In Depth
Middle East
Palestinian rivalry
Timeline of turmoil in the Palestinian Authority
Last Updated June 14, 2007
CBC News
With Egypt and Saudi Arabia playing midwife, the bitter rivals for the leadership of the Palestinian Authority came together to announce they would form a unity government in March 2007.
The agreement between Hamas and Fatah followed weeks of factional fighting between their militant followers, not to mention a year-long international boycott that had left the already hard-pressed territory on the verge of a humanitarian crisis.
But violence between the two factions continued and it seemed that no sooner was a new truce announced than the fighting began anew. Weeks of continued violence in May 2007, including Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel, prompting Israeli air strikes on Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip.
Intensifying violence in June 2007 prompted fears of a Palestinian civil war. Hamas gained increasing military control in Gaza, threatening to divide the Palestinian people between a Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and Fatah-controlled West Bank.
Since the more militant Hamas won control of the legislature in January 2006, a Western-led boycott has shut off a large amount of aid to the country.
Many of Hamas's senior legislators are still in Israeli jails and its political leader, Khaled Meshaal, who signed the unity agreement, is living in exile somewhere in Syria.
This is a timeline of the events following the formal Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in September 2005.
June 14, 2007
Hamas gunmen take control of the Preventive Security headquarters of Fatah in Gaza City. The capture of one of Fatah's key installations is seen as a key step to Hamas gaining complete control of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas gives Fatah forces in Gaza until Friday to surrender.
- CBC story: Hamas closes in on full control of Gaza
June 13, 2007
Hamas ignores calls for a ceasefire and continues to bombard Fatah positions. Hamas fighters gain control of a major road in the Gaza Strip, cutting off reinforcements for Fatah fighters. A demonstration by about 1,000 people calling for a halt to the violence is greeted with gunfire, killing a 16-year-old protester and wounding several others.
- CBC story: Hamas presses Gaza battle with Fatah
June 12, 2007
A rocket-propelled grenade hits the home of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, the second attack on his residence in as many days. About 200 Hamas fighters capture the headquarters of Fatah-allied forces in northern Gaza.
From the West Bank, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah, calls for a ceasefire and accuses Hamas of staging a coup. Haniyeh issues an appeal for an end to the fighting and resumption of negotiations.
June 11, 2007
Less than 24 hours after a truce is signed, gunmen open fire on the Palestinian cabinet building while the government meets inside.
Fatah gunmen fire shots at the prime minister's house in Gaza City. No casualties are reported.
- CBC story: Gunmen fire on Palestinian cabinet building
June 10, 2007
Egyptian mediators help Fatah and Hamas reach a truce deal to end the violence that threatens the coalition government.
June 9, 2007
Renewed violence between Fatah and Hamas kills at least six people and wounds dozens. A Hamas imam is executed in front of his mosque. A Fatah-linked security official is shot and thrown from the roof of a high building.
May 16-27, 2007
Israeli aircraft fire missiles into the southern Gaza Strip amid the fighting between Palestinian factions. The air strikes reportedly kill at least five people.
The attacks follow two days of Hamas rocket attacks on the southern Israeli town of Sderot. CBC Middle East correspondent Peter Armstrong reports that the attacks were an apparent attempt to draw Israel into the conflict.
The attacks on both sides continue for nearly two weeks. The Israeli army would later claim that about 250 rockets had been fired into Israel in that time. The Kassam rocket attacks kill two Israelis in Sderot. More than 40 Palestinians, including civilians, die in the Israeli air strikes.
- CBC story: Israel missile attack kills 4 amid Gaza fighting
- CBC story: 5 killed as Israeli missiles strike Hamas targets
- CBC story: Olmert vows to continue strikes as rocket attack kills Israeli
May 14, 2007
Palestinian cabinet spokesman Ghazi Hamad says Fatah and Hamas have reached a truce with the help of an Egyptian security delegation and agreed to remove armed men, take down street checkpoints and exchange hostages.
Hours later, gunmen from the two factions trade gunfire. Fatah says Hamas attacked one of its offices in Gaza City. Hamas says Fatah gunmen attacked a roadblock manned by its militiamen.
- CBC story: Fatah, Hamas agree to truce, official says
- CBC story: Fatah, Hamas continue fighting in Gaza despite truce
March 14-17, 2007
Palestinian officials announce that a deal for a unity government with members from both Hamas and Fatah has been reached. The government is an effort to ease Western sanctions on aid to Palestinians.
Days later, Palestinian politicians endorse the unity cabinet, but Israel's vice-premier Shimon Peres says his government will not deal with the new Palestinian body because it refuses to renounce violence or recognize Israel's right to exist.
- CBC story: Palestinian factions agree on unity government
- CBC story: Israel again rejects Palestinian unity government
Feb. 8, 2007
Two days of crisis talks in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, yield an agreement to form a unity government. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas announce the deal, which was mediated by Saudi King Abdullah.
As part of the arrangement, nine cabinet positions go to Hamas, six to Fatah and three crucial jobs — foreign affairs, finance and interior security — to independents. Hamas's Haniyeh remains prime minister while Abbas, who is elected separately under the Palestinian system, stays president.
There is no immediate word on whether this means Hamas has agreed to formally recognize Israel and renounce violence towards the Jewish state, the two main elements of its platform that created the boycott.
Feb. 7, 2007
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announces plans for a Feb. 19 summit with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The summit is supposed to kick-start stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestine Authority.
Feb. 4, 2007
Fatah and Hamas officials pledge to pull their gunmen from the streets of Gaza after 23 Palestinians are killed in three days. At least 80 have been killed in factional fighting since December. The latest clashes came after Hamas fighters ambushed a Fatah convoy, accusing it of importing weapons from Egypt.
Egypt openly blamed Hamas for breaking the supposed ceasefire between the two rivals.
Dec. 19, 2006
Hamas and Fatah agree to a ceasefire after a week of factional violence that killed at least 15 people. Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas urged Palestinians to stop the civil strife and unite against Israel.
Israeli prisoner exchanges
Hamas militants have said they would negotiate releasing Israeli soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Israel has carried out prisoner exchanges in the past to win freedom for captured Israelis. Here are some of these exchanges.
January 2004
Israel exchanges 436 Arab prisoners and the bodies of 59 Lebanese fighters with Hezbollah for one Israeli civilian and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers.
May 1985
Israel releases 1,150 Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners in exchange for three Israeli soldiers captured in 1982.
November 1983
Israel frees 4,600 Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners in exchange for six abducted Israeli soldiers.
August 1968
Israel frees 15 Palestinian prisoners for 12 passengers and crew from a hijacked El Al airliner.
Dec. 18, 2006
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah party takes the lead in opinion polls after he proposes snap national unity elections. Rival Hamas confirms it will boycott any election. Gun battles between the two rivals rage in the streets outside Abbas's home in Gaza.
December 14, 2006
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas party leader, survives a reported assassination attempt while crossing back into Gaza from Egypt.
A bodyguard was killed and Haniyeh's son was shot in the face as a firefight erupted at the Rafah checkpoint. Earlier in the day, Israeli authorities had ordered the closure of the border point to prevent Haniyeh returning with a reported $35 million US in donations from Iran.
In response to the closure, Hamas militants stormed the border point, wresting control from Palestinian guards.
Haniyeh arrived that evening and was kept at the checkpoint for nearly eight hours, before gunfire broke out between Haniyeh's bodyguards and Fatah loyalists.
Dec. 11, 2006
Three sons of Fatah intelligence officer Baha Balousheh are killed in a drive-by shooting in Gaza city. The children, aged three, six and nine, died as masked gunmen fired over 70 bullets into the vehicle driving them to school.
Balousheh blamed Hamas for the killings, but the group has denied responsibility. Balousheh was a key figure in a 1990s crackdown on the Hamas movement.
Nov. 26, 2006
The ceasefire agreement remains in effect despite Islamic Jihad rocket attacks in the Israeli town of Sderot. The group had publicly stated it would not honour the ceasefire unless Israeli forces halted all military action in the occupied West Bank
.Nov. 23, 2006
Israeli air strikes kill the commander of the Palestinian militant group Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) Faik Abu al-Kamsan and his deputy Mahmoud al-Basiyouni.
Earlier in the day, a 57-year-old female suicide bomber blew herself up near the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia, wounding three Israeli soldiers.
Nov. 22, 2006
Israeli ground troops, tanks and armoured vehicles advanced on the two northern Gaza towns of Beit Hanoun and Jebaliya in response to continuing Palestinian rocket attacks.
Heavily armed Palestinian militants fire on Israeli troops in both towns with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades.
Three teenage Palestinian girls are wounded by Israeli bullet fire outside a school in Beit Hanoun, according to hospital and security officials.
Palestinian rocket attacks continue despite the offensive, and one southern Israeli school is hit just before students arrive for the day.
Nov. 8, 2006
Israeli artillery strikes kill 19 Palestinian civilians, many of them women and children, during a military operation in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun.
Israeli tanks fired 10 rounds into the centre of the town, aiming to destroy rocket launch sites after one civilian was hurt during rocket strikes in the Israeli town of Sderot.
Among the dead was a 13-member family that included seven children. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered an "urgent investigation" into the matter and halted artillery fire in Gaza until the investigation was complete.
Sept. 21, 2006
Hamas's Haniyeh initially endorses a joint statement from the U.S., European Union, UN and Russia calling for any unity government to "reflect" demands to recognize Israel, abandon terrorist tactics and honour peace deals. But an official spokesman later rejects full recognition and places stringent conditions on any potential peace deal. Haniyeh later says Hamas will not be part of any unity government that official recognizes Israel's right to exist.
Sept. 12, 2006
Sniper fire kills an Israeli reserve soldier as Israeli security forces track a terrorist hideout near the al-Muasi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Two militant groups, the Salah al-Din Brigades and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, both claim responsibility for the attack.
Aug. 22, 2006
Israeli troops kill three militants from the Islamic Jihad group near the Israel-Gaza border.
The Israeli army said soldiers opened fire after spotting three "suspicious" men walking by a fence near the Kissufim crossing, carrying large bags. Tanks also fired in the direction of the three men.
No weapons were found near the bodies.
Aug. 13, 2006
Israeli forces kill three Palestinian civilians and wound three others with a missile strike in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza.
Israeli forces were retaliating to a rocket attack launched from that same site earlier in the day.
Aug. 5, 2006
Israeli forces arrest the speaker of the Palestinian parliament, Abdel Aziz Duaik, at his house. The Israeli army said, as a Hamas leader, Duaik was a target for arrest.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas calls the arrest "another crime of piracy by the [Israeli] occupation against the elected representatives of our people." Haniyeh demands international action to secure the release of Duaik and other Hamas officials.
Meanwhile, Israeli tanks move into the southern Gaza Strip and claim a deserted Palestinian security training camp.
Aug. 4, 2006
Israeli troops conduct house-to-house searches in the town of Rafah.
July 28, 2006
Militant group Islamic Jihad fires a rocket from the Gaza Strip at the town of Zikim in southern Israel, hitting a kindergarten and wounding two children with shrapnel.
Israeli forces pull out of northern Gaza after a two-day sweep that left 29 Palestinians dead.
In southern Gaza, an Israeli air strike targets a metal workshop in the city of Khan Younis, injuring nine people, including two children. The Israeli military says it was firing at a weapons storehouse.
July 27, 2006
Five Palestinians are killed, including a 75-year-old grandmother and a 12-year-old boy, as Israeli forces conduct a sweep of northern Gaza.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says negotiations are underway to free Cpl. Gilad Shalit from Palestinian militants, but a Hamas military spokesman rejects any suggestion that the Israeli soldier's release is imminent.
July 24, 2006
Three Palestinians die and eight are wounded after the Israeli military shells Beit Lahiya, a Gaza town of about 40,000 people used by militants as a base to fire rockets. The Israeli army says Palestinians had just used the town to fire seven rockets at southern Israel.
July 22, 2006
Senior Palestinian officials offer a ceasefire to begin at midnight local time. The agreement comes after meetings between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and members of several militant groups. Two militant groups — Al Aqsa Brigades and Islamic Jihad — deny that a ceasefire agreement has been reached.
- CBC story: Unilateral ceasefire offered in Gaza
July 21, 2006
Israeli tanks and troops withdraw from the Maghazi refugee camp. The two-day raid left at least 15 people dead.
- CBC story: Israeli forces end raid on Gaza refugee camp
July 20, 2006
Israeli aircraft fire a missile at Palestinians in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, leaving at least one person dead and five others injured. The air strike hit a group of Palestinians, one of whom was reportedly wearing military fatigues.
The Israeli army distributes leaflets to towns and villages in the Gaza Strip that warn residents their homes would be considered targets if they are hiding weapons.
- CBC story: Israel strikes at refugee camp in Gaza Strip
July 19, 2006
Four Palestinian gunmen and two civilians are killed as Israeli tanks push into the Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.
July 17, 2006
Israeli air strikes destroy the eight-storey Palestinian Foreign Ministry building.
July 15, 2006
Israeli troops clash with Palestinian militant forces around the border settlement of Beit Hanoun, killing two Palestinians.
July 13, 2006
Israeli air strikes hit the Palestinian foreign ministry building in Gaza. Israel said the raid was aimed at Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahhar and accused him of involvement in the capture of an Israeli soldier.
July 12, 2006
An Israeli plane drops a 225-kilogram bomb on a residential building in an attempt to kill Hamas bomb-maker Mohammad Deif. The bombing kills six people, but not the intended target.
- CBC story: Hezbollah captures 2 Israeli soldiers
July 11, 2006
Israeli warplanes kill seven people and wound 24 in an attack on the house of Hamas activist Dr. Nabil al-Salmiah in Gaza City where a meeting of Hamas commanders was taking place.
- CBC story: Israeli warplanes kill 7 in Gaza
July 10, 2006
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, speaking to foreign reporters, repeats his refusal to negotiate for the release of soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit.
Khaled Mashaal, exiled leader of Hamas, says Shalit will be treated as a prisoner of war until Palestinian prisoners are freed.
An Israeli air strike kills two Palestinian militants in the Gaza town of Khan Younis.
- CBC story: Israeli soldier a PoW: Hamas leader
July 9, 2006
Olmert tells his cabinet that Israel will continue its military offensive in the Gaza Strip until Palestinian militants free an abducted Israeli soldier and stop attacking the country with rockets.
Israel bombs a key bridge in northern Gaza and knocks out power to the town Beit Hanoun. The military says the bridge was destroyed to stop militants from moving rockets.
Witnesses claim Israeli tanks have returned to northern Gaza, a day after pulling out of the area. The Israeli military denies the report.
July 8, 2006
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh calls for a ceasefire with Israel, but does not offer to release Shalit.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan says Israel should stop its military operations in Gaza for humanitarian reasons, pointing to air strikes that affected Palestinian hospitals, as well as water and sanitation plants.
Israeli troops pull back from the northern Gaza towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun.
Palestinian witnesses say an Israeli missile hit a house east of Gaza City, killing a six-year-old girl, her 20-year-old brother and their mother. The Israeli military begins an investigation of the incident.
July 7, 2006
Israeli Public Security Minister Avi Dichter says Israel will consider releasing Palestinian prisoners as a "reciprocal gesture" if Shalit is released.
Officials close to Olmert later say Dichter's statement does not reflect the views of the government and that Israel insists on the soldier's unconditional release.
Israeli forces carry out air strikes on Palestinian militant positions in northern Gaza for a second day.
A convoy of Israeli military vehicles advance towards the northen Gaza Strip from a military staging area near Kibbutz Zikim in southern Israel on July 6, 2006. (Tsafrir Abayov/ Associated Press)
July 6, 2006
In some of the heaviest fighting since Israeli forces re-entered Gaza, 21 Palestinians are killed, including nine killed in air strikes in the Beit Lahiya area. An Israeli soldier is shot in the head and killed in the same area.
Palestinian militants launch eight homemade rockets at southern Israel, including five in a one-hour period and one that lands off the coast of Ashkelon. No damage or injuries are reported.
Noam Shalit, father of captured Israeli solider Cpl. Gilad Shalit, asks Israel to consider meeting the demands of the Palestinian groups holding his son.
The United Nations Human Rights Council passes a resolution condemning Israel's military attacks against Palestinian ministries, power plants and bridges in the Gaza Strip.
The resolution passes by a 29-11 vote. Canada, Japan and EU members vote against the resolution. The council will also dispatch a fact-finding team to the region.
- CBC story: Hamas calls on security forces to fight back against Israelis
- CBC story: Canada rejects UN council's censure of Israel
July 5, 2006
Israel's security cabinet approves expansion of the military operation in Gaza into residential areas in response to the Hamas rocket attack on Ashkelon.
In Geneva, John Dugard, a United Nations human rights envoy, tells a special session of the UN Human Rights Council that "Israel is in violation of the most fundamental norms of humanitarian law" because of its "disproportionate use of force against civilians" in Gaza.
July 4, 2006
The July 4, 2006 deadline set by Palestinian militants holding the Israeli soldier passed without concessions by Israel or confirmation that the 19-year-old corporal is still alive.
The CBC's Adrienne Arsenault reports fighting near the main border crossing between Israel and Gaza during what appeared to be an Israeli incursion into Palestinian-controlled territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert continues to say the military offensive will continue until Shalit is released unconditionally. The Israeli government later says that Cpl. Shalit is still alive, but does not cite a source for the information.
Hamas claims responsibility for a rocket attack on an empty school in Ashkelon in southern Israel, about 10 kilometres from the Gaza Strip. No one is injured in the attack. Olmert calls the attack "a major escalation of the war of terror against us."
- CBC story: Israel says captured soldier is alive
July 3, 2006
Israel rejects demands by three Palestinian militant groups that Israel start releasing 1,500 Palestinian prisoners by 6 a.m. on July 4, 2006, or the country would "bear all the consequences." Olmert rejects the ultimatum, saying there will be no negotiations.
The Israel air force kills one Palestinian and injures two others. The Israeli army says they were planting explosives along the border. The Islamic University in Gaza is hit in an air strike for the second time.
- CBC story: Israel rejects Palestinian ultimatum
July 1, 2006
Israeli aircraft attack the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. There was no one in the Hamas member's office when two missiles set it on fire at 1:45 a.m. local time.
- CBC story: Israel attacks Palestinian PM's office
June 30, 2006
Israeli warplanes hit more than 30 targets, including the Palestinian Interior Ministry offices and an office of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. The Israeli army says all the targets were used to plan or carry out attacks on Israel.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak tells the newspaper Al-Ahram that the militants holding Shalit set terms for his release, but Israel did not agree. Israeli officials deny there was any such discussion.
- CBC story: Israel pounds Gaza again
The body of Eliahu Asheri, 18, was found buried near the West Bank city of Ramallah on June 29, 2006. The Israeli settler had been shot. (Asheri family/Associated Press)
June 29, 2006
The body of West Bank settler Eliahu Asheri is found near Ramallah. The Palestinian Resistance Committees later says it kidnapped and killed the 18-year-old.
Israel seizes eight Palestinian cabinet ministers - one-third of the Hamas-led cabinet - and nearly 20 other legislators in early morning raids. An Israeli army spokesperson says they weren't being used as bargaining chips to get back abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit but were taken to await charges in connection with recent attacks against Israel.
June 28, 2006
Israel launches two missiles at a Hamas training camp in southern Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says the military incursion is not a reoccupation of Gaza, but the offensive will continue until a captured Israeli soldier is returned.
Four Israeli warplanes fly over the summer home of Syrain President Bashar Assad in Latakia, apparently to pressure Assad to work toward the captured soldier's release. The exiled leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, lives in Syria.
At a mosque in Gaza City, militants with the Popular Resistance Committees display the identification card of missing West Bank settler Eliahu Asheri. They threaten to kill him if Isreal does not end its invasion of Gaza.
- CBC story: No end to military drive in Gaza
June 27, 2006
Israeli army air strikes destroy three bridges in northern Gaza and the district's main power station. Tanks and troops cross the border into Gaza and take up positions east of Rafah.
June 26, 2006
Israeli troops gather along the Gaza Strip border for an expected military strike following the capture of an Israeli soldier, and the deaths of two other Israeli soldiers.
An undated image released by the family of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who was taken captive. (Associated Press)
June 25, 2006
Palestinian militants attack an Israeli army post, killing two soldiers and abducting a third. They crawled through a tunnel from the Gaza Strip. Israel later closed the tunnel and shut down the border to Gaza. Israeli leaders said they would wait two days for the militants to return the soldier before launching a military response. This was the first time militants have conducted a deadly raid since the army withdrew from Gaza in September 2005.
Eliahu Asheri, an 18-year-old military student and West Bank settler, goes missing.
June 24, 2006
Two rival Palestinian groups agree to stop firing rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip. A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas tells Reuters that the Fatah leader and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas have agreed to stop firing rockets at Israel. This move raised hopes of a new truce, but militants with the armed wing of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group deny a ceasefire.
June 13, 2006
Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz says an inquiry has concluded that Israel is not responsible for an explosion on a beach June 9, blaming it on an explosive buried in the sand. Human Rights Watch says its investigation found the explosion was caused by a 155-millimetre shell "in all likelihood" fire by an Israeli gun.
An Israeli air strike kills nine Palestinians, including two members of Islamic Jihad. The others killed were civilians, including two children, hospital officials say.
June 10, 2006
President Mahmoud Abbas calls a referendum for July 26 on creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Hamas threatens a boycott because they say a yes vote would be a de facto recognition of the state of Israel.
The armed wing of Hamas fires more than a dozen rockets on the Israeli city of Ashkelon, ending a 16-month-old self-declared truce.
- CBC story: Abbas calls referendum on Palestinian state
- CBC story: Hamas fires rockets as truce ends
Injured children are treated by medics at the hospital in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya on June 9, 2006. (Hatem Moussa/Associated Press)
June 9, 2006
An explosion on a beach in Gaza kills eight Palestinians, including a family with three children having a picnic. The Palestinian government accuses Israel of firing the shell that caused the explosion. The Israeli defence minister would later deny that the military caused the explosion, blaming it on an explosive buried in the sand.
- CBC story: Hamas vows to renew attacks on Israel
June 8, 2006
Israeli helicopters fired four missiles at a training camp in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, killing Jamal Abu Samhadana, the Palestinian government's top security chief, and three other militants. Ten other people are wounded.
June 1, 2006
Thousands of Palestinian police officers demonstrate in the Gaza Strip over the government's failure to pay close to three months worth of wages.
May 26, 2006
Hamas withdraws a security force of 3,000 gunmen from Gaza in an effort to reduce tensions with the rival Fatah faction.
- CBC story: Hamas withdraws security force
May 24, 2006
The Israeli military conducts a raid on Ramallah, killing at least three Palestinians and injuring 30 others before withdrawing. A short time later in a separate incident, a car bombing kills Gaza security chief and Abbas loyalist Nabil Hodhod.
- CBC story: Israel raids Ramallah, killing 3
May 19, 2006
A gun battle erupts near the Palestinian parliament building in the Gaza Strip between members of the new Hamas security force and police officers loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas.
- CBC story: Rival Palestinian security forces clash
Sept. 12, 2005
Israeli troops leave the Gaza Strip, ending their 38-year presence in the area. Palestinians celebrate the troop withdrawal. Some of the synagogues remaining in the Strip are set on fire.
Aug. 23, 2005
The last Israeli settlers leave their settlements in the Gaza Strip, ahead of a full Israeli withdrawal from the area.
