3 Palestinians killed.
Israeli-Palestinian clashes abate somewhat.
Inside Israel, Israeli Jews stab to death 2 Israeli Arabs nr.
Tel Aviv, set fire to 3 Arab apartment buildings in Jaffa, and set
fire to 3 Palestinian homes and a Jewish-owed restaurant that employed
Palestinians in Tel Aviv. Clashes btwn. Israeli Jews and Arabs are also reported
in Haifa, Tiberias, and Acre, where Israeli police
intervene, firing tear gas and live ammunition, wounding 1 Israeli Arab.
(Israeli police say they have arrested some 400 Israeli Arabs, 200
Israeli Jews since clashes began.) Jews fr. West Jerusalem damage
Palestinian property in East Jerusalem. In Gaza, the IDF
demolishes another apartment building in Netzarim Junction, which was evacuated
earlier because it had been hit by IDF shells. Jewish settlers reportedly
attack Palestinians in Hebron, Khan Yunis, Rafah and outside Jinin, Nablus,
Ramallah; some incidents involve settlers firing automatic weapons. In Rafah, a
12-yr.-old Palestinian is shot dead by the IDF. Nr. Ramallah, IDF soldiers wound
a Palestinian ambulance driver with live ammunition. (ADM, BBC, MM 10/10;
ADM, MM, NYT, WP 10/11; AFP 10/10, MA 10/11, Le Monde 10/12 in WNC 10/12;
MM, WJW, WP 10/12; MEI 10/13; WP 11/30)
Citing "compelling national security interests," the State
Dept. restores Amb. to Israel Indyk's security clearance. (NYT, WT
10/11; WJW 10/12) (see 10/4)
International mediation efforts continue, with UN Secy.-Gen.
Annan, Russian FM Ivanov, EU foreign policy dir. Javier Solana
each meeting separately with Arafat, Barak. Egypt's Musa
flies to Damascus to confer with Syrian pres. Asad, who phones Arafat
to express Syrian support. Mubarak also phones Arafat and rejects
Clinton's proposal (10/8) for a summit in Egypt, saying Israel must 1st
agree to pull its troops back fr. PA areas, stop threatening Lebanon and Syria
(see 10/8), bar official Israeli visits to the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount,
agree to an international inquiry. (ATL, Interfax, ITAR-TASS, MENA, XIN 10/10 in
WNC 10/12; CSM, MM, NYT, WP 10/11; Milliyet 10/11, al-Quds 10/12
in WNC 10/13; CSM, WJW 10/12)
Protests in solidarity with the Palestinians are held in
Brussels, Cairo, Madrid. In the U.S., rallies are held
in Ann Arbor, New Haven. (RL 10/10 in WNC 10/12; WT 10/11)
In Gaza, the IDF confiscates, evacuates, bulldozes an area of land
where 9 Palestinian families live in tents. (NYT 10/11; AYM 10/11 in WNC 10/15; LAW 10/13)
Fearing the case could set precedent on the Palestinian right of return, the
Israeli inner cabinet decides against upholding a 1951 Israeli High
Court ruling to allow the return of Arab families to 2 Palestinian
villages, Iqrit and Bir'am, fr. which they were "temporarily evacuated" by
the Israeli government in 11/48. The families are all currently Israeli
citizens. Today, the village lands, located in n. Israel, are owned and worked
by Jewish farmers. (AP 10/10; BDL 10/11; HA 10/15)
In Doha, the OIC holds an emergency session on the 9/11 attacks, the
U.S. strikes on Afghanistan, the Palestinian issue.
Participants condemn the 9/11 incidents; demand that the U.S. provide
"irrefutable evidence against the perpetrators" and differentiate btwn.
"terrorism" and legitimate "resistance to occupation"; condemn Israel's
actions against the Palestinians as "state terrorism." (IRNA, JT, VIRI 10/10 in
WNC 10/11; SAF 10/10 in WNC 10/15; MM, NYT, WP 10/11; ATL 10/11 in WNC 10/12;
MEI 10/12)
The PSF releases 50
Palestinians arrested during the 10/8 Gaza clashes. PC, NIHC
reps. meet again to discuss the 10/8 clashes, ways of preventing similar
incidents in the future. The PC agrees to appoint an inquiry comm. to
investigate PSF actions.
4 Palestinians killed. 1 Israeli killed.
The IDF sends tanks into Rafah, fatally shoots 2
Palestinians, demolishes 9 Palestinian homes; conducts arrest raids
in 20 villages around Ramallah, detaining 55 Palestinians; places a curfew on
Hebron after Palestinian gunmen in the area fire on nearby Tal Rumayda
settlement, causing no injuries; bulldozes 100 acres of olive groves, 5 wells
nr. Jabaliya. 2 Palestinians die of injuries sustained earlier (1 in the
IDF shelling of Khan Yunis on 10/7, bringing the toll of that incident to
17). The IDF evacuates 1 inhabited, 1 uninhabited settler outpost,
says it plans to dismantle 24 such outposts (only 3 of them thought to be
occupied) within the next 6 wks. Jewish settlers dismantle 6 unoccupied
outposts themselves. (HA, MM 10/10; HA, MM, NYT, PM, WP, WT 10/11; Interfax 10/11,
QA 10/12 in WNC 10/15; LAW, PCHR 10/16; MEI 10/25; JPI 1 1/8)
A Hamas suicide bomber, prevented fr. getting on a bus nr. Israel’s
Bar Ilan Junction, detonates his device nearby, killing 1 Israeli,
injuring 16. The PA calls on Hamas to turn over mbrs.
involved in the 10/7 Abu Lahiya murder; 20,000 attend Abu Lahiya's
funeral in Gaza.
7 Palestinians killed. 1 Israeli killed.
The IDF launches a predawn raid (dubbed Operation Root Canal)
on Rafah, sending in up to 100 tanks and armored personnel carriers, 2
helicopters, and special forces units, allegedly to look for smugglers’ tunnels
to Egypt, seizing a strip of land some 150 m. deep, occupying 8 apartment
buildings (some for use as sniper towers, knocking holes in the walls to
position guns). AMB, Hamas gunmen fire on the invading troops, detonate
roadside bombs, sparking an exchange that leaves 7 Palestinians dead (4
armed men, including 1 AMB mbr. and 1 Hamas mbr.; 3 children), 1 IDF soldier and
some 56 Palestinians (including 19 women, 6 children, 6 elderly, 1 medic)
wounded, most when a helicopter fires missiles at a crowd in Brazil r.c., others
when soldiers fire machine guns to “drive families away from” their homes.
Rafah’s Najjar Hospital reports that it is “overwhelmed” with casualties,
but cannot transport them to other facilities due to IDF travel restrictions;
says the IDF is delaying ambulances fr. reaching the wounded for hrs. The
IDF demolishes at least 4 Palestinian homes in the operation
(allegedly used for cover by Palestinian gunmen), uncovers 2 tunnels. The IDF
also fires on residential areas of Jenin, on stone-throwing Palestinians in Bayt
Furik; destroys a well in Bayt Hanun. (AP, BBC, HA, MM, NYT, REU, WP, WT 10/10;
NYT, WP, WT 10/11; PR, WP 10/15; PCHR 10/16; MEI 10/24)
5 Palestinians killed.
In n. Gaza, the IDF conducts an air strike on a warehouse in Jabaliya
r.c., destroying it and 3 adjacent Palestinian homes, killing a
Palestinian bystander; shells a group of Palestinians in Jabaliya, killing
2 Palestinians, wounding 1; fires missiles into Bayt Hanun (killing 1
Palestinian), Bayt Lahiya (injuring 3). A Palestinian dies of
injuries he received in Jabaliya on 10/1. Elsewhere in Gaza, the IDF
raids Dayr al-Balah, fatally shooting 1 armed Palestinian, wounding 7
bystanders, bulldozing 40 d.; shells, directs heavy machine gun fire residential
areas of Khan Yunis, wounding a student in his classroom, causing significant
damage to (but no serious injuries in) the al-Nasser Hospital maternity ward, a
home, a mosque. In the West Bank, the IDF arrests 3 armed Jewish
settlers fr. Tapuach for setting fire to a Palestinian olive grove, firing
guns in the air, attacking Palestinians who arrive to put out the blaze, lightly
injuring several Palestinians. A Jewish settler attacks an Orthodox
Armenian religious procession in Jerusalem’s Old City, spitting in the face
of Deputy Arch Bishop Nurhan, tearing off his cap and cross (breaking the
17th century relic), making religious insults. (VOI, VOP 10/10 in WNC 10/12; AFP
10/10, VOP 10/11 in WNC 10/13; HA, MEZ 10/11; HA 10/12; PR 10/13; PCHR, WT
10/14; NYT 10/19)
The IDF reopens the Sufa commercial crossing into Gaza; imposes a
curfew on Hawara nr. Nablus, forces stores to close, and surrounds 2 mosques,
barring worshipers fr. praying; conducts arrest raids, house searches in and
around Jenin and in Askar r.c., Hebron, Tulkarm town and r.c.; occupies the top
floor of a Palestinian home in Hebron as an observation post. Jewish settlers
fr. Neve Daniel fence off 18 d. of Palestinian land in al-Khadir for
construction of an unauthorized settlement outpost. (IMEMC 10/10; PCHR 10/13)
1 Palestinian killed.
In Gaza, the IDF closes Erez crossing for unspecified security reasons (the
crossing has been open only to select VIPs and medical cases since 3/12); sends
additional troops into the Shurrab Farms area nr. Bayt Hanun, firing on
residential areas of Bayt Hanun, wounding 1. In the West Bank, the IDF sends
troops into ‘Ayn Bayt al-Ma’ r.c. nr. Nablus, firing on residential areas,
killing an off-duty PA policeman in his home; conducts arrest raids, house
searches in and around Hebron (searching several mosques and hospitals looking
for arms caches, finding none; surrounding several mosques, interrogating
worshippers as they leave dawn prayers) in Balata r.c., Ramallah (targeting the
AMB), and nr. Bethlehem, Jenin. Jewish settlers fr. Eli nr. Nablus, burn 7 d. of
nearby Palestinian olive groves. Jewish settlers fr. Rotem nr. Nablus prevent
Palestinian farmers from accessing their fields. (OCHA 10/11; PCHR 10/12)
2 Palestinians killed.
Israel gives
residency status to 3,500 Palestinians living “illegally” in the West
Bank, marking the 1st application approvals in 10 yrs., but refuses to act on
similar cases of 1,500 Palestinians in Gaza. The Israeli navy fires on
Palestinian fishing boats off the Rafah coast, forcing them to return to shore.
In the West Bank, the IDF sends undercover units dressed as PA security officers
into the Old City of Nablus, where they fatally shoot 2 Palestinians in what
may be an assassination (names and affiliations of the dead men are not
reported); conducts arrest raids, house searches in and around Nablus, in al-Arub r.c. , nr. Bethlehem, Hebron. Armed Jewish settlers close a road linking the
villages of Dura and Khirbat Salama nr. Hebron; the IDF intervenes to
reopen the road. (NYT, PCHR 10/11; OCHA 10/17; PCHR
10/18; REU 10/20)
Palestinians fire at least 1 rocket fr. Gaza toward Israel that lands inside the Strip, injuring a Palestinian teenager inside his home.
In Hebron, 4 unidentified gunmen fatally shoot a suspected
Palestinian collaborator with Israel.
Israeli troops wounded up to eight activists and arrested three others, including Israeli activist Jonathan Pollack, in Bi'lin village located west of Ramallah in the West Bank in an attempt to prevent hundreds of international activists and farmers from harvesting olives in the village near the separation wall. A border guard policeman was injured by the protesters, who said that they had coordinated the harvest in advance. The IDF fired rubber-coated bullets, tear gas and stun grenades. One of at least 100 Israeli activists was hit by a gas bomb in the abdomen. (AFP, Ma'an News Agency, WAFA, Ynetnews)
The Israeli army dispersed international, Israeli and Palestinian activists during a protest against the separation wall in the village of Al-Ma'sara near Bethlehem. Sound bombs and tear gas were used to disperse the group; no injuries or arrests were reported. (Ma'an News Agency)
The Israeli army prevented Muslim worshippers from attending prayers when it closed the Ibrahimi Mosque (Cave of the Patriarchs) in Hebron, West Bank, on the occasion of Jewish holidays. (IMEMC)
The Military Judge Advocate General of Israel, Avi Mandelbilt, was considering amending the charges brought against the former Na'alin regiment commander, Lt.-Col. Omri Burberg, who was indicted for his involvement in an incident in which a soldier fired at a bound Palestinian detainee. Mr. Mandelbilt was reportedly considering adding several new charges, including reckless endangerment, which could result in a criminal record for the former regiment commander and could carry a maximum penalty of three years in prison. (Ynetnews)
Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was reported to have stated in recent weeks that it was a mistake to link the issue of Gilad Shalit's release to the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. (Haaretz)
Israeli settlers injured six Palestinian residents of a village south of Nablus, including an elderly man and two children, who were harvested their olive trees near the "Berakha" settlement. (Ma'an News Agency)