Diary of Escalation - Postcards from Palestine at canadazone.com

Diary of Escalation - Waiting for a Bigger Gun

5 March 2002

The Sharon governments decision to exert “continuous military pressure” on the Palestinians to force them to capitulate ranks as yet another colossal wrong turn in the maze of the Middle East conflict. The past few days has seen the worst escalation of events yet, and Ariel Sharon seems bent on pulling a bigger gun out of his holster every morning. Each action leads to another violent reaction by Palestinian militants. And it’s the civilians who pay most of the cost. Here’s a summary of the recent events, just in case all the news hasn’t reached the West:

Thursday 28 February
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) invaded 2 refugee camps, Jenin and Balata, in the north of the West Bank in an operation it said was designed to locate terrorist hideouts and arms caches. In a 48-hour offensive, at least 26 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed.
Saturday 2 March
A Palestinian suicide bomber from a refugee camp in Bethlehem killed 10 Israelis in an ultra-orthodox neighborhood in West Jerusalem just after sundown. At least 4 children were among the dead. Meanwhile, the IDF remained encircled around the 2 refugee camps and carried out reprisal bombings of Jenin City, Bethlehem, and Ramallah.
Sunday 3 March
Early in the morning, 7 soldiers and three civilians, including a rescue worker, were killed by a lone Palestinian gunman at a checkpoint near the settlement of Ofra northeast of Ramallah. Israeli bombing thereafter killed at least one Palestinian in Ramallah. Another Israeli soldier was killed in an attack in the Gaza Strip, and another soldier was killed in an IDF military convoy in the Jordan Valley. Ariel Sharon convened his security cabinet at 8:30 p.m. – the unanimous decision was “continuous military pressure” on the Palestinians.
Monday 4 March
Sharon’s plan is put into action. Fierce fighting erupted as the IDF invaded Jenin City. At least 10 Palestinians were killed, including a doctor and an ambulance driver from the Red Crescent Society. A woman injured by a tank shell died when rescue workers couldn’t reach her. In Ramallah, a tank shell fired from the Israeli settlement of Psagot killed 6 civilians – 5 young children and one woman – in a botched assassination attempt of a Hamas militant. The IDF also attacked the city and refugee camp of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, killing at least 3 Palestinians.
Tuesday 5 March
Early in the morning, a Palestinian gunman killed 3 Israelis outside a restaurant in Tel Aviv before being killed by police. Later in the morning, a suicide bomber killed himself and one Israeli on a bus near the settlement of Afula, and in a seperate incident, a settler woman was shot dead in her car on a bypass road south of Jerusalem. Her husband was wounded. Also Tuesday morning, 8 Palestinians (a teacher and 7 children) were wounded when a bomb blew up outside a school in East Jerusalem. A Jewish terrorist group has took credit for the bombing. At night, Israeli attack helicopters rocketed Arafat's compound in Ramallah while he was meeting with European Union envoy Miguel Moratinos. Neither were injured.
Friday 8 March
44 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed in various IDF incursions into Bethlehem, Tulkarem, and the Gaza Strip. This marks the single highest death toll on one day during the 17 month Intifada.
Saturday 9 March
A Palestinian gunman killed 2 Israelis, including a 9 month old baby, and injured several before being shot dead himself in the Israeli town of Netanya. Late night in West Jerusalem, a suicide bomber killed himself and 13 Israeli civilians, also injuring more than one hundred. The IDF responded by invading 2 refugee camps in Bethlehem, killing at least 3, and occupying Tulkarem, also killing three. Israeli missile strikes ripped apart Arafat's home and headquarters in Gaza, and also killed one Palestinian in Ramallah. One Israeli soldier was killed by friendly fire during an overnight mission into the Gaza Strip.

At a rough count, that’s 99 Palestinians and 43 Israelis dead in 9 days, with hundreds more injured. It seems we’re just waiting for the next big gun to fire – from which side who knows?