2000 remote-sensing map of areas governed by the Palestinian Authority, July 2008. The
Middle East Peace Summit at Camp David, from 11 to 25 July 2000, took place between the United States
President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Barak, and
Palestinian Authority Chairman
Yasser Arafat. It failed with the latter two blaming each other for the failure of the talks. There were four principal obstacles to agreement: territory,
Jerusalem and the
Temple Mount, Palestinian refugees and the
right of return, and Israeli security concerns.
Ariel Sharon visits the Temple Mount On 28 September, Israeli opposition leader
Ariel Sharon and a
Likud party delegation guarded by hundreds of Israeli riot police visited the
Temple Mount, which is widely considered the
third holiest site in Islam. Israel has claimed sovereignty over the Mount and the rest of East Jerusalem
since 1980, and the compound is the
holiest site in Judaism. The Israeli Interior Minister
Shlomo Ben-Ami, who permitted Sharon's visit, later claimed that he had telephoned the Palestinian Authority's security chief
Jibril Rajoub before the visit and gotten his reassurances that as long as Sharon didn't enter the mosques his visit wouldn't cause any problems. Rajoub vociferously denied having given any such reassurances. Shortly after Sharon left the site, angry demonstrations by Palestinian Jerusalemites outside erupted into rioting. The person in charge of the
waqf at the time, Abu Qteish, was later indicted by Israel for using a loud-speaker to call on Palestinians to defend Al-Aqsa, which action Israeli authorities claimed was responsible for the subsequent stone-throwing in the direction of the Wailing Wall. Israeli police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, while protesters
hurled stones and other projectiles, injuring 25 policemen, of whom one was seriously injured and had to be taken to hospital. At least three Palestinians were wounded by rubber bullets. The stated purpose for Sharon's visit of the compound was to assert the right of all Israelis to visit the Temple Mount; however, according to Likud spokesman
Ofir Akunis, the actual purpose was to "show that under a Likud government [the Temple Mount] will remain under Israeli sovereignty." Ehud Barak in the Camp David negotiations had insisted that East Jerusalem, where the Haram was located, would remain under complete Israeli sovereignty. In response to accusations by Ariel Sharon of government readiness to concede the site to the Palestinians, the Israeli government gave Sharon permission to visit the area. When alerted of his intentions, senior Palestinian figures, such as
Yasser Arafat,
Saeb Erekat, and
Faisal Husseini, all asked Sharon to call off his visit. "for ignoring the danger of bloodshed and revenge" and "not taking appropriate measures to prevent bloodshed." Sharon's negligence in protecting the civilian population of Beirut, which had come under Israeli control, amounted to a
non-fulfillment of a duty with which the Defence Minister was charged, and it was recommended that Sharon be dismissed as Defence Minister. Sharon initially refused to resign, but after the death of an Israeli after a peace march, Sharon did resign as Defense minister, but remained in the Israeli cabinet. The Palestinians condemned Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount as a provocation and an incursion, as were his armed bodyguards that arrived on the scene with him. Critics claim that Sharon knew that the visit could trigger violence, and that the purpose of his visit was political. According to one observer, Sharon, in walking on the Temple Mount, was "skating on the thinnest ice in the Arab-Israeli conflict." According to
The New York Times, many in the Arab world, including Egyptians, Palestinians, Lebanese and Jordanians, point to Sharon's visit as the beginning of the Second Intifada and derailment of the peace process. According to Juliana Ochs, Sharon's visit 'symbolically instigated' the second intifada.
Marwan Barghouti said that although Sharon's provocative actions were a rallying point for Palestinians, the Second Intifada would have erupted even had he not visited the Temple Mount.
Post-visit Palestinian riots On 29 September 2000, the day after Sharon's visit, following Friday prayers, large riots broke out around the
Old City of Jerusalem. Israeli police fired at Palestinians at the Temple Mount throwing stones over the
Western Wall at Jewish worshippers. After the chief of Jerusalem's police force was knocked unconscious by a stone, they switched to live ammunition and killed four Palestinian youths. Up to 200 Palestinians and police were injured. Another three Palestinians were killed in the Old City and on the
Mount of Olives. By the end of the day, seven Palestinians had been killed and 300 had been wounded; In the days that followed, demonstrations erupted all over the
West Bank and
Gaza. Israeli police responded with live fire and rubber-coated bullets. In the first five days, at least 47 Palestinians were killed, and 1,885 were wounded. During the first few days of riots, the IDF fired approximately 1.3 million bullets. According to
Amnesty International the early Palestinian casualties were those taking part in demonstrations or bystanders. Amnesty further states that approximately 80% of the Palestinians killed during the first month were in demonstrations where Israeli security services lives were not in danger. On 30 September 2000, the death of
Muhammad al-Durrah, a Palestinian boy shot dead while sheltering behind his father in an alley in the Gaza Strip, was caught on video. Initially the boy's death and his father's wounding was attributed to Israeli soldiers. The scene assumed iconic status, as it was shown around the world and repeatedly broadcast on Arab television. The Israeli army initially assumed responsibility for the killing and apologised, and only retracted 2 months later, when an internal investigation cast doubt on the original version, and controversy subsequently raged as to whether indeed the IDF had fired the shots or Palestinian factions were responsible for the fatal gunshots.
October 2000 events The "October 2000 events" refers to several days of disturbances and clashes within Israel, mostly between
Arab citizens and the
Israel police, as well as large-scale rioting by both Arabs and Jews. Twelve Arab citizens of Israel and a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip were killed by Israeli police, while an Israeli Jew was killed when his car was hit by a rock on the
Tel-Aviv-Haifa freeway. During the first month of the Intifada, 141 Palestinians were killed and 5,984 were wounded, while 12 Israelis were killed and 65 wounded. A general strike and demonstrations across northern Israel began on 1 October and continued for several days. In some cases, the demonstrations escalated into clashes with the
Israeli police involving
rock-throwing,
firebombing, and live-fire. Policemen used tear-gas and opened fire with
rubber-coated bullets and later live ammunition in some instances, many times in contravention of police protocol governing riot-dispersion. This use of live ammunition was directly linked with many of the deaths by the
Or Commission. On 8 October, thousands of Jewish Israelis participated in violent acts in Tel Aviv and elsewhere, some throwing stones at Arabs, destroying Arab property and chanting "Death to the Arabs." Following the riots, a high degree of tension between Jewish and Arab citizens and distrust between the Arab citizens and police were widespread. An investigation committee, headed by Supreme Court Justice
Theodor Or, reviewed the violent riots and found that the police were poorly prepared to handle such riots and charged major officers with bad conduct. The
Or Commission reprimanded Prime Minister
Ehud Barak and recommended
Shlomo Ben-Ami, then the Internal Security Minister, not serve again as Minister of Public Security. The committee also blamed Arab leaders and Knesset members for contributing to inflaming the atmosphere and making the violence more severe.
Ramallah lynching and Israeli response On 12 October, PA police arrested two Israeli reservists who had accidentally entered
Ramallah, where in the preceding weeks a hundred Palestinians had been killed, nearly two dozen of them minors. Rumours quickly spread that Israeli undercover agents were in the building, and an angry crowd of more than 1,000 Palestinians gathered in front of the station calling for their death. Both soldiers were beaten, stabbed, and disembowelled, and one body was set on fire. An Italian television crew captured the killings on video and then broadcast the tape internationally. A British journalist had his camera destroyed by rioters as he attempted to take a picture. The brutality of the killings shocked the Israeli public, who saw it as proof of a deep-seated Palestinian hatred of Israel and Jews. In response, Israel launched a series of retaliatory air-strikes against Palestinian Authority targets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The police station where the lynching had taken place was evacuated and destroyed in these operations. Israel later tracked down and arrested those responsible for killing the soldiers.
November–December 2000 Clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians increased sharply on 1 November, when three Israeli soldiers and six Palestinians were killed, and four IDF soldiers and 140 Palestinians were wounded. In subsequent days, casualties increased as the IDF attempted to restore order, with clashes occurring every day in November. A total of 122 Palestinians and 22 Israelis were killed. On 27 November, the first day of
Ramadan, Israel eased restrictions on the passage of goods and fuel through the
Karni crossing. That same day, the Jerusalem settlement of
Gilo came under Palestinian heavy machine gun fire from
Beit Jala. Israel tightened restrictions a week later, and Palestinians continued to clash with the IDF and Israeli settlers, with a total of 51 Palestinians and 8 Israelis killed in December. In a last attempt by the Clinton administration to achieve a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians, a summit was planned in Sharm el-Sheikh in December. However, Israeli Prime Minister Barak decided not to attend after the Palestinians delayed their acceptance of the
Clinton Parameters.
2001 The
Taba Summit between Israel and the
Palestinian Authority was held from 21 to 27 January 2001, at
Taba in the
Sinai peninsula. Israeli prime minister
Ehud Barak and Palestinian President
Yasser Arafat came closer to reaching a final settlement than any previous or subsequent peace talks yet ultimately failed to achieve their goals. On 17 January 2001, Israeli teenager
Ofir Rahum was murdered after being lured into
Ramallah by a 24-year-old Palestinian, Mona Jaud Awana, a member of Fatah's
Tanzim. She had contacted Ofir on the internet and engaged in an online romance with him for several months. She eventually convinced him to drive to Ramallah to meet her, where he was instead ambushed by three Palestinian gunmen and shot over fifteen times. Awana was later arrested in a massive military and police operation, and imprisoned for life. Five other Israelis were killed in January, along with eighteen Palestinians.
Ariel Sharon, at the time from the
Likud party, ran against
Ehud Barak from the
Labor party. Sharon was elected Israeli Prime Minister 6 February 2001 in the
2001 special election to the Prime Ministership. Sharon refused to meet in person with Yasser Arafat. Violence in March resulted in the deaths of 8 Israelis, mostly civilians, and 26 Palestinians. In
Hebron, a Palestinian sniper killed ten-month-old Israeli baby
Shalhevet Pass. The murder shocked the Israeli public. According to the Israel police investigation the sniper aimed deliberately at the baby. On 30 April 2001, seven Palestinian militants were killed in an explosion, one of them a participant in Ofir Rahum's murder. The IDF refused to confirm or deny Palestinian accusations that it was responsible. demolishing a Palestinian house in Gaza city, 2001 On 7 May 2001, IDF
naval commandos captured the vessel
Santorini, which was sailing in international waters towards Palestinian Authority-controlled Gaza. The ship was laden with weaponry. The Israeli investigation that followed said that the shipment had been purchased by
Ahmed Jibril's
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC). The ship's value and that of its cargo was estimated at $10 million. The crew was reportedly planning to unload the cargo of weapons-filled barrels—carefully sealed and waterproofed along with their contents—at a prearranged location off the Gaza coast, where the Palestinian Authority would recover it. On 8 May 2001, two Israeli teenagers, Yaakov "Koby" Mandell (13) and Yosef Ishran (14), were kidnapped while hiking near their village. Their bodies were discovered the next morning in a cave near where they lived.
USA Today reported that, according to the police, both boys had "been bound, stabbed and beaten to death with rocks." The newspaper continued, "The walls of the cave in the Judean Desert were covered with the boys' blood, reportedly smeared there by the killers." After a
suicide bombing struck Netanya on 18 May 2001, Israel for the first time since 1967 used warplanes to attack Palestinian Authority targets in the West Bank and Gaza, killing 12 Palestinians. In the past, airstrikes had been carried out with helicopter gunships. On 1 June 2001, an
Islamic Jihad suicide bomber
detonated himself in the Tel Aviv coastline Dolphinarium dancing club. Twenty-one Israeli civilians, most of them high school students, were killed and 132 injured. The attack significantly hampered American attempts to negotiate a cease-fire. The 12 June
Murder of Georgios Tsibouktzakis by Palestinian snipers was later tied to
Marwan Barghouti. A total of 469 Palestinians and 199 Israelis were killed in 2001. Amnesty International's report on the first year of the Intifada states: The overwhelming majority of cases of unlawful killings and injuries in Israel and the Occupied Territories have been committed by the IDF using excessive force. In particular, the IDF have used US-supplied helicopters in punitive rocket attacks where there was no imminent danger to life. Israel has also used helicopter gunships to carry out extrajudicial executions and to fire at targets that resulted in the killing of civilians, including children. ... Hamas and Islamic Jihad have frequently placed bombs in public places, usually within Israel, in order to kill and maim large numbers of Israeli civilians in a random manner. Both organizations have fostered a cult of martyrdom and frequently use suicide bombers. the
Nahariya train station suicide bombing and the
Pardes Hanna bus bombing, both with 3 civilian casualties; the Ben Yehuda Street bombing with 11 civilian deaths, many of them children; and the
Haifa bus 16 suicide bombing, with 15 civilian casualties.
2002 In January 2002, the
IDF Shayetet 13 naval commandos captured the
Karine A, a freighter carrying weapons from
Iran towards Israel, believed to be intended for Palestinian militant use against Israel. It was discovered that top officials in the
Palestinian Authority were involved in the smuggling, with the Israelis pointing the finger towards
Yasser Arafat as also being involved. Palestinians launched a spate of suicide bombings and attacks against Israel, aimed mostly at civilians. On 3 March, a
Palestinian sniper killed 10 Israeli soldiers and settlers and wounded 4 at a checkpoint near
Ofra, using an
M1 Carbine. He was later arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment. The rate of the attacks increased, and was at its highest in March 2002. On 12 March
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1397 was passed, which reaffirmed a
Two-state solution and laid the groundwork for a
Road map for peace. In total, around 130 Israelis, mostly civilians, were killed in Palestinian attacks during March 2002. On 29 March, Israel launched
Operation Defensive Shield, which lasted until 3 May. The IDF made sweeping incursions throughout the West Bank, and into numerous Palestinian cities. Arafat was put under siege in his
Ramallah compound. The UN estimated that 497 Palestinians were killed and 1,447 wounded by the Israeli incursion from 1 March to 7 May. Israeli casualties during the operation totaled 30 dead and 127 wounded. The operation culminated with the recapturing of Palestinian Authority controlled areas.
Battle of Jenin armored bulldozer Between 2 and 11 April, a siege and fierce fighting took place in the Palestinian refugee camp of the city of
Jenin. The camp was targeted during Operation Defensive Shield after Israel determined that it had "served as a launch site for numerous terrorist attacks against both Israeli civilians and Israeli towns and villages in the area." The Jenin battle became a flashpoint for both sides, and saw fierce urban combat as Israeli infantry supported by armor and attack helicopters fought to clear the camp of Palestinian militants. The battle was eventually won by the IDF, after it employed a dozen
Caterpillar D9 armored bulldozers to clear Palestinian
booby traps, detonate explosive charges, and raze buildings and gun-posts; the bulldozers proved impervious to attacks by Palestinian militants. During Israeli military operations in the camp, Palestinian sources alleged that a massacre of hundreds of people had taken place. A senior Palestinian Authority official said in mid-April that some 500 had been killed. During the fighting in Jenin, Israeli officials had also initially estimated hundreds of Palestinian deaths, but later said they expected the Palestinian toll to reach "45 to 55." In the ensuing controversy, Israel blocked the United Nations from conducting the first-hand inquiry unanimously sought by the Security Council, but the UN nonetheless felt able to dismiss claims of a massacre in its report, which said there had been approximately 52 deaths, criticising both sides for placing Palestinian civilians at risk. Based on their own investigations,
Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch charged that some IDF personnel in Jenin had committed
war crimes but also confirmed that no massacre had been committed by the IDF. Both human rights organizations called for official inquiries; the IDF disputed the charges. After the battle, most sources, including the IDF and
Palestinian Authority, placed the Palestinian death toll at 52–56;
Human Rights Watch documented 52 Palestinian deaths and claimed that it included at least 27 militants and 22 civilians, and an additional 3 Palestinians whose status as militants or civilians could not be ascertained, while the IDF said that 48 militants and 5 civilians had been killed. According to Human Rights Watch, 140 buildings had been destroyed. The IDF reported that 23 Israeli soldiers had been killed and 75 wounded during the battle.
Siege in Bethlehem , April 3, 2002 From 2 April to 10 May, a stand-off developed at the
Church of the Nativity in
Bethlehem. IDF soldiers surrounded the church while Palestinian civilians, militants, and priests were inside. During the
siege, IDF snipers killed 8 militants inside the church and wounded more than 40 people. The stand-off was resolved by the deportation to Europe of 13 Palestinian militants whom the IDF had identified as terrorists, and the IDF ended its 38-day stand-off with the militants inside the church.
2003 Following an Israeli intelligence report stating that
Yasir Arafat had paid $20,000 to
al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the United States demanded democratic reforms in the
Palestinian Authority, as well the appointment of a prime minister independent of Arafat. On 13 March 2003, following U.S. pressure, Arafat appointed
Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian prime minister. Following the appointment of Abbas, the U.S. administration promoted the
Road map for peace—the
Quartet's plan to end the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict by disbanding militant organizations, halting settlement activity and establishing a democratic and peaceful Palestinian state. The first phase of the plan demanded that the Palestinian Authority suppress guerrilla and terrorist attacks and confiscate illegal weapons. Unable or unwilling to confront militant organizations and risk civil war, Abbas tried to reach a temporary cease-fire agreement with the militant factions and asked them to halt attacks on Israeli civilians. On 20 May, Israeli naval commandos intercepted another vessel, the
Abu Hassan, on course to the
Gaza Strip from
Lebanon. It was loaded with rockets, weapons, and ammunition. Eight crew members on board were arrested including a senior
Hezbollah member. On 29 June 2003, a
temporary armistice was unilaterally declared by
Fatah,
Hamas and
Islamic Jihad, which declared a ceasefire and halt to all attacks against Israel for a period of three months. Violence decreased somewhat in the following month, but suicide bombings against Israeli civilians continued as well as Israeli operations against militants. Four Palestinians, three of them militants, were killed in gun battles during an IDF raid of
Askar near
Nablus involving tanks and
armoured personnel carriers (APCs); an Israeli soldier was killed by one of the militants. Nearby Palestinians claimed a squad of Israeli police disguised as Palestinian labourers opened fire on
Abbedullah Qawasameh as he left a Hebron mosque.
YAMAM, the Israeli counter-terrorism police unit that performed the operation, said Qawasemah opened fire on them as they attempted to arrest him. On 19 August, Hamas coordinated a
suicide attack on a
crowded bus in
Jerusalem killing 23 Israeli civilians, including 7 children. Hamas claimed it was a retaliation for the killing of five Palestinians (including Hamas leader
Abbedullah Qawasameh) earlier in the week. U.S. and Israeli media outlets frequently referred to the bus bombing as shattering the quiet and bringing an end to the ceasefire. Following the Hamas bus attack,
Israeli Defence Forces were ordered to kill or capture all Hamas leaders in
Hebron and the
Gaza Strip. The plotters of the bus suicide bombing were all captured or killed and
Hamas leadership in Hebron was badly damaged by the IDF. Strict curfews were enforced in Nablus, Jenin, and Tulkarem; the Nablus lockdown lasted for over 100 days. In
Nazlet 'Issa, over 60 shops were destroyed by Israeli civil administration
bulldozers. The Israeli civil administration explained that the shops were
demolished because they were built without a permit. Palestinians consider Israeli military curfews and property destruction to constitute
collective punishment against innocent Palestinians. , 2003 Unable to rule effectively under Arafat, Abbas resigned in September 2003.
Ahmed Qurei (Abu Ala) was appointed to replace him. The Israeli government gave up hope for negotiated settlement to the conflict and pursued a unilateral policy of physically separating Israel from Palestinian communities by beginning construction on the
Israeli West Bank barrier. Israel claims the barrier is necessary to prevent Palestinian attackers from entering Israeli cities. Palestinians claim the barrier separates Palestinian communities from each other and that the construction plan is a de facto annexation of Palestinian territory. Following a 4 October
suicide bombing in Maxim restaurant,
Haifa, which claimed the lives of 21 Israelis, Israel claimed that Syria and
Iran sponsored the
Islamic Jihad and
Hezbollah, and were responsible for the terrorist attack. The day after the Maxim massacre,
IAF warplanes
bombed an alleged former Palestinian training base at Ain Saheb,
Syria, which had been mostly abandoned since the 1980s. Munitions being stored on the site were destroyed, and a civilian guard was injured.
2004 In response to repeated shelling of Israeli communities with
Qassam rockets and mortar shells from Gaza, the
IDF operated mainly in
Rafah – to search and destroy
smuggling tunnels used by militants to obtain
weapons,
ammunition, fugitives, cigarettes, car parts, electrical goods, foreign currency, gold,
drugs, and cloth from
Egypt. Between September 2000 and May 2004, ninety tunnels connecting Egypt and the Gaza Strip were found and destroyed. Raids in Rafah left many families homeless. Israel's official stance is that their houses were captured by militants and were destroyed during battles with IDF forces. Many of these houses are abandoned due to Israeli incursions and later destroyed. According to Human Rights Watch, over 1,500 houses were destroyed to create a large buffer zone in the city, many "in the absence of military necessity", displacing around sixteen thousand people. On 2 February 2004, Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon announced his plan to transfer all the
Jewish settlers from the
Gaza Strip. The Israeli opposition dismissed his announcement as "media spin", but the
Israeli Labour Party said it would support such a move. Sharon's right-wing coalition partners
National Religious Party and
National Union rejected the plan and vowed to quit the government if it were implemented.
Yossi Beilin, peace advocate and architect of the
Oslo Accords and the
Geneva Accord, also rejected the proposed withdrawal plan. He claimed that withdrawing from the Gaza Strip without a peace agreement would reward
terror. Following the declaration of the
disengagement plan by Ariel Sharon and as a response to suicide attacks on
Erez crossing and
Ashdod seaport (10 people were killed), the IDF launched a series of armored raids on the Gaza Strip (mainly Rafah and refugee camps around Gaza), killing about 70
Hamas militants. On 22 March 2004, an Israeli helicopter gunship
killed Hamas leader Sheikh
Ahmed Yassin, along with his two bodyguards and nine bystanders. On 17 April, after several failed attempts by Hamas to commit suicide bombings and a successful one that killed an Israeli policeman, Yassin's successor,
Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, was killed in an almost identical way, along with a bodyguard and his son Mohammed. The fighting in Gaza Strip escalated severely in May 2004 after several failed attempts to attack
Israeli checkpoints such as
Erez crossing and
Karni crossing. On 2 May, Palestinian militants attacked and
shot dead a pregnant woman and her four young daughters.
Amnesty International classified it as a
crime against humanity and said it "reiterates its call on all Palestinian armed groups to put an immediate end to the deliberate targeting of Israeli civilians, in Israel and in the Occupied Territories". Additionally, on 11 and 12 May, Palestinian militants destroyed two IDF
M-113 APCs, killing 13 soldiers and mutilating their bodies. The IDF launched two raids to recover the bodies, killing 20–40 Palestinians and greatly damaging structures in the Zaitoun neighbourhood in Gaza and in south-west Rafah. Subsequently, on 18 May the IDF launched
Operation Rainbow with a stated aim of striking the militant infrastructure of Rafah, destroying smuggling tunnels, and stopping a shipment of
SA-7 missiles and improved
anti-tank weapons. A total of 41 Palestinian militants and 12 civilians were killed in the operation, and about 45–56 Palestinian structures were demolished. Israeli tanks shelled hundreds of Palestinian protesters approaching their positions, killing 10. The protesters had disregarded Israeli warnings to turn back. This incident led to a worldwide outcry against the operation. On 29 September, after a
Qassam rocket hit the Israeli town of
Sderot and killed two Israeli children, the IDF launched
Operation Days of Penitence in the north of the Gaza Strip. The operation's stated aim was to remove the threat of Qassam rockets from Sderot and kill the Hamas militants launching them. The operation ended on 16 October, after having caused widespread destruction and the deaths of over 100 Palestinians, at least 20 of whom were under the age of sixteen. The IDF killed thirteen-year-old
Iman Darweesh Al Hams as she strayed into a closed military area; the commander was accused of allegedly firing his automatic weapon at her dead body deliberately to verify the death. The act was investigated by the IDF, but the commander was cleared of all wrongdoing, and more recently, was fully vindicated when a Jerusalem district court found the claim to be libellous, ruled that NIS 300,000 be paid by the journalist and TV company responsible for the report, an additional NIS 80,000 to be paid in legal fees and required the journalist and television company to air a correction. According to Palestinian medics, Israeli forces killed at least 62 militants and 42 other Palestinians believed to be civilians. According to a count performed by
Haaretz, 87 militants and 42 civilians were killed. Palestinian refugee camps were heavily damaged by the Israeli assault. The IDF announced that at least 12 Qassam launchings had been thwarted and many militants hit during the operation. On 21 October, the
Israeli Air Force killed
Adnan al-Ghoul, a senior Hamas bomb maker and the inventor of the
Qassam rocket. On 11 November, Yasser Arafat died in Paris. Escalation in Gaza began amid the visit of
Mahmoud Abbas to
Syria in order to achieve a
Hudna between Palestinian factions and convince Hamas leadership to halt attacks against Israelis. Hamas vowed to continue the armed struggle, sending numerous
Qassam rockets into open fields near
Nahal Oz, and hitting a
kindergarten in
Kfar Darom with an anti-tank missile. On 9 December five Palestinians weapon smugglers were killed and two were arrested in the border between Rafah and
Egypt. Later that day,
Jamal Abu Samhadana and two of his bodyguards were injured by a missile strike. In the first Israeli airstrike against militants in weeks, an unmanned Israeli drone plane launched one missile at Abu Samahdna's car as it travelled between Rafah and Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. It was the fourth attempt on Samhadana's life by Israel. Samhadana is one of two leaders of the
Popular Resistance Committees and one of the main forces behind the smuggling tunnels. Samhadana is believed to be responsible for the
blast against an American diplomatic convoy in Gaza that killed three Americans. On 10 December, in response to Hamas firing mortar rounds into the Neveh Dekalim settlement in the Gaza Strip and wounding four Israelis (including an 8-year-old boy), Israeli soldiers fired at the Khan Younis refugee camp (the origin of the mortars) killing a seven-year-old girl. An IDF source confirmed troops opened fire at Khan Younis, but said they aimed at Hamas mortar crews. The largest attack since the death of Yasser Arafat claimed the lives of five Israeli soldiers on 12 December, wounding ten others. Approximately 1.5 tons of explosives were detonated in a tunnel under an Israeli military-controlled border crossing on the Egyptian border with Gaza near Rafah, collapsing several structures and damaging others. The explosion destroyed part of the outpost and killed three soldiers. Two Palestinian militants then penetrated the outpost and killed two other Israeli soldiers with gunfire. It is believed that Hamas and a new Fatah faction, the "Fatah Hawks", conducted the highly organised and coordinated attack. A spokesman, "Abu Majad", claimed responsibility for the attack in the name of the
Fatah Hawks claiming it was in retaliation for "the assassination" of Yasser Arafat, charging he was poisoned by Israel.
2005 Palestinian presidential elections were held on 9 January, and
Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) was elected as the president of the PA. His platform was of a peaceful negotiation with Israel and non-violence to achieve Palestinian objectives. Although Abbas called on militants to halt attacks against Israel, he promised them protection from Israeli incursions and did not advocate disarmament by force. Violence continued in the Gaza Strip, and
Ariel Sharon froze all diplomatic and security contacts with the
Palestinian National Authority. Spokesman Assaf Shariv declared that "Israel informed international leaders today that there will be no meetings with Abbas until he makes a real effort to stop the terror." The freezing of contacts came less than one week after Mahmoud Abbas was elected, and the day before his inauguration. Palestinian negotiator
Saeb Erekat, confirming the news, declared "You cannot hold Mahmoud Abbas accountable when he hasn't even been inaugurated yet." Following international pressure and Israeli threat of wide military operation in the
Gaza Strip, Abbas ordered
Palestinian police to deploy in the northern Gaza Strip to prevent
Qassam rocket and mortar shelling over Israeli settlement. Although attacks on Israelis did not stop completely, they decreased sharply. On 8 February 2005, at the
Sharm el-Sheikh Summit of 2005, Sharon and Abbas declared a mutual
truce between Israel and the
Palestinian National Authority. They shook hands at a four-way summit that also included
Jordan and
Egypt at
Sharm al-Sheikh. However, Hamas and
Islamic Jihad said the truce is not binding for their members. Israel has not withdrawn its demand to dismantle terrorist infrastructure before moving ahead in the
Road map for peace. Many warned that truce is fragile, and progress must be done slowly while observing that the truce and quiet are kept. On 9–10 February night, a barrage of 25–50
Qassam rockets and
mortar shells hit
Neve Dekalim settlement, and another barrage hit at noon. Hamas said it was in retaliation for an attack in which one Palestinian was killed near an Israeli settlement. As a response to the mortar attack, Abbas ordered the Palestinian security forces to stop such attacks in the future. He also fired senior commanders in the Palestinian security apparatus. On 10 February,
Israeli security forces arrested Maharan Omar Shucat Abu Hamis, a Palestinian resident of
Nablus, who was about to launch a bus
suicide attack in the
French Hill in
Jerusalem. On 13 February 2005, Abbas entered into talks with the leaders of the Islamic Jihad and the Hamas, for them to rally behind him and respect the truce. Ismail Haniyah, a senior leader of the group Hamas said that "its position regarding calm will continue unchanged and Israel will bear responsibility for any new violation or aggression." In the middle of June, Palestinian factions intensified bombardment over the city of
Sderot with improvised
Qassam rockets. Palestinian attacks resulted in 2 Palestinians and 1 Chinese civilian killed by a Qassam, and 2 Israelis were killed. The wave of attacks lessened support for the
disengagement plan among the Israeli public. Attacks on Israel by the
Islamic Jihad and the
al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades increased in July, and on 12 July, a
suicide bombing hit the coastal city of
Netanya, killing 5 civilians. On 14 July, Hamas started to shell Israeli settlements inside and outside the
Gaza Strip with dozens of Qassam rockets, killing an Israeli woman. On 15 July, Israel resumed its "targeted killing" policy, killing 7 Hamas militants and bombing about 4 Hamas facilities. The continuation of shelling rockets over Israeli settlements, and street battles between Hamas militants and Palestinian policemen, threatened to shatter the truce agreed in the Sharm el-Sheikh Summit of 2005. The Israeli Defence Force also started to build up armored forces around the Gaza Strip in response to the shelling.
End of the Second Intifada The ending date of the Second Intifada is disputed, as there was no definite event that brought it to an end. The general view is that it ended in 2005, while some sources include events and statistics extending as late as 2007. • Some commentators, such as Sever Plocker, consider the intifada to have ended in late 2004. With the sickness and then death of Yasser Arafat in November 2004, the Palestinians lost their internationally recognised leader of the previous three decades, after which the intifada lost momentum and led to internal fighting between Palestinian factions (most notably the
Fatah–Hamas conflict), as well as conflict within Fatah itself. • Israel's unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip, announced in June 2004 and completed in August 2005, is also cited as signalling the end of the intifada, for instance by Ramzy Baroud. • Some consider 8 February 2005 to be the official end of the Second Intifada, although sporadic violence still continued outside PA control or condonation. On that day, Abbas and Sharon met at the
Sharm el-Sheikh Summit, where they vowed to end attacks on each other. In addition, Sharon agreed to release 900
Palestinian prisoners and withdraw from West Bank towns. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) refused to be parties to the agreement, arguing the cease-fire was the position of the PA only. Five days later Abbas reached agreement with the two dissenting organizations to commit to the truce with the proviso that Israeli violation would be met with retaliation. Schachter addressed the difficulties in deciding when the Second Intifada ended. He reasoned that suicide bombing was the best criterion, being arguably the most important element of the violence involved, and that according to this criterion the intifada ended during 2005. ==Trigger for the uprising==