Israel claims that senior Hamas mbr. Abdallah Barghouti,
1 of the 7 Palestinians on list it handed to the PA on 8/5, planned the
8/9 suicide bombing. The IDF demolishes a PSF post in Gaza City,
sets up a new IDF checkpoint on the Birzeit+nRamallah road. (International
Solidarity Movement press release, Israeli FMin. press release 8/10; WP, WT
8/11; MEZ 8/15)
Palestinians, foreign nationals demonstrate outside Orient
House to protest the Israeli confiscation. Israeli police break up
the rally, beating some protesters, arresting 8. Similar protests are held in
Ramallah.
4 Palestinians killed. 1 Israeli killed.
In Nablus, IDF soldiers halt a Palestinian
electric company employee driving a company truck who is returning fr. making
authorized repairs during a curfew, kill him with 1 shot to the head; the IDF
later apologizes, says it will investigate. The IDF fatally shoots an
armed Hamas mbr. attempting to sneak into Israel fr. Gaza. A 4th Palestinian dies of
injuries received on 8/7. The IDF use water cannons, horses to break up a
nonviolent demonstration by 500 Israeli, Palestinian peace activists nr.
a Bethlehem+nJerusalem checkpoint, injuring 2; for no apparent reason opens fire
with live ammunition, rubber bullets, percussion grenades on Palestinians
waiting to cross Surda checkpoint in Ramallah, seriously injuring 2; bulldozes
at least 4 dunams of agricultural land nr. Kefar Darom settlement in Gaza. (NYT,
WP, WT 8/11; NYT 8/12; PCHR 8/16)
An AMB
gunman infiltrates Mehola settlement, fatally shooting 1 Jewish settler,
seriously wounding a 2d before being shot dead.
The IDF conducts arrest raids in Bayt Furik, nr. Hebron; imposes a
curfew on Hebron; fires on residential areas of Dayr al-Balah, Khan Yunis for
the 2d night in a row; bulldozes 5 dunams of land in Bayt Hanun. 100s of
Druze protest outside the PM’s office in Jerusalem against a government plan
to unify local authorities, scuffle with police, leaving 14 police officers
injured, 20 Druze under arrest. (HA 8/10; WT 8/11; HA 8/12; PCHR 8/14)
Hizballah directs antiaircraft at Israeli planes violating
Lebanon’s airspace. Shrapnel fr. the missiles lands across the Israeli
border in Shlomi, killing 1 Israeli boy, injuring 4. Israeli warplanes
strike Hizballah targets in response. (HA 8/10; VOI, YA 8/10 in WNC 8/12; HA,
MM, NYT, WP, WT 8/11; MM 8/12)
1 Palestinian killed.
The IDF sends troops into Nablus, Tulkarm r.c., sparking
stone-throwing by youths, then opening fire, shelling residential areas,
withdrawing. Later in the day, the IDF again fires on stone-throwing
youths in Nablus, killing a Palestinian teenager, wounding 10. During the
day, the IDF also fires on stone-throwing youths in Balata r.c.; conducts
arrest raids, house searches in villages outside Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Qalqilya;
resumes bulldozing begun 2 wks. ago in Wadi Rahal e. of Bethlehem for
construction of a settler bypass road. Late in the evening, the IDF
sends troops, heavy vehicles into Khan Yunis, bulldozing 3 Palestinian homes
and several dunams of land, firing on and shelling residential areas; conducts
arrest raids, house searches in Hebron. (HA 8/10; PR, WP, WT 8/11; PCHR 8/12)
Palestinian gunmen fire on a
Jewish settler bus nr. Barqan settlement, lightly injuring 2 Jewish settlers.
The IDF continues arrest raids, house searches in Nur al-Shams r.c.;
patrols in Nablus and nearby Dayr Istiyya. IDF soldiers, Jewish
settlers close off an archaeological site nr. Ramallah, fire on local
Palestinians who attempt to stop them fr. doing excavation work, wounding 9. In
Jerusalem, some 70,000 religious Jews gather at the Western Wall in a
peaceful protest against disengagement. (HA, IMEMC 8/10; NYT, PCHR 8/11; IMEMC
8/12; PCHR 8/18)
In Gaza, the IDF opens Rafah crossing for departures only, opens Qarni
crossing for imports only; makes late-night air strikes destroying a store,
house in Jabaliya r.c. (warning the residents in advance to leave), damaging 3
nearby homes. In the West Bank, the IDF sends undercover units into Tulkarm in a
car with Palestinian license plates, surrounds the home of a wanted Hamas mbr.,
fires on the home, arrests the wanted man when he surrenders; sends troops into
Ramallah, occupying offices in the PA Public Works Min. as an observation post,
surrounding an apartment building, ordering residents to evacuate, arresting 3
Palestinians, firing on stone-throwing Palestinians who confront the troops,
wounding 1; conducts arrest raids, house searches in Aqabat Jabir r.c. nr.
Jericho; issues military orders confiscating 8 d. of Palestinian land nr.
Qalqilya for the separation wall. (OCHA 8/16; PCHR 8/17)
The IDF drops leaflets on Beirut warning residents of the capital to expect
escalated bombing whose “painful and severe results will not be limited” to
Hizballah targets, urging residents of 3 neighborhoods (Burj al-Barajneh, Hay
Sullum, al-Shiyah) to evacuate immediately (the areas are vacant by the end of
the day, with the government bussing residents without transportation to
Juniyah); drops leaflets on n. Lebanon, warning truck drivers to stay off roads
to Syria. Meanwhile, Israel asks the U.S. to speed delivery of M-26 artillery
shells (short-range antipersonnel rockets armed with cluster munitions) along
with other unspecified weapons for use against Hizballah. The IDF continues air
and artillery strikes across Lebanon, including firing missiles at an unused
radio tower in downtown Beirut; targeting traffic on roads nr. Tyre, destroying
roads in the Biqa‘ Valley, killing at least 2 Lebanese. Ground operations
continue in s. Lebanon, reportedly focusing on areas stretching fr. Marja’uyun
to al-Khiyam (with the IDF claiming to have taken control of Marja’uyun) and fr.
Aita alSha‘ b to Bint Jubayl, leaving at least 1 IDF soldier dead, 2 wounded nr.
Qlei‘a. Hizballah fires at least 140 rockets into n. Israel, hitting Acre,
Carmiel, Dayr al-Assad (killing an Israeli Palestinian woman, her son and
wounding 11), Haifa, Kiryat Shimona, Ma’alot, Nahariya, Safad. (WP 8/10; NYT,
WP, WT 8/11; WP 8/13)
1 Palestinian killed.
In Gaza, the IDF fires
on Palestinian teenagers who stray nr. the border fence nr. the Qarni
industrial zone, wounding 1; exchanges fire with Palestinian gunmen across the
Gaza border e. of Gaza City, causing no injuries; withdraws troops fr. the
Rafah airport in the evening (see 8/9). In the West Bank, the IDF
conducts arrest raids, house searches nr. Jenin; fires rubber-coated steel
bullets, percussion grenades, tear gas at Palestinian, Israeli, international
activists taking part in the weekly nonviolent protests against the separation
wall in Bil`in (injuring 8) and Um Salamuna (injuring 4). (NYT, WP, WT 8/11; NYT 8/12; OCHA 8/15; PCHR 8/16)
In Jerusalem’s
Old City, an Israeli Palestinian fr. the Galilee grabs a gun from
an Israeli security officer, shoots and wounds him before being shot
dead by another guard; 9 bystanders are wounded. In Bayt Hanun, the ESF arrests at least 15 Fatah mbrs.
for firing guns at a wedding; Fatah says there
was no gunfire, that the ESF targeted revelers singing pro-Fatah songs; when
some 150 women and children rally outside the local ESF offices to protest the arrests, ESF
officers fire in the air to disperse the
crowd, causing no injuries. In Gaza City, some 20,000 Hamas supporters
march fr. local mosques to the PC headquarters to protest recent PA attacks on
Hamas activists in the West Bank. In Halhul nr. Hebron, suspected Hamas
mbrs. retaliating for the NSF’s arrest of 10 Hamas mbrs. earlier in the
day, shoot and wound Halhul police chief Driss Jabari.
Israeli forces seized two Palestinians in separate incidents in Jenin and Tulkarm. In Jenin, in the northern West Bank, Israeli forces entered the city at 2 a.m., raiding several homes. (Ma'an News Agency)
Israeli security forces started to use liquid "skunk bombs" to disperse demonstrators in the West Bank. Border police used the new method for the first time a day earlier at a weekly demonstration in the village of Bi'lin near the separation wall. Use of the foul-smelling liquid had been given the green light by medical and legal authorities, police said. It could be hurled by hand or with a special device, forcing most demonstrators to disperse and rush off to change their clothes because of the unbearable stench. (AFP)
Egypt sent around 500 riot police to its border with the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of demonstrators on the Gaza Strip side demanded that Egypt opened the border to allow humanitarian cases to cross. (Haaretz)
A Palestinian medical official said that two people had died in a smuggling tunnel under the Gaza-Egypt border and five were missing. Area residents said that the men had been trying to smuggle fuel into the Gaza Strip and that some of it apparently spilled, releasing fumes. (AP)