H i s t o r y
o f P a l e s t i n e - 2003
2003 -
One more Intifada Year
January 2003
02.01.2003, Israeli occupation soldiers murdered three teenagers in
Gaza overnight. An Israeli army spokesman said Israeli troops
murdered the three kids, aged 13, 14 and 15 respectively, after
citing them walking near the Jewish colony of Eli Seinai in southern
Gaza.
06.01.2003, Israeli helicopter gunships have fired missiles at a
metal shop in the Gaza Strip during the night, wounding eight
Palestinians. The strike came just hours after two Palestinian
attacks killed at least 23 people and wounded 100 others in central
Tel Aviv, Sunday. The strike in Gaza came during an emergency
meeting of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharons security cabinet,
where officials agreed to keep the pressure on Palestinians to stop
their attacks. Israeli armored vehicles entered Rafah, in southern
Gaza, where they destroyed a house belonging to an alleged Islamic
Jihad activist.
March 2003
March 06, 2003, JABALYA, Gaza Strip - Israeli forces killed at least
11 Palestinians, including some torn apart by a tank shell, in a
major raid in the Gaza Strip after a bomber killed 15 people in
Israel.
May 2003
May 07, 2003, NABLUS, West Bank - A militant from the Islamic group
Hamas was killed in an explosion near the West Bank city of Nablus
which fellow Palestinian militants blamed on Israel.
May 20, 2003, BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip - Israel relaxed its military
grip on Tuesday in an area of the Gaza Strip where the first steps
could be taken in a U.S.-backed peace plan.
May 21, 2003, BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip - Israeli tanks forced the
Palestinian prime minister to scrap a tour in the Gaza Strip on
Wednesday amid reports that President Bush may visit the Middle East
to try to rescue a peace plan.
May 23, 2003, GAZA - A roadside bomb exploded next to an Israeli bus
near a Jewish settlement in the central Gaza Strip on Friday,
lightly wounding four passengers.
May 26, 2003, JERUSALEM - Israel said on Monday President Bush was
likely to hold a summit with the Israeli and Palestinian prime
ministers in Jordan next week to promote a U.S.-backed "road map"
for Middle East peace
May 27, 2003, JERUSALEM - Israel and the Palestinians on Tuesday
delayed a meeting of their prime ministers on the U.S.-backed "road
map" to peace that had been planned for Wednesday.
May 29, 2003, JERUSALEM - The Palestinian prime minister said
Thursday he expected Hamas militants to agree to halt attacks on
Israelis by next week, smoothing the way for a three-way summit led
by President Bush.
June 2003
June 05, 2003, JERUSALEM - The
afterglow of a U.S.-led Middle East summit faded on Thursday, with
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat saying Israel had offered
nothing "tangible" and hard-liners on both sides vowing to oppose a
road map to peace.
June 06, 2003, GAZA - The militant Islamic group Hamas said on
Friday it was breaking off talks with Palestinian Prime Minister
Mahmoud Abbas on ending its attacks on Israelis in a strong
challenge to peace pledges he made at a U.S.-led summit.
June 09, 2003, GAZA - The militant Islamic group Hamas reiterated
its opposition to cease-fire talks with Palestinian Prime Minister
Mahmoud Abbas Monday, dealing a new blow to his hopes of persuading
it to halt attacks against Israelis.
June 12, 2003, GAZA - The Palestinian militant group Hamas vowed on
Thursday to carry out further attacks inside Israel following a bus
bombing in Jerusalem and warned all foreigners to leave the Jewish
state for their own safety.
June 13, 2003, JERUSALEM - Israel pledged on Friday a "war to the
bitter end" against Hamas but an opinion poll showed a majority of
Israelis oppose the stepped-up attacks on leaders of the militant
Islamic group
June 16, 2003, GAZA - Palestinian militant groups weighed Monday a
cease-fire with Israel in an Egyptian mediation bid to salvage a
U.S.-backed peace plan
June 23, 2003, JERUSALEM - An Israeli general leading security talks
with the Palestinians said on Monday any temporary truce with
Islamic militants would backfire against efforts to bolster a
U.S.-backed "road map" to peace
June 25, 2003, GAZA - Israeli troops killed two Hamas militants in
the Gaza Strip on Wednesday as a U.S. envoy held talks nearby with
the Palestinian prime minister in an effort to prop up a peace plan
battered by violence.
June 26, 2003, GAZA - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said on
Thursday an agreement by militant groups to suspend attacks on
Israelis was imminent, but militants denied a truce was at hand.
June 27, 2003, GAZA - Israel killed three Palestinian militants and
a civilian bystander Friday in another swoop on the radical Hamas
movement, again battering efforts to save a troubled Middle East
peace plan.
June 30, 2003, BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip - Israel returned the Gaza
Strip's main highway to Palestinian control Monday ending a 30-month
blockade and advancing a fragile U.S.-backed peace plan.
July 2003
July 01, 2003, JERUSALEM - A Palestinian gunman attacked an Israeli
army checkpoint and was shot dead on Tuesday, jarring a breakthrough
cease-fire ahead of an Israeli-Palestinian summit to bolster a shaky
new Middle East peace plan.
July 02, 2003, BETHLEHEM, West Bank - Israeli patrols pulled out of
the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Wednesday, clearing the way for
Palestinians to resume security control in a deal both sides hope
will advance a U.S.-backed "road map" to peace.
July 04, 2003, GAZA - Palestinian militants urged Israel on Friday
to release all Palestinian prisoners or risk the collapse of a
cease-fire that is vital to the success of a U.S.-backed peace plan.
July 16, 2003, JERUSALEM - Israeli commandos Wednesday freed
unharmed an Israeli taxi driver held for five days by Palestinians
in a kidnapping that jolted the relative calm ushered in by a
cease-fire crucial to a new peace plan.
July 29, 2003, JERUSALEM - Israel's army chief said on Tuesday he
feared a truce announced by Palestinian militants would not last
much longer and the Palestinians urged the United States to increase
pressure on Israel to implement a peace plan.
August 2003
August 06, 2003, JERUSALEM - Israel set in motion the release of
more than 300 Palestinian prisoners on Wednesday in what it called a
goodwill gesture, but Palestinian officials dismissed it as a sham.
August 14, 2003, HEBRON, West Bank - Israeli troops killed a
Palestinian militant commander on Thursday, triggering vows of
revenge in increasing signs that a six-week-old truce critical to a
new peace plan could collapse.
August 20, 2003, RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian Prime Minister
Mahmoud Abbas ordered security services on Wednesday to arrest
militants behind a Jerusalem bombing that killed 18 people and
shattered a truce key to a U.S.-backed peace plan.
August 21, 2003, GAZA - A senior Hamas official declared a
cease-fire dead on Thursday shortly after Israeli helicopter
missiles killed Ismail Abu Shanab, a leader of the militant Islamic
group.
August 22, 2003, GAZA - Tens of thousands of Palestinians poured
into the streets of Gaza City on Friday to march in a fiery funeral
procession for Ismail Abu Shanab, a leader of the militant Hamas
group killed by Israel.
September 2003
September 05, 2003, NABLUS, West Bank - Israeli commandos killed a
West Bank commander of the militant group Hamas in a raid on Friday
that could deal a blow to reformist Palestinian Prime Minister
Mahmoud Abbas's battle for political survival.
September 08, 2003, JERUSALEM - Ahmed Korei, Yasser Arafat's nominee
for Palestinian prime minister, said on Monday he would accept the
post only with U.S. and European guarantees of support and Israel's
commitment to ease its military crackdown.
September 10, 2003, GAZA - An Israeli warplane killed at least two
Palestinians but narrowly failed in an attempt to assassinate a
Hamas leader in Gaza Wednesday, a day after two bombers killed 15
people in Israel.
September 12, 2003, JERUSALEM - Israel faced an international outcry
Friday over its decision to "remove" Palestinian President Yasser
Arafat, a threat that drew tens of thousands of supporters into the
streets to rally to his defense.
October 2003
4 October 2003, JERUSALEM - At least 19 people were killed and
around 30 wounded on Saturday in a suicide bombing at a popular
sea-front restaurant in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.
5 October 2003, Israel took its battle against Palestinians to Syria
on Sunday, bombing near the capital Damascus for the first time in
decades, after a bomber killed 19 people in an Israeli restaurant.
There was no immediate Syrian reaction, but a diplomat in Damascus
said that the Arab country planned to ask the U.N. Security Council
to meet to discuss the raid. The Israel Defense Forces claimed that
they hit a training base used by Palestinian groups.
10 October 2003, GAZA CITY - An eight-year-old Palestinian boy was
killed by Israeli troops in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday,
raising to six the number of Palestinians killed in a massive army
incursion.
Ibrahim al-Qirinawi was shot and mortally wounded in the head as
dozens of Israeli armoured vehicles, backed by helicopters, thrust
deep into the town of Rafah. Five other Palestinians were killed in
the raid, including a 12-year-old child and a teenager.
11 Octobar 2003, The Israeli occupation aggression on Rafah refugee
camp has started on midnight Thursday but has continued all Friday
and Saturday day and night without signs of stopping. Israeli forces
have surrounded the refugee camp by soldiers and tanks, assisted by
Apache helicopters. They have destroyed Palestinian homes all the
way near the border with Egypt. They have been firing at any
Palestinians walking in the streets. They have been destroying water
tanks over homes, water pipes in the streets, uprooting trees, and
keeping the population literally indoors for three days.
At least two children were among 7 Palestinians killed and eight
children were among more than 51 wounded when around midnight
Thursday Israeli Occupation Forces launched a massive military
invasion of the Yubna refugee camp, home to thousands of
Palestinians who were forced out of their homes in Israel in 1948,
adjacent to the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah.
13 October 2003, RAMALLAH, West Bank - Yasser Arafat on Monday
appointed a senior member of the ruling Fatah party as acting
security chief, in a new blow to Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed
Qorei.
Arafat named Hakam Balawi, a member of the Fatah Central Committee,
as interior minister in the interim Cabinet whose term will expire
in another three weeks. In that position, Balawi would command the
Palestinian security forces. The security chief would play an
important role in implementing the US-backed “road map” peace plan
which calls on Palestinians to disarm militant groups.
19 October 2003, Israeli forces shot dead four Palestinians
yesterday in the Palestinian territories, including a senior member
of the Hamas resistance group, a woman bystander and a teenager. The
deaths stoked tension already fuelled by the killing of three
American security guards in a bomb attack on a US diplomatic convoy
in Gaza on Wednesday and highlighted the persistent violence bogging
down US-led peace efforts.
In the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses said troops shot dead Tareq
Abu Al-Hussain, 39, a local leader of Hamas’ military wing, in a
clash which began at Brazil refugee camp when militants attacked
soldiers who entered the camp three days ago. Another Hamas activist
was killed in the Gaza shootings in the southern Rafah district, and
a woman, 30, was killed by shrapnel from a tank shell after emerging
from her house.
21 October 2003, Twelve Palestinians were killed and more than 100,
the majority of them women, children and other bystanders were
injured when Israeli military jets and gunships carried out five
consecutive air raids on Gaza City and a densely-populated refugee
camp Monday.
The onslaught began early in the morning when an Israeli F-16
fighter jet launched a missile on a house in Gaza City 200 meters
away from the home of Abdullah Al-Shami, a senior Islamic Jihad
leader, in a renewed assassination attempt. Al-Shami survived while
14 Palestinians, including two children, were injured.
From then on four other air strikes were carried out, the deadliest
of which was at around 9:15 pm — a missile strike by an Apache
gunship on a civilian car at the entrance to al-Nusseirat refugee
camp, south of Gaza city. That attack, which killed two of three men
who were in the car, was followed by another missile that hit a
crowd of people who had gathered to rescue the wounded. This left at
least nine dead as well as over 50 injured, fifteen medical sources
described as in critical condition.
22 october 2003, In a decision seen as a sharp blow to Israel, the
UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution demanding
the Jewish State to “stop and reverse” the construction of the
unilateral separation wall it is building on Palestinian land.
The resolution, which demands that Israel halt construction of the
wall and remove existing stretches, was passed when 144 of 191
nations voted in favor, four against, including the US and Israel,
and twelve abstentions. The resolution, which is not legally binding,
won the support of the European Union, which is part of the
“Quartet” of mediators for reaching a Middle East peace and is a
sponsor of the “roadmap” peace plan.
The wall, which has been condemned by the international community
and human rights groups, has already encroached upon thousands of
acres of the West Bank’s most fertile land. Upon completion,
Palestinians say the wall will engulf 58% of the West Bank.
24 October 2003, Palestinian Gunmen killed three Israeli soldiers,
two of them women, at a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip on
Friday in a joint shooting and grenade attack by the two main
Palestinian Islamic resistance groups.
In another part of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian witnesses said
Israeli troops shot dead an 11-year-old Palestinian boy near a
Jewish settlement on Friday afternoon.
30 October 2003, Israeli Occupation Forces on Wednesday shot dead
two boys aged 12 and 16 in the West Bank and an armed Palestinian
man in the Gaza Strip as another teenager died of wounds sustained
earlier, only a day after they assassinated a Palestinian activist
in Tulkarem.
November 2003
03 November 2003, President Yasser Arafat on Sunday said he is ready
for peace talks with the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon and
outlined the platform of the new Palestinian government of Prime
Minister-designate Ahmad Qurei (Abu Ala), as the Palestinian
Legislative Council (PLC) was set on Monday to elect its new Speaker
to succeed Qurei.
Sharon last week said contacts were already underway with
Palestinian officials, adding: "We are ready to enter negotiations
at any time." Qurei and other officials of the Palestine National
Authority (PNA) confirmed but downplayed the contacts, saying they
don’t constitute serious negotiations.
08 November 2003, A ten-year-old child Mohammad al-Qayed was among
six Palestinians killed and at least three children were among more
than ten others injured by Israeli Occupation Forces on the second
Friday of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan in the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip.
11 November 2003, In violation of Fourth Geneva Convention and
international law, the Israeli Occupation Forces on Monday deported
Kamal Idris from Hebron in the southern West Bank to the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Israeli Occupation Forces violence against Palestinian
civilians continued as soldiers killed a 62-year-old elderly and a
12-year-old boy, seriously wounded a teenager and a worker,
demolished twenty houses and carried out more detentions, including
the Palestinian Islamic chief justice.
13 November 2003, RAMALLAH — President Yasser Arafat swore in a
long-awaited Palestinian Cabinet on Wednesday in a step toward a
resumption of US-backed peace talks with Israel and Prime Minister
Ahmed Qureia vowed to seek a ceasefire.
Deputies voted 48-13 to confirm Qureia's 24-member Cabinet after two
months of paralysing power struggles which, along with intractable
violence, stalled the "roadmap" peace plan for a Palestinian state
in Israeli-occupied territory by 2005.
18 November 2003, West Bank - A Palestinian gunman killed two
Israelis at a West Bank roadblock on Tuesday and fighting erupted in
the Gaza Strip after an army raid, setting back fresh efforts to
revive a U.S.-backed peace plan.
23 November 2003, Israeli Occupation Forces on Saturday shot dead
two Palestinians, including an 11-year-old boy, in the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip as two Israeli security guards were killed near
Jerusalem by the Apartheid Wall Israel is building on occupied
Palestinian land.
Eleven-year-old Palestinian boy Ibrahim Jalamna was shot dead on
Saturday during an Israeli Occupation Forces military incursion into
the northern West Bank city of Jenin. During the incursion, carried
out by ten Israeli armored vehicles and a bulldozer, Israeli troops
opened gunfire on stone-throwers, killing Ibrahim Jalamna,
Palestinian medical sources and witnesses said.
27 November 2003, GAZA CITY - The bodies of two Palestinians shot
dead and one Palestinian seriously wounded by Israeli troops in the
central Gaza Strip late Wednesday were handed over to Palestinian
officials. Israeli military sources said a group of four
Palestinians, two of them armed, penetrated a restricted zone near a
road used by settlers and soldiers.
29 November 2003, Israeli Occupation Forces during the Islamic of
Eid al-Fitre shot dead six Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip, including two 9 and 15-year-old boys, and admitted they had
killed the other unarmed four by mistake.
December 2003
01 December 2003, As Palestinian and Israeli peace negotiators were
set to sign in Geneva an unofficial peace plan and one day ahead of
a meeting in Cairo among Palestinian factions for cease-fire talks,
the Israeli Occupation Forces early Monday launched a large-scale
invasion into the West Bank cities of Ramallah and al-Beirah,
killing three Palestinians, detaining dozens others and blowing up
at least one building, a day after they had extra-judicially
assassinated an activist in the Gaza Strip.
07 December 2003, Israeli Occupation Forces shot dead three
Palestinian youths within 24 hours in two separate incidents in the
Gaza Strip, and deported more Palestinian administrative detainees
to the Strip from the West Bank in a policy denounced by the PNA as
a "rejected and dangerous policy.”
Israeli Occupation Forces overnight Saturday shot dead 15-year old
Jihad Mousa al-Akhras at the southern Gaza Strip Rafah border
crossing point with Egypt, while he was waiting to receive relatives
coming back home from Egypt.
11 December 2003, GAZA CITY - Five Palestinians were killed on
Thursday in a major Israeli aggression operation in southern Gaza,
as Palestinian premier Ahmed Qorei warned Israel of a flare-up if
the construction of a controversial barrier was not halted.
Israeli troops backed by helicopter gunships thrust into the refugee
camps of the town of Rafah in an aggression operation launched
before dawn to capture leaders from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad
resistance groups.
18 December 2003, Israeli Occupation Forces shot dead seven
Palestinians in 48 hours in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip,
including a 13-year-old boy and a teenager, while an elderly died
after the occupation troops denied him access to a hospital through
a military roadblock.
At least fifty Israeli Occupation Forces military vehicles,
including tanks and backed by helicopter gunships, invaded Nablus
from the west early Wednesday, and imposed curfew on the northern
West Bank city, opening sporadic gunfire and conducting
house-to-house searches.
23 December 2003, At least seven Palestinians were killed early
Tuesday, and some thirty others were wounded, in an Israeli military
raid on the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, a few days after
troops killed four Palestinians, including an elderly man and two
children, in the West Bank refugee camp of Balata.
29 December 2003, Israeli Occupation Forces late Sunday shelled dead
three Palestinians next to the Gaza Strip illegal Jewish settlement
of Netzarim, as the Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei said he
will ask Saudi Arabia to play a role with the international
community to pressure the Israelis to implement the “roadmap” peace
plan.
Earlier Sunday a statement by the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military
wing, said that four Qassam-1 missiles were fired also at the Dogit
settlement to the north of the Gaza Strip and two others at the
Nahal Uz settlement to the east of Gaza city.
31 December 2003, GAZA CITY — An Israeli helicopter fired two
missiles at a car carrying members of the Hamas resistance group
late Tuesday, wounding at least 11 people.
Witnesses said the Fiat car was travelling towards the Sheikh Radwan
neighbourhood, a Hamas stronghold, when Apache helicopters opened
fire. "I saw a flame hit a small car and people trying to escape
from the car," said Raouf Musalam, a pharmacy owner who witnessed
the attack. "Apaches were overhead for about two minutes while
people rushed to help the wounded people." A crowd of hundreds of
angry Palestinians gathered around the heavily damaged vehicle.
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