March
Israel begins to enforce the prohibition on entry of Palestinians into Israel, including East Jerusalem. Only Palestinians carrying individual permits are allowed to exit the Occupied Territories. Israelis (including Palestinian citizens of Israel) are forbidden to enter the Gaza Strip without a permit, which is given for one day only.April 16
The first Palestinian suicide attack. A booby-trapped car explodes at a rest stop in the Jordan Valley, killing a Palestinian employee and injuring seven soldiers.July
Following an increase in the building, development, and rapid occupancy of Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, Jews for the first time become a majority there (one hundred and sixty thousand Jews, compared with one hundred and fifty-five thousand Palestinians).August
Israel sets a quota on family unification for the first time—no more than 2,000 requests will be approved annually. The quota does not meet the population’s needs, and families have to separate during the long wait for their request to be approved.September 13
The Declaration of Principles [the Oslo I agreement] is signed in Washington. The agreement includes reciprocal Israel-PLO recognition and deals with interim arrangements ahead of the establishment of Palestinian self-government in the Gaza Strip and Jericho area and the holding of free elections to a legislative council. The sides agree to postpone the discussions on the final-status arrangements on issues such as Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, and security arrangements. The signing follows secret negotiations over two years, most of which were held in Norway.———
The building of bypass roads in the West Bank reaches its peak following the Oslo Accords and in the framework of the IDF’s plans for redeployment. This year, Israel begins the building of more than one hundred kilometers of new roads in the West Bank, which amount to more than 20 percent of all road-construction started by Israel in 1993.