Timeline
The Year2002
| Jan | Feb | March
| April | May | June | July | August
| Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
2002- The daily Intifada
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 entire3 .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 a30 -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- 16warplanes 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 F 16jets 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- 2rockets 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, a21 -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 1967war, 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- 16raid 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 about2 , 000troops 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 murdered10
.04. 2002by the Israeli occupation army in Dura, Martyr Refat al-Jeba (
21years) 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 of42
-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 nearly100 ,
000under curfew. In Ramallah, which Israeli forces invaded Monday, the
Israeli army enforced for the second consecutive day a strict curfew on
the town's estimated120 , 000inhabitants. 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 in1967 , 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 nearly70 -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 a70 -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 a3 -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 24hours 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 14the 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 a17 -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. A43 -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 than80 % 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 and32 , and three
children aged12 , 13 and nine were among those killed when tank shells
slammed into their houses. Amongst those killed also were a27 -year-old
grocer and a45 -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 in1948 . 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 ( 3years) 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
in1948 .
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
approximately150 m 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 to43 , most of them
innocent civilians. The victims reportedly include a young man in
Tulkarm, a14 -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.
For the details of
2002 events , Click here to visit the 2002 Calendar
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