Israeli–Palestinian Conflict: 2006 Timeline

The year opened against the backdrop of Israel's 2005 disengagement from Gaza, after which Palestinian factions had agreed to a lull in fighting. That arrangement was never fully implemented and ended in January 2006.[3] Rocket fire from Gaza had continued at lower levels through 2005, but the lull's fragility set the conditions for the escalations that followed.

Israel's political landscape also shifted dramatically. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a severe stroke on January 4, and Ehud Olmert assumed the role of acting prime minister.[5] In the March 28 parliamentary election, which recorded a turnout of 63.2 percent, Kadima won a plurality and Olmert subsequently formed a coalition government.[1][5] He promoted establishing permanent borders for Israel as a democratic Jewish state with a Jewish majority, preferring negotiations while reserving unilateral action if talks failed.[1]

On January 25, Palestinians voted for a Palestinian Legislative Council that had been expanded from 88 to 132 seats through a mixed district-and-national-list system.[2] Hamas, running as the Reform and Change Movement, won 74 seats; Fatah won 45; and the remaining 13 went to independent, left-wing, and centrist lists.[1][2] The Central Elections Commission reported 1,011,992 voters from 1,332,396 registered voters, a turnout of 74.64 percent.[6] International observers concluded that the process generally met democratic standards, although Israeli authorities restricted campaigning in Jerusalem.[1]

Voting in Jerusalem took place under a limited arrangement modeled on the 1996 election: approximately 6,300 residents could vote at post-office branches rather than ordinary polling stations. Turnout among Jerusalem residents was below 16 percent, compared with approximately 77.7 percent across the Palestinian territories. Hamas received about 41 percent of Jerusalem's national-list vote and Fatah about 35 percent.[2]

The result ended Fatah's control of the legislature and produced an immediate governing crisis. Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and his cabinet resigned, while Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas remained in office because he had been elected separately in 2005.[6] On January 30, the Quartet—the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations—called on the incoming government to renounce violence, recognize Israel's right to exist, and accept previous agreements.[5] The United States said it would not maintain relations with Hamas ministers unless Hamas disarmed and dismantled its terrorist infrastructure.[6]

Abbas invited Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to form a government, which took office in late March. Fatah and other organizations refused to join the cabinet and remained in opposition.[7] Power was divided between the Hamas-controlled government and Legislative Council on one side and Abbas's presidency on the other, producing institutional paralysis, sporadic Fatah-Hamas clashes, and a reduced capacity to maintain law and order.[7]

Following Hamas's electoral victory, Israel declared that it would not meet representatives of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority and withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in value-added tax and customs revenues collected on the PA's behalf.[8][4] Israel also added restrictions on the movement of goods to and from Gaza.[9] The United States and European Union conditioned assistance on nonviolence, recognition of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements.[8]

The sanctions worsened the economic and humanitarian crisis and made it difficult for the Palestinian Authority to pay civil servants.[7] On May 9, the Quartet endorsed developing a European Union Temporary International Mechanism to deliver assistance directly to Palestinians while bypassing the Hamas-led government; it formally endorsed the mechanism on June 17.[8] The mechanism supported health and social services, essential utilities, and a needs-based safety net. In September it was expanded to include security-sector reform, infrastructure reconstruction, and economic development.[8]

Hamas's pre-election popularity had rested partly on a welfare network that included schools, orphanages, mosques, clinics, soup kitchens, and sports leagues.[10] Nevertheless, sanctions, aid redirection, and withheld revenues produced chronic financial instability throughout the year.

On January 19, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative carried out a suicide bombing near Tel Aviv's old Central Bus Station, wounding 31 civilians.[3] On April 17, Palestinian Islamic Jihad carried out another suicide bombing at the same location. Hamas described the April attack as a legitimate act of resistance, while Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned it.[4]

The two bombings together killed 10 Israeli civilians and one American citizen and injured 98 Israeli civilians.[4] Israel responded to continuing terrorism with arrest raids, targeted killings, closures, curfews, aerial attacks, and ground and naval-artillery strikes across Gaza and the West Bank—known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria.[3][4]

On March 14, Israeli forces launched Operation First Fruits and seized the Jericho prison shortly after international monitors departed.[3][4] Five Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine members were taken into custody, including PFLP Secretary-General Ahmad Sa'adat and operational-wing head 'Ahed Ghulmeh.[3] The detainees included men held responsible for the October 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi, as well as Fuad al-Shobaqi, who was connected to the attempted Karine A weapons-smuggling operation.[3][4] More than 100 additional prisoners were detained, most of whom were subsequently released.[4]

During May, imprisoned Fatah, Hamas, and other Palestinian political figures drafted a National Accord Document, also called the Prisoners' Document. It called for a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, a refugee right of return, the release of prisoners, and the reorganization of the PLO to include Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.[8] It assigned responsibility for negotiations with Israel to the PLO and the Palestinian Authority president. Abbas accepted the document, while Hamas officials objected to what they viewed as its implied recognition of pre-1967 Israel.[8]

On May 21, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met Abbas in Egypt. Haniyeh separately said that his government could maintain a long-term ceasefire if Israel withdrew to the 1967 lines, a position Israel rejected.[8][5]

On June 24, Hamas and Fatah leaders announced agreement on principles for a proposed national-unity government based on the document. The proposal recognized the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, called for a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital on land occupied since 1967, and supported political negotiations alongside continued struggle beyond the Green Line; it did not mention Israel by name.[7] A June 19 survey found 74 percent support for its principles, although only 47 percent said they would vote for it in a referendum.[7] Palestinian factions agreed on a revised text on June 28, but Hamas maintained that it did not constitute recognition of Israel.[8]

On June 9, Palestinian civilians were killed on a Gaza beach in an explosion that a Congressional Research Service report attributed to Israeli artillery fire, although Israel denied responsibility. Hamas ended a 16-month truce on June 10, and cross-border rocket fire continued against Sderot and other southern Israeli communities.[8]

At approximately 5:40 a.m. on June 25, terrorists from Hamas's Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the Popular Resistance Committees, and the Army of Islam entered Israel through a tunnel and attacked an Israeli military position near Kerem Shalom.[8][11] Lieutenant Hanan Barak and First Sergeant Pavel Slocker were killed, four soldiers were reported wounded, and Corporal Gilad Shalit was captured.[8][12] Shalit was wounded and taken into Gaza through a tunnel that extended approximately 300 meters into Israeli territory.[3] The attackers initially demanded the release of Palestinian women and minors held by Israel and later raised their demand to 1,000 prisoners.[8]

Israel held the Palestinian Authority and its Hamas-led government responsible.[8] Prime Minister Olmert said that Israel would not negotiate with the kidnappers, and the Prime Minister's Office later declared, "There will be no ceasefire without the release of the soldier."[12] During June, 140 identified rocket hits were recorded in Israel, the highest monthly figure since the August 2005 disengagement.[13]

After diplomatic efforts failed to secure Shalit's release, Israel began a major Gaza operation. The annual Israeli intelligence report dates its beginning to the night of June 27, while the IDF archive dates Operation Summer Rains from June 28.[3][14] An INSS analysis describes July 2 as the expansion into the ground phase called "Gishmei Kayitz," or Summer Rains.[7] The stated objectives included recovering Shalit, deterring further attacks and rocket launches, weakening or changing the Hamas-led government's conduct, disrupting weapons smuggling, and suppressing rocket fire.[8][5]

Israeli forces used air, infantry, and armored units, targeting terrorist infrastructure, bridges, rocket-launching sites, weapons facilities, and offices associated with Hamas and Fatah-aligned armed groups.[3][13] On June 29, Israeli forces arrested Hamas ministers, parliamentarians, and other officials in Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem. CRS reported 64 people in those categories, while another source counted eight ministers and 26 Palestinian Legislative Council members.[8][9]

Israel also revoked the residency certificates of four Jerusalem PLC members and the minister for Jerusalem affairs because of their Hamas membership.[2] At least 17 tunnels beneath the 12-kilometer Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt were destroyed during the year.[4] On July 1, the factions holding Shalit demanded the release of 1,000 prisoners or said they would withhold information about him; Israel refused.[15]

Rocket fire intensified during the operation, rising from 140 identified hits in June to 191 in July.[7] On July 2, a Hamas rocket struck near a vacant school in Ashkelon, then the farthest north a Palestinian rocket had reached.[8] On July 4, Palestinian groups fired standard 122-mm Grad rockets at central Ashkelon for the first time. The Grad had a range of approximately 20.4 kilometers, compared with about 9 kilometers for most locally manufactured Qassam rockets, although some Qassams could travel farther.[3] The operation damaged but did not eliminate terrorist infrastructure and did not secure Shalit's release.[3]

On July 12, Hezbollah terrorists attacked near Zar'it on Israel's northern border, killing three Israeli soldiers and abducting reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.[3] The attack triggered the Second Lebanon War, a separate 34-day conflict fought primarily between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. It ended on August 14 under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 and an expanded international deployment in southern Lebanon.[4][14]

The war affected the Gaza campaign by shifting Israeli military and public attention to the northern front while Shalit remained captive.[11] Hezbollah fired more than 4,000 rockets during the conflict.[4] The IDF archive records 121 Israeli soldiers and 68 civilians killed, with 1,242 soldiers and 1,415 civilians wounded.[14] The simultaneous abduction crises linked the two fronts in Israeli public consciousness and regional diplomacy, although the conflicts remained operationally distinct.

Rocket fire remained elevated through the summer and early autumn, with 41 identified hits in August and 45 in September.[7] On October 31, Israeli forces began Operation Autumn Clouds in northern Gaza, particularly around Beit Hanoun, with the aim of reducing rocket fire from a major launching area.[3] The operation involved encirclement, searches, interrogations, arrests, attacks on Qassam infrastructure, and the discovery of weapons and explosive devices.[9]

A CAMERA review reported that 55 people were killed during the operation's first six days: 40 Palestinian combatants, 14 civilians, and one Israeli soldier.[16] The operation did not achieve its stated objective, and rocket fire increased sharply during November.[3]

On November 8, Israeli artillery fire in Beit Hanoun killed 19 Palestinians, 18 of them from the same family, according to a United Nations report.[9] Other approved sources give totals of 18 Palestinian civilians or 20 people.[4][8] On November 11, the United States vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israel's Gaza action.[8]

On November 15, a rocket attack killed a woman in Sderot, and another rocket killed a civilian on November 21.[3] Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reached a Gaza ceasefire agreement on November 25; the cessation was announced and took effect on November 26.[3][17]

Hamas largely stopped firing rockets after the agreement, while other Palestinian organizations continued attacks.[3][4] Israeli operations in Gaza ceased when the truce began, ending five months of air strikes and incursions that had not secured Shalit's release.[17] The ceasefire remained partial because rocket fire by non-Hamas factions continued.

During the second half of 2006, the internal Palestinian power struggle between Hamas and Fatah intensified through armed clashes, propaganda campaigns, and mutual accusations.[3] Hamas held the field advantage in Gaza, while Fatah and security forces aligned with Abbas held the advantage in the West Bank. The conflict contributed to anarchy, weakened Palestinian Authority institutions, and made it difficult for the Hamas-led government to pay employees or impose order.[3]

On October 1, Gaza experienced what a contemporary account described as the worst internal Palestinian fighting in a decade, raising fears of civil war.[17] In September, Abbas and Haniyeh appeared to agree on a national-unity government based on the National Accord Document, although Hamas said the agreement did not include recognition of Israel. Abbas told the UN General Assembly that a future government would commit to prior agreements, while Haniyeh said he would not head a government that recognized Israel.[8]

In November, Hamas and Fatah appeared to agree on a government headed by Muhammad Shabir, an Islamist described as independent of Hamas, but it remained unclear whether the government would accept the Quartet's conditions.[8] On December 8, Haniyeh declared that Hamas would never recognize Israel's right to exist. Abbas called for new elections on December 16, and on December 23 Olmert promised to transfer $100 million in withheld tax revenue to the Palestinian Authority for humanitarian purposes.[5]

After his June 25 capture, Shalit's fate became a central concern of Israeli policy and public life. Egyptian mediators took an active role in prisoner-exchange efforts from early in the crisis.[13] The first confirmed sign of life arrived in September: one chronology dates the delivery of a handwritten letter to September 15, while another records Israel's confirmation on September 20.[17][15] In the letter, Shalit expressed hope that his family would help bring him home for the Jewish holidays.[15]

Israel's state comptroller later criticized the IDF for shortcomings in assessing and addressing the Qassam threat and for concentrating on locating launchers rather than comprehensively confronting the supporting infrastructure.[18] The report stated that 1,914 Qassam rockets had been fired into Israel by the end of 2006.[18] The Gaza operation connected to Shalit's abduction ended with the November 26 ceasefire, without freeing him; he remained in Hamas captivity until 2011.[17][11]

The year ended without Shalit's release, with the Hamas-Fatah institutional divide unresolved and the Gaza ceasefire only partially implemented. Israeli security sources recorded 2,135 Palestinian terrorist attacks in 2006, compared with 2,365 in 2005. Thirty-two Israelis were killed and 332 wounded in terrorist attacks, excluding Second Lebanon War casualties; four suicide bombings were carried out and 71 additional attempts were prevented.[3]

Rocket fire was the most dramatic escalation. The annual report recorded 861 identified Qassam and Grad rocket hits on Israeli population centers in the western Negev, compared with 222 in 2005 and 268 in 2004.[3] The total number fired was assessed as 20 to 30 percent higher than the identified hits, and 57 mortar shells were recorded.[3][13]

From the 2005 disengagement through November 2006, Israeli forces fired approximately 15,000 artillery shells and conducted more than 550 air strikes into Gaza.[9] The IDF archive records five Israelis and 394 Palestinians killed during the defined Gaza operations, while a broader report covering the period from disengagement through November records approximately 525 people killed in Gaza.[9][14] The figures reflect different scopes and should not be treated as a single reconciled total.

Approved sources disagree on several details. U.S. government and Jerusalem Institute accounts report that Hamas won 74 seats and Fatah 45 in the January election, while a Jewish Virtual Library summary reports 76 for Hamas and 43 for Fatah.[1][6] The article uses 74 and 45 because that count appears in multiple official and academic sources.[1][2]

Sources also assign different dates to Operation Summer Rains. One annual report dates the opening to the night of June 27, the IDF archive uses June 28, and INSS identifies July 2 as the expansion into the ground phase bearing the Summer Rains designation.[3][14] These accounts appear to describe different operational phases rather than necessarily contradictory events.[7]

Reports of the November Beit Hanoun artillery incident give totals of 18, 19, or 20 Palestinian deaths.[4][9] CRS reports 20 people killed on November 8.[8] Israeli casualty figures for the Second Lebanon War also differ: a State Department human-rights report gives 117 soldiers and 43 civilians killed, while the IDF archive records 121 soldiers and 68 civilians.[1][14] Accounts of the November Gaza ceasefire likewise do not identify a single written agreement or uniform list of participating factions, and non-Hamas groups continued firing after it took effect.