Chronology: April 16 – August 15, 2019

ABBREVIATIONS

• AFP, Agence France-Presse

• AJ, Al Jazeera

• Al Arabiya

• AP, The Associated Press

• BBC

• Bloomberg

• CNN

• DS, The Daily Star (Lebanon)

• France24

• GN, Gulf News

• The Guardian

• Haaretz

• JP, The Jerusalem Post

• JT, The Jordan Times

• MEE, Middle East Eye

• MEMO, Middle East Monitor

• NPR, National Public Radio

• NYT, The New York Times

• Reuters

• RFE/RL, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty TOI, The Times of Israel

• VOA, Voice of America

• WP, The Washington Post

• YNet

Arab-Israeli Conflict

See also Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Palestinian Territories

Apr. 22: The Arab League agreed to pay $100 million a month to the Palestinian Authority (PA) to fill the budget deficit left when the Israeli government froze $138 million in monthly tax transfers from the total amount it collected on behalf of the PA. Israel had withheld the funds in protest of the PA making payments to Palestinian prisoners in Israel, their families, and the families of Palestinians killed or wounded in confrontations with Israelis. While the PA viewed the payments as aid for families in need of financial support, the Israeli government viewed them as support for terrorism. [AJ, 4/22]

Apr. 28: The Israeli government released two Syrian prisoners following the repatriation of the remains of an Israeli soldier who had been declared missing in action during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Russian officials helped mediate the exchange. [Haaretz, 4/27; AJ, 4/28]

Apr. 30: The Israeli government reduced the permitted fishing zone in the Gaza Strip from 15 to 6 nautical miles after a rocket fired from Gaza landed in Israeli waters. Israeli officials blamed the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine (PIJ) and said it acted without the authority of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), which governed Gaza. The Israeli government had previously expanded the fishing zone to 15 nautical miles on April 1 as part of a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas, which was brokered by Egyptian officials in late March. [Haaretz, AJ, 4/30]

May 6: Palestinian officials said a United Nations– and Egyptian-mediated ceasefire agreement was reached with Israel after a surge of violence in Gaza and southern Israel. Hamas and PIJ had fired 600 projectiles at southern Israel, and the Israeli military said it had struck 350 military targets. Four Israeli civilians and at least 23 Palestinian militants and children were killed. According to a PIJ official, the agreement included measures to ease Israel's blockade and fishing restrictions. [AJ, NYT, 5/6]

May 15: Israeli troops wounded at least 47 Palestinians at the de facto border with Gaza during protests marking the 71st anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence, which Palestinians observed as Nakba Day. Palestinians in Gaza had been holding weekly protests along the fence between Gaza and Israel for over a year, calling for an end to the 12-year blockade and the right of return for Palestinian refugees. [AJ, Haaretz, 5/15]

Jun. 2: Palestinians protested at the Noble Sanctuary compound on Jerusalem's Temple Mount after Israeli police allowed hundreds of Jews access. Israeli police responded with riot-dispersal measures and locked the gates to the al-Aqsa Mosque, widely recognized as the third-holiest site in Islam. It was the first time in 30 years that Jews entered the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, during the final days of the month of Ramadan, which coincided in 2019 with Jerusalem Day, the Israeli national holiday commemorating the 1967 capture of the city. [AJ, Haaretz, 6/2]

Jun. 13: Israeli warplanes bombed a Hamas base in the Gaza Strip in response to a rocket intercepted from the territory. Israeli officials said they were targeting underground infrastructure. This was the first rocket launched since the two-day flare-up in May that killed 4 Israelis and 25 Palestinians. [Al Arabiya, Ynet, 6/18]

Jun. 18: Israeli officials reopened the fishing zone in Gaza to a range of 10 nautical miles. The zone was closed on June 12 in retaliation for incendiary balloons sent from Gaza that caused at least seven fires in Israel. Over the preceding year balloons launched by Palestinians in Gaza had set fire...