A/HRC/12/48 page 51 Authority security installations and government buildings in the Gaza Strip.28 The President of the Palestinian Authority dismissed the Hamas-led Government (hereinafter called the Gaza authorities), declared a state of emergency and established an emergency Government based in the West Bank, which was largely recognized by the international community.29 191. In November 2007, the United States of America sponsored the organization of a new comprehensive peace conference. At the Conference – held in Annapolis, Maryland, United States of America – the Palestinian President and the Israeli Prime Minister agreed to resume negotiations by the end of 2007. In addition, they agreed to work continuously to reach a two-State solution by the end of 2008. 192. On 19 September 2007, the Government of Israel declared Gaza “hostile territory.���30 This was followed by the imposition of further severe reductions in the transfer of goods and supplies of fuel and electricity to the Strip. Since then, Israel has only sporadically allowed the opening of all the crossings into the Gaza Strip, at times completely closing them.31 (See also chapter V.) 193. Israeli military operations in Gaza and the West Bank started well before the so-called disengagement of 2005. “Operation Defensive Shield” in 2002 was the largest military operation in the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War. It began with an incursion into Ramallah, placing the then President of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, under siege in his offices, and was followed by incursions into the six largest cities in the West Bank and their surrounding localities. During the three weeks of the military incursions in areas that were under the direct control of the Palestinian Authority, 497 Palestinians were killed.32 The siege on the half destroyed Ramallah Muqataa compound of President Arafat was lifted only at the end of 2004 when he was flown to Paris to undergo medical treatment. He later died there. 194. “Operation Rainbow” of 2004 targeted the Rafah area of the Gaza Strip and left about 50 Palestinians dead. “Operation Days of Penitence” was carried out between September and October 2004. According to the Israeli Government, it was launched in retaliation for the firing of rockets against the town of Sderot and Israeli settlements inside the Gaza Strip. It targeted the towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia and the Jabaliyah refugee camp and resulted in the deaths of more than 100 Palestinians and 5 Israelis. 195. From the disengagement until November 2006, the Israeli armed forces fired approximately 15,000 artillery shells and conducted more than 550 air strikes into the Gaza Strip. Israeli military attacks killed approximately 525 people in Gaza. Over the same period, at See International Crisis Group, “After Gaza”, Middle East Report N°68, 2 August 2007. See also Vanity Fair, “The Gaza bombshell”, April 2008, available at: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/gaza200804 28 For reactions in support of the emergency Government by the United States, the European Union and Arab States, see “After Gaza…”. 29 “Security cabinet declares Gaza hostile territory”, 19 September 2007, and “Behind the headlines: Israel designates Gaza a ‘hostile territory’”, 24 September 2007, available from the website of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs at www.mfa.gov.il 30 31 A/HRC/7/76. 32 A/ES-10/186.