6 Palestinians killed.
Barak extends indefinitely his 48-hr. deadline for
Arafat to halt Palestinian riots passes in light of international mediation
efforts. Clinton, Albright spend the day on the phone, discussing
with Arafat, Barak, Mubarak, various EU leaders ways of halting
the violence. UN Secy.-Gen. Annan, Russian FM Ivanov meet with
Barak in Tel Aviv, Arafat in Gaza. Arafat goes to Cairo to confer with Mubarak.
(MM, NYT, WT 10/9; Interfax, IRNA, MENA 10/9 in WNC 10/10; Interfax 10/9, Le
Monde 10/10 in WNC 10/10; MENA 10/9, DUS 10/10, MA 10/11 in WNC 10/12; HA
[Internet], CSM, MM, NYT, WP, WT 10/10; WJW 10/12; MEI 10/13)
Meanwhile, Israeli-Palestinian clashes continue
throughout the West Bank and Gaza and inside Israel. The IDF extends the
West Bank-Gaza closure indefinitely, cancels all permits issued to Palestinians
working in Israel. 100s of Israeli Jews fr. Upper Nazareth rampage
through Arab Nazareth, firing automatic weapons and wielding clubs, injuring 50
Israeli Arabs, damaging homes and shops. Israeli police break up the
ensuing riot, firing tear gas and rubber bullets. 2 Israeli Arabs are
shot dead with live ammunition either by Jews or the police. In Tel Aviv,
500 Israeli Jews attack Arab apartment buildings, set Arab-owned stores
on fire. In Jaffa, Israeli Jews set fire to 2 mosques, a number of
Palestinian homes. In East Jerusalem, Jewish settlers attempt to
vandalize the Latin Patriarchate Church. In the West Bank, 2
Palestinians are found dead, both apparently killed by Jewish settlers
avenging the murder of a rabbi on 10/8 (1 is later judged by international
experts to have died in a car accident). 2 Palestinians die of injuries
received earlier. (Gush Shalom press release, MM 10/9; AYM 10/9, MA 10/10 in WNC
10/12; ADM, LAW, MM, NYT, WP, WT 10/10; WJW 10/12; MEI 10/13)
10,000 Kuwaitis rally in solidarity with the
Palestinians. Smaller rallies are held in Canada, Egypt, Italy,
and the UK, as well as in Chicago. (MENA 10/9 in WNC 10/10; MM, WP
10/10; MEI 10/13; MM 10/17)
The IDF directs shells, gunfire at residential areas of Gaza City; bulldozes 100 dunams of
Palestinian land in al-Qarara, damaging 1 home, destroying 3 tents, plus water
and electricity systems. Jewish settlers pour unidentified contaminants
in the community drinking well of Yanon village, rendering the water unpotable.
(AFP 10/9; JP [Internet], NYT, PMC, WP, WT 10/10; LAW 10/13)
In Gaza and Nablus, 1,000s of Palestinians angry over the PSF's
excessive use of force against protesters on 10/8 defy the PA's ban on
demonstrations, conduct protest marches, and clash with police again, setting 1
PSF office on fire in Nussayrat camp.
2 Palestinians killed.
The IDF makes a predawn raid on Salfit, imposing a curfew, blowing up
2 Palestinian homes; fires on Palestinian protesters in Rafah, killing
2 Palestinian teenagers, wounding 25 others (including a 1-yr.-old boy);
lifts the day curfew on e. Nablus (see 10/7); fires on residential areas and 2
schoolyards in Khan Yunis, injuring 8 Palestinians (at least 4 of them
children). The IDF removes caravans fr. 2 unoccupied settler outposts
in the West Bank; Jewish settlers dismantle 2 other unoccupied outposts.
Jewish settlers block, attack a group of 5 international peace activists,
100 Palestinians attempting to reach Palestinian olive groves btwn. Elon Moreh
and Itamar settlements, injuring 6 Palestinians; the IDF intervenes,
orders Palestinians to leave. Israel releases Reuters journalist
Jussry al-Jamal whom the IDF has held without charge since arresting
him 5 mos. ago during Operation Defensive Shield; 3 other Palestinian
journalists detained in 4/02, a reporter for al-Quds and 2
photographers for Agence France-Presse, are still being held. Israel also
links Tubas, 21 surrounding villages to the Israeli electricity grid; the PA
funded the $517,000 cost of the link-up. (HA, MM, PCHR 10/9; HA, NYT, PM, WP, WT
10/10)
1 Israeli killed.
The IDF conducts arrest raids, fires on stone-throwing Palestinians in
`Ayn Bayt al-Ma r.c., Nablus; imposes curfews on villages surrounding Nablus,
Ramallah (also surrounding, closing Birzeit University); demolishes a
Palestinian home in Nablus, 1 in Ramallah; arrests the wife of wanted
senior Hamas mbr. Shaykh Ibrahim Hamid in an apparent bid to pressure him to
turn himself in (see 10/8). An Israeli woman dies of injuries received in the 10/4
bombing, bringing that toll to 20. (HA 10/9; VOP 10/9 in WNC 10/11; WP, WT
10/10; PR 10/15; PCHR 10/16)
An AMB suicide bomber detonates a device at
an IDF checkpoint outside Tulkarm, injuring 2 IDF soldiers, 1
Palestinian.
5 Palestinians killed.
In ongoing clashes in n. Gaza, the IDF fatally shoots wanted Hamas
senior cmdr. `Abd al-Rauf Nabhan in Jabaliya in what may be an
assassination; shells the Bayt Lahiya home of 1 of the Palestinians who carried
out the 3/14/04 Ashdod port bombings, killing 2 family mbrs., wounding 6;
shells residential areas of Bayt Hanun, Jabaliya. In s. Gaza, the IDF
fires on a PA roadblock outside Khan Yunis, killing 2 PA security officers
(1 an AMB mbr., 1 an Abu Rish Brigades mbr.), sends heavy
equipment, troops into Rafah, orders residents to leave their homes, demolishes
14 Palestinian homes completely; later fires on residential areas of
Rafah, seriously wounding a man asleep in his home; fires on stone-throwing
youths in Khan Yunis, damaging a nearby hospital building and ambulance. In the
West Bank, the IDF fires on stone-throwing youths in Balata r.c. Masked
Jewish settlers attack, beat, lightly injure an Italian peace activist
escorting Palestinian children home fr. school in Hebron. (VOI, VOP 10/9 in WNC
10/12; WP 10/10; PCHR 10/14)
4 Palestinians killed.
The IDF reopens Qarni crossing (closed 9/24) for transportation of
goods btwn. Gaza and Israel (allowing around 40–50 trucks/day exporting goods
fr. Gaza and 250 trucks/day importing goods fr. Israel, the West Bank); fatally
shoots a Palestinian gunman in Nablus; fatally shoots 3 Palestinians
nr. Dayr al-Balah who attempt to sneak into Israel fr. Gaza to look for
work; raids, imposes a curfew on Bayta nr. Nablus, surrounds a mosque, orders
worshipers to leave; conducts arrest raids, house searches nr. Hebron and in
al-`Aza r.c., al-Khadir. (IDF press release, IMEMC 10/9; NYT, PCHR, WP, XIN
10/10; PCHR 10/13, 10/20)
3 Palestinians killed.
The IDF shells n. Gaza, killing a 15-yr.old Palestinian farm worker, wounding
3, claiming that the teenager, who was working in a field, approached an
abandoned rocket launcher used on 10/7 with plans to retrieve it; in separate
incidents fires at 2 Palestinians who stray near the n. Gaza border fence,
seriously wounding a mentally handicapped man in his 50s, lightly wounding a 2d
man; fires on 2 Palestinians scavenging metal nr. the central Gaza border fence,
wounding 1; sends troops into al-Shuka late in the evening, fatally shooting a
Palestinian civilian on the street for no apparent reason. In Rafah, a
Palestinian is killed when a bomb he is handling explodes prematurely. In the
West Bank, the IDF fatally shoots a Palestinian who allegedly attempts to stab
an IDF soldier at Hawara checkpoint nr. Nablus; sends undercover units into
Qalqilya in a car with Palestinian license plates to arrest a Force 17 mbr.;
conducts arrest raids, house searches in Hebron, Tulkarm town and r.c. (raiding
a store, confiscating money, causing a woman to have a stroke). Jewish settlers
march through Hebron, stone Palestinian homes. (NYT 10/10;
OCHA 10/11; PCHR 10/12)
A Force 17 mbr. dies of injuries
received during 10/1 clashes btwn. the PA security forces and Hamas.
Israel
confirms that it is building a 10-mi. Palestinian-only road around Ma’ale
Adumim settlement, linking Jericho and Bethlehem and bypassing Jerusalem, to create “transportational contiguity” btwn. Palestinian communities that would
otherwise be cut off by the separation wall; critics note that 56 acres of
privately owned Palestinian land and 352 acres of “state land” have been
appropriated for the construction, which will also allow for the expansion and
linkage of Ma’ale Adumim, Mishor Adumim, and Kedar settlements. In Gaza, the IDF raids and searches homes in Shuka, occupying several houses as
observation posts (troops are still in the village at the end of the day); sends
troops into al-Fakhari nr. Khan Yunis, raiding several homes, leveling lands, firing on residential areas, causing no reported injuries; sends troops into
Bayt Hanun, bulldozing at least 100 d. of citrus trees and fences around a
college and cemetery, withdrawing in the evening. In
the West Bank, the IDF conducts arrest raids, house searches in and
around Bethlehem (arresting a mbr. of the Bethlehem municipal council), nr. Hebron, and in al-Bireh, Ramallah, Qalqilya (occupying homes as observation posts, firing on Palestinian children as they leave school, wounding 2, ages 11 and 13). (NYT, OCHA, WP, WT 10/10; PCHR 10/11; OCHA 10/17)
The ESF creates 2 new
openings in the Rafah border fence nr. Rafah’s Bloc J and al-Barahma, but no passage through the openings is reported. Egypt allows 30 Islamic Jihad mbrs.
and Palestinian civilians stranded in Egypt since Israel sealed the Gaza borders on 6/12 to return to Gaza through the Rafah crossing (see 9/30).
The body of a young Palestinian was found on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip near Rafah. According to Palestinian medical sources, 22-year-old Jihad Abu Shab died of a bullet wound. (Ma'an News Agency)
Members of the Hamas delegation participating in the Palestinian reconciliation talks in Cairo indicated that Hamas had accepted extending the PA presidency of Mahmoud Abbas for an additional six months. (IMEMC)
PA President Abbas arrived in Sri Lanka for a two-day visit including talks with top officials and the signing of an agreement on technical cooperation. Sri Lanka had opened a representative office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory last year. (AP)
The PA Ministry of Higher Education issued a statement indicating that Israeli forces were preventing students and teachers from accessing schools in the Tubas district in the northern West Bank by closing at irregular intervals the Tayaseer checkpoint used by more than 45 teachers to reach their schools. (Ma'an News Agency)