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.