Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
October 25,
Disengagement. The Knesset approves the Disengagement Plan for unilateral Israeli
2004
withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank and a law to compensate
displaced Jewish settlers. The withdrawal takes place in August 2005.
November 11,
Yasir Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Authority, the PLO, and Fatah (a nationalist
2004
Palestinian group), dies.
January 9,
Palestinians elect Mahmoud Abbas to head the Palestinian Authority.
2005
November 20,
Prime Minister Sharon announces that he is leaving the Likud Party to start his
2005
own party, Kadima.
December 18,
Sharon suffers a stroke. A second stroke on January 4, 2006, leaves him in a coma.
2005
Minister of Finance Ehud Olmert takes over as acting prime minister.
January 26,
Hamas (the Islamic Resistance Movement) wins the elections to the Palestinian
2006
Legislative Council. It later agrees to a coalition government with Fatah in negotiations
held in Doha, Qatar.
July 12, 2006
Second Lebanon War. Hizballah terrorists cross into Israel, killing three soldiers and
capturing two. Hizballah begins rocket attacks on northern Israel. Israel retaliates with
bombing and, later, a ground offensive.
August 14,
UN Security Council Resolution 1701 provides for a ceasefi re with an enlarged UN
2006
force to keep Hizballah from resuming armed control over southern Lebanon.
June 2007
Hamas ousts Fatah from the Gaza Strip in an unprovoked attack and thereafter gov-
erns the area.
November
Annapolis summit. The United States convenes a summit meeting with Israeli and PA
26 -28, 2007
leaders at Annapolis, Maryland.
February 12,
A leading Hizballah activist, Imad Mughniyah, is killed by car bomb in Damascus.
2008
December 27,
Operation Cast Lead. Israel undertakes Operation Cast Lead, a military operation in
2008 -January
the Gaza Strip to stop Hamas rocket attacks.
18, 2009
April 2009
An election brings Benjamin Netanyahu back as prime minister.
November
The Netanyahu government agrees to a ten-month moratorium on construction in
2009
Jewish settlements in the West Bank in an attempt to restart talks with the Palestinian
government. The Palestinian Authority refuses to negotiate.
May 2010
A fl otilla of small ships organized by Hamas supporters tries to break the Israeli trade
embargo on the Gaza Strip. Nine Turkish participants are killed after they attack Israeli
soldiers. Under international pressure, Israel drastically reduces the extent of the sanc-
tions against the Hamas-governed Strip.
January 2011
The Labor Party splits. Its leader, Ehud Barak, forms a new party called Azmaut.
