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The following chronology assembles details of the most relevant events that have taken place in Israel and Palestine in the period covered by this edition of the yearbook: between July 2002 and June 2003. During these twelve months, the second Palestinian intifada has continued, as has Israel’s violent response. In Israel, Ariel Sharon was re-elected. Some progress is made in the peace process, in projects such as the Road Map and the appointment of Abu Mazen as Palestinian prime minister. However, peace is constantly threatened by the unceasing spiral of violence and the inability for the two parts to come to any stable agreement.


July 2002

Israel

• On 7th July, the government offers its support to a private initiative that aims to prohibit Arabs from building houses in the areas allocated to Jewish communities. Report on human rights and diplomatic relations

• On 11th July, the international human rights organisation Amnesty International publishes, for the first time, a report dedicated exclusively to Palestinian violence. In the report, suicide bombings and other attacks against Israeli civilians are deemed crimes against humanity. They would therefore be included under the jurisdiction of the new UN International Criminal Court.

• The 23rd July Israeli action mentioned below sparks harsh criticism from United States president, George W. Bush, from the general secretary of the UN, Kofi Annan, and from the president of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Yasser Arafat. The action undermines the diplomatic advances that have been produced in the meetings held between the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shimon Peres, and various Palestinian ministers. These meetings have sought to alleviate conditions in the occupied territories and even to call for the Israeli army to withdraw from some of the occupied areas of the West Bank, as well as to increase humanitarian access to the besieged Palestinian areas and transfer funds collected by PNA taxes. Furthermore, during the month of July, different Palestinian factions had been drawn closer together, and efforts were being made to reform the security structure of the PNA.

Violence between the two sides

• Israeli forces continue their severe military siege of Palestinian settlements and refugee camps, cutting off access routes that link them together and with the outside, and therefore weakening their economic activity. The Israeli military mobilises the army reserves.

• On 14th July, five people are wounded when an Israeli F-16 fighter attacks the home of Hamas leader in the south of Gaza, Youssef Abed al- Wahab, who escapes seconds before the Israeli missiles strike his house.

• On 16th July, three members of Hamas attack a bus on the outskirts of the Israeli settlement Emmanuel, near Nablus. Eight Israeli civilians, an Israeli military officer and one of the attackers are killed. The Emmanuel attack is followed by a double suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on 17th July, which kills three people. Responsibility is claimed by a group related to Fatah.

• The Israeli military responds to the attacks in Emmanuel and Tel Aviv by destroying the homes of Hamas and Fatah leaders in Nablus, arresting some of their relatives and threatening massive deportations to Gaza. On 18th July, the Israeli government freezes the operations that were aimed at relaxing the curfew and other restrictions imposed in the West Bank.

• On 23rd July, an Israeli F-16 bombs a densely populated area of the city of Gaza, killing twelve people (including the leader of the military wing of Hamas, Salah Shihada), and injuring 140 people, sixteen critically. Without delay, Palestinian demonstrators take to the streets of the cities of Gaza, Rafah and Khan Yunis, and the leader of the political wing of Hamas, Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, vows immediate revenge.

• On 25th July, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades assassinate a Jewish rabbi, Elimelech Safira, near the Alei Zahav settlement, in the West Bank.

• On 26th July, the Israeli army returns to the Gaza Strip to destroy buildings that according to reports are workshops dedicated to the manufacture of missiles. On the same day, a group of armed Palestinians assault two Israeli vehicles near the Carmel settlement, southeast of Hebron, and kill four people.

• On 28th July, a Palestinian girl is killed and nine people are wounded in an attack by Jewish settlers on Arab homes in Hebron.

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