H i s t o r y
o f P a l e s t i n e - 2002
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 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.
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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.
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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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