Settlement Timeline

December 17
The Palestinian Agriculture Ministry reports that Israel has destroyed 226 wells in Gaza and 10 in the West Bank from September 2001 through the end of August 2003. The losses total $6,150,000. Also, according to the ministry Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have destroyed more than 16,000 irrigation networks, 849 water pools, and more than 400,000 water lines. (Palestine Report)

December 19
Manufacturers in West Bank settlements threaten to fire their Palestinian employees if the European Union imposes customs duties on products made in the settlements. (Yerushalim)

December 22
A tender is published in Yediot Aharanot for the construction of 68 dwelling units in the East Jerusalem settlement of Ramat Shlomo.

December 24
The Jerusalem Post reports that construction of the separation barrier is to be expedited so that the entire southern end, to the Hebron Hills and the settlement of Carmel, will be finished by 2005. The project will employ 15,000 Israelis and Palestinians. Some 40 contractors will be hired through 37 tenders to construct 332 km of the barrier.

Arutz 7 reports a mortar shell hitting the Gaza settlement of Nisanit, injuring two.

The settlement of Neve Dekalim is targeted by mortars, and rockets are directed at an IDF position protecting the settlement of Gadid. No injuries are reported in either attack. (Arutz 7)

Arutz 7 reports that since September 27, 2003, 391 rockets have been launched against Israeli civilian and military targets in Gaza, and a total of 3,719 rockets have been fired throughout Gaza during the al-Aqsa intifada.

The IDF levels 90 dunums of Palestinian land near the settlement of Kfar Darom. (PHRMG)

December 28
Globes reports that a recent tender for the construction of 78 dwelling units in Har Homa received 9 bids. The $2.67 million involved reflects a 20 percent drop in price compared to previous sales. Another tender for 48 units in Pisgat Ze'ev did not receive any bids.

December 30
The Israeli Interior Ministry reports the number of settlers in the West Bank and Gaza increased during the preceding three years by 16 percent, to 236,381, twice the settler population in 1993 when Israel signed the Oslo Accords. (New York Times)

A tender is published in Yediot Aharanot for 113 "Build Your Own House" plots in the West Bank settlement of Har Adar.

December 31
Settlers from the Ma'on settlement, near Hebron, begin reestablishing the Havat Ma'on settlement outpost, which was dismantled by the Israeli government three years prior. (Palestine Report)

January 1
Saudi Arabia agrees to build 950 housing units in Rafah for Palestinians whose homes have been destroyed by the IDF. (Jerusalem Post)

Ha'aretz reports that Israel's agriculture minister Yisrael Katz declared that the Israeli government will double the number of settlers in the Golan from 17,000.

January 2
Yediot Aharanot reports that the IDF has redeployed troops from settlements west of the completed sections of the separation barrier and concentrated them in settlements east of the barrier.

January 3
Israeli deputy prime minister Ehud Olmert asserts that there is no plan to expand the Golan settlements. (Ha'aretz)

January 4
Approximately 25 mortar shells are fired at the Katif bloc bringing the total of such firing to 3,779 since the beginning of the al-Aqsa intifada. (Arutz 7)

Ha'aretz reports that with the 2005 completion of the separation barrier, 6 percent of the West Bank will be west of the barrier.

January 5
The Israeli High Court rules that the course of the separation barrier in the town of Sur Bahar in Jerusalem must be altered. The barrier would originally have split the town in half. The court's decision calls for the town to remain united on the west side of the barrier. (Palestine Report)

January 6
Ma'ariv publishes a list of 28 settlements, with a population of 400, that the Israeli defense ministry intends to evacuate. All were established after March 2001.

January 7
Ha'aretz reveals that a defense ministry report citing the evacuation of 66 settlement outposts since March 2001 includes 3 that are to still be evacuated according to another report published on January 6. Four others cited as dismantled are currently populated.

January 9
Yerushalim reports that a recent tender for four industrial plots in the Mishor Adumim industrial park received no bids.

Export shipments from an Israeli concern located in the Mishor Adumim industrial park were held by European Union customs officials until payment of a 7 percent customs levy, part of the EU effort to exclude products produced in settlements from the EU-Israeli free trade agreement. (Yerushalim)

January 11
Approximately 150,000 people attend a rally organized by the YESHA Council in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square to protest Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon's new disengagement plan. (Ha'aretz)

January 13
One settler is killed and three wounded in a shooting carried out by the al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade near the settlement of Talmon, near Ramallah. (Palestine Report)

January 14
Arutz 7 reports that according to official Palestinian Authority documents, Palestinians annually build between 800 and 900 illegal structures in East Jerusalem.

Israeli officials announce that the separation barrier's Jerusalem section, which will cover approximately 76 km, should be completed by the end of 2004. (Palestine Report)

January 15
Israeli defense minister Shaul Mofaz refuses to enforce a court order to remove settlers from Palestinian property in the Hebron market, citing the probability of settler opposition and the harm such a move would impose upon nearby Palestinians. (Ha'aretz)

January 16
Israel's environment ministry reports a continuing dispute with settlements in the central West Bank over their inadequate sewage treatment efforts. (Kol Ha'Ir)

Four hundred rabbis from the United States and Europe urge the Sharon government to stop its practice of demolishing Palestinian dwellings built without permits in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. (Ha'aretz)

January 20
Ha'aretz reports the IDF bulldozing 30 homes and a mosque in the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza. The demolitions leveled built-up areas near the narrow 8 km "Philadelphia Corridor" that the IDF patrols along the Gaza-Egypt border.

January 21
Palestinians in Hebron report the creation of a 10m wide corridor around the settlement of Kiryat Arba in preparation for a 2m high fence that will encircle it. (Palestine Report)

January 22
The IDF grants hundreds of Jews permission to pray at the site of Joseph's Tomb in Nablus, entering via two buses under army protection. (Arutz 7)

January 23
Kol Ha'Zeman reports the demolition of five Palestinian dwellings in East Jerusalem, noting that since January 2000, 184 dwellings have been demolished in the city, 149 of them belonging to Palestinians.

January 25
Palestinians claim that Israeli demolitions in the Rafah camp have left more than 8,600 residents homeless in the preceding three years. Since September 2000, 869 homes have been demolished and another 629 partially destroyed in Rafah. (Associated Press)

January 28
Five members of the Islamic Jihad are killed in a firefight with the IDF near the settlement of Netzarim in Gaza. Four others, including an 11 year old, also are killed in crossfire. (Mideast Mirror)

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Gaza reports that since the beginning of January 2004, the IDF has totally or partially demolished 72 homes, leaving 584 Palestinians homeless. The demolitions have created a buffer zone from the Rafah passenger terminal along the border with Egypt to the coast.

January 29
The Jerusalem District Court sentences Yitzchak Pass and Mati Shvo, members of a Jewish underground, to 15 months in prison for plotting an attack against Palestinians. Both hail from the settlement outpost of Havat Ma'on. (Ha'aretz)

January 30
A six-month program to encourage the sale of dwellings on Israel's periphery, including the occupied territories, ends less successfully than anticipated. Only $35 million of the $39 million budgeted is subscribed. Settlement housing comprised more than $12 million of the total.

February 2
Arutz 7 reports that 10,000 Israeli Jews have visited the Temple Mount since its reopening in October 2003. Before September 2000, when it was closed due to the al-Aqsa intifada, the annual number of Israeli Jewish visitors was only 4,000.

B'Tselem reports that 875,600 West Bank Palestinians, 38% of the population, are being affected by Israel's separation barrier. Some 263,200 people living in 81 localities have become isolated in enclaves. There are reports that the Israeli cabinet is considering a proposal from National Security Advisor Giora Eiland to revise the route the barrier.

February 3
EU officials inform Israel that the solution to settlement exports proposed on November 24 by Deputy Prime Minister Olmert is unacceptable. (Ma'ariv)

February 7
The Elad settlement group takes possession of fifteen apartments in three buildings in the East Jerusalem settlement of David's City (Silwan). During the last fifteen years, 26 Jewish families have settled in the village opposite the Old City's Dung Gate. Palestinians are contesting the ownership of some of the dwellings. (Arutz 7)

February 11
Ma'ariv reports that the IDF has begun the groundwork to build an electronic fence around the settlements of Netzarim, Kfar Darom, and Morag. Fences are expected to surround an area much larger than the settlements themselves and include Palestinian agricultural land.

February 15
Winners of a land tender issued by the Israel Land Authority for 401 apartment units in Har Homa pay $62.3 million, including $34.9 million for development costs. One of the seven successful contractors, Hisam Karuf, is a Palestinian from East Jerusalem. Twelve hundred units have already been constructed in the settlement (Ha'aretz, Yerushalim)

February 16
Observers from the Temporary International Presence in Hebron report that Israeli policies have led to an exodus of more than 15,000 of Hebron's 35,000 Palestinian residents. (Associated Press)

The Knesset Finance Committee approves loans of more than $11 million for the construction of 200 housing units in the West Bank. The committee also approves $8 million for the Rural Construction Administration and $1 million for settlement security in East Jerusalem. (Arutz 7)

February 17
An Israeli Treasury official reports that the outposts of Amuna and Migron are among 22 settlements that received $20 million in subsidized mortgages from the Housing Ministry. (Ha'aretz)

February 18
Peace Now reports that there are 102 settlement "outposts" in the occupied territories. Of this number, 44 were established prior to February 2001, 55 before the introduction of the road map in June 2003, and 3 after June 2003. In addition, during 2003,12 outposts were connected to the electrical grid, 8 have paved roads leading to their entrance, and 15 have began building permanent structures.

February 22
Ha'aretz reports that changes in its route have resulted in the shortening of the Israeli separation barrier to 640 km, 80 km less than was approved by the government in 2003.

February 23
The International Court of Justice convenes hearings on the legality of the separation barrier.

Ha'aretz reports Treasury figures that the security barrier will cost $3.5 million per km.

February 24
A plan sponsored by Israeli housing minister Efi Eitam from August 2003 to January 2004 increased sales in targeted locales by only 3 percent, the ministry reports. Sales increased in the settlements of Giva Benjamin and Beitar but declined in Ma'ale Adumim. (Ma'ariv, Yediot Aharanot, February 25)

February 26
Ha'aretz reports the killing of two Palestinians in Bidu when Israeli security forces clash with demonstrators protesting the separation barrier. A third man dies of a heart attack after inhaling tear gas during the demonstration.

Farmers living in Gaza settlements report difficulty renewing contracts for the export of their produce for 2005. Because of the Sharon plan to dismantle the Gaza settlements, exporters are concerned that the farms will no longer exist by then. (Arutz 7)

February 27
Two settlers are killed when shots are fired at their car near the Israeli village of Meitar. (Ha'aretz)

A rocket hits a home in Neve Dekalim, part of the Katif bloc in Gaza. No injuries are reported. (Arutz 7)

Israel Line reports that in the preceding three years, 75 homes in the Katif bloc have suffered direct hits from rockets, and a further 200 have been damaged when rockets and mortar rounds landed near them