Chronology of Events in Palestine
1516–1917
Palestine incorporated into the Ottoman Empire under Selim I on August 24, 1516, with its capital in Istanbul.1
1897
AUGUST
First Zionist Congress convened in Switzerland from August 29 to 31. It issues the Basel Programme calling for the establishment of “a home for the Jewish people in Palestine.” It also establishes the World Zionist Organisation to work to that end.
1914
JULY–AUGUST
Outbreak of World War I as Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia on July 28 and Germany declares war on Russia and France on August 1 and 3, respectively.
OCTOBER–NOVEMBER
The Ottoman state enters the war on the side of Germany when it begins a naval attack on the Russian Black Sea ports on October 29. Russia declares war four days later.
1916
MAY
Sykes-Picot Agreement is secretly signed, dividing Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire between Britain and France.
1917
NOVEMBER
British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour sends letter (Balfour Declaration) to Baron de Rothschild on November 2, pledging British support for the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine.
1918
SEPTEMBER
Palestine is occupied by Allied forces under British General Allenby.
OCTOBER
End of World War I on November 11, with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
1920
JULY
British civilian administration is inaugurated on July 1. Sir Herbert Samuel is appointed first High Commissioner.
1921
MARCH
Founding of Haganah (defence), the Zionists’ illegal underground military organization.
1922
JULY
On July 24, the League of Nations Council approves Mandate for Palestine without consent of Palestinians.
1923
SEPTEMBER
British Mandate for Palestine comes officially into force on September 28.
1929
AUGUST
Serious unrest occurs centring on al-Buraq Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall, a site that holds significance for both Jews and Muslims in the heart of old Jerusalem. In June 1930, the League of Nations sends a fact-finding committee to investigate the reasons behind the uprising. After five months of investigations, the committee concludes that the area around the wall is an Islamic endowment, but that the Jews can continue their prayers at the wall with certain restrictions.
1935
OCTOBER
Irgun Zvai Leumi (National Military Organization), Irgun or IZL for short, founded by Revisionist groups and dissidents from Haganah, advocates a more militant policy against Palestinians.
1936
MAY
Great Palestinian Rebellion begins in April with the killing of two Jewish people and a general strike.
AUGUST
On August 25, Lebanese guerrilla leader Fawzi Al Qawuqji enters Palestine, leading 150 volunteers from Arab countries to help fight the British.
1939
OCTOBER
The Stern Gang, or Lochemay Herut Yisra’el (LEHI; Fighters for the Freedom of Israel), is formed by dissident IZL members led by Avraham Stern.
1942
Formation of the Free Officers by Abd Al Nasser and others. This occurred in steps.
1944
JANUARY
Stern Gang assassinates Lord Moyne, British Minister of State, in Cairo.
1947
MAY
Appointment of eleven-member Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) on May 15, with its first meeting on May 26.
SEPTEMBER
Arab League denounces UNSCOP partition recommendation on September 16.
Arab Higher Committee rejects partition on September 30.
OCTOBER
Jewish Agency accepts partition on October 4.
NOVEMBER
Partition Plan passed by UN Resolution 181 on November 29.
On November 30, Haganah calls up Jews in Palestine aged 17–25 to register for military service.
DECEMBER
Arab League organizes Arab Liberation Army (ALA), a voluntary force of Arab irregulars under guerrilla leader Fawzi Al Qawuqji, to help Palestinians resist partition, at a meeting on December 8.
1948
APRIL
Irgun and the Stern Gang, led by Menachem Begin and Yitzhaq Shamir, massacre 245–250 inhabitants of Deir Yassin village near Jerusalem on April 9.
MAY
British Mandate ends on May 15. Declaration of state of Israel comes into effect on May 14.
The US and USSR recognize the state of Israel on May 15 and 17, respectively.
UN Security Council appoints Count Folke Bernadotte as its mediator in Palestine on May 20.
Al Nakba begins on May 15.
JUNE–JULY
First Truce in the Arab–Israeli War lasts from June 11 to July 8.
JULY–OCTOBER
Second Truce is ordered by the UN Security Council on July 18 and lasts until October 15.
SEPTEMBER
UN mediator Count Bernadotte is assassinated in Jerusalem by Stern Gang on September 17.
DECEMBER
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) brigade attack on isolated Egyptian forces in Faluja pocket is repulsed.
UN General Assembly passes Resolution 194 (III) on December 11, declaring the right of Palestinian refugees to return.
1949
FEBRUARY
Israeli–Egyptian Armistice is signed on February 24: Egypt keeps coastal strip Gaza-Rafah and evacuates Faluja pocket.
1950
APRIL
On April 24, 1950, the Jordanian parliament officially declares the Unification of the West Bank and the Kingdom of Jordan, the Egyptian–Israeli Armistice Agreement is signed, and the territory now officially known as the Gaza Strip is placed under Egyptian military and administrative rule. While preventing political expression and organization, Egyptian policy preserves the Strip’s Palestinian identity, keeping it separate from Egypt as a “Palestinian entity” pending implementation of the relevant UN resolution.
MAY
UN General Assembly establishes the UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency) based on Resolution 302 of December 8, 1949.
1951
SEPTEMBER
Yasser Arafat reorganizes the Palestinian Students’ Union in Cairo.
1952
JANUARY
British along the Canal Zone attack an Egyptian police post in the city of Ismailia on January 25 and kill fifty Egyptians.
On January 26, more than 750 business establishments burn in Cairo, with thirty people killed and about a thousand injured.
JULY
Egyptian Revolution by the Free Officers, which overthrows the monarchy on July 23.
1953
AUGUST
Sharon, the Israeli commander of the UNIT 101, attacks Al Bureij camp in eastern Gaza and kills approximately forty Palestinians.
1954
JULY
British sign a treaty to evacuate their forces from Egypt.
1956
JULY
President Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal on July 26.
OCTOBER
On October 29, 1956, the tripartite (Britain, France, Israel) invasion of Egypt—the Suez War—is launched. Israel occupies the Gaza Strip (declaring it to be an “integral part of the historical Jewish past”) until March 7, 1957, when it is forced to withdraw by the United States and (to a lesser extent) the USSR. The four-month occupation was marked by clashes with the local population and is best remembered by Gazans for IDF “screening operations” in search of men involved with the Fedayeen; close to five hundred Palestinian civilians were killed in these operations, and scores of Palestinian fighters were summarily executed. In all, the IDF is estimated to have killed between 930 and 1,200 Palestinians before withdrawing from the Strip.
NOVEMBER
Israel occupies Gaza and most of the Sinai by November 2.
Israel commits a massacre in Khan Younis on November 3.
1957
MARCH
Israel withdraws from Sinai and Gaza by March 6–7. UN Emergency Force moves in simultaneously.
1959
JANUARY
Fatah is established by Yasser Arafat and associates.
JUNE
UN Secretary General (Hammarskjold) puts forth proposal A/4121 for the absorption of Palestinian refugees by the Middle Eastern states on June 15.
1962
OCTOBER
Johnson Plan for Palestinian refugee problem is proposed.
1963
JANUARY
First office is opened by Fatah in Algeria, headed by Khalil Al Wazir (Abu Jehad).
1964
JUNE
Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) is founded on June 1, with Ahmad Shuqeri as its first chairman.
1967
JUNE
Six Day War lasts from June 5 to 10. Israel begins military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip of Palestine; as well as Sinai of Egypt and Golan Heights of Syria.
NOVEMBER
UN Security Council endorses Resolution 242 on November 22, calling on Israel to withdraw its army from the territories occupied in the 1967 war.
DECEMBER
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP) is established, led by George Habash.
1970
SEPTEMBER
Military confrontation occurs between Jordanian army and Palestinian guerrillas (“Black September”), after Palestinian guerrillas hijack four planes on September 6 and 9. Two thousand Palestinians are killed and PLO leadership and troops are expelled from Jordan. PLO sets up new bases in Beirut.
Gamal Abd Al Nasser dies on September 29.
1971
DECEMBER
UN General Assembly Resolution 2787 recognizes the right of Palestinians to struggle for the recovery of their homeland on December 6.
1972
JULY
Ghassan Kanafani, a writer and a member of the Political Bureau of the PFLP, is killed when a bomb explodes in his car on July 8.
OCTOBER
PLO representative Wael Zwaiter is shot and killed in Rome on October 16.
1973
APRIL
Israeli raids in Beirut on April 10 result in the murder of three Palestinian resistance leaders: Kamel Nasser, Kamal Adwan, and Abu Yusuf Al Najjar.
OCTOBER
October or Yom Kippur War begins on October 6. Egypt and Syria fight to regain the Arab territories occupied by Israel in 1967.
UN Security Council Resolution 338 is adopted on October 22, and calls for an immediate ceasefire, the implementation of Security Council Resolution 242 (1967) in all its parts, and negotiations for peace in the Middle East.
1975
APRIL
The 1975–1976 civil war in Lebanon starts on April 13.
1978
MARCH
The Israeli army attacks southern Lebanon on March 14–15, throwing 25,000 troops into a full-scale invasion, leaving scores of Lebanese villages devastated and seven hundred Lebanese and Palestinians, mainly civilians, dead.
SEPTEMBER
On September 17, Carter, Begin and Sadat sign the Camp David Accords, which propose a settlement of the Middle East conflict and a framework for the conclusion of an Egyptian–Israeli peace treaty.
1981
JULY
Israeli jets bomb PLO targets in Beirut on July 17, killing more than three hundred people.
1982
JUNE
On June 6, Israel invades Lebanon with an estimated 100,000 troops.
AUGUST
The evacuation of PLO troops from Lebanon begins on August 21, as about four hundred troops board a ship to Cyprus.
SEPTEMBER
President-elect Bashir Gemayel and forty followers are killed in Beirut on September 14, a few days before his inauguration.
Over two thousand Palestinian refugees are slaughtered in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut on September 16.
1984
JANUARY
On January 11, the World Zionist Organisation executive body rejects the nomination of former Israeli Defence Minister Ariel Sharon as director of the Israeli immigration programme, citing his role in the massacre of civilians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.
1985
MAY
On May 20, in agreement with Palestinians, Israel exchanges 1,150 Palestinian prisoners for three Israeli soldiers captured during the invasion of Lebanon.
OCTOBER
Israel bombs the Tunisian headquarters of the PLO on October 2, killing more than sixty people, in retaliation for the September 26 killing of three Israelis in Cyprus.
1987
JULY
Israeli military authorities ban Palestinians from fishing in the Gaza Strip area for an indefinite period.
DECEMBER
The Intifada begins on December 9. In Gaza, four Palestinians are killed and at least seven are injured when an Israeli truck collides with two vans of Palestinian workers returning from work in the Jabalya district of Gaza.
1988
JANUARY
On January 19, Israeli Defence Minister Yitzhak Rabin announces a new policy for dealing with the Intifada: “Force, might, beatings.”
APRIL
On April 12, Major General Ehud Barak, deputy Chief of Staff, states that 4,800 Palestinian activists are being held in Israeli prisons, including nine hundred in administrative detention.
Palestinian leader Abu Jihad (Khalil Al Wazir) is assassinated at his home in Tunis on April 16.
In a report on April 17, The Washington Post reports that the Israeli cabinet approved the assassination of Abu Jihad (Khalil Al Wazir), and that the operation was planned by Mossad and Israel’s army, navy and air force.
DECEMBER
During the first year of the Intifada, 318 Palestinians are killed, 20,000 wounded, 15,000 arrested, 12,000 jailed, and 34 deported, and 140 houses are demolished. Eight Israelis—six civilians and two soldiers—are killed.
1989
JULY
On July 12, economic adviser to the Chief of General Staff and Director of the Defence Ministry’s Budget Department estimates that the cost of fighting the Palestinian uprising is expected to reach approximately 1 billion New Israeli Shekel by the end of the current fiscal year, in March 1990.
1990
MAY
Israeli gunman massacres seven Palestinian workers and injures scores of others at Rishon Lezion near Tel Aviv on May 20.
AUGUST
Iraqi troops invade Kuwait on August 2.
SEPTEMBER
Israeli military authorities raze twenty-six shops and seven homes, and seal four buildings in the Bureij refugee camp in response to the killing of an Israeli soldier.
1991
JANUARY
On January 14, the PLO’s second top-ranking official, Abu Iyad (Salah Khalaf), is assassinated in Tunis. Abu al-Hol (Hay Abu al-Hamid) and Abu Mohammed (Fakhri al-Umari) are also killed.
MARCH
On June 18, the Tel Aviv district court sentences Ami Popper, a cashiered soldier, to seven consecutive life sentences plus twenty years in prison for the shooting to death of seven Palestinians in Rishon Lezion in May 1990.
APRIL
Israel releases 240 Palestinian prisoners.
1992
DECEMBER
Israel deports 415 Palestinian activists to Lebanon.
1993
JANUARY
The first round of secret Palestinian–Israeli talks on a draft declaration of principles in Norway begins on January 22.
SEPTEMBER
Chairman Arafat and Prime Minister Rabin exchange letters of mutual recognition on September 9.
The Israeli–Palestinian declaration of principles, also referred to as Oslo, is officially signed at the White House by Peres and Mahmoud Abbas on September 13. The declaration provides for a five-year transitional period of limited Palestinian self-rule to begin in Gaza and Jericho, after which final status talks (Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, borders) for a permanent settlement are to be held. The agreement affirms that the West Bank and the Gaza Strip constitute a single territorial unit.
1994
MAY
The Gaza–Jericho Autonomy Agreement (Cairo Agreement) is signed on May 4, outlining the first stage of Palestinian autonomy—in Gaza and Jericho—including Israeli redeployment and the establishment of a Palestinian self-governing Authority. Israel remains in control of the settlements, military locations and security matters. The stipulated interim period is to end on May 4, 1999.
The first Palestinian police forces arrive in self-rule areas on May 13.
JULY
Chairman Arafat returns to Gaza on July 1, accompanied by a limited number of Diaspora Palestinians, and swears in the first PNA ministers on July 5 at Jericho.
1995
SEPTEMBER
The Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (Taba or Oslo II Agreement) is signed in Washington on September 28. It outlines the second stage of Palestinian autonomy, extending it to other parts of the West Bank, divided into Area A (full Palestinian civil jurisdiction and internal security), Area B (full Palestinian civil jurisdiction, joint Israeli–Palestinian internal security), and Area C (Israeli civil and overall security control). The election and powers of a Palestinian Legislative Council are determined. The target date for completion of further redeployment is October 1997, and the final status agreement date is October 1999.
NOVEMBER
Israeli Prime Minister Rabin is assassinated on November 4.
1996
JANUARY
The first Palestinian elections with an 88-member Palestinian Legislative Council are held on January 20, and Yasser Arafat is elected as the first president of Palestine.
1997
JANUARY
The Hebron Agreement (also known as the Hebron Protocol) is signed on January 17, in which Israel agrees to withdraw from 80 percent of the city, but will retain control over an enclave of 450 settlers and 35,000 Palestinians in the city centre.
1998
OCTOBER
The Wye River Memorandum, the agreement for the implementation of the Oslo II Agreement and resumption of final status talks, is signed on October 23. It divides the second redeployment provided by Oslo II into three phases, totalling 13 percent of the West Bank, and includes changes in the PLO Charter, the opening of the Gaza airport and safe passage, a reduction in the number of Palestinian police, and the release of Palestinian prisoners. Subsequently, Israel withdraws from 2 percent of the West Bank, near Jenin, the Gaza airport is opened, and some detainees, mostly criminals rather than political detainees, are released.
1999
SEPTEMBER
The Sharm el-Sheikh Agreement for the implementation of the Wye River Memorandum is signed on September 4. It stipulates Israeli withdrawal in three stages from another 11 percent of the West Bank, the release of 350 Palestinian political prisoners, the opening of safe passages, and the beginning of permanent status talks on September 13, 1999 to reach a framework for a settlement by February 2000 and a final peace agreement by September 2000.
2000
SEPTEMBER
The Al Aqsa Intifada erupts on September 28 after Likud opposition leader Sharon makes a provocative visit to Al Aqsa Mosque with maximum security, and with thousands of forces deployed in and around the Old City of Jerusalem.
2001
JANUARY
From January 21 to 27 at the Taba Summit, peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority aim to reach the “final status” of negotiations. Ehud Barak temporarily withdraws from negotiations during the Israeli elections.
FEBRUARY
Ariel Sharon is elected as prime minister on February 6 and refuses to continue negotiations with Yasser Arafat at the Taba Summit.
AUGUST
Abu Ali Mustafa, the General Secretary of the PFLP, is assassinated on August 27 by an Israeli missile shot by an Apache helicopter through his office window in Ramallah.
2002
MARCH
The Beirut Summit, held over March 27 and 28, approves the Saudi peace proposal.
MARCH–MAY
On March 29, Israeli forces begin Operation “Defence Shield,” Israel’s largest military operation in the West Bank since the 1967 war.
2003
APRIL
The quartet of the United States, European Union, Russia, and the United Nations propose a road map to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, proposing an independent Palestinian state.
SEPTEMBER
Mahmoud Abbas resigns from the post of prime minister on September 6.
2004
JULY
On July 9, the International Court of Justice issues an advisory opinion that the West Bank barrier is illegal under international law. The United Nations had also condemned the construction of the wall as “an unlawful act of annexation” on September 3, 2003.
NOVEMBER
Yasser Arafat dies at the age of 75 on November 11 in a hospital near Paris, after undergoing urgent medical treatment since October 29, 2004.
2005
JANUARY
On January 9, 2005, Abbas wins the Palestinian presidential elections by a wide margin.
AUGUST–SEPTEMBER
Israel disengages from Gaza and removes its settlements from the Gaza Strip, but retains effective control over air, sea, and land access to the Strip.
2006
JANUARY
Ariel Sharon is incapacitated by stroke on January 4. He dies on January 11, 2014, having never emerged from his coma.
On January 25, the Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, wins the Palestinian elections and beats Fatah, resulting in an international and Israeli boycott of the new Palestinian government and imposing a blockade on the Gaza Strip.
2007
NOVEMBER
On November 27, the Annapolis Conference, for the first time, establishes a “two-state solution” as a basis for future talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
2008–2009
DECEMBER 2008–JANUARY 2009
Israel launches a twenty-three-day war on the Gaza Strip on December 27.
2012
NOVEMBER
Israel launches an eight-day offensive on the Gaza Strip on November 14.
On November 29, the UN General Assembly passes a resolution granting the state of Palestine non-member observer status, an upgrade that allows the Palestinians to join UN bodies, such as the International Criminal Court (ICC), to investigate war crimes in Gaza.
2014
JULY
On July 8, Israel launches a fifty-one-day offensive on Gaza.
2017
DECEMBER
US president Donald Trump recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on December 6. The move is condemned by most of the world in a vote at the UN General Assembly on December 22.
2018
AUGUST
On August 29, the US State Department ends aid to the Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, reversing a policy of support by every US president since it was created about seventy-two years ago as a cornerstone of US support for stability in the Middle East.
MARCH
Mass protests start in the Gaza Strip on March 30 (better known as The Great March of Return), calling Israel to lift the eleven-year illegal blockade on Gaza and to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their villages and towns from which they were expelled back in 1948.
MAY
The US moves its embassy to Jerusalem on May 14 and protests sweep the Gaza Strip met by violent repression from Israel, resulting in the deaths of at least 60 and the injury of 2770 Palestinians in Gaza.
2019
MARCH
On March 25, US president Donald Trump recognizes the Syrian Golan Heights, occupied in 1967, as part of Israel.
NOVEMBER
On November 18, the US says it no longer considers Israeli settlements on the West Bank to be illegal.
2020
JANUARY
On January 28, the US administration reveals the “Deal of the Century,” also called “Peace to Prosperity,” a plan that jettisons the two-state solution—the international formula proposed to end the Arab–Israeli conflict. The plan, widely described as an attempt to get Palestinians to trade in their political demands for economic benefits, fails to acknowledge major political issues such as the occupation, the siege of Gaza, illegal settlements, and the refugees.