January 14
The government decides to withdraw the IDF from Lebanon in stages while maintaining a security zone north of the international border. The IDF does not leave Lebanon completely until July 2000, following fierce resistance by Hezbollah forces, which include suicide attacks.February 3
Operation Obstructions is carried out by more than one thousand settlers, who block twenty-eight traffic arteries in the Occupied Territories and search Palestinian vehicles. The action comes on the backdrop of stone throwing at settlers, with the settlers wanting the army to take more aggressive action against Palestinians.May
The Jibril deal is completed, in which 1,150 Palestinian prisoners are released in exchange for the return of three Israeli soldiers who were being held captive in Lebanon. Settlers raid a few of the released prisoners’ houses in the West Bank, beat Palestinians, destroy property, and make threats.July 9
An order directs all newspapers published in the Occupied Territories to print, for free, notices of the military government. The editors object.July 21
The Council of Kiryat Arba (a settlers’ town near Hebron) decides to forbid Arabs to enter the town and work there.September 7
Thousands of soldiers are dispatched to the Occupied Territories in response to growing Palestinian resistance. In the previous six weeks, there were twenty-six attacks on Israelis in the Occupied Territories and in Israel, and six Israelis were killed. Israel declares extensive areas in the West Bank a “closed military area.”September 22
Settlers join an arrest-and-search operation that the IDF carries out in the al-Aamari refugee camp following attacks on Israeli vehicles.———
As a condition for handling family-unification requests, the Civil Administration demands that the person for whom the request is made does not remain in the Occupied Territories from the moment that the request is submitted to the time a decision is reached. Following the new requirement, the Civil Administration stops handling the cases of persons (primarily women) who are staying at the time in the territories. As a result, many of the persons waiting for approval of the requests stay in the region illegally.
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The trade deficit between the Occupied Territories and Israel rises by 49 percent in 1985, reaching $219 million. Palestinians have become a captive market of Israel.