The IDF
shells residential areas Bayt Sahur; seals main roads leading to Dayr al-Balah
(destroying a vocational school, a girls' school, 1 home), Jericho, Jinin,
Nablus, Tulkarm; conducts arrest sweeps in East Jerusalem, Ras al-Amud;
bulldozes Palestinian land nr. Nablus. Palestinians in Jinin, Nablus, Qalqilya
note IDF reinforcements in their areas. The IDF issues a demolition order
for a Palestinian clinic in Aqraba nr. Nablus, which 2 wks. ago treated 2 IDF
soldiers injured in a car accident. (HP, MM 2/22; HP, WT 2/23; al-Quds
2/23 in WNC 2/26; MA 2/23 in WNC 2/26; LAW 3/1)
Israeli-Palestinian clashes
continue. Nr. Ma'ale Adumim settlement, 4 Palestinian gunmen ambush a
Jewish settler's vehicle, seriously injuring 2 settlers. Palestinians also
fire homemade mortars at Netzarim settlement, causing no damage.
1 Palestinian killed. 1 Israeli killed.
IDF soldiers mistakenly fire on a Jewish settler vehicle nr.
Ramallah, wounding 1 settler they believed was shooting at them; the settler was
shooting at nearby Palestinians. The IDF conducts
arrests raids in Tamun; directs heavy machine gun fire at residential areas nr.
Qarni crossing. (HP 2/22; NYT, WP, WT 2/23; WT 2/25)
A Palestinian worker in the West Bank settlement of Efrat attempts to
detonate a suicide bomb in a supermarket, but is shot dead by armed customers.Palestinian gunmen fatally shoot
a Jewish settler driving nr. Pisgat Ze'ev.
2 Palestinians killed.
The IDF continues operations in Nablus, conducting arrest raids,
firing on demonstrators, killing 2 Palestinians, wounding 2; demolishes 6
Palestinian homes in Rafah; conducts arrest raids in Ramallah. (AP, HA
2/22; LAW, NYT 2/23; PR 2/26; LAW, PCHR 2/27)
1 Palestinian killed. 8 Israelis killed.
After the Jerusalem bomb, IDF
immediately sends troops into Husan, seals nearby Bethlehem. The IDF also
bars an ambulance fr. crossing a checkpoint to reach a Hebron hospital, allowing
an ailing Palestinian woman to die; fires in residential areas of Rafah;
conducts arrest raids, house searches in Aida r.c., Balata r.c., Bethlehem;
issues orders expropriating 27 dunams of Palestinian land until 12/05 for
construction of a security fence around Gaza’s Netzarim settlement. A
Hamas mbr. dies in Khan Yunis when a missile he is trying to fire
prematurely explodes. Palestinians report that the IDF has recently begun
barring Palestinians under age 35 fr. crossing checkpoints around Nablus. On the
eve of the International Court of Justice hearings on the wall, Israel begins dismantling a 5-mi. stretch of the
barrier running east of the n. West Bank village of Baqa` al-Sharqiyya; the wall
running west of the village will remain; Israel also reportedly plans not to
build a 12.5 mi. stretch of wall cutting Jenin off fr. the Jordan Valley, not to
dig deep trenches around Ben-Gurion Airport, to remove 2,953 feet of wall in the
Qalqilya area. Palestinians across the territories begin holding
demonstrations against the wall to coincide with the hearings. Jewish
settlers throw rocks, bottles at Palestinian cars in East Jerusalem. (AFP,
NYT, WP, WT 2/22; VOP, XIN 2/22 in WNC 2/24; HA, MM, NYT, WP, WT 2/23; AFP, MENA
2/23 in WNC 2/25; al-Quds 2/23 in WNC 2/26; AP 2/25; PCHR 2/26; MM 3/12)
An AMB suicide bomber fr. Husan detonates a device on a bus in
Jerusalem, killing 8 Israelis, wounding 50. Israel says that the attack
is proof that Israel needs to build the separation wall.
The IDF demolishes a 6-story residential building on the Mount of
Olives in East Jerusalem; fires on residential areas of Khan Yunis; conducts
arrest raids, house searches in Yatta nr. Hebron. (OCHA 2/23; PCHR 2/24)
In Geneva, the World Council of Churches, the main global body of
non-Catholic Christians, urges all 342 mbr. churches to divest fr. companies
that profit fr. Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories. (HA 2/22;
AP, PR 2/23)
After the AMB fires 3 rockets fr. Gaza into Israel, causing no damage or
injuries, the IDF fires at least 15 artillery shells at n. Gaza, 1 of which hits
an apartment building in Bayt Lahiya, wounding a 2-yr.-old Palestinian boy. The
IDF also reimposes 2 roadblocks outside Jericho that were removed under the
3/16/05 agmt. turning over security control of the city to the PA, citing the
PA’s 2/9 release of wanted AMB, Islamic Jihad mbrs. fr. the Jericho jail;
continues arrest raids, house searches nr. Nablus; finds an empty rocket casing
in a search in Qabatya; bulldozes a USAID-funded public park and playground in
Azun nr. Qalqilya, saying it was built without permission (USAID donated $80,000
of the $120,000 cost); fires on residential areas of Bani Na‘im nr. Hebron.
Israeli undercover units, driving a car with Palestinian plates, raid Allar,
search a home, arrest a wanted Palestinian. (AFP, PCHR, XIN, YA
2/22; PCHR 2/23, 3/2)
AMB fires 3 rockets fr. Gaza into Israel, causing no damage or
injuries. Some 20 armed gunmen fr. the
al-Yasir Brigades (an AMB offshoot) temporarily occupy the Rafah governorate
offices to protest the appointment of a Khan Yunis resident as the new Rafah
governor, demanding that the governor be a Rafah resident.
IDF soldiers on the Gaza border fire on Palestinian farmers who stray nr. the
border fence e. of Gaza City, wounding 1. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts
arrest raids, house searches in Qabatya, Qalqilya, Tulkarm and nr. Jenin;
demolishes a poultry farm (killing 1,000 birds), a sheep pen nr. Hebron. (OCHA
2/28; PCHR 3/1)
IDF troops
on the Gaza border e. of Gaza City fire a missile at a group of armed
Palestinians nr. the border, wounding 1 armed Palestinian, 1 Palestinian teenager
outside his home nearby. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts arrest
raids, house searches in `Ayn Bayt al-Ma’ r.c. nr. Nablus (arresting senior Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PFLP] mbr. Majdi Mabruk) and nr.
Bethlehem, Hebron, Tulkarm; breaks the windows of several Palestinian cars
parked nr. a Hebron building occupied by Jewish settlers for the past yr., stating
the vehicles posed a threat to the settlers; fires rubber-coated steel bullets,
percussion grenades, tear gas at Palestinian, Israeli, international activists
taking part in the weekly nonviolent demonstration against the separation
wall in Bil`in nr. Ramallah (injuring 6). (JP 2/23; WP 2/24; al-Akhbar
[Cairo] 2/26; OCHA 2/27; PCHR 2/28)
Hamas-affiliated imam Majid
Barghouti (age 44), who was among 8 Palestinians arrested by the PA in a
raid nr. Ramallah on 2/14, dies in PA General Intelligence custody in
Ramallah of apparent torture; PA Pres. Mahmud Abbas puts West Bank
security forces on high alert, orders an investigation.
Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem monitors said that Israel had been preventing them from entering the Gaza Strip. In February, the IDF said it had rejected their applications. (Ma’an News Agency)
Israel’s Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu said, “I expect to cooperate with the Obama administration and try to advance the common goals of peace, security and prosperity for us and our neighbours.” Mr. Netanyahu was chosen on 20 February by President Shimon Peres to try to form a governing coalition and become prime minister for the second time. (Reuters)
European monitors said that they were ready to resume their assignment on the Gaza-Egypt border at a moment’s notice, following an involuntary 20-month break, according to the head of the European Union Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM). In the past two weeks, 20 monitors had returned to the region. (Haaretz)
Palestinian militants fired two mortar rounds at IDF soldiers near the border, Israel Radio reported. A Qassam rocket hit the western Negev earlier in the day. There were no casualties or damage reported in either incident. (Haaretz)
Gaza medics said that five Palestinians had been found dead from suffocation in a tunnel under the border with Egypt. Local residents said that they had been smuggling food into the Gaza Strip. (Haaretz)
An Arab League delegation arrived in the Gaza Strip to assess the destruction and the people’s pressing needs resulting from the Israeli offensive. The delegation, representing the Arab League’s agricultural, industrial, educational and information departments, would present its findings to Arab League Secretary-General Amre Moussa. Mahmoud al-Hannan, head of the delegation, said that the Arab experts’ reports would also be put forward before international donors who will meet in March in Egypt. (AP, Xinhua)