be evicted from a nearby unauthorized outpost.
(AP, 6/29/09)
2009 Jun 30, The Israeli navy ordered a small ferry carrying medical supplies and foreign peace activists trying to break a blockade of Gaza to turn back. The Israeli navy intercepted the ship and forced it to sail to the Israeli port of Ashdod.
(AP, 6/30/09)
2009 Jul 2, Amnesty International accused Israel and Palestinian militants of war crimes in the most comprehensive report on the recent Gaza war. Both sides rejected the findings.
(AP, 7/2/09)
2009 Jul 6, Israel deported Cynthia McKinney, a former US congresswoman, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, a Nobel peace prize laureate, and other activists who were arrested and jailed after trying to break the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli navy seized their boat last week as it tried to sail with medical supplies from Cyprus to Gaza.
(AP, 7/6/09)
2009 Jul 19, Palestinian authorities allowed Al-Jazeera to resume operations in the West Bank, four days after banning the Arab satellite station over the airing of a claim linking President Mahmoud Abbas to the death of his legendary predecessor, Yasser Arafat.
(AP, 7/19/09)
2009 Jul 20, A Palestinian official said more than 30 Israeli settlers, some of them on horseback, set fire to fields and olive trees and stoned Palestinian cars during a rampage in the West Bank. Two Palestinians were lightly injured.
(AP, 7/20/09)
2009 Jul 22, Israel’s education minister said the Israeli government will remove references to what Palestinians call the "catastrophe" of Israel's creation from textbooks for Arab schoolchildren. The reference to "al-naqba," the Arabic word catastrophe as Palestinians call their defeat and exile in the war over Israel's 1948 creation, was controversially inserted by a dovish education minister for the first time in 2007.
(AP, 7/22/09)
2009 Jul 24, The United States transferred $200 million to the Palestinian government to help ease a growing budget deficit.
(AP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 26, Gaza's top judge said that he has ordered female lawyers to wear Muslim headscarves when they appear in court, the latest sign that the Islamic militant group is increasingly imposing its strict interpretation of Islamic law on residents of the coastal strip.
(AP, 7/26/09)
2009 Aug 3, The Palestinian Fatah movement published a new platform saying it will keep pursuing peace talks but reserves the right to resist Israeli occupation.
(AP, 8/3/09)
2009 Aug 4, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas launched his Fatah movement's first conference in two decades with a call for his people to limit their resistance to Israel to marches and protests and not to abandon peace talks despite years of setbacks. The 3-day general assembly’s main task was to elect a new central committee.
(AP, 8/4/09)(Econ, 8/8/09, p.42)
2009 Aug 8, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was named head of his Fatah movements at his party's first conference in two decades, strengthening the hand of the Western-backed leader in his bid to revive peace talks with Israel.
(AP, 8/8/09)
2009 Aug 9, Gaza militants launched mortar shells at a border crossing between Gaza and Israel just as Palestinian patients were being transferred into Israel for medical treatment.
(AP, 8/10/09)
2009 Aug 10, Israeli warplanes bombed a smuggling tunnel along the Gaza-Egypt border in response to Palestinian rocket and mortar fire, in a brief flare-up of violence at a time of relative quiet in the volatile Palestinian territory.
(AP, 8/10/09)
2009 Aug 11, The Palestinian Fatah movement ended a 4-day conference. Pres. Abbas was unanimously re-elected as party head and a group of younger leaders were elected to its top council, bolstering its credentials as the West's best hope for Mideast peace. Also elected were Marwan Barghouti (50), a firebrand militant leader now jailed by Israel and seen as a likely future president, and Jibril Rajoub (56), a former aide to the late Yasser Arafat who led several crackdowns against Hamas.
(AP, 8/11/09)(Econ, 8/15/09, p.41)
2009 Aug 14, In the southern Gaza town of Rafah on the Egyptian border fighting broke out when Hamas security men surrounded a mosque where about 100 members of Jund Ansar Allah, or the Soldiers of the Companions of God, were holed up. Abdel-Latif Moussa, the leader of the group, defied Gaza's Hamas rulers by declaring in a prayer sermon that the territory was an Islamic emirate. 11 homemade rockets were launched from Gaza into Egypt. Only five of the rockets detonated, injuring a young girl.
(AP, 8/15/09)
2009 Aug 15, In the Gaza Strip Abdel-Latif Moussa, the leader of an al-Qaida-inspired group, blew himself up during a shootout with Hamas security forces, ending hours of violence sparked by a rebellious sermon at a Salafist mosque near the Egyptian border. A total of 24 people, including six Hamas police officers and an 11-year-old girl, were killed and 150 were wounded.
(AP, 8/15/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdel_Latif_Moussa)
2009 Aug 24, Israeli soldiers fired on a group of suspicious Palestinians across the border in northern Gaza. 3 Palestinians were wounded. 2 mortar shells were later fired from Gaza slightly wounding one soldier.
(SFC, 8/25/09, p.A2)
2009 Aug 25, An Israeli air strike on a smuggling tunnel between the Gaza Strip and Egypt killed three Palestinians and wounded seven.
(AP, 8/25/09)
2009 Aug 31, Egyptian police found the entrances to four tunnels and two tons of explosives hidden near the border with Gaza. A day earlier they had thwarted an attempt to smuggle 500 kg (1,100 lb) of explosives into Gaza.
(AP, 9/1/09)
2009 Sep 1, Mohammed Nayef (14) one of three Palestinians who hurled Molotov cocktails at a guard post near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, died of gunshot shots from Israeli troops inflicted the previous evening. The Hamas militant group said two of its fighters have been killed in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 9/1/09)
2009 Sep 4, Arab League chief Amr Moussa, speaking in Italy, said any Israeli offer for a settlement freeze that doesn't include east Jerusalem is unacceptable and "will suspend the peace process." Aides of Israel’s PM said Benjamin Netanyahu will approve hundreds of new housing units in West Bank settlements before slowing settlement construction, in an apparent snub of Washington's public demand for a total settlement freeze.
(AP, 9/4/09)
2009 Sep 7, Israel officially approved the construction of hundreds of new homes in the West Bank, deepening an already unprecedented rift with the US over Israeli settlement expansion. Israel PM Netanyahu vanished from public view in Israel for most of the day. His office said he had visited a secret security facility. It was later confirmed that he had made a secret trip to Russia, which included a meeting with the Russia’s Pres. Dmitry Medvedev.
(AP, 9/7/09)(AP, 9/20/09)
2009 Sep 15, Israeli and Palestinian activists presented the most detailed vision yet of what a peace deal could look like. It included more than 400 pages crammed with maps, timetables for troop withdrawals and even a list of weapons a non-militarized Palestine would be barred from having. The UN Goldstone Commission accused Israel of having deliberately committed war crimes during its 3-week attack on Gaza in January.
(AP, 9/15/09)(Econ, 9/19/09, p.14)
2009 Sep 16, Israel rejected UN calls to open an independent inquiry into its conduct in last winter's Gaza Strip war and said it would launch a diplomatic offensive to block any attempt to bring its soldiers before an international war crimes tribunal. The Goldstone Commission report had concluded that Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes during its December incursion into Gaza.
(AP, 9/16/09)(SSFC, 9/20/09, p.A20)
2009 Sep 20, An Israeli border patrol fired at Palestinian militants planting a bomb at the Gaza border fence. 2 men were killed and 3 wounded.
(SFC, 9/21/09, p.A2)
2009 Sep 23, Israel's foreign minister said that the summit of Israeli, US and Palestinian leaders proved Israel could successfully fend off international pressure to freeze West Bank settlement construction.
(AP, 9/23/09)
2009 Sep 25, An Israeli airstrike killed 3 members of the Palestinian Jihad movement who were allegedly on their way to fire rockets into Israel.
(SFC, 9/26/09, p.A2)
2009 Sep 27, Israeli police used stun grenades to disperse Palestinian rioters at a volatile Jerusalem site holy to Jews and Muslims. The compound is home to the gold-capped Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa mosque, and Muslims see it as their religion's third-holiest site after the Saudi Arabian holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The site has been under Israeli control since 1967, but is administered by a Muslim religious body known as the Waqf.
(AP, 9/27/09)
2009 Oct 1, A Palestinian decision to suspend the campaign for war crimes prosecutions was first reported as the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva was considering a vote on the Goldstone report. With the Palestinians out of the picture, Arab and Muslim supporters followed suit, and the vote was deferred to March. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas faced growing outrage at home over his decision to withdraw support for the UN report.
(AP, 10/2/09)
2009 Oct 2, Hamas militants traded a two-minute video showing an apparently unharmed Sgt. Gilad Schalit, a captured Israeli soldier, for 19 Palestinian women held in Israeli jails, the first tangible step toward defusing a key flashpoint in Israeli-Palestinian hostilities.
(AP, 10/2/09)
2009 Oct 3, The Israeli army carried out airstrikes on a weapons workshop east of Gaza City and two weapons smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border. The strikes were in response to one mortar shell and one rocket fired at Israel from Gaza the day before.
(AP, 10/3/09)
2009 Oct 6, The Hamas government banned motorcycle riders from carrying women on the back seat, the latest in the militants' virtue campaign in Gaza.
(AP, 10/7/09)
2009 Oct 6, Israeli police mobilized reinforcements from across the country to secure volatile Jerusalem, deploying thousands of officers on city streets for fears that two days of clashes with Palestinian protesters would escalate.
(AP, 10/6/09)
2009 Oct 7, Yasser Abed Rabbo, Palestinian adviser to Pres. Abbas, said the Palestinian leadership made a mistake by suspending action on a UN report on Gaza war crimes, the first such acknowledgment after days of protests in the West Bank and Gaza. In an apparent attempt at damage control, Abbas' government is now backing a request by Libya to convene the UN Security Council for an emergency session on the report.
(AP, 10/7/09)
2009 Oct 13, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party accepted Egypt's plan for separate signings of a reconciliation deal with Hamas after the Islamist group balked at attending a unity ceremony.
(Reuters, 10/13/09)
2009 Oct 13, A rocket fired by Palestinian militants hit southern Israel.
(AP, 10/14/09)
2009 Oct 14, Israeli military aircraft struck two smuggling tunnels along the Gaza Strip border in response to a rocket fired by Palestinian militants the previous day. Gaza health officials said four people were slightly injured in the attack.
(AP, 10/14/09)
2009 Oct 15, The Syrian-based leadership of the militant Palestinian Hamas said it has rejected an Egyptian-mediated proposal to reconcile with the rival Fatah group. Hamas and seven other Damascus-based Palestinian factions issued a joint statement saying the reconciliation plan must be revised to include a reference to the Palestinian right to resist Israeli occupation.
(AP, 10/15/09)
2009 Oct 16, The UN Human Rights Council voted to endorse a Gaza war crimes report and send it to the Security Council, possibly setting up international prosecution of Israelis and Palestinians accused of war crimes.
(AP, 10/16/09)
2009 Oct 25, Israeli forces stormed Jerusalem's holiest shrine, firing stun grenades to disperse hundreds of stone-throwing Palestinian protesters in a fresh eruption of violence at the most volatile spot in the country.
(AP, 10/25/09)
2009 Oct 27, Amnesty International issued a report accusing Israel of pumping disproportionate amounts of drinking water from the Mountain Aquifer it controls in the West Bank, depriving local Palestinians of their fair share.
(AP, 10/27/09)
2009 Oct 31, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and aides in the Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi before flying to Israel, where she is expected to meet senior Israeli officials in a push to restart peace negotiations. A senior Palestinian official said the Palestinians are unlikely to resume negotiations if Israel does not halt Jewish settlement building. After the talks Clinton called for an unconditional resumption of peace talks and welcomed Israel's offer for a slowdown in settlement activity.
(AP, 10/31/09)(AP, 11/1/09)
2009 Nov 1, The Palestinians accused US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton of undermining progress toward Mideast peace talks after she praised Israel for offering to curb some Jewish settlement construction.
(AP, 11/1/09)
2009 Nov 3, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, Israel’s military intelligence chief, said Hamas militants in Gaza have successfully test-fired an Iranian rocket able to reach Israel's largest urban center. He said the rocket could fly 37 miles (60km), and strike metropolitan Tel Aviv.
(AP, 11/3/09)
2009 Nov 5, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pushed Mideast peace prospects into unknown territory, announcing he doesn't want another term and opening the way to a succession battle that could play into the hands of his rival, the militant Hamas.
(AP, 11/6/09)
2009 Nov 13, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian man along the Gaza Strip border, but the circumstances of the incident were unclear.
(AP, 11/13/09)
2009 Nov 16, The Palestinians asked the European Union to support their plan to ask the UN to recognize an independent Palestinian state without Israeli consent.
(AP, 11/16/09)
2009 Nov 17, The European Union joined the US in discouraging Palestinian intentions to seek international recognition of an independent state, urging instead a return to stalled peace talks with Israel.
(AP, 11/17/09)
2009 Nov 17, Israel moved to approve a plan to build 900 more housing units in a Jewish neighborhood in the part of Jerusalem claimed by Palestinians, drawing harsh criticism from the United States.
(AP, 11/18/09)
2009 Nov 18, The Gaza-based Waad charity, headed by the interior minister of the militant Hamas group, offered $1.4 million to any Arab citizen of Israel who abducts an Israeli soldier.
(AP, 11/19/09)
2009 Nov 19, Israeli aircraft struck a weapons-manufacturing facility and two smuggling tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip, in response to recent rocket attacks on Israel.
(AP, 11/19/09)
2009 Nov 21, Hamas announced that it has reached an agreement with other militant groups in Gaza to stop firing rockets at southern Israeli towns to prevent retaliatory attacks.
(AP, 11/21/09)
2009 Nov 22, Israeli aircraft attacked two suspected weapons-making factories and a smuggling tunnel in the Gaza Strip in what the military said was retaliation for Palestinian rocket fire into southern Israel.
(AP, 11/22/09)
2009 Nov 24, Israel carried out three airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, targeting a weapons-manufacturing facility and weapons smuggling tunnels. They came in response to two rockets Palestinian militants fired at southern Israel from Gaza a day earlier. Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers reported that two of the group's militants were killed when a rocket they were handling blew up prematurely.
(AP, 11/24/09)
2009 Nov 25, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu proposed a 10-month freeze on West Bank settlement construction in what he says is an attempt to jumpstart Mideast peace talks. The freeze would not include east Jerusalem, the area of the holy city claimed by the Palestinians for a future capital.
(AP, 11/25/09)
2009 Nov 27, The Israel air force attacked a group of Palestinian militants in northern Gaza as they were about to fire rockets at Israel. Palestinian medics said 4 militants were wounded. The Israeli military said one member of the squad was killed.
(SFC, 11/28/09, p.A2)
2009 Nov 27, Venezuela’s President Chavez said he plans to open an embassy in Palestinian territories and upgrade its ties to ambassadorial level, to support Palestinians in their struggle against Israel.
(Reuters, 11/27/09)
2009 Dec 1, Israel sternly warned the EU against recognizing east Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, saying such a move would damage Europe's credibility as a Mideast mediator. Sweden, the current EU president, was floating an initiative to recognize east Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.
(AP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 6, The Palestinian Authority signed an agreement with the World Bank and other donors for $64 million to help it prepare for statehood.
(AP, 12/6/09)
2009 Dec 8, The Palestinians announced a boycott of Israeli products made in the West Bank, stepping up their campaign against Israeli settlements.
(AP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 8, EU nations agreed that Jerusalem should be the capital of both Israel and a future Palestinian state, assuaging Israeli anger over earlier mention of east Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital. An earlier proposal by the Swedish EU presidency, to explicitly support the idea of east Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state, was dropped by the foreign ministers.
(AFP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 10, Egyptian security officials said a project is under way along the Gaza border to stem smuggling into the Palestinian territory through underground tunnels. A border guard with Hamas' Gaza rulers said the Egyptians are digging during the day and putting sheets of metal into the trenches at night.
(AP, 12/10/09)
2009 Dec 10, Abdullah Abu Rahmeh (38), a teacher and leader of the most persistent Palestinian protest movement against Israel's West Bank separation barrier, was arrested by Israeli troops in a pre-dawn raid.
(AP, 12/11/09)
2009 Dec 11, Assailants in the West Bank vandalized a Palestinian mosque, burning prayer carpets and holy books, and leaving behind Hebrew graffiti indicating the rampage was the work of settlers angry over Israel's plans to curb settlement construction.
(AP, 12/11/09)
2009 Dec 12, A Palestinian man made homeless by last winter's Gaza war was the first to receive a UN-funded mud brick home, with UN aid officials saying they're reverting to ancient building techniques because Israel won't allow concrete and other construction materials into blockaded Gaza. A Palestinian farmer was killed when he was caught in the crossfire of a shootout between militants and Israeli soldiers in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/12/09)(AFP, 12/12/09)
2009 Dec 14, Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters thronged downtown Gaza City to mark the 22nd anniversary of the group's founding. Hamas PM Ismail Haniya told tens of thousands of Hamas supporters his group remains committed to the elimination of Israel.
(AP, 12/14/09)(AFP, 12/14/09)
2009 Dec 15, Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the issuing in Britain of an arrest warrant against Israel's former foreign minister Tzipi Livni for alleged war crimes. She was targeted by Palestinians for her role in last winter's brutal offensive against Hamas in Gaza, when she was foreign minister.
(AP, 12/15/09)
2009 Dec 19-2009 Dec 20, In Israel parts of a 2000 interview were broadcast on Channel 2 TV over the weekend describing how forensic pathologists in the 1990s harvested organs from dead bodies, including Palestinians, without permission of their families. The Israeli military confirmed that the practice took place and said it had stopped in 2000.
(AP, 12/20/09)
2009 Dec 22, Egypt confirmed it is engaged in construction along its border with Gaza but said it is not building what some reports have said is a steel wall to block cross-border smuggling.
(Reuters, 12/22/09)
2009 Dec 24, About 200 Israeli teenagers soon to be drafted sent a letter to Israel's defense minister, saying they won't enforce any military orders to dismantle settlements in the West Bank because that violates Jewish law. An Israeli settler was shot dead when Palestinian gunmen opened fire on his vehicle in the West Bank.
(AP, 12/24/09)(AFP, 12/24/09)
2009 Dec 27, In Lebanon Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah called on Egypt to stop building a steel wall along the Gaza border that could obstruct tunnels which provide a lifeline for the blockaded enclave.
(Reuters, 12/27/09)
2009 Dec 28, Israel said that it will build nearly 700 new apartments in east Jerusalem, drawing tough criticism from both the Palestinians and the United States, which denounced the plan as an obstacle to peacemaking.
(AP, 12/28/09)
2009 Dec 30, It was reported that Israel's Supreme Court has ordered the military to let Palestinians travel on the part of Route 443 that runs through the West Bank, which was closed in 2002. The court gave the military five months to implement the ruling.
(AP, 12/30/09)
2009 Dec 31, Hundreds of demonstrators rallied on opposite sides of an Israeli-Gaza border crossing to protest the blockade of the seaside territory imposed by Egypt and Israel. Gaza's Hamas parliament approved a government budget of $540 million for 2010, suggesting that a tight border blockade isn't stopping the cash flow to the Islamic militants. The Hamas government has about 32,000 people on its payroll, including civil servants and members of the security forces. About $30 million of the budget would go to Arab residents of Jerusalem and Islamic sites in the city.
(AP, 12/31/09)(AP, 1/2/10)
2009 Avi Shlaim authored “Israel and Palestine: Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations.”
(Econ, 9/26/09, p.98)
Timeline Palestine D 2010 - Present
2010 Jan 2, Israeli warplanes struck and destroyed two tunnels under Gaza's border with Israel. The Israeli military says Gaza militants had planned to use the tunnels to enter Israel and carry out attacks.
(AP, 1/2/10)
2010 Jan 4, Israel approved construction of four new apartment buildings in disputed east Jerusalem, fueling tensions with the Palestinians at a time when the US is laboring to get peace talks moving again.
(AP, 1/5/10)
2010 Jan 6, Palestinian work crews broke ground on Rawabi, what they hope will be the first modern, planned Palestinian city, a step that officials say will help build an independent state in spite of the current deadlock in the peace process with Israel. The $500 million project hinges on Israel's approval of a short stretch of road.
(AP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 6, Egyptian security forces and Palestinians clashed at the Gaza border over the delay of an international aid convoy, killing one Egyptian border guard and wounding 15 Palestinians. 3 gunmen in a car sprayed automatic gunfire into a crowd leaving a church in the town of Nag Hamadi, about 40 miles from the ancient ruins of Luxor. The lead attacker was identified as a Muslim. 6 male churchgoers and one security guard were killed on the Coptic Christmas Eve. The 3 suspects in the drive-by shooting gave themselves up to police on Jan 8 after being surrounded by security forces.
(AP, 1/6/10)(AP, 1/7/10)(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 7, Gaza militants fired at least 10 mortar shells at Israel, causing no injuries or damage. international activists delivered hundreds of tons of medicine and humanitarian aid to Gaza. The convoy was led by maverick British lawmaker George Galloway, who said the group "will be back with more (aid) until this criminal siege imposed on the people of Gaza, to punish them for how they voted in a free election, is lifted."
(AP, 1/7/10)
2010 Jan 8, Israeli airstrikes against targets in Gaza killed three men in a smuggling tunnel along the Gaza-Egypt border.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 18, Israeli police arrested 9 people at a radical Jewish settlement in connection with the Dec 11, 2009, torching of a West Bank mosque and other attacks on Palestinian property.
(AP, 1/18/10)
2010 Jan 20, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh (b.1960), one of the founders of Hamas' military wing, was poisoned and electrocuted overnight in his hotel room in Dubai. Al-Mabhouh was involved in the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1989. On Jan 29 Hamas accused Israeli agents of assassinating the veteran operative.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 24, Israel's PM Netanyahu declared that his country would retain parts of the West Bank forever, a statement that infuriated Palestinians and could complicate the year-old peace mission of visiting US envoy George Mitchell.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan, Palestine’s Pres. Abbas appointed Leila Ghanem (35) as governor of Ramallah, the first woman to become a Palestinian governor. Ramallah is most important of the West Bank's 10 Palestinian administrative districts.
(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Feb 8, Israeli security forces raided a Palestinian refugee camp in annexed east Jerusalem, arresting 11 people in an operation police said was aimed at putting "some order" in the area. Israel's Supreme Court ordered authorities to release two foreign activists seized in a Palestinian-controlled part of the West Bank. Ariadna Jove Marti of Spain and Bridgette Chappell of Australia, had been in a pre-dawn raid on their apartment in the heart of Ramallah.
(AFP, 2/8/10)
2010 Feb 10, An Israeli TV station said it has uncovered evidence that Palestinian Authority officials have stolen millions of dollars in public funds.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 11, Opponents of Israel's contentious separation barrier in the West Bank scored a long-awaited victory when the government began rerouting the enclosure to eat up less of a Palestinian village that has become a symbol of anti-wall protests and the site of frequent clashes. A Palestinian militant was killed and two young girls wounded by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip in two separate incidents.
(AP, 2/11/10)(AFP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 12, Palestinian officials rallied around Rafiq Husseini, the chief of staff to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, after a video surfaced showing him in the nude in an alleged attempt to trade his influence for sex. Pres. Abbas fired Husseini on April 7.
(AP, 2/12/10)(AP, 4/7/10)
2010 Feb 14, British documentary filmmaker Paul Martin (55) was detained at a Gaza military tribunal where he was to testify on behalf of a local man accused of collaborating with Israel. Hamas officials said that he would detained for 15 days. Martin was released on March 11.
(AP, 2/15/10)(AP, 3/11/10)
2010 Feb 15, Dubai police held a stunning news conference and blamed the Jan 19 slaying of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on a team of 10 men and one woman carrying passports from Britain, Ireland, France and Germany.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 16, Dubai police appealed for an international manhunt after releasing names and photos of an alleged 11-member European hit squad accused of stalking and killing a Hamas commander on Jan 19 in a plot that mixed cold precision with spy caper disguises such as fake beards and wigs.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 18, Dubai police directly accused Israel's Mossad spy agency of orchestrating the Jan 19 hit squad slaying of a Hamas commander as the number of suspects rose to 18.
(AP, 2/18/10)
2010 Feb 19, Hamas claimed that two ex-officers from the rival Fatah organization were involved in the Jan 20 assassination of a Hamas operative in Dubai, and Fatah shot back by insinuating Hamas members were the ones who collaborated with the killers.
(AP, 2/19/10)
2010 Feb 20, Israeli forces wounded at least four Palestinians in a firefight in the southern Gaza Strip and two more in the West Bank as they tried to cross into Israel. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade issued a joint statement saying their men had "attacked four Israeli army jeeps with rocket-propelled grenades, and they responded with machine-gun fire from an assault helicopter and tank fire."
(AFP, 2/20/10)
2010 Jan 20, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh (b.1960), one of the founders of Hamas' military wing, was poisoned and electrocuted overnight in his hotel room in Dubai. Al-Mabhouh was involved in the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1989. On Jan 29 Hamas accused Israeli agents of assassinating the veteran operative. In 2013 it was reported that Ben Zygier took part in the killing by a Mossad hit-team of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mahbouh.
(AP, 1/29/10)(AP, 2/14/13)
2010 Feb 21, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet that the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel's Tomb near Bethlehem are additions to the list of national heritage sites. Israel's air force introduced a fleet of large unmanned planes that can fly as far as Iran. Air force officials said the Heron TP drones can fly 20 consecutive hours, and are primarily used for surveillance and carrying payloads. Israeli shelling wounded five Palestinian day laborers along the northern border of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
(AP, 2/21/10)(AFP, 2/21/10)
2010 Feb 22, A crowd of Palestinian youths in Hebron pelted Israeli soldiers with stones and empty bottles, drawing tear gas and stun grenades in the most serious violence to rock this volatile West Bank city in months.
(AP, 2/22/10)
2010 Feb 24, Dubai police linked at least 15 more suspects carrying foreign passports to the Jan 19 hit squad slaying of a Hamas commander that the police chief claimed was likely carried out by Israel's Mossad secret service.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 28, Dubai police said forensic tests show a Hamas operative, who was killed on Jan 19 in his hotel room by an alleged Israeli hit squad, was drugged with a fast-acting muscle relaxant and then suffocated with a pillow.
(AP, 2/28/10)
2010 Feb 28, In Israel 16 people including two Israeli policemen were wounded in clashes at Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, after police entered to arrest Palestinians who had hurled rocks at visitors they believed were Jewish extremists.
(AFP, 2/28/10)
2010 Mar 3, Arab nations gave the green light for Palestinians to enter indirect negotiations with Israel for a preliminary four-month period, a decision likely to break the months-long deadlock over resuming Mideast peace talks.
(AP, 3/3/10)
2010 Mar 4, Gaza's Islamic militant Hamas government banned men from working in women's hair salons. The announcement came amid a Hamas campaign to impose Islamic customs on Gaza's 1.5 million people.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 4, Israel's Supreme Court reprimanded Jerusalem police for not permitting groups to protest the eviction of Palestinians from their homes in favor of Jewish settlers.
(AP, 3/4/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Israel clashes erupted between Muslim worshippers and Israeli riot police at a sacred and disputed hilltop compound following a sermon on a recent Israeli decision to include two West Bank shrines on a list of national heritage sites.
(AP, 3/5/10)
2010 Mar 7, A skeptical Palestinian leadership agreed to hold US-mediated peace talks with Israel for four months, effectively ending a 14-month breakdown in communications between the two sides.
(AP, 3/7/10)
2010 Mar 8, Israel said it has given the green light for the building of 112 new homes in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank despite a partial moratorium on such construction.
(AFP, 3/8/10)
2010 Mar 10, US Vice President Joe Biden met Palestinian leaders, telling them Israel's decision to expand settlement activity in east Jerusalem is undermining the peace efforts he is promoting.
(AFP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 13, Several dozen Palestinian women scuffled with Israeli troops on the outskirts of Jerusalem amid rising religious and political tensions in the disputed city.
(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 14, Israeli security services overnight captured Maher Uda (47), a top Hamas commander, in Ramallah. He had been on the run for more than a decade for his implication in a series of suicide attacks in Israel which claimed 70 lives.
(AFP, 3/14/10)
2010 Mar 16, Hundreds of Palestinians clashed with security forces in east Jerusalem as tension boiled over in the city and a senior Hamas leader called for a new "intifada," or uprising.
(AFP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 17, Israel lifted its tight restrictions on Palestinian access to Jerusalem's holiest shrine and called off an extended West Bank closure after days of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces.
(AP, 3/17/10)
2010 Mar 17, In Ramallah Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva placed a wreath on the tomb of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and sharply criticized Israeli policies, leading Israeli officials to suggest he was not being evenhanded. The visit came a day after Israel's hawkish foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said he boycotted meetings with Silva because the Brazilian did not pay a similar visit to the grave of Zionist founder Theodor Herzl.
(AP, 3/18/10)
2010 Mar 18, A rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip killed a Thai worker inside Israel, in the first death from such an attack since Israel's Gaza offensive last year. Israeli missiles hit smuggling tunnels and a metal workshop in Gaza.
(AP, 3/18/10)(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, Palestinians in east Jerusalem and the West Bank lobbed rocks at Israeli security forces, set garbage bins and tires ablaze and torched an Israeli flag in a new outbreak of violence over contested Jerusalem building plans and unsubstantiated rumors about threats to the city's holiest shrine. Israeli aircraft fired five missiles at Gaza's defunct airport and nearby border tunnels, wounding at least 12 people.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 19, In Russia the international Quartet for the Middle East met in Moscow in a bid to revive the peace process despite tensions after Israel's announcement of new settler homes and a deadly rocket attack.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 20, UN chief Ban Ki-moon, after getting a closer look at some of the Israeli enclaves scattered across Palestinian-claimed territories, said Israeli settlement building anywhere on occupied land is illegal and must be stopped.
(AP, 3/20/10)
2010 Mar 23, The Macro Centre for Political Economics said in a report that spending on Jewish settlements in the West Bank over the past 4 decades has totaled around $17.4 billion. An Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip overnight injured four people.
(AP, 3/23/10)(AFP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 24, The Jerusalem municipality said it has approved 20 new apartments for Jews in an Arab neighborhood of east Jerusalem, in a move that could stir a new diplomatic crisis with the United States just as Israel's leader is in Washington on a fence-mending visit.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 24, Egyptian police arrested 22 people suspected of involvement in smuggling goods into the Gaza Strip as part of major crackdown.
(AFP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 26, Egyptian police said they arrested 45 suspected smugglers over the past three days in an intensified crackdown on the supply line to Gaza by way of hundreds of cross-border tunnels. Among the suspects was a man accused of trying to deliver $242,000 in Egyptian pounds and US dollars to Hamas in Gaza.
(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Israel insisted it would continue construction in contested east Jerusalem, taking an uncompromising stance against US pressure following a tense visit by PM Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington. Two Israeli soldiers and two Palestinian militants were killed in a gunbattle in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian medics said one civilian was killed and seven were wounded in the fighting. Militants reported one wounded and one missing. Israeli soldier withdrew the next day.
(AP, 3/26/10)(AP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 26, Tens of thousands of Syrians and Palestinians gathered in a Damascus square in a government-orchestrated "march of anger" against Israeli settlements in east Jerusalem.
(AP, 3/26/10)
2010 Mar 28, Israel said it will restrict access to its territory from the occupied West Bank starting late today ahead of the week-long Jewish Passover holiday.
(AP, 3/28/10)
2010 Mar 29, Hamas seized $270,000 from a Gaza bank that had been frozen by the Palestinian government in the West Bank, sparking new feuding between the Gaza militants and their Western-backed rivals.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Apr 1, An Israeli military judge ordered the release of 10 Palestinians, including a senior Fatah official, detained at a March 27 protest march through a West Bank checkpoint.
(AFP, 4/1/10)
2010 Apr 4, Israel allowed the first commercial shipment of clothes and shoes into the Gaza Strip since 2008 but said its policy towards the territory's Hamas rulers had not changed.
(AP, 4/4/10)
2010 Apr 8, In Lebanon heavy clashes erupted in a Palestinian military camp in a remote eastern part of the country as a result of infighting among Palestinian factions. The camp is run by the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.
(AP, 4/8/10)
2010 Apr 11, Israel's military issued new orders that human rights groups warned could lead to the expulsion of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank. The orders have been posted on the Web site of the military prosecutor and are to go into effect April 13.
(AP, 4/11/10)
2010 Apr 13, Gaza's Hamas rulers ordered residents to shut smuggling tunnels along the border with Egypt indefinitely, cutting off the economic lifeline for 1.5 million Palestinians in the impoverished territory. An Israeli spokesman said at least 2 Palestinian militants were killed and 2 wounded when Israeli troops shot at them as they tried to plant explosives near the border.
(AP, 4/14/10)(SFC, 4/14/10, p.A2)
2010 Apr 15, The Hamas government executed two men accused of collaborating with Israel. Mohammed Ismail (36) was convicted of planting devices in the cars of militants, presumably to help track them. Nasser Abu Freh (33), a former Palestinian police captain before the Hamas takeover, allegedly started receiving money to work with Israel in 1998. The bullet-riddled bodies of the men, convicted by military tribunals in 2008 and 2009, were dumped by armed men at Gaza City's main hospital before dawn. It was the first time the death penalty has been carried out in Gaza since Hamas violently seized power in the coastal area in 2007.
(AP, 4/15/10)
2010 Apr 16, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian militant along the border fence between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip as he planted a bomb along the fence. Palestinian residents and the Israeli military said Jewish settlers vandalized property overnight in the Palestinian village of Jen Safout in the West Bank. Raed Hamad (27), a Palestinian prisoner, died in an Israeli prison. he had been in solitary confinement for the last 18 months. Lawyer Tareq Barghouth said his client required psychological help but none was provided during his five years in detention.
(AP, 4/16/10)(AP, 4/17/10)
2010 Apr 17, Hamas and Fatah closed ranks to mark Palestinian Prisoners' Day to protest against Israel for continuing to keep some 6,600 Palestinian militants in jail. This was the first joint initiative by the bitter rivals since Fatah was routed from Gaza in 2007.
(AFP, 4/17/10)(Econ, 5/1/10, p.48)
2010 Apr 19, Israeli Defense minister Ehud Barak said Israel must recognize that the world will not put up with decades more of Israeli rule over the Palestinian people.
(AP, 4/19/10)
2010 Apr 20, Gaza's Hamas rulers burned nearly 2 million pills of Tramadol, a painkiller many Gazans take recreationally because they say it relaxes them and provides temporary relief from the territory's hardships.
(AP, 4/20/10)
2010 Apr 23, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state within temporary borders, an idea he said was recently proposed for restarting peace talks.
(AP, 4/24/10)
2010 Apr 24, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas called for an "open political dialogue" between Palestinian groups and both Israeli and Jewish organizations around the world.
(AFP, 4/24/10)
2010 Apr 26, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed a law banning Palestinians from working in Israeli settlements and selling settlement goods, with violators facing up to five years in prison and stiff fines.
(AP, 4/26/10)
2010 Apr 26, Municipal officials said the Israeli government has imposed a de facto freeze on new Jewish construction in Jerusalem's disputed eastern sector. The decision was made despite PM Benjamin Netanyahu's public insistence that building would not be stopped in the face of US pressure. Israeli troops killed Hamas activist Ali Sweiti, a wanted Palestinian militant in a raid on a West Bank house. Sweiti was wanted in five shooting attacks, one of which killed a paramilitary policeman in 2004.
(AP, 4/26/10)
2010 Apr 28, An Egyptian court convicted 26 men of spying for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and plotting attacks in Egypt, and gave them prison sentences ranging from six months to life. A Hamas security official in charge of the tunnel area along the border said Egyptians had filled a passage with some type of crowd dispersal gas killing four Palestinians. The next day Egypt denied the charges saying fires sparked by such explosions could use up all the oxygen in the tunnel and people caught inside could suffocate.
(AP, 4/28/10)(AP, 4/29/10)
2010 May 1, Arab nations endorsed indirect peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis, a move that likely paves the way for the start of long-stalled US-brokered negotiations.
(AP, 5/1/10)
2010 May 2, Hamas Deputy Finance Minister Ismail Mahfouz denied that the Islamic militants are caught in a cash crunch, but said Hamas is having trouble getting money into blockaded Gaza.
(AP, 5/2/10)
2010 May 3, The leaders of Israel and Egypt met to discuss the renewal of the Middle East peace process ahead of US-backed indirect negotiations between the Palestinians and the Jewish state.
(AP, 5/3/10)
2010 May 3, A team of Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian environmental scientists said large stretches of the biblical Jordan River could dry up by 2011. In 1847, a US Naval officer visiting the area reported on the "deafening roar of the tumultuous waters."
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 4, Fires ripped through a mosque and an olive grove in two West Bank villages, and local Palestinians accused Jewish settlers of deliberately setting the blazes.
(AP, 5/4/10)
2010 May 5, US mediator George Mitchell launched Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations after a break of more than a year, starting a shuttle mission between a hard-line Israeli government and a Palestinian administration in control of only part of its territory.
(AP, 5/5/10)
2010 May 6, Palestinian Pres. Mahmoud Abbas accused Hamas of smuggling large amounts of weapons into the West Bank as part of the militant group's efforts to undermine his administration.
(AP, 5/6/10)
2010 May 8, Palestinian leaders gave their backing for indirect peace talks with Israel, clearing the way for the Obama administration's first sustained on-the-ground Mideast peace effort. Mideast envoy George Mitchell will now shuttle between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders for up to four months to try to narrow the vast gaps on the terms of Palestinian statehood. Four Palestinians were injured and four others went missing when a smuggling tunnel on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt collapsed.
(AP, 5/8/10)(AFP, 5/8/10)
2010 May 9, The Palestinians announced the official start of indirect peace talks with Israel after a 17-month breakdown, while Israel's leader urged a quick transition to face-to-face negotiations to tackle the hardest issues. Israeli-Arab leaders launched a boycott of 1000 companies that produce Jewish settlement-made products, following Palestinian Authority Pres. Abbas’ call for a similar ban by West Bank Arabs.
(AP, 5/9/10)(SSFC, 5/9/10, p.A4)
2010 May 10, Israel said it will press forward with construction of new housing for Jews in east Jerusalem, drawing Palestinian accusations that the plans could undermine newly relaunched peace talks. Israeli police said two Israeli Arabs were under arrest on suspicions they spied for the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas. Police detained Amir Makhoul, the brother of a former member of Israel's parliament, on April 26 and the other suspect on May 6.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 10, The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) accepted Israel into its ranks, capping a lengthy effort by the Jewish state to join the exclusive club in the face of stiff opposition from the Palestinians.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 May 13, A Palestinian teenager (16) was found dead from a gunshot wound near his village in the West Bank. Palestinians said he was likely shot by an Israeli settler while throwing stones at cars.
(AP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 15, Bitter Palestinian rivals marched together in a rare show of unity as they marked 62 years of displacement in the war surrounding Israel's creation. The Egyptian border post at Rafah in southern Gaza was opened for the first time in 10 weeks. Some 300 Palestinians crossed the border and that 8,000 others were expected to follow during the opening due to last three days.
(AP, 5/15/10)(AFP, 5/15/10)
2010 May 15, The Israeli army gunfire killed farmer Fuad Abu Matar (75) and wounded another Palestinian near northern Gaza's border with the Jewish state.
(AFP, 5/15/10)
2010 May 16, Hamas police wielding clubs beat and pushed residents out of dozens of homes in the southern Gaza town of Rafah before knocking the buildings down with bulldozers. Gaza's militant Hamas rulers said the homes were built illegally on government land. Residents said between 30 and 40 homes were torn down.
(AP, 5/16/10)
2010 May 18, Gaza's Hamas rulers executed 3 convicted killers and dropped off their bullet-riddled bodies at a hospital. One allegedly participated in the 2003 slaying of a young woman whose body was later tossed in a garbage bin. The other two men were accused of murdering money changers in two separate incidents. Hamas began carrying out formal executions in April, and today's killings brought the total number of prisoners put to death to five.
(AP, 5/18/10)
2010 May 20, Israel released Mohammed Abu Teir, a Hamas lawmaker. He was arrested nearly four years ago following the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Gaza militants in a deadly cross-border raid.
(AFP, 5/20/10)
2010 May 21, Two Palestinian militants, Nader Abu Dakkar (17) and Hamdi Abu Hammad (17) infiltrated Israel from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip but were killed in a firefight with Israeli troops. The Israeli military launched aerial raids overnight in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, following a rocket attack the previous evening. No one was injured or killed in the sorties.
(AP, 5/21/10)(AFP, 5/21/10)(AFP, 5/22/10)
2010 May 23, In Gaza masked gunmen stormed a UN-run Gaza summer camp early on Sunday and set it on fire, threatening "harsh measures" against the Gaza director of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
(AFP, 5/23/10)
2010 May 24, Israel's military announced it plans to further ease restrictions on Palestinian travel in the West Bank, delivering what appeared to be a first in a series of gestures requested by the US as part of renewed peace talks.
(AP, 5/24/10)
2010 May 25, Eight ships carrying 10,000 tons of donated supplies and hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists were making their way toward blockaded Gaza, and a likely weekend showdown with the Israeli navy.
(AP, 5/25/10)
2010 May 26, Palestinian hospital officials say 15 people were wounded in overnight Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. The strikes came after the Israeli military reported that Palestinian militants had blown up a donkey cart filled with dynamite near the concrete wall that separates Gaza from Israel and fired several mortar rounds into Israel. No Israelis were injured.
(AP, 5/26/10)
2010 May 27, Israel said a flotilla of activist aid boats bound for Gaza was a "cheap political stunt" as it unveiled a port facility where it intends to divert the boats and detain those on board.
(AFP, 5/27/10)
2010 May 28, The Israeli army reopened a key highway to Palestinian traffic after the supreme court ordered the lifting of a 10-year-old ban which had turned Route 443 into an Israelis-only road.
(AFP, 5/28/10)
2010 May 29, Palestinian security officials and witnesses said Israeli warplanes launched six overnight raids on the Islamist-run Gaza Strip, adding that nobody was wounded in the attacks. An Israeli military spokesman said only that two air raids had taken place, and that they targeted a tunnel in the south linking Gaza to Israel and a weapons workshop in the north.
(AP, 5/29/10)
2010 May 30, Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists set sail for the Gaza Strip from international waters off the coast of Cyprus, edging closer to an expected naval showdown with Israeli gunships determined to stop them.
(AP, 5/30/10)
2010 May 31, Israeli naval commandos stormed a flotilla of ships carrying aid and hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists to the blockaded Gaza Strip, killing 9 passengers on the Mavi Marmara in a predawn raid that set off worldwide condemnation and a diplomatic crisis. At least 4 of the 9 dead were Turkish. A massive protest broke out in Turkey, Israel's longtime Muslim ally, which unofficially supported the mission. Ankara announced it would recall its ambassador and call off military exercises with the Jewish state. The flotilla of three cargo ships and three passenger ships carrying 10,000 tons of aid and 700 activists was carrying items that Israel bars from reaching Gaza, like cement and other building materials. Israeli police said 16 pro-Palestinian activists from the flotilla were sent to jail following the deadly confrontation. Turkey sent three planes to bring back some 20 Turks wounded during clashes that broke out when Israeli commandos raided the Turkish vessel.
(AP, 5/31/10)(AP, 6/1/10)(Econ, 1/28/12, p.54)
2010 May, American journalist Helen Thomas observed that Israelis should get "out of Palestine." Her comments against the Israeli occupation forced her into retirement and were denounced by the White House and her press corps colleagues.
(AP, 4/3/12)
2010 Jun 1, Pro-Palestinian activists sent another boat to challenge Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ordered the opening of the Rafah border crossing to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 6/1/10)
2010 Jun 1, Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip said three of its members have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza. The Israeli military confirmed it carried out an airstrike, and Gaza's chief medical examiner also says there were three deaths. The fighters were killed shortly after firing rockets into southern Israel. Israeli authorities said the rockets landed in open areas and caused no injuries.
(AP, 6/1/10)
2010 Jun 2, Israel was deported the last of the nearly 700 foreign activists detained in a deadly raid on an aid flotilla bound for Palestinians in the blockaded, Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Israel came under renewed pressure at an urgent session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, as countries lined up to condemn its interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla and urge an impartial probe.
(AP, 6/2/10)(AFP, 6/2/10)
2010 Jun 2, France's former top anti-terrorism judge said the Turkish Islamic charity behind the flotilla of aid ships that was raided by Israeli forces on its way to Gaza had ties to terrorism networks, including a 1999 al-Qaida plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport.
(AP, 6/2/10)
2010 Jun 2, UN chief Ban Ki-moon demanded that Israel lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip immediately in the wake of its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
(AP, 6/3/10)
2010 Jun 3, Israel rejected calls from the UN and others for an international investigation of its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla but left the door open to foreign involvement. The Foreign Press Association demanded that Israel’s military stop using the captured material without permission and identify the source of the video already released. The material appeared Wednesday on the army's YouTube site labeled as "captured."
(AP, 6/3/10)
2010 Jun 4, The Rachel Corrie activist ship kept its course for a June 5 arrival in Gaza as world anger simmered over Israel's deadly raid on an earlier blockade-busting bid.
(AFP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 5, Israeli forces boarded the Rachel Corrie after it ignored orders not to head for Gaza, but there was no repetition of the bloody violence that erupted when commandos stormed an aid boat earlier in the week.
(AFP, 6/5/10)
2010 Jun 7, An Egyptian security official declared the blockade of Gaza a failure and said his country will keep its border with the Palestinian territory open indefinitely.
(AP, 6/7/10)
2010 Jun 7, The Iranian Red Crescent said that it will send three aid ships to Gaza in the latest bid to break the blockade imposed on the Palestinian territory by Iran's archfoe Israel.
(AFP, 6/7/10)
2010 Jun 7, The Israeli navy killed 4 Palestinian militants in diver suits off the coast of Gaza before dawn. Palestinian officials said Israel fired a missile at Palestinian militants near the Gaza border, wounding one. The bodies of two Palestinians killed by Israeli fire washed ashore a day later, bringing to six the total number of alleged militants killed by the navy raid.
(AP, 6/7/10)(AP, 6/8/10)
2010 Jun 9, Israel eased a three-year blockade of Gaza to allow in some previously banned food items in an effort to defuse the worldwide furor over its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound international flotilla. But critics said the step falls far short of what is needed in the impoverished Palestinian territory. Vandals defaced a mosque in northern Israel, a day after Israeli troops demolished unauthorized construction in a West Bank settlement.
(AP, 6/9/10)
2010 Jun 11, Israeli police said an unidentified Palestinian man was shot dead after he struck two Israeli police officers with his car in east Jerusalem.
(AP, 6/11/10)
2010 Jun 13, Amr Moussa, the head of the 22-member Arab League, met with the top Hamas leader in Gaza, PM Ismail Haniyeh, in a significant diplomatic boost for Hamas.
(AP, 6/14/10)
2010 Jun 14, Iran’s state radio said Iran is sending aid ships to blockaded Gaza, a move likely to be considered provocative by Israel which accuses Tehran of arming Hamas, the Palestinian enclave's Islamist rulers.
(Reuters, 6/14/10)
2010 Jun 14, The Israeli Cabinet approved an investigation into the deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in an effort to counter international criticism as the EU pressed Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza, deeming it "unacceptable." Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a police vehicle in the West Bank, killing an Israeli police officer and wounding two others. On July 19 the Shin Bet security service said five Palestinians, accused of being members of a Hamas cell, have been arrested for killing the Israeli policeman.
(AP, 6/14/10)(AP, 7/19/10)
2010 Jun 16, Israeli officials they will significantly ease its bruising land blockade of the Gaza Strip, in an effort to blunt the widespread international criticism that has followed a deadly Israeli commando raid on a blockade-busting flotilla. Israeli troops shot and killed a drug smuggler on the Egyptian border. Egypt said he was among a group of seven armed men trying to bring drugs into Israel.
(AP, 6/16/10)
2010 Jun 17, Israel agreed to ease its three-year-old land blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, hoping to quell international outrage over its deadly raid on a flotilla bound for the Palestinian territory.
(AP, 6/17/10)
2010 Jun 21, Lebanese authorities granted permission for a blockade-busting ship with activists and aid on board to sail first to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 22, Iran's state television says the country will send an aid ship to the blockaded Gaza Strip with 1,100 tons of relief supplies.
(AP, 6/22/10)
2010 Jun 22, Israel's defense minister criticized the approval by a Jerusalem planning body of a plan to raze 22 Palestinian homes in the disputed eastern part of the city to make room for an Israeli tourist center, saying it lacked "common sense" and "a sense of timing."
(AP, 6/22/10)
2010 Jun 23, Israeli troops overnight arrested four Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, among them Shadi Amwasi (30), a former intelligence officer.
(AFP, 6/23/10)
2010 Jun 24, Noorsat, the operator which handles the broadcasting of Al-Aqsa TV to parts of Europe and throughout the Middle East, shut down the broadcasts of Al-Aqsa TV, a Gaza-based television station accused of inciting hatred of Jews and Israel.
(AFP, 6/25/10)
2010 Jun 25, Israeli warplanes raided the Gaza Strip overnight killing a Palestinian and wounding another.
(AFP, 6/25/10)
2010 Jun 26, An Iranian lawmaker said the country's plan to send a blockade-busting ship from Iran to Gaza has been canceled.
(AP, 6/26/10)
2010 Jun 28, In central Gaza 2 dozen masked men vandalized a UN summer camp for children, burning and slashing tents, toys and a plastic swimming pool. It was the second such attack in just over a month.
(AP, 6/28/10)
2010 Jul 6, Pres. Obama met with Israel’s PM Netanyahu, who was accorded all the trappings of a visiting head of state. Obama and Netanyahu dismissed talk of a rift as wildly unfounded, and Netanyahu pledged concrete, "very robust" steps to revive sluggish Mideast peace efforts with the Palestinians. One of the main outcomes of the summit was the US push for a shift to direct talks with Palestinians.
(AP, 7/6/10)(AFP, 7/7/10)
2010 Jul 7, Israel said that its moves to ease its blockade on Gaza do not include relaxing regulations on Palestinians looking to travel out of the enclave. Israel's military released maps and aerial photographs showing what it described as a network of Hezbollah weapons depots and command centers inside villages in south Lebanon, near the Israeli border.
(AFP, 7/7/10)(AP, 7/7/10)
2010 Jul 8, In Israel police arrested overnight a pair of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men suspected of trying to smuggle $1 million of pure cocaine into Israel from Brazil. More than 15,000 Israelis marched into Jerusalem and rallied at a park downtown for the government to conclude a deal for the release of a captive soldier held by Palestinian militants.
(AP, 7/8/10)(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 9, Libyan organisers said a charity headed by Saif Al-Islam Kadhafi, the second son of Libyan leader Moamar Kadhafi, is sending an aid boat from Greece to Gaza to break the Israeli "siege." Organisers of the initiative had earlier said the 25-year-old ship, owned by Piraeus-based ACA Shipping Corporation, was called Hope. The ship set sail from Greece on July 10 and headed for Egypt.
(AFP, 7/9/10)(AFP, 7/10/10)
2010 Jul 13, Israeli bulldozers destroyed six buildings, including at least three homes, in contested east Jerusalem, resuming the demolition of Palestinian property after a halt aimed at encouraging peace talks.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 13, An Israeli military vessel confronted a Libyan aid ship trying to breach Israel's three-year-old Gaza blockade and ordered it to divert to an Egyptian port.
(AP, 7/13/10)
2010 Jul 14, A ship sent by a Libyan charity to break Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip changed course in the Mediterranean Sea and docked at an Egyptian port after agreeing to deliver its cargo of aid through Egyptian territory.
(AP, 7/14/10)(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 15, An Israeli lieutenant colonel and one of his soldiers were convicted in a 2008 shooting of a bound and blindfolded Palestinian demonstrator. Video taken by a local resident showed the soldier firing a rubber-coated bullet from close range at the feet of the Palestinian man, whose hands were tied behind his back.
(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 17, Gaza's Hamas rulers banned women from smoking water pipes in cafes, calling it a practice that destroys marriages and sullies the image of the Palestinian people.
(AP, 7/18/10)
2010 Jul 19, Israeli forces demolished a cluster of tents and shacks belonging to Palestinians in the northern West Bank.
(AP, 7/19/10)
2010 Jul 21, Israel said it will restrict its use of white phosphorus munitions and seek to limit civilian casualties in future wars, in a report to the UN secretary general released this week. Israeli fire killed two Palestinians and wounded 10 in the northern Gaza Strip.
(AFP, 7/21/10)
2010 Jul 21, The leaders of Egypt and Turkey met in Cairo to discuss stuttering international efforts to coax Israeli and Palestinian leaders back to the negotiating table.
(AFP, 7/21/10)
2010 Jul 22, Egyptian security officials said smugglers who sneak consumer goods, cash and weapons into the blockaded Gaza Strip have cut hundreds of holes in an underground steel wall Egypt is building along the border to try to stop them.
(AP, 7/22/10)
2010 Jul 22, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man entering a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, drawing a Palestinian accusation that soldiers are too quick to open fire.
(AP, 7/23/10)
2010 Jul 25, An Israeli military spokesman said Gaza-based militants fired four rockets into southern Israel over the weekend. None of them caused any casualties or damage.
(AFP, 7/25/10)
2010 Jul 26, France said it is upgrading its diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Territories to try to spur international efforts toward creating a Palestinian state.
(AP, 7/2610)
2010 Jul 29, Qatar's PM Sheik Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani said the Arab nations have endorsed direct Palestinian talks with the Israelis but left the timing to the Palestinians themselves.
(AP, 7/29/10)
2010 Jul 30, Gaza militants fired a rocket into the Israeli city of Ashkelon, a rare strike in a period of relative quiet.
(AP, 7/30/10)
2010 Jul 31, Israeli warplanes fired missiles killing Issa Batran (42), a senior commander of the Hamas military wing, and wounding 11 people in five targets hit across Gaza overnight. Hamas said 8 of its supporters and 3 civilians were also wounded in the overnight airstrikes and vowed revenge.
(AP, 7/31/10)
2010 Aug 2, A string of rockets was fired toward the Israeli resort city Eilat, and one hit in neighboring Jordan, killing one person and wounding four. On Aug 3 Jordan said it has evidence that the rocket attack originated from neighboring Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. After days of denials an Egyptian official said the deadly rocket attacks were carried out by the militant Palestinian Hamas group operating from Egypt.
(AP, 8/2/10)(AP, 8/3/10)(AP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 4, Israeli soldiers killed a Gaza Strip militant was killed. The Israeli military said soldiers saw a group of men approach Israel's border fence with Gaza and launched an airstrike against them before dawn. 3 other militants were wounded in the attack.
(AP, 8/4/10)
2010 Aug 7, The Gaza Strip's sole power plant shut down for lack of diesel fuel.
(AFP, 8/7/10)
2010 Aug 9, Israeli photographer Rafael Rafram Chaddad, jailed by Libya for five months, returned home after an Austrian tycoon brokered a deal for his freedom that involved the delivery of 20 prefabricated homes from a Libyan charity to the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 8/9/10)
2010 Aug 11, The Islamist Hamas movement released 100 prisoners in its Gaza enclave, including members of the rival Fatah, in honor of the start of Ramadan.
(AFP, 8/11/10)
2010 Aug 16, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian militant who the military said was planting a bomb along the border.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 17, In Israel a Palestinian who broke into the Turkish Embassy trying to take hostages and demanding asylum was turned over to Israeli authorities. The next day his lawyer claimed that Nadim Injaz was a former Israeli informer who was seeking political asylum. 2 Israeli soldiers were lightly wounded by a mortar shell fired from Gaza. Later in the day Israeli warplanes struck targets including Hamas training facilities in five locations in Gaza. No one was hurt.
(AP, 8/17/10)(AP, 8/18/10)(AFP, 8/18/10)
2010 Aug 17, Lebanon's Parliament passed a law that for the first time grants the country's Palestinian refugees the right to work in any profession.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 21, Israel and the Palestinians accepted a US call to restart direct peace talks but politicians on both sides have warned of the pitfalls ahead, saying talks will be stillborn unless Israel halts building in West Bank settlements. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak accepted an invitation to attend the start of direct peace talks.
(AFP, 8/21/10)
2010 Aug 28, An Egyptian security official said police in the Sinai desert have discovered two large caches of weapons that were to be smuggled to Gaza. The find included anti-aircraft weaponry.
(AP, 8/28/10)
2010 Aug 31, A West Bank gunman opened fire on a passing vehicle in Hebron, killing all four Israeli passengers inside, two men and two women from settlements in the area. The dead included a married couple with five children.
(AP, 9/1/10)
2010 Sep 1, Palestinian security forces arrested more than 250 Hamas members in an overnight sweep throughout the West Bank after the Islamic militant group claimed responsibility for shooting dead four Israelis on the eve of new Mideast peace talks.
(AP, 9/1/10)
2010 Sep 2, Israeli and Palestinian leaders met in Washington and cleared the first hurdle in what promises to be difficult negotiations, vowing to try to settle core differences within a year and meet every two weeks. Neither leader addressed the sensitive question of whether Israel would extend a moratorium on settlement building in the West Bank due to expire on September 26. The next round of talks was set for September 14-15 in Egypt.
(AFP, 9/3/10)
2010 Sep 4, Two Palestinians were killed and another three were wounded in Israeli air strikes carried out after a rocket attack from Gaza. This was the first exchange of fire since the relaunch of Middle East peace talks last week. Two raids targeted smuggling tunnels along the border with Egypt, causing a tunnel to collapse on the two men, and a third struck a former base used by the militant Hamas movement.
(AFP, 9/5/10)
2010 Sep 8, The Palestinian Authority said it has arrested an unspecified number of Hamas activists believed to be responsible for two shooting attacks in the West Bank last week, one of which left four Jewish settlers dead. Palestinian militants fired a mortar round from the Gaza Strip narrowly missing a kindergarten in a kibbutz in southern Israel.
(AFP, 9/8/10)
2010 Sep 10, Militants in Gaza fired a projectile into southern Israel just hours after Israeli warplanes carried out a series of raids across the coastal strip. Overnight, two Gazans in the Hamas security forces were wounded in Gaza City when Israel launched a series of retaliatory air strikes after an earlier rocket attack.
(AFP, 9/10/10)
2010 Sep 12, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his demand for the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, in remarks ahead of a second round of US-backed peace talks. A rocket fired by Palestinian militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip struck Israel without causing any casualties or damage. A burst of Israeli tank fire killed three civilians in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun, a man (91), his grandson (17) and another man (20). A senior commander on Sep 14 said the killing was a mistake.
(AFP, 9/12/10)(AFP, 9/14/10)
2010 Sep 14, Three Palestinians were wounded by Israeli tank fire in a clash along the volatile Gaza border. On Sep 25 Hamas reported that one died as the result of his wounds.
(AFP, 9/25/10)
2010 Sep 15, Israeli and Palestinian leaders held peace talks in Jerusalem with US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. A Qassam rocket and six mortar rounds hit southern Israel. Israeli jets bombed smuggling targets along the Gaza-Egypt border. Hamas officials said one person was killed and four wounded.
(AP, 9/15/10)(AFP, 9/15/10)
2010 Sep 17, Israel reiterated its refusal to extend curbs on settlement building that expire this month, despite US pressure and Palestinian threats to walk out of peace talks. Israeli troops killed Abu Shilbaya (37), a Hamas militant and local leader of its armed wing, during a raid in the northern West Bank town of Tulkarm. Some 3,000 Hamas loyalists gathered to march in Abu Shilbaya's funeral.
(AFP, 9/17/10)(AP, 9/17/10)
2010 Sep 19, Egyptians officials said Mohammed Dababish, a top Hamas security official, was arrested at Cairo airport for using falsified travel documents.
(AP, 9/19/10)
2010 Sep 22, An Israeli guard shot dead a Palestinian after rocks were thrown at his car, setting off clashes with police. Crowds of Palestinian youths violently rampaged in a tense neighborhood in annexed Arab east Jerusalem following the shooting death of a local man. This clouded fragile peace efforts even as the Palestinian president signaled he may back away from threats to quit negotiations if Israel resumes West Bank settlement construction.
(AFP, 9/22/10)(AP, 9/22/10)
2010 Sep 23, The Palestinian militant Hamas group said its military court has convicted and sentenced Omar Kawari to death by a firing squad. The Gaza man was convicted on charges of spying for Israel.
(AP, 9/23/10)
2010 Sep 25, In New York US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas met for a second day of talks, after failing to break the deadlock between Israelis and Palestinians. The talks were overshadowed by the end of an Israeli moratorium on settlement building.
(AFP, 9/25/10)
2010 Sep 25, Hamas, in a statement from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said "Mahmud al-Ahmarine (21) has died as the result of wounds inflicted by an Israeli tank on September 14 east of Gaza City."
(AGFP, 9/25/10)
2010 Sep 25, In Syria leaders of the two rival Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas held reconciliation talks in Damascus and said they wanted the discussions to continue.
(AFP, 9/25/10)
2010 Sep 26, A boat carrying Jewish activists from Israel, Europe and the US set sail from Cyprus bound for Gaza, in a bid to run Israel's blockade of the Palestinian territory.
(AFP, 9/27/10)
2010 Sep 27, Settlement building resumed across the West Bank just hours after a 10-month freeze expired, but Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held back on a threat to quit peace talks with Israel over the move. Abbas said he would wait at least a week before deciding whether to quit Mideast peace talks, giving US mediators precious time to broker a compromise.
(AFP, 9/27/10)
2010 Sep 28, Israeli naval forces intercepted a catamaran carrying nine Jewish activists toward the Gaza Strip, encountering no resistance as they took control of the sailboat and escorted it to shore.
(AP, 9/28/10)
2010 Oct 2, Senior Palestinian politicians backed President Mahmoud Abbas' demand to link peace talks to restrictions on Israeli settlement building, delivering a new setback to bogged down US efforts to salvage the negotiations.
(AP, 10/2/10)
2010 Oct 3, Egypt backed the Palestinians' refusal to negotiate with Israel as long as it continues to build West Bank settlements, even as officials urged for continued diplomacy to salvage the month-old talks.
(AP, 10/3/10)
2010 Oct 3, An Israeli military court convicted two soldiers of using a Palestinian child as a human shield by forcing him to check for booby traps on Jan 15, 2009, during the 2008-2009 Gaza war. Israeli police shot and killed Izzedine Qawasmeh (35), a father of five and a construction worker from the West Bank village of Sair, after he used a rope to scale a towering wall meant to keep Palestinians from sneaking into Israel. On Nov 21 the two soldiers received suspended sentences and demotions.
(AFP, 10/3/10)(AP, 10/3/10)(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Oct 4, Arsonists torched a mosque in a Palestinian village in the West Bank, scrawling "revenge" on a wall in Hebrew and charring copies of the Muslim holy book in a blaze that threatened to stoke new tensions over deadlocked Mideast peacemaking.
(AP, 10/4/10)
2010 Oct 7, A top Palestinian negotiator says the Palestinians have accepted a US proposal calling on Israel to extend a West Bank settlement slowdown for another two months.
(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 8, Israeli troops killed two senior Hamas militants in an early-morning raid in the West Bank city of Hebron, raising tensions as peace talks remain stuck over Israeli settlement building. The two gunmen were wanted in connection with the killing of four Israelis near Hebron on Aug. 31. An incident captured on film and widely broadcast showed two masked boys standing in the road among a group throwing stones when a car driven by David Beeri, the local leader of Elad, drove round the corner and ploughed into them. One boy was thrown into the air and bounced off the car's windscreen before crashing to the ground. The car stopped briefly before driving off.
(AP, 10/8/10)(AFP, 10/11/10)
2010 Oct 9, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged Arab leaders to press the United States to recognize a unilateral declaration of statehood if peace talks with Israel collapse. Extremist Jews ripped off branches and cut the roots of Palestinian olive trees in the West Bank village of Burin, as the yearly 45-day harvest of the important crop began.
(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 11, The Israeli government endorsed a bill requiring a national referendum be held before any withdrawal from occupied east Jerusalem or the Golan Heights. PM Netanyahu spelled out recognition of Israel as a Jewish state as his price for a renewal of a ban on construction in the occupied West Bank. The offer was rejected out of hand by the Palestinians, who said it had "nothing to do with the peace process."
(AFP, 10/11/10)(AFP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 13, The Palestinians called on the US administration and Israel to define Israel's borders after Washington invited proposals to get peace talks back on track.
(AFP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 15, Israel signed off on the construction of 238 homes in Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, bringing an end to an unofficial building freeze in the traditionally Arab sector of the city and further complicating peace talks stuck over the broader fate of West Bank settlements. A report released by aid organization Oxfam said attacks and other acts of harassment by Jewish settlers against Palestinian olive farmers "are common and often increase during the time of the harvest." The Israeli army says it does all it can to protect Palestinian olive growers. So far this year there have been no casualties at least. But neither have the police made any arrests.
(AP, 10/15/10)(AFP, 10/16/10)
2010 Oct 17, Two Palestinians were killed and a third wounded in a pre-dawn Israeli air strike north of Gaza City. The Israeli military said the air force had struck a "squad of terror operatives who were preparing to fire rockets from the northern Gaza Strip into Israel."
(AFP, 10/17/10)
2010 Oct 20, Palestinians said Jewish settlers set fire to a girls school near the northern city of Nablus. A powerful explosion ripped through a Hamas military compound in the Gaza Strip, wounding more than a dozen people, including women and children.
(AP, 10/20/10)
2010 Oct 25, A senior Israeli settler official said that work has begun on up to 600 new homes in West Bank settlements since Israel lifted its curb on such construction Sep 26. Palestinian Pres. Mahmoud Abbas has said he will only resume talks once building restrictions are reimposed, arguing there is no point negotiating while Israel continues to build on land the Palestinians want for a future state.
(AP, 10/25/10)
2010 Oct 27, Jewish settlers said Israel's defense minister is holding up construction on 4,300 apartments that could be built immediately in the West Bank. Dozens of Jewish extremists hoisting Israeli flags defiantly marched through the Arab-Israeli town of Umm el-Fahm, chanting "death to terrorists" and touching off clashes between rock-hurling residents and police who quelled them with tear gas. An Israeli court convicted Amir Makhoul, a prominent Arab-Israeli activist, of spying for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in a plea bargain that will send him to prison for up to 10 years.
(AP, 10/27/10)
2010 Oct 28, Israeli officials said that the military-grade armaments seized at a shipping terminal in Nigeria came from Iran and were bound for the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. On Oct 30 an international shipping company said the weapons cache originally came from Iran. Last week, the Iranian shipper filed a request for the containers to be picked up again and this time shipped to the West African nation of Gambia. On Feb 1, 2011, Azim Aghajani of Iran and his alleged accomplice, Nigerian national Usman Abbas Jega, both maintained their innocence against three charges over the shipment.
(AP, 10/28/10)(AP, 10/30/10)(AP, 2/1/11)
2010 Oct 29, Tens of thousands of Palestinians turned out for a rally in the Gaza Strip to mark the 23rd anniversary of the founding of the hardline militant group Islamic Jihad.
(AFP, 10/29/10)
2010 Oct 31, Walid Husayin (26), a Palestinian blogger, was arrested in the West Bank. He had set off an uproar in the Arab world by sarcastically claiming he was God and hurling insults at the Prophet Muhammad. He was caught in a sting that used Facebook to track him down. Husayin later posted the letter on his blog in hopes of winning release.
(AP, 11/12/10)(AP, 12/6/10)
2010 Nov 3, A car exploded outside the police headquarters of Gaza's Hamas rulers, killing a Palestinian militant (27) and wounding a second man. Ihab Ghussein, spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry. The Israeli military said the target was Mohammed Namnam (25) of the Army of Islam group.
(AP, 11/3/10)
2010 Nov 6, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket into southern Israel on Saturday but caused no casualties or damage.
(AP, 11/6/10)
2010 Nov 8, Israel said it is moving ahead with plans to build 1,300 new apartments in disputed east Jerusalem. The new $11 million performing arts center opened in Ariel, an Israeli enclave of 19,000 people. In August, more than 60 Israeli actors and playwrights signed a letter saying they would not perform in the new cultural center.
(AP, 11/8/10)
2010 Nov 9, Representatives of Hamas and the Fatah party of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas started a meeting in Damascus for reconciliation talks.
(AFP, 11/10/10)
2010 Nov 10, Israeli forces arrested senior Hamas MP Mahmud al-Ramahi at his home in the West Bank city of Ramallah overnight. Omar Abdul Razek, a senior Hamas official in the West Bank, said Ramahi's arrest appeared to be an attempt by Israel to undermine the reconciliation talks between Hamas and the Fatah party that had just begun in Damascus.
(AFP, 11/10/10)
2010 Nov 15, In Palestinian Gaza Strip Hamas freed 80 prisoners on the eve of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. Over the past week, Hamas has ordered the release of 284 prisoners in the run-up the four-day festival.
(AFP, 11/15/10)
2010 Nov 17, An Israeli airstrike killed two senior members of the Army of Islam. An Israeli statement said the men targeted were "part of a terror cell that planned to kidnap and kill Israelis" in the Sinai peninsula.
(AP, 11/19/10)
2010 Nov 18, Southern Israel received 2 mortar shells fired from the Gaza Strip. There were no casualties or damage.
(AFP, 11/18/10)
2010 Nov 19, Israel's military condemned the publication of names and photographs of 200 Israeli soldiers on a website that called them "war criminals." It was put up earlier this week by anonymous activists in Britain and hosted by a US-based Web service, which took it down by today citing "breach of terms." Militants in Gaza fired rockets at southern Israel, causing no casualties. Retaliatory Israeli air strikes wounded at least 6 Palestinians.
(AP, 11/19/10)(SFC, 11/20/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 21, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said that he will not return to the negotiating table with Israel without a settlement freeze that includes annexed Arab east Jerusalem. Thousands of young Jewish settlers held a mass demonstration outside Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's offices in Jerusalem in protest at plans for a new ban on settlement building.
(AFP, 11/21/10)
2010 Dec 3, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas threatened to dissolve the Palestinian Authority if Israel does not stop building settlements on occupied land.
(AFP, 12/4/10)
2010 Dec 3, Outgoing Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced recognition of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders in a public letter addressed to Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas. This was made public by Brazil's foreign ministry.
(AP, 12/4/10)
2010 Dec 6, Argentina announced that it recognizes the Palestinian territories as a free and independent state within their 1967 borders, a step it said reflects frustration at the slow progress of peace talks with Israel.
(AP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 8, Israel decided to allow increased exports from the Gaza Strip, further easing its blockade of the territory run by the militant Palestinian Hamas group.
(AP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 8, The Middle East peace process lay in tatters after Washington admitted defeat in its efforts to secure an Israeli freeze on settlement building, the Palestinians' condition for resuming talks.
(AFP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 9, The Israeli air force bombed four sites in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, causing no casualties. The air raids came after Palestinian militants fired several mortars into southern Israel from Gaza the previous day.
(AFP, 12/9/10)
2010 Dec 14, Israel barred a group of Palestinian firefighters who helped battle the country's worst wildfire from attending a ceremony in their honor, the latest in a series of embarrassments over Israel's handling of the blaze.
(AP, 12/14/10)
2010 Dec 16, Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath said he has asked representatives of several EU countries to recognize the truce lines before the 1967 Mideast war as the borders between Israel and a Palestinian state.
(AP, 12/16/10)
2010 Dec 17, In Israel Christine Luken (44), female American tourist, was stabbed to death. Her body was found on Dec 19 bound and with multiple stab wounds near a road outside Jerusalem. Her friend, Kaye Susan Wilson, told police the two had been hiking in a nearby forest when they were assaulted by two Arab men. She, too, was bound and stabbed, but managed to escape her assailants. On Jan 26, 2011, Palestinians Kifah Ghneimat and Iyad Fatafa were indicted for Luken’s murder. Ghneimat was convicted on Sep 25.
(AP, 12/19/10)(AP, 1/26/11)(AP, 9/26/11)
2010 Dec 17, Maltese Foreign Minister Tonio Borg promised during a visit to the Gaza Strip to donate funds to the United Nations agency caring for Palestinian refugees.
(AFP, 12/17/10)
2010 Dec 18, An Israeli airstrike killed five Gaza militants in the deadliest attack against the coastal strip in months. The Israeli military says the men were about to launch a rocket attack against southern Israeli communities when they were struck.
(AP, 12/18/10)
2010 Dec 19, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hosted dozens of Israeli legislators and activists, and urged them to relay a simple message to the Israeli public — he is serious about negotiating a peace deal and that the Palestinians will never again resort to violence.
(AP, 12/19/10)
2010 Dec 20, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired seven mortar shells into southern Israel that fell on open ground and caused no casualties.
(AP, 12/20/10)
2010 Dec 21, The Israeli air force hit seven suspected militant sites in the Gaza Strip in an unusually large operation. Palestinian militants retaliated by sending a rocket crashing down near a kindergarten in southern Israel. Israel's military chief confirmed the Palestinian use of Kornet missiles. This marked a new milestone for Gaza militants, who have steadily built up their arsenal from a collection of crude, homemade rockets to include more menacing imported weapons. Israeli defense officials said the laser-guided Kornet came from Iran. Israel's answer, called Trophy, was the first-of-its-kind Israeli-made system carried by tanks that is designed to shoot down missiles like the Kornet.
(AP, 12/21/10)(AP, 12/22/10)
2010 Dec 22, Bolivia sent a letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declaring its recognition of an independent and sovereign state of Palestine.
(AP, 12/22/10)
2010 Dec 23, Israel's Peace Now movement said Israeli settlers have illegally begun work on at least 100 homes in the occupied West Bank since the end of a freeze on settlement construction.
(AFP, 12/23/10)
2010 Dec 24, The Ecuadorean government recognized Palestine as a sovereign state.
(AP, 12/25/10)
2010 Dec 26, Israel and Palestinian militants traded threats amid fresh skirmishes along the tense Gaza Strip border in which two Islamic Jihad fighters were killed. Nine French activists were arrested during a pro-Palestinian demonstration at a major Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank.
(AFP, 12/26/10)
2010 Dec 28, Project developer Bashar Masri said about 20 Israeli suppliers will help build Rawabi, the first modern Palestinian city in the West Bank, but only after promising they will not use products or services from Israeli settlements.
(AP, 12/28/10)
2010 Dec 29, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas traveled to Brazil to lay the symbolic foundation stone of a Palestinian embassy in Brasilia.
(AFP, 12/29/10)
2010 Dec 30, Israeli troops seized Khalil al-Rabai, a Hamas member of the Palestinian parliament, the fifth to be rearrested recently after serving previous prison terms. With Rabai's arrest the number of Hamas MPs in Israeli custody is now believed to be 13.
(AFP, 12/30/10)
2010 Dec 31, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas laid the first stone of what will become a Palestinian embassy in Brazil, the most important Latin American country to recognize a sovereign Palestinian state.
(AFP, 12/31/10)
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