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December 31 1999 - January 1 2000: Sigal Gilboa gives birth to twins born in different millennia. Dr. Yinon Gilboa, an obstetrician, assists in his wife's Caesarean section as she gives birth New Year's Eve to a daughter two minutes before midnight and a son born just after midnight.
January 2: On the eve of the Israel-Syria peace talks, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright says there is "no done deal" and additional rounds of negotiations may be needed.
January 3: Negotiators from Israel and Syria gather in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
January 3: A three-way meeting among U.S. President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa is abruptly cancelled.
January 4: Israel and Syria move back on course for detailed talks on a peace deal. US President Bill Clinton convenes the meetings.
January 4: Israel and the Palestinians reach an agreement on the transfer of West Bank land from Israel.
January 4: A halachic ruling issued by prominent rabbis declares the Golan Heights a part of the Land of Israel and "forbids dismantling communities in the Land of Israel."
January 5: The peace negotiations in Shepherdstown resume.
January 7: U.S. President Clinton tries to get Israel and Syria moving forward in peace talks.
January 8: The Clinton administration presents a draft peace treaty to the Israeli and Syrian negotiators.
January 9: Israel and Syria prepare for a last full day of peace talks.
January 10: President Bill Clinton finishes another day of mediation.
January 10: More than 100,000 Israelis protest in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square against the government's willingness to relinquish the Golan Heights for peace with Syria.
January 12: The official announcement of Pope John Paul II's visit the Holy Land from 20-26 March 2000 is made simultaneously in Rome and Jerusalem.
January 16: Israel delays a West Bank pull out.
January 17: Israel and Syria peace talks are postponed.
January 17: Five people are injured in an explosion in Hadera.
January 20: Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat meets US President Bill Clinton in Washington.
January 23: President Ezer Weizman says he has no intention of resigning or taking a leave of absence in the wake of a criminal investigation into his alleged involvement in a money scandal. (More.)
January 26: The plight of Palestinian cave dwellers becomes an Israeli human rights cause.
January 27: A campaign fund-raising scandal involves Prime Minister Ehud Barak. (More.)
January 28: At least nine people die in a rare snowstorm that paralyzes traffic and cuts electricity in many parts of the country.
January 30: Israel and the Palestinians launch a new round of negotiations.
January 30: Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh says that Jerusalem's municipal boundaries could be expanded to accommodate Palestinian aspirations for a presence in the city.
January 31: Prime Minister Ehud Barak rules out further negotiations unless Syria reins in the Hezbollah guerrillas.
January 31: Prime Minister Ehud Barak, battling allegations of illegal campaign fund-raising, gets a week's reprieve after the Knesset postpones a no-confidence vote on his administration.
January 31: Multilateral talks resume in Moscow after a three-year freeze to reactivate the committees on refugees, water, environment, security, armament and economic cooperation. The meeting is attended by a Palestinian delegation, headed by Faisal Husseini, an Israeli delegation, headed by Foreign Minister David Levy, some other Arab delegations (Syria and Lebanon boycott), an EU delegation and US Secretary. of State Madeleine Albright.
January: Leading fervently Orthodox rabbis issue a religious ruling banning their followers from using the Internet out of concern it could lead to "sin" and "destruction" and lead the young astray.
February 1: Israel is willing to talk with Syria despite the Hezbollah attacks.
February 1: Israel presents a final status map to the Palestinians offering 55-60% of the West Bank and calling for annexation of the remaining 40%.
February 2: Less than two weeks before a crucial peace deadline, Palestinians dismiss Israel's opening offer for a final border as "nonsense" and say that talks are going nowhere.
February 2: Continued fighting in Lebanon prompts international concern.
February 2:The Knesset's first-ever debate on nuclear policy erupts into a shouting match between Jewish and Arab legislators.
February 3: A summit between Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat fails.
February 6: Prime Minister Ehud Barak meets with Jordan's King Abdullah II.
February 7: Israeli warplanes launch a second wave of strikes against suspected Hezbollah strongholds in Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon. Hezbollah claims that Israel's military grip in southern Lebanon is weakening.
February 8: An Israeli soldier and a pro-Israeli militiaman are killed in fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon.
February 8: Prime Minister Ehud Barak, under heavy public pressure, unleashes Israel's heaviest air raids on Lebanon in eight months. (More.)
February 10: Israel and Jordan renew an agreement on cooperation in environmental protection and nature conservation.
February 10: An Israeli government report, released five years after it was compiled, admits that the internal security service, Shin Bet, uses systematic torture on Palestinian suspects.
February 11: Israeli representatives pull out of a meeting on the conflict in southern Lebanon, and Israel launches a fresh round of airstrikes after one of its soldiers is killed by Hezbollah guerrillas.
February 11: International monitors gather at a U.N. base in southern Lebanon. (More.)
February 12: Hezbollah guerrillas mount a fresh attack against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.
February 13: Israel and the Palestinians fail to meet the deadline to agree to the framework for a permanent peace settlement, which is expected to be reached by mid-September.
February 14: With the aid of its parliamentary opposition, Prime Minister Ehud Barak's government survives a no-confidence.
February 14: Israeli police tear-gasses and fires rubber bullets at a group of Druze Arabs throwing stones as part of an annual protest of Israel's 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights.
February 16: The Cabinet gives Prime Minister Ehud Barak power to order immediate retaliatory strikes against Hezbollah.
February 21: US Mideast envoy Dennis Ross arrives.
February 21: Yedioth Ahronoth reports that official data from the Construction and Housing Min. reveals that construction is presently starting on 7,120 housing units. In comparison, during former Prime Minister Netanyahu's term in office, construction started on only 5,400 housing units. In addition, since assuming office, the Ministry has issued tenders for 3,196 new settler housing units (2,500 of these in the Greater Jerusalem area).
February 22: The Israeli army chief of operations hints that occupation forces will pull out of south Lebanon by the end of the year, even if there is no peace with Syria.
February 23: French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin visits Israel. The streets of Jerusalem are festooned with flags - which turn out to be those of the Netherlands and not the French.
February 25: Israeli aircraft attack suspected guerrilla positions north of Israel's occupation zone in southern Lebanon.
February 25: The Cabinet holds a marathon debate on Lebanon.
February 26: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat apologizes for an incident in which students throw stones at French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.
February 28: Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that a simple mistake by his wife is the basis of the bribery and fraud charges.
February 28: In Al-Mughayyir village, near Ramallah, Israeli settlers protected by Israeli troops destroy over 700 olive trees.
February 29: 40 years after the execution, Adolf Eichmann's prison diary is released.
February: Israel's interior minister, Natan Sharansky, says his ministry will recognize civil marriages performed in foreign consulates based in Israel.
March 1: Five militiamen are killed in an Hezbollah attack in southern Lebanon.
March 1: By a 60-to-53 vote, the Knesset backs a measure that would require a treaty with Syria to be approved by a majority of eligible voters instead of actual voters.
March 2: Three Palestinian militants are killed by Israeli security forces. (More.)
March 3: Officials in Israel and Syria deny a report from Israel's Channel One television that a peace deal between the two nations could be four to five weeks away.
March 5:The Israeli cabinet votes to pull troops out of south Lebanon by July, ending the 18-year occupation. Prime Minister Ehud Barak warns his Arab neighbors against post-pullout attacks in southern Lebanon.
March 7: Syria welcomes Israel's decision to withdraw from Lebanon.
March 7: Minister of Education Yossi Sarid's proposal to include Palestinian poets like Mahmoud Darwish on the Israeli high school reading list sparks controversy in Israel.
March 9: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Ehud Barak are in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for their third consecutive day of talks.
March 14: Nine years after Iraqi missiles fell on Tel Aviv during the Persian Gulf war, Israeli military officials roll out a battery of missiles designed to repel any such attacks in the future.
March 14: Facing opposition pressure and complaints from his own Cabinet, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak abandons plans to include a Jerusalem suburb in land his government plans to hand over to Palestinian control.
March 19: Israel's security Cabinet narrowly approves a long overdue 6.1 percent land transfer to West Bank Palestinians, raising the proportion of the territory ruled by Yasser Arafat to just under 40%. The moves precedes yet more peace talks, aimed at bringing about a final settlement by September.
March 20: Pope John Paul II arrives in Jordan to begin his Middle East visit. (More on the visit.)
March 21: Israelis and Palestinians resume talks in Washington.
March 26: U.S. President Bill Clinton meets with Syrian President Hafez Assad.
March 27: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urges Israel to return the annexed Golan Heights to Syria.
March 28: The police recommends corruption charges against former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara.
March 29: Israel's high court orders that about 700 Palestinians be allowed to return to their traditional homes in caves in the southern West Bank.
March 30: At least 23 Israeli and Palestinian Arabs are injured in clashes with Israeli security forces during an annual day of protests.
March: The Knesset passes a law granting equal rights to women, including equality in the workplace and the military, the right of women over their bodies and protection from violence and sexual exploitation.
April 4: Foreign Minister David Levy meets with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
April 5: The US-Syrian summit fails.
April 6: A police investigation into the conduct of Israeli President Ezer Weizman recommends that no charges should be brought because the statute of limitations had expired on the alleged offenses.
April 6: The Israeli Army removes settlers from a West Bank hilltop.
April 11: Prime Minister Ehud Barak meets with U.S. President Bill Clinton in a bid to put the troubled Mideast peace process back on track. (More.)
April 12: Chinese President Jiang Zemin arrives in Israel for a state visit.
April 18: The Supreme Court agrees to hear a last-minute appeal against its order to release 13 Lebanese detainees.
April 19: Israel releases 13 Lebanese detainees.
April 20: US President Bill Clinton and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat meet. (More.)
April 25: Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are due to meet again.
April 26: Jordan's King Abdullah II and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat discuss peace talks.
April 28: Israeli warplanes carry out retaliatory attacks in southern Lebanon.
April 30: Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations resume under a cloud of bitter Palestinian protest over Israel's plans to expand Ma'aleh Adumim. (More.)
April: In a reversal of an earlier decision allowing women to serve in combat units, the Israeli army announces it will not open its air force rescue unit to women until it can be determined whether women can meet the unit's physical demands.
May 1: Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails begin a hunger strike to draw attention to their poor conditions.
May 2: Israeli fighters turn back an Egyptian civilian aircraft from the Gaza airport.
May 4: Israeli warplanes bomb two Lebanese power stations.
May 5: The Israeli army allows residents of northern Israel to leave bomb shelters. The security Cabinet decides not to retaliate for a new rocket attack from Hezbollah guerrillas.
May 6: Clashes on the streets of the West Bank town of Ramallah between Israeli troops and Palestinian youths leave six Palestinians wounded.
May 7: Peace talks between Israel and Palestinian officials resume after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat meet.
May 10: Israel celebrates the 52nd anniversary of its independence.
May 11: Prime Minister Ehud Barak pledges Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon will proceed.
May 12: A critical deadline for the peace process passes without agreement.
May 15: U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis Ross is expected to meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
May 15: The Israeli Cabinet approves a recommendation to transfer two neighborhoods on the outskirts of Jerusalem to Palestinian control. (More.)
May 15 - 17: Demonstrations commemorating the 52nd anniversary of the Palestinian nakba turn violent as the protestors clash with Israeli troops who try to disperse them. Three people are killed and hundreds are injured.
May 17: Prime Minister Ehud Barak finds himself fighting political skirmishes on several fronts.
May 17: Guerrillas shell Israeli outposts in Lebanon; Israeli planes retaliate.
May 19: A firefight breaks out at a Palestinian police checkpoint.
May 19: In Eilat, Israeli negotiators hand their Palestinian counterparts a proposed final status map comprising of separate Palestinian autonomous cantons on 66% of the West Bank; Israel will annex 20% of the West Bank and the remaining 14% will remain under Israeli control and be negotiated in the future.
May 20: Increased violence in southern Lebanon and in Palestinian areas force Prime Minister Ehud Barak to postpone his trip to Washington.
May 21: Hours after a firebombing attack that critically burns a little girl in the West Bank town of Jericho, Israel calls its envoys back from peace talks being held with Palestinians in Sweden. (More.)
May 22: Prime Minister Ehud Barak's Security Cabinet meets to discuss Israel's next steps in turbulent south Lebanon, where Israel's allied militia retreats in disarray ahead of Muslim guerrilla fighters.
May 23: The head of the South Lebanon Army leaves Paris to join his disbanding militia, which is scattering out of southern Lebanon. Israel promises not to abandon SLA members.
May 23: The last Israeli troops leave Lebanon. (More.) Convoys of Israeli soldiers drive out of Lebanon at daybreak in tanks and jeeps.
May 23: The Israel-allied Lebanese militia releases all the inmates at the infamous El-Khiam prison.
May 24: Israel ends the occupation of Lebanon. Beirut celebrates.
May 24: The Hezbollah flag is raised as Israeli troops withdraw from Lebanon. (More.)
May 24: Prime Minister Ehud Barak tours northern Israeli towns.
May 24: The bribery case against President Ezer Weizman is closed.
May 25: Lebanese Prime Minister Salim Hoss rejects concerns that Hezbollah guerrillas are controlling the streets of southern Lebanon.
May 25: U.N.'s Middle East envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen arrives in Lebanon for security talks. (More.)
May 27: President Weizman announces he will resign within six weeks.
May 27: Israel leaves outposts on edge of disputed Shebaa farms area.
May 28: Transportation Minister Yitzhak Mordechai resigns amid harassment charges.
May 29: An Israeli court postpones a decision on whether to release two Lebanese guerrillas held without trial for years.
May 29: Settlers warn Prime Minister Ehud Barak he could be killed if he uproots settlements.
May 31: Prime Minister Ehud Barak and US President Bill Clinton meet in Lisbon, Portugal. (More.)
May: Israel accepts an invitation to join the United Nations' Western Europe and Others Group, giving the country a stronger voice in U.N. affairs. Israeli leaders and their backers say they are concerned about some of the membership conditions -- that Israel can only participate in WEOG activities coming out of the U.N.'s New York headquarters and that Israeli representatives will be barred for two years from running for positions on U.N. councils.
June 5: Lebanon sentences two pro-Israel militiamen.
June 5: In a groundbreaking decision in May the Supreme Court lifted the ban on women reading from the Torah scroll and wearing the prayer shawl at the Western Wall. Orthodox Jews react angrily to the sight of hundreds of women asserting their right to pray out loud at the wall while wearing shawls and skullcaps.
June 6: US cartographers mark the final Israel-Lebanon border.
June 6: US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visits the region.
June 7: A bill, calling for early elections, passes the Knesset 61-48 in the first reading.
June 8: Prime Minister Ehud Barak fights to reshape his government after a parliamentary defeat that brings the future of the Middle East peace process into question.
June 10: Hafez Assad, Syria's autocratic president dies at 69. His son Bashar is nominated to replace him.
June 13: Bashar Assad meets with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and vows his commitment to peace with Israel.
June 13: Shas resigns from Prime Minister Ehud Barak's coalition, leaving a minority government of 52 out of 120 MKs.
June 13: Ha'aretz reports that Israel will sign the convention establishing an international court for war crimes, but will not accede to its jurisdiction, mainly because the establishment of civilian settlements in occupied territory is defined as a war crime.
June 15: Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat arrives at the White House. (More.)
June 15: Some 4,000 settlers demonstrate outside PM Barak's home to protest any deal with Palestinians that includes evacuation of settlements or their transfer to Palestinian jurisdiction.
June 18: The UN Security Council endorses Israel's pullout of Lebanon.
June 20: Hezbollah leader Sheikh Nasrallah meets UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and warns against Israeli border violations.
June 20: Prime Minister Ehud Barak's coalition hangs in the balance as Shas threatens to leave.
June 21: Yossi Sarid, leader of Meretz, annouces, his party will drop out of the government to save it. The exit of Meretz from the coalition could allow Shas ministers, who have been fighting with Sarid over the fate of their bankrupt school system, to reverse course and stay with Barak.
June 21: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrives in Israel from Jordan. (More.)
June 22: Prime Minister Ehud Barak tries last-minute efforts to save the government. Meretz steps down and Shas stays.
June 23: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan says that Syria is ready to resume talks with Israel.
June 23: According to an American document Israel is prepared to give Palestinians part of Jerusalem and all of the Jordan Valley.
June 26: U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright faces tough bargaining to clear the way for President Clinton to hold a Camp David-style summit between Israel and the Palestinians.
June 26: Palestinians and Israelis exchange hatred rhetoric as Madeleine Albright's visit nears.
June 27: Madeleine Albright arrives in Israel. Tempers rise among Israeli opponents of any peace moves with the Palestinians. She meets with Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
July 5: US President Bill Clinton announces he will host a Mideast summit the following week in Camp David.
July 5: The Palestinians are ready to declare a state on September 13, which is the deadline for a final peace accord, if no deal is reached by then. Prime Minister Ehud Barak meets British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
July 5: Two parties threaten to leave Barak's government over the Mideast summit.
July 9: Prime Minister Ehud Barak faces a non-confidence vote before his flight to the Mideast summit. Members of Shas fear that Barak will make "painful concessions" to Arafat. Ehud Barak's fragile coalition disintegrates, as he prepares to leave for Camp David. Barak, who has also been abandoned by his foreign minister, David Levy, insists that he will try to negotiate a final settlement with Yasser Arafat.
July 10: "Peace and security are possible at Camp David", says Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Ehud Barak narrowly survives a no-confidence motion in the Knesset. He promises to place any peace deal before the Israeli voters in a referendum.
July 10: President Ezer Weizman ends his seven-year term following revelations that he has not reported hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash gifts from a French millionaire.
July 11: Aryeh Deri's sentence is reduced after appeals to three years in prison.
July 11: Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat arrive in Maryland for the Mideast summit in Camp David. (More on Camp David.) A complete press blackout is imposed.
July 13: Ex-pop star Yussef Islam (known formerly as Cat Stevens) is turned back upon arrival at Ben Gurion airport and prevented from his pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
July 20: Palestinian security forces capture a Palestinian militant after he again escaped from prison, this time by disguising himself as a woman and walking out with visitors.
July 20: Israel notifies the United Nations of 172 violations of the border with Lebanon since the withdrawal in May.
July 23: Tel Aviv announces plans for a light rail system in order to link the city's northern and southern suburbs.
July 23: A military court convicts a Bedouin shepherd of stabbing and killing two women hikers in April 1997 in Wadi Kelt.
July 24: Former Prime Minister Shimon Peres (Labor) and Moshe Katsav (Likud) are named as candidates for the Israeli presidency.
July 24: A poll says that more than half of the Israelis want a deal at Camp David.
July 24: Former prime minister and concerned citizen Benjamin Netanyahu warns against the perils of the Camp David summit.
July 25: The breakdown of the Middle East peace summit at Camp David carries a risk of violence. Hamas calls on Arafat to resume the armed struggle.
July 26: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat are expected to arrive home to a tense situation.
July 27: Jewish settlers in the occupied territories are uneasy after the Camp David summit.
July 27: Israel and Lebanon argue over the grave of a holy man.July 28: US President Bill Clinton reviews moving the embassy to Jerusalem.
July 28: US President Bill Clinton says Palestinian "unilateral" independence would be a "big mistake".
July 28: UN troops take their positions at the border between Israel and Lebanon.
July 29: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat seeks support in European and Arab capitals.
July 29: Lebanon prepares a complaint against Israel to be filed at the International Court of Justice seeking compensation for the lengthy occupation of southern Lebanon.
July 30: Prime Minister Ehud Barak survives the latest threat to his shaky government coalition when Foreign Minister David Levy agrees to vote with the government and to postpone a decision whether to resign from the Cabinet.
July 30: Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, a senior Hamas leader is arrested in Gaza.
July 30: The leader of Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrilla group threaten to destroy the U.S. embassy in Israel and kill its diplomats if the mission was moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
July 30: The Mossad changes its traditional method of recruiting.
July 31: Likud Party candidate Moshe Katsav, defeats Nobel Prize laureate Shimon Peres in the vote for the presidency.
July 31: The Mideast talks resume for the first time since Camp David.
August: Palestinian children learn military skills in summer camps.
August 1: Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat authorizes negotiations "24 hours a day" over the next six weeks in an attempt to reach a peace agreement.
August 1: Moshe Katsav is sworn in as Israeli president.
August 2: Foreign Minister David Levy resigns. The Knesset approves an early election bill. Shlomo Ben-Ami is appointed Acting Foreign Minister.
August 2: The independent Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) says that 60 percent of respondents favor clashes with the Israelis if a peace deal is not reached by September 13.
August 3: Prime Minister Ehud Barak arrives in Egypt for talks with Hosni Mubarak.
August 3: Yasser Arafat meets with Nelson Mandela in South Africa.
August 6: Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual leader of Shas and former chief rabbi, sparks an uproar in for saying that 6 million Jews perished in the Holocaust because they were reincarnations of sinners.
August 6: Prime Minister Ehud Barak assigns vacant cabinet spots to ministers of his party. Communications Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer receives the housing and construction portfolio and Finance Minister Avraham Shohat the infrastructure portfolio. Haim Ramon, the minister for Jerusalem, receives the Interior Ministry and Justice Minister Yossi Beilin the Religious Affairs Ministry.
August 7: The Israeli police recommend charging the Moshe Katsav's brother with election bribery.
August 7: Israeli soldiers fire shots at youths throwing stones and readying a small firebomb at a border fence in southern Lebanon, injuring a 13-year-old boy and two journalists. August 9: Lebanese forces take up positions in the former Israeli-occupied zone.
August 10: PA leader Yasser Arafat arrives in Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.
August 10: Dozens of radical Jews march around Jerusalem's walled Old City, exchanging curses with Muslim worshipers and trying to enter the Temple Mount.
August 16: PA President Yasser Arafat visits Indonesia. He declares he wants to reconsider the declaration of an independent Palestinian state. Prime Minister Barak flies to Amman for discussions with King Abdullah II.
August 16: Israeli and Palestinian negotiators resume their formal contacts.
August 17: US Mideast mediator Dennis Ross arrives in Israel. (More.)
August 17: Two brothers who were separated by World War II are reunited in Israel.
August 18: Prime Minister Ehud Barak offers the Palestinians an independent state if they formally end the conflict with Israel.
August 18: During a visit in Japan Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat warns of an "explosion" in the Middle East without peace.
August 18: The Yediot Ahronot newspaper publishes satellite photos of Israel's nuclear reactor.
August 19: Jewish settlers and Palestinians clash in Hebron fighting with fists and stones.
August 20: Prime Minister Ehud Barak moves towards a "secular revolution" which would remove the Orthodox monopoly on marriages, eliminate the religious affairs ministry, require ultra-Orthodox children to study citizenship, English and mathematics, require military service for yeshiva students and call for a constitution which includes freedom of speech and women's rights.
August 21: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and PA leader Yasser Arafat discuss a possible date for Palestinian statehood.
August 22: Jordan's King Abdullah II visits Israel and the West Bank.
August 23: The Supreme Court orders Aryeh Deri to begin his jail sentence.
August 25: Prime Minister Ehud Barak promises to help southern Lebanon refugees.
August 25: Prime Minister Barak reassures the Palestinians that there will be no excavations on the Temple Mount.
August 27: PA leader Yasser Arafat visits Spain. He says that an accord with Israel is still possible.
August 26: Israeli troops seal off the West Bank village of Assira Ashamalieh, known as a militant stronghold.
August 27: An attempt to capture a top Islamic militant fails. Three Israeli soldiers are killed and one is wounded in friendly fire. Two commanders submit their resignation.
August 28: Acting Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami visits Great Britain. British Junior Minister Peter Hain begins a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
August 28: A statement issued by Muslim religious and political leaders at a conference in Morocco, backs the Palestinian position on Jerusalem.
August 28: Prime Minister Ehud Barak visits Turkey.
August 29: US President Bill Clinton and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak meet for talks on the Middle East peace process.
August 29: Key Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat says that PA leader Arafat is determined to bridge serious differences.
August 30: Prime Minister Ehud Barak urges Palestinians to be flexible in peace negotiations over Jerusalem.
August 30: A US-Israeli laser weapon is successfullytested at the White Sands missile range in New Mexico.
August 30: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat meets Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
August 30: The Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine calls for the suspension of talks with Israel and for Middle East peace efforts to be turned over to the United Nations.
August 31: Prime Minister Ehud Barak issues an ultimatum in an effort to force Palestinian concessions.
September 3: Aryeh Deri enters prison with a following of thousands of supporters protesting the conviction.
September 4: Prime Minister Ehud Barak arrives at the United Nations for its Millennium Summit.
September 6: A long-running dispute over national emblems that is blocking Israel's admission to the international Red Cross movement could be solved by the end of the year.
September 6: US President Bill Clinton pushes Israel and the Palestinians for an agreement.
September 7: President Bill Clinton admits he made no progress in talks with Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat at the UN Millennium summit in New York. Arafat now has less than a week to decide whether he will declare an independent Palestinian state on September 13, as he has long threatened.
September 8: Leah Rabin, widow of assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, criticizes Prime Minister Ehud Barak because he offers the Palestinians control over parts of the Old City of Jerusalem.
September 9: Prime Minister Ehud Barak and US President Clinton meet.
September 10: Yasser Arafat and the central committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization postpone, yet again, the planned declaration of statehood.
September 11: Palestinian negotiators call for new Israeli concessions in recognition of the decision to postpone the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state. (More.)
September 11: Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh tours Hebron. Tensions have risen in the city of 130,000 Palestinians and 400 settlers since Camp David. Sneh blames the settlers of increasing the violence.
September 13: The peace talks resume. (More.)
September 13: Leo Falcam, President of Micronesia, visits Israel.
September 14: Two Lebanese detainees, Mustapha Dirani and Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid, appeal to the Supreme Court for release from years of detention without trial.
September 14: Lebanon demands reparations from Israel at the UN assembly.
September 15: Israel's Arab community leaders complained that Prime Minister Ehud Barak has turned his back on them, even though an overwhelming number of Israel's 1 million Arab citizens voted for him in the May 1999 elections. In his campaign, Barak had promised to make up for decades of government discrimination in housing, education and budget allocations.
September 15: Gen. Maj. Moshe Yaalon is Israel's new deputy chief of staff.
September 17: An explosion hurts 5 people outside a shop in a Tel Aviv suburb.
September 18: Prime Minister Ehud Barak rules out Islamic sovereignty over the Temple Mount.
September 19: Israel suspends talks with the Palestinians, indefinitely, on the grounds that Yasser Arafat is hardening his line on outstanding issues, particularly Jerusalem.
September 19: Israel and the PA agree to establish a Free Trade Area as part of a final economic accord, after an "effective economic border" has been established.
September 19: Four Negev Bedouin towns elect their local representatives for the first time.
September 20: Health authorities declare the West Nile virus infection an epidemic.
September 20: The peace talks crumble. (More.)
September 21: The violent behavior of Border Police men arouses criticism.
September 22: After 5 years of denial and concealment, the Beilin-Abu Mazen agreement is published in full in Newsweek.
September 25: Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat meet for the first time since July.
September 26: Israelis and Palestinians head to Washington for new negotiations.
September 27: US Mideast envoy Dennis Ross is meeting separately with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Washington.
September 27: A roadside bomb explodes next to a convoy of Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip.
September 27: The Palestinians warn that Ariel Sharon's tour of the Temple Mount could cause bloodshed.
September 27: In an interview for the Jerusalem Post, Prime Minister Ehud Barak says he would agree to a Palestinian capital named al-Quds, the Arabic word for Jerusalem, under any Israeli Palestinian peace treaty.
September 28: Peace talks in Washington end without results.
September 28: Violent rioting breaks out in Jerusalem after Ariel Sharon, the leader of the opposition, visits the most holy Muslim shrine in the city. Surrounded by hundreds of riot police and accompanied by a handful of Likud party colleagues, he spends 45 minutes on the Haram al-Sharif compound, home of the al-Aqsa mosque. By the time he leaves East Jerusalem is in uproar, and hundreds are injured. It is the start of the al-Aqsa intifada.
September 29: A Palestinian policeman, Na'il Suleiman, gets out of the Palestinian jeep that is taking part in a joint patrol with Israel in Qalqilyah, walks over to the Israeli jeep and shoots his Israeli counterpart, Yossi Tabeja, a Border Policeman, at point-blank range. The joint patrol is one of the icons of the Oslo era. The joint Israeli-Palestinian jeep patrols throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip not only represent a coordinated attempt to prevent terrorism; they also symbolize partnership and trust. The shot puts an end to the coordinated attempt to block terrorism, to the partnership and to the trust.
September 29: The Palestinians declare a day of mourning after the clashes on the Temple Mount. (More.)
September 30: 12-year-old Mohammed al-Durra and his father are caught in Israeli-Palestinian cross fire at the Netzarim junction in the Gaza Strip. The child is shot dead and his father is critically wounded. His death is captured in detail by a Palestinian cameraman working for French TV. The pictures, aired around the world, become a searing symbol of these days of bloody rioting. The death toll in the intifada, which has now spread throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, has now risen to 15.
September 30: At least seven Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have died and hundreds of demonstrators have been injured in three days of fighting. (More.) UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urges Israelis and Palestinians to restore security. The Palestinians declare a day of mourning.
October 1: At least 12 Palestinians are killed in clashes throughout the occupied territories; Israel uses anti-tank rockets near Netzarim and fires from helicopters in Nablus.
October 2: Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat meet with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
October 3: A truce between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants last just half a day before renewed fighting erupts. The intifada death toll now stands at 55, including nine Israeli Arabs - Palestinians who are Israeli citizens
October 3: The Israeli Army says an internal investigation showed its troops killed 12-year-old Mohammed al-Durra whose televised death in Gaza shocked the world. (More.)
October 6: The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem criticizes the excessive use of force during the clashes on the Temple Mount.
October 6: Israel seals the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
October 7: Israeli troops withdraw from Joseph's tomb near Nablus. Palestinian civilians and masked gunmen storm the site.
October 7: Three Israeli soldiers, Beni Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Souad, are kidnapped by the Hezbollah organization while patrolling the Israeli side of the Israeli-Lebanese border. The Hezbollah demands the release of 19 prisoners in Israel.
October 7: The UN Security Council condemns the outbreak of violence in Resolution 1322.
October 8: Throughout the West Bank, Israeli settlers protected by Israeli troops confront Palestinians, killing one and wounding many more as well as damaging many shops and cars. Jewish mobs attack Arabs in Nazareth, inclusive the home of MK Azmi Bishara, stoning Arab homes, cars and passers-by and shouting "death to the Arabs." Two Arabs are killed and dozens injured. In other areas of the Galilee, Jewish rioters block roads and attack Arabs citizens. In Tiberias, Jews destroy a 200-year-old mosque.
Israel closes Gaza International Airport and Rafah Border Crossing.
October 9: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrives in Jerusalem. He meets with PA President Arafat and Prime Minister Barak.
October 12: Israeli troops fire into Ramallah and Gaza after a Palestinian mob lynched two captured Israeli reserve soldiers held at a Palestinian police station in Ramallah. (More.)
October 12: Israel launches aristrikes into Ramallah and Gaza in retaliation of the killing of the two soldiers.
October 12: The director of the CIA, George Tenet, flies into the Middle East to try to set up high-level security talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
October 12: Fears of war in the Middle East send world stock markets tumbling, and oil prices rocketing to 10-year highs.
October 13: Israelis and Palestinians exchange gunfire near Ramallah. Two Israeli soldiers are killed.
October 13: Prime Minister Ehud Barak offers Likud leader Ariel Sharon a role in the government.
October 15: Israeli civilian Elhanan Tennenbaum is abducted by the Hezbollah while on a private business trip.
October 15: Israelis and Palestinians are cautiously optimistic before the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh which will be attended by Prime Minister Barak, PA Chairman Arafat, President Clinton, the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the EU's Javier Solana, King Abdullah and President Mubarak.
October 17: At the emergency summit in Sharm el-Sheikh Prime Minister Ehud Barak and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat agree to condemn violence and take concrete measures aimed at restoring calm in the region.
October 18: Eight Palestinians who are suspected of the lynching of two Israeli reserve soldiers are captured and brought to Jerusalem for trial.
October 18: An emergency session at the United Nations deals with the violence in the Middle East.
October 19: The violence continues. A Palestinian is killed outside a refugee camp near Nablus. A Jewish settler bleeds to death while waiting for army rescuers who cannot breach the heavy gunfire on Mount Ebal.
October 20: The UN General Assembly approves a resolution critical of Israel's role in the latest Middle East violence. Israel adamantly rejects it.
October 20: Israel refuses to cooperate with a United Nations inquiry into alleged human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza.
October 21: The Arab League opens an emergency summit in Cairo.
October 22: In reaction to continued clashes and the Arab summit's condemnation of Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak says Israel will have to take a "timeout" from the peace process.
October 22: Firefights take place between Gilo, an Israeli suburb of Jerusalem, and Beit Jalla, a suburb of the Palestinian town of Bethlehem.
October 23: Some Israeli soldiers take a wrong turn into a Palestinian town and an angry crowd attacks them. This time the soldiers manage to escape the brutality.
October 23: Morocco decides to close the Israeli liaison bureau in Rabat and also the Moroccan liaison office in Tel Aviv.
October 23: Two Palestinians are sentenced to life terms for stabbing a Jewish settler to death.
October 23: The Israeli-Palestinian death toll rises to 135.
October 24: An Israeli district court refuses to stop the first-ever scheduled concert performance in Israel of a work by Hitler's favorite composer, Richard Wagner, over the objections of survivors of the Nazi Holocaust of World War II. The concert will take place in Rishon LeZion.
October 24: Prime Minister Ehud Barak meets with several political parties, including the right-wing Likud, in hopes of forming a coalition before the Knesset reconvenes to consider a bill calling for early elections. Barak currently controls only 30 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.
October 24: Russian President Vladimir Putin holds late night telephone conversations with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
October 25: US President Bill Clinton invites Prime Minister Barak and PA Chairman Arafat to separate meetings at the White House.
October 26: The official website of the Israeli government is flooded by thousands of simultaneous hostile hits in a digital onslaught by Islamic groups abroad.
October 26: A young Palestinian man on a bicycle rides up to an Israeli army post in Gaza and blows himself up. The bomber receives a martyr's burial.
October 27: Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen exchange fire during a gunfight in Hebron. Gunfire battles also take place in Ramallah.
October 28: An Israeli army commander accuses the Palestinians of using "children as shields."
October 29: A meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Likud leader Ariel Sharon fails to produce an emergency government.
October 30: The Knesset returns after a three-month summer recess. Prime Minister Ehud Barak outlines his path to peace in a speech in the Knesset. The Palestinians are disappointed. Ehud Barak battles for political survival, as coalition hopes fade. The Israeli prime minister's support in the Knesset is now down to just 30 of the parliament's 120 members.
October 31: Israeli-Palestinian clashes continue in Gaza and in the West Bank.
October 31: Israeli combat helicopters fire on buildings in the West Bank and Gaza that serve as headquarters for Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction.
November 1: The clashes continue. Prime Minister Ehud Barak warns of difficult consequences if PA Chairman Yasser Arafat fails to curb the violence in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.
November 1: Amnesty International accuses Israel of using excessive force in the occupied territories, and says that its violations of human rights could constitute war crimes.
November 2: The Palestinian Authority releases a statement on violence and Israel releases a statement on understanding after a meeting in Gaza.
November 2: Two people are killed when a bomb explodes at the Machane Yehuda market in Jerusalem.
November 3: The White House confirms that Prime Minister Barak and PA leader Arafat will meet with President Clinton separately.
November 6: Arab MKs file four censure motions to protest the deaths of 13 Israeli Arabs in the recent violence.
November 7: US Mideast envoy Dennis Ross announces that he will resign in January 2001.
November 8: The White House appoints former US Senator George Mitchell to head a Middle East fact finding commission.
November 8: Peace Now releases details of budget submissions to the Knesset, revealing that Prime Minister Barak will ask for 1.2 billion NIS for Jewish settlements in the occupied territories in 2001.
November 9: US President Bill Clinton meets with PA Chairman Yasser Arafat in Washington.
November 9: An Israeli Apache helicopter launches missiles at a van carrying members of Arafat's Fatah party in Bethlehem, killing a party official and two bystanders.
November 10: Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat heads to the United Nations to seek support for a proposed U.N. protection force in Gaza and the West Bank.
November 10: An explosion in East Jerusalem slightly injures an Israeli policeman.
November 10: Tens of thousands of Israelis dance to Techno music in the Tel Aviv "Love Parade".
November 12: Leah Rabin, widow of assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin dies, aged 72. She is laid to rest on Mount Herzl next to her assassinated husband.
November 12: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNCHR), Mary Robinson, on a visit to the occupied territories to investigate Israeli human rights violations against the Palestinian people, travels to Hebron. Israeli settlers attack journalists in the delegation and her car is hit by shots. Robinson holds Israeli troops responsible for firing on her convoy.
November 13: The Oasis Casino in the West Bank town of Jericho is shelled from the direction of a Jewish settlement. Four Israelis and four Palestinians die in clashes.
November 13: Israel orders that no goods may enter the Palestinian Authority territories, aside from humanitarian aid products like food and medicine, while gasoline will be kept a minimum level and raw materials, such as concrete and cement, be stopped.
November 14: The Cabinet holds an emergency meeting.
November 15: Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat orders Fatah activists to stop firing on Israelis, but clashes continue.
November 15: The European Union opens a conference in Marseille with Israel and its Arab neighbors.
November 16: Gunfire between Gilo and Beit Jalla goes on every night and occasionally during the day.
November 18: The Israeli military vows revenge for a Palestinian attack on an Israeli outpost in Gaza that left one Israeli soldier dead and two others wounded.
November 19: Women for and against praying aloud from the Torah at the Western Wall, argue their cases before an expanded Supreme Court.
November 19: Israeli diplomat Yoram Haviviam is shot and wounded in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
November 20: Two people are killed and 20 people, including several children, are wounded when Israeli helicopter gun ships fire missiles on Palestinian targets in Gaza City. Israel's Cabinet approves the attacks as a "measured response" in retaliation for an attack earlier in the day in Gaza on a school bus that killed two Jewish settlers and injured nine people, including five children.
November 21: Egypt recalls its ambassador in the wake of the violence.
November 22: A car bomb explodes alongside a bus in Hadera, killing two people and wounding 55.
November 22: Israel sets up a financial intelligence unit to combat money laundering.
November 23: UN agencies warn that half the population of the occupied territories - some 1.5m people, could go hungry if Israel's economic blockade continues.
November 23: Hezbollah guerillas set off a roadside bomb wounding three Israeli soldiers. Israeli warplanes immediately respond with raids on south Lebanon.
November 23: The Israeli embassy in Germany moves from Bonn to its new building in Berlin.
November 24: Yasser Arafat calls Ehud Barak from Vladimir Putin's office in Moscow. They agree to resume a low-level security cooperation.
November 24: An Israeli civilian is killed in a shooting attack near Akrabeh.
November 28: Prime Minister Ehud Barak appeals for support across party lines ahead of the first vote on a motion to dissolve parliament and call new elections. The Knesset approves the bill overwhelmingly at its first reading.
November 30: Israel rejects a report by U.N. human rights chief Mary Robinson accusing Israeli security forces of using "excessive force" against Palestinians during two months of unrest.
November 30: Minister for Regional Affairs, Shimon Peres, is scared by his helicopter when the aircraft door opens twice during the flight.
November 30: The Gaza airport is reopened after a month of closure.
November 30: Yedioth Aharonot publishes a poll on Jewish pupils' attitude towards Israeli Arabs that reveals that 52% favor restricting Arabs' rights, mainly because they endanger national security.
December 1: The UN General Assembly strongly criticizes Israel's policies toward the Palestinians and calls its presence in Jerusalem and the Golan Heights illegal.
December 4: Gun battles break out in Bethlehem.
December 4: A Peace Now study on the Oslo period shows that housing in settlements has grown 52.49% since September 1993, and the settler population about 70%.
A new Peace Now population map states that there are currently 700 Palestinian towns with approximately 3 million Palestinians, compared with 145 settlements inhabited by 195,000 settlers; some 6,500 of these live in 16 settlements in the Gaza Strip. In the West Bank, some 50% of the settlers live in nine urban settlements.
December 5: During a visit to Hebron, Member of European Parliament Lisa Morgentina says there will be no peace in the region without Israeli withdrawal and an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. UN Middle East peace envoy Terje Larson, who also tours Hebron, warns of a regional war if the current situation continues.
December 5: A Russian rocket successfully launches the Israeli Eros-A1 satellite, the first civilian photography satellite.
December 5: Continued fightings dampen the hope for peace.
December 5: The Hezbollah rejects a new ICRC request to see three Israeli soldiers captured in October.
December 8: Seven Palestinians and two Israelis are killed in the violent confrontations.
December 9: Ehud Barak announces his resignation as prime minister, and says there will be a new election for the post. He will stay on as caretaker in the meantime.
December 9: President Moshe Katsav announces that the German government seeks to use its influence to help release the three Israeli soldiers.
December 10: Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declares his candidacy.
December 10: The Labor Party names Ehud Barak as prime minister candidate.
December 11: The Mitchell Commission meets with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
December 12: Israel blockades the West Bank after the violence claims ten lives.
December 12: An Israeli bus plunges into a valley near Jericho during a rainstorm. One person is killed, 20 are injured.
December 13: French Foreign Minister and EU President Hubert Vedrine meets with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
December 14: Israel eases restrictions on Palestinians by allowing 16,000 workers to enter Israel in a trust-building gesture.
December 14: Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami and Prime Minister Ehud Barak's senior adviser, Gilead Sher, meet Yasser Arafat in Gaza.
December 18: The Knesset approves a bill to amend Israel's election law to allow Benjamin Netanyahu to stand in the election though he is not a member of the Knesset.
December 18: Israeli and Palestinian negotiators leave for Washington, in a last bid to secure a peace agreement before President Clinton leaves office. The death toll in the intifada now stands at 330. The overwhelming majority of the dead are Palestinians.
December 19: The Knesset rejects with 69-49 the bill to dissolve itself and therefore Netanyahu will not run for PM. Ariel Sharon is formally declared candidate of the Likud.
December 19: Israeli and Palestinian negotiators meet near Washington for renewed peace talks.
December 21: Four Israeli soldiers are injured when a Palestinian rams a truck into a West Bank checkpoint.
December 21: An Israeli civilian is killed in a shooting attack on route 443.
December 22: A suicide bomber blows himself up at a roadside cafe in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.
December 22: The Meretz party does not back Shimon Peres' candidacy for prime minister.
December 23: Israeli and Palestinian negotiators meet with President Bill Clinton who presents his parameters for a final status agreement.
December 26: Israelis and Palestinians consider a "bridging proposal" from US President Bill Clinton. New violence erupts.
December 27: Israeli Premier Ehud Barak, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak agree to hold a summit in Egypt, to discuss peace proposals.
December 28: Explosions in Tel Aviv and Gaza leave two people dead and 15 injured.
December 28: An American tourist vandalizes the Western Wall with red paint.
December 28: The Cabinet votes to accept the Clinton proposals as the basis for the renewal of negotiations, if the Palestinians also see them as such. Arafat and Mubarak meet in Cairo after the planned Sharm El-Sheikh summit is cancelled because PM Barak refuses to participate in light of the Palestinians' response to Clinton's proposals.
December 28: Israel releases its first statement to the Mitchell Committee.
December 29: Ehud Tannenbaum, "The Analyzer" is sentenced to 18 months in prison. (See March 1998.)
December 31: Senior Fatah official Dr. Thabet Thabet is assassinated by Israeli undercover units while leaving his home in Ramin near Tulkarem.
December 31: A booby-trapped car explodes in Netanya, wounding 54, one of whom - the believed perpetrator - later dies in hospital.
December 31: The Israeli parties sign an agreement on holding clean elections, not to violate any laws during the election campaign, to preserve the public calm and avoid any form of violence, or damage to property, the environment and public cleanliness.
December 31: Israeli militant activist Benjamin Kahane and his wife are killed when their car comes under fire and overturns in the West Bank. Shortly afterwards, Dr. Thabet Thabet, a senior official from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction is shot dead by the Israeli army in the West Bank city of Tulkarm.
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