Chronological Review of Events/January 1995 – DPR review

CHRONOLOGICAL REVIEW OF EVENTS

RELATING TO THE QUESTION OF PALESTINE

January 1995

Monitored from the media by the

Division for Palestinian Rights

2 January Israeli soldiers at the northern end of the Gaza Strip shot and killed three Palestinian police officers during an exchange of fires between the two forces. There were conflicting accounts of what happened in the shootings, which began in thick fog that enveloped the coastal strip.  (The New York Times)

3 January The Israeli Government authorized the construction of 268 living units at a West Bank settlement, after Palestinians led a 12 days protest to halt building work of these units at another site.  A committee headed by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin gave the green light for the homes to be built on confiscated Arab land next to the Ephrat settlement, south of Bethlehem. (AFP)

Israel's High Court of Justice ordered the security services (Shen Bit) to stop the brutal treatment of a Palestinian prisoner, Omar Imad, held in an Israeli prison in Hebron.  Mr. Imad brought a case against the security services complaining that he had been deprived of sleep for five days and had his head covered with a hood day and night. (AFP)

4 January The Israeli army confirmed a report it initially denied a day earlier, that members of an undercover army unit had entered the Gaza Strip (under Palestinian self-rule) in pursuit of a kidnapped soldier.  The report of the kidnapped soldier turned out to be false.  The incursion of the soldiers into Gaza caused tension between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli army. (UPI)

Israeli forces at the Erez crossing point into Gaza fired at Palestinian police positions wounding two civilian bystanders.  Earlier in the day an Israeli army spokesperson said gunmen fired at the Israeli patrol at the crossing point. (AFP)

Specially trained Israeli army undercover units are liquidating Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank, Health Minister Ephraim Sneh told the press.  Sneh, a Reserve General, said the units "track down terrorist groups and liquidate them before they can carry out anti-Israeli attacks." (AFP)

Israeli troops shot and killed four Palestinians near the West Bank village of Beit Liqya.  It was reported that undercover Israeli troops stopped the Palestinians driving a stolen car about 12 miles northwest of Jerusalem and ordered them to surrender.  The Palestinians fired one shot, and the troops responded by riddling the car with bullets killing the four.  (The New York Times)

Israelis and Palestinians exchanged gunshots in Gaza and up to four Palestinians, including two officers of the Palestinian Authority were wounded. (Reuter)

6 January Suspected Palestinian gunmen ambushed a car near Hallamish, a Jewish settlement, northwest of Ramallah, killing a woman settler and wounding a man. Israel's army radio said the settlers were apparently shot at from a passing car. (Reuter)

8 January Palestinian prisoners at an Israeli military detention centre near Nablus in the West Bank began a hunger strike after clashes with guards which left three of them wounded.  The prisoners were demanding an improvement in visiting conditions for their families.  About 6000 Palestinian prisoners are currently held in Israeli jails. (AFP)

9 January A major Israeli peace organization indicated that the government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin has large-scale plans to expand Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.  According to Peace Now, the Israeli government approved after the signing of the Declaration of Principles on 13 September 1993 major expansion plans for 11 settlements in the West Bank and the confiscation of 2,984 acres of Palestinian land for settlement roads. "If these plans are completed, they will result in the annexation of significant areas of the West Bank," it was said. (UPI)

A donkey loaded with explosives blew up near a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.  No person was reported hurt. (AFP)

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met at Erez crossing point into Gaza to discuss the two parties' negotiations on the second stage of the self-rule agreement. (AFP)

10 January Officials from 37 countries and organizations ended a two-day meeting in Washington during which they discussed the establishment of a Middle East development bank for supporting the peace efforts in the region.  The meeting was held to follow up  on an agreement reached at a regional economic conference held last November in Casablanca. (AFP)

Israeli settlers fenced off a large tract of land farmed by Palestinians south of Qalqilia in the West Bank and began preparations to expand the Jewish settlement of Elkana.  "We are going to create a `fait accompli' at Elkana and elsewhere in the West Bank and we will not allow Palestinian troublemakers to prevent us from asserting our presence," said Elkana Mayor who was protected by Israeli border police. (AFP)

11 January Three Palestinians were injured when Israeli troops used sound grenades and truncheons to keep away Palestinian protesters from the construction site of a new settlement.  The clashes started when several hundred Palestinians from the West Bank village of Kafr Addik marched towards the site to protest the establishment of a new settlement on land confiscated from the village. (AFP)

12 January Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin arrived in Amman, Jordan, for official talks with King Hussein.  Officials in Amman were quoted as saying that the two leaders would study "ways of speeding up application of the treaty" between the two countries following complaints from Jordan that the economic benefits of peace were "slow in coming".  (AFP)

The first Norwegian representative to the Palestinian Authority presented his credentials to Mr. Yasser Arafat, the head of the Palestinian Authority, at an official ceremony in Gaza.  An honour guard of Palestinian policemen greeted Mr. Svein Sevje when he arrived at the Palestinian Authority headquarters to present his credentials. (AFP)

13 January The daily Haaretz revealed that 700 Jewish families have recently moved into homes in the West Bank which the Government had formally forbidden them to occupy.  A spokesman of the Israeli settlers in the West Bank said that they have launched a "land war" expanding their strongholds and building new roads to try to prevent the extension of jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority.  "We are fighting a real war for land against the Arabs and we will not back down", Ahron Domb was quoted as saying. (AFP).

Israeli troops shot and wounded three Palestinians during a clash with protesters in the West Bank City of Nablus. (AFP)

15 January An unidentified attacker fired a shoulder-held anti-tank missile (LAW) at a Jewish apartment in Hebron causing damage but no one was injured.  The army admitted that 10 LAW missiles of a type used for training were taken from a military camp in the West Bank.  The army suspected that the missile was fired by Palestinians. (AFP)

Israel and Jordan agreed in principle to build a joint railway linking the Israeli port of Haifa to the Jordanian town of Irbid.  They also agreed on the use of a future line linking the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. (AFP)

16 January An Israeli security guard shot two Palestinians, who were unloading food at a Jewish school, killing one and wounding the other.  The two men were employed by an Israeli company and were making a delivery to a religious school.  The guard opened fire on the two with his handgun from close range. (UPI)

17 January The US State Department rejected a suggestion by House speaker Newt Gingrich that the US Embassy be transferred from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem.  "It's a very sensitive issue and the President has made it very clear that we will not undertake any action that could complicate the peace negotiations between the parties", said State Department Spokeswoman Christine Shelly.  (AFP)

A final communique of the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Committee, a body of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), called for the transfer of  authority over all the city's civil and religious matters to the Palestinians.  It also called for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all the occupied Palestinian and Arab territories including East Jerusalem and for a halt to the settlement and "Judaization" of Jerusalem.  The communique was issued at the end of a two-day meeting in the Moroccan city of Ifrane.  (Al Quds Al-Arabi)

Israeli soldiers fired in the air and beat up several Palestinians to disperse a demonstration against land confiscation outside a Jewish settlement.  Some 500 Palestinians had gathered outside Psagot, a Jewish settlement near Ramallah, to mark "national anti-settlement day", but they were pushed away by the military. It was reported that soldiers used their fists, knocking one senior Palestinian official (member of the Palestinian Authority in charge of the Youth Department) to the ground where they continued to beat him.  Another five soldiers beat a woman and several girls.  (AFP)

18 January Led by four members of the Palestinian Authority, more than 500 Palestinians broke through Israeli army roadblocks to march for the second day into the Jewish settlement of Psagot, outside the West Bank town of Ramallah, before troops dispersed them with stun grenades, tear gas and fireguns.  Israeli officers briefly detained three leaders of the demonstration including a member of the Palestinian Authority.  (The Washington Post news service)

According to a secret report published by the daily Yediot Ahronot, Israel plans to build 7,728 new homes on the occupied West Bank in 1995, many more than it was previously planned by the government.  A Housing Ministry document said the main area for new construction will be around Jerusalem.  The report indicated that settlers planned to build 2,280 homes at Maale Adumim, 1,300 in Givat Zeev and 1,466 in Beitar, all in the Jerusalem area.  The newspaper said that the data provided by the Housing Ministry was incomplete, because it did not include homes built by settlers with private funds. (AFP)

The fifth session of multilateral peace talks on economic development in the Middle East began in Bonn, Germany.  The participants were expected to discuss the possibility of establishing a regional financial institution, a tourism council and a trade bureau. (Israel Line)

19 January Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat met at Erez crossing point into the Gaza Strip.  The two leaders discussed the Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.  (AFP)

21 January According to Israel state radio, illegal arms sales are booming in the occupied West Bank with the majority of weapons stolen from the Israeli army.  The number of illegal weapons in a town of 40,000 inhabitants like Yatta south of Hebron is around 5,000 on top of 300 fire arms given out to Palestinian "collaborators", the radio reported.  It also reported that many Palestinians accused Israel of turning a blind eye to the gun trade to "provoke a Palestinian civil war and weaken Palestinian institutions when autonomy is extended to the West Bank".  (AFP)

22 January At least 19 Israelis, mostly soldiers were killed and more than 60 wounded in a suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic Jihad.  The dual bomb attack took place near a bus station in Beit Lid, central Israel where troops waited for transport into the occupied West Bank.  After a late night session, the Israeli cabinet announced its decision to prevent the entry of Palestinians into Israeli territory and to postpone the negotiation with the PLO on the release of Palestinian prisoners. In addition, the communique said, the opening of "safe passages" between the Gaza Strip and Jericho will be frozen. (Reuter)

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat condemned the bombing as the work of opponents of the peace process and sent his condolences to the families of those killed and his wishes of a speedy recovery for the wounded. (AFP)

Israeli troops killed a young Palestinian when they opened fire on a group of stone-throwing Palestinians at Kalandia refugee camp north of Jerusalem. Another Palestinian died inside an Israeli military training zone near Bethlehem when a mortar shell he was manipulating blew up. (AFP)

23 January UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the bomb attack that killed 19 Israelis and wounded more than 60 others a day earlier in central Israel.  The Secretary-General extended his condolences "to the Government of Israel and the families and colleagues of those killed and wounded in the attack".  (UPI)

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said that Israel would continue the peace process with the Palestinians despite the suicide bombing a day earlier.  "There is no alternative.  We will achieve peace because that is the solution in the long run to the terrorist attacks", he said.  (Reuter)

  Egyptian  President Hosni Mubarak sent his condolences to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak  Rabin  following  the suicide bombing a day earlier.   (AFP)

Egypt has become the fifth country to open a liaison office in Gaza, the seat of the Palestinian Authority.  Mr. Mohamad Karim, the head of the office presented his credentials to Mr. Yasser Arafat, the head of the Palestinian Authority. (Al-Itthidad)

24 January The White House Spokesman said that United States President Bill Clinton had signed an executive order "to block the assets in the United States of certain terrorist organizations that threaten to disrupt the peace process" in the Middle East.  The group includes Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Abu Nidal, Black September, the Fatah Revolutionary Council, Kach, the Palestine Liberation Front, and the Islamic Group, the Spokesman said.  (AFP)

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin announced the establishment of a committee to draw up a border between Israel and the West Bank as part of his plan for "total separation from the Palestinians". He told the press that he wanted "to begin to give a concrete reality to the idea of separation".  The security border would be for the five year interim period of Palestinian autonomy and was not a political burden, he stressed.  (AFP)

Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority reached an agreement on a number of outstanding issues concerning the return of some 800,000 refugees displaced by the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.  It was reported that experts at the two-day meeting drew up a paper to be presented to Israel concerning the repatriation of the Palestinians, most of whom are now in Jordan and Egypt. (Reuter)

25 January The Israeli Ministerial Committee on Settlement chaired by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, gave the go ahead for the construction of 3000 more homes for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank.  The new housing units will include 800 units at Maale Adumim, just east of Jerusalem; 1,026 houses at Betar, near Bethlehem.  The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics revealed that construction had started on 3500 homes for Israeli settlers in the occupied territories, between the time Rabin took office in July 1992 and October 1994. (AFP)

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat arrived in Amman for his first visit to Jordan since he assumed his position as the head of the Palestinian Authority in May 1994. (UPI)

An Israeli soldier shot dead a Palestinian boy as he left his school in the West Bank city of Nablus.  Witnesses said a group of children had been taunting soldiers in a jeep when a shot rang out.  (AFP)

26 January PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Jordan's Prime Minister Zeid ben Sheker signed a "cooperation and coordination accord", in the presence of King Hussein and Crown Prince Hassan Ibn Talal. Jordanian and Palestinian officials then signed seven more accords, in administration, education, banking, commerce, culture and information, transport and communication. (AFP)  

Jordan, following Morocco and Egypt, has also decided to open a liaison office in Gaza, the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority. (AFP)

Israeli soldiers shot and wounded a Palestinian during clashes in the street of the West Bank town of Hebron. (AFP)

Israeli settlers occupied a new hill near Ramallah and brought in bulldozers to prepare the land to build 500 homes.  The hill re-named as "Givat Atarot" is 500 yards from the settlement of Kochav Yaacov which was built on confiscated lands from the nearby Palestinian villages. (AFP)

27 January Gunmen shot and wounded three Israeli soldiers near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip.  Soldiers fired back while the gunmen fled.  No one took responsibility for the incident. (AFP)

Sixty Palestinian policemen suspected of links with Islamic groups were transferred from operational units to bureaucratic jobs in Gaza.  "These men have been brought under effective control", a senior Palestinian police officer said. (AFP)

28 January Israeli soldiers broke into a Palestinian college dormitory smashing windows and doors and arrested 30 students.  The army said those arrested belonged to Islamic militant groups.  Mohammed Nussaibeh, Director of the board of trustees at East Jerusalem's Al-Quds University, which runs the Abu Dis College of Science and Technology, denied that the institution shelters Islamic militant groups. "This attack on an academic institution is unjustified and does not help the peace process", PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat was quoted as saying, following the incident. (The Washington Post)

29 January The Government of Israel extended its closure of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for another week and urged the Palestinian Authority to use an iron fist against Islamic groups in exchange for a long-delayed Israeli troops re-deployment in the West Bank. (The Financial Times)

30 January Oceanic and environmental experts from Israel, Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Morocco, Europe and the United States met at the Red Sea resort of Eilat for the start of a conference on the environmental future of the Gulf of Aqaba.  The four-day conference "The Ecosystem of the Gulf of Aqaba in Relation to the Enhanced Economic Development and the Peace Process," is the first regional dialogue on the Red Sea coast. (UPI)

31 January International donor countries, the World Bank and the United Nations decided to focus on short-term labour-intensive projects worth some 600 million dollars to bolster the economy in the Palestinian self-rule area.  The decision came at the end of a two-day meeting in Gaza aimed at planning a smoother flow of funds to the Palestinian Authority.  The representatives from the World Bank, the United Nations and some 30 donor states agreed to coordinate their projects, "more tightly". (AFP)