July 25, 2014

Palestinian protests planned as a “day of rage” in the West Bank erupted this morning in violence, with at least five Palestinians killed by Israeli security guards. Palestinians took to the streets, chanting “with our soul and blood, we will redeem Gaza,” to demonstrate their anger at the deaths of more than 800 Palestinians since the latest Israeli-Hamas conflict began on July 8. Sporadic disturbances also broke out in East Jerusalem following prayers on this the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Following an international outcry over yesterday’s missile strike on a United Nations (UN) school in Gaza, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has increased efforts to broker a cease-fire.

The strike on the UN school, which was being used as a displaced persons shelter in northern Gaza, left 16 people dead and dozens more injured. “Many have been killed–including women and children, as well as UN staff,” declared UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a statement issued to the media. It is yet unclear who was behind the strike. A spokesperson for Hamas condemned it as “Israeli brutal aggression that targeted” Palestinians left homeless by Israeli strikes. The Israeli military suggested that the hit was self-inflicted, noting that rockets from Gaza sometimes fall and explode within Gaza.

A Hamas supporter waves Islamic flags on the roof of the Palestinian Parliament building in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Today in the West Bank, thousands of Palestinians protested Israel's strikes on Gaza. (AP/Wide World)

Simmering tensions among Palestinians in the West Bank have raised the specter of a third intifada, or Palestinian uprising. Middle East experts note, however, that such uprisings, by their nature, are not planned. “The intifada does not start by a decision and end by a decision,” stated Othman Abu Gharbiya, a member of the Palestinian Authority’s Fatah central committee. Nevertheless, he noted, “no doubt we are passing through a dangerous time.”

The current Israeli-Hamas hostilities began when a Palestinian boy was murdered on July 2 in an apparent reprisal for the murder of three Israeli teenage boys, whose bodies were found in the West Bank on June 30. Besides the Palestinian death toll, 33 Israelis–30 soldiers and 3 civilians, have been killed so far in the conflict.

Additional World Book article:

• Israel 1987 (a Back in Time article)
• Israel 2000 (a Back in Time article)
• Middle East 2007 (a Back in Time article)

July 7, 2014

Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip continue to escalate. The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas declared today that Israel will “pay a tremendous price” for the deaths of eight Palestinian militants who were killed overnight in Israeli rocket attacks on Gaza. The Israeli military responded that it had only hit “terror sites and concealed rocket launchers” in response to rocket and mortar fire from Gaza into Israel.

On July 2, a Palestinian boy was murdered in an apparent reprisal for the murder of three Israeli teenage boys, whose bodies were found in the West Bank on June 30. An autopsy revealed that the Palestinian boy, Mohammad Abu Khieder, was burned alive, setting off public outcry in both the West Bank and Gaza as well as in Israel.

Israeli police have arrested six Jewish suspects in connection with the murder of Palestinian boy. Three of the suspects have confessed to abducting him from outside his home and killing him in an act of revenge.

A series of murders of teenage boys, both Israeli and Palestinian, has roiled relations between Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. (World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc.)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today issued a statement about the murder of the Palestinian youth: “We acted immediately to apprehend the murderers. We will bring them to trial and they will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law.” The murderers of the three Israeli boys remain unapprehended.

Additional World Book article:

• Middle East 2007 (a Back in Time article)

March 21, 2013

President Barack Obama arrived in Israel yesterday for a state visit and said upon his arrival that, “I see this visit as an opportunity to reaffirm the unbreakable bonds between our nations.” Although the president declared that “peace must come to the Holy Land,” little was expected on efforts to restart the peace process. International affairs experts suggested that the Syrian civil war and Iran’s nuclear ambitions would dominate talks between the president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

While in Israel, President Obama discussed the lack of progress made towards a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Obama told Israeli officials that the continued building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank was not considered by the United States “to be constructive, to be appropriate, to be something that can advance the cause of peace.” The West Bank, a land between Israel and Jordan, was historically a part of Palestine. The West Bank was annexed by Jordan in 1950. In 1967, Israel defeated Jordan, Egypt, and Syria in the Six-Day War and captured the West Bank. In 1994, Israel began a withdrawal from the West Bank after a peace accord between Israel and Palestinians was signed the previous year. In 2002, however, Israel began reoccupying many West Bank areas after Israel and the Palestinian Authority failed to reach a final peace agreement. The Israeli settlements in the West Bank have complicated efforts to implement a “two-state solution,” that is, statehood for Palestine and Israel, with each state recognizing the other. The West Bank is nearly divided in two by settlements.

A map showing the West Bank, flanked by Israel and Jordan. (World Book map)

After speaking in Israel, President Obama today visited the West Bank. In Ramallah, Obama restated that the Palestinians deserve a state of their own. The president went on to declare that the only way that could occur was with “direct negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis themselves.” The Palestinians have demanded that Israelis put a freeze on building settlements before negotiations begin.

Additional World Book articles:

• Israel
• Oslo accords
• Palestinian Authority

November 27, 2012

The remains of Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat were exhumed today in the West Bank city of Ramallah to determine if he was poisoned. Arafat died in a Paris hospital in 2004 at the age of 75. He fell violently ill in October 2004 at the Palestinian Authority headquarters, known as the Muqataa, and was flown to Paris for medical treatment. According to his medical records, Arafat suffered a stroke resulting from a blood disorder. However, many Palestinians believe he was poisoned by Israel, which had him under house arrest at the time. Israel has denied any involvement in his death.

Arafat led the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) for 35 years and became the first president of the Palestinian Authority in 1996. The PLO is a political body that represents the Palestinian people. Its goal is to establish an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territories fully or partly occupied by Israel since 1967.

Yasir Arafat (also spelled Yasser) was head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 until his death in 2004. He was also president of the Palestinian Authority (PA) from 1996 to 2004. (© Palestinian Press Office/Getty Images)

The latest investigation into his death began in August 2012 when scientists at the Institute of Radiation Physics at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland found “significant” traces of deadly polonium-210 present in samples taken from his personal effects, including his trademark headdress. According to the scientists, the polonium could not have come from natural sources because the levels on his effects were 10 times as high as those on control subjects. Polonium is a highly radioactive isotope (form) of a chemical element.

Additional World Book articles:

• Fatah
• Oslo Accords