2006 in the Palestinian territories

Incumbents

Events
  • January 25 – Palestinian Authority legislative election: Hamas wins the majority of seats in the Palestinian Authority legislative election. Israel, the United States, the European Union, and several European and Western countries cut off their aid to the Palestinian Authority; as they view the Islamist political party who rejects Israel's right to exist as a terrorist organization.
  • February 3 – At least three Qassam rockets are fired from Gaza by Palestinian Arab militants at Israeli civilian targets. One rocket strikes a home in Kibbutz Karmia, injuring four people, including a one-year-old infant. The home belongs to a family recently evicted during Israel's 2005 unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip.[1]
  • March 14 – IDF military operation in a Palestinian Authority prison in Jericho in order to capture several Palestinian Arab prisoners located there who had assassinated the Israeli politician, Rehavam Ze'evi. The operation is conducted as a result of the expressed intentions of the newly elected Hamas government to release these prisoners.
  • March 23 – Israeli security sources capture the Hamas military commander in the West Bank, Ibrahim Hamed, who ordered suicide bombing attacks during the Al-Aqsa Intifada,[2] in a Ramallah raid. (BBC)
  • March 28 – For the first time, a Katyusha rocket is fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel. (JPost)(BBC)(MSNBC) Katyushas, frequently used by Hezbollah in Lebanon, had never previously been fired from Gaza. Large numbers of Qassam rockets began landing in the Western Negev in March 2006.
  • April 17 – Rosh Ha'ir restaurant bombing: A suicide attack carried out by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad together with Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades near the Old Tel Aviv Central Bus Station. 11 Israelis are killed in the attack while 68 were wounded.
  • May 14 – The IDF kill Elias al-Ashkar, the senior Islamic Jihad commander in the Jenin area who was accused of planning several suicide attacks that killed nearly 30 people. Six other Palestinian Arabs are also killed.,[3][4]
  • May 14 – The Israeli Navy intercepted a Palestinian boat carrying a large amount of explosives near the Gaza Strip in an attempted smuggling operation. The boat contained about 450 kg of TNT and parts of mines.[5][6]
  • June 8 – Israel resumed its policy of the extrajudicial killing of key Hamas leaders, with the IDF assassination of Jamal Abu Samhadana, founder of the Popular Resistance Committees, which regularly launches home-made rockets into Israel. The Israeli military said Samhadana and the other targeted militants were planning an attack on Israel. The policy of targeted killings had ceased with the February 2005 Israeli-PA ceasefire agreement, which Hamas had also pledged to observe. Samhadana had been appointed the Palestinian Interior and National Security Ministry of the PNA's new Hamas-led government on 20 April 2006, a position similar to the ministry's director-general.[7][8]
  • June 8 – In response to Samhadana's assassination, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired two rockets into Israel hours after his death, hitting a building in the southern town of Sderot, but causing no casualties.[9]
  • June 9 – In response to the rocket fire, the IDF shelled rocket launching sites. At the time of this campaign an explosion occurred on a busy Gaza beach, killing eight Palestinian Arab civilians.[10][11][12] Following the blast, an internal Israel Defense Forces (IDF) enquiry is initiated. Israel later stated that "(t)he chances that artillery fire hit that area at that time are nil". Nevertheless, Israel acknowledged that it had been shelling 250m away from the family's location; Palestinians claimed that the explosion was Israeli responsibility.[13][14] Reports have concluded Israel had not been responsible for the blast.[15][16][17][18][19][20]
  • June 13 – The IDF kills eleven people in a missile strike on a van carrying Palestinian Arab militants and rockets driving through a densely civilian populated area in Gaza.[21] Nine among those killed are civilian bystanders.
On June 25 IDF soldier Gilad Shalit is captured and abducted by Hamas militants in a cross-border raid.

Notable deaths

References
  1. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3210491,00.html
  2. Top Hamas fugitive nabbed by Efrat Weiss, Ynetnews, May 23, 2006
  3. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/715651.html
  4. "Broward teen dies of wounds suffered in suicide bombing". MiamiHerald.com. Archived from the original on 2006-11-16. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved September 21, 2010.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Terrorism+and+Islamic+Fundamentalism-/IDF+Naval+craft+seized+several+hundred+kg+of+explosives+14-May-2006.htm
  7. Stephen Sloan with Sean K. Anderson (2009). "Historical Dictionary of Terrorism (3rd Ed.)". The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group. pp. 234–236.
  8. "Wanted militant dies in Gaza raid". BBC News. 2009.
  9. The Associated Press (2009). "Rockets fly after Palestinian militant faction leader killed in Israeli airstrike". USA Today.
  10. McGreal, Chris (2006-06-10). "Death on the Beach: Seven Palestinians killed as Israeli shells hit family picnic". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
  11. "Palestinian Child Buries Slain Family". IslamOnline.net. 2006-06-11. Archived from the original on December 7, 2008.
  12. "Doubts over Gaza deaths inquiry". BBC News. 2006-06-14.
  13. Hamas breaks truce with rockets, BBC Online, June 10, 2006
  14. CHRONOLOGY-Key events in the Gaza Strip, Reuters, July 4, 2006
  15. Gaza Beach Libel Archived July 14, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  16. IDF not responsible for Gaza blast | Jerusalem Post
  17. Gaza beach blast: Possible scenarios – Israel News, Ynetnews
  18. Der Krieg der Bilder, Süddeutsche Zeitung, June 16, 2006 Archived June 19, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  19. German paper doubts Gaza beach reports – Israel News, Ynetnews
  20. Human Rights Watch switches stories
  21. Israeli missile kills 11 Palestinians in Gaza – Turkish Daily News Jun 14, 2006 Archived September 30, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  22. Missing teen found dead, buried in Ramallah field – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News
  23. Butcher, Tim (2006-06-29). "Israel launches warning air strikes on Gaza". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 2009-07-25.
  24. AG refuses to ok use of Hamas officials as 'bargaining chips' – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News Archived January 27, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  25. News – AlertNet
  26. PA Rocket Slams Into the Heart of Ashkelon – Defense/Middle East – Israel News – Arutz Sheva Archived July 13, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  27. (Al Jazeera)
  28. "Palestinian security chief killed in Gaza bombing". Archived from the original on May 26, 2006.
  29. "Islamic Jihad member killed in Lebanon". Archived from the original on August 18, 2007.
  30. "An Islamic Jihad Leader In West Bank Is Killed". The Washington Post. July 30, 2006.

See also
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