Nightline: Middle East Timeline

July 30, 2001 -- Tonight, Nightline will look at the most recent violence in the Middle East and talk to Avraham Burg, the Speaker of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, and Martin Indyk, former American Ambassador to Israel. Below is a timeline of key events of the last 10 months of violence between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Key events in 10 months of violence and peacemaking efforts

Sept. 28: Palestinians riot after a visit to a disputed Jerusalem holy site by hard-line opposition leader Ariel Sharon, triggering the "Al Aqsa Intefadeh," or uprising, named after the mosque at the holy site.

Sept. 30: Palestinian boy, Mohammed Aldura, caught in cross fire, dies in father's arms in front of TV camera and becomes symbol of Palestinian uprising.

Oct. 4: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat fly to Paris to meet Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and French President Jacques Chirac, but leave without meeting and without a cease-fire accord.

Oct. 12: Two Israeli soldiers mistakenly enter a Palestinian city and are killed and their bodies mutilated by a Palestinian mob. Israel retaliates with helicopter rocket attacks.

Oct. 17: Barak and Arafat agree to a cease-fire and pullback of Israeli forces at a summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, directed by President Clinton.

Oct. 21: Nine Palestinians killed and more than 100 wounded in heavy fighting as cease-fire collapses.

Nov. 1: Israeli Cabinet minister Shimon Peres meets Arafat in Gaza to work out a truce, which collapses soon after it goes into force.

Nov. 2: Car bomb explodes in Jerusalem's market, killing two. First of many bomb attacks in Israeli cities.

Nov. 9: Israeli helicopters fire rockets at car, killing local Palestinian leader Hussein Abayat, the first of a series of Israeli targeted killings of suspected Palestinian militants.

Nov. 21: Two Israeli adults are killed and nine people, including four children, are wounded in a bomb attack on a school bus in the Gaza Strip.

Dec. 23: Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams wind up talks near Washington without reaching agreement; Clinton offers proposals for solving the remaining issues.

Jan. 11: Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams resume peace talks in late-night meeting at checkpoint between Israel and Gaza.

Jan. 27: Peace talks in Egyptian resort of Taba end with no agreement.

Feb. 6: Sharon defeats Barak by wide margin in special election.

March 5: Sharon takes office with national unity government, including Barak's moderate Labor party.

March 27: Ten-month-old Jewish baby shot dead in West Bank city of Hebron by Palestinian gunman.

May 7: Four-month-old Palestinian baby killed in Israeli tank shelling of Rafah refugee camp in Gaza.

May 18: Palestinian suicide bomber blows himself up at a mall in the seacoast city of Netanya, killing himself and five Israelis.

May 18: Israeli F-16 warplanes hit Palestinian police structures in West Bank and Gaza, killing 10 Palestinians.

May 21: International commission headed by ex-Sen. George Mitchell submits report calling for end to violence, cooling-off period, confidence-building measures and resumption of peace talks. Both sides accept report, but with different interpretations.

May 22: Sharon declares unilateral cease-fire; Palestinians dismiss it as publicity stunt.

June 1: Palestinian suicide bomber kills himself and 22 others, mostly Israeli teen-agers, outside disco in Tel Aviv.

June 2: Arafat declares support for cease-fire, staving off planned Israeli retaliation.

June 11: Five-month-old Israeli baby dies of wounds suffered several days earlier in Palestinian shooting in West Bank.

June 13: CIA director George Tenet negotiates cease-fire framework. Violence is reduced, but the truce does not take hold.

July 9: Israel destroys 14 Palestinian houses in refugee camp next to Jerusalem and 12 houses in Rafah refugee camp in Gaza.

July 17: Israel kills four Palestinians in helicopter raid in Bethlehem.

July 30: Six Palestinians die in explosion near Nablus, Israel denies Palestinian charges that they were assassinated. Israeli helicopters fire rockets at Arafat's police headquarters in Gaza City.

During the fighting, 539 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 133 on the Israeli side.