2 Palestinians killed. 1 Israeli killed.
Israeli-Palestinian violence escalates, leaving 2 Palestinians
dead. After a 2d Jewish settler wounded on 7/12 dies of his injuries, the
IDF sends tanks, armored personnel carriers, heavy machine guns into the
PA-controlled area of Hebron to fire on 4 Force 17
positions in the midst of Palestinian residential areas, leaving more than 20
Palestinians injured, 10s of houses damaged and triggering a major exchange of
gunfire. In Tulkarm, senior Hamas mbr. Fawwas Badran is killed when his
car explodes in an apparent Israeli assassination. The
IDF also seizes a Palestinian home in Nabi Salih as a new outpost,
fire on an ambulance in Tulkarm. (MM 7/13; WP, WT 7/14; Palestinian Red Crescent
Society press release 7/16)
IDF soldiers see a
Palestinian woman place a bomb outside a Jewish settlement in Gaza and run
away. When they approach to dismantle the bomb, another Palestinian
throws a grenade at them, causing no injuries. Soldiers shoot him dead.
The IDF conducts arrest raids in Jenin; shells
residential areas, bulldozes 5 dunams of Palestinian land nr. Khan Yunis;
bulldozes 3 dunams nr. Kefar Darom settlement. (PCHR 7/17)
The IDF, PSF launch a joint search
for a missing Israeli taxi driver feared kidnapped by Palestinians
seeking a prisoner swap. The IDF fires on residential areas of Khan
Yunis, wounding a woman in her home; conducts arrest raids in Ramallah.
Jewish settlers in Hebron attack Palestinians, occupy a Palestinian home
and surrounding land. (BBC, WP 7/14; PM 7/15; PR 7/16; PCHR 7/24)
Hamas, Islamic Jihad issue a joint statement saying that they
will not surrender their weapons; they argue that they agreed to a cease-fire to
support national unity efforts, a PSF attempt to disarm them would go
against unity efforts, removing the basis of the cease-fire agmt. Abbas
says he will not order the PSF to disarm the militant groups, though PA
police will confiscate unlicensed weapons found during inspections of
vehicles at PSF checkpoints. In Ramallah, 10s of Palestinian refugees attack, lightly injure
Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki, vandalize his office to prevent him fr.
holding a press conference to release data showing that while 95% of refugees
polled wanted Israel to recognize the right of return, only a minority (10%
overall; 23% in Lebanon, 13% in the occupied territories, 5% in Jordan)
percentage would want to return to their homes in what is now Israel, 54%
overall would accept monetary compensation in lieu of return. (HA 7/13; JP, NYT,
WP, WT 7/14; PR 7/16; MM 7/28)
2 Palestinians killed.
The IDF raids Jenin, fatally shoots local Islamic Jihad cmdr. Numan
Tahayna in an assassination, also searches a hospital; conducts arrest
raids, searches houses, bulldozes 159 dunams in al-Qarara; conducts arrest raids
in Wadi al-Silqa, detaining 50 men and boys, taking them to an IDF base for
questioning, releasing all but 5, plus bulldozing 1 Palestinian home, 51
dunams of land; conducts arrest raids, house searches in Aida r.c., Bayt Iqsa
nr. Ramallah, al-Bireh, Dayr Sharaf nr. Nablus, Hebron, Jayous nr. Qalqilya;
fires missiles at a workshop in Gaza City, completely destroying it; fires on
residential areas of Khan Yunis, al-Maghazi. A
Jewish settler deliberately runs into an elderly Palestinian man
with his car nr. Bethlehem, killing him. (VOI, VOP 7/13 in WNC 7/15; NYT, PR, WT
7/14; VOP 7/14 in WNC 7/16; PCHR 7/15)
Palestinians fire a
Qassam rocket at Gush Katif (causing light damage but no injuries), an
antitank rocket at an IDF post in Rafah (causing no damage or injuries).
3 Palestinians killed. 1 Israeli killed.
Announcing the start of a "sustained" campaign against Islamic Jihad,
the IDF imposes 24-hr. curfews on Tulkarm town and r.c., al-Til, and Nur
al-Shams r.c.; reinvades Tulkarm (turned over to PA security control on 3/22)
and al-Til in its largest military operation since Israeli and the Palestinians
agreed to an unofficial cease-fire on 2/8, fatally shooting a PA policeman,
leaving a 2d PA policeman clinically dead, arresting at least 6
Palestinians with Islamic Jihad ties; 2 IDF soldiers are injured. Israel
says it was forced to act in Tulkarm because the PA had not reined in militants
there, citing the bombing as proof; the PA says the assault on Tulkarm is
unjustified, since the 7/12 bomber came fr. al-Til, 5 mi. away, under Israeli
military control. Late in the evening, the IDF raids Nablus, fatally
shoots Islamic Jihad cmdr. Muhammad al-Assi when he attempts to elude
arrest; detains an Islamic Jihad mbr., a British woman with him. The IDF
also demolishes 2 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem; razes 4 bedouin
tents, 6 animal pens outside Bethlehem; conducts arrest raids, house searches
nr. Bethlehem, Hebron, Jenin, Nablus. Jewish settlers fr. Kiryat Arba
stone a Palestinian vehicle driving the Palestinian section of Hebron, injuring
the driver. Jewish settlers fr. Yitzhar vandalize a Palestinian home,
burn a Palestinian car nr. Nablus. An
Israeli dies of injuries received in the 7/12 bombing. (AFP, IMEMC, JTA,
NYT, PR, XIN 7/13; VOP 7/13 in WNC 7/13; VOI, VOP 7/13 in WNC 7/14; NYT, PCHR,
PRCS, WP, WT 7/14; VOI 7/14 in WNC 7/15; JAZ 7/17; OCHA, PR 7/20; PCHR 7/21)
In Bureij r.c., the PA security forces
secure the release of 2 international aid workers (1 British, 1
Australian) kidnapped by a Palestinian family that hoped to use them as
bargaining chips to secure the release of relatives jailed by the PA.
2 Palestinians killed.
Overnight, the IDF makes air strikes destroying the PA FMin. building in Gaza
City, wounding 13 bystanders (including 6 children); makes an air strike on Khan
Yunis, killing 1 Islamic Jihad mbr., wounding a 2d; sends troops into al-Qarara,
firing on residential and agricultural areas. During the day in Gaza, the IDF
continues to shell n. Gaza, wounding at least 2 Palestinians; fires on
residential areas nr. Sufa crossing, wounding a Palestinian child outside his
home. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches
nr. Salfit; uproots 50 Palestinian trees nr. the separation wall in Bayt Jala
for “security reasons.” A Palestinian teenager wounded in a 7/10 IDF air strike
on Bayt Hanun dies. (NYT, WP 7/13; PCHR 7/20)
Officially launching Operation Just Reward (ca. 7/18 renamed Operation Change
of Direction), the IDF makes predawn air strikes on s. Lebanon that kill at
least 44 Lebanese civilians, wound around 100. Hizballah responds by firing some
60 Katyusha rockets on n. Israel, hitting a home in Nahariya (killing 1 Israeli
woman, wounding 29), wounding 11 in Safad, and hitting the northern towns of
Carmiel, Majdal Qrum, Zarit. During the day, the IDF intensifies its attacks on
Lebanon to cut Hizballah supply lines and prevent internal transportation of
weapons and fighters, imposing a naval blockade on Lebanese ports north to
Beirut and making air strikes on Beirut International Airport, the Lebanese
army’s main Rayak air base nr. the Syrian border, a small military airport in
Qulayat in n. Lebanon, Hizballah’s al-Manar TV station outside Beirut (wounding
6) and a relay tower in Baalbek (killing 1 Lebanese, wounding 4), a major oil
depot in Jiyeh, numerous roads and bridges. After Israel warns Lebanese to
evacuate Hizballah-dominated areas of s. Beirut, Hizballah threatens to strike
Haifa if Beirut is targeted. When the IDF conducts overflights of Beirut shortly
afterward, Hizballah fires 2 Katyushas at Haifa, damaging a hotel but causing no
injuries. Israeli-Hizballah exchanges continue late into the evening, with
Hizballah firing around 90 rockets and mortars into Israel, hitting some 20
northern towns and killing a 2d Israeli, while Israel attacks 100s of targets
across Lebanon (mostly in the south, but including hitting Beirut airport a 2d
time, with artillery reportedly fired at a rate of 1 shell per minute throughout
the day), killing at least another 10 Lebanese. Total casualties for the day are
estimated at 54 Lebanese (overwhelmingly civilians) killed and 103 wounded, and
2 Israelis killed and 90 injured (1 seriously, two-thirds being treated for
shock). Israel also warns UNIFIL that the IDF will target anyone moving nr. the
Blue Line, including UNIFIL observers, prompting UNIFIL to confine its 2,500
troops (who are either unarmed or lightly armed for personal defense only) to
barracks. (AP, HA, MSNBC, National Public Radio, REU 7/13; NYT, UNIS, WP, WT
7/14)
The IDF
sends troops in s. Gaza to reoccupy the Rafah airport site, firing on residential areas of nearby Shuka, wounding 1
Palestinian, withdrawing in the
evening; Hamas fires 5 mortars at the troops during the day, causing no injuries. In the West Bank, the
IDF conducts arrest raids, house searches nr. Hebron; fires rubber-coated steel bullets, percussion grenades,
tear gas at Palestinian, Israeli, international activists taking part in the weekly nonviolent
demonstrations against the separation wall in Bil`in (injuring 2) and a
similar protest in Wadi Nays nr. Bethlehem (injuring 4). (HA 7/13; NYT, WT 7/14; NYT, WP, WT 7/15; OCHA 7/18; PCHR
7/19)
With the legal mandate of the
PA emergency cabinet set to expire on 6/14, Abbas dissolves Fayyad’s
emergency government and quickly reappoints it, with 4 added ministers, as a “caretaker government” to rule indefinitely.
The IDF arrested three Palestinians in the refugee camp of Aida, near Bethlehem, PA security sources said. (WAFA)
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the police had arrested Gilad Herman, a student at a Jewish seminary in
the settlement of "Yitzhar" near Nablus, suspected of involvement in an attempted rocket attack on a Palestinian
village. (AP, Haaretz)
Israeli Prime Minister Olmert told the Paris Summit that Israel and the Palestinians had never been closer to a
possible [peace] agreement. (AP)
Israeli Prime Minister Olmert promised during talks with PA President Abbas to release a new group of Palestinian
prisoners, his spokesman Mark Regev said. "In response to a request from Mr. Abbas to release prisoners, the Prime
Minister said he was prepared to make a gesture," said Mr. Regev. "Mr. Olmert stressed that he wanted to make a gesture
in the direction of the Palestinian Authority, not towards the Hamas movement, without it being linked to an exchange
of prisoners," Mr. Regev added. (AFP, AP)
Gaza militants fired a rocket into Israel, Israel Radio reported. It struck an open area in the western Negev. No
casualties were reported. There also was no claim of responsibility. (Haaretz)
The Palestinian delegation raised objections to the Joint Declaration of the Paris Summit for the Mediterranean after
it had already been distributed by the French hosts, a Palestinian official said, because it made no direct reference
to the two-State solution. (Reuters)
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh called His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, EMir of the State of Qatar,
to suggest that Qatar host an intra-Palestinian dialogue similar to the earlier Lebanese dialogue hosted in Doha. (AFP,
www.presidentsaleh.gov.ye)
Hamas Political Bureau Chief Khaled Mashaal told reporters: "We support talks to resume the Palestinian dialogue on the
basis of the Yemeni initiative with the aim of restoring the Palestinian situation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank
to what it was before and remedying all the causes that led to the Palestinian dispute." (Reuters)
UNRWA Director of Operations in the Gaza Strip John Ging said in a statement that the missing element for the truce in
Gaza was the fact that the "crossings had not opened to the extent that Gazans needed." Conditions, according to Mr.
Ging, were getting worse and Gazans were suffering. (Ma'an News Agency)
Israeli troops arrested three Palestinian civilians during pre-dawn raids in Tulkarm and Qalqilya. (IMEMC)
Israeli soldiers arrested a young Palestinian man near the Ibrahimi Mosque (Cave of the Patriarchs) in Hebron on the charge of possessing a knife. (Ma’an News Agency)
Israeli soldiers raided the headquarters of the Nablus Shopping Festival in Huwwara village. Military patrols overran the area of the municipality square and ordered participants to remove banners and posters and told the organizers to cancel parts of the event, after Israeli officials had explicitly and publicly promised to ease Palestinian movement in the Nablus area in order to facilitate the festival. (Ma’an News Agency)
Israeli soldiers attacked an unarmed 16-year-old boy and threatened his parents near Hebron, according to a Christian Peacemaker Team observer. The boy volunteers for the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem as a cameraman and had undertaken non-violence training. (Ma’an News Agency)
Following a decision by the Parliament, the United Kingdom had revoked five (out of 182) export licences for military equipment to Israel because of Israel’s actions during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza earlier this year. The British Foreign Office said that the exports would now contravene its criteria for arms sales. The UK said it does not sell weapons which might be used for internal repression or external aggression. The UK thus became the first country to halt arms exports to Israel in response to the Gaza offensive. A British embassy spokesman in Tel Aviv said that “there were no security agreements between the UK and Israel. UK policy remains to assess all export licences to Israel against the consolidated EU and national arms export licensing criteria”, adding that “we judged that in a small number of cases Israeli action in Operation Cast Lead would result in the export of those goods now contravening the consolidated criteria. These licences have been revoked.” While recognizing Israel’s right to defend itself, Britain had characterized Israeli actions during the offensive as “disproportionate”. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman brushed off the sanctions, stating that “we’ve had many embargoes in the past… We can manage. This shouldn’t bother us”. (AP, AFP, BBC, Haaretz, IMEMC, The Jerusalem Post, Ma’an News Agency, timesonline.com)
In a radio interview, Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said that as PA President Abbas’ authority or legitimacy as the leader of the Palestinians deteriorated or declined, he raised his demands and toughened his position towards Israel. Mr. Liberman asked: “Whom does Abu Mazen [PA President Abbas] represent exactly? In the best case scenario, half of his people”. Mr. Liberman described “his demand to halt construction in the settlements as only an expression of his distress and inability”. The comments followed Mr. Abbas’ pledge that he would not give up on a right of return for Palestine refugees. Saeb Erakat, Head of the Negotiations Affairs Department of the PLO, said that Mr. Liberman’s comments were an attempt to deflect attention from Israel’s refusal to implement its prior commitments and obligations, including a comprehensive settlement freeze. Mr. Abbas’ spokesman said that Mr. Liberman’s remarks were an attempt to counter Israel’s crisis with the United States by “manufacturing another crisis”. (BBC, Haaretz, IMEMC, Ma’an News Agency)
Israeli authorities decided to open all three commercial crossings into the Gaza Strip. Between 52 and 62 truckloads of humanitarian aid were supposed to enter through Kerem Shalom, while limited quantities of industrial diesel and cooking gas would be sent through the Nahal Oz terminal. Several truckloads of fodder and wheat were scheduled to transit through the Karni crossing. (Ma’an News Agency)
Israeli forces destroyed parts of a 170-year-old Palestinian-owned home housing a family of 17 in the Bustan area, near the Silwan neighbourhood of East Jerusalem. The police first arrived around 8 a.m. but seeing that a large number of people had gathered near the house, they brought troops and bulldozers around 11 a.m. Some of the persons who had gathered around the house were handcuffed. (IMEMC)
The Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem demolished a Palestinian-owned home in the Beit Hanina neighbourhood of East Jerusalem which housed eight persons and attacked the family which owned the house. One member of the family was arrested. (IMEMC, Ma’an News Agency)
Israeli settlers from the “Beit Ein” settlement set fire to and destroyed Palestinian-owned land belonging to the villagers of Safa village near Hebron. T hey damaged 150,000 sq. m. of land containing olive and almond trees and grape vines. The Israeli army stopped the fire brigades from reaching the land. The army only allowed Israeli fire brigades to stop the fire when it was about to reach the settlement. (IMEMC, Ma’an News Agency)
The Israeli High Court of Justice ordered the State to carry out orders issued in 2005 for the demolition of two unauthorized settlement outposts, “Haresha” and “Yuval”, in the West Bank. The ruling came after Defence Minister Ehud Barak told US officials that Israel would evacuate 23 outposts within “weeks and months, not years”. (Haaretz)
An Israeli military court in the “Ofer” settlement charged a Palestinian human rights lawyer, Farid Al-Atrash, with assaulting a soldier while he attended a peaceful demonstration in the West Bank town of Beit Sahour on 15 April 2008 where Ma’an reporters observed Israeli soldiers attacking Palestinian demonstrators who were trying to prevent the setting up of a new settler outpost. A soldier tried to take a Palestinian flag from the lawyer. When he refused to give it up, he was accused of attacking the soldier. (Ma’an News Agency)
Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member and former Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, Hatem Abdul Qader said that Qatar had signed an agreement to finance a legal affairs office in East Jerusalem to help Palestinians fight demolition orders. Qatar’s funds would also pay for Palestinians’ health insurance, tuition for students at Al-Quds and Al-Quds Open universities, and help provide low-cost medications. (Ma’an News Agency)
UNRWA Commissioner-General Karen AbuZayd said UNRWA was grateful for the donation of $34 million by Kuwait to help support refugees in Gaza. The Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, announced during the Arab Economic Summit held in Kuwait in January that Kuwait was pledging this amount to cover the entirety of UNRWA's original flash appeal issued in the first days of the emergency. (www.unrwa.org)