7.10.02 The Israeli army entered Khan Younis in Gaza, backed by tanks and air support, killing 16 Palestinians and injuring 80. One of the dead was a health worker who was shot in the head when Israeli troops opened fire on a Palestinian hospital.

7.10.02 A freelance cameraman working in the West Bank for the Associated Press was injured when Israeli tanks fired down a Jenin street. Samir Abu Rob suffered cuts on his legs and back after debris fell from a building above him in the hail of bullets.

8.10.02 According to Haaretz, in July, the settlement council removed some 20 uninhabited outposts, of its own accord, but research by Peace Now showed that some of these were re-established once media attention turned elsewhere. Surveys showed there are as many as 100 of these sparsely inhabited outposts throughout the West Bank, established by settlers to gain a foothold on new land.

8.10.02 Palestinian President Yasser Arafat held official meetings conferring with the Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee and Fateh Central Committee, as well as the Palestinian cabinet. Discussion centered on the Gaza events and presidential ratification of a law declaring Jerusalem the capital of Palestine. The law was signed after the White House signed into law a bill requiring the administration to treat Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

9.10.02 According to Haaretz, a group of Israeli academics published a letter in Britain's Guardian newspaper warning of possible war crimes to be committed under the guise of any US attack on Iraq. "We, members of Israeli academia, are horrified by the US buildup of aggression toward Iraq and by the Israeli political leadership's enthusiastic support of it," said the group of professors, including Avraham Oz, Linda Ben-Zvi, Daniel Boyarin, Rene Levy, Ilan Pappe and 94 others. "We are deeply worried by indications that the 'fog of war' could be exploited by the Israeli government to take further action against the Palestinian people, up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing."

9.10.02 Heads of Christian churches in Jerusalem sent a letter to US President George W. Bush expressing resentment over new legislation that requires official acceptance of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The leaders said that they felt angered that the US Congress was attempting to inflame the political situation. The head of the churches said the city is holy to Christians, Muslims and Jews and that free access should be maintained for all worshippers.

10.10.02 Nine people were injured when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up next to a bus south of Tel Aviv after the driver prevented him from boarding.

11.10.02 Two Palestinian children are killed in Rafah, Gaza, when tanks entered the area and fired their guns. The deaths marked another night of shelling in the Rafah area.

14.10.02 An Israeli bomb placed in a telephone booth detonated and killed 27-year-old Muhammad Ubeyyat. Palestinians believe the bomb was intended for his brother, commander of armed Fateh groups in the Bethlehem area. The two brothers had accompanied their mother to hospital, where Muhammad then used the telephone.

14.10.02 Israeli forces invaded Bir Zeit village, near Ramallah and besieged a building that houses Bir Zeit university students. Over loudspeakers, the Israeli forces demanded that the students turn themselves in and threatened to blow up the building if they failed to respond.

14.10.02 Palestinian Minister of Finance Salam Fayyad met Israeli officials in the presence of US Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer to discuss fund transfers, which the US has recently been pressuring Israel to complete. Israel has stopped transferring tax revenues collected from Palestinians at the Israeli entry ports since the beginning of the Intifada, claiming the money is funding attacks against Israelis.

16.10.02 Chief Palestinian negotiator and Minister of Local Government, Saeb Erekat, and Minister of Economy and Trade, Maher al-Masri, met with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in an undisclosed location in West Jerusalem. They discussed the worsening humanitarian situation in the territories, as well as the transfer of funds.

16.10.02 In an interview with Yediot Ahronot online, Israeli army sources admitted that army investigations failed to establish links between nine victims of the recent attack in Khan Younis and any militant operations against Israel. In addition to the mother of a Hamas activist who was "accidentally" killed, seven other Palestinians killed in the al-Amal neighborhood were neither armed militants nor activists in Palestinian factions, despite the claims of Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer.

16.10.02 The Israeli Knesset signed off on an additional NIS 5 million for the protection of Israeli settlers in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem's Old City and the Ras al-Amoud neighborhood of East Jerusalem. The bonus brought the total cost of guarding 3,000 settlers in East Jerusalem to NIS 27 million per year.

18.10.02 According to Yediot Ahronot, the British ambassador to Israel, Sherard Cowper-Coles, told Israel that the Palestinian territories are the world's largest jail, where harassment and humiliation are rife. He was also quoted as saying that Israel was "in violation of the Geneva Convention" and accused Israeli forces of displaying "instances of a lack of professionalism" amid reports about soldiers looting property in the territories.

21.10.02 Fourteen Israelis were killed and some 50 others were injured when a jeep plowed into a bus traveling near the northern Israeli town of Hadera and exploded. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

21.10.02The European Commission (EC) criticized Israel's insistence on exporting products made in illegal Israeli settlements, at the third meeting of the Association Council EU-Israel held in Luxembourg. The European Union is Israel's major trading partner and ranks first for Israel's imports and second in export.

23.10.02 US envoy William Burns arrived in the region to promote what is being called a "Road Map" to peace, the plan drafted by the EU, US, UN and Russia to bring Palestinians and Israelis to a final peace agreement.

27.10.02 Three Israeli military personnel were killed and 20 others injured when soldiers intercepted a Palestinian suicide bomber at the entrance to the Ariel settlement in the northern West Bank. Israeli military sources reported that one soldier shot and killed the bomber and another bullet blew up his explosives belt, killing the officers who were holding him. The armed wing of Hamas claimed responsibility.

29.10.02 An armed Palestinian opened fire on settlers in the Hermesh settlement north of Tulkarm. One woman and two 14-year-olds were killed, and three others sustained injuries. An armed Israeli bystander shot and killed the Palestinian.

30.10.02 According to Haaretz, Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Transportation Minister Efraim Sneh gave orders to begin construction of five crossing points near the West Bank seam line. The Israeli Airports Authority began planning the project in 2002, on the assumption that a complete separation line would be established between Israel and the West Bank. The plan is estimated to cost the equivalent of some $130 million.

31.10.02 The Israeli government collapsed when the Labor party ministers resigned in protest over the 2003 budget. Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, head of the Labor Party, demanded that $147 million be cut from settlement funding and transferred to pensioners and low-income development towns.

31.10.02 A special Israeli military unit assassinated Palestinian intelligence officer Ayed Baker Mansour, 35, in Kafr Qaleel, Nablus. Witnesses reported that Mansour was getting out of his car in front of his home when he was shot in the stomach and killed.

3.11.02 Ahmad al-Tibi, Arab Knesset member, is put on trial. The charges against him included entering Jenin refugee camp while the Israeli army was carrying out its military operations, attempting to attack Israeli soldiers during incidents in Ramallah, Jerusalem and Jenin, making statements supporting the Palestinian resistance.

5.11.02 Israeli Prime Minister (PM) Ariel Sharon called for new elections. Former PM Benyamin Netanyahu accepted the post of Israeli foreign minister and decided to run against Sharon in the upcoming Likud party elections.

5.11.02 Haaretz newspaper reported that the PNA issued a ceasefire directive to Fateh that read, "all activists who belong to the Fateh movement, politicians and military personnel, are strictly forbidden to open fire for any reason whatsoever."

6.11.02 Amnesty International published a new report called "Shielded from Scrutiny: IDF violations in Jenin and Nablus." The report concluded that the Israeli army committed war crimes during its spring 2002 operation, and called on the international community to conduct an investigation and find those responsible.

10.11.02 The two leading Palestinian factions - Fateh and Hamas met in Cairo at the invitation of the Egyptian government to hammer out understandings over Hamas' relationship with the PNA, which is dominated by Fateh.

10.11.02 Israeli tanks aided by armored bulldozers invaded Rafah, in Gaza, under heavy shooting and bombardment to the residential area. The bulldozers demolished nine houses.

11.11.02 The Israeli parliament's financial committee ratified the transfer of NIS 24 million from funds confiscated from the PNA to funds that will be used for building the "separation fence" between Israel and the West Bank and to the Israeli police. Israel owes the PNA the money for customs taxes collected on its borders, as per Palestinian-Israeli agreements, but has been holding it since the start of the Palestinian Intifada.

13.11.02 A new report issued by the Israeli Ministry of Finance disclosed that Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip received $34 million in tax breaks during 2001. There are approximately 200,000 settlers in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, and another 6,000 living in the Gaza Strip.

13.11.02 Israel took complete control of the northern West Bank city of Nablus. More than 150 armored vehicles, backed by helicopter gun-ships, entered Nablus and fired, without meeting any resistance. Soldiers stormed dozens of homes, ordering residents to line up in the dawn chill as tanks blocked roads and helicopters hovered above. Several explosions were heard; 35 Palestinians were arrested.

13.11.02 Palestinian officials met with the US State Department envoy David Satterfield in Jericho and gave him the official response of the PNA on the US Road Map plan for peace. The plan calls for sweeping Palestinian reforms, an end to armed attacks, an Israeli troop pullback to positions held before the start of the Intifada, a freeze in Jewish settlement construction and a provisional Palestinian state by 2003, followed by full independence in 2005.

15.11.02 Nine Israeli soldiers, including Hebron brigade commander, Col. Dror Weinberg, and three armed settlement security guards were killed in an ambush near the Hebron settlement of Kiryat Arba. Fourteen more soldiers were injured. Three Palestinians were killed. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

17.11.02 PNA condemned Israel's PM Ariel Sharon's comments considering the Hebron Protocols cancelled. Under the Hebron Protocols, signed in 1997, Israel withdrew from most of the city leaving only small enclaves in the center of the town in the hands of the Israeli army.

20.11.02 During its reoccupation of Hebron, the Israeli army entered the grounds of Hebron Polytechnic University, confiscating papers, documents and files. Two of the young men who carried out the attack on Israeli soldiers guarding the city's 400 Israeli settlers were students at the university.

21.11.02 Palestinian suicide bomber explodes himself on a crowded bus in West Jerusalem. Eleven Israelis were killed and 47 others were injured. Israeli forces demolished the suicide bomber's home near Bethlehem on November 22.

22.11.02 Bethlehem was re-occupied, declared a closed military zone until December 30, and placed under a tight curfew. More than 40 Palestinian policemen stationed in Bethlehem were arrested.

22.11.02 Iain Hook, a British citizen and UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) official, was shot in the back with Israeli bullets that lodged in his heart inside the UNRWA compound in Jenin refugee camp.

26.11.02 Israeli forces assassinated Ala' Sabbagh of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Imad al-Nasharti, a local Hamas leader in Jenin refugee camp. Israeli aircraft fired a missile into the building where they were staying.

27.11.02 Israeli troops killed Jihad al-Natour, 24, in the Askar refugee camp east of Nablus. Al-Natour was making the rounds with a drum, calling on the devout to rise for the pre-dawn meal before beginning that day's Ramadan fast.

28.11.02 Six Israelis were killed in a shooting attack on a Likud party headquarters in the northern town of Bisan on primary day of the elections.

29.11.02 The Peace Now movement was barred by the Israeli army from visiting an area in the West Bank city of Hebron where Jewish settlers are building new outposts.

30.11.02 The UN-administered World Food Program protested the Israeli army's destruction of 413 metric tons of flour, 107 metric tons of rice and 17 metric tons of vegetable oil in a warehouse in Jabalia in the Gaza Strip.

2.12.02 Maher Saqallah, 19, was killed and 12 others injured when an Israeli special unit entered Tulkarm's market.

2.12.02 In Jenin, Mu'taz Kamal Odeh, 16, was killed by a bullet in the back during Israeli gunfire in the town.

3.12.02 Sixty-four international employees of the UN working in the West Bank and Gaza Strip signed a petition condemning the Israeli army's violence, which led to the killing of UN employee Iain Hook in the Jenin refugee camp on November 22.

4.12.02 The Israeli government was finalizing its plans to expand a settlement area in Hebron, causing the demolition of 16 Palestinian houses, including 100 living spaces. The buildings that will be leveled to make room for a widened roadway between Kiryat Arba' and the small settlement in Hebron's heart are all historic structures, dating back decades. Sixty-one plots of Palestinian land will be confiscated for an avenue 730 meters long that is to be lit with floodlights and outfitted with cameras.

9.12.02 The Israeli army opened fire on a marked UNRWA vehicle traveling in southern Gaza. One boy was injured in the back by gunfire.

13.12.02 The Central Court in Tel Aviv announced that it has the jurisdiction to try Marwan Barghouthi. Barghouthi, West Bank secretary of Fateh has repeatedly rejected the legitimacy of his arrest and trial. The judge rejected his request to be considered a prisoner of war, and stated that Israel has the right to arrest and try him to defend itself. "I am not a murderer, I am fighting for my freedom and the freedom of my people," Barghouthi said in court on December 12.

14.12.02 The Israeli army raided Nablus' al-Najah University, forcing employees to evacuate under gunpoint. The next day, the Arab American University in Jenin was also raided by Israeli troops. The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits raids on educational institutions, particularly schools and universities.

16.12.02 A new settlement road was being constructed on land south of al-Bireh, northwest of Jerusalem. The bulldozers tore up more than four kilometers of land, a strip more than 25 meters wide.

20.12.02 Former US President Jimmy Carter offered, during a speech to students at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, to mediate talks between Israelis and Palestinians as violence flared in the occupied territories. Carter asserted that US President George W. Bush was not impartial about the issue.

30.12.02 Foreign peace activists demonstrated outside the UN Special Coordinator for the peace process in Gaza City demanding international protection for the Palestinian people.

In this period, in the Palestinian territories, 168 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces, 44 of whom were under the age of 18. Three Palestinians were killed by Israeli civilians. Thirteen Israeli civilians were killed and 18 Israeli security forces personnel were killed by Palestinians. Within the Green Line, five Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces. Thirty-one Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinians. Seven Israeli security forces personnel were killed by Palestinians.