ConflictBarometer_2016

MIDDLE EAST AND MAGHREB
weaponry to Hezbollah from Syria and Lebanon. During a visit
to troops in the Golan Heights on April 11, Netanyahu confirmed
that Israel had conducted dozens of strikes to prevent
weapon transfers, without specifying single attacks.
On January 4, a Hezbollah unit named after former Hezbollah
commander Samir Kuntar destroyed two armored Israeli vehicles
with a roadside bomb on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
The attack was in retaliation for Kuntar's killing in an airstrike
in Syria on 19/12/15, for which Hezbollah accused Israel.
Kuntar had been sentenced to a 542-year prison term for murder
by an Israeli court in 1980, but had been released as part
of a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hezbollah in 2008.
In response, Israeli artillery shelled the Lebanese village Al
Wazzani, Nabatieh Governorate, causing damage to buildings.
The Israeli Air Force (IAF) allegedly attacked a weapons convoy
heading to Hezbollah fighters on the Syrian-Lebanese border
on May 10. On November 30, Israeli fighter jets supposedly
targeted a weapon arsenal of the Syrian Army's Fourth
Division in the Syrian city of As'saboura, Rif Dimashq Governorate,
and an alleged arms convoy on the Damascus-Beirut
highway transferring weapons to Hezbollah. Israeli Defense
Forces (IDF) spokespersons neither denied nor confirmed Israel's
responsibility. On December 7, alleged Israeli surfaceto-surface
missiles targeted Hezbollah missile sites in Rif Dimashq
Governorate close to Syria's capital Damascus, which
reportedly killed several Hezbollah members. After the attack,
Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said to ambassadors
of the EU that Israel was trying to prevent the smuggling
of advanced weapons, military equipment, or weapons
of mass destruction from Syria to Hezbollah.
In some incidents over the year, for example on January 20
and August 16, IDF and Israel's internal security service Shin
Bet declared that they had dissolved Hezbollah cells and arrested
its members in Gaza and in the cities of Tulkarem and
Qalqilya in the West Bank. The dissolved cells had allegedly
planned attacks on Israel. hl, vs
ISRAEL (PNA / PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES)
Intensity: 3 | Change: | Start: 1948
Conflict parties: PNA vs. government, Israeli settlement
movements
Conflict items: secession, system/ideology, resources
The violent crisis over the creation of a sovereign Palestinian
state between the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), led by
President Mahmoud Abbas of the Fatah, on the one hand, and
the government as well as Israeli settlement movements, on
the other, continued.
In February, France launched a peace initiative. On June 3,
an international conference was held in Paris, France, without
Israeli or Palestinian representatives being invited. The
participants reaffirmed their commitment to a two-state solution.
While Palestinian officials welcomed the initiative, the
Israeli government criticized the conference, stating that only
direct negotiations without preconditions could lead to a conflict
resolution. The ongoing building of settlements in the
West Bank continued to impact a possible realization of a twostate-solution.
On December 23, the UNSC adopted Resolution
2334, which condemned the Israeli settlements in the
West Bank and East Jerusalem. The resolution stated that the
Israeli settlement activity ''has no legal validity and constitutes
a flagrant violation under international law and a major
obstacle to the achievement of a two-state solution.” This led
to diplomatic tensions between Israel and the US due to the
latter's abstention from its vote.
According to OCHA, at least 97 Palestinians and 13 Israelis,
mostly civilians, were killed in the West Bank and on Israeli
territory. Throughout the year, Palestinian ''lone wolfs” repeatedly
attacked civilians, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), and
Israeli police forces, using guns, knives, and cars, in the districts
of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Central District, and in the West
Bank. While Israeli officials accused Abbas of inciting Palestinians
to carry out these attacks, Palestinian officials accused
the IDF and Israeli police of using excessive force. For instance
on January 7, four Palestinians launched two separate
stabbing attacks at the Gush Etzion junction and at an Israeli
checkpoint near Hebron, West Bank. All attackers were shot
dead by IDF. In a knife attack on January 25, two Palestinians
injured two people in Beit Horon, West Bank, before they were
shot dead by the Israeli police. Furthermore, on February 3,
three Palestinians killed a border policewoman, using guns,
knives, and explosives and wounded another at the Damascus
Gate in East Jerusalem. A police officer killed all attackers
shortly after. On June 8, two Palestinians killed four Israeli
civilians and injured six others in an attack on a food market
in Tel Aviv. Police arrested both attackers, injuring one
of them. A Palestinian teenager stabbed and killed an Israeli
youth in her home in the settlement of Kiryat Arba, West Bank,
on June 30. Israeli security guards killed the attacker shortly
after. The same day in Netanya, Central District, a Palestinian
stabbed and wounded two Israelis. The attacker was killed by
an armed civilian nearby.
Throughout the year, IDF conducted raids and arrests in the
West Bank, often destroying homes of Palestinians charged
with having conducted attacks against Israelis. For instance,
on July 4, in Qalandiya and Dura, West Bank, Israeli soldiers
destroyed the homes of two Palestinians convicted of a stabbing
attack at the Jaffa Gate in East Jerusalem on 12/23/15.
Subsequently, riots erupted and IDF injured four Palestinians.
On August 16, IDF was attacked by Palestinians with rocks and
explosives during raids in the Fawwar refugee camp, West
179
Bank. IDF responded using live ammunition and tear gas,
killing one Palestinian and injuring dozens. Between November
18 and 27, more than 1,700 fires broke out on Israeli territory,
of which dozens were alleged arson attacks. The Israeli
government detained 35 alleged Israeli Arab arsonists. So far,
no evidence was found that the arsonists' actions were politically
motivated.
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