Palestine
2002 Calendar
| Jan | Feb | Mar
| Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug
| Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
January 2002
03.01.2002, Israel withdrew from Palestinian
autonomous areas in the West Bank,
as the United States was set to resume its Middle East peace efforts
with
the arrival in the region of its envoy Anthony Zinni.
Troops withdrew to the outskirts of Jenin and Ramallah, but remained
deployed in one street near Palestinian President Yassir Arafat's
headquarters in northern Ramallah.
They also left territory near Nablus, restoring Palestinian control in
all
Palestinian autonomous areas, except for the Ramallah locality housing
Arafat's office, and Beituniya to the south.
10.01.2002, Israel struck with bulldozers leveling
two Palestinian
police posts in the southern Gaza Strip just hours after four Israeli
soldiers were killed nearby in a predawn raid by Hamas gunmen.
The four Israeli soldiers were killed when
eight Palestinian gunmen stormed the army post. Two of the Palestinians
also were killed.
11.01.2002, Israeli bulldozers ripped up the
runway of the Palestinian-run
Gaza Airport in retaliation for the killings of four Israeli soldiers
two
days ago.
A total of 21 tanks, armoured vehicles and bulldozers broke through
Gaza
Airport's fence in the small hours of Friday and tore up its entire
3.5-kilometre-long runway, which was being repaired after a similar
Israeli
raid last December.
14.01.2002, In a further escalation of violence, a
suspected top Palestinian militant was killed when a powerful
roadside bomb exploded as he was driving in the West Bank city of
Tulkarm.
They confirmed that Raed Karmi, 30, was the
Tulkarm leader of the "al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades".
20.01.2002, Israeli tanks and troops took over
Tulkarm in the West Bank,
killing one Palestinian, in the deepest incursion into a
Palestinian-ruled
city during 16 months of bloodshed. The Israeli raid, which was met by
sporadic resistance from Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank city, was
launched in reprisal for Palestinian attack in northern Israel and
signaled a further setback to U.S. peace efforts.
22.01.2002, Israeli troops early killed four
suspected Hamas members in a house
used as a bomb factory near the
West Bank city of Nablus.
The raid took place as Israeli troops completed their withdrawal from
Tulkarm, north of Nablus, after a 30-hour stay during which they
arrested
some 50 Palestinians.
24.01.2002, An Israeli tank shell killed two
Palestinians east of the
Jewish Kfar Darom settlement in the central Gaza Strip.
The two were farmers working in their field.
An Israeli army unit, meanwhile, entered the Palestinian a-Sheikh
neighbourhood in the divided city of Hebron, also on the West Bank,
Palestinians said.
25.01.2002, Israeli helicopter crews killed a
Hamas member and two others in
the Gaza Strip. Ali Daker Hamdan was north of Khan Yunis when the
choppers
caught up with him. The chopper crews killed Hamdan and another two
Hamas members.
29.01.2002, Israeli troops backed by tanks raided
this Palestinian village in the West
Bank, arresting three Palestinians. Six Palestinians
were hurt in clashes.
The wounded Palestinians including four with bullet wounds, but their
lives
were not in danger. One was a pregnant
woman who was hit in the leg while she was sleeping, but the baby was
unharmed.
February
2002
08.02.2002, A Palestinian gunman entered an
isolated Jewish settlement,
killing an Israeli soldier and holeding up in a
house that came under fire. An Israeli woman and her daughter were
killed in the gunbattle.
In retaliation, Israeli F-16 warplanes fired two missiles at a prison
and
government complex in the West Bank town of Nablus wounding
11 Palestinians.
11.02.2002, Two Palestinian gunmen sprang from a
car and sprayed automatic gunfire at
Israelis outside a military base in the southern city of Beersheba,
killing two soldiers
and seriously wounding five people
before they were shot dead by the troops.
In retaliation, Israeli F16 jets dropped two bombs on the main
Palestinian
security installation near the Mediterranean coast in Gaza City and
helicopters fired missiles at a foundry and other targets in the
Jabalya
area, in the northern Gaza Strip.
The warplanes bombed a Palestinian security complex a few hundred
metres
from offices of the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat. The complex was
already badly damaged by previous attacks. The planes had circled
overhead
for several minutes before striking, and Palestinian security officials
dashed out of the complex before the bombing.
12.02.2002, Israeli troops raided a West Bank
town, killing a Palestinian
and destroying a house before withdrawing five
hours later.
sraeli army bulldozers also destroyed a house. A second building was
damaged, with the
wall on the first floor smashed in and closets and furniture visible
from
the street.
13.02.2002, Israeli forces killed five Palestinian
policemen in the Gaza Strip
after threatening to carve "security zones" in Palestinian areas to
protect
Israeli cities vulnerable to attack by a new missile.
The army said that raids on Palestinian-ruled Deir al-Balah in
central Gaza, and Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya further north, were a
response
to Sunday's launch of two Qassam-2 rockets by the militant
group Hamas.
20.02.2002, Israeli forces attach West Bank
village, killing a Palestinian, hours after
Palestinians set off a huge bomb in Gaza, destroying a tank and killing
three soldiers.
23.02.2002, A missile fired from an Israeli
helicopter slammed into Yasser Arafat's West Bank compound - but the
PLO leader was unhurt. The missile hit the
Palestinians' military intelligence office in the Ramallah compound.
Arafat and his aides weren't hurt.
The attack came hours after Palestinian gunmen killed six Israeli
soldiers at a West Bank checkpoint. Thirteen Palestinians also died in
the
bloody day and night of attack.
24.02.2002, Israeli helicopters
again blasted targets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, while
missiles struck metres away from Palestinian President Yassir Arafat's
bedroom and ground troops entered Gaza City for the first time in 17
months.
Five Palestinians were killed and 50
injured, 15 of them seriously, during the widespread Israeli army
incursions
into the eastern and southern Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian gunman and an Israeli were killed
during an attack on a checkpoint on the border between Israel and the
northern West Bank.
March 2002
01.03.2002, Israeli troops launched a major
assault on two West Bank refugee camps,
Balata and Jenin camps.
Eight Palestinians were killed, and more than 90 Palestinians were
wounded.
The military strike came just hours after a Palestinian woman Dareen
Abu Aisheh, a 21-year-old
with an explosives belt strapped to her body blew herself up near an
Israeli
checkpoint late Wednesday.
02.03.2002, Israeli troops moved into a second
Palestinian refugee camp,
Since the operation began early Thursday, 15 Palestinians and one
Israeli
soldier have been killed. Dozens of Palestinians were injured.
The latest violence comes a day after Saudi Arabia presented a new
peace
initiative at the United Nations. Under the proposal, the Arab world
would
make peace with Israel in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from the
territories it occupied in the 1967 war, including the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip.
04.03.2002, At least 17 Palestinians were killed
in escalating violence, as the
Israeli army stepped up its widespread operations in the West Bank and
Gaza
Strip. An Israeli missile or tank shell killed six Palestinians in the
el Amari
refugee camp in Ramallah. It hit the car of a senior activist in the
Hamas movement,
Hussein Abu Kawaik, killing his wife and three children. Abu Kawaik
himself was not hurt.
Another Palestinian man and a woman who were either passing by or
traveling
in a second car were killed as well.
At least seven Palestinians, including several women, were killed by
heavy
gunfire in the Jenin refugee camp, which erupted after Israeli troops
stormed the camp for the second time in five days.
05.03.2002, Israel launched new air raids on the
West Bank city of Ramallah.
Helicopters fired and hit one police building in the city.
Apache helicopters earlier fired six missiles at Palestinian Authority
(PA)
offices in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. No one was injured
in the
Khan Younis strike.
06.03.2002, Israeli reprisal raids killed at least
17 Palestinians, including
the wife and three children of a Hamas commander, as Prime Minister
Ariel
Sharon declared, "We are in a war." The attacks included missiles fired
from
helicopters at Yasser Arafat's headquarters compound in the West Bank
city
of Ramallah and an F-16 raid that flattened a security nerve center in
Bethlehem. Arafat was unhurt. But in other bloodshed, at least six
Palestinian civilians were killed, including a doctor with the Red
Crescent.
Palestinian sources said Dr. Khalil
Suleiman and three medics were injured when the Israeli army opened
fire on
their ambulance near Jenin.
11.03.2002, A Palestinian bomber killed 11 people
by blowing himself up in a
crowded Jerusalem cafe near Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's residence,
and
Israel responded today by destroying Yasser Arafat's Gaza headquarters.
12.03.2002, Israeli troops backed by tanks raided
several Palestinian towns Monday and
early today, detaining hundreds of men and boys, even as Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon loosened travel restrictions on Palestinian Authority
President
Yasser Arafat. The expanded military offensive left at least 23
Palestinians
dead. The worst fighting occurred in the Gaza Strip at the crowded
Jabaliya
refugee camp, where Israel reportedly deployed about 2,000 troops after
nightfall. Arafat has been confined to the city of Ramallah for the
past
three months, his compound surrounded by Israeli tanks. His partial
release
(he is allowed to travel within the West Bank and Gaza) came before
the visit later this week of U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni. Vice President
Dick
Cheney also is scheduled to visit the Middle East.
13.03.2002, Enforcing a curfew, dozens of Israeli
tanks patrolled the
deserted streets of this West Bank town.
A senior Palestinian officer and an Italian photographer were killed
by Israeli machine gun fire. Seven Palestinians and a French
journalist were wounded in other incidents. Israel said the
circumstances of
the shootings were not yet clear. Palestinian officials, meanwhile,
welcomed
a U.N. Security Council resolution that for the first time endorsed the
idea
of a Palestinian state, but said it needed to be backed up by action.
15.03.2002, The United Nations early passed a
U.S.-sponsored resolution calling
for the creation of a Palestinian state. The Security Council measure -
its
first ever supporting Palestinian statehood - also calls for an
immediate
cease-fire in the escalating 17-month Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Saying
he was speaking on behalf of Arab nations, Syria's U.N. ambassador,
Mikhail
Wehbe, said the resolution was "very weak" and didn't deal with the
roots of
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, "the question of the Israeli
occupation."
26.03.2002, Two men from a militia drove a
bomb-laden car toward Jerusalem's largest mall, but were stopped by
police and killed when the explosives went off.
April 2002
01.04.2002, Israeli tanks and thousands of troops
attacked the Palestinian
town of Qaliqilya in the northern part of the West Bank. Palestinian
sources
in Qalqilya said more than 70 Israeli tanks and nearly
5000 soldiers stormed the defenseless city amid heavy indiscriminate
firing
on the streets and residential neighborhoods.
The Israeli army said eight of its soldiers were wounded when an
explosive
roadside charge went off near a contingent of Israeli troops in the
city.
One soldier was reportedly seriously wounded in the blast.
02.04.2002, An Italian priest Jacques Amateis, 65
was killed and a number of nuns injured inside a church in
Bethlehem when Israeli helicopter gunships and artillery bombarded
Palestinian civilian neighborhoods in the birth place of Jesus.
Earlier, an apache helicopters strafed the vicinity of the
Church of the Nativity with heavy machine gun fire, injuring many
people.
In a similar incident, Israeli tanks fired artillery shells at a Mosque
in
the Palestinian town of Tulkarm, inflicting heavy damage.
05.04.2002, Israeli army assassinated six member
of the military wing of
Hamas at the village of Tubas near Nablus.
Among the six was Qayes Odwan, a prominent member of Hamas military
wing,
the Izzidin Al Qassam Brigades.
Palestinian medical sources said two people were killed as local
Palestinian
defendants sought to put up a resistance to the invading Israeli
forces.
07.04.2002, The Israeli occupation army is
reportedly carrying out acts of random
killing at a Palestinian refugee camp near the northern West Bank town
of
Jenin. Refugees at the "Jenin camp," under siege for the fifth
consecutive day,
said Israeli tanks were bombarding the cottages of the camp while
apache
helicopters strafed it from above, inflicting heavy casualties among
civilians.
Hospital sources in Nablus reported that as many as 15 people were
killed
and scores others injured.
09.04.2002, Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres
reportedly has admitted that the
Israeli occupation army carried out a huge massacre of civilians at the
Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank.
The Jerusalem Post, reported that Peres described the ongoing Israeli
army rampage
at the camp as "a massacre.'
Survivors at the camp spoke of hundreds of people killed after Israeli
tanks
and warplanes blanket bombed the camp, pop. 20,000, killing hundreds of
civilians, most of them still buried under the rubble.
The Israeli army reportedly adamantly refused to allow medics and
rescue
teams to reach the camp to transfer the wounded to hospital.
11.04.2002, Thousands of Palestinians gathered
from various towns and villages in al-khalil district
to take part in the funeral of three martyrs. Martyr Akram al-Atrash, a
Qassam commander who was murdered 10.04.2002 by the Israeli occupation
army
in Dura, Martyr Refat al-Jeba (21 years) who was killed in an explosion
that
took place this morning in Bab al-Zawya, and Martyr Abdel-Qader Dodeen,
who
was murdered by the Israeli occupation 3 days ago in Dura, but his
family
was not allowed to bury him because of the imposed curfew.
The funeral, started from the community hospital where the bodies of
the
martyrs were kept, to a nearby mosque to offer prayers on the souls of
the
martyrs and then to Khalil-a-rrahman burial ground.
18.04.2002, Israeli occupation soldiers, riding in
personnel carriers with
their machineguns continued for the tenth
consecutive day to imposed a strict curfew on Dura, 12 kilometers south
west
of al-Khalil, in the southern West Bank.
On several occasions, Israeli soldiers opened fire on children
venturing outside their homes, injuring fifteen of them.
Moreover, the body of a sixth martyr was found in a valley north of
Dura
Thursday.
Palestinian sources said the body is of 42-year-old Ibrahim Mahmoud
Iwshah,
who had been missing for a week.
Five other Palestinians were killed, including two civilians who were
leaving a mosque after performing the dawn prayer.
23.04.2002, The Israeli occupation army
assassinated Marwan Zalloum, a
prominent local resistance activist, and his aide, Samir Abu Rajab, by
rocketing the car in which they were driving.
Eyewitnesses said two apache helicopters fired several air-to-ground
missiles at the car shortly after midnight Monday, ripping it off and
incinerating Zalloum and abu Rajab beyond recognition.
28.04.2002, Israeli armey shoot and killed a
Palestinian boy as he tried
to circumvent a roadblock on his way back to his village.
The Israeli occupation army has been imposing a tight "closure" on most
Palestinian population centers, cutting them from each other and
virtually
isolating them from the rest of the world.
Hospital sources said Israeli occupation soldiers opened fire
on Osama Jabarin, 16, as he tried to bypass an army roadblock outside
the
village of Sa'ir, 10 miles north West of al-Khalil (Hebron).
29.04.2002, More than a hundred Israeli tanks and
armored personnel carriers, backed by
helicopter gunships, rampaged through al-Khalil (Hebron) and opened
fire with heavy machineguns, killing and wounded scores of
Palestinians,
mostly innocent civilians.
Hospital sources in al-Khalil said at least nine people, including
seven
civilians, were confirmed dead and more than 40 injured.
Eyewitnesses said Israeli troops, who imposed curfew on the city, were
shooting at everything moving and preventing medical rescuers from
evacuating the wounded from the streets.
Palestinians also reported that the Occupation forces destroyed several
buildings and vandalized homes and businesses.
May 2002
03.05.2002, Two Palestinians and an Israeli army
commander were killed early Friday
during an Israeli military incursion into the northern West Bank city
of Nablus.
A force of some 50 tanks and armoured personnel carriers entered the
Palestinian autonomous city overnight.
One of the two Palestinians killed was a member of the Palestinian
security
forces, the other a civilian, the Palestinian sources said.
07.05.2002, The mayor of Bethlehem said Tuesday
that a deal has been reached to end a
standoff at the Church of the Nativity, with 13 of the suspected
militants
holed up in the shrine to be deported to Italy by the end of the day.
Israel
said agreement was very close.
One of the top wanted men in the church, built over Jesus' traditional
birthplace, said he and 12 others have agreed to go into exile. Another
26
gunmen would be transferred from the besieged compound to the Gaza
Strip,
said the wanted man, Abdullah Daoud, the head of Palestinian
intelligence in
Bethlehem.
08.05.2002, A Palestinian bomber detonated
explosives at a pool hall near
Tel Aviv, killing at least 16 people in the first
bombing in Israel in more than three weeks. More than 60 people were
wounded.
09.05.2002, Negotiators said early today a
breakthrough had been reached to end the
five-week siege of the Church of the Nativity.
Palestinian and Vatican officials said 26 militants inside the
4th-century
church would be transported to the Gaza Strip and about 80 civilians
inside
the church would be freed soon.
Thirteen other Palestinians,
would be left behind in the church until another country agrees to
accept
them as exiles.
14.05.2002, Israeli forces staged three pre-dawn
raids into West Bank villages Tuesday,
killing two Palestinian intelligence officers and arresting 13
Palestinians
as part of ongoing operations in the territory.
16.05.2002, An Israeli army unit entered
Palestinian-ruled areas near the West Bank town
of Ramallah Thursday morning, killing one Palestinian and arresting
others.
The unit entered the town of Beitunia, adjacent to Ramallah, and opened
fire
at a group of Palestinians inside their house.
28.05.2002, The Israeli army moved into the West
Bank city of Jenin early Tuesday, just
hours after two Israelis were killed in a bomb attack near Tel Aviv.
One Palestinian, a 55-year-old male, died of wounds sustained in a
gunbattles sparked by the Israel entry into the city.
At least six Palestinians were arrested.
29.05.2002, A Palestinian shot and killed three
Israelis
at a West Bank settlement Tuesday just hours after Israeli troops swept
into
Jenin and other West Bank communities.
The attacker who opened fire on the settlement of Itamar, near the
Palestinian city of Nablus, was shot dead after killing the three
Israelis.
Hours earlier, an Israeli motorist was killed and another was
wounded in a shooting attack
31.05.2002, Earlier this morning, the Israeli army
made a large-scale incursion into the
West Bank town of Nablus, reoccupying most of the Palestinian self-rule
town
and the nearby Balata refugee camp.
The incursion was backed by around 50 tanks, armoured vehicles and
personnel
carriers, under cover of helicopter gunships.
June 2002
01.06.2002, Israeli occupation troops have
dynamited and totally destroyed an ancient
Christian orthodox church at a village near the West Bank town of
Ramallah.
Palestinian sources said the Israeli army demolished the "Barbara
Church" at
the village of A'bud, 15 miles north West Ramallah by
detonating a large amount of dynamite inside the premises.
04.06.2002, The Israeli army entered the centre of
the Palestinian autonomous
area of Hebron, the largest city in the southern West Bank, imposing a
curfew and closing down shops.
Earlier Tuesday the army entered the town of Jenin in the far north of
the
West Bank, and was occupying the city of Nablus for the fifth straight
day.
05.06.2002, At least eighteen Israeli soldiers and
settlers were killed and 30 others
injured when a car-bomb exploded near a bus in northern Palestine in
early
morning hours Wednesday.
A police spokesman said a car laden with explosives rammed a passenger
bus
carrying soldiers from Tel Aviv to Tabariyya near the Meggido prison,
30
kilometers south east of Haifa, causing a huge blast.
Police said that as many as 18 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed
and
thirty others injured, some seriously.
06.06.2002, Israeli occupation troops, backed by
as many as 50 tanks and armored vehicles, invaded Ramallah late last
night.
Palestinian sources said Israeli tanks encircled and shelled the
headquarters of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat,
inflicting
heavy damage to the already bombed-out building from the previous
Israeli
incursion.
Arafat's guards, a few in number and armed with light rifles, tried
desperately to put up a resistance.
Two defenders were killed as many as five injured.
11.06.2002, Israeli
occupation army continued its violent daily incursions into Palestinian
towns and villages throughout the West Bank. The latest major incursion
took
place in Tulkarm as Israeli tanks rolled into the northern
Palestinian city, placing its nearly 100,000 under curfew.
In Ramallah, which Israeli forces invaded Monday, the Israeli army
enforced
for the second consecutive day a strict curfew on the town's estimated
120,000 inhabitants.
Moreover, Israeli tanks continued to encircle Yasser Arafat's
headquarters
as army bulldozers began demolishing additional structures in the
vicinity
of the battered compound.
At least one Palestinian was killed at the nearby Am'ari refugee camp
on
Monday.
12.06.2002, Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza
Strip last night murdered five
Palestinian citizens, including an 8-year-old child.
The child, identified as Hussein Abul Mu'eti, was killed during an
Israeli bombardment of the Mughraqa neighborhood.
Two other children, one of them identified as Ismael abu Khabeza, were
injured in the bombardment, described by some locals as the most
violent in
a month.
16.06.2002, At least tow Israeli occupation
soldiers were killed and four others injured
in a Palestinian resistance attack on Israeli forces in the Gaza
Strip.
An Israeli spokesman said the two officer were killed during a heavy
exchange of fire with Palestinian guerrillas near the settlement of
Dugit in
the northern Gaza Strip.
Four other soldiers were also injured in the attack, one of them
seriously.
18.06.2002, At least 19 Israeli settlers and
soldiers were killed and more than 30
injured Tuesday in an early morning bus-bomb attack at the West Bank
Jewish
settlement of Gilo south of Jerusalem.
The blast took place aboard a commuter bus travelling between the
settlement
of Gilo, built on Palestinian land occupied in 1967, and downtown
Jerusalem.
The attack is a retaliation for the recent murders and assassinations
by the
Israeli occupation troops, including the
murder yesterday of Walid Sbeih, a prominent member of the al-Aqsa
Martyrs
Brigades, Fatah's military wing. Sbeih, 39, was murdered by an Israeli
sniper
as he drove his car outside his
home at the village of Khader, south west of Bethlehem.
19.06.2002, At least seven Jewish settlers were
killed and twenty others injured in a
bomb-attack in Jerusalem.
A Palestinian guerilla detonated
a large bomb he was carrying at a bus-stop frequented by Jewish
paramilitary
settlers.
24.06.2002, At least six Palestinians were killed
and eleven others wounded
when an Israeli attack helicopter gunship fired several missiles at
three taxi cabs in Rafah, at the southern edge of the Gaza Strip.
Eleven other Palestinian civilians were injured, some sustaining severe
burns and shrapnel wounds.
26.06.2002, Israeli occupation troops murdered
another six-year old
Palestinian child. The child has been identified as “Ghassan Bassam al
Sa’adi.”
Palestinian sources said the child was walking in the street when
soldiers
mounting an personnel carrier opened fire on the children,
killing the child and seriously wounding another.
29.06.2002, Shortly before dawn Saturday, the
Israeli occupation army dynamited and
completely destroyed the Imara building, the huge complex in Hebron
which
was used by the British, Jordanian, Israeli and PA administrations.
The Israeli army reportedly used two tons of explosives to destroy the
nearly
70-year-old building, which also include a prison, interrogation
centers and
offices.
July 2002
01.07.2002, Israeli occupation tanks fired
artillery shells and heavy
gunfire at civilian neighborhoods in the Namsawi quarter, southwest of
Khan
Younis in southern Gaza Strip, wounding four people,
among the four injured there are two sisters, aged 5 and 12
respectively in serious condition.
09.07.2002, Israeli policemen fired
indiscriminately on
Palestinian bystanders in al-Qods, killing a 70-year-old man and
injuring a
number of other people.
Elsewhere, five Israeli occupation soldiers were injured, one
seriously during an armed clash with Palestinian resistance fighters.
16.07.2002, At least seven Jewish settlers were
killed and 30 others injured
when a roadside charge planted by
Palestinian guerillas exploded near their bus near the northern West
Bank of
Qalqilya.
23.07.2002, The Zionsit leftist Movement “There is
a limit”, which advocates rejection
of military service in the occupied Palestinian terrotories has
affirmed
that the number of Jewish soldiers refusing that srevice had reached
one
thousand. The Movement noted that 140 soldiers were imprisoned for
refusing to serve
in the occupied lands or to guard settlements.
26.07.2002, Four Jewish were killed when the cars
in
which they were traveling came under fire from Palestinian resistance
fighters. A Palestinian guerillas attacked the cars of the messianic
cultists with automatic fire east of the Palestinian town of Yatta, 20
kilometers south west of Hebron.
30.07.2002, Israeli forces arrested Hussein Abu
Kuweik, one of the leaders of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas,
in
Ramallah.
The Israeli forces had attempted to assassinate Abu Kuweik a few months
ago
by firing at his car but he survived the attempt because he was not in
the
vehicle. However, his wife and his three children were killed in the
incident.
31.07.2002, The Israeli regime decided to banish
Palestinian civilians from
the West Bank to the Gaza Strip on the ground of being relatives of
persons
involved in acts of resistance against the Israeli occupation.
The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported that a decision to that effect
was
taken today by the so-called internal security cabinet.
August 2002
10.08.2002, A Palestinian was killed by Israeli
tank fire, as the two
leaderships exchanged recriminations of murder and terror, casting a
pall
over the second day of high-level talks between a Palestinian
delegation and
US officials.
A Palestinian civilian standing in front of his house was shot dead by
Israeli troops imposing a curfew on the reoccupied northern West Bank
town
of Tulkarem.
20.08.2002, No sooner had Israeli tanks rolled out
of the streets of Bethlehem,
than a hundred Israeli armored personnel carriers and thousands of
crack troops, backed by helicopter gunships, attacked the Tulkarm
refugee
camp in the northern West Bank, terrorizing inhabitants and
killing two Palestinians.
The invading forces began house-to-house searches for “wanted
Palestinians”
in the quiet hours before dawn, amid intensive and often indiscriminate
firing in all directions in the heavily-populated camp.
21.08.2002, Israeli occupation troops, backed by
armored personnel carriers and
helicopter gunships, attacked a Palestinian refugee camp south
of Gaza, killing a Palestinian civilian and injuring five others.
The forces were leaving the camp, having destroyed
several homes, an Israeli tank fired an artillery shell on a group of
onlookers, killing a man identified as Adnan Hasan.
22.08.2002, The Israeli occupation army has
demolished
over 21 homes in the past 24 hours.
All of the demolitions took place in the Gaza Strip, especially in Khan
Younis and Rafah.
450 Palestinian civilians were made homeless in a single Israeli
army operation.
26.08.2002, Israeli occupation troops, backed by
tanks and armored personnel carriers,
attacked the northern West Bank town of Jenin and an adjacent
refugee camp.
The troops arrested Sheikh Jamal Abu Al-Haija, a
prominent Hamas political activist in the Jenin camp.
Israel and the PA reached a deal last week whereby the Israeli army was
to
withdraw gradually from erstwhile PA-rune towns in return for the
restoration of PA security administration in the said towns.
27.08.2002, An Israeli occupation soldier was
killed and others were
injured in what an Israeli spokesman termed an “incident.”
The spokesman said the soldier died when an armored personnel carriers
turned upside down near the settlement of Betar south of Bethlehem.
Several other soldiers were also injured in the incident.
31.08.2002, At least five Palestinians, including
two children and two teenage boys, and
other civilians were injured when Israeli apache
helicopter gunship attacked a passenger car at a village of Tubas in
the
northern West Bank.
Palestinian sources said two Israeli apache helicopters fired hell-fire
missiles at a car in which Anwar Daraghmeh, a local resistance
activist, was
traveling, killing him and reducing the car to charred, twisted metal.
With Daraghmeh, two teenage boys were also killed and completely
incinerated.
The same gunship then hit a home, killing two children, one aged five
and
the other ten.
September
2002
03.09.2002, An Israeli army
bulldozers bulldozed and nearly crushed an entire Palestinian
family in Rafah at the southern edge of the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian sources said the bulldozer bulldozed the home of a
Palestinian
family without any warning, causing a wall to collapse on them.
All the nine members of the family were wounded, including a 3-year-old
child who was injured seriously.
05.09.2002, The Israeli regime has rejected a
peace plan prepared by the
European Union and presented to Israeli and Palestinian leaders by
visiting
Danish Foreign Minister Pier Muller.
The EU plan calls for establishing a tentative Palestinian state
without
recognized borders to be followed by intensive negotiations that would
lead
to full Palestinian statehood in three years.
Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, described the plan as
“unacceptable to
Israel in its present form.”
10.09.2002, The Israeli occupation army responded
to Yasser Arafat’s conciliatory speech
in Ramallah yesterday with more killing, maiming and arrests of
Palestinians.
In Beitunia near Ramallah, Israeli occupation forces killed at least
one
Palestinian and injured two others.
Earlier, two Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip when an Israeli
tank
fired an artillery shell at the car in which they were travelling.
12.09.2002, Israeli occupation tanks rolled into
the Shujaiya neighborhood
in eastern Gaza, destroying and vandalizing civilian property.
Palestinian sources said dozens of tanks and armored personnel carriers
rampaged through the crowded neighborhood in early morning hours and
that
Israeli occupation troops imposed curfew inhabitants.
The sources said at least one home was completely demolished while
other
homes sustained serious damage.
16.09.2002, Israeli occupation soldiers shot and
killed a Palestinian man in
the Gaza Strip. The
incident took place at the Abu-Holy checkpoint near Gaza City where
Israeli
occupation soldiers were stopping vehicles and randomly forcing taxis
full
of passengers to stop and exit their vehicles to be subjected to
searches.
17.09.2002, At least five Palestinian kids were
injured when a bomb planted by Jewish
at their school in Yatt, 15 kilometers south west of Hebron, went
off morning.
According to Palestinian sources, Jewish placed the bomb inside
one of the toilets and was timed to detonate during when the kids are
having
the mid-morning break.
The blast shook the entire school building and paramedics expressed
surprise
that nobody was killed.
19.09.2002, In an apparent retaliation for the
recent killing by the Israeli army of
scores of Palestinian civilians, a Palestinian guerilla blew himself up
inside a passenger bus in Tel Aviv killing himself and five other
people.
Hospital sources said ten of the injured were in serious to critical
condition.
The blast came less than 24 hours after another Palestinian guerilla
blew
himself up near the town of Um El-Fahm in northern Palestine.
The bomber and an Israeli soldier were killed and two other soldiers
injured.
21.09.2002, Israeli tanks and bulldozers have
virtually destroyed the battered
headquarters of Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat in Ramallah.
Israeli tanks, which had stormed the headquarters, carried out a
sustained
artillery bombardment of the three-story building and other adjacent
buildings housing Palestinian security agencies.
24.09.2002, Israeli occupation forces last night
killed nine more Palestinians in the
latest bloody incursion into the Gaza Strip.
This brings to 14 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli troops
in
less than forty eight hours.
The Israeli troops, backed by tanks, armed personnel carriers and
apache
helicopter gunships raided three densely populated neighborhoods in
eastern
and northern Gaza shortly after midnight.
The forces, which also were accompanied by several bulldozers,
dynamited and
demolished several homes belonging to the families of Palestinian
guerillas
as well as 12 foundries the Israeli army alleged were being used for
manufacturing weapons.
25.09.2002, Israeli
occupation forces dynamited the family home of the former Mayor
of Dura as a reprisal for his son’s involvement in attacks on Israeli
troops.
Nammoura said an Israeli soldiers gave him only five minutes to leave
the
home.
Two of Nammoura’s sons are imprisoned in Israeli jails for taking parts
in
armed attacks on an Israeli military convoy last year.
28.09.2002, Thousands of Palestinians marched in
the streets of the West
Bank and Gaza Strip on the second anniversary of the Palestinian
intifada or
uprising against Israeli occupation and apartheid.
In the Gaza strip, Israeli troops mounting armored personnel carriers
opened
fire on stone-hurling school children, injuring six of them.
Earlier, Israeli soldiers opened fire on a peaceful march in Dir al
Balah,
just south of Gaza, killing a 17-year-old boy.
Reports from Gaza spoke of another Palestinian killed in Gaza City by
Israeli bullets.
In the West Bank, massive marches were organized in several towns, in
defiance of the Israeli-imposed curfew.
The marchers carried portraits of the beleaguered Palestinian leader
Yasser
Arafat.
30.09.2002, Israeli occupation soldiers shot and
killed a Palestinian school
child at the Balata refugee camp while returning home from school.
Palestinian sources said the crew of an armored personnel carrier
opened
fire on school children at the Balata refugee camp in an effort to
enforce a
curfew on the local inhabitants.
Earlier, Israeli tanks bombarded residential neighborhoods in several
parts
of the Gaza Strip, killing a mother of six children and injuring six
other
civilians.
A 43-year-old woman was hit in the head by a tank shell
shrapnel.
She was taken to an area clinic where she was pronounced brain dead.
October 2002
01.10.2002, As Palestinians marked the second
annual anniversary of the intifada with
calls for more non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation, the
Israeli
army continued its rampage of murder and terror against the Palestinian
civilian population.
This week, Israeli troops killed at least 12 Palestinians, including
four
school children, a mother of six, a middle-aged worker and three
teenagers
who were taking part in peaceful demonstrations.
03.10.2002, Premier Ariel Sharon has expressed
hopes of accommodating one
million Russian Jews over the few coming years in the occupied
Palestinian
lands. The Hebrew radio quoted Sharon at conclusion of his three-day
visit to
Russia as inviting the Jews in Russia to immigrate to the Hebrew state
as
soon as possible.
07.10.2002, At least ten Palestinian civilians
were killed and more than eighty others
injured before dawn Monday when an Israeli helicopter gunship fired
missiles
at civilian onlookers near a mosque in Khan Younis in the central part
of
the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian sources said dozens of Israeli tanks overran the Amal
neighborhood in Khan Younis shortly after midnight and began firing
artillery shells at civilian homes.
An elderly Palestinian woman was killed and other members of her family
injured.
10.10.2002, Two persons were killed and ten others
wounded in Tel Aviv Thursday when a
Palestinian bomber blew himself beside an Israeli bus carrying
soldiers to their base.
One of the two people killed is the bomber and the other is apparently
a
woman soldier.
Ten soldiers were reportedly injured in the attack.
13.10.2002, The Israeli occupation army kept up
its genocidal repression of Palestinian
civilians throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip, killing more
civilians
and destroying Palestinian fields, orchards and infrastructure.
In the latest killing, an Israeli army bulldozer crushed to death a
Palestinian toddler, a three-year-old child, after bulldozing his
family
home in Rafah at the southern edge of the Gaza Strip.
Eyewitnesses said an army bulldozer suddenly bulldozed a shack where a
family of six people were asleep without giving the dwellers a chance
to
escape.
A child was crushed to death while remaining family members sustained
disparate injuries.
15.10.2002, Israeli occupation police on Tuesday
arrested the Mufti of Jerusalem Ikrema
Sabri for a few hours for questioning in connection with a sermon at
the
Aqsa Mosque on Friday in which he lashed out at Israeli Nazism against
Palestinians.
According to his family, Sabri was also questioned in connection with a
newspaper interview in which he said that people facing a foreign
military
occupation have every right to resist their oppressors and tormentors.
16.10.2002, report issued by the Israeli human
rights group, B’tselem, has stopped
short of accusing the Israeli occupation army of deliberately targeting
Palestinian children for murder.
The report, issued Wednesday, pointed out that more than 80% of
Palestinian
civilians killed by Israeli occupation troops during so-called
curfew-enforcing activity were children.
“ Curfew is no longer a tool to meet specific security needs, but a
sweeping
means to collective punishment.”
The report, entitled “Lethal Curfew” underscored how the Israeli army
uses
curfew as a rubric to hunt down Palestinian civilians for murder.
“Shooting a person simply because he left his home during curfews
constitutes excessive use of force,” said the report, carefully
avoiding the
use of stronger words such as “criminal” and a “crime against
humanity.”
The report said curfews created “problems” for hundreds of thousands of
Palestinians, increasing malnutrition and disrupting schools, and are
so
extensive that they violate the right to freedom of movement included
in
international law.
17.10.2002, Israeli tanks fired on several
Palestinian houses Thursday during an
incursion. At least eight Palestinians were killed, including three
children. Palestinians said the army shot randomly into this crowded
neighbourhood in
this southern Gaza town near the Egyptian border. The Israeli
occupation
forces claim that they targeted the houses from which they fired on.
Two women, ages 72 and 32, and three children aged 12, 13 and nine were
among those killed when tank shells slammed into their houses. Amongst
those
killed also were a 27-year-old grocer and a 45-year-old man, doctors
said.
19.10.2002, Thousands of supporters of the Islamic
Resistance Movement, Hamas,
walked in the funeral procession of martyr Karam Mohammed Abu Obeid,
18, who
was one of the members of the Qassam Brigades, military wing of Hamas.
Abu Obeid martyred in a clash with occupation soldiers near the
Doget settlement in northern Gaza Strip early Friday while two soldiers
were
wounded.
22.10.2002, Despite draconian Israeli measures
against Palestinian population centers,
including the nearly complete reoccupation and closure of most
Palestinian
towns, two Palestinian bombers, succeeded on 21 October in
infiltrating into areas occupied in 1948.
Riding a jeep laden with some 100 kilograms of home-made explosives,
the
bomber rammed his car-bomb into the trunk of an Israeli bus, igniting a
series of blasts that turned the vehicle into an inferno.
Israeli hospital sources said at least fourteen people, including the
two
bombers, were killed in the bombing, and more than forty injured, six
seriously. According to initial reports, most of the dead and injured
were
soldiers on their way to Tel Aviv.
23.10.2002, At least thirteen Palestinians were
injured when Jewish unit detonated
via remote control a bomb planted inside a bus at the Balata refugee
camp
near Nablus late Wednesday night.
Palestinian sources said a group of undercover Israeli army operatives
arrived in a bus at the refugee camp, apparently to assassinate or
abduct
Palestinians suspected of involvement in the resistance against the
occupation.
The Palestinians, however, discovered the bus and open fire on it,
forcing
Jewish unit to abandon it.
A few hours later, as some local activists examined the vehicle, a
bomb,
which had been planted inside it, went off, injuring thirteen people.
27.10.2002, At least three Israeli soldiers were
killed and more than 30 others injured
Sunday when a Palestinian guerrilla with explosives strapped to his
waist
blew himself up at a gas station at a Jewish settlement in the West
Bank.
The Israeli occupation authorities said at least 10 of the injured were
listed in critical condition.
At least two Palestinian teenagers were killed and more 20 injured by
Israeli gunfire in Jenin and Rafah in the past 36 hours.
Moreover, several Palestinian homes were destroyed and scores of
Palestinian
youths were arrested on suspicion of involvement in national resistance
against Israeli military occupation.
30.10.2002, Palestinian guerilla and three Jewish
settlers were killed overnight in a
shootout at a Jewish settlement in the northern West Bank.
An Israeli occupation army spokesman said a Palestinian guerilla, with
explosives strapped to his body, infiltrated the Jewish settlement of
Hermish north of Nablus, killing three settlers and injuring three
others,
among them two soldiers.
The lone guerilla was subsequently killed by Israeli occupation
soldiers.
November
2002
03.11.2002, The Israeli occupation army on Sunday
dynamited at least two more
Palestinian homes near Jenin in the northern West Bank.
The two homes were located at the village of Borqin and belonged to the
families of two Palestinian guerilla fighters, one affiliated with
Hamas and
the other with the Islamic Jihad.
04.11.2002, At least two people were killed and
over 20 others injured Monday when a
bomb went off inside a shop at the Israeli Jewish town of Kfar Saba
north
east of Tel Aviv.
Police sources said a medium-size bomb exploded inside an electric
appliances shop shortly after sunset.
Hospital sources said as many 25 people were injured in the blast, some
seriously.
06.11.2002, At least two Palestinians, one of them
a guerilla, were killed in two
separate shooting incidents in the southern and central parts of the
Gaza
Strip Wednesday.
Two Jewish settlers were also killed at the Gush Katif settlement block
south of Gaza, according to the Israeli occupation army.
Palestinian sources said Israeli soldiers manning armored personnel
carriers
opened fire indiscriminately on civilians in Rafah, killing at least
one
person and injuring fifteen others.
An Israeli spokesman said a lone Palestinian guerilla attacked a Jewish
settlement south of Gaza towns, killing two settlers and injuring two
others.
The guerilla subsequently died in an exchange of fire with soldiers.
10.11.2002, At least five Jewish settlers were
killed and ten injured when
Palestinian guerillas attacked a Jewish settlement in the northern West
Bank.
An Israeli occupation army spokesman said the attack occurred around
midnight Sunday and targeted the Metzer Kibbutz near the Palestinian
town of
Tulkarm, 130 kilometers north of Jerusalem.
The army said at least one Palestinians fighter was involved in the
attack
which came hours after two Palestinian guerillas were killed in a car
explosion in the area.
The guerilla apparently fled the Kibbutz following the operation.
Following the attack on the Kibbutz, Israeli helicopter gunships
launched a
missile attack on a foundry in the Gaza Strip, destroying the metal
factory.
13.11.2002, The Israeli occupation army killed
another three-year-old
Palestinian toddler and seriously injured his mother during a
machinegun shooting at a Rafah neighborhood at the southern
edge of the Gaza Strip.
Eyewitnesses said Hamed Asa’ad al Masri was killed when Israeli
soldiers
manning an armored personnel carriers strafed the Block-J section of
the
Rafah refugee camp with heavy machinegun fire.
The child was instantly killed while his mother, Asma, 31, sustained
life-threatening wounds.
16.11.2002, The Israeli occupation army has been
attacking Palestinian civilians for the
past few hours in retaliation for the killing of nine Israeli soldiers
and
three paramilitary Jewish settlers by Palestinian guerillas in Hebron
last
night.
Israeli troops backed by helicopter gunships and tanks opened
machinegun
fire indiscriminately on Palestinian homes, causing an unspecified
number of
casualties and heavy material damage.
Palestinian sources reported Saturday that three guerillas were killed
when
the Israeli occupation army rocketed the house in which they barricaded
themselves.
It is believed that the three were the guerillas who carried out the
operation in which the Israeli army commander of the southern West Bank
Maj.
Gen. Dror Weinberg was killed.
21.11.2002, In what appears to be a retaliation
for the killing by the Israeli army of
10 Palestinian civilians in the past 48 hours, a Palestinian guerilla
on
Thursday detonated a bomb aboard an Israeli bus in the heart of West
Jerusalem, killing at least 10 Israeli settlers and injuring 30 others.
The blast took place in early morning hours at the Kiryat Menahem
neighborhood in West Jerusalem.
Palestinian sources identified the guerilla who carried out the attack
as
21-year-old Nael Abu Hilayel from the town of Dura, 10 kilometer south
west
of Hebron.
22.11.2002, A member of Qassam brigades surprised
a military foot patrol in
al-Barakah area in Deer
al-Balah middle of Gaza Strip. He fired his machine gun at the soldiers
and
hurled hand grenades towards them killing all three.
26.11.2002, Israeli tanks and armored personnel
carriers on Tuesday attacked the
Palestinian town of Dier al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip amid
intensive
machinegun shooting.
Palestinian sources said two or three Israeli helicopter gunships also
took
part in the rampageous operation which terrorized civilians and caused
widespread damage to sidewalks, turnabouts and pavements.
Before leaving the area, the Israeli army dynamited at least one home
belonging to the family of a suspected Palestinian freedom fighter.
27.11.2002, The Israeli occupation army launched
fresh attacks
on Palestinian population centers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
overnight.
Sources in Jenin, in the northern West Bank, said Israeli helicopter
gunships rocketed a building at the Jenin refugee camp shortly before
midnight Tuesday, killing two people.
The two were identified as Ala’a Sabbagh and Imad Nastari.
28.11.2002, At least Seven people were killed and
more than 15 others were injured
Thursday when Palestinian guerillas opened fire on Israeli
soldiers and settlers in the city of Bisan, 120 kilometers north West
of
Jerusalem.
The Israeli state-run radio said 10 were injured, most of them
seriously.
Police sources said at least two Palestinian guerillas wearing
explosive
belts opened fire at two locations in the northeastern town, causing
several
casualties.
29.11.2002, Abbas Rajee Al-Atrash (3 years) was
declared dead last night at al-Khaleel
hospital as a result of being hit by an explosive bullet at his home
during
Iftar time (evening meal when Muslim break their fasting).
The medical sources said that the child died in the hospital during an
operation to save him. The explosive bullet, used intensively by the
Israeli
occupation army against Palestinians, went through the left hand side
of his
abdomen and tore through his body.
December
2002
01.12.2002, Israeli occupation forces carried out
another incursion into the Gaza Strip
last night amid indiscriminate machinegun shooting, causing a number of
casualties and substantial damage to homes and other buildings.
Palestinian sources said as many as thirty Israeli tanks and armored
vehicles, backed by at least two helicopter gunships, attacked the
northern
Gaza town of Beit Lahya, 2 miles north of Gaza City shortly after the
evening prayer.
04.12.2002, The Israeli occcupation army murdered
three Palestinians in two
separate attacks in al-Khalil and the Gaza Strip.
In al Khalil (Hebron), the Israeli army murdered two Palestinians in a
valley west of the city.
The two were identified as Sami Shawar and Muhamed Shnewer, both from
from
the al-Khalil region.
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli helicopter gunships attacked a public
building in
the heart of Gaza, killing one person and injuring five others.
The victim was identified as Mustafa Sabbah whom the Israeli occupation
army
accuses of manufacturing and masterminding attacks on Israeli tanks.
10.12.2002, The Israeli occupation army last night
bulldozed three more Palestinian
homes in Rafah at the southern edge of the Gaza Strip.
11.12.2002, The Israeli occupation soldiers shot
and killed five Palestinians in
the Gaza Strip.
An Israeli army spokesman admitted the five were unarmed, but claimed
they
were cited near an Israeli fence between the Gaza Strip and Palestinian
territories occupied by Israel in 1948.
12.12.2002, In a retaliation for the recent
killing of scores of Palestinian
civilians by the Israeli occupation troops, two Jewish settlers
were killed in Hebron’s Old town.
An Israeli army spokesman said a settler and his wife were fatally
wounded
in the vicinity of the Ibrahimi Mosque when anonymous assailants opened
fire
on a group of Jewish settlers in the area.
The Israeli state-run radio said the assailants who carried out the
attack
fled the scene of the attack.
15.12.2002, In a continuation of the military
actions against Palestinian civilians and
their property, Israeli occupying
forces demolished 16 houses and destroyed 8 greenhouses in the Oraiba
area
in Rafah.
Two military bulldozers, four tanks, an armored personnel
carrier and 15 military jeeps of the Israeli occupying forces thrust
approximately 150m into Oraiba area in the northwest of Rafah. They
demolished 16 houses and destroyed 8 greenhouses, a Dairy farm and a
smithy's workshop.
26.12.2002, The Israeli occupation army murdered
at least seven
Palestinians, including two school children, bring the number of
Palestinian
victims since the beginning of December to 43, most of them
innocent civilians.
The victims reportedly include a young man in Tulkarm, a 14-year-old
school
boy in Nablus, two other young men also in Nablus, a young man and a
school
boy in Ramallah and a guerilla in Jenin.
In addition to the seven victims, more than 28 school boys
in Nablus were injured when Israeli occupation soldiers opened fire
on school children who were returning home from school.
30.12.2002, The Israeli army dynamited two more
homes in
the town of Dura, 13 kilometers from al-Khalil (Hebron).
The two homes belong to the families of two Palestinian guerillas,
killed
last week during a gun-battle with Israeli troops at the settlement of
Otanel, a few kilometers south of Dura.
Four Israeli soldiers were killed in the battle and six others were
injured.
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