Timeline Palestine (A) thru 2003
8000BC Tel Sultan, an archaeological dig, indicated that Jericho was first settled about this time.
(AP, 10/1/10)
7000BC Stone masks, dating to about this time, were later discovered in the Judean desert and hills near Jerusalem. In 2014 eleven stone masks were put on exhibit and offered a rare glimpse at some of civilization's first communal rituals.
(AP, 3/11/14)
1700BC Canaanites, before the Hebrew conquest, built a massive wall about this time when Jerusalem was a small, fortified enclave. Archeologists first discovered the 26-foot-high wall in 1909 and later believed it to have been part of a protected passage built from a hilltop fortress to a nearby spring that was the city's only water source and vulnerable to marauders.
(AP, 9/3/09)
1600BC A gate in a curved wall in Shekhem city was built by skilled engineers around this time. The king of Shekhem, Labaya, is mentioned in the cuneiform tablets of the Pharaonic archive found at Tel al-Amarna in Egypt, which are dated to the 14th century BC. The king had rebelled against Egyptian domination, and soldiers were dispatched north to subdue him, but failed. Romans later abandoned the original site and built a new city to the west, calling it Flavius Neapolis. The Greek name Neapolis, or "new city," later became enshrined in Arabic as Nablus. A German team began excavating at the site in 1913.
(AP, 7/22/11)
1200BC The Philistines arrived by sea from the area of modern-day Greece about this time. They went on to rule major ports at Ashkelon and Ashdod, now cities in Israel, and at Gaza, now part of the Palestinian territory known as the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 7/8/11)
1020 BC - 980 BC Radiocarbon dating on burnt olive pits found in the ancient city of Khirbet Qeiyafa, 19 miles (30km) southwest of Jerusalem, indicate it existed between during this period, before being violently destroyed. In 2012 archaeologists reported the discovery of shrines from the fortified city, providing the earliest evidence of a Biblical cult.
(http://qeiyafa.huji.ac.il/)(http://tinyurl.com/7hxg4qx)
930BC Sheshonq I, ruler of Egypt, campaigned in Palestine about this time laying tribute upon the king of Judah.
(www.crystalinks.com/dynasty21.html)
830BC The Philistine city of Gath was razed. It appears to have been the work of the Aramean king Hazael, an incident mentioned in the Book of Kings.
(AP, 7/8/11)
710BC Hanunu of Gaza was in the revolt against the king of Assyria which led to the battle of Raphia, the first struggle between Egypt and Assyria. Hanunu, the king of Gaza, fled to Sebako (Shebaka), king of Egypt; but returned and, having made submission, was received with favor.
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.71)
c700BC King Hezekiah constructed a 1,750-foot tunnel to bring water into Jerusalem. Archeologists in 2003 dated plant fragments in the tunnel's plaster to this time +/- 100 years.
(SFC, 9/11/03, p.A6)
604BC Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded and put the Philistines' cities to the sword. There is no remnant of them after that.
(AP, 7/8/11)
586BCE Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, ruler of Mesopotamia, destroyed Jerusalem and recorded his deeds at the Nahr al Kalb (Dog River) cliff face between Beirut and Byblos. He destroyed the first Temple, built by Solomon and took the Jewish people into captivity.
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.157)(SFC, 12/31/96, p.A11)(Econ, 12/20/03, p.26)
586BCE Ezekial, in exile at Babylon, described Tyre as it was before Nebuchadnezzar's attack in the Bible: (Ezekial 27:1-25). This time is known as the "Babylonian Captivity."
(NG, Aug., 1974, p.162)(eawc, p.8)
15BCE King Herod of Judea built the coastal settlement of Caesarea. It was razed to the ground in 1265.
(Econ, 4/24/04, p.83)
c1-30 The life of Jesus Christ. In 1998 "The Acts of Jesus -- What Did Jesus Really Do? The Search for the Authentic Jesus" was published with translation and commentary by Robert W. Funk, director of the Westar Institute and The Jesus Seminar. In 2001 Philip Jenkins authored "Hidden Gospels: How the Search for Jesus Lost Its Way," in which he examines the motives and methodologies of radical biblical scholars.
(SFEM, 4/19/98, p.6)(WSJ, 4/30/01, p.A16)
30 Apr 30, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified [see 33AD]. Christ died on hill of Golgotha, Jerusalem. His path along the Via Dolorosa was later disputed as to whether he was tried by Pontius Pilate at the palace of Herod or at the Roman fortress of Antonia. His death was at an abandoned quarry, the site of today’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In 1998 Robert Funk and the Jesus Seminar published "The Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus." The group had published an earlier work "The Five Gospels," in which the sayings of Jesus were examined. In 1999 Thomas Cahill authored "Desire of the Everlasting Hills," a book about Jesus and his effect on the world. In 2010 Paul Johnson authored “Jesus: A Biography From a Believer.” Also in 2010 Philip Pullman authored “The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ,” in which he proposes that Jesus and Christ were twin brothers.
(SFC, 3/27/97, p.C2)(SFEC, 4/12/98, BR p.8)(HN, 4/30/98)(WSJ, 11/5/99, p.W12)(Econ, 4/3/10, p.85)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_Jesus)
30 When the Roman governor of Palestine was confronted by an angry Jewish crowd demanding the execution of the leader of a small, radical religious movement, like Socrates, he cross-examined him. When he asked him if he was a king, the man replied, "To this end I was born, and for this cause I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone that belongs to the truth will hear me." The governor, being a Roman, answered as any educated Roman would. For Pontius Pilate had been raised on the Greek and Roman skeptical traditions that denied that there was anything like certain truth, only probable knowledge. So, as any other Roman would have done, he asked the question, "What is truth?," but received no answer. In 2000 Ann Wroe authored the historical novel "Pontius Pilate."
(WWW, WC, 8/15/98)(SFEC, 5/21/00, Par p.19)
30 Dismas was the repentant thief crucified with Christ.
(WSJ, 11/2/98, p.B1)
c30 Lazarus lived in Cyprus as a bishop after the miracle by Christ.
(NH, 4/97, p.62)
c30 Easter [in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ] is generally observed on the Sunday following the first full moon of spring.
(PacDis, Spring/'94, p. 40)
33 Apr 3, Christ was crucified (according to astronomers Humphreys and Waddington). The date is highly debated. See April 30, 30AD.
(Econ, 4/23/11, p.64)
c62-63 James, the "brother" of Jesus, was stoned to death for teaching the divinity of Christ. He had led the church in Jerusalem for the 3 decades following the death of Jesus. In 2002 a stone ossuary, looted from a Jerusalem cave, was found with an Aramaic inscription that read "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." In 1997 Robert Eisenman authored "James, the Brother of Jesus." In 2003 Hershel Shanks and Ben Witherington III co-authored "The Brother of Jesus: The Dramatic Story & Meaning of the First Archeological Link to Jesus & His Family."
(SFC, 10/22/02, p.A12)(SSFC, 4/20/03, p.E2)
65CE Jun 8, Jews revolted against Rome, capturing the fortress of Antonia in Jerusalem.
(MC, 6/8/02)
69CE Sep 1, Traditional date for the destruction of Jerusalem. [see Aug 29 70CE]
(MC, 9/1/02)
70CE Aug 29, The Temple of Jerusalem burned after a nine-month Roman siege. The Second Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome’s 10th Legion and the Jews there were exiled. In the Jewish War the Israelites tried unsuccessfully to revolt against Roman rule. The destruction buried the shops that lined the main street. Archeologists in 1996 found numerous artifacts that included bronze coins called prutot. Carpenters from Israel’s Antiquities Authority used manuscripts of the Roman master builder Vitruvius to reconstruct contraptions used in the construction of the temple.
(SFC, 5/23/95, p.A-10)(SFC, 8/28/96, p.A10)(WSJ, 6/22/98, p.A20)(HN, 8/29/98) (SFEC, 3/28/99, p.T11)
70CE Jun 5, Titus & his Roman legions breached the middle wall of Jerusalem.
(MC, 6/5/02)
70CE Sep 27, The walls of upper city of Jerusalem were battered down by Romans.
(MC, 9/27/01)
82CE Jul 27, Joseph of Arimathea, died and was buried in tomb he once lent to Jesus.
(MC, 7/27/02)
c100CE Raban Gamliel in the first century is credited with arranging the Amidah, considered by many to be the most important prayer in the Jewish liturgy. Raban Gamliel was the most influential Rabbi in the period following the destruction of the Temple. This was a time when many different rabbis each had their own individual domains.
(www.kolshalom.com/divrei/dvarilana1.html)
129 Roman Emp. Hadrian visited Jerusalem. In 2014 archeologists discovered a large stone with Latin engravings bearing the name of Hadrian and the year of his visit.
(SFC, 10/22/14, p.A3)
309 Feb 16, Pamphilus Caesarea, Palestinian scholar, martyr, was beheaded.
(MC, 2/16/02)
326-330 The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem was built by the Roman emperor Constantine. The church was rebuilt under Justinian (527-565).
(SFC, 12/26/96, p.B2)(WSJ, 4/5/02, p.A1)
335 Byzantine Emperor Constantine built the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem on the hill of Golgotha, where his mother claimed to have found the remains of the True Cross. It was raised by the Persians in 614, reconstructed and again destroyed by Caliph Hakim of Egypt in 1009. It was rebuilt by the Crusaders.
(WSJ, 1/27/07, p.W13)
614 Christian Palestine was invaded by the Persians. The 5th century monastery of St. Theodosius east of Beit Sahour near Bethlehem was destroyed by the Persians.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, p.T3)(WSJ, 4/5/02, p.W12)
628 Apr 3, In Persia, Kavadh sued for peace with the Byzantines. He handed back Armenia, Byzantine Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine and Egypt.
(HN, 4/3/99)
632-661 The Rashidun Caliphate, also known as the Rightly Guided Caliphate, comprising the first four caliphs in Islam's history, was founded after Muhammad's death. At its height, the Caliphate extended from the Arabian Peninsula, to the Levant, Caucasus and North Africa in the west, to the Iranian highlands and Central Asia in the east. It was the one of the largest empires in history up until that time.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashidun_Caliphate)
634 Sophronius (74), Christian monk, was elected patriarch and political ruler of Jerusalem.
(ON, 7/03, p.3)
636 Summer, A Byzantine army arrived in the region of Jerusalem and was defeated by a much smaller Muslim army at the Yarmuk River. With Muslims at the gate Sophronius, head of Jerusalem, requested a meeting with Caliph Omar.
(ON, 7/03, p.5)
636 Jul 23, Arabs gained control of most of Palestine from Byzantine Empire.
(MC, 7/23/02)
638 Mar 11, Sophronius of Jerusalem, saint, patriarch of Jerusalem, died.
(MC, 3/12/02)
691 The Dome of the Rock mosque was built in Jerusalem. It contained inscriptions that later were held as the 1st evidence of the Koran.
(SFC, 3/2/02, p.A15)
749 Dec 4, John of Damascus (b.~676), a Christian Arab theologian, died at the Mar Saba monastery near Jerusalem. He is considered "the last of the Fathers" of the Eastern Orthodox church and is best known for his strong defense of icons.
(Econ, 3/30/13, p.80)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_of_Damascus)
1009 In Jerusalem the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was burned by Muslims under Caliph Hakim of Egypt.
(WSJ, 5/7/01, p.A20)(WSJ, 1/27/07, p.W13)
1033 An enormous pilgrimage to Jerusalem marked the 1000th anniversary of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
(SFC, 1/6/97, p.A3)
1065 Apr 12, Pilgrims under bishop Gunther of Bamberg reached Jerusalem.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1095 Nov 26, Pope Urban urged the faithful to wrest the Holy Land from the Muslims, heralding start of Crusades.
(AP, 11/26/02)
1099 Jun 5, Knights and their families on the First Crusade witnessed an eclipse of the moon and interpreted it as a sign from God that they would recapture Jerusalem.
(HN, 6/5/99)
1099 Jun 12, Crusade leaders visited the Mount of Olives where they met a hermit who urged them to assault Jerusalem.
(HN, 6/12/99)
1099 Jul 8, In Jerusalem 15,000 starving Christian soldiers marched around barefoot while the Muslim defenders mocked them from the battlements.
(HN, 5/23/99)
1099 Jul 13, The Crusaders launched their final assault on Muslims in Jerusalem.
(HN, 7/13/99)
1099 Jul 15, Jerusalem fell to the crusaders following a 7 week siege. A massacre of the city's Muslim and Jewish population followed with the dead numbered at about 3,000.
(V.D.-H.K.p.109)(HN, 7/15/98)(SSFC, 4/13/03, p.E3)
1099 Jul 16, Crusaders herded the Jews of Jerusalem into a synagogue and set it afire.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1099 Aug 12, At the Battle of Ascalon 1,000 Crusaders, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, routed an Egyptian relief column heading for Jerusalem. The Norman Godfrey, elected King of Jerusalem, had assumed the title Defender of the Holy Sepulcher. Disease starvation by this time reduced the Crusaders to 60,000, down from an initial 300,000, and most of the survivors left for home.
(HN, 8/12/99)(PC, 1992, p.88)
1113 Feb 13, Pope Paschal II issued a papal bull recognizing the Knights of Malta as independent from bishops or secular authorities. The order traces had establishment an infirmary in Jerusalem that cared for people of all faiths making pilgrimages to the Holy Land.
(AP, 2/5/13)
1118 Apr 2, Boudouin I of Bologne and Edessa, 1st crusader, king of Jerusalem, died.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1118 The military order of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon was founded in Jerusalem to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land following the First Crusade. The Knights Templar were founded to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land during the second Crusade.
(AHD, 1971, p.724)(AP, 10/12/07)
1144 The Saracens recaptured the crusader’s castles along the Palestine coast.
(V.D.-H.K.p.109)
1174 Jul 11, Amalric I, king of Jerusalem, died.
(ON, 6/07, p.5)
1174 Jul 15, Baldwin (13), son of Amalric I, was crowned Baldwin IV, king of Jerusalem.
(ON, 6/07, p.5)
1177 Aug 2, Philip of Flanders arrived in Acre. A Christian army under the joint command of Philip of Flanders and Raymond of Tripoli marched west to campaign against the Muslims around Tripoli.
(ON, 6/07, p.5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_of_Flanders)
1177 Nov 18, Saladin marched north from Egypt with 26,000 light cavalry intent on capturing the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
(ON, 6/07, p.5)(www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_ramleh.html)
1177 Nov 25, Baldwin of Jerusalem and his armored knights encountered the Muslim army of Saladin below the castle of Montgisard and defeated them in a surprise attack.
(ON, 6/07, p.6)
1180 The Kingdom of Jerusalem under Baldwin IV reached a truce with Egypt under Saladin.
(ON, 6/07, p.6)
1185 Mar, Baldwin IV (23), king of Jerusalem, succombed to his leprosy.
(ON, 6/07, p.6)(http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9356429/Baldwin-IV)
1187 Oct 2, Sultan Saladin captured Jerusalem from Crusaders.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_(1187))
1191 Jul 12, Richard Coeur de Lion and Crusaders defeated the Saracens at Acre.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1191 Aug 20, Crusader King Richard I (1157-1199), Coeur de Lion (the "Lionheart"), executed some 2,700-3,000 Muslim prisoners in Acre (Akko).
(MC, 8/20/02)
1229 Mar 18, German emperor Frederick II crowned himself king of Jerusalem.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1237 Mar 23, Jan of Brienne, King of Jerusalem, Emperor of Constantinople, died.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1244 Oct 17, The Sixth Crusade ended when an Egyptian-Khwarismian force almost annihilated the Frankish army at Gaza.
(HN, 10/17/98)
1265 The coastal settlement of Caesarea (Palestine) was razed to the ground.
(Econ, 4/24/04, p.83)
1267 Sep 1, Ramban (Nachmanides) arrived in Jerusalem to establish a Jewish community.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1291 May 18, Acre, the last major stronghold of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, fell to the hands of Al-Ashraf Khalil and his forces from Egypt and Syria after a siege of 43 days. It had been in the hands of the Franks for 100 years. Egyptian Mamelukes (Mamluks) occupied Akko (Acre). The crusaders were driven out of Palestine. Khalil, al-Ashraf Salah ad-Din, the Mamluk King, conquered Akko and put an end to the Crusader’s rule in the Holy Land.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Acre_%281291%29)(Arch, 7/02, p.19)
1626 Dec 1, Pasha Muhammad ibn Farukh, tyrannical governor of Jerusalem, was driven out.
(MC, 12/1/01)
1750 Acre, a former stronghold of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, was re-built by the Ottoman Turks around this time, effectively preserving the earlier town, which had been destroyed in 1291 and hidden for centuries under rubble.
(AP, 6/22/11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Acre_%281291%29)
1757 The Greek Orthodox clergy wrested control of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Ottoman rulers declared a status quo for the holy sties of the city and control of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was split primarily among the Latin, Greek and Armenian patriarchates of Jerusalem and secondarily among the churches of Egypt, Syria and Ethiopia. This arrangement was formalized in 1852.
(WSJ, 1/27/07, p.W13)
1799 Mar 6, Napoleon captured Jaffa, Palestine. [see Mar 7]
(MC, 3/6/02)
1799 Mar 7, In Palestine, Napoleon captured Jaffa and his men massacred more than 2,000 Albanian prisoners. [see Mar 26]
(HN, 3/7/99)
1799 Mar 19, Napoleon Bonaparte began the siege of Acre ( later Akko, Israel), which was defended by Turks.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1799 Mar 26, Napoleon Bonaparte captures Jaffa, Palestine. [see Mar 7]
(HN, 3/26/99)
1799 Apr 14, Napoleon called for establishing Jerusalem for Jews.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1799 May 20, Napoleon Bonaparte ordered a withdrawal from his siege of St. Jean d'Acre in Egypt. Plague had run through his besieging French forces, forcing a retreat. Napoleon, in pursuance of his scheme for raising a Syrian rebellion against Turkish domination, appeared before Acre, but after a siege of two months (March–May) was repulsed by the Turks.
(HN, 5/20/00)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acre,_Israel)
1836 Sep 1, Reconstruction began on Synagogue of Rabbi Judah Hasid in Jerusalem.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1847 George Bush, a professor of Hebrew at New York Univ., authored “The Valley of Vision,” in which he called on the US government to militarily wrench Palestine from the Turks and return it to the Jews.
(WSJ, 6/2/07, p.P8)
1856 A Turkish imperial edict lifted a ban on Christian bell-ringing in Jerusalem, whnich at this time was part of the Ottoman empire. The British were given the honor of erecting the city’s first outdoor bell since the crusades.
(Econ, 1/5/13, p.35)
1880 Palestinian nun Sister Maria Alfonsina Danil Ghattas (1843) and Father Joseph Tannous co-founded the Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary of Jerusalem. In 2009 she was beatified, an important step toward sainthood.
(www.zenit.org/article-26823?l=english)(SFC, 11/23/09, p.A2)
1880 Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine were part of Syria under Ottoman rule.
(Econ, 5/27/06, p.80)
1882 In Russia the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society was founded to support Russian pilgrimages to the Holy Land.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.84)
1888 In Jerusalem the Mary Magdalene convent was consecrated. Its decoration was overseen by Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, consort to Russia’s Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, the brother of Tsar Alexander III.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.82)
1890 In Jerusalem a small tract known as Sergei's Courtyard, named for Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, a son of Czar Alexander III, was built. It became part of the larger Russian Compound, most of which Israel purchased in 1964, when Israel paid $3.5 million in oranges because it lacked hard currency. In 2008 Israel approved handing back Sergei's Courtyard to Russia. The actual transfer took place in 2011.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Compound)(AP, 10/7/08)(AP, 3/21/11)
1896 Feb 14, Theodor Herzl published "Der Judenstaat," in which he called for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A8)(MC, 2/14/02)
1901 The Jewish National Fund was founded to buy and develop land in Palestine (later Israel) for Jewish settlement.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_National_Fund)
1909 Apr 11, Tel Aviv began as a suburb of Jaffa. While Palestine was still under Ottoman rule, sixty-six Jewish families took possession of lots in Karm al-Jabali, on the northern outskirts of the ancient port city of Jaffa near the Mediterranean coast amidst dunes, vineyards, and orchards. There they established a “garden suburb” called Ahuzat Bayit (“Homestead”), which in 2010 was renamed Tel Aviv, or Hill of Spring.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_Aviv)(http://tinyurl.com/l8ymtod)(Econ, 2/7/15, p.78)
1909 In Palestine mostly Russian socialist idealists of the Zionist movement set up an armed group, Hashomer, to protect their new farms and villages from Arab marauders.
(Econ, 1/10/09, p.9)
1915 Mar 2, Vladmir Jabotinsky formed a Jewish military force to fight in Palestine.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1916 May 19, The Sykes-Picot Agreement was a secret understanding between the governments of Britain and France defining their respective spheres of post-World War I influence and control in the Middle East. The boundaries of this agreement still remains in much of the common border between Syria and Iraq. Britain and France carved up the Levant into an assortment of monarchies, mandates and emirates. The agreement enshrined Anglo-French imperialist ambitions at the end of WW II. Syria and Lebanon were put into the French orbit, while Britain claimed Jordan, Iraq, the Gulf states and the Palestinian Mandate. Sir Mark Sykes (d.1919 at age 39) and Francois Picot made the deal.
(WSJ, 2/27/00, p.A17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes-Picot_Agreement)
1917 Nov 2, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, in what became known as the Balfour Declaration, expressed support for a "national home" for the Jews of Palestine. It encouraged Jewish immigration to Israel in the decade after WW I.
(SFC, 10/18/96, C8)(AP, 11/2/97)
1917 Dec 9, British forces under General Allenby captured Jerusalem. He liberated the city from Turkish control.
(WSJ, 4/4/96, A-12)(SFC, 10/18/96, C8)(MC, 12/9/01)
1918 Sep 22, General Allenby led the British army against the Turks, taking Haifa and Nazareth, Palestine.
(HN, 9/22/98)
1919 This year marked the birth of Palestinian - Arab nationalism. The events are documented in the 1996 book "Jerusalem in the 20th Century" by Martin Gilbert.
(WSJ, 10/14/96, p.A14)
1920 Apr 4, Arabs attacked Jews in Jerusalem.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1920 Apr 20, Balfour Declaration was recognized following a conference in San Remo, Italy. It was agreed that a mandate to Britain should be formally given by the League of Nations over an area, which in 2010 comprised Israel, Jordan and the Golan Heights, to be called the "Mandate of Palestine". The Balfour Declaration was to apply to the whole of the mandated territory. The doctrine was named after British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour, who had first articulated it as a policy on 2 November 1917.
(www.ijs.org.au/The-Balfour-Declaration/default.aspx)
1920 Apr 24, British Mandate over Palestine went into effect and lasted for 28 years. The British organized a police force with some 3,000 British, Arab and Jewish officers.
(MC, 4/24/02)(WSJ, 2/2/04, p.A12)
1920 Aug 14, Nehemiah Persoff, actor (Al Capone, Yentl), was born in Jerusalem, Palestine.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1921 Mar 12, The Cairo Conference, called by Winston Churchill, convened to establish a unified British policy in the Middle East. Britain and France carved up Arabia and created Jordan under Emir Abdullah; his brother Faisal became King of Iraq. France was given influence over Syria and Jewish immigration was allowed into Palestine. Faisal I died one year after independence and his son, Ghazi I succeeded him. Colonial Sec. Winston Churchill wanted to keep an air corridor to Iraq, where the Royal Air Force was dropping poison gas on rebellious Arab tribes.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Conference_%281921%29)(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.D3)(Econ, 7/13/13, SR p.5)
1921 Jun 19, Turks and Christians of Palestine signed a friendship treaty against Jews.
(MC, 6/19/02)
1921 The British contrived the election of Haj Amin al-Husseini (1895-1974) as the Mufti of Jerusalem. In 2008 David G. Dalin and John F. Rothman authored “Icon of Evil: Hitler’s Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam.”
(WSJ, 6/26/08, p.A13)
1922 Sep 11, The British mandate of Palestine began.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1922 Sep 21, Pres Warren G. Harding signed a joint resolution of approval to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1922 The West Bank became an unallocated portion of the Palestine Mandate. The eastern area became known as Transjordan.
(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A19)(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A8)
1922-1948 Palestine and the West Bank comprised about 1/5th of the area under British rule at his time.
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.B12)
1928 Ariel Sharon (d.2014), Israeli defense minister 1981-1984, was born as Ariel Scheinermann in Kfar Mallal, a part of British-ruled Palestine.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)(Econ, 1/18/14, p.90)
1929 Aug 24, Yasser Arafat (d.2004), leader of the Palestinian Liberation Movement (Nobel 1994), was born in Cairo according to his Cairo birth certificate. He was the 5th child of Palestinian merchant Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini. In 1998 Said K. Aburish published his biography "Arafat: From Defender to Dictator."
(SFC, 11/11/04, p.A18)(www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Yasser-Arafat)
1929 Aug 24, In the Hebron massacre 65–68 Jews are killed by Arabs and the remaining Jews are forced to leave Hebron.
(www.zionism-israel.com/Hebron_Massacre1929.htm)
1929 There were 67 Jews massacred in Hebron and the survivors were forced to flee. Arab riots in Hebron killed dozens of Jews with guns and axes and destroyed the ancient Jewish quarter.
(SFC, 1/10/96, p.A14)(SFC, 1/25/02, p.AA11)
1930s Forces of Haj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem, killed hundreds of Jews and attempted to get rid of Arabs who tolerated Jewish presence.
(WSJ, 8/14/01, p.A14)
1933 Jul 21, Haifa Harbor in Palestine opened.
(MC, 7/21/02)
1934 Feb 10, A Jewish immigrant ship 1st broke the English blockade in Palestine.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1935 Edward W. Said was born in Jerusalem and grew up in Cairo. Mr. Said later became a spokesman for the Palestinian cause and Prof. of Literature at Columbia Univ. He authored "Orientalism," which held that the Western study of Islam is itself a form of colonialism.
(WSJ, 8/26/99, p.A18)
1936 Apr 15, A number of cars on the road between Tulkarm and Nablus were held up by Arab highwaymen. After the armed robbers had removed valuables from the occupants of the cars, three Jews were forced to sit together in a truck where they were shot by the bandits in cold blood. One was killed outright and another died later from his injuries.
(http://tinyurl.com/j93pg)
1936 Apr 19, Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Jaffa, Palestine.
(www.palestinefacts.org/pf_mandate_riots_1936-39.php)(http://tinyurl.com/j93pg)
1936 Apr 20, Serious rioting took place on the borders between Jaffa and Tel-Aviv, in particular in the Catton, Manshieh and Saknat Abu Kebir quarters..
(http://tinyurl.com/j93pg)
1936 Oct 10, The Arab Higher Committee issued a manifesto to end riots in Palestine.
(http://tinyurl.com/j93pg)
1936 Nov 11, A British Royal Commission arrived in Palestine to investigate the underlying cause of the anti-Jewish riots. The Arab Higher Committee called a boycott of the commission’s inquiry.
(http://tinyurl.com/j93pg)
1936 The Arab Revolt of 1936 was a culmination of actions by Haj Amin al-Husseini (1895-1974), the Mufti of Jerusalem, who recruited and commanded a national movement of violence aimed at forbidding all compromise with Jews.
(WSJ, 6/26/08, p.A13)
1936 British forces destroyed the kasbah of Jaffa in Operation Anchor, a security measure to improve their strategic control of the settlement. Some 100 residents of Tel Aviv were killed and over 1,000 injured from gunfire emanating from Jaffa.
(Econ., 2/21/15, p.18)
1936 British authorities banned homosexual acts in Palestine.
(AP, 6/12/15)
1937 Sep 8, The Pan Arab conference about Palestine opened.
(MC, 9/8/01)
1937 Oct, Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, was exiled from Palestine. He sought fled to Iraq and in 1941 sought refuge in Iran.
(www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/si/dec02/middleEast.asp)
1937 Dec 23, London warned Rome to stop the anti-British propaganda in Palestine.
(HN, 12/23/98)
1939 May 23, British parliament planned to make Palestine independent by 1949.
(MC, 5/23/02)
1941 Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet, was born in a village that later became part of Israel. His later work included the poem "State of Siege." In 2003 "Unfortunately It Was Paradise," a translation of his work into English, was published
(SSFC, 11/3/02, p.D6)
1942 Feb 12, In Palestine British police killed Avraham Stern (34), founder of the breakaway militant Zionist group named Lehi. British forces had begun shooting members of “Fighters for the Freedom of Israel” (Lehi) after the group had ambushed British soldiers and solicited fascist and Nazi support for their campaign.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avraham_Stern)(Econ, 5/3/14, p.75)
1942 American rabbi Judah Magnes (d.1948) helped found a political party in Palestine called Ihud (Unity). He argued for a single binational state to be shared by Arabs and Jews.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.25)
1945 Hamas began life as a branch of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, which advocated the creation of states based ion Muslim law across the Middle East. [see Palestine 1987]
(Econ, 11/12/05, p.48)(www.upi.com/inc/view.php?StoryID=18062002-051845-8272r)
1946 Aug 13, Britain transferred illegal immigrants bound for Palestine to Cyprus.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1945 Aug 25, Jewish immigrants were permitted to leave Mauritius for Palestine.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)
1947 Jan 12, In Haifa, Palestine, the Stern Gang drove a truckload of explosives into a British police station. 4 people were killed and 140 injured.
(SSFC, 4/16/06, p.E4)
1947 Feb 7, Arabs and Jews rejected a British proposal to split Palestine.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1947 Jul 18, British seized the "Exodus 1947" ship of Jewish immigrants to Palestine. The British Royal Navy intercepted the ship President Warfield, which had been renamed Exodus by its passengers, forcing the 4,000 Jewish would-be immigrants aboard back to Displaced Person camps in Germany. Britain was still the ruling power in Palestine, which was being wracked by conflict resulting from Jewish national aspirations. The return of the Jewish immigrants, many of them survivors of Nazi persecution, heightened anti-British sentiment among Jews in Palestine and elsewhere. Yossi Harel, commander of the Exodus, died in 2008 at age 90.
(MC, 7/18/02)(HNQ, 12/4/98)(AP, 4/26/08)
1947 Nov 29, The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the partitioning of Palestine [Jerusalem] between Arabs and Jews. It was to be the heart of an Arab Palestinian state.
(SFC, 10/18/96, C8)(AP, 11/29/97)(SFC, 1/22/98, p.B12)
1947 Dec 29, Ship carrying Jewish immigrants were forced back from Palestine.
(MC, 12/29/01)
1947 Haj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem, returned from war-time exile during which he’d advised Hitler on a final solution for Palestine’s Jews.
(WSJ, 8/14/01, p.A14)
1948 Feb 1, The Palestine Post building in Jerusalem was bombed.
(MC, 2/1/02)
1948 Feb 22, An Arab bomb attack in Jerusalem killed 50 people.
(MC, 2/22/02)
1948 Mar 11, Jewish Agency of Jerusalem was bombed.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1948 Apr 9, In Deir Yassin about one-third of 750 Palestinians were killed by Jewish fighters of the National Military Organization, an underground group better known as the Irgun, and a splinter group called Lehi. The event is called Al-Nakbah (catastrophe) by the Palestinians. 30 similar massacres happened on other Palestinian villages. The death toll was said to be inflated by Jewish forces to invoke fear and cause maximum flight.
(SFC, 3/18/98, p.A10)(SFC, 4/25/98, p.A1,11)
1948 Mar 10, Political and military men gathered at the Tel Aviv headquarters of the Haganah and put the final touches to Plan Dalet. In 2006 Prof. Ilan Pappe of the Univ. of Haifa authored “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.” He held that Plan Dalet was a plan for the ethnic cleansing of some 800,000 Palestinians in order to allow the formation of the Jewish state.
(Econ, 11/4/06, p.92)
1948 Mar 24, Israel Galili, chief of the Haganah, sent orders reminding commanders of the policy to protect the “full rights, needs, and freedoms of the Arabs in the Hebrew state without discrimination.”
(Econ, 11/4/06, p.93)
1948 May 11, Haganah took control of Safed and port of Haifa.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1948 May 15, A 28 year old British Mandate over Palestine ended.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1948 May 15, Hours after declaring its independence, the new state of Israel was attacked by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.
(AP, 5/15/97)
1948 May 24, Ariel Sharon, then called Arik Scheinerman, was wounded at the battle of Latrun while securing Jerusalem for Jews in the 1st Arab-Israeli War.
(WSJ, 10/13/00, p.A15)(Econ, 12/16/06, p.85)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latrun)
1948 May 27, Arabs blew up the Jewish synagogue Hurvat Rabbi Yehudah he-Hasid.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1948 Aug 23, Count Bernadotte asked for aid for fugitives to Palestine. [see Sep 17]
(MC, 8/23/02)
1948 Sep 17, Count Folke Bernadotte (b.1895) of Sweden, the UN mediator for Palestine, was assassinated in Jerusalem by members of the extreme Zionist Stern Group. Yehoshua Zettler (d.2009 at 91), one of the founding members of the group, masterminded the assassination.
(AP, 9/17/98)(www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/Bernadotte.html)(AP, 5/25/09)
1948 Sep 18, Ralph J. Bunche was confirmed as acting UN mediator in Palestine.
(MC, 9/18/01)
1948 Oct 21, Beersheba was liberated by the Israeli army.
(MC, 10/21/01)
1948 Dec 8, Jordan annexed Arabic Palestine. The old city of East Jerusalem came under Jordanian control until 1968. Transjordan was given to a client Arab family, the Hashenites (led by King Hussein’s grandfather), and was run out of Mecca by the Saudis. The country now has an ethnic Palestinian majority. Elections chose a body evenly divided between Jordan and the Palestinian territories.
(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A19)(WSJ, 4/9/97, p.A14)(AP, 1/23/13)
1948 Dec 11, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 was passed near the end of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The resolution expresses appreciation for the efforts of UN Envoy Folke Bernadotte after his assassination by members of the Stern Gang. It was later often quoted in support of the Palestinian right of return.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_General_Assembly_Resolution_194)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.68)
1948 In the months preceding the war between Israel and the Arab states some 10,000 Arab homes in West Jerusalem were looted and seized.
(SSFC, 5/18/03, p.D6)
1948-1949 Jordan seized the West Bank and Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A19)(SFC, 1/22/98, p.B12)
1949 Dec 9, UN took trusteeship over Jerusalem.
(HN, 12/9/98)
1949 Dec, The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was established to serve Palestinian Arabs.
(SSFC, 5/19/02, p.A10)
1949 Yasser Arafat formed a Palestinian Students’ League.
(SFC, 11/11/04, p.A18)
1949 Yizhar Smilanksy, under the pen-name S. Yizhar, authored “Khirbet Khizeh,” a novella based on his experience in clearing a Palestinian village on the Israeli side of the 1949 ceasefire line.
(Econ, 4/12/08, p.93)
1950 Apr 24, Jordan annexed the West Bank and offered citizenship to all Palestinians wishing to claim it.
(SFC, 2/8/99, p.A6)
1951 Jul 20, Jordan's King Abdullah Ibn Hussein was assassinated in Jerusalem by a Palestinian extremist. Prince Hussein (15) witnessed the murder. Talal became king with the assassination of his father, Abdullah ibn-Hussein, who ruled when Jordan was a British mandate.
(AP, 7/20/97)(HN, 7/20/98)(SFC, 2/6/99, p.A13)(MC, 7/20/02)
1953 Yasser Arafat (d.2004), as a student in Egypt, authored “Don’t Forget Palestine.”
(Econ, 11/13/04, p.95)
1953 Hizb ut-Tahir was founded in Jerusalem by Taqiuddin al-Nabhani, an Islamic scholar and appeals court judge from the Palestinian village of Ijzim. It seeks the return of the caliphate, based on Islamic sharia law, by political means. By 2012 it had members and sympathizers in more than 50 countries.
(AP, 3/10/12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hizb_ut-Tahrir)
1953 The Jenin refugee camp was established.
(SFC, 4/15/02, p.A12)
1955 Mar 1, An Israeli retaliation in Gaza is reported as having killed 37 Egyptians and wounded 29 others. Palestinians stone the United Nations Gaza office.
(www.fsmitha.com/time/1955.htm)
1956 Jul 25, Jordanians attacked the UN Palestine truce.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1956 Aug, Yasser Arafat attended an int’l. student congress in Prague and secured membership for Palestine.
(WSJ, 11/12/04, p.A11)
1956 Oct 29, During the Suez Canal crisis, Israel launched an invasion of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. Paratroopers under Ariel Sharon dropped into Sinai to open the Straits of Tiran. The Sinai Campaign, also known as Operation Kadesh, lasted eight days to November 5, 1956.
(AP, 10/29/97)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.24)(www.jafi.org.il/education/100/Concepts/d3.html)
1956 Oct 29, At Kafr Kassem village 49 Palestinians were massacred by Israeli border guards enforcing a curfew.
(SFC, 3/28/00, p.A10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kafr_Qasim_massacre)
1956 Nov 2, Gaza was occupied by the Israeli army and evacuated in March 1957.
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0007_0_07101.html)
1957 In Syria the Yarmouk Palestinian camp was created. It became the larges of 9 and evolved into a densely populated residential district just five miles (eight km) from the center of Damascus.
(AP, 1/8/13)
1959 A group of Palestinians met in Kuwait and formed Fatah. Yasser Arafat became the group’s leader.
(SFC, 11/11/04, p.A18)
1962 Mar 9, Egyptian Pres. Nasser declared Gaza belongs to Palestinians.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1964 Jan 1, Fatah, the guerrilla group founded by Yasser Arafat, made its 1st armed attack against Israel. The annual celebration of this day came to be known as Fatah Day.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A8)
1964 Jan 17, The PLO charter was put together with articles that proclaimed Israel an illegal state and pledged "the elimination of Zionism in Palestine." The PLO was founded in Egypt. Fatah became the core group of the PLO.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.A18)(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A8)(SFC, 11/11/04, p.18)
1964 May 28, Palestine National Congress formed the PLO in Jerusalem.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1964 Sep 10, Palestinian Liberation Army (PLA) formed.
(MC, 9/10/01)
1964 Dec 31, Syrian-based al-Fatah guerrillas of Yasser Arafat launched their 1st raid on Israel with the aim of provoking a retaliation and sparking an Arab war against Israel. Fatah, a Palestinian movement for independence, made the first terror attack on Israel and initiated the armed struggle for a state.
(WSJ, 1/22/98, p.A1)(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.A24)(WSJ, 6/5/02, p.D7)
1964-1987 The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine was an active fighting force under Nayef Hawatmeh In Syria and Lebanon and lost some 5,000 men over this period. It then became a social and political body in opposition to Arafat's Fatwah faction.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.A22)
1965 Yasser Arafat formed his Fatwah movement for the Liberation of Palestine.
(SFC, 9/8/03, p.A8)
1966 Nov 10, A land mine near Hebron killed 3 Israeli policemen. Israel retaliated with a weekend strike against West Bank villagers and ran into Jordanian troops in Samu. Palestinians rioted and demanded the overthrow of Jordan’s Pres. Hussein. The Arab legion was forced to fire and killed at least 4.
(WSJ, 6/5/02, p.D7)
1967 Jun 5, The Six Day War erupted in the Middle East as Israel, convinced an Arab attack was imminent, raided Egyptian military targets. Syria, Jordan and Iraq entered the conflict. Jordan lost the West Bank, an area of 2,270 sq. miles. War broke out as Israel reacted to the removal of UN peace-keeping troops, Arab troop movements and the barring of Israeli ships in the Gulf of Aqaba.
(AP, 6/5/97)(HN, 6/5/98)(NG, 5/93, p.58)(HNQ, 5/22/00)
1967 Jun 5-1967 Jun 10, Israel fought the Six-Day War against Syria and captured the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Allegations that Israeli soldiers killed hundreds of Egyptian prisoners with the knowledge of national leaders were made by Israeli historians in 1995. Israel occupied Syrian territory. The Gaza Strip and the West Bank were captured by Israel. Israel annexed the largely Arab East Jerusalem, which included the Old City, and has since ringed it with Jewish neighborhoods.
(WSJ, 8/17/95, p.A-1)(WSJ,11/24/95, p.A-1)(WSJ, 5/6/96, p.A-13)(SFC, 6/25/96, p.A10)(SFC, 1/22/98, p.B12)(SFC, 4/24/98, p.A17)
1967 Jun 6, Israeli troops occupied Gaza on the 2nd day of the 6-day war.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War)
1967 Jun 7, Israel captured the Wailing Wall in East Jerusalem. 3rd day of the 6-day war.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War)
1967 Jun 8, On the 4th day of the Six-Day War Israel captured the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, as well as the West Bank and Eastern Jerusalem from Jordan. Israel’s occupation of Gaza continued for the next 38 years.
(SSFC, 6/3/07, p.E6)(Econ, 1/10/09, p.9)
1967 Jun 10, Israel completed its final offensive in the Golan Heights in the 6-Day Middle East War. The next day Israel and Syria agreed to observe a United Nations-mediated cease-fire. Israel took Gaza and the Sinai from Egypt, Old Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. In 2002 Michael B. Oren authored "Six Days of War: June 1967 and the making of the Modern Middle East." Israeli military historian Arieh Yitzhaki later said that his research showed Israeli troops killed 300 Egyptian prisoners of war. Israel said soldiers on both sides committed atrocities. In 2007 Tom Segev authored “1967: Israel, the War and the Year that Transformed the Middle East.”
(AP, 6/10/97)(WSJ, 6/5/02, p.D7)(AP, 3/6/07)(Econ, 5/26/07, p.97)
1967 Jun 11, Israel and Syria accepted a UN cease-fire. The UN brokered a cease-fire between Israel and the defeated Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, ending the Six-Day War with Israel occupying the Sinai, West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. Israel annexed the largely Arab East Jerusalem, which included the Old City, and has since ringed it with Jewish neighborhoods.
(HN, 6/11/98)(AP, 6/11/03)(SFC, 6/25/96, p.A10)
1967 Soviet Gen. Sakharovsky became chief intelligence adviser in Romania. He helped bring Yasser Arafat to the Soviet Union via Romania for training and indoctrination. The soviets maneuvered to have Arafat named chairman of the PLO with help from Egypt’s ruler, Gamal Abdel Nasser.
(WSJ, 1/10/02, p.A12)
1968 Mar 21, Israeli forces attacked a Palestinian base belonging to Fatah in the village of Al-Karameh in Jordan. Israeli forces engage in a battle with Palestinian fighters for the first time. On 24 March 1968, the Security Council adopted resolution 248 (1968), condemning the large scale and premeditated military actions by Israel against Jordan. The Karameh mission failed. Muki Betser, Israeli commando, was wounded. He later became commander of the Sayeret Matkal, Israel’s elite counter-terrorist unit.
(SFC, 7/16/96, p.E5)(www.un.int/palestine/chron60.shtml)
1968 Apr, Jews moved into Hebron following its occupation in the wake of the 1967 6-Day War. They later settled in the new suburb of Kiryat Arba. Rabbi Moshe Levinger (1935-2015) left Jerusalem on Passover eve along with several dozen followers and checked into the Park Hotel posing as Swiss tourists. The next day, Levinger declared their true identity and announced their intention to re-establish Hebron's Jewish community.
(SFC, 12/4/08, p.A27)(AP, 5/17/15)
1968 Dec 26, A Palestinian terrorist attack in Athens on an Israeli civilian airliner killed one person. Mahmoud Mohammad (25) and Maher Suleiman (19) were later captured by Greek officials, In 1970, a Greek court convicted Mahmoud Mohammad for his role in the attack. In 1987 Mahmoud Mohammed Issa Mohammed entered Canada, where he was ordered to be deported in 1988. In 2007 he was still in Canada after some 30 appeals and reviews.
(http://tinyurl.com/35olct)(Econ, 9/15/07, p.48)(www.skyjack.co.il/chronology.htm)
1968 The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP-GC) was founded by Dr. George Habash, founder of the pan-Arab nationalist movement.
(SFC, 12/13/96, p.B4)
1968 Jews moved into Hebron following its occupation in the wake of the 1967 6-Day War. They later settled in the new suburb of Kiryat Arba.
(SFC, 12/4/08, p.A27)
1969 Feb 4, Al-Fatah-leader Yasser Arafat officially took over as chairman of PLO.
(SFC, 11/11/04, p.A18)
1969 Feb 18, The PLO (PFLP-GC) machine-gunned an Israeli El-Al plane in Zurich, Switzerland. One Palestinian was killed and 4 were arrested.
(SFC, 5/21/02, p.A16)(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/incidents.html)
1969 Apr 23, The Lebanese army battled with rioting Palestinians.
(http://tinyurl.com/5m9aj6)
1969 Nov 3, The Arab League brokered a deal in Cairo that gave the PLO in Lebanon refugee camps freedom of government interference. They reached an agreement that effectively endorsed PLO freedom of action in Lebanon to recruit, arm, train, and employ fighters against Israel. The Lebanese Army protected their bases and supply lines.
(www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1967to1991_lebanon_cairo_1969.php)(Econ, 6/2/07, p.46)
1970 Feb 21, The PFLP-GC, a Palestinian terrorist group, planted a parcel bomb on Swissair Flight 330 that blew up on a flight from Zurich to Tel Aviv. All 47 aboard were killed.
(SFC, 5/21/02, p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissair_Flight_330)(Econ, 11/6/10, p.74)
1970 Jun 11, Palestinian guerrillas and King Hussein's army signed a truce in Jordan after week of heavy clashes.
(AP, 6/11/03)
1970 Aug, Israel, Jordan and Egypt agreed to a ceasefire under the terms of the US proposed Roger Plan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Attrition)
1970 Sep 6, Palestinian guerrillas of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP-GC) seized control of three jetliners which were later blown up on the ground in Jordan after the passengers and crews were evacuated. This triggered a civil war in and the expulsion of Palestinians from Jordan.
(SFC, 12/13/96, p.B4)(AP, 9/6/97)
1970 Sep 15, The Jordanian army attacked Palestinian positions. Within days PLO officials and commandos were expelled from Jordan and forced to move to Lebanon.
(www.nmhschool.org/tthornton/mehistorydatabase/arabisraeliwars.php)(SFC, 2/8/99, p.A6)
1970 Sep 16, The Black September conflict began when King Hussein of Jordan declared military rule in response to a fedayeen coup d’état to seize his kingdom. This resulted in the deaths or expulsion of thousands of Palestinians from Jordan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_September_Organization)
1970 Sep 27, A cease-fire accord was signed in Cairo between the Jordanian army and Palestinian guerrillas by King Hussein and Yasser Arafat brokered by the Arab peace committee headed by Bahi Ladgham of Tunisia.
(SFC, 4/16/98, p.B4)(http://tinyurl.com/6e3v9s)
1970 The PFLP-GC planted a time bomb on a Swissair jet that blew up on a flight from Zurich to Tel Aviv. All 47 aboard were killed.
(SFC, 5/21/02, p.A16)
1971 Jul 13-1971 Jul 19, Jordanian troops proceeded to wipe out Palestinian guerrillas; some 1,500 prisoners were brought to Amman; Iraq and Syria soon broke off relations with Jordan.
(www.onwar.com/aced/data/bravo/blacksept1970.htm)(WUD, 1994, p. 1688)
1971 Jul 23, Walid Ahmad Nimer al-Naser (b.1934), aka, Abu Ali Iyad, a senior Palestinian field commander based in Syria and Jordan, was reported killed by the Jordanian army. The PLO claimed he was captured and tortured to death by Jordanian forces days earlier. A splinter group seeking revenge soon developed within Fatah and came to be known as the Black September Organization.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ali_Iyad)
1971 Fatah, the armed faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization, arrived in Lebanon following its ouster from Jordan after losing the battles of "Black September".
(SFC, 9/28/98, p.A10)(Econ, 1/24/15, p.42)
1972 May 8, A Belgian Sabena aircraft, bound for Tel Aviv, was hijacked by 4 Palestinians. At Lod Intl. 2 hijackers were shot and killed by Israeli military personnel, dressed as ground engineers. One passenger died 8 days later as a result of her wounds. The two women hijackers were subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment.
(www.prophetofdoom.net/Islamic_Terrorism_Timeline_1972.Islam)
1972 Sep 5, Terror struck the Munich Olympic games in West Germany as Arab guerrillas attacked the Israeli delegation. Palestinian terrorists killed 2 athletes and took 9 others and their coaches hostage. Eleven Israelis, five guerrillas and a police officer were killed in a 20-hour siege. The Palestinian commandos were linked to Carlos the Jackal, aka Ilich Ramirez Sanchez. In 1984 George Jonas authored “Vengeance,” an account of an Israeli hit squad ordered to track down those responsible for the Munich attack. In 2000 the TV documentary "One Day in September" depicted the events. In 2005 Aaron J. Klein authored “Striking Back,” and account of Israel’s response to the Munich attack. The 2005 the Stephen Spielberg film “Munich” was based on the book by George Jonas.
(SFC,12/11/97, p.C2)(WSJ, 9/8/00, p.W4)(WSJ, 12/21/05, p.D10)(WSJ, 1/14/06, p.A9)
1972 Sep 19, A Black September letter bomb killed Ami Shehori (Shachori), Israeli attache at the embassy in London.
(www.nytimes.com/2004/10/08/international/middleeast/08chrono.html)
1972 Oct 29, Hijackers of a German Lufthansa passenger jet demanded the release of the three surviving terrorists, who had been arrested after the Fürstenfeldbruck gunfight and were being held for trial. They forced West Germany to release 3 terrorists who were involved in the Munich Massacre.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_massacre)
1972 Abu Daoud at a cafe in Rome with fellow PLO guerrilla leader Abu Iyad and his assistant, Mohammed al-Omari, read in a newspaper that the International Olympics Committee had refused the PLO's request to send a Palestinian delegation to the Munich Olympics. They decided to “participate in their own way.” Daoud was given the task of doing the operation's groundwork. Daoud first acknowledged having a role in the 1972 Munich operation in the 1999 book: "Palestine: From Jerusalem to Munich."
(AP, 2/24/06)
1973 Jan 12, Yasser Arafat was re-elected as head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
(HN, 1/12/99)
1973 Mar 2, Arab commandos, "Black September" terrorists, led by Abu Jihad executed 3 hostages: US ambassador Cleo A. Noel (54), deputy George Curtis Moore (47) and Belgian charge d’affaires Guy Eid (38), in Khartoum, Sudan. Pres. Nixon refused their demands. The operation was later reported to have been organized by Yasser Arafat.
(WSJ, 1/10/02, p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khartoum_diplomatic_assassinations)
1973 Nov 25, Three Palestinians hijacked a KLM B747 enroute to New Delhi to Abu Dhabi.
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/incidents.html)
1973 Nov 28, Arab League summit in Algiers recognized Palestine.
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/arabsum73.html)
1973 Dec 21, Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, US and USSR leaders met in Geneva. The Geneva Conference of 1973 was an attempt to negotiate a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict as called for in UN Security Council Resolution 338 which was passed after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Conference_(1973))
1973 Sheikh Ahmed Yassin (1937-2004), Palestinian co-founder of Hamas, founded Al-Mujamma Al-Islami (the Islamic Association), an Islamic charity group.
(SFC, 4/25/02, p.A1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Yassin)
1974 May 15, PFLP terrorists took a school in Maalot, Israel. 26 people were killed including 21 children after an unsuccessful rescue attempt.
(www.mfa.gov.il/mfa)(WSJ, 9/14/04, p.A20)
1974 Oct 30, An Arab summit in Rabat, Jordon, decided that King Hussein would no longer speak for the Palestinians and named the PLO under Yasir Arafat as the sole, legitimate representative.
(SFC, 2/6/99, p.A13)(www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1967to1991_rabat_1974.php)
1974 Nov 13, Yasser Arafat addressed the UN General Assembly on behalf of Palestine.
(SFC, 11/11/04, p.A18)
1974 Nov 22, UN General Assembly recognized Palestine's right to sovereignty and national independence.
(SFC, 2/8/99, p.A6)(http://tinyurl.com/52x3eg)
1974 The Palestinian Democratic Front took over an Israeli school in Maalot and 20 schoolchildren were killed.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.A22)
1974 Abu Nidal split from the PLO and was sentenced to death in absentia.
(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A6)(SFC, 1/27/99, p.A7)
1975 Apr 13, In Lebanon the right-wing Christian Falange (Phalange) opened fire on a bus packed with Palestinians in a low-income neighborhood after a drive-by attack earlier in the day on a nearby church. The attacks killed 27 Palestinians and three Lebanese Christians. The ambush sparked a civil war that lasted to 1990. The attack was made to avenge an attempted assassination on Bashir Gemayel.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, p.T5)(AP, 4/12/05)(Econ, 11/25/06, p.46)
1975 Nov 10, The UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 3237 that conferred on the PLO the status of observer in the Assembly and in other international conferences held under UN auspices.
(www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1967to1991_plo_un_1975.php)
1976 Jan 22, A PLO bank robbery in Beirut netted a world record $20-50 million.
(www.lebaneseforces.com/blastfromthepast001.asp)
1976 Mar 30, Israel killed 6 Palestinians protesting land confiscation. This event became remembered annually by Palestinians as Land Day.
(www.balad.org/index.php?id=138)(AFP, 3/30/12)
1976 Jul 4, Jonathan Netanyahu, brother of Benjamin, led and was killed in an Israeli raid called Operation Thunderball that rescued the [105] hostages held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. The raid was by Sayeret Matkal, Israel’s elite counter-terrorist unit led by Muki Betser, and it freed all but 3 of the 104 Israeli and Jewish hostages and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by pro-Palestinian hijackers. A total of 45 Ugandan soldiers were killed during the raid. The events are described by Muki Betser and Robert Rosenberg in "Secret Soldier, The True Life of Israel’s Greatest Commando." The hijacking was linked to Carlos the Jackal, aka Ilich Ramirez Sanchez.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Entebbe)(AP, 7/4/97)(SFC,12/11/97, p.C2)
1976 Aug 12, Syrian backed Christian militias completed their siege of the Tell al-Za'tar Palestinian camp in Lebanon leaving some 2000 people killed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_al-Zaatar_massacre)
1977 Jan 11, France set off an international uproar by releasing Abu Daoud, a Palestinian suspected of involvement in the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. In 1999 Mohammed Oudeh, aka Abu Daoud, published an autobiography in France in which he admitted to playing a mastermind role in the 1972 Munich hostage episode.
(AP, 1/11/98)(SFC, 6/14/99, p.A14)
1977 Jan 12, Anti-French demonstrations took place in Israel after Paris released Abu Daoud, responsible for the 1972 Munich massacre of Israeli athletes.
(www.cnn.com/almanac/9801/12/)
1977 Mar 16, US president Carter pleaded for a Palestinian homeland.
(http://tinyurl.com/39b9fc)
1977 Oct 17, West German commandos stormed a hijacked Lufthansa jetliner that was on the ground in Mogadishu, Somalia, freeing all 86 hostages and killing three of the four hijackers, Palestinians of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. In 1996 Suhaila al-Sayeh was sentenced to 12 years in prison by a German court.
(SFC, 11/20/96, p.A17)(AP, 10/17/97)
1978 Jan 4, Said Hammami, the PLO representative in London, was assassinated. It was initially believed to be the work of Abu Nidal but was later reported to have been organized by Yasser Arafat.
(WSJ, 1/10/02, p.A12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_attacks_attributed_to_Abu_Nidal)
1978 Mar 11, Palestinian Arab terrorists led by Dalal Mughrabi killed 37 people in an attack along the Tel Aviv coastal highway. The terrorists were identified as belonging to Fatah; 9 were killed and two captured.
(AP, 3/11/98)(www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1967to1991_terrorism_1970s.php)
1978 Mar 14, An Israeli force of 22,000 invaded south Lebanon, hitting the PLO bases.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_South_Lebanon_conflict)
1978 Mar 23, UNIFIL forces arrived in Lebanon setting up headquarters in Naqoura. In response to Israel’s invasion, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 425 and Resolution 426 calling for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon. The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was created to enforce this mandate, and restore peace and sovereignty to Lebanon.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_South_Lebanon_conflict)
1978 Mar, Wadia Haddad, a Palestinian wanted for airplane hijackings, died in Iraq showing only symptoms of leukemia but no signs of poisoning. In 2006 Aaron Klein authored "Striking Back," which for the first time gave details of the killing. Klein said Mossad agents had fed Haddad poisoned Belgian chocolate over six months.
(AP, 5/7/06)
1978 Oct 2, Syrian and Palestinians shooting in East Beirut killed 1,300.
(MC, 10/2/01)
1978 David Grossman created his doccumentary “The Yellow Wind.” It engaged with the lives of Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank under Israeli occupation.
(Econ, 9/18/10, p.103)
1979 Jan 22, Abu Hassan (Ali Hassan Salameh), the alleged planner of the 1972 Munich raid, was killed by a bomb in Beirut. He was the chief of operations for the Black September militant Palestinian group.
(HN, 1/22/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Hassan_Salameh)
1979 Jul 13, A 45-hour siege began at the Egyptian Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, as four Palestinian guerrillas killed two security men and seized 20 hostages.
(AP, 7/13/97)
1978 Israelis tranformed a campsite named Ariel into the first Jewish city in the occupied West Bank.
(Econ, 10/23/10, p.60)
1979-1980 The Islamic Jihad was founded in Egypt by Palestinian students from the Gaza Strip. Nafez Azzam was one of the founders. Control was later moved to Iran with training and funding from Iran, Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Leaders included Ramadan Shalah and Abdullah Shami.
(www.mideastweb.org/Middle-East-Encyclopedia/egyptian_islamic_jihad.htm)(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A12)
1980 Aug 20, UN Security Council condemned (14-0, US abstains) Israeli declaration that all of Jerusalem is it's capital.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_478)
1980 The Iran-inspired Islamic Jihad was formed and became the first Palestinian Islamist organization to take up arms against Israel.
(AFP, 5/21/12)
1981 In Iran Ayatollah Khomeini declared the celebration of “Al-Quds Day,” the Arabic name for Jerusalem Day, to be held on the last day of Ramadan as an annual denunciation of Israeli control of the holy city.
(WSJ,2/13/97, p.A18)(www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15343184/)
1982 Apr 11, In Israel Alan Goodman opened fire on Palestinians praying at the Temple Mount, the site of Islam’s third-holiest shrine. He killed 2 and was sentenced to life in prison. He was released to the US in 1997 after agreeing to spend the next 8 years in the US.
(SFC,10/27/97, p.A9)
1982 Jun 3, Israel's ambassador to Britain, Shlomo Argov (1929-2003), was shot and critically wounded outside a London hotel. Israel's invasion of Lebanon followed the assassination attempt. The attack was blamed on Abu Nidal’s Palestinian Fatah group.
(WSJ, 8/20/02, p.A18)(NYT, 10/8/04, p.A12)(AP, 6/3/07)
1982 Jun 4, Israel attacked targets in south Lebanon one day after the attempted assassination of the Israeli ambassador in London.
(www.adl.org/israel/advocacy/glossary/lebanon_war.asp)
1982 Jun 6, Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon ordered his forces to invade southern Lebanon to drive Palestine Liberation Organization fighters out of the country. Israeli Gen. Rafael Eitan (d.2004) had convinced defense minister Ariel Sharon to invade southern Lebanon to clean out the PLO bases there. A 70-day siege by 30,000 Israeli troops left up to 14,000 Lebanese and Palestinian civilians dead. Islamic radicals, including Naim Qassem, formed Hezbollah (Hizbullah, i.e. Party of God) in response to Israel’s attack. The Israelis withdrew in June 1985. Hezbollah was formed with Iranian help as a radical offshoot of Amal, a Shiite Muslim movement. In 2005 Naim Qassem authored “Hizbullah: The Story from Within.”
(WSJ, 11/17/95, p.A-10)(SFC, 4/17/96, p.A-10)(AP, 6/6/97)(SFC, 6/15/98, p.A10)(SFC, 5/24/00, p.A15)(Econ, 12/4/04, p.88)(Econ, 4/23/05, p.79)
1982 Aug 9, In France grenade-throwing Palestinians burst into the Jo Goldenberg deli in Paris, and sprayed machine-gun fire. 6 people, including two Americans, were killed, and 21 injured. In 2015 international arrest warrants were issued for three suspects, who were believed to be members of the Abu Nidal group.
(AP, 3/4/15)
1982 Aug 21, A group of Palestinian guerrillas left Lebanon by ship under an evacuation plan mediated by the United States.
(AP, 8/21/02)
1982 Aug 30, Palestinian Liberation Organization left Beirut, Lebanon, and moved to Tunis, Tunisia.
(SFC, 11/11/04, p.A18)
1982 Sep 1, The evacuation of the PLO from Lebanon ended.
(www.mideastweb.org/timeline.htm)
1982 Sep 15, Pope John Paul II received PLO leader Yasser Arafat.
(http://religion-cults.com/pope/religions.htm)
1982 Sep 16-18, The massacre of hundreds of Palestinian men, women and children by Lebanese Christian militiamen began in west Beirut's Sabra and Chatilla (Shatilla) refugee camps. Up to 2,000 Palestinian civilians were killed. Israel’s defense minister, Ariel Sharon, was held responsible and lost his top post. In 2001 survivors lodged a complaint in Belgium against Sharon.
(AP, 9/16/97)(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)(SFC, 5/24/00, p.A15)(SFC, 6/19/01, p.A8)
1982 Sep 18, Christian militia began the massacre of 600 Palestinians in Lebanon. [see Sep 16-18]
(MC, 9/18/01)
1983 Apr 10, King Hussein of Jordan, officially renounced pursuing any negotiations to implement the Reagan Plan, and ceased negotiations with PLO.
(http://tinyurl.com/2q6ska)
1983 Nov 24, PLO exchanged 6 Israeli prisoners for 4,500 Palestinians and Lebanese.
(http://tinyurl.com/2lejkm)
1983 Dec 20, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat and 4,000 loyalists evacuated Lebanon.
(http://tinyurl.com/35ek6z)
1983 Dec 22, Egyptian president Mubarak met with PLO leader Yasser Arafat.
(http://preview.tinyurl.com/2luhxs)
1984 In the "Bus 300 affair" Ehud Yatom, Israeli member of the Shin Bet security agency, bludgeoned to death 2 Palestinian bus hijackers.
(SFC, 6/16/01, p.A6)
1985 Feb 11, Jordan’s King Hussein and PLO leader Arafat signed an accord.
(http://tinyurl.com/yy39mx)
1985 May 20, Israel exchanged 1,150 Palestinian prisoners for 3 Israeli soldiers. The exchange was later referred to as the Jibril deal after the leader of the PFLP-GC, Ahmad Jibril.
(www.passia.org/palestine_facts/chronology/19631988.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/6qrln3)
1985 Oct 1, Israeli forces staged an air raid on PLO-headquarter at Tunis and 68 people were killed. Yasser Arafat narrowly escaped death.
(WSJ, 11/12/04, p.A11)
1985 Oct 7, Four Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean and demanded the release of 50 Palestinians held by Israel. 413 people were held hostage for 2 days in the seizure that was masterminded by Mohammed Abul Abbas. American Leon Klinghoffer was shot while sitting in his wheelchair and thrown overboard. A case was filed against the PLO and settled in 1997. The hijackers surrendered to Egyptian authorities and were turned over to Italy which let Abbas slip out of the country.
(SFC, 8/12/97, p.A4)(AP, 10/7/97)(HN, 10/7/98)
1985 Oct 8, The hijackers of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro killed American passenger Leon Klinghoffer, dumping his body and wheelchair overboard. A case was filed against the PLO and settled in 1997. The hijackers surrendered to Egyptian authorities and were turned over to Italy which let Abbas slip out of the country.
(SFC, 8/12/97, p.A4) (AP, 10/8/97)
1985 Dec 27, Palestinian guerrillas opened fire inside the Rome and Vienna airports; a total of twenty people were killed, including five of the attackers, who were slain by police and security personnel. Abu Nidal was considered responsible. President Reagan blamed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
(AP, 12/27/97)(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A6)(NYT, 10/8/04, p.A12)
1986 Feb 22, Jordan King Hussein delivered a televised address in which he denounced PLO leader Yasser Arafat and accused him of reneging of previous promises made to accept resolutions 242 and 338.
(http://tinyurl.com/mlurr)
1986 Jul 7, Jordan’s government shut down all 25 offices of al-Fatah, the mainstream group in the divided Palestine Liberation Organization.
(http://tinyurl.com/ycprwn)
1986 Sep 5, The Pakistan army stormed a hijacked US B-747 in Karachi and 22 people were killed. In 2001 Zayd Hassan Abd Al-latif Masud Al Safarini, jailed in Pakistan for 15 years, arrived in Alaska and was expected to face a 1991 indictment for the 1986 hijacking of a Pan Am jet. In 2003 Safarini pleaded guilty and agreed to 3 life sentences plus 25 years. On Jan 3, 2008, Pakistani authorities freed and deported four Palestinians convicted in the hijacking.
(SFC, 10/2/01, p.A3)(SFC, 12/17/03, p.A4)(AP, 9/5/06)(AP, 1/3/08)
1986 Sep 6, An attack on the Neve Shalom synagogue in Istanbul killed 22 people. The Palestinian Abu Nidal group was blamed.
(NYT, 10/8/04, p.A12)
1986 Oct 16, Ron Arad, an Israeli airman, was the navigator in a plane that was shot down while bombing a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon. He was reportedly handed over to a Lebanese Shiite group led by Mustafa Dirani. In 2004 it was reported that Arad died in 1996 , sometime after he was handed by Lebanese fighters to their Iranian sponsors.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.A14)(AP, 10/25/04)(http://tinyurl.com/yz3zza)
1986 Israel evicted the Palestinian residents of Susiya after declaring the village to be an archeological site. Many of its residents became homeless following further demolitions in 2001 and 2011.
(Econ, 8/1/15, p.44)
1987 Dec 8-1987 Dec 9, The first Palestinian intefadeh (Arabic for uprising) began as riots broke out in Gaza and spread to the West Bank, triggering a strong Israeli counter-response.
(AP 12/8/97)(SFC, 4/24/98, p.A17)(AP, 12/9/07)
1987 Dec 19, The Palestinian uprising in Israel's occupied territories spread to Arab east Jerusalem.
(AP, 12/19/97)
1987 Dec 27, Scores of Palestinian prisoners appeared before Israeli military courts in the first trials of several hundred protesters arrested in the "intefadeh," or uprising, in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/27/97)
1987 Dec, Sheik Ahmed Yassin founded Hamas, a Palestinian social welfare and military organization. He urged the killing of Palestinians who collaborated with Israeli authorities. Its military wing, called the Izzeddine al-Qassam, used armed operations against Israel. In 2006 Matthew Levitt authored “Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad.”
(SFC, 5/25/96, p.A12)(SFC,12/27/97, p.A12)(WSJ, 5/2/06, p.D8)
1987-1993 The Intifada, a stone-throwing revolt against Israel, began in Gaza’s Jebaliya refugee camp. The Ansar-3 detention camp in the Negev Desert was one of a number established to hold Palestinian men arrested in the uprising. In 1998 the documentary film "Diogenes: Ansar 3" was produced by Hans Fels and Eitan Wetzler of The Netherlands and Israel.
(SFC, 6/10/97, p.A12)(Cinemayyat, 2000)
1988 Jan 3, The Israeli Army ordered nine Palestinian activists deported from West Beirut as part of a controversial crackdown to stop the uprising in the occupied territories. Israeli raids on Palestinian and Progressive Socialist Party positions in the region of Saida make killed 21 persons and wounded 11.
(AP, 1/3/98)(http://tinyurl.com/zz87m)
1988 Jan 5, The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to ask Israel not to deport Palestinians from the occupied territories in the first council vote against Israel since 1981.
(AP, 1/5/98)
1988 Jan 23, More than 50,000 Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv to protest the treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories.
(AP, 1/23/98)
1988 Jan 30, Israeli troops fired on hundreds of demonstrators in the West Bank while protests also rocked the Gaza Strip, shattering three weeks of relative quiet in the occupied territories.
(AP, 1/30/98)
1988 Jan, Women in Black began at the start of the Palestinian uprising, when about 30 Israeli women gathered in the center of Jerusalem in silent protest, each with a sign saying "Stop the Occupation." By the 1990-1991 Gulf War, there were 30 vigils all over Israel.
(AP, 4/5/12)
1988 Mar 2, The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to order the United States to submit to binding arbitration its plan to close the observer mission of the Palestine Liberation Organization. A federal court later stopped the U.S.
(AP, 3/2/98)
1988 Apr 3, Secretary of State George P. Shultz arrived in Israel to launch a fresh U.S. peace initiative, telling the Israelis that the Palestinians must be included in negotiations.
(AP, 4/3/98)
1988 Apr 6, Tirza Porat (15), was killed in a West Bank melee, becoming the first Israeli civilian to die in the occupied territories since the start of the Palestinian uprising. Although Arabs were initially blamed, the army concluded that a Jewish settler accidentally shot the girl.
(AP, 4/6/98)
1988 Apr 16, Abu Jihad, [Khalil al-Wazzir], PLO-leader, was murdered by Israeli assassins in Tunisia. They left the chief strategist of the Palestinian uprising with 170 bullets in his body. The Palestine Liberation Organization accused Israel of assassinating al-Wazir, a top PLO military figure. Palestinians reacted angrily, and at least 14 were shot and killed by Israeli troops during clashes in the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank. In 2012 Israel admitted responsibility for the killing of Abu Jihad.
(AP, 4/16/98)(AP, 1/22/06)(AP, 11/1/12)
1988 Jul 11, Nine people were killed when three Abu Nidal terrorists attacked hundreds of tourists aboard a Greek cruise ship, the City of Poros, which was steaming toward a marina in suburban Athens.
(AP, 7/11/98)(www.fas.org/irp/world/para/ano.htm)
1988 Jul 28, Jordan cancelled a $1.3 billion development plan in West Bank.
(www.kinghussein.gov.jo/88_july31.html)
1988 Jul 30, Jordan's King Hussein dissolved his country's lower house of Parliament, half of whose 60 members were from the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Hussein renounced sovereignty over the West Bank to the PLO.
(AP, 7/30/98)(http://tinyurl.com/ov6pf)
1988 Jul 31, In a televised speech, Jordan's King Hussein called for an independent Palestinian state in the Israeli-occupied territories as he told the Palestinians to take affairs into their own hands. Hussein renounced claims to the West Bank, paving the way for new elections and reforms.
(HN, 7/31/98)(AP, 1/23/13)
1988 Aug 18, Hamas published a manifesto calling for a holy war to create an Islamic state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, including Israel. It challenged the PLO's claim as the sole representative of the Palestinian people. The Hamas charter declared that all Palestine is Islamic trust land, can never be surrendered to non-Muslims and is an integral part of Muslim world.
(SFC, 3/23/04, p.A11)(www.mideastweb.org/hamashistory.htm)
1988 Oct 13, Absa Claude Diallo, Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, addressed a letter to the UN Sec.-Gen. concerning profound concern at the “continued grave situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and the intensification of the policy of repression pursued by Israel against the Palestinian people.”
(http://tinyurl.com/zks7q)
1988 Nov 12, The Palestine National Council, the legislative body of the PLO, opened a four-day meeting in Algiers, during which delegates proclaimed an independent Palestinian state.
(AP, 11/12/98)
1988 Nov 20, Egypt and China announced they were recognizing the Palestinian state proclaimed by the Palestine National Council.
(AP, 11/20/98)
1988 Nov 26, The United States denied an entry visa to PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, who was seeking permission to travel to New York to address the U.N. General Assembly.
(AP, 11/26/98)
1988 Nov 30, The UN General Assembly (151-2) adopted resolution 43/28 in which it has been informed of the decision of the Host Country, the US, to deny the PLO's Arafat a visa.
(www.palestine-un.org/chron/eighties.html)
1988 Dec 6, Arafat met prominent American Jews in Stockholm, Sweden.
(http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1988-12/1988-12-06-NBC-15.html)
1988 Dec 13, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat addressed the U.N. General Assembly in Geneva, where it had reconvened after the United States refused to grant Arafat a visa to visit New York. Arafat accepted UN Resolutions 242 and 338, which recognized Israel's right to exist.
(AP, 12/13/98)(SSFC, 6/3/07, p.E6)(www.mideastweb.org/arafat1988.htm)
1988 Dec 14, In a dramatic policy shift, President Reagan authorized the United States to enter into a "substantive dialogue" with the Palestine Liberation Organization, after chairman Yasser Arafat said he was renouncing "all forms of terrorism."
(AP, 12/14/98)
1988 Dec 15, Yasser Arafat in exile declared Palestinian independence. It was considered a symbolic act and no state boundaries were delineated.
(SFC,11/15/97, p.A12)(WSJ, 11/15/00, p.A1)
1988 Dec 15, U.S. Ambassador Robert H. Pelletreau Jr. telephoned the PLO's headquarters in Tunisia, one day after President Reagan authorized direct talks.
(AP, 12/15/98)
1988 Dec 17, In his first public statement since the US decided to open direct talks with the PLO, Israeli PM Yitzhak Shamir expressed shock, calling the US decision a "painful" blow.
(AP, 12/17/98)
1988 Dec 18, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat met in Cairo with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to discuss how to continue the momentum gained by the first U.S.- PLO dialogue.
(AP, 12/18/98)
1988 Dec 23, Pope John Paul II met with Yasser Arafat at the Vatican. The pontiff told the PLO leader he believed Palestinians and Jews had "an identical fundamental right" to their own countries.
(AP, 12/23/98)
1988 Israeli agents killed Abu Jihad (Khalil al-Wazir), a PLO military commander.
(SFC, 11/25/96, p.A3)
1988 In Jordan soon after the beginning of the "intifada," King Hussein renounced rights to the West Bank and retained a role as guardian of Jerusalem's holy places.
(SFC, 2/6/99, p.A13)
1988-1992 Miriam Ben-Porat, Israeli comptroller, issued a report in 1995 that said Shin Bet security routinely mistreated Palestinian detainees between 1988 and 1992. The report was not made public until 2000.
(SFC, 2/10/00, p.A10)
1989 Jan 19, Israel’s Minister of Defense Rabin proposed that Palestinians end the intifadah in exchange for an opportunity to elect local leaders who would negotiate with the Israeli government.
(www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-6685.html)
1989 May 3, PLO leader Yasser Arafat, ending a two-day visit to France, said the PLO charter calling for the destruction of Israel had been "superseded" by a declaration urging peaceful coexistence of the Jewish state and a Palestinian state.
(AP, 5/3/99)
1989 Jul 6, A Palestinian grabbed the steering wheel of an Israeli bus, causing a crash that claimed 15 lives.
(AP, 7/6/99)
1989 Jul 22, Nearly 200,000 Palestinian children returned to classrooms in the West Bank after the Israeli army lifted an order that had kept their schools closed during the Palestinian uprising.
(AP, 7/22/99)
1989 Sep, Israel outlawed Hamas as a terrorist organization following dozens of shooting attacks that killed Israelis.
(SFC, 3/23/04, p.A11)(www.ict.org.il/inter_ter/orgdet.cfm?orgid=13)
1989 Dec 31, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir fired Science Minister Ezer Weizman, accusing him of meeting with officials of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
(AP, 12/31/99)
1989 Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin was imprisoned by Israeli authorities for his politics.
(SFC, 5/25/96, p.A12)
1990 May 20, An Israeli opened fire on a group of Palestinian laborers south of Tel Aviv, killing seven; the gunman was sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 5/20/00)
1990 May 21, Israeli soldiers shot and killed three Palestinians in violence sparked by the slayings of seven Palestinians by an Israeli civilian a day earlier.
(AP, 5/21/00)
1990 Aug 2, Yasser Arafat supported Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. This resulted in the PLO’s isolation.
(SFC, 11/11/04, p.A18)
1990 Oct 8, Israeli police opened fire on rioting Palestinians on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, killing 17.
(AP, 10/8/00)
1990 Oct 21, A Palestinian stabbed three Israelis to death during a rampage in a Jerusalem neighborhood in retaliation for the police killings of 17 Arabs on the Temple Mount.
(AP, 10/21/00)
1991 Oct 30, The Middle East peace conference in Madrid, Spain, opened with addresses to the delegates by President George Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev. The Madrid Two conference was organized by the US.
(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A10)(WSJ, 9/19/01, p.A14)(AP, 10/30/01)
1991 Oct 31, On the second day of the Middle East peace conference in Madrid, Spain, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Arab delegates clashed bitterly over land issues.
(AP, 10/31/01)
1991 Nov 1, The 3-day session of the Middle East peace conference recessed in Madrid, Spain. The conference led to Israeli deals with Jordan and the Palestinians and established the principle of land for peace.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrid_Conference_of_1991)(AP, 11/1/01)(Econ, 5/24/08, p.68)
1991 Nov 3, Israeli and Palestinian representatives held their first-ever face-to-face talks in Madrid, Spain.
(AP, 11/3/01)
1991 Nov, Yasser Arafat (62) secretly married Suha Tawil (28).
(SFC, 11/11/04, p.A18)
1991 Hamas formed its military wing, "Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades," for attacks against Israel.
(SFC, 3/23/04, p.A11)
1991 Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal recruited orchestrated the murder of Fatah leader Abu-Iyad, a leader of the Sep 5, 1972, Munich terrorists. Nidal was outraged by Iyad’s softening on the status of Israel.
(WSJ, 12/21/05, p.D10)
1992 Jan 13, Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian negotiators began talks in Washington on Palestinian autonomy.
(AP, 1/13/98)
1992 Mar 4, Another round of Middle East peace negotiations concluded in Washington, D.C., with Israel rejecting a plan for Palestinian elections.
(AP, 3/4/02)
1992 Apr 7, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat survived the crash landing of his plane in the Libyan desert; three crew members were killed.
(AP, 4/7/97)
1992 Sep 1, In Israel Ahmed Qatamesh was jailed on suspicion of being a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He was held without trial for 5 1/2 years and released in 1998.
(SFC, 4/16/98, p.A12)
1992 Dec 13, An Israeli border guard was kidnapped near Tel Aviv and later killed by the Hamas fundamentalist organization. The slaying prompted Israel to expel hundreds of Palestinians, sending them into Lebanese territory. Abdel Aziz Rantisi was among the 400 deported members of Hamas.
(AP, 12/13/97)(SSFC, 4/18/04, p.A18)
1992 Dec 18, The U.N. Security Council unanimously denounced Israel's deportation of more than 400 Palestinians to Lebanon and demanded their immediate return.
(AP, 12/18/97)
1992 In Norway the 1993 Oslo I peace accord was begun in 1992 following a research project on Palestinian living conditions by Terje Roed Larsen. Larsen arranged discussions between Uri Savir of Israel and Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala) for Palestine.
(SFEC, 10/31/99, p.A21)
1993 Jan 9, Two Red Cross officials visited a camp of Palestinians who had been deported by Israel to a no man's land in southern Lebanon.
(AP, 1/9/03)
1993 Jan 19, Israel recognized the PLO as no longer criminal.
(www.jafi.org.il/education/jafi75/timeline8d.html)
1993 Feb 1, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin announced that his country would repatriate about 100 Palestinians deported to Lebanon, an offer rejected by the deportees.
(AP, 2/1/97)
1993 Mar 30, Israeli authorities barred West Bank Palestinians from entering Israel after two traffic police officers were shot to death.
(AP, 3/30/98)
1993 Apr 16, In Israel 20 soldiers and civilians were injured in Hamas's first suicide attack against Israelis. Shahar al-Nabulsi, detonated a car, rigged by bombmaker Yahya Ayyash, between two buses at Mehola Junction. The blast killed al-Nabulsi and a Palestinian who worked in the rest area.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehola_Junction_bombing)
1993 Aug 29, Negotiations continued between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, with Israel reported on the verge of recognizing the PLO.
(AP, 8/29/98)
1993 Sep 9, PLO leaders and Israel agreed to recognize each other, clearing the way for a peace accord.
(AP, 9/9/98)
1993 Aug, Norwegian academic Terje Roed-Larsen and other Norwegian mediators helped broker a secret peace accord in which the Palestinians formally recognized Israel's right to exist and Israel agreed to establish self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza. The accord allowed thousands of PLO guerrillas to return to Palestine without Israeli interference.
(SFC, 6/19/96, p.A8)(SFC, 6/4/98, p.C3)(AP, 11/12/04)
1993 Sep 13, In a historic scene at the White House, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat shook hands after signing an accord granting limited Palestinian autonomy. It gave Arafat control of most of the Gaza Strip and 27% of the West Bank. In 2002 Neal Kozodoy edited ""The Mideast Peace Process: An Autopsy."
(AP, 9/13/97)(WSJ, 2/11/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/12/04, p.A11)
1993 Sep 23, The Israeli parliament ratified the Israel-PLO accord.
(AP, 9/23/98)
1993 Sep 24, The 1st Israeli was killed by Islamics after PLO signed the peace accord.
(http://tinyurl.com/dcf7e)
1993 Oct 6, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chief Yasser Arafat held their first official meeting in Cairo, Egypt, to begin work on realizing terms of the Israeli-PLO accord.
(AP, 10/6/98)
1993 Oct 11, Yasser Arafat won endorsement for his peace accord with Israel from the Palestine Central Council.
(AP, 10/11/98)
1993 Nov 25, Violence broke out in the Gaza Strip, a day after Israeli undercover soldiers killed Imad Akel, the head of the military wing of Hamas.
(HN, 11/25/98)
1993 Dec 5, A Palestinian boarded a bus and opened fire with an assault rifle in the first major attack in Israel since the signing of a peace pact with the PLO; the gunman killed a reservist before being gunned down.
(AP, 12/5/98)
1993 Dec 19, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and senior PLO officials ended two days of closed-door talks in Oslo, Norway, in which they sought to break a deadlock over Palestinian self-rule in the occupied territories.
(AP, 12/19/98)
1993 Dec 25, Full-fledged Christmas celebrations returned to Bethlehem for the first time since the Palestinian uprising began six years earlier.
(AP, 12/25/98)
1994 Jan 10, Talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators resumed in Taba, Egypt.
(AP, 1/10/99)
1994 Feb 9, PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres initialed an agreement on security measures that had been blocking a peace accord.
(AP, 2/9/99)
1994 Feb 25, In the Hebron massacre, Jewish settler Dr. Baruch Goldstein opened fire on Palestinians praying in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and killed 29 people. Some 100 others were wounded. Surviving Palestinians killed him before he could reload.
(SFC, 6/18/96, p.A12)(SFC, 6/20/96, p.A8)(MT, Fall/03, p.15)
1994 Mar 31, The PLO and Israel agreed to resume talks on Palestinian autonomy, more than a month after the Hebron mosque massacre.
(AP, 3/31/99)
1994 Apr 6, A car rigged with explosives detonated next to a bus in Afula, Israel. 8 Israelis were killed and 45 wounded in Hamas's 1st car bombing.
(WSJ, 3/6/96, p. A-15)(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A8)(AP, 4/6/99)(SFC, 3/23/04, p.A11)
1994 April 13, A Palestinian blew himself up on a bus in Hadera in central Israel. Six Israelis were killed and 25 wounded. It was Hamas's 1st suicide bombing.
(WSJ, 3/6/96, p. A-15)(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A8)(SFC, 3/23/04, p.A11)
1994 Apr 20, Israeli and PLO negotiators wrapped up an agreement transferring civilian government powers to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
(AP, 4/20/99)
1994 Apr 29, Israel and the PLO signed an agreement in Paris granting Palestinians broad authority to set taxes, control trade and regulate banks under self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
(AP, 4/29/99)
1994 May 1, Israeli and PLO delegates opened a final round of talks in Cairo, Egypt, on Palestinian autonomy prior to the signing of an agreement on self-rule.
(AP, 5/1/99)
1994 May 4, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat signed a historic accord on Palestinian autonomy that granted self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.
(AP, 5/4/97)
1994 May 14, The West Bank town of Jericho saw its first full day of Palestinian self-rule following the withdrawal of Israeli troops, an event celebrated by Palestinians.
(AP, 5/14/99)
1994 May 27, Palestine Liberation Organization officials announced that Yasser Arafat had named himself interior minister of the autonomous zones as part of an interim government; 14 other prominent Palestinians, mostly Arafat allies, were appointed to other positions.
(AP, 5/28/99)
1994 Jul 1, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat drove from Egypt into Gaza, returning to Palestinian land after 27 years in exile.
(AP, 7/1/99)
1994 Aug 24, Israeli and PLO negotiators agreed on an accord to give the Palestinians control of health care, taxation, education and other services in West Bank areas still controlled by Israel.
(AP, 8/24/99)
1994 Oct 14, The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to PLO leader Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
(SFC, 10/12/96, p.A13)(AP, 10/14/99)
1994 Oct 19, A Palestinian suicide bomber killed 22 Israelis and wounded 48 in a bus explosion in Tel Aviv. Hamas took responsibility.
(WSJ, 3/6/96, p. A-15)(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A8)
1994 Nov 11, A suicide bomber killed three soldiers at an Israeli military checkpoint in Gaza. The Islamic Jihad took responsibility.
(AP, 11/11/99)
1994 Nov 18, Fifteen people were killed and more than 150 wounded when Palestinian police opened fire on rioting worshippers outside a mosque in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 11/18/99)
1994 Dec 7, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher in Gaza City, pledged to protect Israelis from militant extremists.
(AP, 12/7/99)
1994 Dec 10, Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin received the Nobel Peace Prize, pledging to pursue their mission of healing the anguished Middle East.
(AP, 12/10/99)
1994 Dec 25, A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus in Jerusalem and wounded 12 Israelis. Hamas took responsibility.
(WSJ, 3/6/96, p. A-15)(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A8)(AP, 12/25/99)
1994 The Oslo agreement gave Palestinians a measure of self-rule.
(WSJ, 6/17/96, p.A15)
1994 Arafat promised to turn the Gaza Strip and West Bank into a new Singapore.
(SFC, 6/10/97, p.A12)
1994 Abu-Hassan, a postal inspector, was jailed by the Palestinian authority. He had been jailed earlier for 13 years by the Israelis for being a member of George Habash's Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
(SFC, 12/22/99, p.A19)
1994 Yasser Arafat appointed Sheik Ikrima Sabri as the mufti or chief Islamic cleric of Jerusalem.
(SFEC, 3/26/00, p.A19)
1994 Mohammed Rashid became Arafat's top financial adviser when the Palestinian Authority was established, following interim peace deals with Israel.
(AP, 5/16/12)
1994-1998 At least 18 Palestinians died while under detention by the Palestinian Authority.
(SFC, 1/9/98, p.A8)
1995 Feb 2, The leaders of Egypt, Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians held an unprecedented summit in Cairo to try to revive the Mideast peace process.
(AP, 2/2/00)(http://tinyurl.com/255pml)
1995 Mar 19, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Jewish settlers, killing two people.
(AP, 3/19/00)
1995 Aug 3, A Palestinian, Eyad Ismoil, was flown to the United States from Jordan to face charges he’d driven a bomb-laden van into New York’s World Trade Center. The 1993 explosion killed six people and injured more than one-thousand; Ismoil is serving a life sentence.
(AP, 8/3/00)
1995 Sep 24, Israel’s Rabin and the PLO under Arafat, signed a pact, Oslo II, in Taba, Egypt, ending nearly three decades of Israeli occupation of West Bank cities. They scheduled a 9/7/97 date for Israel’s departure from the West Bank, except for Jewish settlements and certain military locations. A final accord was scheduled for 5/7/99.
(SFC, 1/9/96, p.A10)(AP, 9/24/00)(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A8)
1995 Sep 27, Azzam Rahim, a naturalized US citizen, was arrested during a visit to the West Bank by intelligence officers of the Palestinian Authority. He was imprisoned in Jericho and was reportedly tortured and killed there on Sep 29.
(SFC, 4/19/12, p.A5)(http://tinyurl.com/7udfqt2)
1995 Sep 28, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat signed an accord to transfer much of the West Bank to the control of its Arab residents.
(AP, 9/28/98)
1995 Oct 10, Israel began a West Bank pullback and freed hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
(www.cnn.com/almanac/9710/10/)
1995 Oct 26, Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shakaki was shot to death on the Mediterranean island of Malta in a killing his supporters blamed on Israel.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.17A)(AP, 10/26/05)
1995 Oct 29, Palestinians burned American and Israeli flags and swore revenge for the assassination of Dr. Fathi Shakaki, the leader of the radical Islamic Jihad and a top architect of terror attacks against Israel. Shakaki was gunned down three days earlier in Malta, reportedly by Israeli intelligence.
(AP, 10/29/00)
1995 Nov 9, Yasser Arafat made a secret trip to Israel to offer condolences to the widow of assassinated PM Rabin.
(SFC, 11/11/04, p.A18)
1995 Dec 21, The city of Bethlehem passed from Israeli to Palestinian control.
(AP, 12/21/97)
1995 Dec. 26, Most Arab residents of the West Bank and Gaza are being placed under Arafat's control.
(WSJ, 12/27/95, p. A-1)
1995 The Palestinian Legislative Council passed a law that elevated Ahmed Qurei, parliament speaker, to the presidency for 40 days to allow for new elections in the event of Arafat’s death.
(SFC, 12/12/01, p.A3)
1995 Fathi Shakaki, leader of the Islamic Jihad, was killed in Malta. Israel was blamed for the killing.
(LVRJ, 11/1/97, p.17A)
1996 Jan 20, Yasser Arafat was elected president in the first Palestinian elections. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians turned out to vote in the festive first election, solidly endorsing Arafat and his peace policies.
(WSJ, 12/27/95, p. A-1)(SFC, 2/8/99, p.A6)(AP, 1/20/01)
1996 Jan 6, In Gaza Yehiyeh Ayyash, a Hamas bomb-maker known as "the engineer" was assassinated by an explosives-rigged cellular phone. The operation was attributed to Israel.
(SFC, 4/2/98, p.A12)(SFC, 3/23/04, p.A11)
1996 Feb 25, In separate attacks 2 Palestinian suicide bombers blew up a bus in Jerusalem and a soldiers hitchhiking post in the coastal city of Ashkelon. 23 Israelis were killed, as well as 2 Americans and a Palestinian. More than 80 people were wounded. Hamas took responsibility.
(WSJ, 3/6/96, p. A-15)(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A8)
1996 Feb 26, An Arab American drove a rental car into a Jerusalem bus stop and killed one Israeli while wounded 23. The driver appeared to be acting on his own but Hamas took responsibility.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A8)
1996 Feb, The Gaza Strip, sealed off by Israel for 333 days due to Palestinian attacks, was re-opened. The closure drove up adult unemployment and forced many children to seek work.
(SFC,12/13/97, p.A10)
1996 Mar 3, Israel declared all-out war on the militant group Hamas after a bus bomb in Jerusalem killed 19 people, including the bomber, the third such suicide attack in eight days.
(WSJ, 3/4/96, p. A-1)(AP, 3/3/01)
1996 Mar 4, A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Tel Aviv shopping center, killing 13 people in the fourth deadly attack in nine days.
(WSJ, 3/5/96, p. A-1)(AP, 3/4/01)
1996 Mar, Israel was to have pulled out of Hebron, but postponed the move after a series of Palestinian suicide bombings.
(SFC, 12/25/96, p.A10)
1996 Apr 24, The Palestine National Council voted to revoke articles that contradicted the 1993 accords between Israel and PLO, specifically the parts that called for Israel’s destruction.
(WSJ, 4/25/96, p.A-1)
1996 May 5, Israel and the Palestinians began the final stage of their peace talks in Taba, Egypt.
(AP, 5/5/97)
1996 May 13, David Boim (17), an American, was standing at a bus stop in the West Bank with fellow yeshiva students when two Palestinian terrorists drove by in a car, shot him in the head, and killed him. In 2004 a US court awarded his parents $156 million against US-based Muslim activists. In 2007 a federal appeals court overturned the judgement.
(www.danielpipes.org/article/334)(SFC, 12/29/07, p.A3)
1996 May 20, Dr. Eyyad Sarraj, a Palestinian human rights advocate, was arrested after accusing the Palestinian Authority of dictatorial rule and torturing prisoners in the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 5/20/96, p.A-9)
1996 May 24, Sheik Hamed Bitawi said that Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin might issue a call to end terrorist attacks against Israel. The leadership of Hamas would like to move to a position as a democratic alternative to Arafat’s PLO.
(SFC, 5/25/96, p.A12)
1996 Jun 10, Arafat’s government detained Eyad Sarraj, head of the Independent Commission for Citizen’s Rights. Sarraj says the Palestinian Authority is corrupt.
(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A16)
1996 Jun 12, Eyad Sarraj smuggled out a message that said he was being beaten and framed on drug charges.
(SFC, 6/13/96, p.C3)
1996 Jul 31, Mahmoud Jumayal died under interrogation by the Palestinian security forces. He was the 8th in 2 years.
(SFC, 8/21/96, p.A8,10)
1996 Aug 27, Israeli police tore down a youth center in Jerusalem’s Old City saying that it was illegally built with money from Arafat’s Palestinian Authority.
(SFC, 8/28/96, p.A8)
1996 Aug 29, Yasser Arafat called for a 4-hour general strike in Palestine in opposition to Israeli political actions.
(SFC, 8/29/96, p.A1)
1996 Sep 2, Stories of corruption were rife and Arafat was accused of pouring money into his 9 security forces rather than infrastructure.
(SFC, 9/2/96, p.A14)
1996 Sep 4, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu met with Palestinian leader Arafat and agreed to pursue a peace settlement.
(WSJ, 9/5/96, p.1)
1996 Sep 6, The Palestinian Al Quds Univ. in Abu Dis was reopened after a 6-month closure.
(SFC, 9/7/96, p.A9)
1996 Sep 25, Violence began in Jerusalem when Israelis opened a tunnel along the west wall of the old city in opposition to Palestinian sentiments. Seven Arabs were killed. Resulting riots left 69 Palestinians dead along with 16 Israelis.
(SFC, 9/26/96, p.A10)(AP, 9/25/97)(Econ, 2/17/07, p.48)
1996 Oct 1, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat met at the White House.
(AP, 10/1/97)
1996 Nov 1, Nahum Kurman, the security chief of a Jewish settlement, was charged for killing 11-year-old Palestinian, Hilmi Shousha. Kurman claimed the boy fell and banged his head. He was sentenced in 2001 to 6 months of community service and a $17,000 fine.
(SFC, 11/2/96, p.C1)(SFC, 1/24/01, p.A13)
1996 Nov 19, Two Israeli border policemen were arrested after a videotape showed them beating and kicking Palestinian laborers.
(SFC, 11/20/96, p.C2)
1996 Dec 18, Palestinian police arrested 3 members of a militant group that killed 2 Jewish settlers on Dec 11.
(WSJ, 12/19/96, p.A1)
1996 The Palestinians summoned Moroccan and Egyptian engineers and began constructing a 3-km. long runway for an Int’l. Airport at the village of Raffiach, whose residents were ordered to leave by the Palestinian Authority.
(SFC, 6/12/97, p.A14)
1997 Jan 1, An off-duty Israeli soldier, Noam Friedman, with a history of mental problems opened fire on a crowded vegetable market in Hebron, wounding 5 [7] people and touching off a stone-throwing demonstration by angry Palestinians.
(SFC, 1/1/97, p.A1)(AP, 1/1/98)
1997 Jan 7, The Hebron Protocol or Hebron Agreement began and was concluded from January 15 to January 17, 1997 between Israel, represented by PM Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), represented by PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, under the supervision of US Secretary of State Warren Christopher, for redeployment of Israeli military forces in Hebron. Palestinian authorities gained control of 80% of Hebron.
(SFC, 12/4/08, p.A27)
1997 Jan 14, The US mediated an agreement was reached on Hebron. Palestinian police would be allowed to carry limited-range weapons in buffer zones between them and Jewish settlers. Israel committed to reopening a central road and Palestinian market.
(USAT, 1/15/97, p.9A)(SFEC, 10/25/98, p.A17)
1997 Jan 15, The Israeli cabinet approved the Hebron accord 11-7. The Palestinian cabinet approved the accord by a wide margin.
(WSJ, 1/16/97, p.A1)
1997 Jan 19, Yasser Arafat returned to Hebron for the first time in more than 30 years, joining 60,000 Palestinians in celebrating the handover of the last West Bank city in Israeli control.
(AP, 1/19/98)
1997 Jan 19, Hanan Ashrawi was described as one of the most influential women in the Arab world. She founded the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizen’s Rights.
(SFEC, 1/19/96, Parade p.5)
1997 Feb 23, Ali Hassan Abu Kamal (69), a Palestinian teacher, opened fire on the 86th-floor observation deck of New York City's Empire State Building, killing one person and wounding six others before shooting himself to death. He was said to have acted on personal motives not associated to any political group.
(SFC, 2/24/97, p.A1)(AP, 2/23/98)
1997 Mar 6, Israel approved turning over 9% of the West Bank outside major towns to Palestinian control.
(WSJ, 3/7/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar 18, Construction began on the disputed Jerusalem housing project.
(WSJ, 3/19/97, p.A1)
1997 Mar 21, In Tel Aviv, Israel, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up on a terrace of an outdoor restaurant and killed 3 Israeli women and injured 46.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A1)(AP, 3/21/02)
1997 Mar 22, Israeli troops fired live ammunition at Arab protestors in Hebron and injured about 100 Palestinians.
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.A13)
1997 May 5, Arafat’s justice minister said he would impose the death penalty on Palestinians who sell land to Israelis to prevent Israel’s expansion.
(WSJ, 5/6/97, p.A1)
1997 May 25, The Palestinian Center for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment issued a report that claimed the government lost $326 million to corruption and mismanagement last year.
(SFEC, 5/26/97, p.A8)
1997 Jun 16, Israeli soldiers wounded 38 Palestinians in the 3rd day of protests at Hebron.
(WSJ, 6/17/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun 21, Riots spread to Nablus on the West Bank protesting Jewish settlements.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, p.D3)
1997 Jul 20, Palestinian security forces arrested 4 Palestinian police officers who were accused of planning to attack Jewish settlers. Israel had arrested 4 Palestinian policemen a week earlier for planned attacks at the settlement of Har Bracha.
(SFC, 7/21/97, p.A8)
1997 Jul 30, Two men bombed Jerusalem's most crowded outdoor market, killing themselves and 16 others. Following the suicide bombing in Israel that killed 15 people, 79 Palestinians were arrested.
(SFC, 8/2/97, p.A8)(AP, 7/30/98)
1997 Aug 1, Sixteen of Arafat’s 18 Cabinet members offered their resignations in response to allegations of widespread corruption.
(SFC, 8/2/97, p.A12)
1997 Aug 1, Israel withheld $25 million in tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority, which made the Authority unable to meet its payroll.
(SFC, 8/4/97, p.A8)
1997 Aug 16, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the most popular singer in Pakistan, died in a London hospital. He was considered one of the world’s greatest singers of Sufi devotional music in a style called qawwali, where long performances built up emotion and complexity to the backdrop of stringed instruments and the harmonium.
(SFEC, 8/17/97, p.D8)
1997 Aug 20, Palestinian Pres. Arafat met with Islamic militant groups including Hamas and called for Palestinian unity against Israeli demands.
(WSJ, 8/21/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 21, Palestinians began an embargo of Israeli goods.
(SFC, 8/22/97, p.A14)
1997 Sep 7, This was the scheduled date for Israel’s departure from the West Bank, except for Jewish settlements and certain military locations according to a peace accord negotiated between Arafat and Rabin on Sep 24, 1995.
(SFC, 1/9/96, p.A10)
1997 Sep 25, In Jordan Khaled Mashaal, the political leader of Hamas, was chemically attacked by two men with forged Canadian passports in Amman. Hamas accused the men of being Israeli Mossad agents. Jordan's King Hussein intervened, forcing Israel to send the antidote that saved the Hamas leader's life and release the group's jailed founder in exchange for the freedom of its captured agents.
(SFC, 10/2/97, p.A10)(SFC, 10/3/97, p.B4)(SFC, 10/12/97, p.A17)(AP, 9/25/04)
1997 Oct 1, Israel under PM Netanyahu freed Sheik Ahmed Yassin (61), the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas. The ill Yassin was taken to Jordan and hospitalized. As part of the deal an antidote for the chemical used on last week’s Meshaal attack was demanded by Jordan and Israel requested the release of the Meshaal attackers. This secured the release of two Mossad agents arrested in Jordan following a botched assassination attempt against Hamas political leader Khalid Mashaal.
(SFC, 10/2/97, p.A10)(AP, 10/1/98)(Econ, 10/15/11, p.55)
1997 Oct 6, In Palestine Sheik Ahmed Yassin (61), the quadriplegic spiritual leader of Hamas, returned to the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A14)
1997 Oct 19, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, founder of Hamas, announced a halt in attacks against Israel.
(SFC,10/20/97, p.A8)
1997 Oct 25, Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets at stone-throwing Palestinians who were marching for the release of Palestinian prisoners. Some 3,000 Palestinian political prisoners were being held by Israel and a third have never been tried.
(SFEC,10/26/97, p.A24)
1997 Nov 15, 8-year-old Ali Jawarish died 4 days after he was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier in Bethlehem during a stone-throwing demonstration at the Jewish shrine of Rachel’s Tomb.
(SFC,11/17/97, p.A14)
1997 Nov 29, Dozens were injured after a Palestinian march in Bethlehem erupted into a clash with Israeli troops.
(SFEC,11/30/97, p.A22)
1997 Dec 9, Israeli officials scrambled to stop a Yasser Arafat’s government from conducting a census of Palestinians in East Jerusalem.
(SFC,12/10/97, p.A13)
1997 Uri Savir, Israeli negotiator, authored "The Process: The Story of Oslo from A to Z."
(SFC, 9/8/03, p.A8)
1997 Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin offered Israel a 30-year truce.
(AP, 3/24/04)
1998 Jan 13, In Israel the Cabinet adopted a 12-page list of conditions for the Palestinians to meet before the transfer of any more West Bank land.
(SFC, 1/14/98, p.C2)
1998 Feb 4, It was reported that the 300,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon in refugee camps were barred from work outside the camps except for common labor or agriculture. The refugees, mostly Sunni Muslims from a minority tribe, were not wanted by the Lebanese.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.C2)
1998 Feb 26, Three Israeli soldiers were killed in a Hezbollah attack in southern Lebanon.
(WSJ, 2/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 9, In Israel soldiers at a checkpoint killed 3 Palestinian laborers in a van near Hebron. Two soldiers involved were arrested.
(SFC, 3/11/98, p.A8)
1998 Mar 13, Israeli and Palestinian troops made a joint effort to end four days of protests over the killing of West Bank workers.
(SFC, 3/14/98, p.A9)
1998 Mar 29, Elias Freij, the former mayor of Bethlehem (1972-1997), died in Jordan at age 80.
(SFC, 3/30/98, p.A17)
1998 Mar 29, In Palestine the body of Mohiyedine Sharif, a master bomb-maker for Hamas, was found at the scene of an exploded car in Ramallah. His body had bullet holes. Israel denied involvement in the killing. Sharif was a member of the Izzedine Qassam, a military wing of Hamas. Palestinian security officials later assigned the murder to Adel Awadallah, a rival for leadership in Hamas.
(SFC, 4/2/98, p.A12)(SFC, 4/798, p.A12)
1998 Apr 2, Shaking their fists in rage, thousands of mourners marched in a funeral procession in the West Bank for a top Hamas bombmaker, Mohiyedine Sharif, hailed by Palestinians as a martyr and condemned by Israel as a terrorist.
(AP, 4/2/99)
1998 May 5, An exasperated Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called on Israel to hand over an additional 13 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinians, on top of the 27 percent already relinquished. Israel, however, continued to balk at the proposal.
(AP, 5/5/99)
1998 May 13, Israeli jets raided Lebanon and killed 3 men and wounded 21 in an attack on the radical Palestinian group, Fatah the Uprising. As many as 10 men were killed in a Bekaa Valley training camp for Palestinian guerrillas.
(SFC, 5/13/98, p.A13)(SFC, 5/14/98, p.C2)
1998 May 14, Palestinians marked the 50th anniversary of the creation of Israel with 2 minutes of silence and several hours of violence that left 9 dead. They refer to the creation of Israel as the "Nakba" or "Catastrophe."
(SFC, 5/15/98, p.A14)(SFC, 5/16/98, p.A10)
1998 May 16, Israeli soldiers in Hebron wounded 10 Palestinians in the 3rd straight day of clashes.
(SFEC, 5/17/98, p.A23)
1998 Jul 7, The UN voted to grant the Palestinian delegation nearly the same rights as given to independent states.
(SFC, 7/8/98, p.A10)
1998 Jul 19, Seeking to break a 16-month deadlock, Israel and the Palestinians held their first high-level talks in months. Jalal Rumaneh (30), a member of Hamas, attempted to explode a car bomb made of 160 gallons of flammable liquid and nails in Jerusalem. The Fiat van ignited but failed to explode.
(SFEC, 7/20/98, p.A9)(AP, 7/19/08)
1998 Jul, Walid Qwafmeh (51), the father of 8, was arrested by Palestinian security guards and died on the way to a Nablus hospital in Aug. with a caved in skull. 3 agents including Abdel Latif Abdel Fattah were later found guilty of torturing Qwafmeh. Fattah was sentenced to 7 years in prison. In 1999 Arafat appointed Fattah to a prosecutor's post in the West Bank.
(SFC, 11/16/99, p.E1)
1998 Aug 24, Israel agreed to turn over an additional 13% of the West Bank to the Palestinians.
(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A7)
1998 Aug 24, In Egypt Abu Nidal was captured after crossing the border from Libya. He was responsible for terrorist bombings in 1985 at the Rome and Vienna airports and a 1986 hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 as well as a number of assassinations of PLO figures.
(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A6)
1998 Aug 30, A firing squad killed two former Palestinian policemen at Gaza prison. They had been convicted of killing 2 other policemen brothers.
(SFC, 8/31/98, p.A10)
1998 Sep 10, In Israel troops killed Imad and Adel Awadallah, senior figures in Hamas west of Hebron.
(SFC, 9/12/98, p.A3)
1998 Sep 11, In the West Bank violent protests erupted over the Israeli killing of 2 Hamas leaders.
(SFC, 9/12/98, p.A3)
1998 Sep 17, In Israel a Palestinian youth, Iyad Hashem (17), was killed in a drive-by shooting on the West Bank.
(WSJ, 9/18/98, p.A1)(SFC, 9/18/98, p.A13)
1998 Sep 18, In Israel Hamas supporters clashed with Israeli police during a rally for the Awadallah brothers. 32 Palestinians were injured and the borders with the West Bank and Gaza were again sealed.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.A12)
1998 Sep 28, Yasser Arafat met with Benjamin Netanyahu and Pres. Clinton at the White House and agreed to hold a full-scale summit next month.
(SFC, 9/29/98, p.A1)
1998 Sep 29, In the West Bank one Palestinian was killed and 2 were injured when a bomb blew up their car. They were suspected to be members of Hamas.
(SFC, 9/30/98, p.A11)
1998 Sep 30, In Israel the army sent reinforcements to Hebron after an assailant threw grenades at troops guarding a central square. 13 soldiers and 11 Palestinians were wounded.
(WSJ, 10/1/98, p.A1)(SFC, 10/1/98, p.A14)
1998 Sep, In Jericho the $50 million Oasis Casino opened as part of a multi million economic development package by Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority. It was operated by Casinos Austria.
(SFEC, 2/20/99, p.T8)
1998 Oct 7, In Israel at the Gaza border Arafat and Netanyahu met with US Sec. Albright and agreed to an Oct 15 summit meeting with Pres. Clinton.
(WSJ, 10/8/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 8, In Israel one man was killed during a clash in Hebron where Palestinians observed a general strike against Israel’s 8-day blockade of the town.
(USAT, 10/9/98, p.13A)
1998 Oct 15, Pres. Clinton opened the Mideast summit talks in Maryland between Arafat and Netanyahu in Washington that resulted in the Wye River land-for-peace agreement.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A1)(AP, 10/15/99)
1998 Oct 19, In Israel an assailant threw 2 hand grenades into the central bus station of Beersheba and injured at least 30 people. 67 people were wounded and the incident cast a pall over the peace negotiations in Washington. A Palestinian from the West Bank, Salem Rajab al-Sarsour (29), was caught and confessed.
(SFC, 10/19/98, p.A14)(SFC, 10/20/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 23, An American brokered peace deal was reached at the Wye Plantation in Maryland between Yasser Arafat and Benjamin Netanyahu. Israeli and Palestinian extremists denounced the deal. Land for the Palestinians was exchanged for security guarantees to the Israelis backed by the American CIA. Pres. Clinton agreed to release Jonathan Pollard, who was jailed 11 years ago on charges of spying for Israel.
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A1,10,13)(SFEC, 10/25/98, p.A17)
1998 Oct 25, In Israel West Bank settlers formally broke ties with Prime Minister Netanyahu over the new peace accord. In Ramallah Wasim Tarifi (17) was killed during a Fatah youth protest.
(SFC, 10/26/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 26, In Israel 2 Palestinian gunmen killed Danny Vargas (28) in Hebron. In retaliation a 69-year-old Palestinian man was killed outside the Jewish settlement of Itamar.
(SFC, 10/27/98, p.B1)
1998 Oct 27, Palestinian security forces arrested 2 gunmen in the West Bank who reportedly confessed to the killing of Danny Vargas as well as the murder of another Israeli on Oct 13.
(SFC, 10/28/98, p.A11)
1998 Oct 28, In Israel a bomb aimed at a busload of school children exploded in the Gaza Strip and 2 people were killed.
(SFC, 10/29/98, p.A15)
1998 Oct 29, Palestinian authorities arrested the leader of Hamas, Sheik Yassin, following a suicide bombing aimed at a busload of Jewish settler children.
(SFC, 10/30/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 2, Israel and Palestine agreed to delay their interim peace agreement to allow approval by the Israeli cabinet and parliament.
(SFC, 11/3/98, p.A8)
1998 Nov 11, Israel’s government narrowly ratified a land-for-peace agreement with conditions that included alteration of the PLO charter to strike calls for Israel’s destruction.
(WSJ, 11/12/98, p.A1)(AP, 11/11/08)
1998 Nov 12, Israel gave the go-ahead to a housing project on a Jerusalem hilltop called Har Homa. The area is known as Jabal Abu Ghneim to the Palestinians and was an area under dispute.
(SFC, 11/13/98, p.A16)
1998 Nov 17, Israel's parliament overwhelmingly approved the Wye River land-for-peace accord with the Palestinians with a 75 to 19 vote.
(SFC, 11/18/98, p.A12)(AP, 11/17/99)
1998 Nov 19, In Israel the Cabinet voted 7 to 5 to go ahead with a troop withdrawal from Palestinian land in the West Bank, and to free 250 Palestinian prisoners,
(SFC, 11/20/98, p.A16)(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 20, Israel ceded control of a 200-sq. mile patchwork area to the Palestinian Authority in the 1st of 3 withdrawals.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A10)
1998 Nov 23, In Palestine the $70 million Gaza Int’l. Airport opened and an Egypt Air plane was the first to land.
(SFC, 11/24/98, p.A14)(WSJ, 11/24/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 24, The first Palestine Airlines flight touched down at Gaza International Airport.
(AP, 11/24/99)
1998 Nov 30, Pres. Clinton pledged an extra $400 million to aid the Palestinians over the next 5 years. This was in addition to the current $100 million per year for the next 5 years. A total of $3 billion in aid was pledged.
(SFC, 12/1/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 2, In the West Bank an Israeli soldier was beaten and an Arab man was stabbed to death in Jerusalem. Israel announced the suspension of further troops withdrawals.
(SFC, 12/3/98, p.A16)
1998 Dec 6, Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israel started a hunger strike and demanded to be freed.
(SFC, 12/7/98, p.A14)
1998 Dec 9, A Palestinian teenager was killed as Israeli forces and Palestinian protestors clashed.
(SFC, 12/10/98, p.A12)
1998 Dec 10, Leaders of the PLO voted to annul passages of their 1964 charter that called for Israel’s destruction.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.A18)
1998 Dec 11, Israeli troops fired on hundreds of protesting Palestinians killing 2 and wounding dozens.
(SFC, 12/12/98, p.A14)
1998 Dec 14, In Gaza City Pres. Clinton watched as hundreds of Palestinian leaders raised their hands to renounce a call for the destruction of Israel. The vote affirmed a January letter from Arafat which specified the paragraphs of the PLO founding charter to be excised.
(SFC, 12/15/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 15, Pres. Clinton met with Yasser Arafat and Benjamin Netanyahu without achieving any tangible results to move the Peace Talks forward.
(SFC, 12/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 22, In Lebanon an Israeli rocket killed woman and her 6 children.
(SFC, 12/23/98, p.C2)
1998 Dec 23, In Lebanon Hezbollah guerrillas retaliated against Israel with Katyusha rockets at Kiryat Shemona.
(SFC, 12/24/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 23, Yasser Arafat freed Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin from house arrest.
(SFC, 12/24/98, p.A10)
1998 The West Bank was populated by about 1.5 million Palestinians and about 150,000 Israelis.
(SFC, 1/22/98, p.B12)
1999 Jan 4, Israeli troops sealed off Hebron when 2 Jewish settlers were injured by shots fired at their van.
(WSJ, 1/7/98, p.A1)
1999 Jan 18, The end of Ramadan was marked by prisoner releases in Egypt, Palestine and Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 1/18/98, p.A1)
1999 Jan 26, A Palestinian man was killed by an Israeli rubber bullet when he threw stones to protest the demolition of an Arab-owned home in East Jerusalem.
(SFC, 1/27/99, p.C10)
1999 Feb 1, In Gaza a Palestinian security agent was killed in a shootout with 3 members of Hamas, who then sped away and ran over an 8-year-old girl. The girl died. Raed Attar, Osama Abu Taha, and Mohammed Abu Shamala were later arrested in Shati refugee camp.
(SFC, 2/2/99, p.A10)
1999 Feb 12, In Hebron, Yasser Arafat again proposed that a confederation be made between Jordan and a future Palestinian state.
(SFC, 2/13/99, p.A3)
1999 Feb 27, Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon detonated 2 roadside bombs and killed Israeli Brig. Gen'l. Erez Gerstein, 2 soldiers and a reporter.
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 28, Israel sent warplanes against guerrilla targets in Lebanon in retaliation for the death of Brig. Gen'l. Erez Gerstein and 3 others.
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 10, In Palestine security forces shot and killed 2 teenagers during protests in Gaza after Raed al-Attar was sentenced to die for killing police captain Rifat Joudah in Feb. Two others were sentenced to jail.
(SFC, 3/11/99, p.A12)
1999 Mar 11, In Palestine at least 85 people were injured in a 2nd day of clashes in the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 3/12/99, p.A15)
1999 Mar 26, The EU declared that the creation of a Palestine state was the best way to resolve the Middle East conflict, and the action could not be vetoed by Israel.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A10)
1999 Apr 26, The Clinton administration urged a one-year extension of the Oslo peace process and pressured Pres. Arafat not to declare an independent state on May 4.
(SFC, 4/27/99, p.A8)
1999 Apr 28, The 124-member Palestine Central Council decided not to declare a Palestinian state on May 4, and that deliberations would continue till after Israel's May 17 elections. In exchange Arafat won EU backing for a state within a year and the support of Pres. Clinton for self-determination.
(SFC, 4/28/99, p.C2)(WSJ, 4/30/99, p.A1)
1999 May 4, Yasser Arafat promised in 1997 to declare statehood, unilaterally if necessary. The five year interim period of Palestinian autonomy was to end. The declaration was deferred on April 28.
(WSJ, 11/14/97, p.A1)(SFC, 5/20/98, p.A12)(SFC, 5/4/99, p.A11,14)
1999 May 7, A final peace accord was to be settled with Palestinians by this time as negotiated by Yasser Arafat and Rabin in [Oct] 1995.
(SFC, 1/9/96, p.A10)
1999 Jun 2, Palestinian leaders said they would not resume peace talks unless settlement expansion in the West Bank and Gaza is frozen.
(SFC, 6/3/99, p.A13)
1999 Jun, Enron Corp. announced a 20-year power purchase agreement with the Palestinian Energy Authority. A $140 million, 136-megawatt power plant in the Gaza Strip was part of the plan. Work halted in 2000.
(SFC, 3/2/02, p.A9)
1999 Jul 8, It was reported that Palestinian water shortages were due Israeli diversions of 80% of West Bank aquifer water.
(SFC, 7/8/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 11, In Gaza Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak met with Yasser Arafat and both promised to work for peace.
(SFC, 7/12/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 8, In Jerusalem Yasser Arafat accepted Ehud Barak's proposal to delay land transfers and troop withdrawals until October.
(SFC, 8/9/99, p.A8)
1999 Aug 30 In Israel the bodies of an Israeli couple were found on the West Bank border near the Megiddo forest. Palestinian extremists were suspected as responsible.
(SFC, 8/31/99, p.A12)
1999 Sep 1, In Jerusalem disagreement over the release of 30 Palestinians, jailed for killing Israelis, was the only issue holding up the signing of a land-for-security deal.
(SFC, 9/2/99, p.A14)
1999 Sep 3, Israel and the Palestinians, prodded by Madeleine Albright, agreed to a peace deal that called for finalizing borders in one year, the completion of Wye River land-for-security, and the release of 350 Palestinian prisoners.
(SFC, 9/4/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 4, At Sharm El-Sheikh (Sharm Al Sheik), Egypt, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Pres. Yasser Arafat signed a new deal that ceded West Bank land to the Palestinians and set up a timetable for peace.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/21/99, p.A21)
1999 Sep 8, In Israel the parliament approved the amended Wye River accord.
(WSJ, 9/9/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 9, Israel released 199 Palestinians from prison and detailed the 7% of West Bank land scheduled for transfer.
(SFC, 9/10/99, p.D3)(WSJ, 9/10/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 10, Israel transferred 7% of the West Bank to Palestinian control.
(SFC, 9/11/99, p.A8)
1999 Sep 13, In Gaza Israelis and Palestinians opened talks on a final peace accord.
(SFC, 9/14/99, p.A12)
1999 Oct 4, Israeli PM Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat agreed on terms for the first safe route between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 10/5/99, p.A11)
1999 Oct 14, Israel released 151 Palestinian prisoners as part of the interim peace accord signed Sept. 4.
(SFC, 10/15/99, p.D3)
1999 Oct 21, In Palestine a West Bank fire killed 16 women making cigarette lighters in an unlicensed Hebron facility.
(WSJ, 10/22/99, p.A1)
1999 Oct 23, Palestine planned to issue a national currency and the IMF estimated that 2 years of preparations would be needed.
(SFEC, 10/27/99, p.A28)
1999 Oct 25, Israel opened a 34-mile safe-passage corridor from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank.
(SFC, 10/26/99, p.A10)
1999 Oct 25, An Israeli soldier shot and killed a Palestinian souvenir vendor, Mousa Abu Hilail, near Rachel's tomb. Two days of rioting followed.
(SFC, 10/27/99, p.A13)
1999 Nov 2, Pres. Clinton met with Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat in Oslo to revitalize the peace process.
(SFC, 11/3/99, p.A12)
1999 Nov 19, In Ramallah, West Bank (Reuters), Israeli security forces fired tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets at stone-throwing Palestinians demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israel's jails.
(Excite, 11/20/99)
1999 Nov 28, In Palestine security forces arrested a group of professionals and intellectuals who signed a petition that accused Yasser Arafat of tyranny, corruption and injustice. 6 dissidents signed statements in jail that saying they did not intend to harm Arafat. 9 others who signed the petition were legislators and immune from arrest.
(SFC, 11/29/99, p.A14)(WSJ, 11/29/99, p.A1)
1999 Dec 13, Israeli troops killed 2 men in Beit Awa in the West Bank and captured 3 others during a search for Hamas activists.
(SFC, 12/14/99, p.B2)
1999 Dec 29, Israel released 26 Palestinian security prisoners as part of the interim peace accord. It was the first time Israel had released Palestinians who had killed Israelis or tourists.
(SFC, 12/30/99, p.C2)
1999 Abu Daoud first acknowledged having a role in the 1972 Munich operation in the book: "Palestine: From Jerusalem to Munich." Abu Daoud recalled sitting at a cafe in Rome with fellow PLO guerrilla leader Abu Iyad and his assistant, Mohammed al-Omari, when they read in a newspaper that the International Olympics Committee had refused the PLO's request to send a Palestinian delegation to the Munich Olympics. Daoud was given the task of doing the operation's groundwork.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2000 Jan 4, Israel and Palestine agreed on the transfer of an additional 5% of West Bank land.
(SFC, 1/5/00, p.A6)
2000 Jan 14, In Israel Lafi al-Rajabi (20), a Palestinian, died while under Israeli detention near Ariel. His body bore wounds, cuts and bruises. He had been arrested 7 months earlier for ties to criminal defendants and not carrying an ID card. An Israeli official said Lafi hanged himself and dismissed claims that he was abused.
(SFC, 1/20/00, p.C16)(SFC, 1/21/00, p.D3)
2000 Mar 2, In Israel commandos killed as many as 4 Palestinian extremist suspects at Taibeh. They said that 4 simultaneous bombings were scheduled in crowded areas of major cities.
(SFC, 3/3/00, p.A14)
2000 Mar 22, In Bethlehem Pope John Paul II affirmed support for a Palestinian homeland.
(SFC, 3/23/00, p.A1)
2000 May 14, Thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza demonstrated and violence erupted with at least one person killed.
(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A1)
2000 May 15, Palestinian police and Israeli soldiers fought gun battles across the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 4 people were killed and hundreds were wounded.
(SFC, 5/16/00, p.A1)
2000 May 16, Palestinian demonstrators continued to fight Israeli forces for a 5th day but Palestinian authorities appeared to contain most of the violence.
(SFC, 5/17/00, p.A14)
2000 May 20, Israeli warplanes attacked Palestinian targets in Lebanon and destroyed 10 tanks. Israeli soldiers clashed with Palestinian demonstrators for the 9th day in Palestinian territories within Israel.
(SFEC, 5/21/00, p.A10)
2000 May 25, Khalid Mohhamed Younis al-Bahar (35) was arrested without charges. He died at Dhaheria Prison June 6 and no autopsy report was released.
(SFC, 6/14/00, p.A12)
2000 Jul 3, The Palestinian leadership said that a Palestinian state would be declared by September 13.
(SFC, 7/5/00, p.A8)(WSJ, 7/5/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 11, A Middle East summit hosted by President Clinton opened at Camp David between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
(AP, 7/11/01)(SFC, 7/12/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 25, The Israeli-Palestinian peace talks ended at Camp David with no success due to the difficulty over the issue of Jerusalem.
(SFC, 7/26/00, p.A1)
2000 Jul 28, Pres. Clinton warned Yasser Arafat that relations with the US would be harmed if statehood was declared without a peace deal with Israel.
(SFC, 7/29/00, p.A10)
2000 Aug, British gas discovered a vast natural gas field 22 miles off the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 9/28/00, p.A14)
2000 Sep 3, In Egypt a 2-day meeting of Arab League foreign ministers opened. Yasser Arafat said he would not accept a peace deal without control of Jerusalem.
(SFC, 9/4/00, p.B10)
2000 Sep 10, The Palestine Central Council in Gaza postponing the Sep 13 deadline for statehood and planned to pursue another round of peace talks.
(SFC, 9/11/00, p.A1)
2000 Sep 28, Ariel Sharon led an armed contingent of supporters to the top of Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the site of 2 mosques, and incited Arab demonstrations. This marked the beginning of the 2nd Palestinian uprising.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A8)(SFC, 3/23/04, p.A11)
2000 Sep 29, Five people were killed in clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police at the Temple Mount. It was the 2nd day of clashes following a visit to the site by Ariel Sharon.
(SFC, 9/30/00, p.A1)
2000 Sep 30, Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces across the West Bank and Gaza for a 3rd day and 12 Palestinians were killed with over 500 injured. Mohammed Jamal Aldura (12) was among the dead and French TV showed him clinging to his father as they were caught in gunfire. The Israeli Army later said that Palestinian gunfire may have killed the boy.
(SFEC, 10/1/00, p.A1)(SFC, 10/2/00, p.A12)(SFC, 11/28/00, p.A16)
2000 Sep, The Waqf clerical trust imposed a ban on non-Muslims to visit the Temple Mount.
(SFC, 1/22/02, p.A7)
2000 Sep, The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade was founded in response to Israeli killings.
(SFC, 4/12/02, p.A16)
2000 Oct 1, Israeli forces fought Palestinian rioters for a 3rd day and at least 12 Palestinians were killed. The fighting spread from the West Bank and Gaza to towns and cities inside Israel.
(SFC, 10/2/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 2, Israeli troops fired on protesting Arabs. 19 people were killed in the West Bank and Gaza and another 7 in Arab towns of northern Galilee. The 4 day toll rose to 48 dead and over 1,300 wounded. In 2003 the Or Commission blamed the government of PM Barak for not paying attention to rising discontent among Israel’s Arabs. In 2005 Israeli authorities, citing lack of evidence, said they would not file charges against any police officers for the killings of 13 Arabs during the October, 2000, riots.
(SFC, 10/3/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/3/00, p.A1)(SFC, 9/18/05, p.A3)
2000 Oct 3, A cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians quickly crumbled and the death toll climbed to at least 54. Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat planned to meet in Paris to seek an end to the conflict.
(SFC, 10/4/00, p.A10)
2000 Oct 4, In Israel Barak agreed to withdraw heavy arms from the West Bank and Gaza in a bid to halt violence.
(WSJ, 10/5/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 5, Israeli tanks pulled back from forward positions and Palestinian security forces cleared stone throwers from the streets in the 1st steps of a US-brokered cease-fire.
(SFC, 10/6/00, p.A17)
2000 Oct 6, Israel pulled troops from Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus in an effort to ease tensions.
(SFC, 10/7/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 7, Palestinians tore up Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus and Hezbollah guerrillas captured 3 Israeli soldiers. Prime Minister Ehud Barak threatened to use force and to halt the peace process unless the violence stopped.
(SFEC, 10/8/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 9, Israel backed from a deadline against the Palestinians to stop violence in the West Bank and Gaza.
(SFC, 10/10/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 11, Palestinians continued to riot in Gaza and the West Bank and the death toll approached 100.
(SFC, 10/12/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 12, The Palestinian Authority released hundreds of prisoners including senior Islamic militants.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.A5)
2000 Oct 12, A mob of Palestinians beat at least 2 Israeli reserve soldiers to death. Israeli helicopters fired missiles at targets in Gaza in retaliation. Two reservist soldiers, Cpl. Vadim Norjitz (33) and Yossi Avrahami (38) were on their way to their army base in the West Bank in October 2000 but took a wrong turn and ended up in Ramallah. Israel later arrested at least four suspects in the killing. In 2007 a 5th suspect, Ayman Zaban, was caught in an upscale neighborhood of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.A1)(AP, 9/26/07)
2000 Oct 16, A Middle East summit was planned to begin at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. Violent demonstrations continued in the West Bank and Gaza and 2 Palestinians were killed.
(SFEC, 10/15/00, p.A1)(SFC, 10/17/00, p.A13)
2000 Oct 17, Israelis and Palestinians agreed to a Middle East pact to halt the violence.
(SFC, 10/18/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 18, In Israel undercover agents captured as many as 8 Palestinians believed to have taken part in the lynching death of 2 Israeli soldiers.
(SFC, 10/19/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 19, Israeli soldiers fought with Palestinian militiamen in the West Bank and 2 people were killed with 18 wounded.
(SFC, 10/20/00, p.A16)
2000 Oct 20, Israeli troops killed at least 9 Palestinians and wounded dozens in numerous West Bank clashes.
(SFC, 10/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 21, Tens of thousands of Palestinians took to the streets in marches and funerals in Gaza and the West Bank. 4 Palestinians were killed and over 100 injured.
(SFEC, 10/22/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 21, Arab leaders met in Cairo for a 2-day summit where they condemned Israel for violence and made proposals to deal with Israel.
(SFEC, 10/22/00, p.A1,21)
2000 Oct 22, Arab nations demanded a UN war crimes tribunal for Israelis responsible for Palestinian deaths and formally ended economic cooperation with Israel. Ehud Barak suspended Israeli participation in the peace process. He called for a "timeout" to decide whether negotiations can be salvaged.
(SFC, 10/23/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 23, In Israel Prime Minister Barak opened negotiations with Ariel Sharon and the Likud Party for a broad-based emergency government.
(SFC, 10/24/00, p.A14)
2000 Oct 23, Two more Palestinians died from injuries received during rioting in Nablus.
(SFC, 10/24/00, p.A14)
2000 Oct 26, In Israel a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at an Israeli army outpost. 129 people, mostly Palestinians, were reported killed in over four weeks of fighting.
(SFC, 10/27/00, p.A20)
2000 Oct 27, Palestinians clashed with Israelis in a "Day of Rage" and 4 were killed with 150 people injured.
(SFC, 10/28/00, p.A12)
2000 Oct 28, Palestinians clashed with Israeli troops and at least 29 were wounded.
(SFEC, 10/29/00, p.A18)
2000 Oct 29, Israeli tanks rolled through Gaza to secure free movement for Jewish settlers. 5 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, Nablus and Jenin.
(SFC, 10/30/00, p.A10)
2000 Oct 30, Israel fired rockets from helicopter gunships in the West Bank and Gaza as a warning against the use of guerrilla tactics. The death rose to 133 Palestinians and 10 Israelis.
(SFC, 10/31/00, p.A12)
2000 Nov 1, 3 Israelis and 6 Palestinians were killed in West Bank clashes.
(SFC, 11/2/00, p.A12)
2000 Nov 4, In Israel the clashes eased as Pres. Barak and Yasser Arafat announced separate visits to Washington for talks with Pres. Clinton.
(SFEC, 11/5/00, p.A11)
2000 Nov 5, Clashes in the West Bank and Gaza left 2 Palestinians killed and 17 injured.
(SFC, 11/6/00, p.A12)
2000 Nov 6, Israel rejected a plan for international observers in its conflict with the Palestinians.
(SFC, 11/7/00, p.B2)
2000 Nov 7, Pres. Clinton named George Mitchell to head a fact-finding team in the Israeli-Palestinian upheaval.
(SFC, 11/7/00, p.B2)
2000 Nov 8, Israeli troops killed 4 Palestinian teenagers and Palestinian gunmen ambushed and killed an Israeli woman (24).
(SFC, 11/9/00, p.C2)
2000 Nov 9, Pres. Clinton met with Yasser Arafat in Washington in an effort to end the bloodshed between Israel and Palestine.
(SFC, 11/10/00, p.A16)
2000 Nov 9, Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles at a Palestinian vehicle and killed Fatah militia leader Hussein Abayat along with 2 nearby women.
(SFC, 11/10/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 10, Israel sealed Bethlehem and Ramallah. Israeli troops killed 5 Palestinians in clashes in the West Bank and Gaza. One Israeli soldier was killed in shooting following a funeral for militia commander Hussein Abayat.
(SFC, 11/11/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 11, Fighting in the West Bank left 8 Palestinians dead along with 1 Israeli soldier.
(SFEC, 11/12/00, p.A19)
2000 Nov 12, Pres. Clinton met with Ehud Barak in an effort to end Arab-Israeli fighting. Meanwhile one Palestinian youth was killed in Gaza.
(SFC, 11/13/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 13, Palestinian gunmen attacked inside Israeli controlled areas of the West Bank and Gaza and killed 4 Israelis. Elsewhere 4 Palestinians were also killed over the day. Fatah called for the expulsion of Israelis from Gaza and the West Bank.
(SFC, 11/14/00, p.A16)(WSJ, 11/14/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 14, Israeli troops shot dead 3 Palestinian teenagers (13-19) and a man was killed after settlers threw rocks at his car.
(SFC, 11/15/00, p.A12)
2000 Nov 15, On Palestinian Independence Day many processions turned into clashes with Israeli forces and 8 Palestinians were killed. Israeli troops entered 3 Palestinian villages and captured 15 men suspected in recent shootings.
(SFC, 11/16/00, p.A14)
2000 Nov 16, Israeli forces attacked 4 targets associated with Fatah. 2 Palestinians were killed in clashes. Israel also reported a freeze on tax transfers to the Palestinian Authority.
(SFC, 11/16/00, p.A14)(SFC, 11/17/00, p.A21)(WSJ, 11/17/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 17, In Jerusalem Yasser Arafat announced that he had given orders for Palestinian gunmen to halt their shooting. Barak noted the possibility for int’l. supervisors in a peace agreement.
(SFC, 11/18/00, p.A12)
2000 Nov 18, A Palestinian police officer sneaked into a Jewish settlement in Gaza and shot dead an Israeli soldier. He wounded 2 others before he was killed.
(SFEC, 11/19/00, p.A14)
2000 Nov 19, Israeli troops killed a 14-year-old stone thrower in Gaza. One other Palestinian was killed and 9 wounded.
(SFC, 11/20/00, p.A8)
2000 Nov 20, Israel fired a barrage of missiles on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an attack on a school bus that killed 2 Jewish settlers and wounded 9 others including 3 siblings who lost limbs. At least 35 people were reported wounded in the missile attack.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 21, An Israeli motorist was wounded and a Palestinian was killed in the Gaza Strip.
(WSJ, 11/22/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 22, In Hadera, Israel, a car bomb killed at least 2 Israelis and wounded dozens. A Palestinian militia leader and 3 others were killed by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 11/23/00, p.A20)
2000 Nov 23, The Israeli army ordered Palestinian police to leave liaison offices after 2 soldiers were killed in the Gaza Strip. A Hamas member was killed in a car explosion in Nablus. A Palestinian court later sentenced to death a man convicted of helping Israeli security agents assassinate the Hamas bomber.
(SFC, 11/24/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/24/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/8/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 25, Israeli soldiers killed 4 Palestinians and wounded over 30 in a series of clashes that undermined field level cooperation. 2 students and 2 bakers were killed by Israeli soldiers, who claimed Jamal Abdel Razek was a leader of the Tanzim militia traveling with 3 bodyguards.
(SSFC, 11/26/00, p.A18)(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A16)
2000 Nov 26, Israel attacked targets in southern Lebanon after a roadside bomb killed one Israeli soldier and wounded 2 others near the border. 4 armed Palestinians were killed as they left Qalqilya into an area on Israeli control.
(SFC, 11/27/00, p.A8)
2000 Nov 30, Palestinians rejected a scaled-back peace plan proposed by Ehud Barak.
(SFC, 12/1/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 1, Mohammed Deif (35), leader of the Izzedine al Qassam Brigades –the armed wing of Hamas, escaped from jail in the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 12/8/00, p.D6)
2000 Dec 1, Israelis killed 2 Palestinians and injured over 20 in clashes in the West Bank and Gaza.
(SFC, 12/2/00, p.A13)
2000 Dec 4, Israeli soldiers wounded 25 people in the West Bank village of Husan.
(SFC, 12/5/00, p.A14)
2000 Dec 5, The Israeli and Palestinian violence was reported to have cost the Palestinians over $500 million in lost wages and sales since late September.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A16)
2000 Dec 6, The Israeli Betselem human-rights group condemned the Israeli army for excessive force in combating the Palestinian intifada.
(SFC, 12/7/00, p.A12)
2000 Dec 6, The World Bank approved a $12 million grant to help Palestinians.
(SFC, 12/7/00, p.A12)
2000 Dec 8, In Jerusalem and the West Bank 7 Palestinians and 3 Israelis were killed in the ongoing violence.
(SFC, 12/9/00, p.A16)
2000 Dec 12, Israeli soldiers killed Yousef Abu Swayeh (27), a West Bank Palestinian leader.
(SFC, 12/13/00, p.B4)
2000 Dec 13, Fighting in Gaza left 4 Palestinian policemen dead. A Fatah activist was killed in the West Bank.
(WSJ, 12/14/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 15, In Israel Ehud Barak made a bid to restart peace talks as 6 more Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli troops.
(SFC, 12/16/00, p.A20)
2000 Dec 17, Israeli and Palestinian officials agreed to hold talks in Washington prior to the departure of Pres. Clinton.
(SFC, 12/18/00, p.E2)
2000 Dec 21, Israeli officials acknowledged a "liquidation" policy for hunting down and killing Palestinian militants.
(SFC, 12/22/00, p.A20)
2000 Dec 23, Negotiators from Israel and Palestine left Washington without an agreement on critical issues.
(SSFC, 12/24/00, p.A12)
2000 Dec 25, Pres. Clinton laid down a new set of proposals for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The proposals included a Palestinian concession for some 3.7 million refugees to give up the right of return and for Israelis to cede sovereignty over the Temple Mount.
(SFC, 12/26/00, p.A1)(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A14)
2000 Dec 28, Bombs exploded in Tel Aviv and Gaza shortly after a peace summit was cancelled. 2 Israeli soldiers were killed.
(SFC, 12/29/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec 29, In Gaza a Palestinian police officer was killed in a shootout as Israeli soldiers bulldozed a grove of trees.
(SFC, 12/30/00, p.A8)
2000 The documentary film "Yasmin," directed by Nizar Hassan, premiered in the US. It is about an incident of honor killing.
(SFEC, 9/3/00, DB p.52)
Timeline Palestine 2001- 2003
2001 Jan 1, In Israel a car bomb wounded at least 40 people in Netanya and gunfire killed 4 Palestinians in the West Bank.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 2, Pres. Clinton met with Yasser Arafat and coaxed Arafat to curb the Middle East violence.
(SFC, 1/3/01, p.A1)
2001 Jan 3, Yasser Arafat accepted "with reservations" Pres. Clinton’s outline for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement.
(SFC, 1/4/01, p.A8)
2001 Jan 4, It was reported that Saddam Hussein had sent moral support and distributed some 270 checks for $10,000 each to the families of Palestinians killed in clashes with Israelis since Nov.
(SFC, 1/5/01, p.A17)
2001 Jan 8, Palestinian’s rejected Pres. Clinton’s formula for a permanent Mideast settlement.
(SSFC, 12/30/01, p.D2)
2001 Jan 13, The Palestinian Authority executed the 1st 2 Palestinians ever convicted of collaborating with Israel.
(SSFC, 1/14/01, p.D1)
2001 Jan 15, The Palestinian authority offered amnesty to suspected collaborators with Israel.
(SFC, 1/16/01, p.A9)
2001 Jan 17, Hisham Miki (54), head of Palestinian TV, was shot to death by 3 masked men in Gaza City.
(SFC, 1/18/01, p.A13)
2001 Jan 18, Ofir Rafum (16) of Israel was murdered in the West Bank after being lured over by a woman via an internet relationship.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A11)
2001 Jan 19, The US and Israel signed an agreement to phase out economic aid by 2008. Half the aid would be replaced by military aid. Separately $80 million was pledged to a UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A11)
2001 Jan 20, In Israel Prime Minister Barak agreed to a Palestinian proposal for a fresh round of peace negotiations in Taba, Egypt.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.D3)
2001 Jan 20, In the West Bank Israeli soldiers captured Mona Najar (25), suspected in the Jan 18 luring and murder of Ophir Rakhum.
(SSFC, 1/21/01, p.3)
2001 Jan 22, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met in Taba, Egypt.
(SFC, 1/23/01, p.A12)
2001 Jan 25, Israel and Palestine continued talks in Egypt as an Israeli motorist was killed in an ambush by the "Thabet Thabet Brigade."
(SFC, 1/26/01, p.A12)
2001 Jan 27, Israel and Palestine ended 6 days of talks in Egypt. They failed to reach a peace accord but declared that they were never closer.
(SSFC, 1/28/01, p.A18)
2001 Feb 9, In Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon asked Ehud Barak to serve as defense minister. A Palestinian shepherd was killed by an Israeli bullet.
(SFC, 2/10/01, p.A10)(SSFC, 2/11/01, p.C5)
2001 Feb 10, Israel said it would not cooperate with the newly arrived UN human rights mission for a fact-finding tour of Palestinian areas.
(SSFC, 2/11/01, p.C1)
2001 Feb 12, Israeli soldiers shot and killed 2 Palestinians in the West Bank and dozens of Palestinians were wounded in a gunbattle in the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 2/13/01, p.A10)
2001 Feb 13, Israeli gunships killed Massoud Ayyad (57), a Palestinian security official, with anti-tank missiles fired at his car in Gaza.
(SFC, 2/14/01, p.A14)
2001 Feb 14, Khalil Abu Olbeh (35), a Palestinian bus driver, drove his bus into a group of Israelis in Tel Aviv and killed 8 people. The dead included 3 male and 4 female soldiers and 1 civilian woman. Olbeh, was later sentenced to eight life terms.
(SFC, 2/14/01, p.A14)(SFC, 2/15/01, p.A12)(AP, 2/14/02)
2001 Feb 19, In the West Bank Mahmoud Madani (25), a Hamas activist, was shot to death from long range.
(SFC, 2/20/01, p.A9)
2001 Feb 23, Palestinians demonstrated against the visit of Colin Powell and one was killed in clashes with Israeli security forces.
(SFC, 2/24/01, p.A10)
2001 Mar 1, In Israel a Palestinian in a taxi detonated a bomb that killed one passenger, injured 9 and blew off his own legs.
(SFC, 3/2/01, p.A17)
2001 Mar 4, In Israel a Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and 3 Israelis in Netanya.
(SSFC, 3/4/01, p.A27)
2001 Mar 12, Israel sealed off the city of Ramallah, the unofficial seat of the Palestinian Authority.
(SFC, 3/13/01, p.A15)
2001 Mar 15, Israel arrested 3 members of an elite Palestinian security force who allegedly planned a bomb attack on Israeli West Bank military headquarters.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A14)
2001 Mar 18, Palestinians first used mortars on Israel proper and hit the army base near Nahal Oz kibbutz.
(SFC, 4/10/01, p.A10)
2001 Mar 26, In Hebron a Palestinian sniper shot and killed a 10-month-old Jewish girl. A 15-year-old Palestinian boy was shot and wounded in Gaza.
(SFC, 3/27/01, p.F1)
2001 Mar 27, Two bombings in Jerusalem wounded some 35 people.
(SFC, 3/28/01, p.A10)
2001 Mar 28, Two Israeli teenagers were killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber. Israeli gunships followed up with missile strikes at Arafat’s personal security forces and at least 3 Palestinians were killed.
(SFC, 3/29/01, p.A10)
2001 Mar 30, Israeli Arabs observed Land Day with peaceful marches. Israeli soldiers shot to death 6 Palestinians and wounded over 100.
(SFC, 3/31/01, p.A10)
2001 Apr 2, An Israeli helicopter rocketed a truck and killed an Islamic Jihad militant. In Bethlehem a sniper killed an Israeli soldier.
(WSJ, 4/3/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 3, Israel fired rockets at 4 Gaza Strip targets after a 10-year-old boy was injured in a mortar assault on a Jewish settlement.
(SFC, 4/4/01, p.A10)
2001 Apr 5, Iyad Hardan, head of Sarai al-Quds, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad, was killed in the explosion of a booby trapped pay phone in the West Bank.
(SFC, 4/6/01, p.A16)
2001 Apr 11, Israel sent tanks and bulldozers into the Khan Yunis refugee camp and demolished over 2 dozen homes. 2 Palestinians were killed and 25 injured in ground fighting.
(SFC, 4/12/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 4/12/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 16, Israeli warplanes struck deep in Lebanon and attacked a Syrian radar site. 3 Syrians were killed. In the evening Israeli helicopters hit Palestinian positions in Gaza in retaliation for a mortar attack on an Israeli town. Bulldozers were sent to tear up farmland near Beit Hanoun, the suspected source of the mortar fire.
(SFC, 4/16/01, p.A9)(WSJ, 4/16/01, p.A1)(SFC, 4/17/01, p.A8)
2001 Apr 17, Israeli tanks, bulldozers and ground troops seized Palestinian territory but withdrew under US pressure after 18 hours.
(SFC, 4/18/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 18, Israel raided southern Gaza and leveled a Palestinian police station in response to mortar attacks.
(SFC, 4/19/01, p.A10)
2001 Apr 19, Israel removed road blocks to Palestinian travel in the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 4/20/01, p.A15)
2001 Apr 20, Yasser Arafat proposed that he and Ariel Sharon simultaneously call for an end Israeli-Palestinian violence.
(SFC, 4/21/01, p.A12)
2001 Apr 22, In Israel a suicide bomber killed himself and an Israeli physician at a bus stop in Kfar Sava. 40-50 others were wounded.
(SFC, 4/23/01, p.A8)(WSJ, 4/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 23, In Gaza a 12-year-old Palestinian boy was shot and killed during the funeral of a Palestinian police officer. 11 others were wounded. Near Tel Aviv a 3rd bomb blast in 2 days injured 4 people.
(SFC, 4/24/01, p.A10)
2001 Apr 24, Israel promised to ease restrictions on Palestinian towns in exchange for Palestinian efforts to prevent violence. Fighting left 2 Palestinians dead.
(SFC, 4/25/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 4/25/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 25, In Gaza an explosion killed 4 Palestinian police.
(SFC, 4/26/01, p.A14)
2001 Apr 30, Five Palestinians were killed in bomb blasts in Gaza and the West Bank.
(SFC, 5/1/01, p.A10)
2001 May 1, In the West Bank Assaf Hershovitz (31), a Jewish settler, was killed when his van was hit by 27 bullets outside Ramallah.
(SFC, 5/2/01, p.A8)
2001 May 2, Israeli bulldozers demolished 20 houses in the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza and killed one teenager during the predawn operation.
(SFC, 5/3/01, p.B1)
2001 May 4, Sen. George Mitchell, head of the US-led mission on Israeli-Palestinian fighting, issued a report and said Israel should freeze settlement constructions.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.D1)
2001 ` May 5, In the West Bank Ahmed Khalil Assad (37), a Palestinian militant, was shot to death in front of his 2-year-old niece, who was injured. In Jericho Israeli soldiers rocketed a Palestinian police base and 17 people were injured.
(SSFC, 5/6/01, p.A14)
2001 May 7, Israeli tank fire killed Iman Hijo, a Palestinian 4-month-old baby in Khan Yunis. A Palestinian police officer in the West Bank was also killed.
(WSJ, 5/8/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/8/01, p.C5)
2001 May 9, In the West Bank 2 Israeli teenagers, Koby Mandell (13) and Yossi Ishran (14), were stoned to death and found in a cave.
(WSJ, 5/10/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/10/01, p.A16)
2001 May 10, Israel retaliated for a roadside bomb that that killed 2 Romanian workers. Rockets were fired at Palestinian police headquarters and Fatah offices in Gaza.
(WSJ, 5/11/01, p.A1)
2001 May 11, In Gaza Israeli bulldozers flattened a police station and 5 homes. Tanks fired at the Jabaliya refugee camp. Surface to air missiles hit downtown Gaza City.
(BS, 5/12/01, p.9A)(SFC, 5/11/01, p.A16)
2001 May 12, In the West Bank Moutasem Sabaa (26), a Palestinian militant, and Ala’a Jaloudi, a Palestinian policeman, were killed in an Israeli helicopter attack. 3 members of the Tanzim militia escaped.
(SSFC, 5/13/01, p.A13)
2001 May 13, Israeli helicopters rocketed Palestinian police compounds in the Gaza Strip. Navy ships fired shells at the Palestinian navy office in the Nusseiraqt refugee camp.
(SFC, 5/14/01, p.A9)
2001 May 14, Israeli forces gunned down 5 Palestinian police officers (18-29) at a checkpoint in Beitunia, a suburb of Ramallah. Israel later admitted that the men killed were mistaken for members of Force 17.
(SFC, 5/15/01, p.A9)(SFC, 5/17/01, p.A10)
2001 May 15, On Israel’s 53rd birthday Israeli troops shot and killed at least 4 Palestinians and over 200 were wounded. An Israeli woman was also killed in the West Bank.
(SFC, 5/16/01, p.A10)(WSJ, 5/16/01, p.A1)
2001 May 15, Tens of thousands of Palestinians packed town squares in the West Bank town of Ramallah as they marked what they called the day of "catastrophe" in 1948, when they were uprooted and the state of Israel created.
(AP, 5/15/02)
2001 May 18, In Israel a suicide bomber killed 7 others and wounded over 100 women and children at a shopping mall in Netanya. Israeli F-16 jets retaliated and killed at 10 Palestinian security personnel in 3 Palestinian cities. Near the Neve Tzuf Jewish settlement Yair Nebentzal (22) was killed by sniper fire.
(SFC, 5/19/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/31/01, p.A1)(AP, 5/18/06)
2001 May 21, Amid escalating Middle East violence, an international commission submitted a report calling for end to violence, but it was never implemented.
(AP, 9/6/03)
2001 May 23, An Israeli contractor was killed in an ambush in the West Bank. 38 Palestinians including 15 children were wounded in a firefight at the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza.
(SFC, 5/24/01, p.A14)
2001 May 24, The Israeli Air Force shot down a small plane off the coast and killed a Lebanese student pilot (43). Israel sent tanks into the Gaza Strip and 2 people were killed.
(SFC, 5/25/01, p.A14)(WSJ, 5/25/01, p.A1)
2001 May 25, Three Palestinian suicide bombers attacked in Hadera and Gaza but only killed themselves.
(SFC, 5/26/01, p.A8)
2001 May 28, Israel and the Palestinians agreed to resume talks on security cooperation.
(SFC, 5/29/01, p.A12)
2001 May 29, In Israel and the West Bank 3 Palestinians and 3 Israelis were killed.
(SFC, 5/30/01, p.A10)
2001 May 31, In Israel a Jewish settler was killed in the West Bank and Palestinian (17) was killed during a clash in Ramallah. Since Sept. 483 Palestinians have died and 88 Israelis including 24 settlers.
(SFC, 6/1/01, p.D6)
2001 May 31, Faisal Husseini (60), a Palestinian leader, died in Kuwait of a heart attack. He was a member of the PLO’s 18-strong executive committee and head of the Fatah on the West Bank.
(SFC, 6/1/01, p.D5)
2001 Jun 1, In Israel a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 21 young people at a Tel Aviv disco. At least 80 people were injured in the Hamas attack.
(SFC, 6/2/01, p.A1)(SFC, 12/30/01, p.D3)
2001 Jun 2, In the West Bank Yasser Arafat announced that he would make every effort to bring about an unconditional cease-fire.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A1)
2001 Jun 4, As Israeli soldiers and Palestinians exchanged fire in Rafah, Hamas said that it would join the cease-fire.
(SFC, 6/5/01, p.A12)
2001 Jun 9, Israeli tank shells killed 3 Palestinian women, Nessra Malaha (65), Salimia Malaha (46) and Hikmet Malaha (17), in the Gaza Strip.
(SSFC, 6/10/01, p.A15)
2001 Jun 12, Israel and the Palestinians agreed to a cease-fire following 6 days of mediation by US CIA director George Tenet.
(SFC, 6/13/01, p.D2)
2001 Jun 13, Israel eased travel restrictions into the West Bank and Gaza as the armistice went into effect. Under the agreement Israel had 48 hours to pull tanks and troops back and Palestinians were due to start arresting militants planning attacks.
(SFC, 6/14/01, p.A14)
2001 Jun 14, In Israel Lt. Col. Yehuda Edri (45) was killed by a Palestinian man, who was then killed by Edri’s bodyguard. Another Palestinian man was killed in a driveby shooting in the West Bank and Jewish settlers were suspect.
(SFC, 6/15/01, p.A18)
2001 Jun 17, Israeli soldiers shot and killed Ali Abu Shaweesh (5) when they fired on Palestinian demonstrators near Jewish settlements in Gaza.
(SFC, 6/18/01, p.A10)
2001 Jun 22, In Israel settlers blocked West Bank roads and scuffled with soldiers in a 3rd day of right-wing violence. A Palestinian suicide bombing killed 2 Israeli soldiers.
(SFC, 6/23/01, p.A8)
2001 Jun 24, In the West Bank town of Nablus Osama Jawabri (29), a Palestinian activist, was killed by a bomb planted in a public phone.
(SFC, 6/25/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 1, Israel hit a Syrian radar site in Lebanon. In the West Bank Israeli helicopters rocketed a car with 3 Islamic Jihad members. Israeli infantry killed 2 Hamas members.
(WSJ, 7/2/01, p.A1)(SFC, 7/2/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 2, An Israeli was killed while shopping near the West Bank and a Palestinian was killed by Israeli troops. The US scrambled to salvage the cease-fire.
(WSJ, 7/3/01, p.A1)(SFC, 7/3/01, p.A7)
2001 Jul 7, In the Gaza Strip a Palestinian boy was shot and killed and 2 others injured by Israeli soldiers. Palestinian militants were said to have been shooting in the Raffah refugee camp area.
(SSFC, 7/8/01, p.A13)
2001 Jul 8, Israeli agents in Hebron abducted Ayoub Sharawi, a member of Hamas. In Gaza Palestinians and Israelis exchanged gunfire in Rafah.
(SFC, 7/9/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 8, Israeli wrecking crews destroyed 14 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem at the edge of the Shuafat refugee camp.
(SFC, 7/10/01, p.A7)
2001 Jul 10, Israel destroyed at least 10 Palestinian structures in Rafah in the Gaza Strip and ignited a fierce gun battle.
(WSJ, 7/10/01, p.A1)(SFC, 7/11/01, p.A7)
2001 Jul 11, An Israeli soldier shot and killed a Palestinian woman after her taxi evaded a roadblock. Israeli police in Afula captured a Palestinian would-be suicide bomber.
(SFC, 7/12/01, p.A12)
2001 Jul 12, Israeli tanks shelled police posts in Nablus after Palestinian gunmen wounded Israeli motorists. One Palestinian police officer was killed.
(SFC, 7/13/01, p.A14)
2001 Jul 13, In Gaza and the West Bank 2 Islamic Hamas militants were killed. Israeli soldiers shot and killed one in Tulkarm. Fawaz Badran (27) was killed when his car exploded.
(SFC, 7/14/01, p.A10)
2001 Jul 15, In Israel PM Sharon and his Cabinet decided to build new towns in the Halutza Sands region of the Negev Desert. Shimon Peres met with Arafat in Cairo and a gunbattle in Hebron left 20 Palestinians wounded.
(SFC, 7/16/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 16, In Israel a Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and 2 Israelis at a bus stop north of Tel Aviv. The bombing was believed to be an effort to mar the opening of the Macabiah, the Jewish Olympics in Jerusalem. Israel retaliated by shelling Palestinian police posts in 2 West Bank towns.
(SFC, 7/17/01, p.A6)(WSJ, 7/17/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 17, An Israeli helicopter fired missiles at a hut in Bethlehem and 4 Palestinians were killed. A few hours later Palestinians fired a mortar shell into a Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem.
(SFC, 7/18/01, p.A12)
2001 Jul 19, The US joined major powers in calling for 3rd parties to monitor a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians.
(SFC, 7/20/01, p.A14)
2001 Jul 19, In the West Bank Jewish extremists, who identified themselves as the Committee for Road Safety, killed 3 Palestinians including a 3-month-old girl, in a drive-by shooting near Hebron.
(SFC, 7/20/01, p.A14)
2001 Jul 20, In the West Bank an explosion leveled the office of Yasser Arafat in Hebron and Rajai Abu Rajab, an activist in the Tanzim, was found dead. Israel denied firing any missiles.
(SFC, 7/21/01, p.E1)
2001 Jul 23, Israeli police killed a Palestinian who drove a would-be bomber toward Haifa. In Gaza Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian teenager.
(WSJ, 7/24/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 25, Israeli troops killed Salah Darwazeh, a Hamas militant, with antitank rockets as he drove near Nablus. Informant Ahmed Abu Issah, father of nine, was paid $50 for information on Darwazeh and was later condemned to death by a Palestinian court.
(WSJ, 7/26/01, p.A1)(SFC, 8/11/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 26, An Israeli youth was killed in a drive-by shooting and 3 bombs went off in the West Bank with no injuries.
(WSJ, 7/27/01, p.A1)
2001 Jul 28, An Israeli helicopter attack in the Gaza Strip destroyed a workshop making munitions and was followed by armed clashes.
(SSFC, 7/29/01, p.A18)
2001 Jul 30, In the West Bank 6 Palestinian Fatah activists were killed in an explosion near the Al-Fara refugee camp. Israeli helicopters soon after rocketed a weapons storage center in Gaza and at least 7 Palestinian police officers were wounded.
(SFC, 7/30/01, p.A6)(WSJ, 7/30/01, p.A1)(SFC, 7/31/01, p.A6)
2001 Jul 31, In the West Bank Israeli gunships killed 8 people in Nablus including 2 Hamas leaders, Jamal Mansour and Jamal Salim, and 2 children.
(SFC, 8/1/01, p.A1)(SFC, 8/2/01, p.A7)
2001 Aug 1, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian man in heavy fighting in Hebron.
(WSJ, 8/2/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 2, Palestinian judges sentenced 4 Palestinian men to death for helping Israel’s army carry out lethal attacks. 3 Palestinian men, suspected of collaboration, were recently gunned down in the streets.
(SFC, 8/3/01, p.A12)
2001 Aug 3, Yasser Arafat’s news agency called for a halt to armed attacks against Israel.
(SFC, 8/4/01, p.A6)
2001 Aug 4, The Israeli army fired missiles at a convoy carrying the Palestinian West Bank leader Marwan Barghouti.
(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.A12)
2001 Aug 5, In Israel a Palestinian gunman shot into a crowd of soldiers in Tel Aviv and injured 10 people before he was fatally shot. In 2 other incidents an Israeli woman was killed in a drive-by shooting and a Palestinian attempting to plant a bomb in Tulkarm was killed by Israeli troops.
(SFC, 8/6/01, p.A1,A10)
2001 Aug 7, Two Israelis were shot dead on the West Bank. Israel gave its soldiers a freer hand to fire on Palestinians.
(WSJ, 8/8/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 9, In Jerusalem a Palestinian suicide bomber, Izzadine Masri, killed himself and 15 others at the Sbarro pizzeria. 90 people were wounded. Hamas claimed responsibility.
(WSJ, 8/10/01, p.A1)(SFC, 7/24/02, p.A14)(AP, 8/9/06)
2001 Aug 10, Israeli forces took over 9 buildings in East Jerusalem in retaliation for the suicide bombing that killed 15 people.
(SFC, 8/11/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 12, In Israel Palestinian suicide bomber Muhammad Nasser (28) blew himself up at the Wall Street Café in Kiryat Motzkin near Haifa. 21 other people were injured. In Hebron a Palestinian girl died in a clash with Israeli troops.
(SFC, 8/13/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/13/01, p.A1)(AP, 8/12/02)
2001 Aug 14, Israeli tanks rolled into Palestinian-controlled Jenin. Bulldozers destroyed a Palestinian police station and Israeli forces took back with them some 70 Palestinians, who had been jailed in Jenin for collaboration with Israel. In Nablus Shadi Affori (19), a Fatah member, was killed in an explosion at his home.
(SFC, 8/14/01, p.A1)(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A6)
2001 Aug 15, Israeli undercover troops in Hebron killed Emad Abu Sneiheh (25), an activist in the Tanzim militia.
(SFC, 8/16/01, p.A9)
2001 Aug 19, In the West Bank Israeli troops killed Mohammed Abu Arrar (14) at Rafah and Muin Abu Lawi (38) near Nablus. Samir Abu Zaid and his 2 sons were killed when their house was shelled in Rafah. Palestinians blamed Israeli missiles, while the Israelis blamed Palestinian mortar rounds. Israel later said Zaid and his children were killed by a bomb he was making.
(SFC, 8/20/01, p.A8)(WSJ, 8/21/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 21, Yasser Arafat agreed to truce talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
(SFC, 8/22/01, p.A10)
2001 Aug 22, Israeli forces killed 7 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
(SFC, 8/23/01, p.A8)(WSJ, 8/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 23, Israeli forces raided Palestinian neighborhoods in Hebron following the shooting of 2 young Jewish brothers. One Palestinian was reported killed and a dozen wounded. In Gaza Israeli forces killed Mahmoud Zourab (11), a Palestinian boy throwing stones.
(SFC, 8/24/01, p.A16)
2001 Aug 25, Palestinian commandoes killed an Israeli officer and 2 soldiers in a pre-dawn raid in Bedolah, Gaza Strip. 2 commandoes of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade were killed a 1 escaped. Palestinian gunmen north of Jerusalem killed 3 members of an Israeli family in a car ambush. 2 children were wounded.
(SSFC, 8/26/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 26, Israeli jets flattened the Palestinian Gaza City police headquarters in retaliation for the shooting ambush of a settler family. Other Palestinian police buildings and checkpoints were bombed.
(SFC, 8/27/01, p.A6)
2001 Aug 27, Israeli helicopters fired missiles into the offices of Mustafa Zibri, chief of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in El Bireh. Zibri was killed and thousands of Palestinians began protests.
(SFC, 8/28/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 28, Israeli force occupied parts of Beit Jala in the West Bank.
(SFC, 8/29/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 29, Four Palestinians and 1 Israeli were killed in ongoing violence.
(SFC, 8/30/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 30, Israeli forces began pulling out of Beit Jala. 3 Palestinians were killed in gunbattles with Israeli troops. One Israeli was killed in a Palestinian village in a restaurant that he helped a friend establish.
(SFC, 8/30/01, p.A1)(SFC, 8/31/01, p.A14)
2001 Aug 31, Israeli troops battled Palestinian gunmen and 19 Palestinians were wounded.
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A6)
2001 Sep 1, In Gaza Col. Tayser Khattab (52), Palestinian intelligence aide, was killed by a car bomb. Near Tulkarem a Palestinian woman (22) was killed from a blast in a taxi.
(SSFC, 9/2/01, p.A20)
2001 Sep 3, In Jerusalem 4 bombs exploded on the streets and Israelis fired missiles into a Palestinian security building. Two Palestinians were killed during fighting in Hebron. In Jerusalem a suicide bomber, dressed as an Orthodox Jew, blew himself up on the Street of the Prophets.
(SFC, 9/4/01, p.A8)(SFC, 9/5/01, p.A8)
2001 Sep 6, Israel’s PM Sharon said he was considering a buffer zone to foil terrorists. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said he would meet with Yasser Arafat next week. Israeli gunships killed 2 Palestinian men. In an apparent reprisal an Israeli soldier was shot dead and an Israeli woman seriously wounded along the "green line."
(SFC, 9/7/01, p.A14)
2001 Sep 7, In Gaza City Yasser Arafat was reported to be in discussions with Hamas on a power-sharing proposal.
(SFC, 9/8/01, p.A8)
2001 Sep 8, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at offices of the Fatah in Ramallah. Palestinian police said a 13-year-old boy was killed by Israeli gunfire n Rafah.
(SSFC, 9/9/01, p.A18)
2001 Sep 9, In Nahariya, Israel, an Israeli Arab, Muhammad Saker Habashi (55), killed himself and 3 others in a suicide bombing. At least 71 other people were wounded. 4 other people were killed in the West Bank and Gaza.
(SFC, 9/10/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 10, Israeli forces and Palestinians exchanged gunfire in Jenin and Gaza and 3 Palestinians were killed.
(SFC, 9/12/01, p.C3)
2001 Sep 11, Israeli tanks moved into Jenin and tore down the Palestinian police headquarters. This prompted fighting that killed 2 Palestinians.
(SFC, 9/12/01, p.C3)(WSJ, 9/12/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 11, World leaders expressed outrage at terrorist attacks in NYC and the Pentagon and pledged solidarity with the US. In the West Bank town of Nablus, some 3,000 people celebrated the attacks and chanted "God is great." Later the estimates of the WTC dead dropped to 4,396. In 2004 the count was reduced to 2,749.
(SFC, 9/12/01, p.A14)(SFC, 11/3/01, p.A3)(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A2)(USAT, 10/30/03, p.7A)(WSJ, 1/26/04, p.A1)(www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1M4eH9Kk7I)
2001 Sep 12, An Israeli woman was killed by a Palestinian shooting ambush in the West Bank.
(SFC, 9/13/01, p.A12)
2001 Sep 13, Israeli forces entered Jenin and Jericho and Palestinian officials reported that 10 people were killed.
(SFC, 9/13/01, p.A12)
2001 Sep 14, A Palestinian attack wounded 2 Israeli policemen.
(SSFC, 9/16/01, p.A28)
2001 Sep 15, Gunfire between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza and Jerusalem left 3 Palestinians dead and 2 Israelis wounded.
(SSFC, 9/16/01, p.A28)
2001 Sep 16, Israeli forces invaded Palestinian territory at Ramallah. One Israeli soldier and 1 Palestinian security officer were killed. Many people were wounded.
(SFC, 9/17/01, p.A18)
2001 Sep 17, Yasser Arafat ordered his forces to observe a cease-fire as Israel began to observe its Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana. In clashes 1 Palestinian was killed and 15 wounded, while 4 Israelis were wounded.
(SFC, 9/18/01, p.B10)
2001 Sep 18, Pres. Yasser Arafat declared "a cease-fire on all fronts" and Israel responded by suspending military operations against Palestinian targets and withdrawing from Palestinian-ruled areas.
(SFC, 9/19/01, p.B2)
2001 Sep 20, An Israeli woman, Sarit Amrani (25), was killed in a drive-by shooting by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. A Palestinian man was killed in Gaza following a grenade assault. Another Palestinian police officer was killed, possibly by militants he was trying to restrain near Hebron. The violence threatened the recent truce.
(SFC, 9/21/01, p.D2)
2001 Sep 23, PM Sharon cancelled talks with Yasser Arafat after Palestinians fired 3 mortar shells in the Gaza Strip, 2 of which hit Jewish settlements and the 3rd fell inside Israel. There were no injuries.
(SFC, 9/24/01, p.B1)
2001 Sep 26, Israel’s Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat met for peace talks. They pledged a new drive for peace and agreed to resume cooperation between their security forces as Palestinian gunmen and Israeli troops exchanged gunfire. Gaza fighting left a Palestinian youth dead.
(SFC, 9/26/01, p.C2)(SFC, 9/27/01, p.A11)(WSJ, 9/27/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 27, Israeli-Palestinian fighting left 5 Palestinians dead. Israel demolished some houses in a Gaza camp in response to a Hamas attack.
(WSJ, 9/28/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 28, Israeli-Palestinian security officials met to work out details for ending the bloodshed as fighting left at least 3 Palestinians. 1 Palestinian apparently blew himself up in Hebron while making a bomb. Another 3 Palestinians were later killed while planting a mine in Rafah.
(SFC, 9/29/01, p.B1)
2001 Sep 29, Tens of thousands of Palestinians marched in Gaza and the West Bank to support their uprising against Israel. 3 Palestinians were killed in confrontations with Israeli troops.
(SSFC, 9/30/01, p.A17)
2001 Sep 30, Israeli troops killed 3 Palestinians in the West Bank. The Palestinian death toll reached 18 since the cease-fire pledge last week.
(SFC, 10/1/01, p.A8)
2001 Oct 2, Palestinian gunmen attacked an Israeli settlement in Gaza and killed a teenage couple. At least 15 others were wounded. 2 gunmen were killed by Israeli sharpshooters.
(SFC, 10/3/01, p.A11)
2001 Oct 3, Israeli forces in Gaza cleared a half mile buffer zone and killed 6 Palestinians when tank shells ripped their cars.
(SFC, 10/4/01, p.C2)
2001 Oct 4, In Israel PM Sharon warned the US that it risked appeasing the Arab nations: "Do not try to appease the Arabs at our expense." A Palestinian posing as an Israeli soldier killed 3 Israelis in Afula. A Palestinian was killed during a 2nd day of fighting in Hebron.
(SFC, 10/5/01, p.D4)(WSJ, 10/5/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 5, In Israel PM Sharon ordered the largest military assault in a year and 5 Palestinians were killed in Hebron.
(SFC, 10/6/01, p.A11)
2001 Oct 7, A Palestinian suicide bomber, Ahmed Daraghmeh (17), killed himself and 1 Israeli near the settlement of Kibbutz Shluhot.
(SFC, 10/8/01, p.F1)
2001 Oct 8, A Palestinian rally turned violent as police forces attempted to quell some 2,000 students supportive of Osama bin Laden. 2 students were killed.
(SFC, 10/9/01, p.A10)
2001 Oct 11, A Palestinian militant blew himself up while trying to plant a bomb along a West Bank road used by Israelis.
(SFC, 10/12/01, p.D3)
2001 Oct 12, Israeli and Palestinian officials resumed peace talks. Thousands of Palestinians held marches in the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Nablus.
(SFC, 10/13/01, p.A13)
2001 Oct 14, An Israeli sniper shot and killed Abed Rahman Hamad, a Hamas leader, hours before the government announced that it would withdraw troops from Hebron and ease Palestinian travel restrictions.
(SFC, 10/15/01, p.E2)
2001 Oct 15, Britain’s PM Tony Blair said his country favors "a viable Palestinian state, as part of a negotiated and agreed settlement" during a news conference with visiting Yasser Arafat.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.A8)
2001 Oct 16, In Israel PM Sharon said he would accept the creation of a Palestinian state if Israeli security needs were met.
(WSJ, 10/17/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 17, Rehavam Zeevi, Israeli tourist minister, was shot dead at the Hyatt Regency in East Jerusalem. The PFLP claimed responsibility and Yasser Arafat promised to hunt down the perpetrators. Hambi Quran, Basel al-Asmar, Ahmed Gholmy and Majdi Rimawi were later convicted for the murder. Ahmed Saadat, head of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was imprisoned in Jericho. In 2007 Hamdi Quran was sentenced to 100 years in prison for gunning down the minister as well as bombing and shooting attacks against Israelis. In 2008 Bassel Asmar was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, attempted murder and belonging to a terror organization.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.A1)(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A16)(AP, 3/7/06)(AP, 2/6/08)
2001 Oct 18, Atef Abeiyat, a militia commander in Arafat’s Fatah, was killed with 2 others when their car exploded near Bethlehem. 3 other Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire including an 11-year-old school girl.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A1,18)
2001 Oct 19, Israeli troops and tanks invaded Bethlehem and left 6 Palestinians dead. A Palestinian fighter was killed in Ramallah.
(SFC, 10/20/01, p.E1)
2001 Oct 20, Israeli tanks and troops seized control of Kalkilya and Tulkarm and moved into the heart of Bethlehem. At least 8 Palestinians were killed.
(SSFC, 10/21/01, p.A19)
2001 Oct 21, Israeli forces continued to occupy West Bank territory and 3 Palestinians were killed including Johnny Thaljieh, a 16-year-old Christian.
(SFC, 10/22/01, p.B1)
2001 Oct 22, Israeli forces held on to Palestinian territory despite US demands for withdrawal. 3 Palestinians were killed as fighting spilled into Lebanon.
(SFC, 10/23/01, p.A13)
2001 Oct 23, Israel rejected a request by Pres. Bush to withdraw from Palestinian territory as the violence continued.
(SFC, 10/24/01, p.C3)
2001 Oct 24, Israeli forces stormed into Beit Rama and killed at least 5 more Palestinians. 11 were arrested including 2 who allegedly helped kill an Israeli Cabinet minister on Oct 17.
(SFC, 10/25/01, p.A15)
2001 Oct 25, Israel withdrew from Beit Rama and pledged phased withdrawals if demands for a total cease-fire were met. Three Palestinians were killed in Bethlehem.
(SFC, 10/26/01, p.D2)
2001 Oct 26, Israel agreed to pull back from Bethlehem and Beit Jalla as a test of Palestinian guarantees of security.
(SFC, 10/27/01, p.A9)
2001 Oct 27, Israel called off a planned withdrawal from Palestinian territory citing a handful of shooting attacks.
(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.A16)
2001 Oct 28, Israel pulled out of Bethlehem and Beit Jala. In Hadera suspected Palestinian gunmen sprayed gunfire and killed 4 women along a main boulevard before they were shot dead by police. Drive by shooters killed an Israeli soldier near the northern West Bank frontier.
(SFC, 10/29/01, p.A9)
2001 Oct 29, Israel said it would leave Palestinian territory if the cease-fire is maintained.
(SFC, 10/30/01, p.A11)
2001 Oct 30, In Israel Shimon Peres reportedly prepared a peace initiative with plans to dismantle Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and the creation of a Palestinian state.
(SFC, 10/31/01, p.C3)
2001 Oct 31, An Israeli helicopter missile in Hebron killed Jamil Jadallah, a senior Hamas member. 5 other Palestinians were also killed in West Bank attacks.
(SFC, 11/1/01, p.A13)
2001 Nov 1, Israeli helicopter missiles killed 2 Palestinians in a taxi in the West Bank. Yasser Asideh was identified as a suicide bomber being driven to a target by Fahami Abu Eisha.
(SFC, 11/2/01, p.D2)
2001 Nov 2, The Bush administration imposed stringent financial sanctions on Hamas, Hezbollah and 20 other suspected terrorist groups.
(SFC, 11/3/01, p.A5)
2001 Nov 4, In Israel Khatem Shweili (24), a Palestinian gunman, fired an M-16 at a school bus in Jerusalem and killed Shoshana Ben-Yisgai (16) and a boy (13-14). The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 11/5/01, p.A12)
2001 Nov 5, Israeli tanks pulled out of Qalqilya and soon after a bomb exploded at the Jewish settlement of Shaked, 6 miles west of Jenin. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 11/6/01, p.A13)
2001 Nov 6, Israeli troops pulled out of Ramallah. 5 Palestinians were killed along with 1 Israeli soldier in an attack on an Israeli army post and a car bomb blast.
(SFC, 11/7/01, p.A13)(WSJ, 11/7/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 7, Israeli lawmakers lifted Parliamentary immunity from Azmi Bishara, a representative of the Arab party Balad, for statements that allegedly threatened Israeli security. Israel ended its occupation of Ramallah and Israeli forces killed 2 Palestinians.
(SFC, 11/8/01, p.A19)(WSJ, 11/8/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 8, Israeli border police stormed a building in Baka al-Sharkiyeh where a suicide bomber killed himself and wounded 2 commandos.
(SFC, 11/9/01, p.A18)
2001 Nov 9, An Israeli settler was shot and killed in her car and a Palestinian was shot and killed as he approached an Israeli army position. In Gaza a 12-year-old Palestinian boy was wounded and died 3 days later.
(SFC, 11/10/01, p.A12)(SFC, 11/13/01, p.A14)
2001 Nov 12, Israeli tanks and troops raided the West Bank village of Tel and killed Muhammed Reihan (25), a Hamas member. 45 residents were detained.
(SFC, 11/13/01, p.A14)
2001 Nov 15, Israeli troops raided a Gaza Strip refugee camp and a West Bank village. One Palestinian was killed and 14 were wounded.
(SFC, 11/16/01, p.A23)
2001 Nov 22, In the Gaza Strip 5 Palestinian boys (6-14) were killed when a bomb exploded beneath them as a walked to school.
(SFC, 11/23/01, p.A17)
2001 Nov 23, Israeli helicopter gunships near Nablus killed Mahmoud Abu Hanoud, a senior Hamas leader, along with 2 assistants.
(SFC, 11/24/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 24, Tens of thousands of Palestinians marched in the West Bank and Gaza city to protest the Israeli killing of Mahmoud Abu Hanoud and 2 assistants. A Palestinian mortar attack killed one Israeli soldier.
(SSFC, 11/25/01, p.A14)(SFC, 11/26/01, p.A9)
2001 Nov 25, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 13-year-old Palestinian youth during a clash in the West Bank. Israeli forces carried out missile strikes in the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 11/26/01, p.A9)
2001 Nov 26, A Palestinian suicide bomber sd’d (self destructed) at an Israeli checkpoint on the edge of the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 11/26/01, p.A9)
2001 Nov 27, Two Israelis were killed in Afula by 2 Palestinian gunmen, who were killed by police. Another Palestinian gunman killed an Israeli woman near a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip and he was killed by Israeli soldiers.
(SFC, 11/28/01, p.A4)
2001 Nov 29, A bomb attack in northern Israel and shootings in the West Bank left 4 Israelis and 3 Palestinians dead.
(SFC, 11/30/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 1, In downtown Jerusalem 2 Palestinian suicide bombers self-destructed and killed 11 others. A car bomb detonated shortly after and another dozen were injured. Hamas claimed responsibility.
(SSFC, 12/2/01, p.A1)(SFC, 7/24/02, p.A14)(AP, 12/1/02)
2001 Dec 2, The weekend’s 3rd Palestinian suicide bomber, Maher Habashi (21), sd’d in Haifa and 15 bus passengers were killed. Hamas took responsibility. Israel warned Arafat of his regime’s annihilation. Arafat condemned the attacks and declared a "state of emergency" in Palestinian territories.
(SFC, 12/3/01, p.1,3,11)(WSJ, 12/3/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 3, Israel struck the West Bank and Gaza Strip and destroyed 3 Palestinian Authority helicopters. In the wake of bombings that killed 26 Israelis, PM Ariel Sharon declared war on terror. Arafat was effectively confined to Ramallah after Israel destroyed his helicopters.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A1)(AP, 12/3/02)(SFC, 11/11/04, p.A18)
2001 Dec 4, Israeli troops moved into Palestinian-controlled territory in Ramallah and Nablus and closed off 7 West Bank cities. Israeli warplanes and helicopters bombed at least 8 targets in 5 cities and towns including a police building near Arafat’s headquarters. A police officer and a 15-year-old boy were killed.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A12)(SFC, 12/5/01, p.A1,16)
2001 Dec 5, In Jerusalem another suicide bomber sd’d outside a hotel and 2 people were injured. Sharon gave Arafat a 12-hour reprieve to arrest those responsible for the attacks.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 6, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat continued a roundup of Hamas militants based on a list of 36 suspects provided by Israel. His crackdown on Islamic militants met angry resistance as 1,500 Hamas supporters battled Palestinian riot police outside the home of the group's leader. Israeli warplanes bombed a Gaza police station and 15 Palestinians were wounded.
(SFC, 12/7/01, p.A3)(WSJ, 12/7/01, p.A1)(AP, 12/6/02)
2001 Dec 7, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a Palestinian security compound in Gaza. Arafat said his forces had arrested 17 of 33 militants wanted by Israel.
(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 9, A suicide bomber injured 9 Israelis in Haifa. Israeli troops killed 4 Palestinian police officers in their cars. Israeli soldiers also killed a Palestinian taxi driver trying to enter Jenin, which was sealed off. 30 suspected militants were arrested in Israeli raids.
(SFC, 12/10/01, p.A3)(WSJ, 12/10/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 10, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a car in Hebron. 2 boys aged 3 & 13 were killed and 7 people were wounded.
(SFC, 12/11/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 11, Israeli helicopter attacks in the Gaza Khan Younis refugee camp killed 3 people and wounded 20.
(WSJ, 12/12/01, p.A1)(SFC, 12/12/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 12, Palestinian militants detonated bombs beneath an Israeli bus in the West Bank and gunned down passengers as they fled. 10 people were killed. Police killed 1 of 3 militants. 2 Hamas suicide bombers sd’d near an Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip and injured 4 others.
(SFC, 12/13/01, p.A1,17)
2001 Dec 13, The Israeli government broke off contact with Yasser Arafat and began hitting targets in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Israeli forces destroyed Palestinian TV and radio transmission facilities and divided the Gaza Strip into 3 parts. In Ramallah Israeli soldiers seized the home and family of a Palestinian militia commander.
(SFC, 12/13/01, p.A1)(SFC, 12/14/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 14, Israeli troops raided four Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank, killing eight Palestinians and arresting dozens of suspected militants.
(AP, 12/14/02)
2001 Dec 15, Anthony Zinni, US envoy to Israel, left after his 20 days in the region failed to produce a cease-fire.
(SSFC, 12/16/01, p.A14)
2001 Dec 15, Israeli forces swept into Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip and bulldozed houses and police outposts. 6 Palestinians were killed and 50 injured from fighting.
(SSFC, 12/16/01, p.A14)
2001 Dec 16, Yasser Arafat appealed for a halt of armed activities and suicide bombings. He accused PM Sharon of waging a "brutal war" against Palestinians.
(SFC, 12/17/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 17, Israel continued military sweeps as Hamas and the Popular Front rejected Arafat’s call to end attacks.
(WSJ, 12/18/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 18, Yasser Arafat closed 6 Hamas offices in a crackdown on militant groups. Israeli forces arrested 10 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 12/19/01, p.A4)
2001 Dec 20, Following a 3-day lull Palestinian police in Gaza clashed with Hamas supporters and one Palestinian was killed. Another died in a gunfight with Israeli troops in the West Bank.
(SFC, 12/21/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 21, Six Palestinian teenagers were killed in skirmishes with the Palestinian Authority. Hamas called a halt to suicide bombings and mortar attacks.
(SFC, 12/22/01, p.A1)(SSFC, 12/23/01, p.A12)(AP, 12/21/02)
2001 Dec 23, In Israel Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Ahmen Qureia, speaker of the Palestinian parliament, drafted a new Middle East peace plan that called for Israel to recognized a Palestinian state within 8 weeks.
(SFC, 12/24/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 23, Israel barred Yasser Arafat from making his annual Christmas Eve visit to Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus.
(AP, 12/23/02)
2001 Dec 27, Israeli troops raided Palestinian territory for a 2nd day and arrested 7 suspected militants.
(SFC, 12/28/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 28, Israeli troops killed a suspected Palestinian bomber in the Gaza Strip. The blockade of Bethlehem was eased. The body of a Jewish settler, missing for over a week, was found in a West Bank cave near the village of Jaba.
(SFC, 12/29/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 30, Israeli forces killed 6 Palestinians in 2 incidents in the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 12/31/01, p.A3)
2002 Jan 3, Israel seized a ship, Karine A, in the Red Sea carrying 50 tons of advanced weapons allegedly for the Palestinian Authority. Most of the equipment was from Iran. Operation Noah’s Ark was not reported until the next day when US envoy Gen. Zinni arrived to promote peace talks. Hezbollah helped broker the deal and it was reported to have been overseen by Fuad Shubaki, a close aide to Arafat. Captain Omar Akawi, a member of Fatwah, said he was in contact with Adel Awadallah, an alias for Adel Mughrabi, a weapons buyer for the Palestinian Authority.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A1,9)(SFC, 1/7/02, p.A3)(SFC, 1/8/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 9, In Israel 2 Hamas gunmen attacked a military post and killed 4 Israeli soldiers. Israel halted work on a mosque next to the Christian Basilica of the Annunciation.
(SFC, 1/10/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 10, Israel demolished dozens of Palestinian homes in Rafah.
(SFC, 1/11/02, p.A3)
2002 Jan 10, Israel demolished dozens of Palestinian homes in Rafah. The Islamic Jihad said it would resume attacks as Palestinian police arrested 2 of its members
(SFC, 1/11/02, p.A3)(WSJ, 1/11/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 11, Israeli tanks and bulldozers plowed up runways at the Gaza Int’l. Airport. Palestinian police detained 2 Palestinian officials suspected of smuggling arms into Gaza.
(SFC, 1/11/02, p.A3)(SFC, 1/11/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan 12, Israeli missile boats hit a Palestinian fuel depot in a 4th day of reprisals.
(SSFC, 1/13/02, p.A20)
2002 Jan 14, An Israeli bomb in the West Bank killed Raed Karmi (27), a Palestinian militia leader. A short time later a Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli and wounded another in a roadside ambush.
(SFC, 1/15/02, p.A8)
2002 Jan 15, Palestinian gunmen killed 2 Israelis in separate attacks in the West Bank and near Jerusalem. Avi Boaz (71) was abducted and killed after visiting with a Palestinian family. The Palestinian Authority arrested Ahmed Saadat, sec. gen’l. of the PFLP.
(SFC, 1/16/02, p.A7)(SFC, 1/17/02, p.A11)
2002 Jan 16, In the West Bank a Palestinian killed another Palestinian, who was mistaken for an Israeli.
(SFC, 1/17/02, p.A11)
2002 Jan 17, In Hadera, Israel, a Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a bat mitzvah party and killed 6 people before he was beaten and killed. 30 more were wounded.
(SFC, 1/18/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 18, Israeli forces bombed the Palestinian town of Tulkarm and at least 2 Palestinians were killed. Israeli troops took up positions in Ramallah.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 19, Israeli forces blew up the Voice of Palestine radio station in Ramallah.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 21, Israeli forces took control of Tulkarem in the West Bank and soldiers arrested dozens of suspected militants.
(SFC, 1/21/02, p.A7)
2002 Jan 21, Israeli forces invaded Nablus, killed Palestinians and arrested 9 suspected militants. PM Sharon decided to reopen the Temple Mount to non-Muslims. The Waqf clerical trust imposed a ban on non-Muslims in Sep, 2000.
(SFC, 1/22/02, p.A7)
2002 Jan 22, Israeli troops killed 4 Hamas militants in Nablus. Yousef Soragji (42), mastermind of several suicide bombings, was among the dead.
(SFC, 1/23/02, p.A6)(SFC, 1/24/02, p.A7)
2002 Jan 22, In Israel a Palestinian gunman killed 2 women in Jerusalem and wounded 14 others before he was killed by police.
(SFC, 1/23/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 24, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian intelligence officer and 2 others died in what looked like a failed suicide mission.
(WSJ, 1/25/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 25, A Palestinian suicide bomber sd’d in a Tel Aviv neighborhood and at least 25 people were wounded following an Israeli missile attack in the Gaza Strip that killed a senior Hamas commander. Separately 2 Hamas members were killed by Israeli troops.
(SFC, 1/26/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan 26, The Palestinian Authority again called for an end to all bombing and shooting attacks against Israel. Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian passing through an army checkpoint and militants were hit by an tank shell when they tried to lay an explosive near a border fence.
(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.A18)
2002 Jan 27, A Palestinian woman, Wafa Idris (28), exploded herself on Jaffa St. in Jerusalem and killed one other Israeli man. Over 150 others were injured.
(SFC, 1/28/02, p.A1)(SFC, 1/31/02, p.A8)
2002 Jan 28, Israeli police killed a Palestinian man as barreled through an army checkpoint in a stolen car.
(SFC, 1/29/02, p.A8)
2002 Jan 29, Israeli troops raided the Palestinian village of Artas and arrested Mohammed Eyosh (31), a local Jihad leader. 4 others were wounded in gunfire.
(SFC, 1/30/02, p.A8)
2002 Jan 30, A Palestinian suicide bomber, Murad Abu Asal (23), killed himself and wounded 2 Israeli Shin Bet officers near Taibe.
(SFC, 1/31/02, p.A8)
2002 Jan 31, An interview was published in which Israeli PM Ariel Sharon said that he regrets that Israel failed to take the opportunity to kill Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat in Lebanon 20 years ago.
(EB, 2002, p.11)
2002 Feb 1, In Israel over 100 reserve combat officers denounced the army for immoral behavior toward Palestinian civilians and placed ads in newspapers including Haaretz: "We will no longer fight beyond the Green Line with the aim of dominating, expelling, starving and humiliating an entire people."
(SFC, 2/2/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 3, In Israel the Cabinet backed PM Sharon for initiating talks with Palestinian officials.
(SFC, 2/4/02, p.A4)
2002 Feb 4, In the Gaza Strip 5 Palestinians were killed when their car exploded. Israeli military said the men were carrying an explosive device that went off early. 5 Palestinians died in a Gaza helicopter attack.
(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A5)(WSJ, 2/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 5, In Jenin, 3 Palestinians members of the Kameel clan were killed by a mob after a court sentenced them to 15 year jail terms for the murder of another clan member.
(SFC, 2/6/02, p.A9)
2002 Feb 6, The PLO issued a 17-page document that listed their actions to stop terrorism. Meanwhile, Hamas gunman, Mohammed Ziad Khalili (26), killed 2 Israelis in Hamra, a mother and daughter, before he was killed by commandos. Israel responded with 2 missiles shot at a Palestinian prison and government complex in Nablus.
(SFC, 2/7/02, p.A10)(SFC, 2/8/02, p.A8)
2002 Feb 7, Pres. Bush met with Israel’s PM Sharon and said he would continue to press the Palestinian Authority to crack down on terrorism. Bush rebuffed a plea to sever ties with Arafat.
(SFC, 2/8/02, p.A8)(WSJ, 2/8/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 8, In Israel at least 2 Palestinians were killed when a bomb exploded prematurely. In Jerusalem an Israeli woman was stabbed to death while strolling in the Peace Forest. Police caught 4 Palestinians and one died following his arrest.
(SFC, 2/9/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 10, Two Palestinian Hamas gunmen attacked Israeli soldiers at Beersheva. 2 soldiers were killed before the gunmen were slain.
(SFC, 2/11/02, p.A3)
2002 Feb 11, Israel bombed the Palestinian security headquarters in the Gaza Strip for a 2nd day in response to the use of a Kassam-2 rocket by Hamas.
(SFC, 2/12/02, p.A8)(AP, 2/11/03)
2002 Feb 13, Israeli troops seized 3 Palestinian towns and a refugee camp in Gaza Strip from where rockets and mortars were fired and at least 5 people were killed. 3 Palestinian police officers were killed in Deir al-Balah where 3 police posts were destroyed.
(SFC, 2/13/02, p.A9)(WSJ, 2/14/02, p.A15)
2002 Feb 14, Militant Palestinians attacked an Israeli tank in the Gaza Strip and 3 soldiers were killed.
(SFC, 2/15/02, p.A10)
2002 Feb 14, Palestinian Abu Zubaydah (30) was identified as the new chief of operations for al Qaeda and was believed to be organizing al Qaeda remnants for new attacks against the US.
(SFC, 2/14/02, p.A10)
2002 Feb 15, An Israeli commando leader was killed by a falling wall as his troops demolished a Palestinian militant’s home in the West Bank. Israel fired rockets at PLO offices in the Jabalija refugee camp and one security officer was killed. Israeli Sgt. Lee Nahman Akunis (20) was killed by Fatah gunmen outside the West Bank village of Skurda.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A9)(SSFC, 2/17/02, p.A12)
2002 Feb 16, Some 20,000 Israelis rallied for peace in Tel Aviv. 2 Israelis were killed when a Palestinian suicide bombed sd’d in a pizza restaurant in the West Bank settlement of Karnei Shomron. In Jenin Nazih Abu Sabaah, a Hamas leader, was killed by a car bomb. In the Bureij refugee camp 3 Palestinians were killed in gunfire with Israeli troops.
(SSFC, 2/17/02, p.A12)
2002 Feb 17, Israeli police foiled an attempted suicide bombing near Hadera. One man was shot and killed and another killed when his stolen car exploded. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed the 2 dead as its members.
(SFC, 2/18/02, p.A9)
2002 Feb 17, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah presented a Middle East peace plan to NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman. It included Arab recognition of Israel’s right to exist if Israel pulled back from lands that were once part of Jordan, including East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
(SFC, 2/26/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 18, A Palestinian militant ambushed a settler’s convoy, shot 3 people dead and blew himself up. A car bombing outside Jerusalem killed an Israeli policeman along with the bomber. 2 Palestinian gunmen attacked a settlement in the Gaza Strip and one was killed.
(SFC, 2/19/02, p.A6)
2002 Feb 19, Israeli-Palestinian fighting left 15 people dead. 6 Israeli soldiers died at a checkpoint.
(SFC, 2/20/02, p.A8)(SFC, 2/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 20, Israeli forces fired on Palestinian police compounds and killed 12 security officials including 4 guards at Gaza police compounds and 6 policemen in Nablus.
(SFC, 2/20/02, p.A8)
2002 Feb 21, Israeli tanks and troops pushed into Gaza City and destroyed a broadcast facility. 6 Palestinians were reported killed. Yasser Arafat repeated a call to halt violence and his security forces arrested 3 suspects in the Oct 17 assassination of Israeli Cabinet minister Zeevi. PM Sharon called for buffer zones and the disarming of Palestinians.
(SFC, 2/21/02, p.A1)(SFC, 2/22/02, p.A9)(WSJ, 2/22/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 24, A Palestinian woman (27) gave birth after being shot by Israeli troops as she was being driven to a hospital.
(SFC, 2/26/02, p.A11)
2002 Feb 25, Two women, Israeli (Tamar Lifshitz) and a Palestinian (Maysoun Hayek), gave birth after being shot in separate incidents. The Palestinian’s woman’s husband was shot to death as they drove to a hospital in Nablus. The Israeli woman’s father was killed in an ambush along with another man. 4 Israelis were killed at a bus stop in Jerusalem by a gunmen who was killed.
(SFC, 2/26/02, p.A11)(WSJ, 2/26/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 27, Israeli troops killed 4 armed Palestinians and a Palestinian worker killed an Israeli factory manager. A Palestinian woman killed herself and wounded 4 others at a road block in the West Bank.
(SFC, 2/28/02, p.A8)
2002 Feb 28, Israeli troops assaulted 2 West Bank refugee camps. One Israeli soldier and 12 Palestinian fighters were killed.
(SFC, 3/1/02, p.A13)(WSJ, 3/1/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 1, Israeli troops swept through refugee camps in Jenin and Nablus looking for terror suspects. One solder was killed along with 6 Palestinians fighters and a 10-year-old girl.
(SFC, 3/2/02, p.A7)
2002 Mar 2, In Jerusalem a suicide bomber killed himself and 9 others including several children. In the West Bank gunmen opened fire on Israeli motorists and killed 9 people.
(SSFC, 3/3/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 3, Israel used jets and helicopters to strike Palestinian targets. 4 Palestinians were killed.
(SFC, 3/4/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 4, Israeli forces killed at least 14 Palestinians including the wife of an Islamic militant and their 3 children.
(SFC, 3/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 5, In Tel Aviv a gunmen killed 3 people at a restaurant in the early hours and wounded 31 other before he was killed. A suicide bomber blew himself up at the Afula bus station and 1 Israeli was killed. In Dura a Palestinian police officer was killed and 4 wounded during a gunfight with Israeli soldiers.
(SFC, 3/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 6, Israeli forces struck Palestinian targets by land and sea. 13 Palestinians and 2 Israelis were left dead.
(SFC, 3/7/02, p.A6)(WSJ, 3/7/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 8, A gunman killed 5 Israelis in Gaza. Israeli forces attacked Palestinian positions and killed 36 including Maj. Gen. Ahmed Mefraj. This was the deadliest day in 17 months of fighting.
(SFC, 3/8/02, p.A11)(SFC, 3/9/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 9, A pair of Palestinian gunmen tossed grenades and opened fire at a seafront hotel in Netanya and 3 people were killed including a baby. A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a Jerusalem café and killed 11 others. Israeli forces destroyed Arafat’s office building in Gaza and left 6 Palestinians dead including a 15-year-old girl. Hamas claimed responsibility.
(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.A1,16)(SFC, 7/24/02, p.A14)
2002 Mar 10, Israeli helicopters destroyed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's office in Gaza City, hours after 11 Israelis were killed in a suicide bombing in a cafe across the street from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's residence in Jerusalem.
(AP, 3/10/07)
2002 Mar 11, Israeli forces swept into the Jabaliya camp in Gaza and 23 residents were killed in heavy fighting. PM Sharon announced that Arafat was free to resume traveling about the West Bank and Gaza.
(SFC, 3/12/02, p.A6)(WSJ, 3/12/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 12, Israeli forces took control of Ramallah. 35 Palestinians were killed in the last 24 hours along with 7 Israelis.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/13/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 12, The UN Security Council endorsed a Palestinian state for the 1st time and called for an immediate cease-fire.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 13, Palestinians set off a bomb next to an Israeli tank escorting a convoy in Gaza and 3 Israelis were killed. 2 Palestinians stabbed an Israeli husband and wife in Nachliel.
(SFC, 3/14/02, p.A6)
2002 Mar 14, The Bush administration demanded that PM Ariel Sharon order a withdrawal from Palestinian controlled areas.
(SFC, 3/15/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 14, PM Ariel Sharon announced a staged withdrawal from Ramallah ending the 2-week "Operation Vital Security" and met with US envoy Anthony Zinni.
(SFC, 3/15/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A7)
2002 Mar 15, Adm. Zinni, US envoy, met with Yasser Arafat in Ramallah and demanded that he reign in militants and enforced a cease fire.
(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A7)
2002 Mar 17, Israeli and Palestinian officials met to prepare for a cease-fire following meetings with US envoy Adm. Zinni. A Palestinian gunman opened fire in Kfar Saba. He killed an Israeli high school student (18) and was shot dead. A suicide bomber detonated himself in Jerusalem.
(SSFC, 3/17/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/18/02, p.A3)
2002 Mar 18, Israel withdrew some forces from Palestinian-ruled territory as VP Cheney arrived to help with peace talks.
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/19/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 20, In Israel a suicide bomber blew himself up on a crowded bus and 7 people were killed. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 3/20/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/21/02, p.A9)
2002 Mar 21, In Jerusalem Mohammed Hashaika (22) blew himself up on King George St. and killed 3 Israelis. Truce talks were cancelled.
(SFC, 3/22/02, p.A9)(WSJ, 3/22/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 22, Israelis and Palestinians resumed cease-fire negotiations despite another suicide bombing outside Jenin. Only the bomber was killed.
(SFC, 3/23/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 24, Israeli troops and tanks entered the Rafah refugee camp and 3 residents were killed. 2 more Palestinians were killed as they tried to throw a grenade at a military post near Dugit. Clashes between Israelis and Palestinians left at least 9 Palestinians dead along with 2 Israelis. US envoy Zinni presented a cease-fire proposal to Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.
(SSFC, 3/24/02, p.A14)(SFC, 3/25/02, p.A8)
2002 Mar 25, The US pushed for Ariel Sharon to allow Yasser Arafat to attend an Arab summit in Beirut.
(SFC, 3/26/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 26, Yasser Arafat declared that he would not attend the Arab league conference in Beirut due to restrictions imposed by PM Sharon. Israeli security forces stopped a car that exploded with 2 men inside.
(SFC, 3/27/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 27, A Palestinian Hamas suicide bomber killed 28 Israelis gathered at the Park Hotel in Netanya for the Passover Seder.
(SFC, 3/28/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/29/02, p.A11)(SFC, 4/15/02, p.A12)
2002 Mar 28, A Hamas attack left 4 Israelis dead in a West Bank settlement. Arafat said he was ready to call for a cease-fire.
(WSJ, 3/29/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 28, In Beirut the Arab League committed to accepting Israel as a neighbor under conditions that included the creation of an independent Palestinian state and Israel's full withdrawal from war-won lands, an offer that Israel did not accept.
(SFC, 3/29/02, p.A15)(AP, 3/28/03)(www.mideastweb.org/saudipeace.htm)
2002 Mar 29, Israel declared Yasser Arafat an "enemy" and sent troops and tanks to isolate him in his Ramallah headquarters in Operation Defensive Shield. 5 Palestinians, possibly executed, and 2 Israelis were killed in the takeover. In Jerusalem a suicide bomber, Ayat Akhras (18) killed herself and 2 Israelis. In the Gaza Strip a Palestinian man stabbed to death 2 elderly Israelis and was shot to death by soldiers.
(SFC, 3/29/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/30/02, p.A1,11)(SSFC, 3/31/02, p.A18)(AP, 9/6/03)
2002 Mar 30, The United States joined other U.N. Security Council members in adopting a resolution calling on Israel to withdraw its troops from Palestinian cities, including Ramallah, where Yasser Arafat headquarters was under siege.
(AP, 3/30/03)
2002 Mar 30, A suicide bomber, Mohannad Salahat (22), struck in Tel Aviv and 32 people were injured. Israeli troops sealed Arafat in his Ramallah compound.
(SSFC, 3/31/02, p.A1)(SFC, 4/1/02, p.A1)(SFC, 7/24/02, p.A14)
2002 Mar 31, Israeli forces entered Qalqilya and Bethlehem. 2 Palestinians were killed after they fired on Israeli soldiers. Some 40 European and American peace activists joined Yasser Arafat. Israeli PM Ariel Sharon vowed to smash Palestinian militants in a broadcast speech that came the same day as a suicide bombing in Haifa that killed 15 Israelis. In 2009 Shimon Shiran died of wounds suffered in the bombing that also killed his daughter Adi (17).
(SFC, 4/1/02, p.A1,10)(AP, 3/31/07)(AP, 4/12/09)
2002 Apr 1, Israeli forces expanded their hunt for militants and terrorists to included ranking officials of Arafat’s Palestinian Authority. Israeli tanks and bulldozers rumbled into more Palestinian towns and massed on the edge of Bethlehem in an expansion of a West Bank offensive. A sniper killed an Israeli in Har Homa. A bomber blew up in his car in West Jerusalem and killed the Israeli police officer who stopped him.
(SFC, 4/2/02, p.A1)(AP, 4/1/07)
2002 Apr 2, The Israeli army attacked the headquarters of Jibril Rajoub, security chief of the Palestinian Authority. The Israeli Army said it found a letter in Arafat’s compound that detailed money requests for building bombs. PM Sharon offered Yasser Arafat a one-way ticket to exile and battles with Palestinian militiamen continued and at least 13 Palestinians were killed.
(SFC, 4/2/02, p.A1)(SFC, 4/3/02, p.A1,10)(WSJ, 4/3/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 2, Israel seized control of Bethlehem; Palestinian gunmen forced their way into the Church of the Nativity, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, where they began a 39-day standoff.
(AP, 4/2/03)
2002 Apr 3, Israeli tanks entered the Wet Bank cities of Jenin, Salfeet and Nablus. At least 1 Israeli soldier and 12 Palestinians were killed. Gunners from Lebanon’s Hezbollah exchanged artillery and mortar fire with Israeli troops. Scores of Palestinian gunmen were holed up in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The Egyptian government announced a cutoff of official contacts with Israel. Syria shifted 20,000 troops in Lebanon toward the Lebanese-Syrian border reportedly in accord with the 1989 Taif agreement.
(SFC, 4/3/02, p.A1)(SFC, 4/4/02, p.A1,13)(WSJ, 4/4/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 4, Israeli officials made public 2 documents signed by Arafat that authorized payments to Palestinian militants wanted for attacks on Israel.
(SFC, 4/5/02, p.A15)
2002 Apr 4, Israel continued for a 7th-day its offensive titled Operation Defensive Shield. Tanks entered Hebron house-to-house fighting with Palestinian gunmen in the Jenin refugee camp. 3 Israeli soldiers were killed. Guerrilla fighters fired 9 rockets into Israel.
(SFC, 4/5/02, p.A16)
2002 Apr 4, Pres. Bush demanded that Israel withdraw from West Bank cities and end settlement activity in occupied territories. He blasted Arafat and other Arab leaders for abetting terrorism and dispatched Sec. of State Colin Powell to push for a political settlement.
(SFC, 4/5/02, p.A1,14)
2002 Apr 5, US mediator Anthony Zinni met with Yasser Arafat in Ramallah as Israeli forces continued their offensive. At least 35 Palestinians were killed.
(SFC, 4/6/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 6, Pres. Bush repeated his call for Israel to "withdraw without delay" from West Bank towns it had occupied since launching an offensive after a string of suicide attacks. Bush also demanded the Palestinians call "an immediate and effective cease-fire."
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A3)(AP, 4/6/03)
2002 Apr 6, Arab League ministers in emergency session denounced the Bush administration’s handling of the Middle East conflict. Some 15k Jordanians marched in Ibrid. Over 20k marched in Paris and another 20k marched in Rome.
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A7)
2002 Apr 6, Israeli troops intensified their assault on West Bank towns and refugee camps. Over 20 thousand Jews and Arabs marched in Tel Aviv demanding that the government withdraw from the West Bank and resume talks.
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 7, Israeli forces continued Operation Defensive Shield and news reporters were kept away. 12 Palestinians were killed in Nablus with stiff resistance in the Jenin refugee camp. Worldwide protests included a march in Morocco by a half million people and in Brussels by some 10,000.
(SFC, 4/8/02, p.A1,8)(AP, 4/7/03)
2002 Apr 9, Sec. of State Colin Powell met with Pres. Mubarek in Egypt and stated that he would meet with Yasser Arafat.
(SFC, 4/10/02, p.A18)
2002 Apr 9, The 12 day Israeli offensive continued and dozens of Palestinians were reported dead in the fiercest fighting to date. An explosion in the Jenin refugee camp killed 13 Israeli soldiers. PM Sharon declared Israel to be in a struggle for survival.
(SFC, 4/10/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/10/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 10, In Ramallah Manal Sofran, a Palestinian housewife, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers.
(SFC, 4/12/02, p.A17)
2002 Apr 10, Sec. of State Colin Powell stopped in Spain to gather EU support in the Middle East conflict. He again called for an immediate end to Israel’s military operations.
(SFC, 4/11/02, p.A14)
2002 Apr 11, US Sec. of State Colin Powell arrived in Israel to push for peace talks. Israel sent tanks and troops into 2 more Palestinian villages. A Palestinian suicide bomber died when his explosives blew up prematurely.
(SFC, 4/11/02, p.A1)(SFC, 4/12/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 12, Arab militant groups including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood issued a manifesto declaring that Arab governments had betrayed the Palestinians and called holy war “the religious duty of every Muslim.”
(SFC, 4/17/02, p.A14)
2002 Apr 12, Colin Powell arrived in Israel as another suicide bombing killed 6 people in Jerusalem at the Mahane Yehuda market. Powell failed to PM Sharon to set a timetable for withdrawal from West Bank cities. Powell postponed a meeting with Arafat and demanded that Arafat condemn the latest attack. Estimates of Palestinian dead from Israeli operations in Jenin reached 100-200. An elderly Palestinian couple were rescued after being buried for 7 days by an Israeli bulldozer in Jenin.
(SFC, 4/13/02, p.1,13)(SFC, 4/15/02, p.A11)
2002 Apr 13, Yasser Arafat issued a statement condemning terrorism and planned to meet with Colin Powell the next day. Hamas declared it had no intention of halting attacks.
(SSFC, 4/14/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 14, PM Sharon’s peace plan was outlined and included 2 West Bank security zones, border controls, a demilitarized Palestinian state, and economic development assistance. Colin Powell met with Yasser Arafat and later with PM Sharon, but made little headway on a cease-fire or Israeli withdrawal. Some restrictions on reporters in the West Bank were lifted.
(SSFC, 4/14/02, p.A12)(SFC, 4/15/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 15, Israeli forces in Ramallah seized Marwan Barghouti, a top Arafat lieutenant and alleged leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Two Palestinians were killed in fighting near Bethlehem and 2 of some 200 Palestinians surrendered at the Church of the Nativity Israeli forces played high-decibel sounds around the clock.
(SFC, 4/16/02, p.A1,10)
2002 Apr 17, Colin Powell ended his Middle East mission and returned to the US as fighting continued. Pres. Mubarak cancelled their meeting in Cairo. Israel commemorated its independence.
(SFC, 4/18/02, p.A1,13)
2002 Apr 18, Omar Abu Selmia (15), wired with grenades, was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers as he tried to enter a Jewish settlement in Gaza.
(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 19, Israel announced that "Operation Defensive Shield is over" and their forces completed withdrawal from Jenin. Israeli military reported the capture of Husam Ataf Ali Badran, a Hamas leader, near Nablus. 2 Palestinians were reported killed by Israeli gunfire in Gaza. A suicide bomber blew himself up in central Gaza. 3 Palestinians were reportedly killed by Israeli fire in Gaza. The UN approved a fact-finding mission into Israeli actions at Jenin.
(SFC, 4/19/02, p.A20)(SFC, 4/20/02, p.A1,14)
2002 Apr 20, Eiman Judeh, a Palestinian gunman, was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers at the Erez Checkpoint, Gaza, after he killed border guard, Uriel Ben Maimon (21).
(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 22, Israeli-Palestinian fighting left 7 Palestinians dead in the West Bank and Gaza along with 1 Israeli soldier. A leader of the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade was killed in an Israeli helicopter attack.
(SFC, 4/23/02, p.A10)(WSJ, 4/23/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 24, Israeli tanks rolled into Hebron. 3 Palestinian boys (14) were killed as they tried to attack a Jewish settlement.
(WSJ, 4/25/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 25, A Palestinian military filed court sentenced 4 Arafat followers to prison terms for their roles in the 2001 slaying of Israeli minister Rehavan Zeevi. Israel called the trial a sham.
(SFC, 4/26/02, p.A20)
2002 Apr 26, Israeli forces moved into Qalqilya and 3 smaller settlements. Raed Nazal, a Qalqilya leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was killed and 16 militants were captured. Fighting took place in Ramallah and 4 Palestinians surrendered at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Ismael Abu Shanab, a Hamas spokesman, said Hamas has accepted the terms of the Saudi peace proposal.
(SFC, 4/27/02, p.A14)(SSFC, 4/28/02, p.A15)
2002 Apr 27, A UN team scheduled to arrive in Israel for an inspection at Jenin was postponed for a day over differences in the teams objectives.
(SFC, 4/27/02, p.A13)
2002 Apr 27, Palestinian gunmen attacked the Israeli settlement of Adora and killed 4 people including a 5-year-old girl. 3 gunmen escaped but one was later found and killed in a nearby village.
(SSFC, 4/28/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 28, The Israeli Cabinet approved a deal to lift the siege of Arafat’s compound in Ramallah after promises that US and British jailers would guard the terrorist suspects held there. The Cabinet refused to allow a UN team to investigate charges of a massacre at Jenin. Israeli troops had surrounded the compound in Ramallah demanding Arafat turn over the six men who had sought refuge inside. Five of the men, including Ahmad Saadat, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, were implicated in the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi. The sixth, Fuad Shobaki, masterminded an illegal weapons shipment to the Palestinian Authority on a ship called the Karine A. President Bush brokered a deal with Israeli PM Ariel Sharon that sent the six men to a Palestinian prison in Jericho, where they were guarded by US and British monitors. In return, Israeli troops pulled back from Arafat's West Bank compound.
(SFC, 4/29/02, p.A1)(AP, 3/15/06)
2002 Apr 29, Israeli forces went into Hebron and at least 9 people were killed and dozens arrested. It was a retaliation for the Apr 27 attack.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 30, Israel blocked the UN proposed fact-finding mission to Jenin. Israeli forces pulled out of Hebron and 26 Palestinians emerged from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
(SFC, 5/1/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr, Israeli police arrested 2 Jewish settlers for planting a bomb at a Palestinian girl’s school. 4 more were later taken into custody including Noam Federman, head of the outlawed Kach movement. A bomb attack on an Arab boy’s school was also recently foiled.
(SSFC, 5/19/02, p.A10)
2002 Apr, Rageb Jaradat killed 8 people and injured 22 when he blew himself up on a bus between Jenin and Haifa.
(SFC, 10/11/03, p.A7)
2002 May 1, Israeli forces withdrew from Ramallah and Yasser Arafat, under siege since Mar 29, emerged from his West Bank compound. 6 wanted Palestinian men were driven to Jericho under US and British supervision.
(SFC, 5/2/02, p.A1)
2002 May 2, Yasser Arafat emerged from his West Bank headquarters, hours after Israeli troops withdrew from his compound and released the Palestinian leader from months of confinement.
(AP, 5/2/03)
2002 May 5, Middle East negotiations over the siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem approached agreement with a deal to send some of the Palestinians into exile and others to the Gaza Strip for trial. Startled Israeli soldiers killed a mother and 2 children (4&6) near Jenin.
(SFC, 5/6/02, p.A1)
2002 May 7, Pres. Bush met with PM Ariel Sharon. They called for sweeping changes to Palestinian governing institutions and a new Palestinian security service but they failed to agree on many other issues.
(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A18)
2002 May 7, In Israel a Hamas suicide bomber killed 15 people in a pool hall in Rishon Lezion. Hamas claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A1)(SFC, 7/24/02, p.A14)(AP, 5/7/03)
2002 May 8, In Israel a suicide bomber detonated himself prematurely. Israeli sappers used a robot to drag the man, still alive, across a road for inspection.
(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A12)
2002 May 10, Arab leaders pressed Yasser Arafat to stop suicide bombings as Israel delayed a strike into Gaza.
(SFC, 5/11/02, p.A8)
2002 May 10, In Jerusalem 120 Palestinians left the Church of the Nativity following complex negotiations and 39-day standoff. 13 senior militants faced deportation to Cyprus and 26 were transferred to the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A1)
2002 May 11, In Tel Aviv, Israel, some 50,000 protested for peace. A military attack on Gaza was put on hold. Israel pulled out of the West Bank town of Tulkarem, leaving Palestinian-run territories free of Israeli troops for the first time in six weeks.
(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.A10)(AP, 5/11/03)
2002 May 12, In Israel PM Ariel Sharon's Likud Party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, voted to never allow the creation of a Palestinian state. The Palestinian Authority told 26 men transferred from the Church of the Nativity that they could have jobs in any government bureaucracy including positions in Gaza's Tanzim militia.
(SFC, 5/13/02, p.A1,12)(AP, 5/12/03)
2002 May 15, In Palestine Yasser Arafat conceded mistakes and proposed new elections and political changes.
(WSJ, 5/16/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/16/02, p.A6)
2002 May 15, In Israel Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, the defense minister, proposed a peace package that called for sharing Jerusalem with the Palestinians and granting them most of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 5/16/02, p.A6)
2002 May 16, Yasser Arafat agreed to revamp his cabinet and hold elections within 6 months.
(SFC, 5/17/02, p.A1)
2002 May 17, Yasser Arafat changed his previous day’s remarks and said balloting would only take place if Israel withdraws from occupied territory.
(SFC, 5/17/02, p.A1)
2002 May 19, Sanabel Al-Fararja (15) and Kayan Al-Saify (16), West Bank teenagers, ended an 8-week trip in the US where they crossed the country and spoke on behalf of peace in Palestine.
(SFC, 5/16/02, p.A13)
2002 May 19, In Israel a suicide bomber killed himself, 3 Israelis and wounded over 50 in a market in Netanya.
(SFC, 5/20/02, p.A1)
2002 May 20, In Israel a Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and Israeli troops in Tulkarem arrested a women who planned a suicide attack. It was also reported that a Palestinian plan to bomb the twin 50-story towers in Tel Aviv had been thwarted 3 weeks earlier.
(SFC, 5/21/02, p.A1)
2002 May 20, In Lebanon a car bomb killed Jihad Jibril (38), head of local military operations for the PFLP-GC. He was the son of Palestinian guerrilla leader Ahmed Jibril who headed the Syrian-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, founded in 1968. In 2008 a retired Lebanese police officer and a Palestinian were indicted for allegedly working with Israeli intelligence to assassinate Jibril.
(SFC, 5/21/02, p.A16)(AP, 6/18/08)
2002 May 22, In Israel a Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and 2 Israelis in Rishon Letzion, a Tel Aviv suburb. Some 3 dozen people were injured. A Ukrainian Christian woman, previously misidentified, and her Palestinian husband drove the suicide bomber to the site. Irena Plitzik said she did not know about the suicide mission. A 2nd bomber, Tauurya Hamamra, backed out.
(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A10)(WSJ, 5/23/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/31/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/31/02, p.A10)(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.A11)
2002 May 25, Israeli troops seized Bethlehem and surrounded the house of Muhammed Shehade, a leader of the Islamic Jihad. A Palestinian woman and her daughter (13) were killed by Israeli fire on a farm in the Gaza Strip.
(SSFC, 5/26/02, p.A13)
2002 May 26, Israeli forces moved into Bethlehem for the 2nd time in 2 days.
(SFC, 5/27/02, p.A3)
2002 May 27, In Israel a Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and 2 Israelis, a toddler and her grandmother, at a mall in Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv.
(SFC, 5/28/02, p.A6)
2002 May 28, A Palestinian gunmen attacked an Israeli settlement near Nablus and killed 3 students at an Orthodox high school. The gunman was killed.
(SFC, 5/29/02, p.A8)(WSJ, 5/29/02, p.A1)
2002 May 30, Israeli forces entered Nablus and raided Hebron and Jenin.
(WSJ, 5/31/02, p.A1)
2002 May 30, Yasser Arafat signed the Basic Law package that granted his people basic rights and regulated government operations.
(SFC, 5/31/02, p.A10)
2002 Jun 1, Israeli forces detained hundreds of Palestinians in 4 West Bank cities. Tareq el-Kharaz (24), who defied a curfew to pray in a mosque, was killed in Nablus.
(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.A11)
2002 Jun 2, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat offered Cabinet posts to Hamas and other militant groups as part of his government reshuffle.
(SFC, 6/3/02, p.A1)
2002 Jun 3, US CIA director George Tenet met with Israeli leaders as Israel stepped up seizures of Arab land for use as security buffer zones.
(SFC, 6/4/02, p.A7)
2002 Jun 5, In Israel a car bomb went off next to a bus near Megiddo and at least 17 people were killed.
(SFC, 6/5/02, p.A1)(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A1)
2002 Jun 6, Israeli forces attacked Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah in response to a Palestinian suicide attack on a bus that killed 17 Israelis. 2 Palestinians were reported killed.
(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A1)(SFC, 6/7/02, p.A10)(AP, 6/6/03)
2002 Jun 7, Palestinian gunmen attacked the Karmei Tsur settlement in the West Bank and killed 2 Israelis. 1 attacker was killed, a 2nd escaped.
(SFC, 6/8/02, p.A12)
2002 Jun 8, Palestinians entered a Jewish settlement in the West Bank early Saturday and killed three Israelis in a shooting attack, the military and paramedics said. Three Israelis and seven armed Palestinians were killed.
(AP, 6/7/02)(AP, 6/9/02)
2002 Jun 8, Pres. Bush met with Egypt’s Pres. Hosni Mubarek, who said Middle East violence would continue until Israel withdraws from Palestinian territory and hope for a future is restored to the Palestinian people.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.A12)
2002 Jun 10, Israeli tanks and troops charged into Ramallah before sunrise Monday, surrounding the compound of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and arresting 20 suspected militants in searches throughout the city.
(AP, 6/10/02)(SFC, 6/10/02, p.A1)
2002 Jun 10, A bomb exploded near an armored bus in the West Bank, injuring three teenaged students from a religious seminary at a nearby Jewish settlement on their return from picking cherries.
(Reuters, 6/11/02)
2002 Jun 12, Israeli troops shot and killed five armed Palestinians and a 9-year-old boy in separate incidents near a Jewish settlement, while a Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a fast food restaurant in a Mediterranean resort town, killing a 15-year-old Israeli girl. Israeli forces pulled out of the West Bank town of Ramallah, lifting their latest blockade on Yasser Arafat's office, as Secretary of State Colin Powell raised the idea of a provisional Palestinian state.
(AP, 6/12/02)(AP, 6/13/02)
2002 Jun 13, Pres. Bush met with Saudi Prince Saud al-Faisal and indicated that he would support the creation of a Palestinian state.
(SFC, 6/14/02, p.15)
2002 Jun 15, Four Israelis were injured, two critically, when at least one Palestinian opened fire at a Jewish settlement in the northern Gaza Strip.
(AP, 6/15/02)
2002 Jun 17, A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up on Israel's frontier with the West Bank, shortly after Israel angered the Palestinians by starting work on a security fence between the two territories.
(Reuters, 6/17/02)
2002 Jun 18, A Palestinian man, Muhammad al-Ghoul (22), detonated nail-studded explosives on a Jerusalem bus crowded with high school students and office workers, killing himself and 19 passengers in the city's deadliest suicide attack in six years. Fifty-five people were wounded in the Hamas attack.
(AP, 6/18/02)(SFC, 6/19/02, p.A10)(SFC, 6/19/02, p.A10)
2002 Jun 19, Israel launched Operation Determined Path and announced it will gradually reoccupy Palestinian areas until terrorism stops in a major policy change prompted by a deadly bus bombing. Israeli troops raided three West Bank towns from which dozens of terror attacks have been launched. Seven Israelis were killed when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded bus stop in northern Jerusalem. About 50 people were injured. Hamas declared a war on buses.
(AP, 6/19/02)(AP, 9/6/03)
2002 Jun 20, Palestinian gunmen killed 5 Jewish settlers at the Itamar settlement in the West Bank. The 2 assailants were killed. The mother of the family and three of her children were murdered. Another two children were seriously injured and a local security official was shot to death as he tried to help.
(SFC, 6/21/02, p.A1)(AP, 3/12/11)
2002 Jun 21, Israeli tanks opened fire on the market in the northern West Bank town of Jenin, killing 4 Palestinians, including 3 children, hospital officials said. The Israeli army said soldiers had mistakenly fired on a group of curfew violators. Israelis from the West Bank settlement of Itamar returning from funerals killed a Palestinian during a rampage in the village of Hawara.
(AP, 6/21/02)
2002 Jun 24, Israeli forces killed six Palestinians in a helicopter missile strike on a car carrying Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip on Monday and surrounded Yasser Arafat in his headquarters in the West Bank.
(AP, 6/24/02)
2002 Jun 24, Pres. Bush outlined his blueprint for peace in the Middle East. His statement included a call on Palestinians to replace Yasser Arafat with leaders "not compromised by terror" and adopt democratic reforms that could produce an independent state within three years.
(SFC, 6/25/02, p.A1)(AP, 6/24/03)
2002 Jun 25, Israeli soldiers stormed the fortress-like Palestinian headquarters in the city of Hebron, occupying the seventh of eight main West Bank centers. Palestinian security officials said four policemen were killed.
(AP, 6/25/02)
2002 Jun 26, The Palestinian Authority, under pressure from President Bush to dump Yasser Arafat as its leader, announced that presidential elections will be held in mid-January.
(Reuters, 6/26/02)(SFC, 6/27/02, p.A8)
2002 Jun 27, Israel's army urged Palestinians holed up under fire for a third day in a West Bank compound to surrender Thursday, warning it will overrun the battered Hebron government complex if those inside refuse to come out. Helicopter gunships fired missiles into the Hebron complex.
(AP, 6/27/02)(SFC, 6/28/02, p.A10)
2002 Jun 27, In Khartoum, Sudan, representatives of 57 Muslim nations pledged support for Palestinians in a resolution that made no mention of President Bush's call for Palestinians to elect a new leadership. In 21 months of violence, 1,739 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 564 people on the Israeli side.
(AP, 6/27/02)
2002 Jun 28, The Israeli army smashed through an outer wall of the Palestinian Authority headquarters in Hebron to try to flush out suspected militants. An Israeli military court sentenced a 16-year-old Palestinian from the militant Hamas movement to life in prison for trying to blow himself up when confronted by Israeli police, the first time a would-be bomber was brought to trial.
(Reuters, 6/28/02)(AP, 6/28/02)
2002 Jun 29, The Israeli army ended a four-day siege of a Palestinian police headquarters by blowing up the hilltop compound where about 15 suspected militants had taken refuge. 2 Palestinians died in clashes with Israeli soldiers.
(Reuters, 6/29/02)(SSFC, 6/30/02, p.A14)
2002 Jun 29, Israel’s Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer called for the immediate dismantling of 10 illegal outposts in the West Bank.
(AP, 6/29/02)(SSFC, 6/30/02, p.A14)
2002 Jun 30, An Israeli tank shelled a house in Nablus and killed Mohammed Tahir, a local Hamas leader and bombmaker, along with an aide.
(SFC, 7/1/02, p.A3)
2002 Jul 4, The Palestinian police chief Ghazi Jabali decided to resign and run for president following a controversy over whether Yasser Arafat had tried to oust both him and security commander Jibril Rajoub.
(Reuters, 7/4/02)(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A7)
2002 Jul 4, An explosion shattered a white Mercedes, killing two people including Jihad Amerin (38), a Gaza leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Palestinian police said their initial suspicions were Israeli agents had planted a bomb.
(AP, 7/4/02)(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A7)
2002 Jul 6, Randi Hindi (44), a Palestinian woman, and her 2-year-old daughter were shot to death while riding in a taxi in the Gaza Strip. Palestinians claimed Israeli troops were responsible. But the Israeli army said its soldiers did not fire anywhere in the area.
(AP, 7/6/02)(SSFC, 7/7/02, p.A9)
2002 Jul 9, A Palestinian gunman opened fire on Israeli police officers just outside the walled Old City of Jerusalem, wounding one, and a passer-by was killed in the ensuing gunbattle.
(AP, 7/9/02)
2002 Jul 10, Palestinian gunmen shot and killed an Israeli army lieutenant on patrol in the southern Gaza Strip, and Israeli troops fatally shot a 19-year-old Palestinian in the West Bank.
(AP, 7/10/02)
2002 Jul 12, Palestinian free-lance photographer Imad Abu Zahra died of a gunshot wound in the northern West Bank, and a fellow photographer said the shots came from a machine gun on an Israeli tank July 11. 2 Palestinians were killed in an exchange of gunfire in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 7/12/02)(SFC, 7/13/02, p.A9)
2002 Jul 14, A Palestinian man, on trial for allegedly collaborating with Israel, was killed by Palestinian militants after an Israeli airstrike disrupted court proceedings. Israeli aircraft fired missiles and destroyed a building in the southern Gaza Strip, injuring about 10 Palestinians.
(AP, 7/14/02)
2002 Jul 16, In the West Bank Palestinian gunmen ambushed a bus at the Emmanuel settlement left 8 Israelis dead.
(SFC, 7/17/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/18/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 17, In Israel 2 bombers blew themselves up in Tel Aviv and injured over 40 people.
(WSJ, 7/18/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 19, Israel introduced collective punishment on the family of Ali Ajouri, following his role in the July 17 suicide bombing.
(AP, 8/8/02)
2002 Jul 20, A car exploded near a mosque in an Israeli Arab neighborhood of Tel Aviv, killing the driver.
(AP, 7/20/02)
2002 Jul 22, Israeli troops killed 2 Islamic Jihad members in a clash near the Gush Katif settlement.
(SFC, 7/23/02, p.A10)
2002 Jul 23, An Israeli F-16 warplane dropped a one ton bomb that flattened a Gaza City apartment building, killing Salah Shehadeh, the leader of Hamas' military wing, and at least 14 other Palestinians, including nine children. Shehadeh was at the top of Israel's most wanted list. The dead included Shehadeh’s wife and 3 kids. In 2009 a Spanish judge began an investigation into seven current or former Israeli officials over the 2002 bombing. In 2011 an Israeli inquiry ruled the air strike legal and blamed faulty intelligence for the civilian deaths.
(AP, 7/23/02)(SFC, 7/23/02, p.A1)(AP, 1/29/09)(SFC, 2/28/11, p.A2)
2002 Jul 25, Israeli police said an Israeli policeman has been arrested on suspicion of selling ammunition to Palestinians, raising to ten the number of suspects detained in the case.
(AP, 7/25/02)
2002 Jul 25, Palestinian gunmen shot dead a Jewish rabbi settler in what militants called the first response to an Israeli air strike that killed 15 Palestinians including a top militant.
(Reuters, 7/25/02)
2002 Jul 26, Israel sent tanks and troops into Gaza City. Troops fatally shot a Palestinian man as he stood in his kitchen in Qalqiliya. Palestinian security officials said Israeli soldiers were firing live ammunition as they searched houses, and that the man had been hit in the head.
(AP, 7/26/02)
2002 Jul 26, Palestinian gunmen waiting in ambush fired on two passing Israeli cars near a Jewish settlement in the southern West Bank, killing four people and injuring two children before fleeing.
(AP, 7/26/02)
2002 Jul 28, Jewish settlers went on a rampage as they returned home from the funeral of an Israeli soldier, shooting dead a 14-year-old girl and wounding several other Palestinians.
(AP, 7/28/02)(SFC, 7/31/02, p.A12)
2002 Jul 29, Thousands of Palestinians defied the Israeli army's around-the-clock curfew for the second straight day, and took to the streets of Nablus as shops and banks opened to accommodate them.
(AP, 7/29/02)
2002 Jul 30, A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a central Jerusalem fast-food stand popular with police, wounding four Israelis. In the West Bank, gunmen killed two Israeli settlers who had entered a Palestinian village.
(AP, 7/30/02)
2002 Jul 31, In Israel a bomb exploded in a crowded cafeteria at Hebrew University during lunchtime, killing 7 people including 5 Americans and wounding more than 70. Hamas claimed responsibility.
(AP, 7/31/02)(SFC, 8/2/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 31, An Israeli man, his hands and feet bound, was found shot and killed in his factory office near the West Bank town of Tulkarem.
(AP, 8/1/02)
2002 Aug 2, The Israeli army blew up two buildings with explosives labs and arrested at least 50 Palestinians in house to house searches as troops took control of Nablus, a city Israel called "the main factory of suicide bombings." Israelis killed 3 people in Nablus and 3 Palestinians in Gaza including a woman (85) and a girl (9).
(AP, 8/2/02)(SFC, 8/3/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 4, In northern Israel a Palestinian suicide bomber blew apart a bus during rush hour, killing at least nine people, wounding dozens. 3 more people died in a gun battle outside the Damascus Gate. 7 Arabs with Israeli citizenship were later arrested for assisting the bomber.
(AP, 8/4/02)(SFC, 8/5/02, p.A1)(SFC, 8/27/02, p.A10)
2002 Aug 5, Israel announced a "total ban" on Palestinian travel in much of the West Bank and sealed off a chunk of the Gaza Strip with tanks in response to Palestinian attacks on Israelis that killed 13 people over 24 hours. Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a suspected weapons factory in Gaza City.
(AP, 8/5/02)(AP, 8/5/07)
2002 Aug 6, Israeli troops killed the suspected mastermind of a Tel Aviv suicide bombing, while U.S. diplomats said the United States was considering moving consular offices out of traditionally Arab east Jerusalem due to security concerns.
(AP, 8/6/02)
2002 Aug 7, About 30 Israeli tanks firing heavy machineguns raided the northern Gaza Strip in a sweep for militants and troops shot dead a Palestinian policeman.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, The Palestinian Cabinet accepted Israel's proposal for a troop withdrawal from some areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in exchange for Palestinian security guarantees, even as Israeli troops hunting terror suspects killed five Palestinians in three raids.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 8, Israeli troops and tanks briefly swept into a town in the northern Gaza Strip for the second time in two days, killing a youth and wounding three others in a clash with Palestinian stone throwers. Negotiators failed to reach agreement, but scheduled more talks on a gradual Israeli troop pullback from some Palestinian areas.
(AP, 8/8/02)
2002 Aug 10, Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian electricity department worker as he sat in his city-owned truck and the army expressed its sorrow and said it had opened an investigation. Gunfire in a Jordan Valley settlement killed a suspected Palestinian militant and an Israeli woman.
(AP, 8/10/02)
2002 Aug 11, Israeli troops shot and killed Basil Naji (22), a Palestinian gunman, after he opened fire on Israeli road workers in the northern Gaza Strip, wounding one of them.
(AP, 8/11/02)(SFC, 8/12/02, p.A10)
2002 Aug 12, Palestinian factions met to create a "national unity leadership" to include all major groups, including militant ones such as Hamas. They endorsed a continuation of their uprising and rejected language to end attacks on civilians inside Israel.
(AP, 8/12/02)
2002 Aug 14, Israel's military intelligence chief told parliament that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has amassed a personal fortune of about $1.3 billion.
(AP, 8/14/02)
2002 Aug 16, Sabri al-Banna, aka Abu Nidal (65), Palestinian guerrilla commander and head of the Fatah-Revolutionary Council, died from gunshot wounds in his Baghdad home. Iraqi officials said he killed himself.
(Reuters, 8/19/02)(WSJ, 8/20/02, p.A18)(AP, 8/21/02)
2002 Aug 18, Israel agreed to a partial withdrawal from Palestinian territory in exchange for reduced tensions in the areas.
(SFC, 8/19/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 20, Palestinian police were back on the streets of Bethlehem after Israeli forces left the town as part of a trial that could lead to further Israeli withdrawals in the West Bank.
(AP, 8/20/02)
2002 Aug 20, An Israeli soldier was killed by a Hamas sniper. Hamas vowed to undermine the new security agreement.
(WSJ, 8/21/02, p.A1)
2002 Aug 21, Israeli troops blew up two apartment buildings in a Gaza Strip refugee camp, just hours after undercover forces killed the brother of a radical Palestinian leader during an arrest raid in the West Bank. Israeli security officials announced the breakup of a Hamas cell in East Jerusalem.
(AP, 8/21/02)(SFC, 8/22/02, p.A7)
2002 Aug 24, A Palestinian militia shot and killed a Palestinian woman suspected of collaborating with Israel, then dumped her bullet-riddled body on a street in the West Bank town of Tulkarem. The next day her son said that Palestinian gunmen tortured him until he invented a story about his mother's involvement.
(AP, 8/24/02)(AP, 8/26/02)
2002 Aug 26, Israeli troops arrested Jamal Abdel Salam Abu el-Heijah, leader of Hamas in the Jenin region in a West Bank raid as Israel's defense minister said a security deal to ease violence was still in force.
(AP, 8/26/02)
2002 Aug 29, Israeli tank shells slammed into a Bedouin encampment in Gaza, killing four members of a Palestinian family and wounding four others.
(AP, 8/29/02)
2002 Aug 29, Hezbollah guerrillas shelled Israeli positions in a disputed border area, wounding 3 soldiers and drawing fire from Israeli warplanes and artillery.
(AP, 8/29/02)
2002 Aug 31, Israeli soldiers arrested Hasan Yousef, the Islamic militant group Hamas' top political leader, in the West Bank town of Ramallah. An Israeli helicopter fired three missiles at a Palestinian car, killing three men inside and two children standing nearby.
(AP, 8/30/02)
2002 Aug 31, A Palestinian gunman opened fire in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, seriously wounding two people before being shot dead.
(AP, 8/31/02)
2002 Sep 1, Israeli troops shot dead four Palestinians not far from a Jewish gravesite near the West Bank city of Hebron, adding to an already bloody weekend in which seven other Palestinians, including two children, were killed.
(AP, 9/1/02)(SFC, 9/2/02, p.A3)
2002 Sep 3, Israeli tank shells killed Bahir Eid (22) and Hussein Najar (22) residents of the village of Burin, a West Bank village.
(AP, 9/3/02)
2002 Sep 5, Palestinian fighters blew up an Israeli tank in Gaza, killing the driver instantly. Another Palestinian, linked to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, killed an Israeli officer and wounded another soldier before he was shot dead.
(SFC, 9/6/02, p.A14)
2002 Sep 6, Israel attacked a factory in the Gaza Strip with missiles fired from helicopters after a Palestinian "mega" bomb attempt was thwarted a day earlier.
(AP, 9/6/02)(SFC, 9/6/02, p.A14)
2002 Sep 11, The 21-member Palestinian Cabinet resigned after Yasser Arafat lost a showdown with parliament, the most serious challenge to the Palestinian leader since he returned from exile in 1994.
(AP, 9/11/02)
2002 Sep 13, Four Palestinians were killed in Gaza, including three in an explosion at a home believed to harbor a bomb workshop. Elsewhere, a Palestinian gunman died in a firefight with Israeli soldiers.
(AP, 9/13/02)
2002 Sep 13, Iraq will pay up to $5,000 each to Palestinians whose home is demolished in the Israeli campaign against suspected militants, a pro-Iraqi group said Friday, hinting also that Iraq is supplying weapons to the Palestinians.
(AP, 9/13/02)
2002 Sep 17, The United States and its key global partners in Middle East peacemaking agreed to try to establish a provisional Palestinian state next year.
(AP, 9/17/02)
2002 Sep 18, A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a bus stop in the Arab-Israeli village of Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel, wounding several people.
(AP, 9/18/02)
2002 Sep 19, A Palestinian blew himself up on a crowded bus in downtown Tel Aviv, killing at least five other people and wounding 49. It was the second suicide bombing in two days after a six-week lull.
(AP, 9/19/02)
2002 Sep 20, Israel tightened its siege on Yasser Arafat, using tanks to destroy a stairwell in his compound, digging a deep trench and running coils of barbed wire around his offices.
(AP, 9/20/02)
2002 Sep 21, Explosions rocked Yasser Arafat's compound, including one that showered him with debris, as the Israeli army systematically blew up or bulldozed nearly every building around him in the Palestinian Authority's headquarters.
(AP, 9/21/02)
2002 Sep 22, Thousands of Palestinians, many defying military curfews, poured into West Bank and Gaza streets to protest Israel's assault on Yasser Arafat's headquarters, and 5 demonstrators were killed by army fire.
(AP, 9/22/02)(WSJ, 9/23/02, p.A1)
2002 Sep 23, A defiant Yasser Arafat dug in at his besieged West Bank compound, rejecting Israel's demand to hand over the names of all those holed up inside.
(AP, 9/23/03)
2002 Sep 23, A Palestinian gunman opened fire on visitors attending Jewish holiday celebrations In Hebron, killing a man and wounding three of his sons.
(AP, 9/24/02)
2002 Sep 24, Israel defied a U.N. Security Council demand to end its six-day siege of Yasser Arafat's devastated West Bank headquarters. 9 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike against alleged munitions factories and other targets in Gaza City. Israeli troops demolished three houses of Palestinian terror suspects, while Jewish settler leaders inaugurated a new Jewish settlement near the Palestinian city of Nablus.
(AP, 9/24/02)(AP, 9/25/02)
2002 Sep 26, Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles into Gaza City, killing two Palestinians in an escalation of violence. The attack was bid to kill Hamas bomb maker Mohammed Deif.
(AP, 9/26/02)(WSJ, 9/27/02, p.A1)
2002 Sep 29, Israel withdrew forces from Yasser Arafat's headquarters compound Responding to U.S. pressure, but said the hunt for men inside whom it accuses of terrorism would continue. Some 250 Palestinian militiamen were granted conditional freedom.
(AP, 9/29/02)(SFC, 9/30/02, p.A3)
2002 Oct 5, Israeli soldiers enforcing a curfew shot Amer Hashem, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy in Nablus, during clashes with stone-throwing protesters. It was the eve of an international round of peace diplomacy.
(AP, 10/5/02)(SFC, 10/5/02, p.A8)(SSFC, 10/6/02, p.A18)
2002 Oct 7, Israeli forces killed 16 Palestinians in Gaza that included a missile strike that killed 11. Hamas vowed revenge attacks.
(SFC, 10/7/02, p.A1)(SFC, 10/8/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/9/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 8, Israeli forces entered Hebron following a sniper attack that wounded 4 Israelis. Israeli tankfire killed a Palestinian girl in the Gaza Strip.
(WSJ, 10/9/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 13, Israeli troops backed by tanks and a helicopter entered the Rafah refugee camp hunting for tunnels used to smuggle weapons and drugs into the Gaza Strip. Two Palestinians were killed and 28 wounded.
(AP, 10/13/02)
2002 Oct 13, A Palestinian militant, whose clan has been targeted previously by Israeli security forces, was killed when a public telephone exploded in his hand. He was one of six Palestinians to die in a day of violence.
(AP, 10/13/02)
2002 Oct 17, Israeli tanks fired artillery shells and machine guns after coming under attack by anti-tank missiles, killing at least 6 Palestinians and wounding more than 40 in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
(AP, 10/17/02)(SFC, 10/18/02, p.A18)
2002 Oct 21, A bus bombing near Hadera killed 14 Israelis, along with two attackers. Israel held off on immediate retaliation, but troops next day destroyed the homes of a suicide bomber and a suspected militant.
(AP, 10/22/02)(SFC, 10/22/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 27, A Palestinian suicide bomber blew up as Israeli soldiers were shooting him, killing three people and himself at a gas station just outside Ariel, one of the largest Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The 18 people injured included several soldiers. Hours later, Israeli troops shot and killed two armed Palestinian militants in the nearby Palestinian city of Nablus
(AP, 10/27/02)
2002 Oct 29, The Palestinian parliament approved the new 19-member Cabinet of Yasser Arafat.
(AP, 10/29/02)
2002 Oct 30, A Palestinian gunman killed two teenage girls and a woman in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank before being shot dead in a firefight with soldiers and residents.
(AP, 10/30/02)
2002 Nov 4, Two Palestinians, including a Hamas militant wanted by Israel, were killed when their car exploded in the middle of the street in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 11/4/02)
2002 Nov 5, Israeli soldiers came under fire and responded by killing a Palestinian and injuring 16 others in the southern Gaza Strip.
(AP, 11/5/02)
2002 Nov 6, A Palestinian laborer opened fire in a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip where he worked, killing his employer and another Israeli before being shot dead.
(AP, 11/6/02)
2002 Nov 9, Iyad Sawalha, a senior member of the militant Islamic Jihad group, was killed in an overnight army operation in the West Bank.
(AP, 11/9/02)
2002 Nov 10, A car carrying two Palestinians exploded as Israeli police moved to stop the vehicle near Israel's border with the West Bank.
(AP, 11/10/02)
2002 Nov 10, A Palestinian gunman crawled under a security fence at the Kibbutz Metzer communal farm, burst into a home and shot dead a mother and her two children as she was reading them a bedtime story. The gunman then killed two more Israelis before escaping in the dark.
(AP, 11/11/02)
2002 Nov 14, Israeli troops captured the alleged mastermind of a shooting attack on an Israeli kibbutz in his West Bank hideout, and seized suspected weapons makers in the deepest raid into Gaza City in two years.
(AP, 11/14/02)
2002 Nov 15, Palestinian militants raked Israeli troops and settlers with gunfire in an ambush, killing 12 Israelis in Hebron.
(AP, 11/15/03)
2002 Nov 16, Israeli troops retook control of Hebron blindfolding Palestinian suspects and herding them into army buses, after militant gunmen ambushed a procession of Jewish worshippers, killing 12 Israelis, mostly security forces.
(AP, 11/16/02)
2002 Nov 17, Tawfiq Fukra (23), an Israeli Arab accused of trying to hijack an El Al Airlines flight, wanted to copy the September 11 suicide attacks on the United States and fly the aircraft into a public building in Tel Aviv.
(Reuters, 11/18/02)
2002 Nov 19, Five Palestinians died when Israeli soldiers swept through the West Bank town of Tulkarem, one a leading militant and another a teenager who had climbed on top of an Israeli armored vehicle.
(AP, 11/19/02)
2002 Nov 20, Israeli troops shot and killed Amr Qudsi (15), a Palestinian teenager in a confrontation in Tulkarem.
(AP, 11/20/02)
2002 Nov 21, A Palestinian man wearing a bomb belt blew himself up on a Jerusalem city bus packed with high school students and soldiers, killing 11 passengers and wounding dozens in a morning rush hour attack. Four of the victims were aged 8 to 16.
(AP, 11/21/02)
2002 Nov 22, A senior U.N. official from Britain was shot and killed during an exchange of fire between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin.
(AP, 11/22/02)
2002 Nov 23, Two Palestinian suicide bombers blew up an explosives-laden fishing boat close to an Israeli patrol craft, wounding four sailors, in the first such attack since the start of the Palestinian uprising.
(AP, 11/23/02)
2002 Nov 25, Israeli troops shot and killed an 8-year-old Palestinian boy in Nablus as hundreds of youths ignored a curfew and threw stones at soldiers on their way home from school. Israeli troops and armored vehicles pulled out of Bethlehem.
(AP, 11/25/02)
2002 Nov 26, Israeli aircraft attacked a building in Jenin’s refugee camp and killed 2 Palestinian militants.
(WSJ, 11/27/02, p.A1)
2002 Nov 28, A shooting attack in northern Israel killed 6 Israelis. Two Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a Likud Party office crowded with voters casting ballots in a leadership race and also attacked passengers at a nearby bus terminal in northern Israel.
(AP, 11/28/02)(SFC, 11/29/02, p.A1)
2002 Nov 29, Israeli troops blew up the homes of two Palestinian gunmen who attacked an office of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud Party during a primary vote, killing six Israelis and wounding more than 20.
(AP, 11/29/02)
2002 Nov 29, Tens of thousands of people demonstrated across the Middle East in a day of solidarity with Palestinians in the annual Jerusalem Day, which marked the 1947 UN partition of Palestine.
(AP, 11/29/02)
2002 Nov 30, A 16-year-old Palestinian boy was shot and killed on his way home from school east of Gaza city, and another was wounded.
(AP, 11/30/02)
2002 Nov 30, Israeli troops shot dead one Palestinian and a second Palestinian man died under the rubble of one of the three homes the soldiers demolished in an overnight operation in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/1/02)
2002 Dec 2, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian gunman trying to enter a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, and a Palestinian teenager was killed when a mob of stone throwers clashed with troops in the West Bank town of Jenin.
(AP, 12/2/02)
2002 Dec 3, An Israeli soldier in Ramallah shot and killed a 95-year-old Palestinian woman as her taxi tried a back road to go around an Israeli checkpoint.
(SFC, 12/4/02, p.A14)
2002 Dec 6, Ten Palestinians, including two U.N. employees, were killed in chaotic battles that erupted when Israeli troops, tanks and helicopter gunships poured into a Gaza Strip refugee camp, searching for a fugitive militant allegedly involved in a fatal bombing.
(AP, 12/6/02)
2002 Dec 8, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian woman and wounded her 3 children at the Tel sultan refugee camp near the settlement of Rafiah Yam.
(SFC, 12/9/02, p.A12)
2002 Dec 9, Israeli soldiers killed Basem Kou (28), a mentally handicapped Palestinian near Beit Lid. At Nablus Israeli soldiers fired on a taxi and killed Rehaneh Hesham Kilani (25) and injured 2 other passengers.
(SFC, 12/10/02, p.A8)
2002 Dec 11, Israeli troops killed a suspected Palestinian militant in a West Bank refugee camp as he tried to escape.
(AP, 12/11/02)
2002 Dec 11, Israeli troops in Gaza shot and killed 5 unarmed Palestinians trying to penetrate a security fence.
(SFC, 12/13/02, p.A22)
2002 Dec 12, Israeli troops near Hebron shot and killed 2 armed Palestinians in separate incidents.
(SFC, 12/13/02, p.A22)
2002 Dec 13, Hamas marked its 15th anniversary with a rally that drew some 30,000 supporters in southern Gaza.
(SFC, 12/14/02, p.A6)
2002 Dec 15, Israel barred Palestinian Pres. Yasser Arafat from visiting Bethlehem for Christmas and decided to keep its army in the West Bank city over the holiday.
(Reuters, 12/15/02)
2002 Dec 16, Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinians, including two armed Hamas fighters, and troops also destroyed 16 shacks, leaving more than 200 people homeless in confrontations in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/16/02)(SFC, 12/17/02, p.A13)
2002 Dec 21, An 11-year-old Palestinian girl died of a gunshot wound in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli troops reinforced a blockade.
(AP, 12/21/02)
2002 Dec 23, Israeli troops killed two Hamas activists, including a leading militiaman, as the men rode a tractor near the West Bank town of Jenin.
(AP, 12/23/02)
2002 Dec 24, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian teenager in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/24/02)
2002 Dec 25, Israeli troops killed a member of the militant Hamas group and arrested another in the West Bank city of Nablus.
(AP, 12/25/02)
2002 Dec 26, Israeli soldiers hunting militiamen in the West Bank killed 9 Palestinians in separate clashes across the West Bank and Gaza.
(AP, 12/26/02)(SFC, 12/27/02, p.A12)
2002 Dec 27, Palestinian gunmen killed 4 Israelis at the Otniel religious community near Hebron.
(SFC, 12/28/02, p.A9)
2002 Dec 28, Israeli troops clashed with Palestinian university students, a day after four Israelis died in a Palestinian attack on Jewish seminary students.
(AP, 12/28/02)
2002 Dec 29, Israeli soldiers fired toward Palestinian protesters in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, killing an 11-year-old boy and wounding a cameraman on assignment for AP TV News.
(AP, 12/29/02)
2002 Dec 30, Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinians, including a gunman, while Israel's Supreme Court ruled that reserve soldiers have no right to refuse service in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Border policemen Shahar Botbeka and Denis Alhazov and 2 others abducted several Hebron residents, among them 17-year-old Amran Abu Hamadiya, and took them for a ride in their jeep. They abused the men and beat them with truncheons and rifles. They hurled Abu Hamadiya out of the moving vehicle, causing his death. In 2008 Botbeka and Alhazov were convicted of manslaughter for their part in the kidnapping and wrongful death of Hamadiya.
(AP, 12/30/02)(www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1017498.html)
2002 Israel closed to Palestinians the West Bank section of Route 443 linking Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, after militants shot at Israeli vehicles on the highway and killed several motorists.
(AP, 12/30/09)
2002 A stone ossuary, looted from a Jerusalem cave, was found by a French scholar with an Aramaic inscription that read "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." In 2003 the stone ossuary was declared a fake. In 2008 Nina Burleigh authored “Unholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed & Forgery in the Holy Land.” In 2012 antiquities collector Oded Golan was acquitted of forging the box. A judge ruled that it was impossible to unequivocally prove the artifacts were forged.
(WSJ, 10/20/08, p.A17)(SFC, 3/15/12, p.A2)
2003 Jan 1, In Gaza 3 Palestinian boys were shot and killed by soldiers after scaling a fence around Jewish settlements. Thousands of Palestinians marched in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to mark the 38th anniversary of the founding of Arafat’s Fatah movement.
(AP, 1/2/03)(SFC, 1/2/03, p.A5)
2003 Jan 2, A Palestinian gunman was killed several hours after he tried to shoot an Israeli couple and then holed up inside their house in the Israeli village of Maor.
(AP, 1/2/03)
2003 Jan 5, In Israel 2 Palestinian suicide bombers blew themselves up minutes apart in a central Tel Aviv area crowded with foreign workers, killing 23 bystanders in the bloodiest attack in six months.
(AP, 1/5/08)
2003 Jan 7, Israeli troops exchanged fire with Palestinian militiamen for 4 hours, killing 3 gunmen before withdrawing from the outskirts of a refugee camp. The Israeli government put new restrictions on travel by Palestinians.
(AP, 1/7/03)(SFC, 1/8/03, p.A11)
2003 Jan 12, Three missiles fired from an Israeli helicopter missed their apparent target, Islamic militants riding in a car, and killed two 15 year-old Palestinian boys, seriously wounding another teen. In Israel 7 Palestinians, two other Arab attackers and two Israelis were killed in raids and infiltrations.
(AP, 1/13/03)(SFC, 1/13/03, p.A3)
2003 Jan 13, Two Palestinians threw grenades at an Israeli bus in the Gaza Strip and were shot dead by Israeli troops, and an Islamic Jihad activist was killed in an explosion in the West Bank.
(AP, 1/14/03)
2003 Jan 15, Israel shut down two Palestinian universities in the divided town of Hebron, while Israeli soldiers shot and killed three Palestinians in West Bank clashes.
(AP, 1/15/03)
2003 Jan 17, Two Palestinian gunmen infiltrated the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba, killing an Israeli man as he opened the door of his home and wounding three other people. One gunman was shot and killed in the attack.
(AP, 1/17/03)
2003 Jan 21, Israel razed 62 shops and market stalls in a Palestinian village Tuesday as troops clashed with protesters.
(AP, 1/21/03)
2003 Jan 18, Israeli soldiers tracked and killed a 2nd Palestinian assailant who fled after an attack on a Jewish outpost in the West Bank. The two slain Palestinians had earlier killed one Israeli and injured three others the previous night.
(AP, 1/18/03)
2003 Jan 23, Hamas gunmen opened fire on a vehicle south of the West Bank city of Hebron and three Israelis were killed. Retaliatory raids wounded 6 in Gaza.
(AP, 1/23/03)(SFC, 1/24/03, p.A11)
2003 Jan 24, Israeli soldiers killed at least 12 Palestinians as helicopter gunships hit Gaza City with 11 missiles.
(SFC, 1/25/03, p.A5)(SSFC, 1/26/03, p.A16)
2003 Jan 28, An explosion leveled a Gaza City house, killing three Palestinians, including a teenage brother and sister, and wounding 11. In Jenin four Palestinians were killed in battles with Israeli troops.
(AP, 1/28/03)
2003 Jan 30, An Israeli undercover unit shot dead two Palestinian militants in Tulkarem, including a militia leader. Army bulldozers demolished a Palestinian vegetable market and closed Palestinian police and TV stations in Hebron.
(AP, 1/30/03)
2003 Jan 31, Israeli undercover troops killed a fugitive Islamic militant and a Palestinian night watchman in a two-hour gun battle at a Jenin firehouse.
(AP, 1/31/03)(SFC, 2/1/03, p.A11)
2003 Feb 3, Israeli tank fire killed two Palestinian farmers in the Gaza Strip on Monday, and soldiers arrested a leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah group on the West Bank.
(AP, 2/3/03)
2003 Feb 5, The Israeli military demolished the home of a Palestinian militant in the Gaza Strip, killing an elderly woman inside. Israeli troops killed a total of 5 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
(AP, 2/5/03)(WSJ, 2/7/03, p.A1)
2003 Feb 9, Three Palestinians were killed when their explosives-laden car blew up outside an Israeli army post after crashing into a cement block barrier. In secret talks last week Israel offered the Palestinians a gradual cease-fire.
(AP, 2/9/03)(SSFC, 2/9/03, p.A22)
2003 Feb 10, Israeli troops killed 2 suspected Palestinian militants, including an unarmed fugitive, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
(AP, 2/10/03)
2003 Feb 11, Israeli troops killed an armed Palestinian in the Gaza Strip, and Israel imposed a blanket closure on the Palestinian areas during the Muslim Hajj because of warnings of possible attacks. Israeli soldiers killed an 8-year-old boy in the West Bank and an Israeli was killed by a Palestinian gunman in Bethlehem.
(AP, 2/11/03)(SFC, 2/12/03, p.A13)
2003 Feb 15, A roadside bomb exploded next to an Israeli tank in the Gaza Strip, killing all four soldiers inside. Hamas claimed responsibility.
(AP, 2/15/03)(SSFC, 2/16/03, p.A10)
2003 Feb 16, Yasser Arafat affirmed in a letter to Britain’s Tony Blair that he will honor a pledge to appoint a prime minister. 8 Palestinians were killed, 6 in a mysterious explosion in Gaza City and 2 by Israeli army fire in the West Bank.
(AP, 2/16/03)(SFC, 2/17/03, A3)
2003 Feb 17, Israeli soldiers killed a top Hamas fugitive in a roadside ambush. In another operation they raided a stronghold of the militant Islamic group, shooting dead 2 Palestinians and blowing up the house of a suspected bombmaker.
(AP, 2/17/03)
2003 Feb 18, At least 40 Israeli tanks headed for Gaza City, accompanied by bulldozers and attack helicopters.
(AP, 2/18/03)
2003 Feb 19, Israeli tanks and soldiers battled Palestinian militants in the streets of Gaza City before dawn in violence that left 11 Palestinians dead, including a suicide bomber who tried to blow up a tank. Hamas fired 4 Qassam rockets into Sderot in retaliation.
(AP, 2/19/03)(SFC, 2/20/03, A6)
2003 Feb 20, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian and carried out house-to-house searches in the West Bank and divided the Gaza Strip into three parts, restricting the movement of more than 1 million Palestinians.
(AP, 2/20/03)
2003 Feb 21, Israeli troops killed 2 Islamic militants during separate attempts to attack an army post and a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 2/21/03)
2003 Feb 22, Israeli troops opened fire on a crowd in Nablus after clashes erupted while soldiers were searching door to door for militants. 2 Palestinians were killed in the gunfire.
(AP, 2/22/03)
2003 Feb 23, Israeli troops raided Beit Hanoun in Gaza, blew up five homes of suspected militants, battled masked gunmen and shot from tank-mounted machine guns toward dozens of stone throwers. Six Palestinians were killed and 28 wounded. 2 more Palestinians were killed elsewhere in Gaza.
(AP, 2/23/03)
2003 Feb 25, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian teenager in the Gaza Strip, and a Hamas activist was critically wounded in an explosion in his home.
(AP, 2/25/03)
2003 Mar 2, Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopters raided a Gaza Strip town, killing two Palestinians in fierce fighting and demolishing an apartment building and the exterior wall of a hospital.
(AP, 3/2/03)
2003 Mar 3, Israeli troops raided a Gaza refugee camp and arrested Hamas co-founder Mohammed Taha. He founded Hamas in 1987, along with the group's spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, and three other senior clerics. Israel released Taha 14 months later. 8 Palestinians, among them a pregnant woman, were killed in clashes in the camp.
(AP, 3/3/03)(AP, 3/3/08)
2003 Mar 4, Israeli troops killed one Palestinian and wounded another in an shootout at an Internet cafe in the West Bank.
(AP, 3/4/03)
2003 Mar 5, In Israel a Palestinian suicide bombing, the 1st in two months, tore apart a packed Israeli bus in the port city of Haifa, killing 14 Israelis and an American teenager, and wounding about 55.
(AP, 3/5/03)(AP, 3/5/08)
2003 Mar 6, Israeli troops hunting Islamic militants after a deadly suicide bombing stormed the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza in a raid that left 11 Palestinians dead and 110 wounded.
(AP, 3/6/03)
2003 Mar 8, An Israeli helicopter missile strike killed Ibrahim Makadmeh (51), the top commander of Hamas' military wing and three other militants in a car in the Gaza Strip. Hamas vowed revenge; the Israeli army promised to strike the militants again.
(AP, 3/8/03)(AP, 3/8/08)
2003 Mar 10, The Palestinian parliament approved the new position of PM as part of reforms sought by the US, Europe and Israel to curb Yasser Arafat’s near absolute powers. Mahmoud Abbas became PM without control of the security forces or peace talks. Abbas had a doctorate in history and his books included "The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and the Zionist Movement."
(AP, 3/10/03)(WSJ, 3/11/03, p.A1)(SSFC, 7/13/03, Par p.2)
2003 Mar 11, Israeli troops fired a tank shell at a 3-story apartment building, then razed it, killing a Palestinian gunman who several hours earlier had attacked an Israeli army patrol.
(AP, 3/11/03)
2003 Mar 14, Pres. Bush promised to reveal a US "road map" to Middle East peace. It was contingent on the confirmation of a Palestinian prime minister with real authority.
(SFC, 3/15/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 16, In the Gaza Strip Rachel Corrie (23) of Washington State was crushed to death by and Israeli Army bulldozer as she tried to block the demolition of Palestinian homes. On Aug 28, 2012, an Israeli court cleared the military of any responsibility for her death.
(SFC, 3/17/03, p.A1)(AFP, 8/28/12)
2003 Mar 17, Israeli forces invaded 2 communities in the Gaza Strip and gun battles left 10 Palestinians dead including a 4-yer-old girl.
(SFC, 3/18/03, p.AA6)
2003 Mar 18, The Palestinian parliament established the post of prime minister. It gave Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), the new PM, control of domestic affairs and internal security issues.
(SFC, 3/19/03, p.A3)
2003 Mar 18, Israeli forces killed 2 Hamas militants in West Bank clashes. One Israeli solder was killed.
(SFC, 3/19/03, p.A6)(WSJ, 3/19/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 19, In Palestine Mahmoud Abbas accepted the new post of prime minister.
(SFC, 3/20/03, p.A13)
2003 Mar 20, The Palestinian Authority broke up a Hamas training session and a firefight followed that killed one militant.
(SFC, 3/21/03, p.A15)
2003 Mar 24, Israeli forces near Hebron shot dead Ahmed Abahreh (14), who was throwing stones at an Israeli armored vehicle.
(SFC, 3/25/03, p.A6)
2003 Mar 25, Israeli troops killed 2 wanted Hamas militants. Sprayed bullets also killed a girl (10). A West Bank boy (14) throwing stones was shot dead.
(SFC, 3/26/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 27, In Israel Israeli forces killed 3 Palestinian police officers in Beit Hanoun, Gaza.
(SFC, 3/27/03, p.A10)
2003 Mar 29, Israeli troops shot a killed a 17-year-old Palestinian throwing stone at troops near Nablus.
(SSFC, 3/30/03, p.A9)
2003 Mar 30, In Netanya, Israel, Rami Ghanem (20), a Palestinian suicide bomber, exploded near the London Café and at least 30 people were injured. The Islamic Jihad called the attack "Palestine's gift to the heroic people of Iraq."
(SFC, 3/31/03, p.A1)(AP, 3/30/04)
2003 Mar, In 2007 British media reported that Iran had offered to cut off aid and support for the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas, and promised full transparency on its nuclear program in a secret letter to the US soon after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Iran also offered to use its influence to support stabilization in Iraq, and in return asked for a halt in hostile American behaviour, an abolition of all sanctions, and the pursuit and repatriation of members of the Mujahedeen Khalq (People's Mujahedeen MKO). Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, said: “As soon as it got to the Vice-President's (Dick Cheney) office, the old mantra of 'we don't talk to evil' ... reasserted itself."
(AFP, 1/18/07)
2003 Apr 2, Israeli forces raided Gaza and 6 Palestinians were killed.
(SFC, 4/3/03, p.A12)(WSJ, 4/3/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 3, Israeli forces evicted some 1,500-3,000 Palestinian men from their homes in the Tulkarem Refugee Camp and told them to stay out for 3 days. Several Palestinians were killed in Gaza and West Bank raids.
(SFC, 4/4/03, p.A8)(WSJ, 4/4/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 4, Israeli troops uncovered an explosives lab and arrested Anwar Alian (22), a senior Islamic Jihad militant, during a sweep of Tulkarem.
(SFC, 4/5/03, p.A9)
2003 Apr 5, In Israel Brian Avery (23), a peace activist from Albuquerque, NM, was wounded when Israeli troops opened fire in Jenin.
(SSFC, 4/6/03, p.A8)
2003 Apr 6, Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip killed a Hamas gunman and a 14-year-old boy.
(SFC, 4/7/03, p.A8)
2003 Apr 7, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man who approached the fence of a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip overnight. In Tulkarem, Israeli troops arrested Maslama Thabet, a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
(AP, 4/7/03)
2003 Apr 8, An Israeli AH-64 Apache helicopter fired a missile at a car in Gaza City after sundown, killing at least 6 people, including Saed Arabeed, a Palestinian militant, and 2 boys aged 4 and 15.
(AP, 4/8/03)(SFC, 4/9/03, p.A3)
2003 Apr 9, Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip killed 5 Palestinians following rocket fire on Sederot.
(SFC, 4/10/03, p.A10)
2003 Apr 10, An Israeli missile strike in Gaza City killed Mahmoud Zatme, an Islamic Jihad commander, and injured 12 bystanders. In Tulkarem Israeli troops fired on a car carrying members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. The driver was killed and 4 others were injured. 2 gunmen shot 2 Israeli soldier dead in the Jordan Valley and were themselves killed.
(SFC, 4/11/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/11/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 11, Israeli troops critically wounded Thomas Hurndall (21), a British peace activist, as he tried to remove 2 children from a line of fire outside the Rafah refugee camp.
(SFC, 4/12/03, p.A6)
2003 Apr 13, Israel’s PM Ariel Sharon in a published interview said Israel will hand over some Jewish settlements for peace, but the Palestinians must give up their demand that refugees be allowed to return to their former homes.
(AP, 4/13/03)
2003 Apr 15, Israeli-Palestinian clashes in Gaza and the West Bank left 6 people dead.
(SFC, 4/16/03, p.A7)
2003 Apr 19, Nazeh Darwazeh (45), a cameraman with Associated Press TV News, was killed while covering skirmishes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians who were throwing rocks and firebombs. He died of a bullet wound to the head and Palestinian witnesses said he was shot by an Israeli soldier.
(AP, 4/19/03)
2003 Apr 19, The Israeli army killed 5 Palestinians and wounded around 70, many of them civilians, in a raid on the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Near the West Bank city of Qalqilya, soldiers shot dead a Palestinian who threw a petrol bomb at them.
(Reuters, 4/20/03)
2003 Apr 24, A Palestinian suicide bomber killed a guard in a rush-hour attack at an Israeli train station.
(AP, 4/24/03)
2003 Apr 29, The Palestinian parliament approved Mahmoud Abbas as prime minister, clearing the final obstacle to the launch of a U.S.-backed "road map" to peace.
(AP, 4/29/04)
2003 Apr 29, A Palestinian suicide bombing killed 3 Israelis in a crowded Tel Aviv nightclub. The bomber, Asif Hanif (21), grew up in Britain. A 2nd bomber escaped.
(AP, 4/30/03)(SFC, 5/2/03, p.A8)
2003 Apr 30, Mahmoud Abbas took office as Palestinian prime minister.
(AP, 9/6/03)
2003 Apr 30, US Ambassador Dan Kurtzer met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to present him with an internationally backed Mideast peace plan, that envisioned Palestinian statehood within three years. Mediators presented Israeli and Palestinian leaders with a new Middle East "road map," a U.S.-backed blueprint for ending 31 months of violence and establishing a Palestinian state.
(AP, 4/30/03)(AP, 4/30/04)
2003 May 1, Israeli troops raided a Hamas stronghold and exchanged fire with dozens of masked gunmen. At least 13 Palestinians were killed, including two boys ages 2 and 13. 2 Palestinian militants were killed in the West Bank.
(AP, 5/1/03)(SFC, 5/2/03, p.A8)
2003 May 2, James Miller (34), a British journalist filming a documentary in the southern Palestinian city of Rafah, was shot and killed during an exchange of fire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians. In 2006 a British jury ruled that the shooting was an act of murder. In 2009 Israel agreed to pay about $2 million to the family Miller.
(AP, 5/2/04)(AP, 4/6/06)(AP, 2/1/09)
2003 May 7, In Israel a Hamas militant was killed when a bomb exploded in his West Bank apartment. In northern Gaza a Hamas member was killed near a Jewish settlement. In the southern Gaza Strip a Palestinian toddler was killed from Israeli gunfire.
(SFC, 5/8/03, p.A17)
2003 May 8, Israeli helicopters fired 3 missiles at a car in northern Gaza, killing a senior Hamas militant.
(AP, 5/8/03)
2003 May 11, A Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli motorist in the West Bank and Israeli troops raided a Palestinian town. Palestinian leaders put aside reservations to parts of the US-developed plan for peace and PM Mahmoud Abbas said Israel was ready to get started on it.
(AP, 5/11/03)
2003 May 12, Israel sealed the Gaza Strip, imposing the most sweeping restrictions in years, and its troops killed three Palestinians in clashes there.
(AP, 5/12/03)
2003 May 14, An Israeli helicopter fired a missile into a crowd in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, wounding 30 people and killed three Palestinian policemen, after 10 Israeli soldiers were wounded nearby in a mortar attack.
(AP, 5/13/03)
2003 May 15, Israeli troops killed 5 people including 3 youths during a raid at Beit Hanoun aimed to stop Palestinian fighters from firing rockets into Israel.
(SFC, 5/16/03, p.A10)
2003 May 17, A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in the West Bank city of Hebron, killing an Israeli man and his pregnant wife.
(AP, 5/17/04)
2003 May 18, A Hamas suicide bomber killed seven passengers on a Jerusalem bus, while a second bomber blew himself up on the city's outskirts. Israeli PM Ariel Sharon postponed a trip to Washington. Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip shot and killed a Palestinian man. On June 3, 2010, Steve Averbach (44), who had been hit by shrapnel on the bus and paralyzed from the neck down, died as a result of complications from his wounds.
(AP, 5/18/03)(AP, 6/4/10)
2003 May 19, A Palestinian riding a bicycle blew himself up near an Israeli army jeep. A female suicide bomber detonated at the entrance to a shopping mall in Afula and killed 3 others in the 5th suicide bombing in 48 hours.
(SFC, 5/20/03, p.A1)(AP, 5/19/04)
2003 May 21, Israeli troops shot to death 2 Palestinians including a mother of 8 during a clash at the West Bank village of Qarawat Bani Zeid.
(SFC, 5/22/03, p.A3)
2003 May 23, Israel's PM Ariel Sharon agreed to work with a US-backed peace plan to end 32 months of fighting and to set up a Palestinian state.
(AP, 5/23/03)
2003 May 24, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man near Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza.
(AP, 5/24/03)
2003 May 25, Israel's Cabinet approved a US-backed Middle East peace plan, recognizing for the first time the Palestinians' right to establish an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
(AP, 5/25/03)
2003 May 26, PM Sharon said Israel must end its occupation of Palestinian lands. Sharon declared in a speech to his Likud Party that he was determined to reach a peace deal and end 36 years of rule over the Palestinians.
(SFC, 5/27/03, p.A1)(AP, 5/26/08)
2003 May 27, Israeli troops shot and killed a 16-year-old Palestinian boy and critically wounded two children, ages 7 and 9, during confrontations.
(AP, 5/27/03)
2003 Jun 1, The Israeli military eased travel restrictions and allowed thousands of Palestinian workers to enter the country in an effort to lower tensions and build goodwill.
(AP, 6/1/03)
2003 Jun 3, Israel released about 100 prisoners, a goodwill gesture ahead of a Mideast peace summit with U.S. President George W. Bush.
(AP, 6/3/03)
2003 Jun 4, In Jordan Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pledged to dismantle illegal settlements in Palestinian areas, while the new Palestinian leader renounced all terrorism against Israel. Both steps were sought by President Bush as he brought the two sides together in a bid to advance Middle East peace.
(AP, 6/4/03)(SFC, 6/4/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 8, Three Palestinians disguised as Israeli military sneaked into an army post and killed 4 soldiers before being killed by troops in the first major attack on Israelis since last week's Mideast summit. Another Israeli soldier was killed in Hebron. 6 Palestinians died in the violence.
(AP, 6/8/03)(SFC, 6/9/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 10, Israel launched a rocket attack in Gaza and wounded Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a Hamas spokesman. Israeli counterfire to Hamas rockets killed 3 Palestinians.
(WSJ, 6/11/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 11, A Palestinian blew himself up on a Jerusalem bus and killed 16 other people. Israel retaliated with 2 rocket strikes that killed 11 Palestinians in Gaza City.
(AP, 6/11/03)(AP, 6/11/08)
2003 Jun 12, Israeli helicopters fired rockets at two cars carrying Hamas activists in Gaza killing seven people, including a young child, and wounding 29. The first strike killed two low-level Hamas activists, ages 22 and 24, from a unit that guards city streets.
(AP, 6/12/03)
2003 Jun 13, Israel decided to target top Hamas leaders, including founder Sheik Ahmed, saying it would strike political as well as military leaders who targeted Israel with terrorism. An Israeli helicopter attack killed one Hamas member and injured 22 Palestinians including 8 children.
(SFC, 6/14/03, p.A1)(AP, 6/13/08)
2003 Jun 18, Israel agreed to curb its "track-and-kill" operations against Palestinian militants in a deal struck with US officials to help them salvage a new peace plan torn by violence.
(AP, 6/18/03)
2003 Jun 20, Secretary of State Colin Powell met separately with the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, praising the Israelis for efforts toward an eventual peace settlement and urging speed on the Palestinians.
(AP, 6/20/04)
2003 Jun 21, The Israeli army killed Abdullah Kawasme, a local Hamas leader, in the West Bank town of Hebron.
(AP, 6/22/03)(SSFC, 6/22/03, p.A9)
2003 Jun 24, Israel arrested more than 130 Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron, targeting Hamas as the Palestinian government awaited word on whether the Islamic militant group would agree to a cease-fire.
(AP, 6/24/03)
2003 Jun 25, Three Palestinian militant groups agreed to halt attacks on Israel for 3 months.
(BS, 6/26/03, 1A)
2003 Jun 27, Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed for Israel to begin withdrawing forces from areas of the Gaza Strip and returning security control to Palestinian officers. In 33 months of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 2,414 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 806 on the Israeli side.
(AP, 6/27/03)(SFC, 6/28/03, p.A1)
2003 Jun 28, An Islamic Jihad leader announced that the group accepted a conditional three-month halt to attacks on Israelis — the first open confirmation of the deal from a militant leader.
(AP, 6/28/03)
2003 Jun 29, The militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups agreed to suspend attacks against Israel for three months.
(AP, 6/29/03)
2003 Jun 30, Israeli and Palestinian commanders shook hands, bulldozers dismantled checkpoints and Palestinian traffic flowed freely in the Gaza Strip. A Palestinian shooting killed a Romanian truck driver in the West Bank.
(AP, 6/30/03)
2003 Jul 1, At a summit, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas rededicated themselves to peace efforts and spoke of a shared future for their peoples.
(AP, 7/1/04)
2003 Jul 2, Palestinian police moved into the West Bank town of Bethlehem, the second area handed over by Israel under a U.S.-backed Mideast peace plan.
(AP, 7/2/03)
2003 Jul 8, Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas resigned from a top post in the Fatah movement.
(AP, 7/8/03)
2003 Jul 9, The US cleared $20 million in direct aid to the Palestinians.
(WSJ, 7/10/03, p.A1)
2003 Jul 20, The Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers held a two-hour meeting, kicking off 10 days of international diplomacy aimed at solidifying a fragile Mideast cease-fire.
(AP, 7/20/03)
2003 Jul 25, An Israeli soldier fired a tank-mounted machine gun at a pickup truck carrying a Palestinian family, killing a 4-year-old Palestinian boy and wounding two other children.
(AP, 7/25/03)
2003 Jul 25, Palestinian PM Mahmoud Abbas met with Pres. George Bush in Washington DC. Abbas thanked Bush for his efforts in pursuit of a peaceful Middle East and for a recent grant of $20 million in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority.
(AP, 7/26/03)
2003 Jul 27, The Israeli Cabinet voted to release up to 540 jailed Palestinians.
(SFC, 7/28/03, p.A1)
2003 Jul 31, The Israeli parliament voted to block Palestinians who marry Israelis from becoming Israeli citizens of residents. The legislation was enacted for one year. In 2006 the Supreme Court rejected petitions to overturn the law.
(SFC, 8/1/03, p.A20)(Econ, 5/20/06, p.47)
2003 Aug 6, Israel freed 334 Palestinian prisoners in a bid to jump-start peace efforts, but the gesture fell flat among Palestinians.
(AP, 8/6/04)
2003 Aug 8, A West Bank raid on a bomb lab by Israeli troops killed 2 members of the Islamic militant group Hamas. An Israeli soldier also was killed.
(AP, 8/9/03)
2003 Aug 12, Two teenage Palestinian suicide bombings less than an hour apart killed at least 2 Israelis at a shopping plaza in Israel and a bus stop in the West Bank.
(AP, 8/12/03)
2003 Aug 14, Israeli troops killed Mohammed Sidr, a top Islamic Jihad commander, in a gun battle at his hideout in Hebron.
(AP, 8/14/03)(WSJ, 8/15/03, p.A6)
2003 Aug 18, Israel delayed plans to hand over Jericho and Qalqiliya, two West Bank towns to Palestinian control.
(AP, 8/19/03)
2003 Aug 19, A Hamas bus bombing in Jerusalem killed 22 people, including as many as six children.
(AP, 8/20/03)(AP, 8/19/04)
2003 Aug 21, Israel killed Ismail Abu Shanab, a senior Hamas political leader, in a missile strike, retaliating for a suicide bombing of a bus in which 20 people died including six children. Abu Shanab was widely regarded as a moderate in the group, and served as a liaison with Abbas during the prime minister's efforts to persuade Hamas to halt attacks. Palestinian militants abandoned a two-month-old truce after Israel killed the Hamas leader.
(AP, 8/21/03)(AP, 8/21/08)
2003 Aug 22, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian militant and wounded two others in a shootout Friday at a West Bank hospital.
(AP, 8/22/03)
2003 Aug 24, Palestinian militants carried out their deepest rocket strike against Israel. A Qassam-2 rocket, a makeshift weapon produced by the militant Islamic group Hamas, landed near a lifeguard station on Zikim beach with no damages or casualties. Israeli missile fire killed 4 Palestinian militants in Gaza City.
(Reuters, 8/24/03)(SFC, 8/25/03, p.A1)
2003 Aug 30, An Israeli helicopter gunship fired several missiles at a Palestinian car driving through a refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, killing two Hamas militants.
(AP, 8/30/03)
2003 Sep 5, Israeli commandos killed a Hamas bombmaker in a firefight and pulverized the West Bank apartment building in which he had been hiding.
(AP, 9/5/04)
2003 Sep 6, An Israeli missile strike on Gaza City lightly wounded Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the highest-ranking member of the militant group to be targeted by Israel in recent weeks.
(AP, 9/6/03)
2003 Sep 6, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, whose support was considered essential to any prospect of peace success, submitted his resignation.
(AP, 9/6/03)
2003 Sep 6, The European Union said it will declare all wings of the militant Palestinian group Hamas a terrorist organization and freeze its assets after dozens of deadly attacks in Israel.
(AP, 9/6/03)
2003 Sep 7, Palestinian Pres. Yasser Arafat tapped the parliament speaker, Ahmed Qureia, to take over as prime minister following the resignation of Mahmoud Abbas.
(SFC, 9/8/03, p.A1)(AP, 9/7/08)
2003 Sep 8, Palestinian parliament speaker Ahmed Qureia said he will accept the prime minister's job only if Washington guarantees Israeli compliance with a US-backed peace plan, including a halt to military strikes.
(AP, 9/8/03)
2003 Sep 9, Israeli troops killed three Palestinians, including a 12-year-old boy, in an arrest raid in the West Bank city of Hebron, as Israel signaled both reluctant acquiescence and disapproval of the Palestinians' candidate for prime minister. In Jerusalem twin suicide bombings, 5 hours apart, killed 16 Israelis. One suicide bomber chose a nightspot packed with young Israelis, the other a bus stop where soldiers were waiting for their ride homes.
(AP, 9/9/03)
2003 Sep 10, Israeli warplanes flattened the home of senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar with a half-ton bomb, wounding him and killing his eldest son and a bodyguard, in retaliation for twin suicide bombings that killed 15 Israelis a day earlier.
(AP, 9/10/03)
2003 Sep 11, The Israeli security Cabinet decided in principle to authorize the expulsion of Yasser Arafat. The Cabinet also decided that the construction of the security fence between Israel and the West Bank will be accelerated.
(AP, 9/11/03)(SFC, 9/12/03, p.A3)
2003 Sep 12, The Palestinians urged the UN Security Council to demand that Israel not expel Yasser Arafat and halt any threats to his safety.
(AP, 9/12/03)
2003 Sep 16, The US vetoed a UN resolution demanding that Israel not harm or expel Arafat.
(WSJ, 9/17/03, p.A1)
2003 Sep 25, Israeli troops killed 4 Islamic militants, including a senior fugitive, in gunbattles in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. One soldier was killed and six were wounded in the fighting.
(AP, 9/25/03)
2003 Sep 25, Edward Said, Palestinian American journalist, critic and author. His books included "Orientalism" and "Culture and Imperialism."
(SSFC, 12/28/03, p.E9)
2003 Sep 26, A Palestinian gunman killed 2 people including a baby girl in an Israeli settlement outside Hebron.
(SFC, 9/27/03, p.A8)
2003 Sep 27, A Palestinian militant was killed when a bomb he was making blew up on as Israel maintained a high alert over a New Year holiday weekend.
(Reuters, 9/27/03)
2003 Sep 28, Israeli and Palestinian fatalities over the last 3 years totaled some 3,277 with 860 on the Israeli side and 2,417 Palestinian dead. An additional 60 Palestinians were killed by militants for informing to Israel.
(SSFC, 9/28/03, p.A14)
2003 Oct 4, In Haifa, Israel, Hanadi Taysser Darajat (29), a female Palestinian lawyer, blew herself up in a crowded Mediterranean beach restaurant, killing 21 people including 4 children. A brother and cousin, Jihad terrorists, had been killed in June. Her suicide inspired a piece of installation art in 2004 at the Stockholm Museum titled "Snow White and the Madness of Truth."
(SFC, 10/11/03, p.A7)(WSJ, 1/22/04, p.D6)(AP, 10/4/04)(LSA, Fall/06, p.32)
2003 Oct 5, Israeli warplanes bombed the Ein Saheb base northwest of Damascus, Syria, in retaliation for a suicide bombing at a Haifa restaurant. Israeli military called it an Islamic Jihad training base. Residents later told the Associated Press the camp was abandoned years ago.
(AP, 10/5/03)(AP, 10/6/03)
2003 Oct 7, Yasser Arafat swore in new Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and a skeleton emergency Cabinet.
(AP, 10/7/03)
2003 Oct 10, Israel sent dozens of tanks into a Gaza refugee camp to destroy tunnels allegedly used by Palestinians to smuggle weapons. Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians, including an eight-year-old boy, in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 10/10/03)(Reuters, 10/10/03)
2003 Oct 11, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian and razed dozens of homes in a Gaza Strip refugee camp as Israeli opposition politicians and Palestinian officials sought to revive peace talks.
(AP, 10/11/03)(Reuters, 10/11/03)
2003 Oct 15, In the Gaza Strip a remote-controlled bomb exploded under a US diplomatic convoy, ripping apart an armored van and killing three Americans.
(AP, 10/15/03)
2003 Oct 16, Palestinian police arrested 7 suspects in Jebaliya for a deadly attack on US diplomats, briefly exchanging fire with the militants during a nighttime raid. The suspects were members of the Popular Resistance Committees, a group of dozens of armed men from various factions, former members of the security forces and disgruntled followers of Yasser Arafat.
(AP, 10/16/03)(WSJ, 10/17/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 18, In southern Gaza Israeli forces looking for smuggling tunnels killed 3 Palestinians, including a senior member of the violent Islamic Hamas group, and wounded 10.
(AP, 10/18/03)(SSFC, 10/19/03, p.A11)
2003 Oct 19, Palestinian gunmen attacked an Israeli army foot patrol near a West Bank village, killing three soldiers and wounding a fourth.
(AP, 10/19/03)
2003 Oct 20, Israeli helicopters and warplanes unleashed a string of missile strikes in Gaza City. At least 11 people were killed and over 90 wounded.
(AP, 10/20/03)(SFC, 10/21/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 21, The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution demanding that Israel tear down a barrier jutting into the West Bank.
(AP, 10/21/04)
2003 Oct 22, Israeli troops shot and killed 2 suspected Palestinian militants in the West Bank.
(AP, 10/22/03)
2003 Oct 23, Masked Palestinian gunmen killed two men suspected of being informers for Israel, then displayed their bodies in the central square of the Tulkarem refugee camp.
(AP, 10/23/03)
2003 Oct 24, Palestinian militants cut through a fence and crept up on the army base inside the Netzarim settlement in Gaza. The militants entered the barracks and shot soldiers as they slept, killing three including two women, and wounding two others.
(AP, 10/26/03)
2003 Oct 26, In the largest demolition of Palestinian Authority buildings in Gaza in 3 years, the Israeli army blew up 3 apartment towers in retaliation for a deadly settlement attack.
(AP, 10/26/03)
2003 Oct 28, It was reported that Forbes Magazine had estimated Yasser Arafat's fortune at some $300 million, with much of it controlled by adviser Mohammed Rachid.
(SFC, 10/28/03, p.A3)
2003 Nov 2, More than 6,000 Palestinian laborers crossed into Israel from the Gaza Strip on as Israel slightly eased restrictions that had prevented them from reaching their workplaces for more than a month.
(AP, 11/2/03)
2003 Nov 3, A suicide bomber, Sabih Abu Saud (16), blew himself up near an army checkpoint in the West Bank, killing himself but causing no other casualties.
(AP, 11/3/03)(SFC, 11/4/03, p.A10)
2003 Nov 9, Palestinian PM Ahmed Qureia announced the formation of a Cabinet and said he will present it to parliament this week. It left Yasser Arafat in control of security forces.
(AP, 11/9/03)
2003 Nov 12, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat swore in a new Palestinian Cabinet.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2003 Nov 13, Palestinian and Israeli officials said they expect their leaders to meet for peace talks, possibly within 10 days.
(AP, 11/13/03)
2003 Nov 14, In Israel 4 former security chiefs warned that the country is headed for disaster unless PM Ariel Sharon reverses course and moves to settle the conflict with the Palestinians.
(AP, 11/14/03)
2003 Nov 17, An Egyptian mediator reached agreement with Palestinian leaders to start cease-fire talks among militants within 2 days.
(SFC, 11/18/03, p.A3)
2003 Nov 18, A Palestinian gunman, his rifle wrapped in a prayer mat, walked to a West Bank checkpoint and killed two Israeli soldiers at close range.
(AP, 11/18/03)
2003 Nov 30, Some 200 Palestinians attacked Palestinian negotiators traveling to Geneva for the signing ceremony of symbolic deal, reached by former Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, that would establish a Palestinian state with unprecedented concessions by both sides.
(AP, 11/30/03)
2003 Nov 30, A Gaza Strip car explosion in Rafah killed Yusuf Matar, an Islamic Jihad activist.
(SFC, 12/1/03, p.A3)
2003 Dec 1, Dignitaries from around the world, including former Pres. Jimmy Carter, gathered in Geneva to sign a draft peace accord, called the Geneva Accords, drawn up between Israeli and Palestinian activists.
(SFC, 12/1/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 1, Israeli troops launched a sweeping raid on Ramallah, killing a 9-year-old boy and 3 Hamas gunmen and leaving 60 people homeless after blowing up their apartment building.
(AP, 12/1/03)
2003 Dec 2, Israeli troops killed an armed Palestinian trying to flee in the West Bank town of Jenin.
(AP, 12/2/03)
2003 Dec 4, Palestinians opened formal talks in Egypt aimed at forging a cease-fire they hope will induce Israel to halt its attacks on militants and lead to renewed peace negotiations.
(AP, 12/4/03)(WSJ, 12/5/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 5, Israeli military allowed a market in the divided West Bank city of Hebron to open for the first time in more than a year.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2003 Dec 5, The Israeli military shot and killed two Palestinians, armed with grenades and an explosive device, crawling toward a security barrier separating the Gaza Strip from Israel.
(AP, 12/6/03)
2003 Dec 7, Palestinian militants rejected a comprehensive truce offer to Israel despite intense pressure from Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and Egypt to sign onto a deal.
(AP, 12/8/03)
2003 Dec 12, Fadwa Toukan (b.1917), Palestinian poet, died in Nablus at age 86.
(SSFC, 12/14/03, p.A31)
2003 Dec 13, Israeli troops fired on a taxi that drove through a West Bank checkpoint, killing a female passenger.
(AP, 12/13/03)
2003 Dec 14, Palestinians fired a barrage of mortars at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and Israeli troops killed a fugitive from the Islamic Jihad group in the West Bank.
(AP, 12/14/03)
2003 Dec 15, Israeli soldiers shot dead 2 Palestinians in Gaza.
(WSJ, 12/16/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 18, Israel's PM Sharon said that if talks with Palestinians failed, Israel would unilaterally withdraw from some settlements in order to establish a more defensible border.
(SFC, 12/19/03, p.A17)
2003 Dec 20, The third year of fighting between Israelis and Palestinians saw a decline in the number of people killed, according to an AP count. Violence claimed nearly 800 lives in 2003.
(AP, 12/20/03)
2003 Dec 21, Israeli troops conducted a series of raids in the West Bank city of Nablus, arresting Hamas leader Adnan Asfour and killing a 5-year-old Palestinian boy.
(AP, 12/21/03)
2003 Dec 22, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher (68) was attacked by Islamic extremists at the Al Axsa mosque in Jerusalem. He said the incident would only strengthen his country's resolve to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
(AP, 12/23/03)(SFC, 12/23/03, p.A3)
2003 Dec 23, An Israeli raid on the Rafah refugee camp killed 9 Palestinians and left over 40 wounded in the worst violence in the Gaza Strip in two months. Hours earlier Israel lost its first two soldiers in a month of relative calm.
(AP, 12/23/03)(AP, 12/24/03)
2003 Dec 25, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man carrying explosives toward a Jewish settlement in Gaza.
(AP, 12/25/03)
2003 Dec 25, Israeli helicopter gunships killed a senior Islamic militant and at least four other people in a missile strike on a car in Gaza City.
(Reuters, 12/25/03)
2003 Dec 25, A suicide bombing killed four Israelis near a bus stop outside Tel Aviv. The victims were identified as 3 soldiers and a 17-year-old Israeli girl. At least 13 other people were wounded. The PFLP identified the bomber as Said Hanani (18) from the village of Beit Furik.
(AP, 12/26/03)(SFC, 12/26/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 26, Hamas, the Islamic group responsible for most suicide bombings in three years of violence, called off attacks inside Israel. In response, Israel will hold off targeting Hamas leaders but will still go after other Palestinian militants.
(AP, 12/27/03)
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