2002 January 1
Twelve European countries: Austria, Belgium, Holland, Irish Republic, Italy, Luxembourg, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Spain, Portugal and their dependents begin using the Euro in place of their old national currencies; the UK opts to stays out.
2002 January 2
A plea of not guilty is entered in U.S. District Court for Zacarias Moussaoui, a Frenchman suspected of conspiring with Osama bin Laden in the September 11 plots.
2002 January 3
Israel says it will begin to pull out of parts of the West Bank, but Palestinian officials
condemn the announcement as empty propaganda. Palestinians say Israeli tanks remained stationed with 100 metres of the Palestinian Authority's headquarters in Ramallah. The move coincides with the return of US special envoy Anthony Zinni.
2002 January 4
Sgt. Nathan Ross Chapman, a Green Beret, is the first American soldier killed by enemy gunfire in Afghanistan.
2002 January 5
Israel is outraged after it discovers a Palestinian ship loaded with 50 tonnes of arms -
including anti-tank missiles and Russian-made Katyusha rockets - which Israel claimed had been sent by Iran. Yasser
Arafat denies that the shipment was ordered by the Palestinian Authority.
2002 January 9
A U.S. Marine refueling plane crashes into a mountainside in Pakistan killing six crew members and one passenger.
2002 January 9
Hamas gunmen attack Israeli soldiers near the Gaza Strip, apparently ending its temporary ceasefire. Four soldiers are killed and both gunmen are shot dead.
2002 January 10
Israeli bulldozers destroy 32 homes in the Rafah refugee camp, the home of the two militants shot dead the day before following their attack on an Israeli army post.
2002 January 15
Israel assassinates Raed al-Karmi, 28, a Palestinian leader in the al-Aqsa Brigades, who it accuses of involvement in 10 murders. The al-Aqsa Brigades take immediate revenge, shooting dead one Israeli near Nablus.
2002 January 17
A gunman belonging to the al-Aqsa Brigades shoots dead six people and wounds 30 others at a Jewish girl's bat mitzvah party in the northern Israeli town of Hadera. The military wing of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) threaten to assassinate Yasser Arafat and his aides if they do not release
PFLP leader Ahmed Saadat, who Arafat had arrested. Israel accuses Saadat of being behind the killing in October of the Israeli tourism minister, Rehavam Zeevi.
2002 January 18
In retaliation for the bat mitzvah attack, Israeli jets destroy the Palestinian Authority's main police headquarters in the West Bank town of Tulkarem, killing one policeman and injuring 40 more.
2002 January 20
A U.S. Marine helicopter crashes in Afghanistan, killing two and injuring five.
2002 January 21
Israeli troops seize the West Bank town of Tulkarm, imposing a curfew and conducting house-to-house searches for Palestinian fugitives. It is the first time since the uprising began that the Israelis have occupied an entire town.
2002 January 22
A Palestinian gunman opens fire at a bus stop in central Jerusalem, killing two women and wounding 14 others. The attack is claimed by the Al-Aqsa Brigades.
2002 January 23
Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is kidnapped in Karachi Pakistan after making arrangements to meet with a local religious leader.
2002 January 24
The Israeli army kills a senior Hamas commander, Bakr Hamdan, and two of his associates in a helicopter missile strike on his car. In another incident Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians who were trying to infiltrate a settlement in Gaza.
2002 January 24
Someone blows up Elie Hobeika, a Lebanese warlord and a potential key witness in a Belgian war crimes case against the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, outside his house in Beirut.
2002 January 25
A Palestinian suicide bomber blows himself up in a crowded street in Tel Aviv, wounding at least 25 people. Hours later, Israeli warplanes attack targets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
2002 January 27
A 20-year-old woman becomes the first Palestinian female suicide bomber after she blows herself up in a busy Jerusalem shopping street, killing one woman and injuring 100 others.
2002 January 29
Israeli tanks roll into a Palestinian-controlled village close to the West Bank town of
Bethlehem, arresting three suspected militants, including one the army claims is a senior member of Islamic Jihad.
2002 February 1
Ariel Sharon tells the Israeli newspaper Maariv that he regrets not having "eliminated" Yasser Arafat 20 years ago when he had the chance during the invasion of Lebanon. But he denies he has any plans to harm Arafat now.
2002 February 4
Five Palestinian guerrillas are killed in Gaza, allegedly in an Israeli assassination.
2002 February 5
Hundreds of angry Palestinians storm a courtroom and shoot dead three men convicted of the murder of Osama Qmeil, a Palestinian security official responsible for killing suspected Palestinian collaborators with Israel.
2002 February 11
Israel attacks Palestinian security headquarters in Gaza City in the second day of reprisals for an unprecedented Palestinian missile attack on southern Israel.
2002 February 13
Israeli troops launch the as yet most extensive military operation in the Gaza Strip in
16 months of fighting, a midnight raid on three Palestinian towns and a refugee camp. Jack Straw visits the Middle
East, saying that Yasser Arafat must take more responsibility in controlling acts of terrorism against Israel.
