January 8
Haaretz reports that “the IDF allows firing without warning in part of the Occupied Territories.”January 21
Israeli and Palestinian leaders meet in Taba in a last attempt to reach an accord ahead of a permanent agreement between Israel and the Palestinians during the premiership of Ehud Barak. The parties discuss all the final-status issues. The talks end because of the parties’ feeling that under existing political circumstances, several days before Israeli elections, it is impossible to complete a framework agreement.February 1
Israel prevents Palestinians traveling in private vehicles from entering the Gush Etzion area. Israel will later restrict the travel of Palestinians on many other roads without prior notice or existence of any military order. According to a 2004 BTselem report, Israel at that time restricted Palestinian travel on 630 kilometers of roadway in the Occupied Territories.February 4
The IDF announces an “encirclement” of all Palestinian cities, preventing private vehicles from entering or leaving the cities. It would not be until early 2002 that Israel would begin issuing permits for movement within the West Bank.February 6
Special elections for the office of prime minister in Israel: Ariel Sharon wins.March 2
Israel cuts a deep trench around Jericho and turns the city into an isolated “territory cell.”March 21
Following a petition to the High Court of Justice by Physicians for Human Rights, the army promises that every “territory cell” blocked by physical obstructions will have at least one access road that has a staffed checkpoint.April 16
Palestinians fire mortars at Sderot. For the first time, the IDF conducts a major operation in Area A in the Gaza Strip. Israel divides the Gaza Strip into three parts.May
“Protective barricades” that prevent the crossing of vehicles begin to be set up at various places along the Green Line.May 6
The IDF enters Area A in the West Bank for the first time and exits a few hours later.May 18
The Israeli Air Force mounts its first attack in the West Bank, on the prison in Nablus.August
The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) carries out its first campaign, in which fifty foreigners, mostly from the UK and the United States, come to the Occupied Territories to witness the events and protect Palestinian residents from Israeli security forces. By August 2007, more than two thousand foreigners associated with the ISM would come to the Occupied Territories.October 17
A Popular Front team assassinates minister Rehavam Zeevi, a leading supporter of the ideology of transfer.December
A permanent checkpoint is set up at Qalandiya. This checkpoint becomes the principal checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah and the rest of the West Bank. It is located inside the Occupied Territories—not along the Green Line—and inside Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries, thus separating Palestinian residents of Jerusalem from each other.December 3
The OC Central Command signs the “encirclement order ,” declaring all of Area A in the West Bank to be a closed military area requiring a special permit for anybody wanting to move about from place to place in noncontiguous Area A.———
During the course of 2001, Israel builds fences along fifty kilometers of agricultural areas along the Green Line. The construction is called the “agriculture security fence.”