Chronology: July 16, 2012 – October 15, 2012

Abbreviations

ABC

ABC News

AFP

Agence France Presse

Al-Arabiya

Alarabiya.net

AJE

Aljazeera.net

AA

Asharq Alawsat

AP

Associated Press Bloomberg

BBC

www.bbc.co.uk

CBS

www.cbsnews.com

CSM

Christian Science Monitor

CNN

www.cnn.com

Daily Star

www.dailystar.com.lb

EurasiaNet

www.eurasianet.org

FT

Financial Times The Guardian

GN

Gulf News

Ha‘aretz

Hurriyet

KT

Khaleej Times

LA

Times

LM

Le Monde

NPR

National Public Radio

NYT

The New York Times

RFE/RL

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Reuters

VOA

Voice of America

WSJ

The Wall Street Journal

WP

The Washington Post

Arab-Israeli Conflict

See also Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Palestinian Territories, Syria

July 19: A day after a suicide bombing killed five Israeli tourists in Bulgaria and wounded dozens more, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu charged Hizbullah and Tehran with responsibility for the terrorist attack. Former Israeli national security adviser Uzi Arad, speaking about the attacks on Israeli Army Radio, noted that the Iranian-directed bombing was by nature a “defensive” measure and a response to Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear scientists, nuclear sites, and Hizbullah. [NYT, 7/19]

July 20: Israel freed Dr. ‘Aziz Dweik, a senior Hamas official and the speaker of the Palestinian parliament, after months of detention without charge. The IDF arrested Dweik on January 19 at a roadblock between Jerusalem and Ramallah and deemed his detention necessary because of “presumed involvement in the activities of a terrorist organization.” [AJE, 7/20]

July 22: Israel ordered the demolition of eight Palestinian villages in the South Hebron Hills and claimed that the land was needed for IDF training exercises. The residents of the villages were moved to the West Bank town of Yatta, where the state claimed most of them had permanent residence. Some of the villages had existed since the 1830s. [Ha‘aretz, 7/23]

July 23: New measures, effective July 23, allowed Palestinians to enter and stay in Egypt for up to 72 hours, easing access to medical care for Gazans. Previously, any Palestinian under 40 was escorted by agents to or from the border. The Rafah crossing was closed in July 2006, thwarting humanitarian aid to the community. The number of Gazans on the waiting-list to cross was 20,000. [AJE, 7/23]

July 24: The EU rejected an Israeli proposal to list Hizbullah as a terrorist organization, following the fatal suicide bombing of Israeli tourists in Bulgaria which Israel insisted was conducted by Hizbullah operatives. [AJE, 7/24]

July 30: A Druze man from the northern Golan Heights was indicted for allegedly passing information about the IDF to Syrian security forces. Iyad Juhari admitted that between 2005 and 2008 he met with Syrian handlers and passed along information to them, including Israeli movements near the Golan border and information on IDF bases in northern Israel. He also passed IDF equipment that he found to his Syrian handlers, including a radio and a document relating to an Israeli military jeep. [Ha‘aretz, 7/30]

July 30: IDF soldiers at a West Bank checkpoint opened fire on a car carrying three Palestinians, killing one person and wounding two others. It is unclear why the soldiers fired on the car as it approached the checkpoint before dawn. According to Palestinian medical workers, the three Palestinian men were on their way to pray in Jerusalem when they were shot. [Reuters, 7/29]

Aug. 17: A group of Israelis beat three Palestinian young men in West Jerusalem, one to the point of unconsciousness. Witnesses stated that the mob shouted “Death to Arabs!” during the attack. [Al-Akhbar, 8/17]

Aug. 20: A group of Israeli teenagers in West Jerusalem’s Zion Square attacked a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem, while he was walking with family. Jamal Joulani was unconscious and without a pulse when paramedics arrived on the scene, but was revived and sent to the hospital. Police arrested seven Israeli teenagers in connection with the incident, which investigators described as an attempted lynching. [Reuters, 8/20]

Aug. 24: A UN report deemed Gaza’s power and water supplies, electricity, health services, and educational resources to be inadequate for Gaza...