3.7.02 International aid agencies working in Israel and the Palestinian territories publish a statement protseting Israeli operations inside the West Bank and Gaza. They say they are unable to work properly because of Israeli checkpoints and restrictions on the movements of local and international staff.
4.7.02 Palestinian President Yasser Arafat continues to make changes within his administration. He discharges West Bank Preventive Security Chief Jibril Rujoub and replaces him with former Jenin Governor Zuhair Manasreh.
4.7.02 Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leader Jihad Omarin is killed in Gaza along with his 28-year-old nephew Wa'el when the car they are traveling in is hit by a missile.
6.7.02 Forty-year-old Randa al Hindi and her three-year-old daughter Nour are killed as they return to their Gaza home after attending a wedding in Khan Younis. Their car was fired on by Israeli soldiers in a watchtower near the Netzarim settlement.
8.7.02 Islamic Jihad activist Muammar Daraghmeh is shot and killed in the Jenin village of Yamoun.
8.7.02The frequency of Israeli-Palestinian meetings increases. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad meet to discuss economic issues and easing the hardships experienced by the Palestinians.
9.7.02 Israeli border police padlock the offices of Al-Quds University in Jerusalem on the orders of Israeli Public Security Minister Uzi Landau, who claims the university is "part of the long arm of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) operating against the law" in Jerusalem.
9.7.02 A bilateral meeting takes place in West Jerusalem between Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razzaq al Yahyia, Local Government Minister Saeb Erekat and Shimon Peres and other Israeli officials, who discuss "broader issues."
9.7.02 Israel announces it may release a reported NIS 2 billion ($44 million) in confiscated PNA tax money, on condition that the funds are not used to "finance terror." The funds have been withheld since the start of the Intifada.
10.7.02 Legal advisors to the Israeli government, along with Arab and Jewish Knesset members, protest the government decision to only allow Jews to purchase state land as rife with "racial discrimination." Foreign Minister Shimon Peres condemns the move. Head of Meretz Party Yossi Sarid says no other government in the democratic world would make such a decision, calling it a "black mark" in Israel's history.
11.7.02 A report published by Amnesty International condemns Palestinian attacks against Israeli citizens as "war crimes." The organization calls on the PNA to arrest and bring to trial those responsible for the attacks, noting that since the start of the Intifada, 350 Israelis, mostly civilians, have been killed in 128 separate attacks on Israeli targets. The report also accuses Israel of carrying out extra judicial killings, torture, arbitrary arrests and collective punishment against the Palestinians.
11.7.02 Senior Israeli security sources say talks are currently underway in Europe between Ami Ayalon, former head of the Israeli public security apparatus Shin Bet, other Israeli officials and Palestinian leaders. Issues under discussion include the internationalization of Jerusalem and a return to 1967 borders.
11.7.02 According to an Israeli political source, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres meets with Palestinian Presidential Financial Advisor Muhammad Rashid in Copenhagen. The meeting apparently has the blessing of Israeli PM Ariel Sharon.
16.7.02 Three Palestinians disguised in Israeli uniforms detonate a bomb in front of a Jewish bus near the settlement of Immanuel in the West Bank. Nine Jewish settlers are killed and 20 others injured.
17.7.02 President Yasser Arafat announces he will run in the forthcoming elections if he is nominated by the Palestinian leadership, despite Israel and the US opposing his leadership.
23.7.02 An Israeli F-16 warplane fires a one-ton missile at a Palestinian apartment building in a residential neighborhood of Gaza City. The two-story building collapses, killing 14 people inside. Another 150 are injured. The target of the missile is Sheikh Salah Mustafa Shehadeh, leader of Hamas military wing Izzedin al-Qassam in Gaza.
24.7.02 According to Arab media sources, Egyptian, Jordanian and Saudi foreign ministers reject a suggestion by US President George W. Bush that they travel to Israel to become a "link" between Israel and the PNA. The three Arab leaders also refuse to discuss a US proposal to prepare a formula giving special status to Gaza. They emphasizes the need for an Israeli withdrawal to 1967 borders in the context of the peace process.
27.7.02 Four Israeli settlers, including a couple and their daughter, are killed in a Palestinian ambush. As the settlers of Hebron bury one of the dead, riots break out and the settlers rampage through Palestinian homes, firing weapons in the divided towns. Fourteen-year-old Niveen Jamjoum is killed and her little brother injured.
27.7.02 Reverend Jesse Jackson, president and founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in the US, arrives to meet with Palestinian and Israeli citizens and leaders. At a meeting with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, Jackson tells reporters that he is willing to meet with anyone, including Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, to further the cause of peace.
29.7.02 Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razzaq al-Yahyia issues an order discharging a group of senior officers from the civil police and transferring them to police general headquarters. The decision is part of the interior minister's attempts to reorganize the police force under one command, he says.
31.7.02 The European Commissioner for Humanitarian Assistance announces the EU plans to double its emergency assistance to the Palestinians in the face of the growing humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian Territories. It plans to offer 9.5 million euros to provide food for children under five years of age.
31.7.02 Israeli authorities demolish the family home of Hazem Yousef in Beit Jala. Yousef had carried out a suicide bombing at a West Jerusalem falafel stand two days earlier in which seven Israelis were injured.
31.7.02 According to Israeli television reports, Israeli army aerial photos taken of the building targeted in last weeks aerial bombardment of Hamas leader Salah Shehadeh's hideout show that civilians were living in the adjacent homes. Many of them were killed or injured in the attack.
1.8.02 A bomb inside a carrier bag left in a café at Jerusalem's Hebrew University explodes, killing seven people and injuring dozens more.
2.8.02 Israeli tanks enter Nablus' old city, tearing through ancient walls and ripping gaping holes in people's homes. Four Palestinians are killed by the invading troops and the tight curfew leaves dozens of homes without adequate supplies.
2.8.02 The Israeli army receives an order to deport the brothers of two Palestinian activists from the West Bank to Gaza. An Israeli human rights organization says the Israeli military commander in the West Bank ordered a two-year deportation for Kifah al-Jouri, 28, from Askar refugee camp near Nablus, and Abdel Naser Esseidi from the Tal village, also in the Nablus area.
4.8.02 Nine Israelis, many of them soldiers returning to their bases, are killed when a suicide bomber detonates himself on a bus travelling from Haifa to Safad. Hamas' military wing Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades claims responsibility saying it is one in a series of attacks in retaliation for the assassination of its military leader Salah Shehadeh and 14 innocent civilians two weeks ago in Gaza.
4.8.02 A young Palestinian shoots and kills an Israeli telephone security guard waiting in a truck near Jerusalem's Damascus Gate. The Israeli, the gunman and a Palestinian bystander are killed and 14 others wounded in the incident.
5.8.02 Palestinian Security Advisor Mohammad Dahlan and Interior Minister Abdel Razzaq al-Yahyia meet with Israeli Defense Minister Benyamin Ben-Eliezer in Jerusalem to discuss an Israeli plan to withdraw from Gaza and the West Bank.
5.8.02 Two French citizens and a Spaniard are lightly injured when they are hit by shrapnel from Israeli gunfire near the Tuffah checkpoint west of Khan Younis.
7.8.02 The first high-ranking Palestinian delegation, including Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat and Economic Minister Maher al-Masri, meets Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Advisor Condeleeza Rice in Washington to discuss ways out of the current conflict.
7.8.02 According to the Hebrew daily Ma'ariv, Israeli PM Ariel Sharon is preparing to deport President Yasser Arafat to Gaza. The newspaper says the plan was discussed with the US, adding the Americans did not express any opposition.
8.8.02 Israeli authorities at the Allenby Bridge refuse entry to a nine-person US Congressional staff delegation co-sponsored by American Muslims for Jerusalem and Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel. After a five-hour wait and security check, the delegation is informed that the Israeli interior ministry is banning entry to the six congressional staffers and two AMJ members.
10.8.02 Ahmad Qreini, 55, from Askar refugee camp, a father of 12, dies when Israeli troops open fire at him in his fire truck, clearly marked as a Nablus municipality vehicle.
10.8.02 Two armed Palestinians infiltrate the Mechora settlement in the Jordan valley, killing two settlers and injuring four others. One of the Palestinians is killed.
10.8.02 A delegation headed by Roman Catholic Patriarch Michel Sabbah meets with Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin to request that Yassin take an initiative to halt suicide operations inside Israel. Yassin responds that Israeli must put forth the initiatives, not Hamas, and must withdraw from Palestinian land, release prisoners from Israeli jails and stop house demolitions.
11.8.02 Israeli troops stationed at the Khadouri juncture west of Tulkarem open fire on a taxicab with Israeli license plates on its way to Tulkarem. Inside the car were Salah al Haj Yehyia, coordinator for the human rights league, Gideon Levy and Miki Kartsman, both Israeli journalists working for Ha'aretz. Al Haj Yehyia says their visit to Tulkarem was coordinated in advance with the Israeli military liaison.
13.8.02 The Israeli justice ministry announces that Fateh West Bank secretary Marwan Barghouti, who has been in Israeli custody since mid April, will be charged by a Tel Aviv district court with murder, accessory to murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, membership in a terrorist organization and activity in a terrorist organization as head of the Tanzim and the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
31.8.02 The Israeli daily Ha'aretz reports that Herut Party Member of Knesset Michael Kleiner, known for his right-wing views, has requested permission from the Israeli high court to visit the al Aqsa mosque compound on September 5, to commemorate the anniversary of Ariel Sharon's controversial visit to the Muslim holy site.
1.9.02 The Israeli army kills four Palestinian workers at Bani Naim quarry near Hebron. Palestinian eyewitnesses claim soldiers raided the quarry and took the four to a nearby area.
3.9.02 Birzeit University is warned that the Israeli army plans to establish a military base outside its gates. University officials appeal to Israeli Knesset members to help have the order rescinded. They charge that the base would be one more infringement on the right to an education. The university is unable to hold classes on a regular basis due to the curfews and closure imposed by the Israeli military upon students and staff.
4.9.02 Israeli religious right-wing groups plan a laser show above the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem's al Aqsa Mosque compound. The show will include a three-dimensional representation of the former Jewish Temple transmitted to the site from a projector located on Mount Scopus.
16.9.02 According to Ha'aretz, five Palestinian children are wounded when a bomb explodes near a school water cooler in Ziff, south of Hebron. The charge goes off just before children enter the schoolyard for recess. A second bomb is found in the yard by Israeli police, who blame Jewish extremists for planting the devices.
17.9.02 UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller, EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, the "Quartet" announce a plan for the Middle East at a joint press conference.
18.9.02 According to the UN Conference on Trade and Development, the Palestinian public purse is effectively bankrupt and most local households require emergency aid from European and Arab countries to make ends meet. A third of the Palestinian labor force is unemployed and more than half the population lives below the $2-a-day poverty line.
18.9.02 While the town's inhabitants are under curfew, settlers in Hebron brick up stores in the old city and begin to build on their roofs. The Israeli army observes the construction, which takes place next to the main vegetable market and across from a settlement.
24.9.02 The Palestine Liberation Organization Negotiation Affairs Department issues a report entitled "Double Standards," comparing international responses to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with similar armed conflict situations around the world. The report outlines "how the international community has taught Israel that it is beyond the law," by allowing it to disregard international law and UN resolutions.
25.9.02 Elbit Systems, an Israeli company, announces a $5 million agreement with the Israeli Ministry of Defense to build a 25-kilometer "smart" electric fence around Jerusalem, similar to the border fences separating Israel from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. The fence will be built in cooperation with American and Israeli companies.
25.9.02Palestinian security sources report the arrest of two Hamas activists in Bethlehem, charged with opening fire at an Israeli vehicle traveling near the settlement of Gilo. These are some of the first perpetrators of armed attacks on Israeli targets to be arrested in the past several months.
25.9.02 Some 30 tanks and armored vehicles storm the Zeitoun and Shijaiya areas of Gaza City to destroy 13 metal workshops and demolish the home of a Hamas activist. Nine Palestinians are killed, six of them civilians.
26.9.02. In Gaza, Israel attempts to assassinate Muhammad Deif, a prominent military leader in Hamas. Israeli forces miss their target but kill two other people and injure 45.
28.9.02 Israeli authorities close down the District Coordination Office near Beit Hanoun, expelling the Palestinian staff, expropriating their weapons, computers and other equipment, canceling administrative relations with Palestinian officials.
30.9.02 US President George W. Bush signs a bill calling for the US embassy to be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and for Jerusalem to be regarded as the capital of Israel. The White House plans to issue a statement that the Congressional resolution is not binding on US foreign policy and that the administration believes that the status of the city must be decided in bilateral negotiations.
In this period, in the Palestinian territories, 136 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces, 30 of whom were under the age of 18. Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli civilians. Twenty-three Israelis civilians were killed and eight Israeli security forces personnel were killed by Palestinians. Within the Green Line, six Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces. Sixteen Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinians. Four Israeli security forces personnel were killed by Palestinians.
Above figures from B'Tselem
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