Mahmoud Abbas appointed Prime Minister.

The details of the Road map for peace are released. The "road map" for peace is a plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict proposed by a "quartet" of international entities: the United States, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations. The principles of the plan were first outlined by U.S. President George W. Bush in a speech on June 24, 2002, in which he called for an independent Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace.

In exchange for statehood, the road map requires the Palestinian Authority to make democratic reforms and abandon the use of terrorism. Israel, for its part, must support and accept the emergence of a reformed Palestinian government and end settlement activity of the Gaza Strip and West Bank as the Palestinian threat is removed.

The road map comprises three goal-driven phases with the ultimate goal of ending the conflict as early as 2005. However, as a performance-based plan, progress will require and depend upon the good faith efforts of the parties, and their compliance with each of the obligations quartet put the plan together, with amendments following consultations with Israelis and Palestinians:

Phase I (as early as May 2003): End to Palestinian violence; Palestinian political reform; Israeli withdrawal and freeze on settlement expansion; Palestinian elections.

Phase II (as early as June-Dec 2003): International Conference to support Palestinian economic recovery and launch a process, leading to establishment of an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders; revival of multilateral engagement on issues including regional water resources, environment, economic development, refugees, and arms control issues; Arab states restore pre-intifada links to Israel (trade offices, etc.).

A two-day summit is held in Egypt. Arab leaders announce their support for the road map and promised to work on cutting off funding to terrorist groups.

Five Israeli missiles incinerated Ismail Abu Shanab in Gaza City on 21 August 2003, killing one of the most powerful voices for peace in Hamas and destroying the ceasefire. Israeli helicopters struck the car carrying the third most senior Hamas leader. The missiles also buried a seven-week ceasefire already strained by Israeli killings of Islamic militants and retaliatory bombings, and threw the US-led road map to peace deeper into crisis. Hamas declared an immediate end to the truce and vowed a bloody revenge for the death of Abu Shanab, who was married with 11 children.

Mahmoud Abbas resigns from the post of Prime Minister.

02.01.2003, Israeli occupation soldiers murdered three teenagers in Gaza overnight. An Israeli army spokesman said Israeli troops murdered the three kids, aged 13, 14 and 15 respectively, after citing them walking near the Jewish colony of Eli Seinai in southern Gaza.

06.01.2003, Israeli helicopter gunships have fired missiles at a metal shop in the Gaza Strip during the night, wounding eight Palestinians. The strike came just hours after two Palestinian attacks killed at least 23 people and wounded 100 others in central Tel Aviv, Sunday. The strike in Gaza came during an emergency meeting of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharons security cabinet, where officials agreed to keep the pressure on Palestinians to stop their attacks. Israeli armored vehicles entered Rafah, in southern Gaza, where they destroyed a house belonging to an alleged Islamic Jihad activist.

March 06, 2003, JABALYA, Gaza Strip - Israeli forces killed at least 11 Palestinians, including some torn apart by a tank shell, in a major raid in the Gaza Strip after a bomber killed 15 people in Israel.

May 07, 2003, NABLUS, West Bank - A militant from the Islamic group Hamas was killed in an explosion near the West Bank city of Nablus which fellow Palestinian militants blamed on Israel.

May 20, 2003, BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip - Israel relaxed its military grip on Tuesday in an area of the Gaza Strip where the first steps could be taken in a U.S.-backed peace plan.

May 21, 2003, BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip - Israeli tanks forced the Palestinian prime minister to scrap a tour in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday amid reports that President Bush may visit the Middle East to try to rescue a peace plan.

May 23, 2003, GAZA - A roadside bomb exploded next to an Israeli bus near a Jewish settlement in the central Gaza Strip on Friday, lightly wounding four passengers.

May 26, 2003, JERUSALEM - Israel said on Monday President Bush was likely to hold a summit with the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers in Jordan next week to promote a U.S.-backed "road map" for Middle East peace

May 27, 2003, JERUSALEM - Israel and the Palestinians on Tuesday delayed a meeting of their prime ministers on the U.S.-backed "road map" to peace that had been planned for Wednesday.

May 29, 2003, JERUSALEM - The Palestinian prime minister said Thursday he expected Hamas militants to agree to halt attacks on Israelis by next week, smoothing the way for a three-way summit led by President Bush.

June 05, 2003, JERUSALEM - The afterglow of a U.S.-led Middle East summit faded on Thursday, with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat saying Israel had offered nothing "tangible" and hard-liners on both sides vowing to oppose a road map to peace.

June 06, 2003, GAZA - The militant Islamic group Hamas said on Friday it was breaking off talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas on ending its attacks on Israelis in a strong challenge to peace pledges he made at a U.S.-led summit.

June 09, 2003, GAZA - The militant Islamic group Hamas reiterated its opposition to cease-fire talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas Monday, dealing a new blow to his hopes of persuading it to halt attacks against Israelis.

June 12, 2003, GAZA - The Palestinian militant group Hamas vowed on Thursday to carry out further attacks inside Israel following a bus bombing in Jerusalem and warned all foreigners to leave the Jewish state for their own safety.

June 13, 2003, JERUSALEM - Israel pledged on Friday a "war to the bitter end" against Hamas but an opinion poll showed a majority of Israelis oppose the stepped-up attacks on leaders of the militant Islamic group

June 16, 2003, GAZA - Palestinian militant groups weighed Monday a cease-fire with Israel in an Egyptian mediation bid to salvage a U.S.-backed peace plan

June 23, 2003, JERUSALEM - An Israeli general leading security talks with the Palestinians said on Monday any temporary truce with Islamic militants would backfire against efforts to bolster a U.S.-backed "road map" to peace

June 25, 2003, GAZA - Israeli troops killed two Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday as a U.S. envoy held talks nearby with the Palestinian prime minister in an effort to prop up a peace plan battered by violence.

June 26, 2003, GAZA - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said on Thursday an agreement by militant groups to suspend attacks on Israelis was imminent, but militants denied a truce was at hand.

June 27, 2003, GAZA - Israel killed three Palestinian militants and a civilian bystander Friday in another swoop on the radical Hamas movement, again battering efforts to save a troubled Middle East peace plan.

June 30, 2003, BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip - Israel returned the Gaza Strip's main highway to Palestinian control Monday ending a 30-month blockade and advancing a fragile U.S.-backed peace plan.

July 01, 2003, JERUSALEM - A Palestinian gunman attacked an Israeli army checkpoint and was shot dead on Tuesday, jarring a breakthrough cease-fire ahead of an Israeli-Palestinian summit to bolster a shaky new Middle East peace plan.

July 02, 2003, BETHLEHEM, West Bank - Israeli patrols pulled out of the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Wednesday, clearing the way for Palestinians to resume security control in a deal both sides hope will advance a U.S.-backed "road map" to peace.

July 04, 2003, GAZA - Palestinian militants urged Israel on Friday to release all Palestinian prisoners or risk the collapse of a cease-fire that is vital to the success of a U.S.-backed peace plan.

July 16, 2003, JERUSALEM - Israeli commandos Wednesday freed unharmed an Israeli taxi driver held for five days by Palestinians in a kidnapping that jolted the relative calm ushered in by a cease-fire crucial to a new peace plan.

July 29, 2003, JERUSALEM - Israel's army chief said on Tuesday he feared a truce announced by Palestinian militants would not last much longer and the Palestinians urged the United States to increase pressure on Israel to implement a peace plan.

August 06, 2003, JERUSALEM - Israel set in motion the release of more than 300 Palestinian prisoners on Wednesday in what it called a goodwill gesture, but Palestinian officials dismissed it as a sham.

August 14, 2003, HEBRON, West Bank - Israeli troops killed a Palestinian militant commander on Thursday, triggering vows of revenge in increasing signs that a six-week-old truce critical to a new peace plan could collapse.

August 20, 2003, RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas ordered security services on Wednesday to arrest militants behind a Jerusalem bombing that killed 18 people and shattered a truce key to a U.S.-backed peace plan.

August 21, 2003, GAZA - A senior Hamas official declared a cease-fire dead on Thursday shortly after Israeli helicopter missiles killed Ismail Abu Shanab, a leader of the militant Islamic group.

August 22, 2003, GAZA - Tens of thousands of Palestinians poured into the streets of Gaza City on Friday to march in a fiery funeral procession for Ismail Abu Shanab, a leader of the militant Hamas group killed by Israel.

September 05, 2003, NABLUS, West Bank - Israeli commandos killed a West Bank commander of the militant group Hamas in a raid on Friday that could deal a blow to reformist Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas's battle for political survival.

September 08, 2003, JERUSALEM - Ahmed Korei, Yasser Arafat's nominee for Palestinian prime minister, said on Monday he would accept the post only with U.S. and European guarantees of support and Israel's commitment to ease its military crackdown.

September 10, 2003, GAZA - An Israeli warplane killed at least two Palestinians but narrowly failed in an attempt to assassinate a Hamas leader in Gaza Wednesday, a day after two bombers killed 15 people in Israel.

September 12, 2003, JERUSALEM - Israel faced an international outcry Friday over its decision to "remove" Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, a threat that drew tens of thousands of supporters into the streets to rally to his defense.

4 October 2003, JERUSALEM - At least 19 people were killed and around 30 wounded on Saturday in a suicide bombing at a popular sea-front restaurant in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.

5 October 2003, Israel took its battle against Palestinians to Syria on Sunday, bombing near the capital Damascus for the first time in decades, after a bomber killed 19 people in an Israeli restaurant.

There was no immediate Syrian reaction, but a diplomat in Damascus said that the Arab country planned to ask the U.N. Security Council to meet to discuss the raid. The Israel Defense Forces claimed that they hit a training base used by Palestinian groups.

10 October 2003, GAZA CITY - An eight-year-old Palestinian boy was killed by Israeli troops in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday, raising to six the number of Palestinians killed in a massive army incursion.

Ibrahim al-Qirinawi was shot and mortally wounded in the head as dozens of Israeli armoured vehicles, backed by helicopters, thrust deep into the town of Rafah. Five other Palestinians were killed in the raid, including a 12-year-old child and a teenager.

11 Octobar 2003, The Israeli occupation aggression on Rafah refugee camp has started on midnight Thursday but has continued all Friday and Saturday day and night without signs of stopping. Israeli forces have surrounded the refugee camp by soldiers and tanks, assisted by Apache helicopters. They have destroyed Palestinian homes all the way near the border with Egypt. They have been firing at any Palestinians walking in the streets. They have been destroying water tanks over homes, water pipes in the streets, uprooting trees, and keeping the population literally indoors for three days.

At least two children were among 7 Palestinians killed and eight children were among more than 51 wounded when around midnight Thursday Israeli Occupation Forces launched a massive military invasion of the Yubna refugee camp, home to thousands of Palestinians who were forced out of their homes in Israel in 1948, adjacent to the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah.

13 October 2003, RAMALLAH, West Bank - Yasser Arafat on Monday appointed a senior member of the ruling Fatah party as acting security chief, in a new blow to Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei.

Arafat named Hakam Balawi, a member of the Fatah Central Committee, as interior minister in the interim Cabinet whose term will expire in another three weeks. In that position, Balawi would command the Palestinian security forces. The security chief would play an important role in implementing the US-backed “road map” peace plan which calls on Palestinians to disarm militant groups.

19 October 2003, Israeli forces shot dead four Palestinians yesterday in the Palestinian territories, including a senior member of the Hamas resistance group, a woman bystander and a teenager. The deaths stoked tension already fuelled by the killing of three American security guards in a bomb attack on a US diplomatic convoy in Gaza on Wednesday and highlighted the persistent violence bogging down US-led peace efforts.

In the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses said troops shot dead Tareq Abu Al-Hussain, 39, a local leader of Hamas’ military wing, in a clash which began at Brazil refugee camp when militants attacked soldiers who entered the camp three days ago. Another Hamas activist was killed in the Gaza shootings in the southern Rafah district, and a woman, 30, was killed by shrapnel from a tank shell after emerging from her house.

21 October 2003, Twelve Palestinians were killed and more than 100, the majority of them women, children and other bystanders were injured when Israeli military jets and gunships carried out five consecutive air raids on Gaza City and a densely-populated refugee camp Monday.

The onslaught began early in the morning when an Israeli F-16 fighter jet launched a missile on a house in Gaza City 200 meters away from the home of Abdullah Al-Shami, a senior Islamic Jihad leader, in a renewed assassination attempt. Al-Shami survived while 14 Palestinians, including two children, were injured.

From then on four other air strikes were carried out, the deadliest of which was at around 9:15 pm — a missile strike by an Apache gunship on a civilian car at the entrance to al-Nusseirat refugee camp, south of Gaza city. That attack, which killed two of three men who were in the car, was followed by another missile that hit a crowd of people who had gathered to rescue the wounded. This left at least nine dead as well as over 50 injured, fifteen medical sources described as in critical condition.

22 october 2003, In a decision seen as a sharp blow to Israel, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution demanding the Jewish State to “stop and reverse” the construction of the unilateral separation wall it is building on Palestinian land.

The resolution, which demands that Israel halt construction of the wall and remove existing stretches, was passed when 144 of 191 nations voted in favor, four against, including the US and Israel, and twelve abstentions. The resolution, which is not legally binding, won the support of the European Union, which is part of the “Quartet” of mediators for reaching a Middle East peace and is a sponsor of the “roadmap” peace plan.

The wall, which has been condemned by the international community and human rights groups, has already encroached upon thousands of acres of the West Bank’s most fertile land. Upon completion, Palestinians say the wall will engulf 58% of the West Bank.

24 October 2003, Palestinian Gunmen killed three Israeli soldiers, two of them women, at a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip on Friday in a joint shooting and grenade attack by the two main Palestinian Islamic resistance groups.

In another part of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian witnesses said Israeli troops shot dead an 11-year-old Palestinian boy near a Jewish settlement on Friday afternoon.

30 October 2003, Israeli Occupation Forces on Wednesday shot dead two boys aged 12 and 16 in the West Bank and an armed Palestinian man in the Gaza Strip as another teenager died of wounds sustained earlier, only a day after they assassinated a Palestinian activist in Tulkarem.

03 November 2003, President Yasser Arafat on Sunday said he is ready for peace talks with the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon and outlined the platform of the new Palestinian government of Prime Minister-designate Ahmad Qurei (Abu Ala), as the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) was set on Monday to elect its new Speaker to succeed Qurei.

Sharon last week said contacts were already underway with Palestinian officials, adding: "We are ready to enter negotiations at any time." Qurei and other officials of the Palestine National Authority (PNA) confirmed but downplayed the contacts, saying they don’t constitute serious negotiations.

08 November 2003, A ten-year-old child Mohammad al-Qayed was among six Palestinians killed and at least three children were among more than ten others injured by Israeli Occupation Forces on the second Friday of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

11 November 2003, In violation of Fourth Geneva Convention and international law, the Israeli Occupation Forces on Monday deported Kamal Idris from Hebron in the southern West Bank to the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, Israeli Occupation Forces violence against Palestinian civilians continued as soldiers killed a 62-year-old elderly and a 12-year-old boy, seriously wounded a teenager and a worker, demolished twenty houses and carried out more detentions, including the Palestinian Islamic chief justice.

13 November 2003, RAMALLAH — President Yasser Arafat swore in a long-awaited Palestinian Cabinet on Wednesday in a step toward a resumption of US-backed peace talks with Israel and Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia vowed to seek a ceasefire.

Deputies voted 48-13 to confirm Qureia's 24-member Cabinet after two months of paralysing power struggles which, along with intractable violence, stalled the "roadmap" peace plan for a Palestinian state in Israeli-occupied territory by 2005.

18 November 2003, West Bank - A Palestinian gunman killed two Israelis at a West Bank roadblock on Tuesday and fighting erupted in the Gaza Strip after an army raid, setting back fresh efforts to revive a U.S.-backed peace plan.

23 November 2003, Israeli Occupation Forces on Saturday shot dead two Palestinians, including an 11-year-old boy, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as two Israeli security guards were killed near Jerusalem by the Apartheid Wall Israel is building on occupied Palestinian land.

Eleven-year-old Palestinian boy Ibrahim Jalamna was shot dead on Saturday during an Israeli Occupation Forces military incursion into the northern West Bank city of Jenin. During the incursion, carried out by ten Israeli armored vehicles and a bulldozer, Israeli troops opened gunfire on stone-throwers, killing Ibrahim Jalamna, Palestinian medical sources and witnesses said.

27 November 2003, GAZA CITY - The bodies of two Palestinians shot dead and one Palestinian seriously wounded by Israeli troops in the central Gaza Strip late Wednesday were handed over to Palestinian officials. Israeli military sources said a group of four Palestinians, two of them armed, penetrated a restricted zone near a road used by settlers and soldiers.

29 November 2003, Israeli Occupation Forces during the Islamic of Eid al-Fitre shot dead six Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including two 9 and 15-year-old boys, and admitted they had killed the other unarmed four by mistake.

01 December 2003, As Palestinian and Israeli peace negotiators were set to sign in Geneva an unofficial peace plan and one day ahead of a meeting in Cairo among Palestinian factions for cease-fire talks, the Israeli Occupation Forces early Monday launched a large-scale invasion into the West Bank cities of Ramallah and al-Beirah, killing three Palestinians, detaining dozens others and blowing up at least one building, a day after they had extra-judicially assassinated an activist in the Gaza Strip.

07 December 2003, Israeli Occupation Forces shot dead three Palestinian youths within 24 hours in two separate incidents in the Gaza Strip, and deported more Palestinian administrative detainees to the Strip from the West Bank in a policy denounced by the PNA as a "rejected and dangerous policy.”

Israeli Occupation Forces overnight Saturday shot dead 15-year old Jihad Mousa al-Akhras at the southern Gaza Strip Rafah border crossing point with Egypt, while he was waiting to receive relatives coming back home from Egypt.

11 December 2003, GAZA CITY - Five Palestinians were killed on Thursday in a major Israeli aggression operation in southern Gaza, as Palestinian premier Ahmed Qorei warned Israel of a flare-up if the construction of a controversial barrier was not halted.

Israeli troops backed by helicopter gunships thrust into the refugee camps of the town of Rafah in an aggression operation launched before dawn to capture leaders from the Hamas and Islamic Jihad resistance groups.

18 December 2003, Israeli Occupation Forces shot dead seven Palestinians in 48 hours in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, including a 13-year-old boy and a teenager, while an elderly died after the occupation troops denied him access to a hospital through a military roadblock.

At least fifty Israeli Occupation Forces military vehicles, including tanks and backed by helicopter gunships, invaded Nablus from the west early Wednesday, and imposed curfew on the northern West Bank city, opening sporadic gunfire and conducting house-to-house searches.

23 December 2003, At least seven Palestinians were killed early Tuesday, and some thirty others were wounded, in an Israeli military raid on the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, a few days after troops killed four Palestinians, including an elderly man and two children, in the West Bank refugee camp of Balata.

29 December 2003, Israeli Occupation Forces late Sunday shelled dead three Palestinians next to the Gaza Strip illegal Jewish settlement of Netzarim, as the Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei said he will ask Saudi Arabia to play a role with the international community to pressure the Israelis to implement the “roadmap” peace plan.

Earlier Sunday a statement by the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, said that four Qassam-1 missiles were fired also at the Dogit settlement to the north of the Gaza Strip and two others at the Nahal Uz settlement to the east of Gaza city.

31 December 2003, GAZA CITY — An Israeli helicopter fired two missiles at a car carrying members of the Hamas resistance group late Tuesday, wounding at least 11 people.

Witnesses said the Fiat car was travelling towards the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, a Hamas stronghold, when Apache helicopters opened fire. "I saw a flame hit a small car and people trying to escape from the car," said Raouf Musalam, a pharmacy owner who witnessed the attack. "Apaches were overhead for about two minutes while people rushed to help the wounded people." A crowd of hundreds of angry Palestinians gathered around the heavily damaged vehicle.