ISRAEL TIMELINE

23 October 1998
Binyamin Netanyahu signs Wye River Memorandum outlining further Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and detailing a "timeline", which outlines, step by step, the implementation of the mutual undertakings which are incumbent upon each side.

Upon completion of each phase of the Palestinian commitments, Israel will transfer a specified percentage of land to the Palestinians within the context of the "further redeployments" as stated in previous agreements.

Full Text: Wye Memorandum
(From Israel embassy site)

1 April 1998
Israeli inner cabinet agrees to implement UN Resolution 425, which calls for Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, on condition that Lebanon guarantee the security of Israel's northern border from attack by anti-Israeli guerrillas.

25 September 1997
Israeli agents bungle an attempt to assassinate a military leader of Hamas in Jordan leading to a chilling of relations between the two countries and the release of the spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin.

4 September 1997
A triple-suicide bombing in a Jerusalem shopping mall kills five Israelis.

21 March 1997
A bomb in a Tel Aviv cafe kills a Palestinian attacker and 3 Israelis and wounds 42.

18 March 1997
Israel defies world opinion by constructing a Jewish settlement called Har Homa on a hilltop Palestinians know as Jabal Abu Ghneim at the edge of East Jerusalem.

17 January 1997
Israeli soldiers hand over 80% of Hebron, ending 30 years of occupation and formally dividing the volatile town between Arab and Jewish rule.

25 September 1996
Violence claims the lives of 61 Arabs and 15 Israeli soldiers over the building of a second entrance into an archaeological tunnel site near Muslim shrines in Jerusalem.

12 August 1996
First step in lifting four-year freeze on Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as the Likud government allows 300 mobile homes to expand into area.

18 June 1996
Netanyahu sworn in as prime minister.

29 May 1996
Israeli parliamentary and prime ministerial elections. Shimon Peres loses election to Binyamin Netanyahu, who campaigned against the Rabin-Peres peace programme under the motto Peace with Security.
Series of Hamas suicide bomb attacks, killing 57 people.

February/March 1996
Series of Hamas suicide bomb attacks, killing 57 people.

4 November 1995
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin assassinated by Yigal Amir, an Israeli orthodox Jewish student who is opposed to the Middle-East peace plan. Shimon Peres becomes PM.

26 October 1994
Israel-Jordan peace treaty is signed ending a 45-year state of belligerency.. Israel agrees to respect the special role of the Hashemite Kingdom over Muslim holy shrines in Jerusalem.

Full Text: Israel-Jordan peace treaty
(From Israel embassy site)

25 February 1994
A militant Jewish settler massacres 29 Palestinians praying at a mosque in Hebron.

13 September 1993
Yasser Arafat and Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin sign Declaration of Principles in Washington. Israel recognises the PLO and gave them limited autonomy in return for peace and an end to Palestinian claims on Israeli territory.

Full Text: Declaration of Principles
(From Israel embassy site)

January 1993
Secret Israeli-PLO talks in Oslo begin.

October 1991
Madrid Middle East Peace Conference opens in Madrid.

9 December 1987
Palestinian uprising (intifada) against Israeli rule starts in West Bank and Gaza.

Israeli soldiers and civilians were attacked by rocks but increasingly with petrol bombs and grenades. The Israeli army retaliated by using tear gas, rubber bullets and, occasionally, live ammunition. More than 20,000 people were killed and injured in the fighting.

1983 - 1985
Israel makes phased withdrawal from Lebanon, except for "security zone" in south.

6 June 1982
Israel invades Lebanon to drive out guerrillas threatening its northern border.

1979
Israel and Egypt sign a peace treaty in Washington under which Israel agrees to hand back Sinai to Egypt. It keeps the Gaza Strip.

September 1978
Full Text: Camp David Accords
(From Israel embassy site)
Egypt, Israel and the United States sign Camp David accords.


March - June 1978
Israel occupies south Lebanon, then re-deploys to "security zone".

1977
Menachem Begin's right-wing Likud party wins national elections, ending 29 years of Labour party dominance.

4 July 1976
Israeli commandos rescue 98 Israeli and Jewish hostages in Entebbe, Uganda, held by Palestinians who hijacked an Air France Airbus.

6 October 1973
Egypt and Syria attack Israeli forces in Sinai and Golan Heights on Jewish fast of Yom Kippur. They make initial gains but are soon in retreat after Israeli counter-attacks.

5 September 1972
Palestinian gunmen kill 11 Israeli athletes at Munich Olympics.

5 June 1967
Israel launches a pre-emptive strike on Egypt, Syria and Jordan in a Six Day War. Israel captures Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip from Egypt; Golan Heights from Syria and West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan.

1956
Egypt nationalises Suez Canal (July). Britain, France and Israel plan joint invasion of Egypt. Israel invades Sinai and Gaza; Britain and France attack Egypt (October), withdraw under US pressure (November).

1948
Jewish settlers proclaim the state of Israel (May). British troops leave. Fighting breaks out with Arab neighbours, ending in October 1949.
Some 700,000 Palestinians flee or are driven from what had been British-mandate Palestine. Israel annexes large tracts of land. Jordan and Egypt take control of the rest. Jerusalem is divided into a western Israeli sector and a Jordanian eastern sector.