4.1.02 In a closed meeting with US Peace Envoy General Anthony Zinni, Arafat announces that peace can be acheived by ending Israeli occupation and establishing a Palestinian state.
5.1.02 Israel refuses President Arafat permission to visit Bethlehem to celebrate the Orthodox Christmas.
7.1.02 President Arafat tells EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner, Javier Solana, that he ordered an immediate investigation into the arms-laden ship that was seized by Israel in the Red Sea.
9.1.02 Israel demands that the PNA arrest Fuad Shobaki, Yasser Arafat's financial officer, accused of funding the weapons found on the arms ship, promoting the Iranian arms deal and funding the operation. On January 12, the PNA arrested Shobaki and held him in Ramallah detention center.
10.1.02 The Islamic Jihad movement announces that it would no longer be committed to cooperation with the PNA and vowed a continuation of Jihad.
10.1.02 After the military wing of Hamas kills four Israeli soldiers in the Rafah area, south of Gaza, Israeli bulldozers destroy 73 homes in Rafah refugee camp.
13.1.02 Israeli daily Ha'aretz called the house demolitions a shameful act and Yediot Aharonot described it as vengeance rather than a security measure.
14.1.02 Head of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and a top leader of the Tanzim, Raed Karmi, 27, is killed in an explosion in his hometown of Tulkarem.
14.1.02 Nine allegedly unlicensed Palestinian homes are demolished by Israeli bulldozers in the Jerusalem town of Ezzawiya.
15.1.02 The PNA arrests Ahmad Sa'adat, secretary-general of the PFLP, accused of masterminding the assassination of Israeli minister Rehavam Ze'evi last October.
16.1.02 UN Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories, Terje Rod-Larsen, urges the two sides to take steps to end the clashes that started 15 months ago.
17.1.02 Six Israelis are killed when a a member of Fatah affiliate, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, opens fire on a coming of age party in the Israeli town of Hadera. The Israeli authorities repeat that for every effective terrorist attack, many more are thwarted. In response to the Hadera attack, Israeli tanks moved into Ramallah, taking up positions next to President Yasser Arafat's office.
17.1.02 Assistant Joint Chief of Staff for the IDF, Moshe Ya'alon, announces that Israel "may be forced" to reoccupy sections of land under Palestinian control.
17.1.02 Democratic minority leader US Senator Richard Gephart, who is visiting the Middle East, announces that he would not be meeting with President Yasser Arafat, saying Arafat was not taking all the necessary measures to fight terrorism.
19.1.02 The IDF blows up the Palestinian TV and radio offices in al-Bireh, near Ramallah.
22.1.02 Israeli troops enter the West Bank town of Nablus and kill four men from the military wing of Hamas.
23.1.02 Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Picque proposes that the US and Europe impose a peaceful solution on Israel and the Palestinians since the peace process had failed.
23.1.02 Israeli Knesset speaker Avraham Burg said he intends to defy an order by Sharon not to speak to the Palestinian Legislative Council, even if it costs him his position.
24.1.02 The IDF kills six Palestinians in Gaza, Khan Younis and Ramallah, two members of the PFLP are killed in an attempt to infiltrate the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in the Gaza strip, and a 30-year-old Hamas activist is assassinated.
24.1.02 A Palestinian blows himself up near a Tel Aviv bus station, injuring 14 people.
25.1.02 EC Spokesman, Goner Vigand, declares that Israel destroyed EUR 14.5 milllion worth of EU-funded Palestinian projects last year.
27.1.02 Wafa Idrees, 28, from Am'ari refugee camp in Ramallah, detonates a powerful bomb carried in a knapsack on a crowded street in West Jerusalem, killing herself and one Israeli, and injuring many others.
28.1.02 A meeting of 15 European foreign ministers in Brussels pledges support for President Arafat and criticizes Israel for destroying EU-funded projects in Palestinian territories. The statement called on Sharon to withdraw his troops from the Palestinian territories, stop assassinations and lift the siege. The group likewise called on President Arafat to exert more effort in dismantling terrorist networks.
29.1.02 Ariel Sharon approves a plan for building a fence around Jerusalem, called 'Enveloping Jerusalem'.
30.1.02 Israel' Peace Now movement says 26 new settlements have been errected in the West Bank and Gaza since Ariel Sharon was elected.
30.1.02 US President George W. Bush says he is 'disappointed' in Yasser Arafat for not carrying out his promises of fighting terrorism, and has delayed the return of US envoy Anthony Zinni to the region. He added that he is considering severing ties with the PLO and the PNA.
31.1.02 The IDF raids the town of Eizarriyeh east of Jerusalem, closing down the Palestinian Interior Ministry.
4.2.02 Israel assassinates five Palestinians traveling on the Rafah-Khan Younis road. They were members of the DLFP, Hamas, the People's Party and Fateh.
5.2.02 Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigades claim responsibility for firing "Aqsa-1" and "Aqsa-2" rockets at settlements in the Gaza strip. Israel sees this as a grave escalation.
6.2.02 Three senior Palestinian officials, Secretary General of the PLO's executive committee, Mahmoud Abbas, speaker of the PLC, Ahmad Qurei', and financial advisor, Mohammad Rashid, meet with the Israeli PM Sharon, for the first time at his official residence.
6.2.02 According to Ha'aretz, the Jerusalem municipality demolished 32 "illegal" structures in East Jerusalem. Officials identified 6,050 construction offenses in the western part of the city and 1,117 in the eastern part, yet only seven demolitions took place in the western sector.
6.2.02 A Hamas activist opens fire at the Jordan Valley settlement of Hamra, killing two settlers and a soldier. The gunman was killed on the spot.
6.2.02 Israeli media reports announce the capture of a Palestinian truck carrying eight Qassam-2 rockets north of Nablus.
7.2.02 A twenty-one-year-old from Bethlehem dies near a military checkpoint when explosives he was carrying to Gilo detonated prematurely.
10.2.02 UN Special Coordinator to the Middle East Terje Larson condemns the Israeli shelling of security installations in Gaza, which resulted in serious damage to the UNSCO offices and injured two of its staff.
10.2.02 Israeli F-16s and Apache helicopters shell the heart of Gaza City in broad daylight, injuring over 40 people and damaging Palestinian and UN installations. Israel claims it hit bomb and rocket making factories.
10.2.02 Two soldiers are killed and four injured when two Hamas gunmen open fire on a restaurant near a military base in Beersheva in southern Israel. This was the first incident of its kind in Beersheva.
12.2.02 Three Palestinian national security officers are killed when Israeli troops raid their post in Wadi Salka in the Gaza Strip.
13.2.02 UK Foreign Minister, Jack Straw, and Russian Peace Envoy, Andrea Vidovin, visit leaders in Israel and Palestine to discuss ways to end the current crisis and resume peace talks.
13.2.02 Six Palestinians are killed and many more wounded and arrested during an Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip. The troops destroyed civil and military installations and uprooted crops.
13.2.02 UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson calls on Israel to lift the house arrest imposed on President Arafat. The current violence in the Middle East makes defending human rights more difficult and more urgent, she stated. An Israeli spokesman at the UN rejected what he described as a "one-sided statement".
14.2.02 At the Shuhada junction in Gaza City a massive roadside bomb weighing at least 80 kilograms is detonated under a Merkava 3 tank, seriously damaging the supposedly impregnable tank and killing three Israeli soldiers inside.
16.2.02 Visiting German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer discusses a new European peace initiative with both sides, aimed at ending the 17 months of violence.
17.2.02 Ahmad Qurei', meets secretly with Israeli foreign minister, Shimon Peres, in Jerusalem. The two sides discuss the peace plan they have been negotiating for two months.
18.2.02 In Gaza, a Palestinian trying to infiltrate the Jewish settlement of Morag is killed by an Israeli tank shell. Tank fire kills a 37-year-old mother and her 10-year-old daughter in their home, and wounds eight family members. An Israeli policeman is fatally injured when the driver of a stolen car blew himself up near the settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim.
19.2.02 Six Israeli soldiers manning a military checkpost outside the Palestinian village of Ein Arik near Ramallah are gunned down by two Palestinians, who escape unharmed.
19.2.02 Israeli F-16s and Apache helicopters shell Gaza, hitting President Arafat's headquarters and leaving four guards dead and another 10 injured. Two Hamas activists and a child were killed when Israeli missiles struck Hamas offices in Gaza city.
19.2.02 Five members of the Palestinian national security forces and two civilians are killed when Israeli helicopters bomb Balata refugee camp, at the entrance to Nablus.
25.2.02 Israeli soldiers kill a Palestinian teenager at a checkpoint near Tulkarem after claiming she wielded a knife at them.
26.2.02 A trilateral security meeting between Palestinian, Israeli and US officials takes place at the US Ambassador's residence in Tel Aviv, following a long suspension of security meetings by Palestinian officials angered at Yasser Arafat's continuing house-arrest.
28.2.02 A female suicide bomber from Balata tries to infiltrate the Jewish settlement of Modi'in. Following helicopter shelling, Israeli tanks and soldiers invade Balata and Jenin refugee camps in Nablus. In days of fighting, bombs and booby traps caused the deaths of two soldiers. In house-to-house searches, the soldiers blew holes in the sides of adjoining homes rather than risk traversing the narrow camp alleys.
2.3.02 UN Secretary General Kofi Annan calls on Israel to immediately withdraw its troops from the West Bank refugee camps of Jenin and Balata after Israeli incursions into the two camps left 13 Palestinians dead.
2.3.02 The body of an Israeli police officer is found near the Saba Monastery east of Beit Sahour. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claims responsibility.
3.3.02 Nine Israelis are killed as they leave a synagogue in the ultra-orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood of Meah Shearim. The suicide bomber was a 19 year-old member of Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades from Bethlehem's Dheisheh refugee camp. This is the first terrorist attack in this part of Jerusalem.
4.3.02 Nineteen Palestinians are killed when Israel bombs Rafah and Khan Younis in Gaza and enters Jenin camp with tanks. Air raids in Bethlehem destroy several security buildings in the center of the town.
4.3.02 Israeli troops prevent UNRWA General Commissioner Peter Hansen from leaving the Jenin municipality, despite his diplomatic status.
4.3.02 In Ramallah's al-Am'ari refugee camp, a ground missile is fired from the Psagot settlement at a pick-up truck, killing six Palestinian adults and children. Israel apologized for the deaths, saying the missile had been intended for a car of armed men.
4.3.02 Three Israelis are killed and 25 wounded when a terrorist opens fire on a restaurant in Tel Aviv where a pre-wedding celebration was taking place. The gunman, from the Aqsa Martyrs Brigade was then fatally shot.
4.3.02 Israeli PM Sharon tells Israeli television that the Palestinians must suffer further casualties and be hit hard before they realize that they will achieve nothing by terror.
5.3.02 Two bombs explode in the playground of a boy's school in Sur Baher in East Jerusalem, wounding 10 pupils and one teacher. The bomb, which was detected early in the morning by the school principal, was placed there by an extreme rightist Israeli group.
6.3.02 According to Ha'aretz, Israeli PM Sharon officially announces his rejection of Saudi Crown Prince Abdallah's peace initiative, saying it was "unacceptable."
12.3.02 UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan criticizes the Israeli government's use of heavy weaponry in civilian areas in his sharpest public comments to date on violence in the Middle East. He called on Israel to end its "illegal occupation" of Palestinian territory in a speech to the UN Security Council.
14.3.02 Israeli soldiers fire on a group of foreign journalists in Ramallah, killing Italian press photographer Raffaele Ciriello who was photographing Israeli tanks near al-Manara Square.
18.3.02 The Israeli Peace Now movement reveals that the Sharon government has established 34 new settlements since taking office in Israel, including eight in the last two months. The report pointed out that most were established at a distance of nearly 200 meters from existing settlements and therefore could be considered new settlements.
19.3.02 Israeli soldiers fire at the car of Professor Sari Nusseibeh, the PLO's political Commissioner for Jerusalem Affairs, at the Qalandia military checkpoint. He was not injured but the car was damaged.
20.3.02 A trilateral security meeting between Israelis, Palestinians and Americans held and headed by US Middle East Envoy Anthony Zinni, at the US Ambassador's house in Tel Aviv, fails to make progress towards the implementation of a cease-fire.
20.3.02 A Palestinian suicide attack on a bus in Afula kills seven Israelis and injures 30. Israeli troops move into the Jenin area.
26.3.02 Two members of the Temporary International Presence (TIP) in Hebron are killed and one injured when their car comes under fire on the main road in Hebron.
26.3.02 President Arafat decides not to attend the Arab League summit in Beirut.
27.3.02 A suicide bomber blows himself up in the Park Hotel in Netanya, killing 19 Israelis and injuring 130, 48 of them seriously.
27.3.02 A representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Israel says the conduct of the Israeli army in the Palestinian territories violates the Geneva Convention. He dismissed Israeli claims that Palestinian ambulances are used by armed Palestinians.
27.3.02 The US State Department officially places Fatah's military wing, the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades on its list of international terrorist organizations. A State Department spokesperson issued a warning to President Yasser Arafat, saying that it is time for him to take action against radical groups responsible for armed attacks against Israelis.
28.3.02 Arab leaders unanimously adopt Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's plan for peace with Israel, during the Arab summit in Beirut. Abdullah said during the summit, which was marked by the absence of key players including the Egyptian President, that the Arab world would offer Israel normalization of relations if it pulled out of all the Arab land occupied in 1967.
28.3.02 A Palestinian suicide bomber kills 22 people in a Netanya hotel at the start of the Jewish Passover festival, as guests were sitting down to the Seder meal. This brutal terrorist attack on a religious gathering was bitterly condemned by all Israelis regardless of their political views.
28.3.02 Four settlers are killed when an armed Palestinian from the Nablus refugee camp Askar, infiltrated the West Bank settlement of Alon Moreh. The attacker was eventually killed. The military wing of Hamas claimed responsibility.
30.3.02 In Baqa al-Gharbiyeh, on the Green Line border, an Israeli soldier is killed when two suicide bombers detonate their explosives after being stopped by Israeli police.
30.3.02 Israeli tanks and combat troops storm the area next to where President Yasser Arafat is holed up with several of his advisors in Ramallah, prompting reports that Israel planned to exile or assassinate Arafat. He has little water and very little communication with the outside world.
31.3.02 The IDF declares Ramallah a closed military zone and calls on all foreigners and journalists to leave the city. The Israeli Government Press Office announced that any journalist found in the city would be forced to leave.
Over this period, in the Palestinian territories, 243 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces, 26 of whom were under the age of 17. Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli civilians. Thirty-six Israeli citizens were killed and 45 Israeli security service personnel were killed by Palestinians. Eighty-nine Palestinian security forces personnel were killed by Israeli security forces. Within the Green Line, 17 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces. Seventy-five Israelis citizens were killed by Palestinians. Sixteen Israeli security forces personnel were killed by Palestinians.
Above figures from B'Tselem