January 1 – Israeli settlers from the Efrat and El'eazar settlements ignited a fire in a 700-year-old mosque situated on the lands of Al Khader village, close to the settlements near Bethlehem.[1]
January 24 – Two Palestinian Arabs infiltrate a religious seminary and stab three students in the West Bank settlement of Kfar Etzion before being shot dead.
January 24 – Palestinian Arab gunmen open fire on Israelis outside the Shuafatrefugee camp on the outskirts of Jerusalem, killing a border police officer and seriously wounding a female officer.
February 4 – 2008 Dimona suicide bombing: A suicide attack carried out by Hamas at a shopping centre in Dimona, Israel. One Israeli elderly woman is killed in the attack while nine other people are wounded (one of them critically). Hamas claims responsibility for the attack.[2]
February 27 – A Palestinian baby less than a year old was killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip.[3] Over 46 Qassam rockets were also fired by Palestinian Arab militants into the Western Negev and Israel's Southern Mediterranean coast, many of them hit the city of Ashkelon and the town of Sderot, among other Israeli towns and villages in the area. One of the rockets that landed in a parking lot at the Sapir Academic College killed 47-year-old Israeli student, Ronni Yechia.[4]
February 28 – March 3 – Operation Hot Winter: Israel Defense Forces military campaign in the Gaza Strip is launched in response to the constant firing of Qassam rockets from the Strip by Hamas militants. Four Palestinian children, aged 10, 12, 13 and 15, playing football in the Gaza Strip were killed by an Israeli strike.[3][5]
March 1 – At least 19 Palestinian civilians were killed in a major Israeli attack within the Gaza Strip.[6]
May 14 – A Katyusha rocket is fired at the Israeli city of Ashqelon striking a clinic on the third floor of the Huzot shopping mall, serious wounding three people, moderately wounding two and with eleven other people suffering minor wounds. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claims responsibility.[8]
June 6 – An Israeli man is killed and four other people are wounded when Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip fire a mortar shell at kibbutz Nirim in the western Negev desert.[9]
June 8 – Four masked settlers with clubs attacked three members of a Palestinian family who were grazing their flock on private Palestinian land south of the Susiya settlement, with the victims suffering severe injuries requiring hospitalization.[1]
September 22 – At least 19 people are wounded when a Palestinian Arab drives his car into a crowd of IDF soldiers at a busy intersection in Jerusalem.[11] The driver is shot and killed at the scene by an Israeli soldier.[12]
December 4 – Israeli settlers in Hebron attack and shoot at Palestinians, also setting fires to Palestinian trees and attacking Palestinian homes.[15]
December 27, 2008 – January 18, 2009 – Operation Cast Lead: A large-scale three-week IDF military campaign in the Gaza Strip seriously damages the paramilitary infrastructure of Hamas. Israel claims that the strikes are a response to frequent Qassam rocket and mortar fire from the Strip on Israel's southern civilian communities.
^ abPLO body elects Abbas 'president of Palestine'Archived 2011-06-08 at the Wayback Machine, AFP (23 November 2008): "I announce that the PLO Central Council has elected Mahmud Abbas president of the State of Palestine. He takes on this role from this day, November 23, 2008," the body's chairman Salem al-Zaanun told reporters.
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