4.7.05 Hamas announces its refusal to respond to a PNA request to join a national unity government.
4.7.05 Israel Radio reports that Israel and the PNA have reached an agreement regarding the creation of a connection between Gaza and the West Bank following the disengagement. The World Bank proposed a four-lane sunken highway be built in a five-meter deep trench surrounded by double fences to keep people from entering Israeli territory, and Israeli traffic would cross it via overpasses.
5.7.05 The European "solidarity caravan" starts its journey from in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, to Jerusalem. Hundreds of peace activists and European lawmakers set off from the Parliament and will pass through several European cities on their way.
5.7.05 Palestinian Prime Minister (PM) Ahmad Qurei' calls on all political factions and forces to come together to make the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the northern West Bank a success.
5.7.05 A settler from Kfar Darom runs over three Palestinians on a main road east of Deir al-Balah. All three were injured, one seriously. Eight other people were injured following the incident in clashes with settlers at the scene.
10.7.05 On the first anniversary of the International Court of Justice's advisory opinion that Israel's separation wall was against international law, Israel announces that plans to complete the wall around Jerusalem had been finalized and construction is set to end on September 1. The plan will see all of East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in the1967 war, fall on the Israeli side of the wall. But it will also see some areas of Jerusalem as defined by Israel after it unilaterally annexed the city in 1967 fall on the West Bank side leaving between 55,000 (Israeli media estimates) and 100,000 (Palestinian estimates) Palestinians with Jerusalem IDs cut off from the city.
12.7.05 A suicide bombing near a shopping mall in Netanya kills five Israelis and wounds 90. Islamic Jihad, which claimed responsibility, said the bombing had come as a response to Israeli transgressions of the ceasefire. The bombing came an hour after an attempted car bombing in the West Bank settlement of Shavei Shomron in which only the driver was injured.
14.7.05 Palestinian security forces open fire at a group of Hamas members on their way back from firing mortars at the southern Israeli town of Sderot, in reaction to Israeli incursions into the West Bank on July 13 and 14 that had left two dead. Five Hamas members were wounded in the confrontation. In response, Hamas members attacked the headquarters of the National Security Services in Gaza Strip.
14.7.05 Israel kills seven Hamas men in air strikes and a follow-up raid in Gaza and the West Bank.
14.7.05 After meeting with the Jordanian Interior Ministry, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Cornelius of Jerusalem promises to rectify the mistakes of Patriarch Ireneos I and to maintain the sanctity of the Orthodox Church.
15.7.05 A gunfight between PNA forces and Hamas members in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City results in the killing of two teenage bystanders and injures dozens on either side. Hamas rebuffed the PNA forces and set fire to an armored car.
16.7.05 An Egyptian delegation headed by Intelligence Deputy, Mustafa Behairy, arrives in the Gaza Strip to mediate between PNA and Hamas. An agreement to end hostilities was reached on July 19.
17.7.05 Israel assassinates a Hamas leader in southern Gaza and Hamas responds by firing several mortar at Israeli targets in and around the Gaza Strip.
17.7.05 Thousands of opponents of Israeli PM Ariel Sharon's Gaza withdrawal plan from all over Israel start a march meant to bring 100,000 people to the Gaza settlements. Israel banned non-residents from entering the Gaza settlement, due to be evacuated next month, and the march was organized to defy the order.
21.7.05 Osama Abu Obeydah, 13, is killed after a homemade rocket, apparently fired at a nearby Jewish settlement, fell instead on a house in the Tufah area in the southern Gaza Strip. Osama's brother was badly injured and the house suffered extensive damage.
21.7.05 The Israeli group, "Soldiers Breaking the Silence," which was established two years ago by Israeli soldiers and officers to halt the Israeli army's "moral decline" and to protest the occupation, in a press release accuses Israeli soldiers of "shooting for fun" or out of boredom.
23.7.05 U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hold a joint press conference in Ramallah. Rice praised Abbas for trying to end mortar attacks against Israel from the Gaza Strip. She also cautioned Israel not to cut Gaza off from the West Bank after withdrawing from its settlements there.
24.7.05 The Palestinian Prisoners' Club accuses the Israel Prisons Authority of endangering the lives of 240 prisoners after a fire broke out in the Naqab prison. The fire spread to four sections of the prison after an electrical problem in one section set furniture on fire, and the prison administration refused to open the doors until one prisoner jumped over a wall and opened the door himself.
27.7.05 Three Palestinian homes in the village of al-Khader west of Bethlehem are demolished by the Israeli Jerusalem Municipality. This came a day after the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv reported that Israel plans to build 21 Jewish homes in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City.
30.7.05 Quartet envoy James Wolfensohn meets President Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza City and promises Gazans a "better life" after the Israeli disengagement from the Strip.
30.7.05 Four Palestinian citizens are injured and 80 olive trees are uprooted by settlers who attacked Palestinian farmers in Yatta, south of Hebron. Settlers uprooted olive trees and planted forestry trees in their place.
31.7.05 Israeli officials say that once Israel has vacated the Gaza Strip, both Israelis and Palestinians will require visas to enter. All business people will have to pay customs to transport goods through the "border."
1.8.05 After meeting Israeli Deputy PM and Defense Minister, Shaul Mofaz, Quartet envoy James Wolfensohn tells Palestinian PM Ahmad Qurei' that Israel has agreed to a system of convoys from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank, whereby Palestinian goods would travel through Israel in Palestinian trucks accompanied by the Israeli army, thus somewhat easing the restrictions of the current back-to-back system.
4.8.05 An ultra-nationalist Israeli army deserter, Eden Nathan Zada, goes berserk in a bus in the northern Arab-Israeli town of Shefa 'Amr and kills four people and wounds ten before being bludgeoned to death. Zada deserted the army in protest at PM Sharon's disengagement plan.
4.8.05 The International Crisis Group, an international organization based in Brussels and Washington, warns the American government about its continued silence regarding the Judaization of Jerusalem. It emphasized that Israeli PM Ariel Sharon is carefully executing a plan in the city that will invalidate U.S. commitment to a two-state solution.
6.8.05 The Archeology and Cultural Heritage Department of the Ministry of Tourism and Archeology says that Israel's claims that it has discovered the remains of King David's Palace in Silwan are unverified. They added that any findings in these areas are considered as belonging to Palestinian cultural heritage.
10.8.05 Israeli PM Sharon reiterates that Israel has no intention of leaving major West Bank settlements, no intention of giving up any part of Jerusalem, and no intention of allowing any return of refugees.
11.8.05 Security sources announce that two joint Palestinian-Israel operation rooms have been established in the Gaza Strip in preparation for the Israeli disengagement. The rooms consist of officers from the Palestinian and Israeli military and civil liaison offices in order to assume the tasks pertaining to matters of the disengagement.
16.8.05 Clashes break out in the Neve Dekalim settlement, the Gaza Strip's largest, as Israeli soldiers and police scuffled with anti-disengagement protestors.
17.8.05 The Israeli army is empowered to evacuate settlers by force, and started doing so in several places, leading to the wounding of one Israeli soldier.
17.8.05 Four Palestinian laborers are killed by an Israeli settler inside the West Bank settlement of Shilo, who customarily picks laborers up to work inside the settlement. Four others were injured in the rampage before Israeli police arrested the perpetrator.
18.8.05 Seventy-eight Israeli policemen and 22 settlers are injured during protests against the pull-out from the Gaza Strip. Protestors threw rotten eggs, paint and chemicals at Israeli police as they resisted their evacuation.
20.8.05 A group of settlers from the Beit Hadassah settlement in Hebron attacks women from the European-based movement Women In Black resulting in the injury of four. The women, who were participating in solidarity activities with the Palestinians, were pelted with stones, empty bottles, rotten eggs and chemicals from the settlement above them.
22.8.05 President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli PM Ariel Sharon share a friendly phone call during which Abbas praised Sharon for his decision to move the settlers out of Gaza and the northern West Bank.
22.8.05 Palestinian factions in Damascus meet with PM Ahmad Qurei' and agree that they would not surrender their arms to anyone. Maher Taher, a representative of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said, "No one will interfere with the weapons of the resistance. They will remain directed towards the Israeli occupation."
23.8.05 Israeli authorities announce that the army and civil administration have begun to issue expropriation orders to construct a fence around the largest West Bank settlement Ma'ale Adumim.
24.8.05 The Israeli army announces that all 21 settlements in Gaza and 4 in the northern West Bank have been completely evacuated less than a week after the disengagement process started.
24.8.05 An Israeli undercover unit enters Tulkarem to arrest a wanted Islamic Jihad man. The soldiers who opened fire killed one Islamic Jihad man, one al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades member and three unarmed teenagers.
27.8.05 The Israeli army announces that it would begin relocating 48 graves from the cemetery in the Neve Dekalim settlement to Israel. According to the army, 3 Israeli soldiers and 45 settlers were buried in the cemetery and will be given a second funeral upon burial in Israel.
28.8.05 A suicide bomber blows himself up, wounding some 48 Israelis, two of them seriously in the southern Israeli town of Beer Sheva. Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed joint responsibility.
28.8.05 EU Foreign Policy Chief, Javier Solana, meets PM Ariel Sharon and tells him that the Gaza pull-out was an opportunity to make progress on the wider peace process that should not to be missed.
31.8.05 The monitoring unit of the Palestinian Negotiation Affairs Department issues a report on the confiscation of lands in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem since the start of this year. According to the report, over 150 Israeli military orders have been issued by the Israeli authorities resulting in the confiscation of 13,350 dunums of land (1 dunum = 1,000 sq.meters), 3,168 of them in the Jerusalem district.
1.9.05 Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Dan Kurtzer says U.S. President George W. Bush would back Israel's request to keep large West Bank settlement areas in a permanent peace agreement with the Palestinians.
1.9.05 Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom meets with his Pakistani counterpart Khorshid Kasuri in Turkey as a start to diplomatic ties between the two countries.
1.9.05 Israeli rabbi, David Basari, tells his yeshiva students the Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment of America for pressuring Israel into carrying out its disengagement plan and evacuating Jews from their homes.
6.9.05 Israel announces it would transfer the evacuated northern West Bank settlements to PNA control. It did say it retains the right to enter these areas if it receives information that a "terrorist operation" is being planned or launched from there.
7.9.05 Major General Mousa Arafat, cousin to late President Yasser Arafat, is shot dead outside his Gaza City home by unknown gunmen. Arafat, who has long been the object of sharp internal criticism for alleged corruption and misuse of authority, was pulled out of his home by 80 armed men and shot in the head.
8.9.05 Israel decides to close the Rafah Crossing for a six-month period while equipping the crossing with new scanning equipment.
9.9.05 U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the completion of the withdrawal should assist in the two sides making quick progress on the Road Map.
10.9.05 The Quartet's coordinator for the disengagement, James Wolfensohn, calls on the PNA and Israel to start final-status negotiations after the withdrawal from Gaza is completed and the PLC elections and Israeli elections have been held.
12.9.05 A reported 3,000 Gazans throng the border area in Rafah, breaking up the Israeli-built wall separating Gaza from Egypt and swarming the Egyptian security forces on the other side. The Gazans crossing the border were seeking relatives in Egyptian Rafah from whom they had been separated for years.
15.9.05 During his speech before the UN General Assembly, PM Sharon says Israel respects the Palestinians and has no intention of controlling them. Sharon claimed that the right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel does not mean ignoring the rights of others in the country.
16.9.05 PLC Speaker, Rawhi Fattouh, announces that the PLC was to hold a no-confidence vote against the government on September 26, in protest against the government's failure to rein in the security chaos.
17.9.05 The PNA condemns the Israeli decision to erect a buffer zone in the northern Gaza Strip, saying the move would make the Israeli disengagement incomplete. Israeli troops began erecting an eight-meter cement wall to create this zone.
21.9.05 Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom says Israel would not allow Hamas to participate in the PLC elections.
21.9.05 The Israeli and Palestinian transport ministers sign an agreement for the establishment of a Joint Transport Office. The agreement, which was facilitated by the European Commission and financially supported by the EU, will be to study and promote the implementation of projects of mutual interest, especially in the domain of road and railway transport.
22.9.05 An Israeli border guard is sentenced to 4.5 years in prison after being convicted of killing a 17-year-old youth from Hebron in 2002. The soldier was driving the jeep when 3 other soldiers threw him out of the jeep.
23.9.05 Hamas fires a volley of rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot wounding six Israelis.
23.9.05 Three Islamic Jihad men are killed by Israeli troops in Tulkarem.
24.9.05 Five Israeli missiles are fired at two cars in Gaza City, killing two members of Hamas. Nine people were injured.
26.9.05 According to a report drafted by the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights, John Dugard, major human-rights violations continue to take place in the occupied Palestinian territories. The report said despite Israel's disengagement from Gaza, the wall and settlement expansion are all violations resulting from the continued presence of the Israeli occupation. The report also mentioned the treatment of prisoners in Israeli jails and the 600 military checkpoints throughout the Palestinian territories, in addition to violations against the health, education and water services.
27.9.05 Officials from the Israeli Labor Party and Fateh meet in Stockholm, Sweden, to discuss the future of the Gaza Strip after the Israeli pull-out. The Fateh delegation was headed by Deputy PM Nabil Sha'ath while the Labor delegation was headed by Minister of State Haim Ramon. The meeting, which took place at the headquarters of Sweden's governing Social Democrats Party, stressed that the delegates represented their political groups rather than their governments.
6.10.05 The Israeli High Court of Justice rules that it is illegal for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to use Palestinian civilians in military operations. The decision was handed down in response to a petition filed in 2002 by a coalition of human-rights organizations. This practice is most common during IDF operations carried out in Palestinian population centers, as occurred in Operation Defensive Shield.
11.10.05 The olive harvest begins in the West Bank following extensive damage to the groves as a result of the construction of the separation wall and strict restrictions on movement imposed on Palestinian farmers trying to access their land west of the barrier. According to B'Tselem, many farmers were not allowed to reach their lands during the course of the year.
16.10.05 A Palestinian opens fire from a car killing three Israelis and wounding three others: two civilians and a soldier standing at a hitchhikers' post at the Gush Etzion junction that leads to the settlements near Hebron. Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the military wing of Fateh, claimed responsibility.
16.10.05 Jordan's King Abdullah II promises President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman to continue rallying for international support for Middle East peacemaking. He also offers him help to take control of the Gaza Strip from which Israel completed its disengagement last month.
17.10.05 Settlers from Elei Sinai are demanding that the Israeli government provide them with beachfront properties at a cost of U.S. $240,000 to U.S. $300,000 per family (according to estimates by a private assessor hired by the government). Under the Evacuation Compensation Law, the maximum value of a lot for a family evacuated from the Gaza Strip is U.S. $50,000.
18.10.05 In letters sent to Israeli President Moshe Katzav and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Russia's President Vladimir Putin urges them to continue energetic peace efforts and reaffirms Moscow's proposal to host an international meeting of experts to discuss further steps in implementing the Roadmap peace plan for the region. Russia is one of the four members of the Quartet of international mediators that drafted the Roadmap peace plan. The others are the United Nations, the United States and the European Union.
19.10.05 The IDF's Central Command decides to cancel the military escort for Palestinian children on their way to school in the area south of Hebron. The military escort, which was introduced about a year ago, protected the children from repeated attacks by Israeli settlers near the Maon and Havat Maon settlements.
20.10.05 The Quartet's Middle East envoy, James Wolfensohn, passes on a letter to PM Ariel Sharon and President Abbas detailing the international community anger over Israeli and Palestinian failure to make progress on the issue of border crossings. He also criticized the lack of progress made regarding freedom of movement and the passage of Palestinian agricultural produce through the border crossings.
22.10.05 A 19-year-old Palestinian man is shot and fatally wounded by Israeli soldiers who spotted two Palestinians placing a bag on the road leading to Neveh Tzuf settlement, Ramallah area. It was later discovered that the bag contained stones.
25.10.05 U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice suggests that Israel must loosen controls at border crossings to allow for freer passage for Palestinians and for economic development in areas that would one day be an independent Palestinian state. Rice spoke in the Canadian capital of Ottawa a day after reports that a top Middle East envoy had criticized Israel for moving too slowly on negotiations to open borders around the Gaza Strip.
26.10.05 A 20-year-old suicide-bomber blows himself up in an open-air market in Khadera, killing 5 Israelis and wounding 55 others. Islamic Jihad said the bombing was in retaliation for the death of its military leader in an Israeli raid in the West Bank several days ago.
30.10.05 Nablus Governor, Mahmoud Alloul, believes a massive new checkpoint the IDF is building south of Nablus is intended to sever the Nablus and Jenin districts from the rest of the West Bank, creating a canton of the northern region.
8.11.05 "Israel will continue with its targeted killings of Palestinian militants," IDF Chief of Staff, Dan Halutz, says to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. The targeted strikes will focus on Islamic Jihad members, he said.
15.11.05 U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice holds talks with Defense Minister, Shaul Mofaz, in Jerusalem to make a final breakthrough on an agreement on the running of the Gaza-Egypt border. Israel Radio reported that the U.S. is pressing Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to reach an agreement on the Rafah Crossing.
26.11.05 The first Palestinian-controlled border crossing opens between the Gaza Strip and Egypt at Rafah, supervised by European Union monitors.
27.11.05 Settlers cut down over 200 olive trees in Salim village, near Nablus.
27.11.05 At the Euro-Mediterranean summit in Barcelona, Deputy PM Ehud Olmert urges President Abbas to disarm Hamas group.
28.11.05 Dissent between Israel and the Arab countries prevents the publication of a final joint declaration at the Euro-Mediterranean summit in Barcelona. The 35 EU, North African and Middle Eastern countries attending the summit issued a code of conduct on countering terrorism, after overcoming some of their differences.
14.12.05 According to Haaretz, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has approved the construction of hundreds of new homes in West Bank settlements. The recent plans are for 200 housing units in Ma'ale Adumim, dozens of houses in the smaller communities of Bracha and Nokdim, and 40 trailer homes in Ariel, another large settlement with nearly 20,000 residents.
18.12.05 PM Ariel Sharon suffers a stroke and loses consciousness. He was rushed to the medical center's trauma unit at Hadassah Hospital.
4.1.06 PM Sharon suffers a massive second stroke, leaving the leadership of Israel and the new Kadima Party in the hands of Acting PM Ehud Olmert.
4.1.06 Peace Now petitions the Supreme Court to halt the illegal construction of a Jewish neighborhood in the West Bank settlement of Modi'in Illit on land that belongs to Palestinians in the nearby village of Bil'een.
4.1.06 Two Egyptian soldiers are killed and 37 wounded as hundreds of Egyptian security forces withdraw from the border with Gaza as they were unable to stop the flow of Palestinians across the Gaza Strip border.
14.1.06 According to the German newspaper Koelner Stadtanzeiger, the German Federal Intelligence Service has provided the Mossad intelligence agency with German passports used for carrying out undercover missions in Middle Eastern countries.
19.1.06 The IDF lifts its military closure on the Jewish areas of Hebron, implemented after days of clashes between settlers and security forces. The riots were sparked from Palestinian-owned properties in the market of Hebron.
23.1.06 Islamic Jihad calls on its supporters to boycott the Palestinian parliamentary election. The movement is not running any candidates in the election.
23.1.06 U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Richard Jones, says that the American Administration would prefer to see Hamas limited to the Palestinian parliament rather than part of the PNA government.
23.1.06 Israeli soldiers arrest eight Palestinians in a series of raids in the Jenin area. The eight are Hamas and Islamic Jihad members.
25.1.06 Over a million Palestinians prepare to vote in the first parliamentary elections since 1996. Some 13,000 police officers are deployed at 1,008 polling stations, taking up positions on rooftops and at entrances to enforce a weapons ban. Voters are to choose among 11 party lists and more than 400 candidates. About 900 foreign observers, led by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, have been deployed to monitor the process.
25.1.06 U.S. President George W. Bush says the United States will not deal with Hamas until the group renounces its call for the destruction of Israel.
26.1.06 Hamas wins in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections.
29.1.06 Speaking at the opening of the weekly Cabinet meeting in the wake of the Hamas victory, acting PM Olmert says that Israel demands three principles from the PNA: dismantling Hamas' and other armed factions, annulling Hamas' charter calling for Israel's destruction, and honoring all previous agreements and understandings between Israel and the PNA.
29.1.06 President Abbas tells the heads of the Palestinian security services that they are subordinate to the Presidential Office and not to the Hamas-led government that will be established in the next few weeks.
29.1.06 In an interview with Haaretz, French Ambassador to Israel, Gerard Araud, says the European Union is considering transferring financial aid to the Palestinians through mediators, such as non-governmental organizations, only after negotiating with Israel.
30.1.06 A senior government source in Jerusalem says Israel will not transfer this past month's tax revenues earmarked for the PNA, in the wake of Hamas' victory in the Palestinian elections. The PNA was due to receive NIS 200 million for the month of January.
30.1.06 Hamas leader, Mahmoud al-Zahhar, tells CNN that a long-term truce (hudna) with Israel is possible if Israel retreats to its pre-1967 borders and releases Palestinian prisoners.
8.2.06 Clashes erupt between Bedouins and police officers when Israel Lands Authority (ILA) inspectors and Agriculture Ministry officials plow 2,500 dunums of land between Beer Sheva and the Bedouin town of Rahat. The Bedouins claim ownership of these lands and use them for agricultural purposes, while the ILA defines them as state land.
13.2.06 Israel completes a process of cutting off the eastern sector of the West Bank, including the Jordan Rift Valley, from the remainder of the West Bank. Some 2,000,000 Palestinians, residents of the West Bank, are prohibited from entering the area which constitutes around one-third of the West Bank, and includes the Jordan Rift, the area of the Dead Sea shoreline and the eastern slopes of the West Bank mountains.
14.2.06 The outgoing Palestinian parliament passes a law at its final session expanding the powers of President Abbas in what Hamas said was a last-minute bid to rein it in before it takes over parliament and forms the new government. The parliament approved an amendment to the Constitutional Court Law that will give Abbas the authority to appoint judges to that court without seeking legislative approval.
21.1.06 According to Haaretz, Israel continues to coordinate security issues with the PNA, as IDF officers and their counterparts in the Palestinian security services are maintaining ties as per usual. This policy will remain in effect for the time being, but will come under review if and when Hamas takes control of the PNA's security forces.
1.3.06 A senior Hamas official in Damascus dismisses a report in the Arab press that Iran will give as much as U.S. $250 million to enable Hamas to run the PNA after the expected halt of European and U.S. aid.
6.3.06 In response to a proposal by the Israeli defense establishment to withdraw to new defensive lines in the West Bank, Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip, Sami Abu Zuhri, says Hamas will not recognize an additional Israeli unilateral withdrawal from Palestinian territories as a solution to the Palestinian problem.
17.3.06 The British Foreign Office condemns Israel after a soldier shot dead a 10-year-old Palestinian girl in Yamoun village, Jenin area. The Foreign Office told the Telegraph, "Israeli actions in the Occupied Territories must be proportionate and in accordance with international law."
20.3.06 EU foreign ministers put off a decision on financial aid to the Palestinians, giving Hamas more time to act on calls to moderate its position on Israel. The EU is the Palestinians' biggest aid donor and provided 500 million euros last year.
20.3.06 Palestinian militants trade fire with security forces across parts of the Gaza Strip in some of the worst internal fighting in months; at least six people are wounded. The gunmen were protesting over jobs and late salaries.
21.3.06 Israel reopens the Gaza Strip's main cargo crossing in an effort to alleviate a food shortage in the area. Israel has kept the Karni Crossing closed for two-and-a-half months. The closure has caused a shortage in Gaza of bread, dairy supplies and other essential goods.
22.3.06 The head of the UN Relief Agency (UNRWA) in the Palestinian territories warns of the risk of a humanitarian and security crisis and urges European Union countries to give a chance to a new Hamas-led government.
23.3.06 The Bush administration decides to halt funding for an infrastructure development project in the PNA and will provide the Palestinians with humanitarian aid only.
26.3.06 Several Palestinians and an American volunteer in the West Bank file complaints with the police, accusing settlers of violence toward Palestinians in the Hebron area, after three people were wounded in two separate incidents.
28.3.06 The final results for the Israeli Knesset elections are: Kadima, 29 seats, Labor, 19, Shas, 12, Likud, 12, Yisrael Beiteinu, 11, National Union/NRP, 9, Pensioners,7, United Torah Judaism, 6, Meretz, 5, United Arab List, 4, Balad, 3, Hadash, 3. It appears that Ehud Olmert, the leader of Kadima, will become Prime Minister, and that the Kadima Party will form an alliance with the Labor Party led by Amir Peretz.
During this period, in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, 170 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces, 39 under the age of 18. Six Palestinians were killed by Israeli civilians. Twelve Israeli civilians and 4 Israeli security forces were killed by Palestinians. Within the Green Line, 2 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces. Two Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinians. One member of the Israeli security forces was killed by Palestinians.
Above figures from B'Tselem