ABSTRACT
Beginning September 29, 2000 another cycle of contention emerged, introducing two lethal innovations: the Israeli “liquidation” (or targeted killings) policy and the Palestinian suicide bombings (Istishad). While early incidents had occurred prior to the 2000 Intifada (e.g., the assassination of PLO second-in-command Halil al-Wasir in 1988 or the assassination of Izz al-Din al-Qassam mastermind, activist Yihye Ayyash, in 1996, and a Hamas suicide bombing near Beit-El in 1993), this time, the two parties developed these deadly tactics into a full-fledged policy. The liquidation of Hussein Abeiat, a member of the al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades, 1 on November 9, 2000 in an attempt to end the Palestinian shootings from Bethlehem on the adjacent Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, was the start of a series of dozens of liquidations. By the end of 2000, Israel had liquidated ten more grassroots activists using a variety of techniques such as snipers or air-strikes. Beginning in January 2001, it became clear that the Islamic organizations (and the Tanzim in late 2001) had reached the decision to further escalate the fight against Israel, initiating a series of suicide bombings inside Israel, as a result of which hundreds of Israelis died. It took four-and-a-half years of bloodshed for the two parties to reach a ceasefire agreement at Sharm-a-Sheikh in February 2005.
