3.1.98 Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai threatens to resign if Israel does not soon implement redeployment, explaining that the current situation will create problems both with the Palestinians and with the US and Europe.
6.1.98 The National Religious Party (NRP) threatens to withdraw from the Israeli government if it decides to redeploy in more than 10 percent of Palestinian land.
10.1.98 Upon meeting with a Palestinian diplomatic corps in the Vatican, Pope John Paul II says: "We hope that Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth become places of justice and peace."
13.1.98 The Israeli Finance Ministry decides to transfer money due to the Palestinian Authority (PA) to a single account belonging to the Palestinian Finance Ministry, instead of five different accounts.
14.1.98 Head of the religious Shas party, Arieh Deri, along with ministers Eli Suissa and Eli Shai, head to Amman to meet with King Hussein of Jordan.
14.1.98 According to an Israeli army spokesperson, three Israelis and three Lebanese are injured when a booby-trapped video tape exploded at the crossing point between Israel and the Lebanese security zone. During the period under review a number of Israeli soldiers are killed, and others wounded, in the fighting in Lebanon against Hizbullah.
16.1.98 King Hussein says to an American Jewish lobby group that any collapse in the peace process will lead to regional disturbances, and warns Israel against adopting a "fortress" mentality.
18.1.98 The Israeli cabinet holds a session to formulate a final position on redeployment before the Netanyahu-Clinton summit.
19.1.98 The Palestinian State Security Court sentences Nasser Abu Arrous, 23, and Jasser Salaami, 25, both from Nablus, to 15 years' hard labor. The two were tried for charges connected to the bombings in West Jerusalem on July 13 and September 4 of 1997.
20.1.98 President Clinton meets with Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu for 90 minutes at the White House to discuss what the United States terms a "credible withdrawal" of Israeli troops from the Palestinian territories.
27.1.98 Israel's deputy housing minister confirms Housing Ministry plans for the building of 15,000 new settlement units over the next two years. Sixty percent of the planned units will be in the settlements in East Jerusalem and around the city.
29.1.98 Nidal Abu Srour, 18, dies of neck injuries at Hadassah Hospital. Arrested by the Israeli police on 16.1.98, Abu Srour was held without charges at the Russian Compound prison in Jerusalem. Autopsy reports conclude the neck injuries were the result of an attempt by Abu Srour to hang himself while in detention.
3.2.98 The Palestinian police announce the death in a Palestinian jail in Dura, near Hebron, of detainee Nasser al-Hroub, 25, from a village near Hebron. Al-Hroub was arrested on 2.2.98 by the Criminal Investigations Unit of the Palestinian Police for undisclosed reasons.
3.2.98 The Israeli Interior Ministry approves the construction of 132 units for Jewish settlers in the Arab neighborhood of Ras al-Amoud in Jerusalem.
8.2.98 The Israeli cabinet approves a bill which would regulate government and Knesset supervision of the General Security Services (Shin Bet) activities.
9.2.98 King Hussein offers $1 million as compensation to the bereaved families of the seven Israeli schoolgirls killed by a Jordanian soldier on 13.3.97. The check is sent to Israeli President Weizman, to give to the Israeli families.
10.2.98 A report released by the Maps Department at the Arab Studies Society in Jerusalem, announces the confiscation by Israeli authorities of an estimated total of 4,275 dunums (1,050 acres) of Palestinian land since the beginning of 1998. Most of the expropriations are in the Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron districts.
11.2.98 Two homes, allegedly built without permits, are destroyed by the Israeli military in the al-Dahiriyya area in Hebron, in Area C of the West Bank. These demolitions follow on the heels of a new land confiscation in al-Dahiriyya of over 1,100 dunums, to allow for the expansion of Israeli quarries in the area.
14.2.98 In remembrance of Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights in 1981, Druze from Golan villages hold anti-Israel demonstrations.
15.2.98 The Palestinian State Security Court in Jericho sentences Amjad Muhammad Hinnawi, 26, from Nablus, to 10 years' hard labor. He is charged with having participated in an attack on an Israeli bus on May 13, 1996, which resulted in the killing of American citizen David Boim.
16.2.98 The Israeli military authorities in the West Bank, backed by police and bulldozers, destroy 50 tents and evict 137 Jahalin Bedouins from their traditional encampment near the Ma'aleh Adumim settlement, to make way for its expansion. The several hundred Bedouins still remaining in the area are also threatened with eviction.
17.2.98 The Interior Ministry of the PA issues a 24-hour ultimatum to the 34 television and radio stations operating in the Palestinian areas to either shut down or seek licences from the appropriate authorities. The step is seen as a means for the Authority to control the proliferation of unlicensed private TV and radio stations.
24.2.98 European Union foreign ministers announce in Brussels the Union's intention to pressure Israel to remove all obstacles to Palestinian economic development by the Netanyahu government.
2.3.98 Statistics released by the Population Registry Department in the Israeli Interior Ministry show a 7.45-percent increase in settlers in the West Bank outside of East Jerusalem, and a 4.8-percent increase in settlers in the Gaza Strip over 1996 figures.
5.3.98 In an interview with Israeli TV, Israeli opposition leader Ehud Barak says that if he were a Palestinian, he would have joined a terrorist organization at some point in his life.
8.3.98 More than 1,500 reserve army officers and soldiers urge PM Binyamin Netanyahu to choose peace with the Palestinians over settlements in the West Bank. "A government that prefers maintaining settlements ... will arouse doubts in our hearts about the justice of our course," the reservists said in a full-page advertisement. Among the 1,554 signatories are a former chief of the general staff, 11 major-generals and more than 200 officers with the rank of lieutenant-colonel or higher.
10.3.98 Jordan's Crown Prince Hassan meets with Israeli PM Netanyahu in Tel Aviv to discuss the latest developments in the peace process.
10.3.98 Israeli soldiers at the Tarkumiya roadblock in the Hebron area open fire on a van transporting Palestinian laborers working in Israel. Three are killed and 27 wounded.
The same day, Israeli PM Netanyahu telephones Palestinian President Arafat to express regret over the killing of the three Palestinians.
10.3.98 Nasser Shbeirat, 15, from Jaba' village, is stabbed in the Me'a She'arim neighborhood in West Jerusalem. He is taken to Hadassah Hospital for treatment. Another Palestinian was stabbed in the same region three weeks earlier.
14.3.98 Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and Lebanese President Elias el-Hrawi hold talks in Damascus to discuss the Israeli proposal for troop withdrawal from South Lebanon.
19.3.98 The Israeli PM appoints Uri Elitzur general director of his office. Elitzur, a settler who lives in Ofra, is a member of the NRP and was active in the Amana settlement movement.
19.3.98 Israeli Defense Minister Mordechai approves the lowering of the age limit from 25 to 23 years for Palestinian laborers wishing to work in Israel, allegedly allowing an additional 10,000 Palestinian laborers into the Israeli labor market.
23.3.98 During a joint press conference in Gaza, following a meeting with President Arafat, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan says: "I came here to listen, to explore and then to reach conclusions on what can be done in order to resume the peace process, especially when all leaders in the region feel that it is in retreat. I will do my utmost, but we should not exaggerate in our expectations."
25.3.98 Thirty-seven Palestinian political prisoners held in Jneid prison in Nablus begin an open-ended hunger strike to draw attention to their seven-month detention without charges.
26.3.98 Israeli Reserves General Oren Shahor (Labor) says the Israeli government is deceiving the Israeli public regarding troop withdrawal from South Lebanon, adding: "The Israeli government is trying to divert attention from the Palestinian track by talking about an Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon, which is not a serious proposal."
28.3.98 President Arafat meets in Gaza with US Coordinator for Peace in the Middle East, Dennis Ross, and discusses with him US ideas aimed at reviving the peace process. A day later, he meets PM Netanyahu in Tel Aviv.
29.3.98 The Higher Zoning and Planning Committee in the Israeli Civil Administration rejects the petitions submitted by Palestinians against a court decision to expand the settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim, in order to connect it to Jerusalem.
30.3.98 The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria hold a closed meeting in the Saudi capital to discuss a plan for concerted Arab action in the face of Israeli intransigence.
In this period in the occupied territories, 4 Palestinian civilians and 1 child under 16 are killed by the Israeli Security Forces; 1 Israeli civilian is killed by Palestinians. No fatalities are reported within the Green Line.
Above figures from B'Tselem.