January 4 2004
The Israeli premier draws criticism from hardliners in his Likud party after ordering the army to remove two unauthorised Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Sharon tells army to move settlers
January 6 2004
Israel and Turkey agree to an extraordinary deal which will see millions of gallons of fresh water shipped across the Mediterannean to Israel, in exchange for the sale of arms.
Israeli 'water for arms' deal with Turkey
January 9 2004
The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, warns he will seek a single state of Jews and Arabs if Ariel Sharon annexes parts of the West Bank and imposes borders on Palestine. New emerges that the Israeli army has killed 19 people in a futile search for the leader of "the heart of the terror networks" during a three-week occupation of Nablus.
Palestinians may seek single state
19 left dead in failed hunt for master bomber
January 12 2004
The Syrian president, Bashar Assad, rejects an offer of peace talks from his Israeli counterpart, Moshe Katsav, claiming the gesture is "not serious". Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Jewish settlers gather in Tel Aviv to protest against Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon's plans to remove Jewish outposts in the West Bank and Gaza.
Syria rejects Israeli offer of talks
Settlers vent fury at Sharon proposal
January 13 2004
The Israeli government announces that it expects to begin withdrawing from parts of the occupied territories and redefining their borders to create an emasculated Palestinian state if there is no progress towards a negotiated peace settlement.
Israel goes ahead with plans for border changes
January 14 2004
A 22-year-old Palestinian mother of two small children, pretending to be disabled, kills four Israelis at a Gaza border crossing after duping soldiers into allowing her a personal security check rather than going through a metal detector.
Human-bomb mother kills four Israelis at Gaza checkpoint
January 20 2004
The Israeli air force bombs Hizbullah targets in southern Lebanon in retaliation for the killing of a soldier in a missile attack on Israel's northern border.
Israel hits back after army death
January 21 2004
Opposition politicians in Israel demand the resignation of the country's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, after a businessman is indicted in a Tel Aviv court for allegedly bribing him. The call comes as justice ministry officials say prosecutors are considering whether to charge Mr Sharon along with his son, Gilad, and his deputy, Ehud Olmert.
Sharon the survivor: why Greek island affair could sink him
Bribes claim threatens to bring down Sharon
January 23 2004
An 11-year-old Palestinian boy is killed and two other youths wounded by Israeli soldiers in a highly sensitive area close to the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
Boy, 11, killed in border shooting
January 28 2004
At least 13 Palestinians are killed, according to Israel's army radio, in the deadliest clashes in the Gaza Strip for over a month. Palestinian medics say they have unconfirmed reports of bodies as yet unrecovered from the streets of a militant stronghold near Gaza City.
Israeli army says 13 Palestinians dead in Gaza clash
January 29 2004
At least ten people are killed and another 50 wounded in a suicide attack on a bus outside Ariel Sharon's official residence in Jerusalem. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claims responsibility, but the attack fails to derail a prisoner swap in which Israel begins freeing 436 of the 7,000 Palestinian detainees it holds in exchange for an abducted Israeli businessman and the bodies of three dead soldiers.
Israel and Hizbullah begin prisoner swap
Ten killed in Jerusalem suicide bombing
February 2 2004
Ariel Sharon shocks the world - and many members of his own Likud party - when he reveals his intention to withdraw from virtually all Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip, with or without signing a final peace agreement with the Palestinians. Claiming that the isolated and heavily fortified settlements are incompatible with a peace settlement, Mr Sharon told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that there would be "no Jews in Gaza".
Sharon orders relocation of Gaza settlements
February 3 2004
The Metropolitan Police announce that they will expand their investigation into the death of peace activist Tom Hurndall to cover the death of cameraman James Miller in the Gaza Strip last year.
Met to investigate second Gaza death
February 5 2004
Israeli police interview Ariel Sharon over his alleged involvement in a corruption scandal. Fraud detectives question him for three hours about his involvement with businessman David Appel, who has already been indicted on charges of attempting to bribe Mr Sharon to pressure the Greek government to allow the building of a holiday resort on an Aegean island.
Detectives question Sharon over bribe claims
Febuary 9 2004
Israeli civil and human rights groups launch a legal action against the West Bank "security barrier" in the country's supreme court, claiming the it infringes on the human rights of Palestinians affected by its construction.
Israeli legal challenge to barrier
February 11 2004
Fifteen Palestinians - including Abu Shkail, a senior Hamas activist - are killed in a vicious morning gunbattle with Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip. Hamas vows revenge for the attack.
14 Palestinians dead in Gaza battles
February 12 2004
Israel decides not to send representatives to the international court of human rights in The Hague for the hearings on the legitimacy of its West Bank "security barrier". Israeli officials refuse to acknowledge the court's right to issue judgements on matters of Israeli security.
Israel to boycott security wall case
February 17 2004
The US gives tacit approval to Ariel Sharon's plan for "unilateral disengagement" from the Palestinians but sets a series of conditions, including a refusal to let Israel formally annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
US to endorse Israeli plans for Gaza
February 18 2004
The International Committee of the Red Cross calls on Israel to halt construction of the steel and concrete "security fence" through the West Bank because it breaches international law and is causing widespread harm to Palestinians.
Red Cross condemns security wall
February 22 2004
Suicide bomber murders eight people on a rush hour bus in Jerusalem.
Suicide bomber kills 8 on bus
February 23 2004
Israeli troops fire tear gas at Palestinians protesting at the barrier being constructed in the West Bank as a court case on its legality opens in The Hague.
Protests as Israel's barrier is challenged
February 26 2004
Demonstrations over West Bank wall claim first victims as seizures belie Sharon's pledge to abandon settlements.
Israelis kill two villagers in barrier protests
February 27 2004
Israel is seizing Palestinian land in Gaza to expand one of the most controversial Jewish settlements three weeks after Ariel Sharon said he intended to remove all settlers from the territory.
Land grab in Gaza casts doubt on pullout
March 2 2004
The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, is backing a total withdrawal of Israeli settlers and soldiers from the Palestinian Gaza Strip, according to a well-placed Israeli source.
Sharon backs total withdrawal from Gaza Strip
March 3 2004
Chris McGreal in Gaza reports on a family's battle to hold on to their home despite the shooting of a son.
Palestinian boy lies crippled by an Israeli bullet but father's plea for harmony lives on
March 3 2004
Israel continues to build settlements in the occupied territory despite US calls for building to stop. The trend could complicate attempts to get Washington's approval for his plan to "disengage" from the Palestinian Authority.
Israel has stepped up the pace of settlement building
March 3 2004
Ariel Sharon dismisses accusations that he did a deal with Hizbullah to free hundreds of Palestinian and other Arab prisoners in exchange for a self-confessed Israeli drug dealer because of a longstanding relationship with the abducted man's family.
Sharon denies link to hostage freed in Hizbullah swap
March 7 2004
The biggest Israeli raid into Gaza for months leaves 14 Palestinians dead, including three children, amid fears of a sharp upsurge in violence before Israel's planned withdrawal from the Palestinian territory.
14 die in Israeli raid on Gaza refugee camps
March 11 2004
McDonald's, the fast food chain that claims to be an equal opportunities employer, is criticised in Israel for forcing employees to speak only Hebrew to customers.
McDonald's bans Arabic
March 14 2004
Ten people are killed when two Palestinians from Gaza blow themselves up in the Israeli port of Ashdod, prompting the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, to cancel his first summit meeting with his Palestinian counterpart, Ahmed Qureia.
Suicide bombers kill 10 at Israeli port
March 16 2004
Israel vows to intensify efforts to eliminate militant leaders in the Gaza Strip after a double-suicide attack on its second-biggest port.
Israel vows to hit at Gaza militants
March 16 2004
The Israeli military accuses a faction of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement of using an 11-year-old boy as an unwitting human bomb after the child is discovered carrying explosive through an army checkpoint in Nablus.
Israelis say boy, 11, used as bomber
March 16 2004
Israeli forces launch a new offensive in the Gaza Strip, killing at least six Palestinians and wounding 27 in a series of air strikes. Palestinian security officials say troops had raided a Rafah refugee camp and had demolished seven houses.
Israeli attack on Gaza kills six
March 22 2004
In a decision welcomed by human rights groups, an Israeli tank commander is charged with negligent homicide after having authorised his tanks to shell a group of Palestinians in a market, killing three children and an adult
Tank commander on homicide charge
March 22 2004
The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, describes the assassination of Ahmed Yassin as an attack on "the first and foremost leader of the Palestinian terrorist murderers," and says Israel would continue such attacks.
Sharon vows to continue 'war on terror'
Israel has stepped up the pace of settlement building
March 22 2004
Palestinian militants warn of swift and bloody retaliation against Israel after it "opened the gates of hell" by assassinating Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of militant group Hamas.
Israel assassinates Hamas leader
March 22 2004
Mourners chant behind the body of Sheikh Yassin and predict he will reach from beyond the grave to claim many more lives in death than he ever did in in life.
'He'll kill more in death than he did alive'
March 23 2004
Hamas names Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, the doctor turned Islamist fighter, as its new leader in Gaza, the organisation's stronghold.
New chief to be implacable foe
March 25 2004
The US blocks a UN resolution condemning Israel's assassination of the Hamas founder and spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, on the grounds that the text is "one-sided".
US vetoes UN Yassin resolution
April 2 2004
Thousands of Palestinians barricade themselves inside mosques at one of Islam's holiest sites after Israeli police stormed worshippers who they said had been throwing stones at officers.
Israeli police storm mosque compound
April 14 2004
Sharon wins 'historic' backing for plan to evacuate Gaza - but hold on to West Bank control.
Bush rips up the road map
April 15 2003
The Bush administration launches a diplomatic offensive to try to placate Arab and European leaders outraged by its seismic policy shift on the Middle East.
US reels from Arab and European fury
April 16 2004
Protests are lodged against the restrictions that are to be imposed on the Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, who is due to be released from prison next week.
Anger at restrictions on Vanunu
April 17 2004
Israeli forces assassinate Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, in what appears to be the start of a campaign to destroy the organisation before Israel pulls out of Gaza as part of a US-sanctioned deal.
Israeli missile attack kills new Hamas chief
April 18 2004
As Gaza City closes down to bury Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, Arab countries accuse US president George Bush of giving Israel the go-ahead for continuing its assassination policy.
A funeral in Gaza - and birth of a new resistance
Arab leaders say Bush backs Israel attack policy
April 20 2004
Mahmoud Zahar, the last remaining founding member of Hamas, is believed by many Palestinians to be the new leader of the organisation in Gaza.
Leadership may have passed to last founding member
Hamas ready to cooperate, but only in Gaza
April 21 2004
Mordechai Vanunu walks free from prison after spending 18 years in jail for revealing secrets that exposed Israel as one of the world's top nuclear powers.
Vanunu released after 18 years
'Living in a grave'
April 23 2004
Ariel Sharon issues an ominous warning that Yasser Arafat could be the next Palestinian leader to be in Israel's line of fire. The Israeli prime minister says he told President George Bush that he is no longer prepared to exempt Mr Arafat from physical harm.
Sharon: 'We may kill Arafat'
April 25 2004
Israeli government ministers repeat threats against the life of the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, but say there are no plans to attack him in the near future.
Ministers back Sharon on attacking Arafat
April 26 2004
Tony Blair's foreign policy comes under scrutiny after an unprecedented coalition of more than 50 former diplomats attack his policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Diplomats attack Blair's Israel policy
April 27 2004
Israel's highest court rules that the government acts illegally in routinely denying press accreditation to Palestinian journalists on the grounds that they posed a threat to security. The high court of justice orders the government to lift the ban after news agency Reuters and the Arabic television station al-Jazeera challenged the practice of denying press cards to Palestinian journalists.
Court overturns Israeli press ruling
April 29 2004
The US state department warns US citizens to leave Gaza immediately and not to travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Meanwhile Ariel Sharon makes a desperate plea to his party to support his plan to evacuate settlements in Gaza after polls show he faces defeat in a party referendum.
America warns its citizens to leave Gaza immediately
Sharon: defeat will bring disaster
Tali Hatuel, 34, and her four daughters, aged from two to 11, become the first Gaza settlers to be killed since 2002.
Settler mother and daughters shot dead
May 2 2004
Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, is dealt a severe blow when his party roundly rejects his proposal to withdraw from Gaza, amid a fresh upsurge in violence which leaves at least nine dead including a pregnant woman and her four young daughters.
Blow for Sharon as Gaza plan rejected
May 4 2004
An Israeli missile strike in Gaza kills two Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy, as the Israeli prime minister scrambles to come up with modifications to his blocked plan to pull out of the territory.
Sharon ponders Gaza plan
May 5 2004
The Israeli housing ministry has spent £3.7m building illegal settlements and outposts in the West Bank over the past three years, the government auditor reveals.
Israel spent £3.7m building illegal outposts
May 10, 2004
The trial of an Israeli soldier charged with killing British student Tom Hurndall in the Gaza Strip opens with claims that the accused confessed only under duress.
Israeli on trial for Briton's death
May 11 2004
Six Israeli soldiers are killed in fighting with Palestinian militants in Gaza City, the highest Israeli death toll in a single operation in nearly two years. Five Palestinians are killed, including at least three gunmen and an 18-year-old, and 88 wounded in one of the fiercest battles in the city in recent months.
Eleven dead in Gaza battle
May 12 2004
Palestinian fighters kill five Israeli soldiers by blowing up an armoured vehicle in a Gaza refugee camp as troops fight house-to-house in a Gaza City neighbourhood to search for the body parts of six soldiers killed in a similar attack on Tuesday.
Gaza death toll mounts as Israeli troops are ambushed
May 14 2004
Two more Israeli soldiers are killed in the Gaza strip as the military begins razing hundreds of refugee homes in what the government calls a security operation but critics describe as retaliation for some of the worst casualties of the intifada. An Israeli member of parliament calls the destruction a war crime.
Israeli troops die as refugee homes are destroyed
May 16 2004
Israel says it will intensify its military assault on the Gaza strip, hours after more than 100,000 people rally in Tel Aviv to demand that Ariel Sharon follow through on his pledge to withdraw Jewish settlers from the territory.
100,000 tell Sharon to get out of Gaza
May 17 2004
Hundreds of Palestinians flee the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza as Israeli tanks move in for what is expected to be a major offensive to raze homes.
Israel sends tanks into Rafah
May 18 2004
Israeli forces attack the Rafah refugee camp at the start of an operation to crush Palestinian armed resistance, before a planned fresh wave of house demolitions. The army kills at least 20 people, including children, one of the highest death tolls in a single day of the present intifada.
Children among 20 dead as Israeli army begins huge crackdown
May 19 2004
At least 10 Palestinians are killed and 35 wounded when Israeli forces fire on a crowd demonstrating against the invasion of a Gaza refugee camp, according to hospital sources.
Ten die as Israeli tanks fire on peaceful protest
May 20 2004
The Tel Aviv district court finds a senior ally of Yasser Arafat, Marwan Barghouti, guilty of murder in attacks that killed a Greek Orthodox monk in the West Bank in 2001, an Israeli at the Jewish settlement of Givat Zeev in 2002 and three people at a Tel Aviv restaurant in 2002.
Key Arafat ally convicted of murder
May 25 2004
International criticism of death toll spurs withdrawal.
Israeli troops pull back from Rafah camp
May 27 2004
A British journalist released from Israeli custody says he was held in a dungeon with excrement on the walls following his arrest on suspicion of espionage.
Briton says he was held in Israeli dungeon
June 9 2004
Two far-right Israeli ministers quit Ariel Sharon's government in protest at his plan to pull Jewish settlers out of the Gaza Strip, robbing the prime minister of his majority in the parliament.
Gaza pullout plan costs Sharon his majority
June 4 2004
Far-right ministers dismissed for opposing plan to withdraw Israeli settlers from Gaza.
Sharon sacks hardliners who stand in his way
June 6 2004
Sacking of ministers paves way for dismantling of Jewish settlements in Gaza but threatens coalition.
Sharon wins battle over settlers
June 15 2004
Israel's attorney general drops a corruption case against Ariel Sharon, ending months of uncertainty over the prime minister's political future and boosting the chances of an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
Sharon corruption case dropped
June 19 2004
Yasser Arafat has told an Israeli newspaper that he recognises Israel's right to remain a Jewish state and is, therefore, prepared to accept the return of only a fraction of the Palestinian refugees.
Arafat recognises Jewish state and limit to return of refugees
July 1 2004
The Israeli government's security barrier is violating the human rights of Palestinians, the country's highest court ruled in a judgment that delivered a blow to prime minister Ariel Sharon's plans to seize large parts of the West Bank.
Israel wall must be re-routed, says court
July 2 2004
Israel's security establishment quietly congratulates itself on breaking the back of Palestinian "terror networks", months after driving the leaders of Hamas and its smaller allies underground or killing them.
Thwarted Hamas turns from bombs to politics
July 9 2004
Palestinians wait for a verdict on the legality of the West Bank barrier from the international court of justice in The Hague.
Palestinians await verdict on barrier
July 10 2004
The world court brands Israel's vast barrier through the West Bank a de facto land grab and tells Israel to tear it down and compensate the victims.
World court tells Israel to tear down illegal wall
July 11 2004
Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, says the world court's ruling against his country's vast barrier through the West Bank encouraged terrorists, shortly after a bomb at a Tel Aviv bus stop killed a young woman.
Sacred right to fight terror overrides court, says Sharon
July 15 2004
The prime minister of New Zealand angrily denounces Israel and imposes diplomatic sanctions on it after two suspected Mossad agents are jailed for six months for trying on false grounds to obtain a New Zealand passport.
'Mossad spies' jailed over New Zealand passport fraud
July 18 2004
Ariel Sharon urges French Jews to emigrate to Israel to escape what he calls "the wildest anti-semitism". France asks the Israeli prime minister to explain his comments before it will set a date for his planned visit to Paris.
Sharon in anti-semitism row with France
Paris stalls Sharon visit
July 21 2004
Israel accuses the EU of "encouraging Palestinian terrorism" by supporting a UN general assembly resolution pressing the Jewish state to tear down the "anti-terror" barrier under construction through the West Bank.
UN calls for Israel to tear down wall
Israel lashes out at EU for backing UN vote on wall
July 25 2004
Tens of thousands of Israelis form a human chain more than 50 miles long in protest at their government's plan to withdraw from the Gaza settlements.
Jewish settlers join 50-mile-long protest at plan to quit Gaza
July 26 2004
The Israeli supreme court upholds a travel ban on the nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, refusing to let him move abroad on the grounds that he might reveal further state secrets
Court backs Vanunu travel ban
August 15 2004
About 1,600 Palestinian prisoners begin a hunger strike to protest at conditions in Israeli jails.
Mass hunger strike in Israeli jails
August 17 2004
Israel announces plans for 1,000 houses in the West Bank, violating the US-brokered 'road map' for peace in the region. The announcement is intended to fend off criticism of Sharon's plan to pull out of Gaza.
Sharon orders 1,000 homes in West Bank
August 18 2004
Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, suffers a massive blow to his project to withdraw from settlements in the Gaza Strip when his party refuses to allow him to invite new partners into the government who might have backed his plans. Sharon says he will push ahead with the withdrawal nonetheless.
Sharon loses crucial party vote
Sharon vows to continue with plan
August 20 2004
Shimon Peres, Israel's opposition leader, calls for early elections that would effectively rule his party out of joining a coalition to prop up Ariel Sharon.
Peres demands early Israeli elections
December 23 2004
Palestinian officials attack Tony Blair's proposed conference, planned to focus on political, economic and security reform, arguing he had originally proposed a peace conference.
Blair bowed to Israel, say Palestinians
August 23 2004
Israel announces plans to build more than 530 new homes for settlers in the West Bank, following an apparent US policy shift on settlements that the Palestinians warn will destroy the peace process. Downing Street expresses its continued opposition to any such expansion, opening up a significant gap between the British and US governments on Middle East policy.
Israel unveils West Bank building plan
Britain in split with US on West Bank homes
August 26 2004
The Israeli military arrests two soldiers on suspicion of murdering an unarmed Palestinian. Two more officers from the same platoon are detained for allegedly attempting to cover up the killing, according to the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot.
Israeli soldiers held for Palestinian killing
August 27 2004
The Palestinian leadership announces a three-point programme of non-violent resistance in an attempt to wrest the diplomatic initiative from Israel.
Leaders call for a peaceful intifada
August 29 2004
It is revealed the FBI is investigating a suspected Israeli spy deep in the Pentagon, who have may have fed secrets about US policy on Iran to Israel. Israel insists it maintains a ban on spying in the US.
FBI probes 'spy suspect deep inside' the Pentagon
We do not spy on US, says Israel
August 31 2004
At least 16 people are killed and 80 injured when Palestinian militants carry out suicide bombings on two buses in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. Earlier in the day, Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, has proposed an accelerated timetable for the evacuation of Jewish settlements in the Gaza strip from as early as the beginning of 2005.
Israel shaken by return of the suicide bombers
Sharon outlines Gaza evacuation plan
September 1 2004
Israel warns the Arab world that it sees Syrian hands behind this week's suicide bombings in Beersheba, as it seals off a nearby West Bank city and destroys the home of one of the attackers.
Israel sees Syrian link in bombings
September 2 2004
Israel's threats against Syria after the Beersheba suicide bombings would "exacerbate the deteriorating situation in the region," the Syrian foreign minister says.
Syria on offensive as Israel threatens to avenge bombings
September 6 2004
An Israeli attack on Hamas activists training near Gaza City kills at least 13 people.
Israeli attack kills 13 Hamas supporters
September 8 2004
Israel's agriculture minister, Israel Katz, announces plans for further expansion of Jewish settlements in the Jordan valley by expropriating 8,000 acres of land.
Israel to take more land for settlers
September 13 2004
The Israeli military kills three al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades activists in a helicopter missile strike on a car in Jenin.
Israeli missile kills activists
September 22 2004
Two Israeli policemen die preventing a female suicide bomber from entering a packed Jerusalem bus shelter, probably saving many other lives.
Two Israelis die tackling bomber
September 26 2004
Hamas promises vengeance against Israel for its assassination of one of the Palestinian group's members in the Syrian capital of Damascus.
Israel kills Hamas leader in Syrian capital
September 29 2004
Hamas rocket attack claims two young Israeli lives while three Palestinian boys die in raids.
Five children killed in Gaza Strip battles
September 30 2004
Israeli forces kill at least 23 Palestinians on one of the bloodiest days of the intifada, as the army makes a rare push into the heart of a heavily defended Gaza refugee camp.
23 killed in Israeli raid on refugee camp
October 5 2004
Israeli forces have demolished the homes of hundreds of Palestinians, bulldozed swaths of agricultural land and destroyed infrastructure in their bloodiest assault on the Gaza strip in years.
50,000 trapped by Israeli assault on Gaza
October 7 2004
A series of car bomb attacks on holiday resorts in Sinai, Egypt kills 34 people and injures 59. Most of the victims are Israeli tourists and Egyptian workers.
Dozens killed in bomb blasts at Sinai resorts
October 8 2004
Israel's military intelligence chief blames al-Qaida for the hotel bombings that killed at least 30 people, mostly Israeli tourists and Egyptian workers, in Sinai.
Al-Qaida behind hotel attack that killed 30, says Israel
October 14 2004
Israel is set on a collision course with the EU and could turn into a pariah state on a par with South Africa during the apartheid years if the conflict with the Palestinians is not resolved, Israel's foreign ministry warns.
Israel could become pariah state, report warns
October 24 2004
The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, seeks approval by the country's parliament for parts of his plan to withdraw Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank.
Israel split over settlement retreat
October 26 2004
Israel's divided parliament ratifies prime minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. The historic vote marks the first time the Knesset has authorised the removal of Jewish settlements from occupied territory that Palestinians claim for a state.
The Israeli government gives Yasser Arafat permission to leave his Ramallah headquarters for the first time in two years to receive medical treatment.
Israeli MPs back Gaza withdrawal
Israel allows ill Arafat to leave his HQ
October 29 2004
The Palestinian president, Yasser Arafat, is flown to Paris for medical treatment after a sharp deterioration in his health.
Frail Arafat in French hospital
November 3 2004
MPs in Ariel Sharon's Likud party rebel over his plans to pull out of Gaza, forcing him to postpone the annual budget vote.
MPs' Gaza revolt forces Sharon to defer budget vote
November 4 2004
Unfounded rumours circulate that Yasser Arafat has died, as more of his powers are passed to the Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia.
Arafat clings to life as switch of power begins
November 7 2004
The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, appeals to political and military factions to avoid violence while Yasser Arafat lies critically ill.
Hamas agrees to avoid infighting
November 9 2004
Palestinian leaders visit Yasser Arafat in hospital in Paris, and admit he is close to death.
Arafat close to death, say officials
November 10 2004
It is confirmed that when Yasser Arafat dies, he will be buried in Ramallah, after the Israelis refuse to allow him to be interred in Jerusalem.
Burial site prepared as Arafat clings on
November 11 2004
Yasser Arafat dies in the early hours of the morning. His body is flown to Cairo, where his funeral will take place before he is buried in Ramallah.
Arafat begins final journey
November 12 2004
Yasser Arafat is laid to rest at his Ramallah compound, amid tens of thousands of mourners.
A chorus of gunfire, chants and wailing ambulances
November 14 2004
The Palestinian leadership sets a January 9 date for elections to decide who will succeed Yasser Arafat as president.
Shooting protest as Palestinians set poll date
November 17 2004
The Palestinian leadership reveals that it is to send a delegation to Paris to establish the cause of Yasser Arafat's death.
Palestinian inquiry into Arafat's death
November 22 2004
The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, visits Israel and the West Bank in an attempt to resuscitate the peace process.
PLO to press Powell on road map
November 25 2004
Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah leader and the favourite to succeed Yasser Arafat, says he intends to bring about a complete, unconditional end to Palestinian violence.
Abbas pledge to end violence
December 1 2004
Ariel Sharon's government is facing collapse after the prime minister breaks with his main coalition partner. Marwan Bharghouti, the jailed Palestinian military commander, reverses a decision not to run against Mahmoud Abbas for president.
Middle East upheaval as Sharon provokes crisis
December 4 2004
Government papers suggest Israel intends to bypass the peace plan, creating a Palestinian state of enclaves, surrounded by walls and linked by tunnels and special roads.
Israel's new road plans condemned as 'apartheid'
December 5 2004
The Egyptian government frees a convicted Israeli spy in a demonstration of goodwill that leaders hope will lead to progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel releases six Egyptians who illegally crossed the border with the aim of capturing an Israeli tank.
Israel and Egypt in swap of prisoners
December 7 2004
Israel fears Tony Blair will force the pace of the peace process as he promotes his own Middle East conference. Although Ariel Sharon will embrace Mr Blair as a "great friend" of Israel when Mr Blair visits later this month, concern is growing at Britain's attempts to find a greater role for Europe.
Blair's peace initiative dismays Israel
December 9 2004
The fate of Ariel Sharon's government, and with it his plan to dismantle Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, hang in the balance as the leadership of the ruling Likud party decides whether to form a coalition with the Labour opposition that would keep the administration afloat.
Gaza pull-out in balance as Likud votes on coalition
December 12 2004
The jailed military commander Marwan Barghouti drops out of the Palestinian presidential race and pledges support for the official Fatah candidate, Mahmoud Abbas.
Barghouti exits presidential race
December 14 2004
Mahmoud Abbas says the four-year-old armed uprising against Israel was a mistake and must end.The leading candidate to succeed Yasser Arafat says Palestinians should continue resisting Israeli occupation but only through non-violent means.
Abbas says intifada was mistake
December 15 2004
The Israeli soldier on trial for killing the British peace activist Tom Hurndall in the Gaza Strip admits he was lying when he said his victim was carrying a gun. He says he was under orders to open fire even on unarmed people.
Soldier who shot Briton admits lying
December 18 2004
Ariel Sharon secures a historic deal with his bitter political foe, the Labour party leader Shimon Peres, to guarantee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. The deal marks the rehabilitation of Mr Peres after years in the political wilderness.
Sharon woos old foe Peres into coalition
December 19 2004
Israel agrees to release 170 Palestinian prisoners as a gesture of goodwill to Egypt and the new Palestinian leadership.
Israel to free 170 from prison
December 22 2004
On a visit to Israel, Tony Blair defends his plans for a Middle East conference in London next year, even though Israel will not take part.
Blair defends Middle East peace efforts
The Israeli premier draws criticism from hardliners in his Likud party after ordering the army to remove two unauthorised Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Sharon tells army to move settlers
January 6 2004
Israel and Turkey agree to an extraordinary deal which will see millions of gallons of fresh water shipped across the Mediterannean to Israel, in exchange for the sale of arms.
Israeli 'water for arms' deal with Turkey
January 9 2004
The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, warns he will seek a single state of Jews and Arabs if Ariel Sharon annexes parts of the West Bank and imposes borders on Palestine. New emerges that the Israeli army has killed 19 people in a futile search for the leader of "the heart of the terror networks" during a three-week occupation of Nablus.
Palestinians may seek single state
19 left dead in failed hunt for master bomber
January 12 2004
The Syrian president, Bashar Assad, rejects an offer of peace talks from his Israeli counterpart, Moshe Katsav, claiming the gesture is "not serious". Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Jewish settlers gather in Tel Aviv to protest against Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon's plans to remove Jewish outposts in the West Bank and Gaza.
Syria rejects Israeli offer of talks
Settlers vent fury at Sharon proposal
January 13 2004
The Israeli government announces that it expects to begin withdrawing from parts of the occupied territories and redefining their borders to create an emasculated Palestinian state if there is no progress towards a negotiated peace settlement.
Israel goes ahead with plans for border changes
January 14 2004
A 22-year-old Palestinian mother of two small children, pretending to be disabled, kills four Israelis at a Gaza border crossing after duping soldiers into allowing her a personal security check rather than going through a metal detector.
Human-bomb mother kills four Israelis at Gaza checkpoint
January 20 2004
The Israeli air force bombs Hizbullah targets in southern Lebanon in retaliation for the killing of a soldier in a missile attack on Israel's northern border.
Israel hits back after army death
January 21 2004
Opposition politicians in Israel demand the resignation of the country's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, after a businessman is indicted in a Tel Aviv court for allegedly bribing him. The call comes as justice ministry officials say prosecutors are considering whether to charge Mr Sharon along with his son, Gilad, and his deputy, Ehud Olmert.
Sharon the survivor: why Greek island affair could sink him
Bribes claim threatens to bring down Sharon
January 23 2004
An 11-year-old Palestinian boy is killed and two other youths wounded by Israeli soldiers in a highly sensitive area close to the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
Boy, 11, killed in border shooting
January 28 2004
At least 13 Palestinians are killed, according to Israel's army radio, in the deadliest clashes in the Gaza Strip for over a month. Palestinian medics say they have unconfirmed reports of bodies as yet unrecovered from the streets of a militant stronghold near Gaza City.
Israeli army says 13 Palestinians dead in Gaza clash
January 29 2004
At least ten people are killed and another 50 wounded in a suicide attack on a bus outside Ariel Sharon's official residence in Jerusalem. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claims responsibility, but the attack fails to derail a prisoner swap in which Israel begins freeing 436 of the 7,000 Palestinian detainees it holds in exchange for an abducted Israeli businessman and the bodies of three dead soldiers.
Israel and Hizbullah begin prisoner swap
Ten killed in Jerusalem suicide bombing
February 2 2004
Ariel Sharon shocks the world - and many members of his own Likud party - when he reveals his intention to withdraw from virtually all Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip, with or without signing a final peace agreement with the Palestinians. Claiming that the isolated and heavily fortified settlements are incompatible with a peace settlement, Mr Sharon told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that there would be "no Jews in Gaza".
Sharon orders relocation of Gaza settlements
February 3 2004
The Metropolitan Police announce that they will expand their investigation into the death of peace activist Tom Hurndall to cover the death of cameraman James Miller in the Gaza Strip last year.
Met to investigate second Gaza death
February 5 2004
Israeli police interview Ariel Sharon over his alleged involvement in a corruption scandal. Fraud detectives question him for three hours about his involvement with businessman David Appel, who has already been indicted on charges of attempting to bribe Mr Sharon to pressure the Greek government to allow the building of a holiday resort on an Aegean island.
Detectives question Sharon over bribe claims
Febuary 9 2004
Israeli civil and human rights groups launch a legal action against the West Bank "security barrier" in the country's supreme court, claiming the it infringes on the human rights of Palestinians affected by its construction.
Israeli legal challenge to barrier
February 11 2004
Fifteen Palestinians - including Abu Shkail, a senior Hamas activist - are killed in a vicious morning gunbattle with Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip. Hamas vows revenge for the attack.
14 Palestinians dead in Gaza battles
February 12 2004
Israel decides not to send representatives to the international court of human rights in The Hague for the hearings on the legitimacy of its West Bank "security barrier". Israeli officials refuse to acknowledge the court's right to issue judgements on matters of Israeli security.
Israel to boycott security wall case
February 17 2004
The US gives tacit approval to Ariel Sharon's plan for "unilateral disengagement" from the Palestinians but sets a series of conditions, including a refusal to let Israel formally annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
US to endorse Israeli plans for Gaza
February 18 2004
The International Committee of the Red Cross calls on Israel to halt construction of the steel and concrete "security fence" through the West Bank because it breaches international law and is causing widespread harm to Palestinians.
Red Cross condemns security wall
February 22 2004
Suicide bomber murders eight people on a rush hour bus in Jerusalem.
Suicide bomber kills 8 on bus
February 23 2004
Israeli troops fire tear gas at Palestinians protesting at the barrier being constructed in the West Bank as a court case on its legality opens in The Hague.
Protests as Israel's barrier is challenged
February 26 2004
Demonstrations over West Bank wall claim first victims as seizures belie Sharon's pledge to abandon settlements.
Israelis kill two villagers in barrier protests
February 27 2004
Israel is seizing Palestinian land in Gaza to expand one of the most controversial Jewish settlements three weeks after Ariel Sharon said he intended to remove all settlers from the territory.
Land grab in Gaza casts doubt on pullout
March 2 2004
The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, is backing a total withdrawal of Israeli settlers and soldiers from the Palestinian Gaza Strip, according to a well-placed Israeli source.
Sharon backs total withdrawal from Gaza Strip
March 3 2004
Chris McGreal in Gaza reports on a family's battle to hold on to their home despite the shooting of a son.
Palestinian boy lies crippled by an Israeli bullet but father's plea for harmony lives on
March 3 2004
Israel continues to build settlements in the occupied territory despite US calls for building to stop. The trend could complicate attempts to get Washington's approval for his plan to "disengage" from the Palestinian Authority.
Israel has stepped up the pace of settlement building
March 3 2004
Ariel Sharon dismisses accusations that he did a deal with Hizbullah to free hundreds of Palestinian and other Arab prisoners in exchange for a self-confessed Israeli drug dealer because of a longstanding relationship with the abducted man's family.
Sharon denies link to hostage freed in Hizbullah swap
March 7 2004
The biggest Israeli raid into Gaza for months leaves 14 Palestinians dead, including three children, amid fears of a sharp upsurge in violence before Israel's planned withdrawal from the Palestinian territory.
14 die in Israeli raid on Gaza refugee camps
March 11 2004
McDonald's, the fast food chain that claims to be an equal opportunities employer, is criticised in Israel for forcing employees to speak only Hebrew to customers.
McDonald's bans Arabic
March 14 2004
Ten people are killed when two Palestinians from Gaza blow themselves up in the Israeli port of Ashdod, prompting the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, to cancel his first summit meeting with his Palestinian counterpart, Ahmed Qureia.
Suicide bombers kill 10 at Israeli port
March 16 2004
Israel vows to intensify efforts to eliminate militant leaders in the Gaza Strip after a double-suicide attack on its second-biggest port.
Israel vows to hit at Gaza militants
March 16 2004
The Israeli military accuses a faction of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement of using an 11-year-old boy as an unwitting human bomb after the child is discovered carrying explosive through an army checkpoint in Nablus.
Israelis say boy, 11, used as bomber
March 16 2004
Israeli forces launch a new offensive in the Gaza Strip, killing at least six Palestinians and wounding 27 in a series of air strikes. Palestinian security officials say troops had raided a Rafah refugee camp and had demolished seven houses.
Israeli attack on Gaza kills six
March 22 2004
In a decision welcomed by human rights groups, an Israeli tank commander is charged with negligent homicide after having authorised his tanks to shell a group of Palestinians in a market, killing three children and an adult
Tank commander on homicide charge
March 22 2004
The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, describes the assassination of Ahmed Yassin as an attack on "the first and foremost leader of the Palestinian terrorist murderers," and says Israel would continue such attacks.
Sharon vows to continue 'war on terror'
Israel has stepped up the pace of settlement building
March 22 2004
Palestinian militants warn of swift and bloody retaliation against Israel after it "opened the gates of hell" by assassinating Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of militant group Hamas.
Israel assassinates Hamas leader
March 22 2004
Mourners chant behind the body of Sheikh Yassin and predict he will reach from beyond the grave to claim many more lives in death than he ever did in in life.
'He'll kill more in death than he did alive'
March 23 2004
Hamas names Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, the doctor turned Islamist fighter, as its new leader in Gaza, the organisation's stronghold.
New chief to be implacable foe
March 25 2004
The US blocks a UN resolution condemning Israel's assassination of the Hamas founder and spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, on the grounds that the text is "one-sided".
US vetoes UN Yassin resolution
April 2 2004
Thousands of Palestinians barricade themselves inside mosques at one of Islam's holiest sites after Israeli police stormed worshippers who they said had been throwing stones at officers.
Israeli police storm mosque compound
April 14 2004
Sharon wins 'historic' backing for plan to evacuate Gaza - but hold on to West Bank control.
Bush rips up the road map
April 15 2003
The Bush administration launches a diplomatic offensive to try to placate Arab and European leaders outraged by its seismic policy shift on the Middle East.
US reels from Arab and European fury
April 16 2004
Protests are lodged against the restrictions that are to be imposed on the Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, who is due to be released from prison next week.
Anger at restrictions on Vanunu
April 17 2004
Israeli forces assassinate Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, in what appears to be the start of a campaign to destroy the organisation before Israel pulls out of Gaza as part of a US-sanctioned deal.
Israeli missile attack kills new Hamas chief
April 18 2004
As Gaza City closes down to bury Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, Arab countries accuse US president George Bush of giving Israel the go-ahead for continuing its assassination policy.
A funeral in Gaza - and birth of a new resistance
Arab leaders say Bush backs Israel attack policy
April 20 2004
Mahmoud Zahar, the last remaining founding member of Hamas, is believed by many Palestinians to be the new leader of the organisation in Gaza.
Leadership may have passed to last founding member
Hamas ready to cooperate, but only in Gaza
April 21 2004
Mordechai Vanunu walks free from prison after spending 18 years in jail for revealing secrets that exposed Israel as one of the world's top nuclear powers.
Vanunu released after 18 years
'Living in a grave'
April 23 2004
Ariel Sharon issues an ominous warning that Yasser Arafat could be the next Palestinian leader to be in Israel's line of fire. The Israeli prime minister says he told President George Bush that he is no longer prepared to exempt Mr Arafat from physical harm.
Sharon: 'We may kill Arafat'
April 25 2004
Israeli government ministers repeat threats against the life of the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, but say there are no plans to attack him in the near future.
Ministers back Sharon on attacking Arafat
April 26 2004
Tony Blair's foreign policy comes under scrutiny after an unprecedented coalition of more than 50 former diplomats attack his policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Diplomats attack Blair's Israel policy
April 27 2004
Israel's highest court rules that the government acts illegally in routinely denying press accreditation to Palestinian journalists on the grounds that they posed a threat to security. The high court of justice orders the government to lift the ban after news agency Reuters and the Arabic television station al-Jazeera challenged the practice of denying press cards to Palestinian journalists.
Court overturns Israeli press ruling
April 29 2004
The US state department warns US citizens to leave Gaza immediately and not to travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Meanwhile Ariel Sharon makes a desperate plea to his party to support his plan to evacuate settlements in Gaza after polls show he faces defeat in a party referendum.
America warns its citizens to leave Gaza immediately
Sharon: defeat will bring disaster
Tali Hatuel, 34, and her four daughters, aged from two to 11, become the first Gaza settlers to be killed since 2002.
Settler mother and daughters shot dead
May 2 2004
Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, is dealt a severe blow when his party roundly rejects his proposal to withdraw from Gaza, amid a fresh upsurge in violence which leaves at least nine dead including a pregnant woman and her four young daughters.
Blow for Sharon as Gaza plan rejected
May 4 2004
An Israeli missile strike in Gaza kills two Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy, as the Israeli prime minister scrambles to come up with modifications to his blocked plan to pull out of the territory.
Sharon ponders Gaza plan
May 5 2004
The Israeli housing ministry has spent £3.7m building illegal settlements and outposts in the West Bank over the past three years, the government auditor reveals.
Israel spent £3.7m building illegal outposts
May 10, 2004
The trial of an Israeli soldier charged with killing British student Tom Hurndall in the Gaza Strip opens with claims that the accused confessed only under duress.
Israeli on trial for Briton's death
May 11 2004
Six Israeli soldiers are killed in fighting with Palestinian militants in Gaza City, the highest Israeli death toll in a single operation in nearly two years. Five Palestinians are killed, including at least three gunmen and an 18-year-old, and 88 wounded in one of the fiercest battles in the city in recent months.
Eleven dead in Gaza battle
May 12 2004
Palestinian fighters kill five Israeli soldiers by blowing up an armoured vehicle in a Gaza refugee camp as troops fight house-to-house in a Gaza City neighbourhood to search for the body parts of six soldiers killed in a similar attack on Tuesday.
Gaza death toll mounts as Israeli troops are ambushed
May 14 2004
Two more Israeli soldiers are killed in the Gaza strip as the military begins razing hundreds of refugee homes in what the government calls a security operation but critics describe as retaliation for some of the worst casualties of the intifada. An Israeli member of parliament calls the destruction a war crime.
Israeli troops die as refugee homes are destroyed
May 16 2004
Israel says it will intensify its military assault on the Gaza strip, hours after more than 100,000 people rally in Tel Aviv to demand that Ariel Sharon follow through on his pledge to withdraw Jewish settlers from the territory.
100,000 tell Sharon to get out of Gaza
May 17 2004
Hundreds of Palestinians flee the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza as Israeli tanks move in for what is expected to be a major offensive to raze homes.
Israel sends tanks into Rafah
May 18 2004
Israeli forces attack the Rafah refugee camp at the start of an operation to crush Palestinian armed resistance, before a planned fresh wave of house demolitions. The army kills at least 20 people, including children, one of the highest death tolls in a single day of the present intifada.
Children among 20 dead as Israeli army begins huge crackdown
May 19 2004
At least 10 Palestinians are killed and 35 wounded when Israeli forces fire on a crowd demonstrating against the invasion of a Gaza refugee camp, according to hospital sources.
Ten die as Israeli tanks fire on peaceful protest
May 20 2004
The Tel Aviv district court finds a senior ally of Yasser Arafat, Marwan Barghouti, guilty of murder in attacks that killed a Greek Orthodox monk in the West Bank in 2001, an Israeli at the Jewish settlement of Givat Zeev in 2002 and three people at a Tel Aviv restaurant in 2002.
Key Arafat ally convicted of murder
May 25 2004
International criticism of death toll spurs withdrawal.
Israeli troops pull back from Rafah camp
May 27 2004
A British journalist released from Israeli custody says he was held in a dungeon with excrement on the walls following his arrest on suspicion of espionage.
Briton says he was held in Israeli dungeon
June 9 2004
Two far-right Israeli ministers quit Ariel Sharon's government in protest at his plan to pull Jewish settlers out of the Gaza Strip, robbing the prime minister of his majority in the parliament.
Gaza pullout plan costs Sharon his majority
June 4 2004
Far-right ministers dismissed for opposing plan to withdraw Israeli settlers from Gaza.
Sharon sacks hardliners who stand in his way
June 6 2004
Sacking of ministers paves way for dismantling of Jewish settlements in Gaza but threatens coalition.
Sharon wins battle over settlers
June 15 2004
Israel's attorney general drops a corruption case against Ariel Sharon, ending months of uncertainty over the prime minister's political future and boosting the chances of an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
Sharon corruption case dropped
June 19 2004
Yasser Arafat has told an Israeli newspaper that he recognises Israel's right to remain a Jewish state and is, therefore, prepared to accept the return of only a fraction of the Palestinian refugees.
Arafat recognises Jewish state and limit to return of refugees
July 1 2004
The Israeli government's security barrier is violating the human rights of Palestinians, the country's highest court ruled in a judgment that delivered a blow to prime minister Ariel Sharon's plans to seize large parts of the West Bank.
Israel wall must be re-routed, says court
July 2 2004
Israel's security establishment quietly congratulates itself on breaking the back of Palestinian "terror networks", months after driving the leaders of Hamas and its smaller allies underground or killing them.
Thwarted Hamas turns from bombs to politics
July 9 2004
Palestinians wait for a verdict on the legality of the West Bank barrier from the international court of justice in The Hague.
Palestinians await verdict on barrier
July 10 2004
The world court brands Israel's vast barrier through the West Bank a de facto land grab and tells Israel to tear it down and compensate the victims.
World court tells Israel to tear down illegal wall
July 11 2004
Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, says the world court's ruling against his country's vast barrier through the West Bank encouraged terrorists, shortly after a bomb at a Tel Aviv bus stop killed a young woman.
Sacred right to fight terror overrides court, says Sharon
July 15 2004
The prime minister of New Zealand angrily denounces Israel and imposes diplomatic sanctions on it after two suspected Mossad agents are jailed for six months for trying on false grounds to obtain a New Zealand passport.
'Mossad spies' jailed over New Zealand passport fraud
July 18 2004
Ariel Sharon urges French Jews to emigrate to Israel to escape what he calls "the wildest anti-semitism". France asks the Israeli prime minister to explain his comments before it will set a date for his planned visit to Paris.
Sharon in anti-semitism row with France
Paris stalls Sharon visit
July 21 2004
Israel accuses the EU of "encouraging Palestinian terrorism" by supporting a UN general assembly resolution pressing the Jewish state to tear down the "anti-terror" barrier under construction through the West Bank.
UN calls for Israel to tear down wall
Israel lashes out at EU for backing UN vote on wall
July 25 2004
Tens of thousands of Israelis form a human chain more than 50 miles long in protest at their government's plan to withdraw from the Gaza settlements.
Jewish settlers join 50-mile-long protest at plan to quit Gaza
July 26 2004
The Israeli supreme court upholds a travel ban on the nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, refusing to let him move abroad on the grounds that he might reveal further state secrets
Court backs Vanunu travel ban
August 15 2004
About 1,600 Palestinian prisoners begin a hunger strike to protest at conditions in Israeli jails.
Mass hunger strike in Israeli jails
August 17 2004
Israel announces plans for 1,000 houses in the West Bank, violating the US-brokered 'road map' for peace in the region. The announcement is intended to fend off criticism of Sharon's plan to pull out of Gaza.
Sharon orders 1,000 homes in West Bank
August 18 2004
Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, suffers a massive blow to his project to withdraw from settlements in the Gaza Strip when his party refuses to allow him to invite new partners into the government who might have backed his plans. Sharon says he will push ahead with the withdrawal nonetheless.
Sharon loses crucial party vote
Sharon vows to continue with plan
August 20 2004
Shimon Peres, Israel's opposition leader, calls for early elections that would effectively rule his party out of joining a coalition to prop up Ariel Sharon.
Peres demands early Israeli elections
December 23 2004
Palestinian officials attack Tony Blair's proposed conference, planned to focus on political, economic and security reform, arguing he had originally proposed a peace conference.
Blair bowed to Israel, say Palestinians
August 23 2004
Israel announces plans to build more than 530 new homes for settlers in the West Bank, following an apparent US policy shift on settlements that the Palestinians warn will destroy the peace process. Downing Street expresses its continued opposition to any such expansion, opening up a significant gap between the British and US governments on Middle East policy.
Israel unveils West Bank building plan
Britain in split with US on West Bank homes
August 26 2004
The Israeli military arrests two soldiers on suspicion of murdering an unarmed Palestinian. Two more officers from the same platoon are detained for allegedly attempting to cover up the killing, according to the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot.
Israeli soldiers held for Palestinian killing
August 27 2004
The Palestinian leadership announces a three-point programme of non-violent resistance in an attempt to wrest the diplomatic initiative from Israel.
Leaders call for a peaceful intifada
August 29 2004
It is revealed the FBI is investigating a suspected Israeli spy deep in the Pentagon, who have may have fed secrets about US policy on Iran to Israel. Israel insists it maintains a ban on spying in the US.
FBI probes 'spy suspect deep inside' the Pentagon
We do not spy on US, says Israel
August 31 2004
At least 16 people are killed and 80 injured when Palestinian militants carry out suicide bombings on two buses in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. Earlier in the day, Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, has proposed an accelerated timetable for the evacuation of Jewish settlements in the Gaza strip from as early as the beginning of 2005.
Israel shaken by return of the suicide bombers
Sharon outlines Gaza evacuation plan
September 1 2004
Israel warns the Arab world that it sees Syrian hands behind this week's suicide bombings in Beersheba, as it seals off a nearby West Bank city and destroys the home of one of the attackers.
Israel sees Syrian link in bombings
September 2 2004
Israel's threats against Syria after the Beersheba suicide bombings would "exacerbate the deteriorating situation in the region," the Syrian foreign minister says.
Syria on offensive as Israel threatens to avenge bombings
September 6 2004
An Israeli attack on Hamas activists training near Gaza City kills at least 13 people.
Israeli attack kills 13 Hamas supporters
September 8 2004
Israel's agriculture minister, Israel Katz, announces plans for further expansion of Jewish settlements in the Jordan valley by expropriating 8,000 acres of land.
Israel to take more land for settlers
September 13 2004
The Israeli military kills three al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades activists in a helicopter missile strike on a car in Jenin.
Israeli missile kills activists
September 22 2004
Two Israeli policemen die preventing a female suicide bomber from entering a packed Jerusalem bus shelter, probably saving many other lives.
Two Israelis die tackling bomber
September 26 2004
Hamas promises vengeance against Israel for its assassination of one of the Palestinian group's members in the Syrian capital of Damascus.
Israel kills Hamas leader in Syrian capital
September 29 2004
Hamas rocket attack claims two young Israeli lives while three Palestinian boys die in raids.
Five children killed in Gaza Strip battles
September 30 2004
Israeli forces kill at least 23 Palestinians on one of the bloodiest days of the intifada, as the army makes a rare push into the heart of a heavily defended Gaza refugee camp.
23 killed in Israeli raid on refugee camp
October 5 2004
Israeli forces have demolished the homes of hundreds of Palestinians, bulldozed swaths of agricultural land and destroyed infrastructure in their bloodiest assault on the Gaza strip in years.
50,000 trapped by Israeli assault on Gaza
October 7 2004
A series of car bomb attacks on holiday resorts in Sinai, Egypt kills 34 people and injures 59. Most of the victims are Israeli tourists and Egyptian workers.
Dozens killed in bomb blasts at Sinai resorts
October 8 2004
Israel's military intelligence chief blames al-Qaida for the hotel bombings that killed at least 30 people, mostly Israeli tourists and Egyptian workers, in Sinai.
Al-Qaida behind hotel attack that killed 30, says Israel
October 14 2004
Israel is set on a collision course with the EU and could turn into a pariah state on a par with South Africa during the apartheid years if the conflict with the Palestinians is not resolved, Israel's foreign ministry warns.
Israel could become pariah state, report warns
October 24 2004
The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, seeks approval by the country's parliament for parts of his plan to withdraw Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank.
Israel split over settlement retreat
October 26 2004
Israel's divided parliament ratifies prime minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. The historic vote marks the first time the Knesset has authorised the removal of Jewish settlements from occupied territory that Palestinians claim for a state.
The Israeli government gives Yasser Arafat permission to leave his Ramallah headquarters for the first time in two years to receive medical treatment.
Israeli MPs back Gaza withdrawal
Israel allows ill Arafat to leave his HQ
October 29 2004
The Palestinian president, Yasser Arafat, is flown to Paris for medical treatment after a sharp deterioration in his health.
Frail Arafat in French hospital
November 3 2004
MPs in Ariel Sharon's Likud party rebel over his plans to pull out of Gaza, forcing him to postpone the annual budget vote.
MPs' Gaza revolt forces Sharon to defer budget vote
November 4 2004
Unfounded rumours circulate that Yasser Arafat has died, as more of his powers are passed to the Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia.
Arafat clings to life as switch of power begins
November 7 2004
The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, appeals to political and military factions to avoid violence while Yasser Arafat lies critically ill.
Hamas agrees to avoid infighting
November 9 2004
Palestinian leaders visit Yasser Arafat in hospital in Paris, and admit he is close to death.
Arafat close to death, say officials
November 10 2004
It is confirmed that when Yasser Arafat dies, he will be buried in Ramallah, after the Israelis refuse to allow him to be interred in Jerusalem.
Burial site prepared as Arafat clings on
November 11 2004
Yasser Arafat dies in the early hours of the morning. His body is flown to Cairo, where his funeral will take place before he is buried in Ramallah.
Arafat begins final journey
November 12 2004
Yasser Arafat is laid to rest at his Ramallah compound, amid tens of thousands of mourners.
A chorus of gunfire, chants and wailing ambulances
November 14 2004
The Palestinian leadership sets a January 9 date for elections to decide who will succeed Yasser Arafat as president.
Shooting protest as Palestinians set poll date
November 17 2004
The Palestinian leadership reveals that it is to send a delegation to Paris to establish the cause of Yasser Arafat's death.
Palestinian inquiry into Arafat's death
November 22 2004
The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, visits Israel and the West Bank in an attempt to resuscitate the peace process.
PLO to press Powell on road map
November 25 2004
Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah leader and the favourite to succeed Yasser Arafat, says he intends to bring about a complete, unconditional end to Palestinian violence.
Abbas pledge to end violence
December 1 2004
Ariel Sharon's government is facing collapse after the prime minister breaks with his main coalition partner. Marwan Bharghouti, the jailed Palestinian military commander, reverses a decision not to run against Mahmoud Abbas for president.
Middle East upheaval as Sharon provokes crisis
December 4 2004
Government papers suggest Israel intends to bypass the peace plan, creating a Palestinian state of enclaves, surrounded by walls and linked by tunnels and special roads.
Israel's new road plans condemned as 'apartheid'
December 5 2004
The Egyptian government frees a convicted Israeli spy in a demonstration of goodwill that leaders hope will lead to progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel releases six Egyptians who illegally crossed the border with the aim of capturing an Israeli tank.
Israel and Egypt in swap of prisoners
December 7 2004
Israel fears Tony Blair will force the pace of the peace process as he promotes his own Middle East conference. Although Ariel Sharon will embrace Mr Blair as a "great friend" of Israel when Mr Blair visits later this month, concern is growing at Britain's attempts to find a greater role for Europe.
Blair's peace initiative dismays Israel
December 9 2004
The fate of Ariel Sharon's government, and with it his plan to dismantle Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, hang in the balance as the leadership of the ruling Likud party decides whether to form a coalition with the Labour opposition that would keep the administration afloat.
Gaza pull-out in balance as Likud votes on coalition
December 12 2004
The jailed military commander Marwan Barghouti drops out of the Palestinian presidential race and pledges support for the official Fatah candidate, Mahmoud Abbas.
Barghouti exits presidential race
December 14 2004
Mahmoud Abbas says the four-year-old armed uprising against Israel was a mistake and must end.The leading candidate to succeed Yasser Arafat says Palestinians should continue resisting Israeli occupation but only through non-violent means.
Abbas says intifada was mistake
December 15 2004
The Israeli soldier on trial for killing the British peace activist Tom Hurndall in the Gaza Strip admits he was lying when he said his victim was carrying a gun. He says he was under orders to open fire even on unarmed people.
Soldier who shot Briton admits lying
December 18 2004
Ariel Sharon secures a historic deal with his bitter political foe, the Labour party leader Shimon Peres, to guarantee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. The deal marks the rehabilitation of Mr Peres after years in the political wilderness.
Sharon woos old foe Peres into coalition
December 19 2004
Israel agrees to release 170 Palestinian prisoners as a gesture of goodwill to Egypt and the new Palestinian leadership.
Israel to free 170 from prison
December 22 2004
On a visit to Israel, Tony Blair defends his plans for a Middle East conference in London next year, even though Israel will not take part.
Blair defends Middle East peace efforts