Government Arrangements, worked out in the secret negotiations mediated by Nor-
way. During the same ceremony, Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO
leader Yasir Arafat shake hands for the first time. Popularly known as the Oslo
Accords, the declaration is intended to bring peace between Israel and the Pales-
tinians and to provide for self-governance by the Palestinians of parts of the Gaza
Strip and West Bank. The Israeli parliament will approve the accord on September
23, and the PLO Central Committee will follow suit on October 11. The Israelis
and Palestinians will sign subsequent major agreements in May 1994, September
1995, January 1997, and October 1998.
September 14:Israeli and Jordanian officials conclude a “common agenda” intended to
lead to a permanent peace agreement.
October 1:International donors meeting in Washington pledge $2 billion in aid for
the new quasi-governmental Palestinian agency to be formed as a result of the Oslo
Accords.
October 22:Hizballah launches a major attack on Israeli positions in southern Lebanon.
October 25:Israel launches a large air and ground attack in southern Lebanon that
forces more than 200,000 people from their homes.
November 16:Israel offers to withdraw from southern Lebanon if Hizballah is dis-
armed and brought under the control of the Lebanese government.
November 26:Iraq agrees to accept UN Security Council Resolution 715 (of October
1991), requiring it to comply with UN weapons inspections.
1994
January:Renewed fighting among factions in Afghanistan results in the large-scale
destruction of Kabul.
January 16:After meeting in Geneva with President Bill Clinton, Syrian president
Hafez al-Assad says Syria would be willing to negotiate a peace treaty with Israel if
Israel withdraws from the Golan Heights.
February 25:Baruch Goldstein, an American-born Israeli settler on the West Bank,
kills twenty-nine Palestinians worshiping at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. Gold-
stein is then killed by Palestinians at the mosque, and ensuing clashes between Pales-
tinians and Israeli security forces result in more deaths.
April 6:The Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, carries out its
first car bombing, killing eight people in Afula, Israel.
April 21:Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin says Israel would be willing to with-
draw from the Golan Heights in exchange for a peace treaty with Syria.
May 4:PLO chairman Yasir Arafat and Israeli prime minister Rabin sign an agree-
ment establishing a Palestinian civil authority to govern parts of the Gaza Strip and
the West Bank city of Jericho, the first step to implementing the Oslo Accords of
September 1993.
May 7:A simmering dispute between the two main Kurdish political factions in Iraq
breaks into an open conflict that will drag on for more than two years, killing an
estimated 3,000 people.
May 13:Israeli security forces withdraw from Jericho and are replaced by Palestinian
forces.
May 18:Israel withdraws from much of the Gaza Strip, except for areas containing
settlements and military installations.
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