Palestine: Hamas-Fatah split - timeline
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Timeline
May 2007. Hamas attacks the Fatah-controlled National Security building in Gaza City and fires on Fatah roadblocks in response to Fatah’s 3,000-strong security presence in the Gaza strip.
March 2007. Hamas fills nine of 25 ministerial seats in "national unity government".
January 2007. Clashes continue between Hamas and Fatah; Hamas kills a Fatah security official after a day-long siege in the Gaza Strip.
October 2006. Overt armed struggle continues between Hamas and Fatah in the Gaza Strip. President Mahmoud Abbas concedes that efforts to form a national unity coalition are in jeopardy.
July 2006. The capture of Jewish soldier near the Gaza Strip leads to a destructive Israeli incursion; Israel launches a massive attack on south Lebanon in response to capture of two soldiers.
May 2006. Hamas expands its military presence in the Gaza Strip despite the objections of PNA President Abbas.
April 2006. Friction increases between President Abbas and the Hamas government over PNA attempts to secure Hamas-controlled areas. The EU votes to cut off payments to the PNA because Hamas will not repudiate terrorism or recognise Israel's right to exist.
February 2006. The Hamas-dominated legislature is sworn in. The Israeli government freezes transfer of tax and customs receipts to the PNA.
January 2006. Hamas wins legislative elections.
September 2005. The Israeli army completes the evacuation of Jewish settlers and soldiers from the interior of the occupied Gaza Strip, handing control of the territory to the PNA.
March 2005. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair convenes an international conference in London in support of the PNA.
February 2005. Palestinian President Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon hold their first summit at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
November 2004. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat (Abu Ammar) dies in a hospital near Paris, aged 75.
September 2004. Izzedin Sheikh Khalil, a senior Hamas figure, is killed by Israeli forces.
March 2004. Israelis assassinate Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
December 2003 An unofficial Middle East peace plan, known as the Geneva Initiative, is launched.
August 2003. A Palestinian suicide bomber attacks a crowded bus in central Jerusalem, killing 21 people and injuring more than 70 others. Israeli Defense Forces battle al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and Hamas in occupied territories.
June 2003. The USA supports the creation of an independent Palestinian state at a US-Israeli-Palestinian summit, but PNA Prime Minister Abbas is criticised by Hamas for his conciliatory tone towards Israel. Hamas carries out raids against Israeli guard posts.
May 2003. PNA Prime Minister Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Sharon meet in Jerusalem. Both agree that an end to violence is a first step for the peace process. A PNA minister resigns over Abbas’s willingness to meet with Sharon.
April 2003. The Middle East Quartet--the EU, Russia, the UN, and the USA--formally launches its long-awaited "road map" to achieve peace and an independent Palestinian state by 2005. Abbas names a cabinet in the face of opposition from Palestinian President Arafat.
May 2002. The Israeli siege of Arafat's presidential compound and Church of the Nativity ends.
April 2002. The Israeli army invades the West Bank city of Ramallah, occupying the PNA presidential compound.
March 2002. UN Security Council Resolution 1397 (2002) is adopted, in which the idea of an independent Palestinian state is endorsed.
February 2002. Israeli Prime Minister Sharon meets with chief PNA negotiator Abbas for talks on security. A surprise peace initiative is announced by Saudi Arabia. US President George W. Bush says that he is "disappointed" by the discovery of a gun-running boat, which had been intercepted by Israeli defence forces.
December 2001. A deadly double suicide attack occurs in West Jerusalem.
September 2001. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PNA President Arafat agree to reactivate a ceasefire deal brokered in June by George Tenet, the director of the CIA.
May 2001. Israeli and Palestinian forces trade blows in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
February 2001. Palestinian forces clash with Israeli troops after the election of Ariel Sharon as Prime Minister.
January 2001. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators fail to conclude a final conciliation package; Palestinian insistence on the right of return for refugees scuttles the deal. Major attacks are perpetrated against civilians in Israel.
October 2000. Violent clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian police and civilians bring the Middle East peace process to a standstill, and prompt Palestinian leaders to describe the violence as a new "intifada" (uprising).
September 2000. US President Bill Clinton fails to secure significant progress in the Middle East peace process after holding separate meetings with Palestinian President Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
July 2000. US President Clinton fails to secure a final Israeli-Palestinian peace accord during a summit at Camp David. Right of return for Palestinian refugees, water issues, borders of the potential Palestinian state, and other issues are left unresolved.
November 1999. US President Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Barak, and PNA President Arafat hold a round of talks in Oslo (the capital of Norway). Hamas vows to carry out more attacks in protest against Israel’s policy of settlement in the occupied territories.
September 1999. Israeli Prime Minister Barak and PNA President Arafat agree on a plan for a future peace accord. However, Palestinian and Israeli officials continue to tell their constituencies divergent stories about their plans for Israeli settlers.
October 1998. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, PNA President Arafat, and US President Clinton meet at the Wye Plantation, Maryland, USA, for a summit meeting.
January 1996. Arafat is overwhelmingly re-elected president of the PNA. The Israeli secret service assassinates Hamas mastermind Yahya Ayyash, known as the “Engineer”, in the Gaza Strip city of Jabalyah.
September 1995. The Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) sign an interim agreement providing for the expansion of Palestinian self-rule in the occupied West Bank.
April 1995. The PNA cracks down on "rejectionist" factions in the Gaza Strip after a Hamas attack on Israeli soldiers.
January 1995. The Islamic Brotherhood, the precursor to Hamas, perpetrates violence against Egyptian security personnel in Egypt.
November 1994. Twelve Palestinians are killed as Hamas clashes with the PLO in the Gaza Strip.
October 1994. Hamas plants a bomb on bus in Tel Aviv killing 21 people and injuring 50.
April 1994. The Israeli government and the PLO announce an agreement to sign a Palestinian self-rule accord, covering the final withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip and Jericho and the establishment of an interim Palestinian Authority in the area, as provided for under the Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles (DOP) signed in September 1993.
September 1993. The Israeli government and the PLO sign a historic peace agreement in Washington DC.
August 1988. The Palestinian "intifada" (uprising) rages in the occupied territories. Hamas is created by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin of the Gaza wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.
April 1988. A Palestinian "intifada" (uprising) begins in the occupied territories.
September 1987. The US government orders the closure of the PLO's information bureau in Washington DC.
June 1982. The Israeli army launches a military incursion into Lebanon (Operation "Peace for Galilee"), attacking Palestinian guerrilla bases and expelling the PLO from the country.
March 1979. Egypt and Israel sign a peace treaty.
September 1975. Egypt and Israel sign a limited agreement on military disengagement from the Sinai Peninsula.
October 1974. The PLO is recognised by Arab states to lead the Palestinian people towards a national Palestinian authority in any part of liberated Palestine.
October 1973. The fourth Arab-Israeli war (the Yom Kippur War) since 1948 erupts when an Egyptian offensive is launched across the Suez Canal and a Syrian offensive is launched on the Golan Heights.
November 1967. The UN adopts Security Council Resolution 242, a UK-led initiative calling for the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the Six Day War and a termination of all claims or states of belligerency.
June 1967. Protracted Israeli-Arab tensions erupt into the Six Day War when Israel attacks Egypt and Syria.
November 1956. Israel attacks Egypt and occupies the Sinai peninsula in an offshoot of the Suez crisis
April 1948. In Tel Aviv, Israel, the Jewish National Council proclaims the first independent Jewish State for 2,000 years, prompting the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
November 1947. The UN approves a partition plan for Palestine.
December 1937. Simmering tensions between Jews and Arabs in Palestine breaks out into a series of violent clashes.
July 1937. The UK Royal Commission publishes a report recommending the establishment of a Jewish and an Arab state.
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