The following are milestones in the intifada:
Sept. 28, 2000 — Some 30 Israeli policemen are wounded on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount when Palestinian demonstrators attack them with stones. The confrontation follows a visit to the site the previous day by Likud Party leader Ariel Sharon and a group of Likud legislators. Hours later, similar clashes erupt in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Oct. 4, 2000 — Israeli and Palestinian leaders agree to a cease-fire during 10 hours of U.S.-brokered talks in Paris. The cease-fire holds just for a few hours before Palestinian attacks resume.
Oct. 7, 2000 — The Israeli army withdraws from Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus after Palestinian security officials give assurances that they will protect the Jewish holy site. Within hours, a Palestinian mob destroys it.
Oct. 12, 2000 — Two Israeli reserve soldiers who get lost on their way to their base are arrested by Palestinian policemen, who lead them to a police building in the center of Ramallah where a mob murders the Israelis and mutilates the bodies. Israel responds with helicopter gunship attacks on P.A. security installations.
Oct. 16-17, 2000 — President Clinton and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan join Middle Eastern leaders for a summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik. Israeli and Palestinian leaders agree to a cease-fire after two days of talks, but it collapses within days.
Oct. 22, 2000 — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak calls for a “timeout” from the peace process. Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat says the Palestinians will continue to seek a state with Jerusalem as its capital, adding that Barak can “go to hell” if he doesn’t like it.
Jan. 8, 2001 — Days before he leaves office, President Clinton goes public with an outline for a peace agreement that he believes will guide future administrations. Under his plan, a Palestinian state would be established in all of the Gaza Strip and nearly all of the West Bank, with an exchange of territory to compensate for settlement blocs annexed by Israel.
Jan. 27, 2001 — Israeli and Palestinian negotiators concluded a week of talks at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Taba. Some sources say the sides are close to a peace agreement, but the talks prove controversial in Israel because it is feared that Barak, trailing badly in pre-election polls, is offering concessions without a popular mandate.
Feb. 6, 2001 — Sharon is elected prime minister by a landslide, and sets about establishing a national unity government.
May 21, 2001 — An international commission led by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell formally issues its report, calling for an immediate cease-fire followed by confidence-building steps. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell announces the United States will use the Mitchell report as the basis for a new initiative aimed at ending the violence. Sharon declares a unilateral Israeli cease-fire.
June 1, 2001 — A suicide bomber kills 21 young Israelis and wounds more than 100 others at Tel Aviv’s beachside Dolphinarium disco. Israel chooses not to respond.
June 9, 2001 — CIA Director George Tenet issues a security plan designed to end the intifada.
Aug. 9, 2001 — Fifteen people are killed and more than 130 wounded in a suicide bombing at Sbarro’s pizzeria in downtown Jerusalem.
Oct. 17, 2001 — Gunmen lurking in a Jerusalem hotel hallway assassinate Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian, a PLO faction, claims responsibility.
Nov. 19, 2001 — The U.S. State Department appoints retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni as its envoy on the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. Each of Zinni’s visits to the region is marked by increased terrorism.
Dec. 1, 2001 — Eleven people are killed and 188 injured when two suicide bombers detonate themselves on Ben Yehuda Street in central Jerusalem. The next day, 15 people are killed and at least 40 injured when a suicide bomber blows up a bus in Haifa.
Jan. 3, 2002 — In a commando operation in the Red Sea, Israel captures a boat laden with 50 tons of weapons headed from Iran to the Palestinian Authority.
Jan. 27, 2002 — A female suicide bomber, the first to be used in the intifada, kills one man and wounds more than 100 people in Jerusalem.
March 27, 2002 — Twenty-eight people are killed at a Passover seder in a Netanya hotel. The “Passover Massacre” caps a month of escalating attacks in which 136 Israelis are killed.
March 29, 2002 — Israel launches Operation Defensive Shield, a massive invasion of the West Bank to rout out terrorist networks. In fierce fighting in the Jenin refugee camp, 52 Palestinians are killed, most of them fighters, while Israel loses 23 soldiers. Palestinian charges that Israel “massacred” some 500 people in Jenin spark international condemnation of Israel, until a U.N. report rejects the Palestinian claim. Sharon sends troops into Arafat’s presidential compound in Ramallah, where they uncover reams of documents that allegedly outline Arafat’s and the P.A.’s ties to terrorist attacks.
June 24, 2002 — President Bush gives a speech at the White House Rose Garden backing Palestinian statehood, but saying the Palestinians must first end violence and replace Arafat.
July 23, 2002 — An Israeli airstrike in Gaza kills Hamas military mastermind Salah Shehada and 14 civilians. The strike ignites an international outcry.
Oct. 16, 2002 — At a meeting with Bush in Washington, Sharon agrees to release $400 million in frozen Palestinian tax revenue, and Bush gives Sharon a draft version of the “road map” peace plan. The two leaders also discuss Israel’s right to retaliate if attacked by Iraq in the event of a U.S.-led war on Baghdad.
Oct. 30, 2002 — Israel’s unity government collapses after the withdrawal of the Labor Party.
Jan. 28, 2003 — Sharon is re-elected in a landslide victory.
April 30, 2003 — Arafat’s longtime No. 2, Mahmoud Abbas, takes office as Palestinian Authority prime minister.
June 4, 2003 — Abbas, Sharon and Bush formally inaugurate the “road map” peace plan at a summit in Aqaba, Jordan.
June 29, 2003 — The Fatah movement declares a six-month truce, and Hamas and Islamic Jihad announce a three- month pause in attacks on Israelis. The cease-fire is accompanied by a redeployment of Israeli troops from parts of the Gaza Strip under a deal to transfer security responsibility to the Palestinians.
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