Chronology: January 16, 2012 - April 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

Dawn, www.dawn.com

EurasiaNet, www.eurasianet.org

FT, Financial Times

The Guardian

GN, Gulf News

Haaretz

Hurriyet

JP, The Jerusalem Post

KT, Khaleej Times

LM, Le Monde

NPR, National Public Radio

NYT, The New York Times

RFE/RL, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Reuters

ST, Sudan Times

VOA, Voice of America

WSJ, The Wall Street Journal

WP, The Washington Post

Ynet, Ynet News

Zaman

Arab-Israeli Conflict

See also Egypt, Lebanon, Syria

Jan. 19: The Jerusalem Magistrate court ordered Palestinians to pay 7,000 NIS in compensation to settlers of the Migron outpost, and 12,000 NIS in compensation to the Israeli government. In the summer of 2011, Migron settlers were ordered by the High Court of Justice to remove their settler outpost by the end of March. Controversy surrounding the Palestinians' perceived lack of documented evidence regarding their ownership of the land led many Israelis to claim that withdrawal from the settlement was illegal. [JP, 1/19]

Jan. 24: Israeli courts sentenced senior Hamas official 'Aziz Dwayk to six months in administrative detention. Dwayk was arrested January 19 at a military checkpoint near Hebron for alleged involvement in terrorist attacks. [BBC, 1/19, AFP, 1/24]

Jan. 31: Israeli troops detained Ayman Sharawna in Dura, a village south of Hebron, "on suspicion of activity that endangers the security of the area." Sharawna was among those released from Israeli prisons in 2011 in a prisoner swap for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. [AFP, 1/31]

Feb. 3: The Israeli Air Force (IAF) struck two targets in the Gaza Strip in response to a rocket launched the previous day. The IAF hit two weapons storage facilities in the north, three tunnels in the south, and a weapons manufacturing facility in central Gaza, injuring two people. [JP, 2/3]

Feb. 9: Israel ordered the Israel Electric Corporation to bolster security around a buoy located off the Hadera Coast near Tel Aviv used to import natural gas, fearing possible attacks by Hizbullah or other groups targeting Israel's natural gas supply. Israel increasingly relied on natural gas off the Mediterranean coast after a February 5 attack on an Egyptian pipeline channeling natural gas to Israel. [JP, 2/9]

Feb. 17: Thousands of Palestinians protested throughout the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in support of Khader 'Adnan, a leader of Islamic Jihad who began a hunger strike 62 days prior. 'Adnan began his hunger strike after being imprisoned in Israel, prompting others, such as senior Hamas commander Hassan Salama, to engage in similar strikes. [Reuters, 2/17]

Feb. 23: Israel arrested a Palestinian Member of Parliament and a former Minister for Jerusalem as they protested in front of the Red Cross headquarters in East Jerusalem. Muhammad Totah and Khaled Abu 'Arafeh had been camping in front of the Red Cross headquarters in a tent since July 2010 when Israel stripped them of their Jerusalem residency papers. Israeli authorities accused the two of cooperating with Hamas in carrying out terrorist activities in Jerusalem. [NYT, 1/23]

Feb. 29: Israeli authorities raided the offices of two Palestinian news networks in Ramallah whose transmitters were allegedly interfering with Israeli air traffic communications. Israeli authorities claimed to have asked al-Quds and al-Watan television networks to stop using frequencies that interfered with air traffic control bands. Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad claimed that the raids were an attack on the Palestinian Authority (PA). [Reuters, 2/29]

Mar. 1: Israel formally recognized the settler outpost of Shvut Rachel as a legal settlement. Established in 1991 and housing 95 Israeli families, Shvut Rachel was one of the oldest previously unauthorized Israeli settlement outposts in the West Bank. Israel's Defense Ministry justified the move by claiming that Shvut Rachel was a neighborhood of Shiloh, a larger legal Israeli settlement home to 300 families. [AP, 3/1]

Mar. 6: Israel allowed a small number of exports to leave the Gaza...