3.1.95 Ten IDF soldiers, disguised as Arabs, are arrested in an area under the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). The Palestinians accuse Israel of continuing to have undercover units and collaborators active within the Palestinian population.
6.1.95 Ofra Felix from the Elon Moreh settlement is killed when PFLP activists pass her car in theirs and open fire on her. Kach (Kahane sympa¬thizers) supporters in Hebron respond by running amok there, firing on Palestinian houses and cursing and beating Palestinian passers-by. In defi¬ance of restrictions placed by the Israeli authorities on their movement, they also enter the Ibrahimi Mosque (Cave of the Patriarchs). The question arises as to whether Jewish settlers should be tried in civilian or in military courts, but it is not resolved.
In his book The Road to Oslo, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) describes the contacts between the PLO and the Israeli Labor party before the latter won the Israeli elections. The Likud demands a committee of enquiry.
15.1.95 In a discussion in the committee on water problems in the Gaza Strip, the head of the Palestinian delegation, Dr. Riad Al-Khudari, says that while five million Israeli citizens consume about 2,000 million cubic meters per year, the 2.5 million residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip are allo¬cated 245 million cubic meters per year.
16.1.95 Israeli security forces raid the offices of three Palestinian news¬papers (in East Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nablus), claiming a connection with "the civilian intelligence infrastructure of Hamas."
18.1.95 Rabin promises Arafat that the November 1992 decision of the government of Israel to freeze public construction in the territories is valid, apart from four West Bank by-pass roads. But, he does not commit himself to a freeze of construction around Jerusalem.
The question of Israeli land expropriation becomes a central issue in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. It is expressed in demonstrations and confrontations in areas under dispute between Jewish settlers and Palestinians, such as Pisgot and AI-Bireh, Beitar and Battir.
A Palestinian dies under interrogation by internal security officers of the PNA. Jibril Rajoub: "He was a collaborator." In several Israeli towns like Nazareth and Taibeh, strong protests are voiced against housing Israeli collaborators from the OPT there.
22.1.95 21 people, mainly Israeli soldiers, are killed in a suicide bombing at Beit Lid, in central IsraeL Islamic Jihad claims responsibility for the attack. Israeli security authorities arrest about 150 Jihad activists in the West Bank.
A protracted closure is imposed by the Israeli authorities on the OPT.
Among the results of the closure: unemployment increases as Palestinians are prevented from working in Israel; a lack of essential supplies and fuel is felt in the OPT; Palestinians are unable to receive medical attention from outside the OPT. The donor countries claim that their efforts are being impaired by the growing economic distress in the OPT.
In the wake of this attack, Rabin announces the establishment of a com¬mittee to work out a "line of separation," to the east of the Green Line (1967 border) which will physically divide Israel from the West Bank. The com¬mittee estimates the cost of this separation will be about $65 billion.
5.2.95 The Palestinian police announce that since the Beit Lid attack, they have succeeded in thwarting four anti-Israeli military operations.
7.2.95 In the framework of multilateral discussions on trade and eco¬nomic cooperation among the states in the region, the U.S.A. expresses readiness to establish a free trade zone with Jordan and the PNA.
14/17.2.95 A year after the Hebron massacre, in which 29 Palestinians were killed, the OPT witness a massive IDF presence. Parallel to Palestinian memorials to the victims, Jewish settlers hold a memorial to the settler, Baruch Goldstein, who carried out the massacre.
On 23.2.95 new regulations for Jewish and Muslim prayers at the Ibrahimi Mosque (Cave of the Patriarchs) in Hebron are issued.
16.2.95 Arafat rejects an Israeli proposal to grant the Palestinians authori¬ty over municipal affairs in Jenin, under which the IDF would remain in the town and the Palestinian police would not operate there.
A date is also earmarked for the overall interim agreement and its reg¬ulation and validation. It is agreed that the elections to the Council of the Palestinian National Authority in the OPT will take place within 60 days of the signing of the agreement. An international committee, with the help of hundreds of observers, will supervise the elections.
On 13.3.95 an Israeli military document is published alleging that hun¬dreds of plainclothes Palestinian police are deployed in Jenin. The Israelis are informed of this step, which is in preparation for handing over the town to the Palestinian National Authority, though that matter has not yet been agreed upon between the parties.
Israeli military personnel also claim that plainclothes Palestinian police have been working for several months, along with Jibril Rajoub's preven¬tive security apparatus, in Jenin, Nablus, Bethlehem, Hebron, and Ramallah, all in a semi-official capacity and with the knowledge of the Israeli authorities. They claim that official activity is forbidden but the IDF has refrained from interfering or from entering the city centers or refugee camps as long as this is not necessary from a security point of view.
7.3.95 In Amman, a conference with the participation of Egypt, Jordan, the PNA and Israel is held in order to determine the nature of the discussions concerning the problem of the Palestinian refugees displaced from their homeland by the 1967 war (as distinct from the refugees of the 1948 war). It is agreed to set up a committee which will meet bimonthly to continue the var¬ious aspects of the negotiation. The Palestinian request to include in the sum¬mation of the meeting an announcement on the immediate return of refugees - even in symbolic numbers - to the OPT is rejected by Israel.
12.3.95 In the OPT, the establishment of a new political body, the United Palestinian Association, is announced. Its members declare their support for Arafat and the Oslo accords. Toward the general elections for the Council of the Palestinian National Authority, a trend to set up new political frame¬works and undertake political activity like public rallies, is noticeable.
14.3.95 British Prime Minister John Major promises during a visit to Israel and the OPT to increase aid to the Palestinian National Authority by seven million pounds sterling.
Al-Istiqlal, a weekly identified with the Islamic Jihad, which was closed after the Beit Lid attack, is allowed by the PNA to resume publi¬cation in Gaza.
18.3.95 After some days of discussion, the Central Committee of the Fatah movement confirms its commitment to the peace process with Israel. Along with this, it resolves to bring about changes in the Palestinian team conducting the negotiations with Israel. The main change places one of the opponents of the Oslo accords at the head of the supervisory committee over the negotiations, instead of Nabil Sha'ath.
28.3.95 To protest the continuation of Israeli closure, the PNA prevents merchandise from Israel from entering the Gaza Strip, apart from medi¬cine, flour, milk and fodder.
29.3.95 Two Israeli Border Police officers are killed in a collision with a truck in the Gaza Strip. The driver of the truck, who waved a plastic gun in the air, is shot and killed. Following the incident, the PNA agrees to the paving of a road by-passing the settlement of Netzarim, which is in the heart of the Strip.
In this period, in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, 13 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces, including two children under the age of 16, and three Palestinian police officers. Four Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinians. Within the Green Line, one Palestinian was killed by Israeli civilians, one Israeli civilian was killed by Palestinians and 20 members of the Israeli security forces were killed by Palestinians.
All above figures from B'Tselem.